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There Will Always Be A Season

Ecclesiastes 3:1 states there is a time for every activity under the heavens. This necessitates the need for you as a leader to discern the season your organization is in and then tell them what it is. Give voice to the realities of the season you are experiencing. Assign appropriate language to it, designate helpful parameters to succeed within it, and confidently offer solutions for moving through it.

A key responsibility is to know what season your organization is experiencing. Then you can communicate the implications of this season. Note these examples of seasons…

• A season of Growth – Your language is exciting, encouraging, and uplifting.
• A season of Consolidation – Your language is that of instructional, building the infrastructure, and discipleship that will prepare for the next season of growth.
• A season of Transition – Your language would be more of encouragement and guidance to calm fears of change.
• A season of Malaise – Your language might be that of shaking up the organization lest the malaise become permanent. Who wants that?
• A season of Reinvention – Your language here would be that of investigation. Let’s take a close look to see what should change and why?

Explosive Growth & Dramatic Meltdowns

The Church of Jesus Christ is growing at an amazing rate around the world. Many leaders become excited about explosive growth and yet never prepare for the internal systems needed to maintain that growth. Your excitement about growth can be quickly tempered by the lack of internal planning necessary – parking spaces.

Vision – Paint It Passionately

At the core of leadership sits the power of vision. This is without a doubt the most potent weapon in your arsenal. Vision is a picture of the future that produces passion in the people (Bill Hybel’s).

Billy Graham and few college buddies in the 1940’s talked about filling stadiums all over the world presenting the gospel of Jesus to the masses – well over 200+ million that have heard the gospel of Christ. To anyone who has ever set under the teaching of Dr. Gilbert Bilezikian Professor at Trinity College about being part of a Acts 2 functioning church will understand the power of a vision. He would paint a word picture of a functioning Christian community that would stir any person who listened.

You have to be stirred at the spirit level of what you are attempting to accomplish. Never apologize for the strength of feeling you have for the vision that God has placed into your life. God meant for you to feel as deeply about this vision for you as you do about anything.

When you get to the essence of it all, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is the hope of the world. It is the God-ordained redemptive agency that can and must shape each community’s future. The idea of a healthy local church should stir the deepest kind of feelings within each of us. The hope for the Church is what motivates the passion for podcasting to non-profit leaders.

Never apologize for the strength of feeling you have for the vision that God has placed into your life. There are plans fore-ordained that I believe that God has for your life, your family, friends, work, and community. GO STRONG! GO WITH PASSION!

LINKS

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A Journey Toward Significance – Take The SEVEN DAY CHALLENGE

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Language Matters

It was not until I started to write my Doctoral Dissertation that I fully understood the power of word selections. By the time I had complete my 200+ page research I was a master at the use of a Thesaurus and Word Book. These were my late night companions while researching and studying the concepts of Mutual Leadership Support and Development. Language matters because it crystalizes the concepts and dreams of your mind so that others can see what you are saying.

The truth is that leaders rise and fall on the language they use. There are numerous examples of whole visions strategies that live or die on the basis of the words the leader chooses to articulate that vision. The right words set to a vision causes it to become axiomatic. It lives! It is remembered! It motivates to action! Others champion it!

People donate to it! It is a moment of clarity like no other. The very leaders I know wrestle with words until they are able to communicate their big ideas in a way that captures imagination, crystalizes action and energizes the spirit. Bill Hybels at Willow described once their effort in a closed door meeting to discuss how to motivate people to acts of compassion in a Vision Weekend they knew just telling people to be more compassionate (BIG YAWN) was not enough. They landed on the statement, “We are going to UNLEASH UNPRECEDENTED amounts of compassion into a broken world.” The mantra became, Raise the risk. Rethink. Unleash.

Make The Big Ask

After you cast big visions and dreams, you now are left for the BIG ASK! Asking for help is a big part of effectively leadership. When God inspires Kingdom glorifying ideas you realize that you have to be shameless in asking people to join you in this vision. Here is the little secret that no one discusses – people are quite flattered to be asked to do significant things for the Kingdom of God. Granted they cannot always say YES to your challenge, but they are always flattered that you would think enough of them to ask in the first place.

Beyond asking people, keep your asking as succinct and clear as possible. Think about the power of simplicity when asking:

• Tonight I am going to ask you to receive Christ….
• In a few minutes I am going to ask you to join our ministry team, but first I am going to give you four reasons why…
• I am going to ask you to pray about giving a significant gift to advance the Kingdom of God in this community…
• I am going to ask you to become a volunteer and join this Board of Directors…The truth of human nature is that we tend not to drift into better behaviors. We usually have to be asked by someone to consider taking it up a level. The big steps forward in my life have been through someone asking me to join the cause, program, etc.

  Language Matters and The Big Ask are two powerful Leadership Axiom’s, that when mastered will take your leading to a place of significance you have only dreamed about.

LINKS

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Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!

A Journey Toward Significance – Take The SEVEN DAY CHALLENGE

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When you hear sportscasters talk about athletes who dig deep and make the extra effort that wins the match or the medal, they say “They had a lot of heart!” There is a prevailing myth that managers are supposed to divorce their emotions from a situation and approach things purely rationally.

The simple truth is that leadership is an affair of the heart. There is no integrity and honor without heart. There is no commitment and conviction without heart. There is no hope and faith without heart. Nothing important is ever accomplished unless there is heart. Exemplary leaders excel at improving performance because they pay great attention to the human heart.

Here are four insights to examine in understanding that leadership is an affair of the Heart.

Love Is The Soul of Leadership

Irwin Federeman former CFO & CEO states; “…Conventional wisdom has it that management is not a popularity contest….I contend however, that all things being equal, we will work harder and more effectively for people we like. Said another way, love is the soul of leadership. Love is what sustains people, it is the source of a leaders courage. Frankly leaders are in love. They are in love with leading, in love with the organizations they are connected to, and they love people.

Consultant Rodney Ferris defines love organizationally as a “feeling of caring or deep respect for yourself and others, of valuing and believing in yourself and others, and helping to achieve the best of which everyone is capable. It means finding a sense of purpose, fulfillment and fun in your work while helping others to find these qualities in their work. (How Organizational Love Can Improve Leadership pp.41-51).

Levi Strauss and Company states; Really believe in your heart of hearts that your fundamental purpose, the reason for you being, is to enlarge the lives of others…”

Show Them You Care

It is not enough to be in love, you have to demonstrate your love. The primary way you demonstrate your love is by paying attention to someone. You reach out to others, listen to their words and emotions, be open to their experiences, ask questions, and express a willingness to learn from them.

One of the most significant ways to show others that you care and appreciate their efforts is be out there with them. Walk the halls, meander around the corridors, eat lunch together, and listen to complaints. This makes you human, approachable and more genuine.

Fall In Love With What You Do

Let’s be clear, leadership is tough and demanding work. It is difficult to imagine getting up day after day, putting in the long hours it takes to inspire and encourage others to accomplish extraordinary things without having your heart in it. Loving leading means that you are passionate about values and visions that make a difference. You devote your time to strengthening others and building great teams. You relish the opportunity to participate in tough challenges.

Promote The Positive

Positivity opens us up. The first core truth about positive emotions is that they open our hearts and our minds, making us more receptive ad creative – University of North Carolina Professor Fredrickson.

It is generally understood that a person should have a balance of three positive emotions to every one negative emotion in order to maintain health and balanced living. This is not rocket science, we simply become better more productive people when we are happy. I am aware of the cynics that cry “Get real, this is a tough cruel world, you can’t paint on a fake happy face! The truth of the matter is positives attract and negatives repel. It is the basic law of human relationships.

LINKS

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A Journey Toward Significance – Take The SEVEN DAY CHALLENGE

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Shepherds Advantage Inc Celebrates the 100th Podcast!!!

The potential to lead exists within you!

Melissa Poe Hood, a 15 year old that started a local group to plant trees and cleanup neighborhoods as a group grade school children that went global with 500,000 members stated in her final speech as she graduated from High School; “Everything you need to be a successful leader you already have; your intelligence to see an issue and a way to fix it, your heart to stay motivated and your courage not to give up….you can’t look for the man behind the curtain to solve your concerns.”

Learning Is The Master Skill

We have all heard stories of ordinary people who have led others to get extraordinary things done. Every person has a story they can tell. It is not the absence of leadership ability or potential that inhibits the development of more leaders; it’s the persistence of the myth that leadership can’t be learned! Leadership can be learned in a variety of ways according to Leadership Journal & Organizational Development pp274-280 by Kouze & Posner

• Experimentation
• Observation
• Classroom
• Reading Leadership Books
• Simple reflection on personal experiences

Adopt A Growth Mindset

Our world is changing at a pace that our fore-fathers could not have imagined. Simply learning is insufficient. You must learn how to learn. You must be willing to learn new ways to do old things and new ways to do new ways. Thomas Friedman author suggests that what you know today will be outdated sooner than you realize. He goes on to say that what you know and how you learned it will set you apart from the crowd. Psychologist Carol Dweck uses the mantra, “The Growth Mind-set” is based upon the belief that your basic qualities are things that you can cultivate through your efforts. In other words people who have a growth mind-set believe people can learn to be better leaders – they are made not born!

Mindsets carry over into performance. A growth mindset believes that making mistakes trumps a “talent only mindset” whose concern is more about looking smart versus making mistakes.

Deliberate Practice Is Required

General Colin Powell speaking to the midshipmen at the Naval Academy in 1992 stated; “You can’t learn to be a good leader without putting in the time and the practice!” Florida State University Professor K. Anders Ericsson says the same thing a different way: “Until most individuals recognize that sustained training and effort is a prerequisite for reaching expert levels of performance, they will continue to misattribute lesser achievements to the lack of natural gifts and will thus fail to reach their own potential.”

It should be noted that high IQ’s do not equate to outstanding performance. Many times people with high IQ’s are just average performers when it comes to leadership skill. Professor Ericsson suggests a rough matrix to achieve the highest level of “Expert” is roughly 10,000 hours of practice over a period of 10 years. That comes out to 2.7 hours of practice every day for 10 years.

Those who study what it takes to become an expert in any field suggest that practice usually has five elements to it:

1.It is designed to specifically designed to improve performance

2.It is to be repeated a lot – sustained effort is being suggested

3.Continuous feedback on the results must be available

4.It is highly demanding mentally

5.It is not all that much FUN

Leadership ignorance is perpetuated by the idea that leaders are born and not made. This is why I am so passionate about Executive Coaching. Thinking you have the answers and contain the skill set needed is fool-hearty. LEADERS ARE LEARNERS. Make a commitment in the coming year to change your mind set and habit to grow yourself. In closing, you do not get what you want, you get who your are!

LINKS

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Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!

A Journey Toward Significance – Take The SEVEN DAY CHALLENGE

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Leadership is waiting for you to show up every day. Leadership is waiting for you to demonstrate that you mean what you say. It is waiting for you to show others how to move forward. The sad truth today is that non-profits and for-profits alike are unclear in what they value. When this is true we settle for activity of any sort. Activity has become the new image of success. However if your leadership is not value-centric – your true voice – the outcome will be division and loss of cohesion on your team and in your company.

As a leader you have to walk the talk, not just talk a talk. Leaders must lead by example or risk not leading at all. At the heart of this matter is the subject of credibility. People will follow a credible voice. Credibility is the foundation of leadership. So the question becomes, “What is credibility behaviorally? The answer is “DWYSYWD – Do What You Say You Will Do!

Journalist and author, Alan Deutschman writes in his book Walk The Talk, “Leaders only have two tools at their disposal: what they say and how they act. What they say might be interesting, but how they act is always crucial.” The greatest distance that leaders have to travel is the distance between their mouth to their feet. Here are three insights to explore further.

Seeing Is Believing

The truth of leading by example is universally accepted. Cornell University professor, Tony Simons has coined the phrase, “behavioral integrity.” Simply stated, do what you say you will do. The simple truth is that companies whose employees felt their leaders behavior matched their words are far more profitable. This insight has also been validated by UCLA Professor Donna McNeese Smith. The ley take away here is that what is true in the business world is equally true in your everyday life. People do not follow other people who are not credible.

Leaders Go First

Here is a valuable lesson: “Learn to change yourself first and let others see your progress and then they will know how to follow.” People become cynical, disenchanted, and downright weary when leaders back away from or don’t do what they are asking of others. At the heart of this statement is keeping your promise. When you give your word that you’ll do something, and then you follow through on your commitments, it has a powerful effect on people.

Admit Your Mistakes

Nothing erodes and undermines credibility and your effectiveness to lead others than not being able to take responsibility when you have made a mistake. Kirk Hanson, Executive Director of the Markkula Center of Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University states; “This is the Achilles heel leaders. They believe they know it all and accordingly believe they will never fall.”

Kouzes and Posner in their book The Truth About Leadership, states, when you ask people what it means for a leader to be honest the response is, “They are willing to admit when they are wrong. I know they are capable of being honest with me and say they made a mistake” (p.114). It sets a positive example to admit failure.

The bottom line is that seeing is believing! Those you are leading have to see you living out the values you profess. Walk the walk!

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

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FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

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Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!

A Journey Toward Significance – Take The SEVEN DAY CHALLENGE

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Leaders are no strangers to challenges – Challenge is the crucible for greatness!

The best leadership victories are those in which victory has resulted over adversity, departures from the past and about doing things things that have never been done before. The truth is that Challenge is the crucible for greatness! The study of leadership is the study of how men and women guide people through uncertainty, hardship, disruption, transformation, transition, recovery, new beginnings, and other significant challenges. In the words of the late John Gardner, advisor to 4 U.S. Presidents and founder of Common Cause used to say; “What we have before us are some breathtaking opportunities disguised as insoluble problems.”

Leadership and challenges are inseparable. Consider these four insights on challenges.

Brick Walls Test Commitment

You do not have to look for long until you will discover challenges and hardships. Challenges can be harsh reminders of what it looks like to come face-to-face with ourselves. They remind us of what is important, what we value, and where we are headed. Randy Pausch’s famous “Last-Lecture” is one such presentation that causes us to stop in our tracks. Not every challenge in life is a life or death moment. Sometimes they are external and at other times they are internal. Regardless of where it comes from and by whose hand, every leader must take charge of the challenge. Taking charge is the only way to make a difference.

Strengthen Resilience

Confronting challenges and making changes can be stressful. Too much stress can be very unhealthy. That is why leading change requires resiliency! You cannot control every circumstance in the greater arena of your environment. But you can still control your actions, response, and emotions to your environment. Be willing to take charge of change. To be a leader you need to make something happen. Leaders are not Pollyannas. They acknowledge reality, but they are quick to mobilize personal and group resources to deal with challenges.

Get Gritty

It takes determination and strength to deal the adversities of life. You cannot allow set-backs or roadblocks to get in your way. You cannot give when the resistance builds or the competition increases. You need GRIT! Grit is a firmness of spirit that allows you to deal with challenges. Grit has been defined as the perseverance and passion for long-term goals.

Failing Is Learning

Whenever you’re challenging the status quo, whenever you’re tackling demanding problems, whenever you’re making meaningful changes, whenever you’re confronting adversity, you will sometimes fail. Despite how much you see challenge as an opportunity, despite how focused you can be, despite how driven you are to succeed, without a doubt there will be setbacks!

The old adage is true, “Learning does not take place in the absence of mistakes!” This is not to promote failing for the sake of it. Anytime that you experience new ideas and are trying new methods and techniques, you have to accept failure as part of the process. If you are going to lead well, you have to continually learn. Stop that process and you will become irrelevant pretty fast.

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

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FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

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Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!

A Journey Toward Significance – Take The SEVEN DAY CHALLENGE

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In a 2009 international survey, the majority of people said they trust a stranger more than they trust their boss.

Think about the implication of this data point and what it means if you are in a leadership position. It means there is a good chance the people you lead are more likely to trust someone who walked by them on the way to work.

Secondly think about the issue of credibility. Credibility is the foundation of leadership and trustworthiness is the essential component of credibility. This implies that if people cannot trust you, they will not believe you!

Thirdly think about what this means for the organizations. HIGH TRUST organizations outperform low trust organizations by 286% according to a PricewaterhouseCooper study.

The bottom line: Trust rules your personal credibility!

Consider these four (4) insights on becoming a trustworthy leader.

Increase Your Trust, Increase Your Influence

Research has become quite clear that the level of trust that followers are willing to give a leader determines the amount of influence they willingly accept. This research reveals that “high trust” led to greater acceptance of group member interdependence, more cooperation, and enhanced information flow among group members. Even in strong command and control environments trust comes first and following comes second.

There is a direct relationship between trust and risk. When people feel secure, because they trust that you and the organization will protect their welfare, they can focus their energies on meeting higher expectations that challenges the boundaries of a company.

You Have To Ante Up First

Trust is the framework that supports all relationships. Building a structure of trust begins with the leader at the top. You have to ante up first! This can be intimidating because you are putting yourself into other peoples hands and trusting them to care for you. You are taking a risk that the other party will not take advantage of you. You are relying on them to do what is right. There is no guarantee that if you go first that the other party will reciprocate.

You Have To Show That You Can Be Trusted

You have to demonstrate to others that you have both the character and the ability to do your job and to look out for their welfare. Here are four steps to follow:

Behave predictably and consistently  Communicate Clearly

Treat promises seriously  Be forthright and candid

Communicate With A Need-To-Share Mentality

In the book Building The High Trust Organization, the authors discuss the need to replace the “need-to-know” mentality with a “need-to-share” approach because it fosters an environment of trust within the organization. When this happens “distrust” is mitigated and followers feel more attached. Your role as a leader is to make sure that people have the necessary information when they want it and need it. Distrust replaces trust when there is a feeling that information is always late or purposefully being withheld. Here is an important leadership axiom: When there is an information vacuum, people will make up their own answers. These made-up answers will likely become negative and cynical versus truthfulness.

LINKS

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Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!

A Journey Toward Significance – Take The SEVEN DAY CHALLENGE

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You Have To Make A Human Connection

Leadership is not about the leader per se. It is about relationship between leaders and those they are attempting to influence. It is about community and doing life together. It is about how you feel and act toward each other. It is about an emotional bond between each other.

The Center for Creative Leadership has found that the critical success factor for the top three jobs in any organization is “Relationships with subordinates.” Said another way, do you like being with each other? It is a know fact that hiring executive positions requires high IQ coupled with high EQ. One without the other is an indicator of failure as a leader not the other way around.

This is serious!!! You can graduate from the top schools, in the top of your class, reason circles around your brightest peers, have relevant situational, functional, and industrial experience and still be more likely to fail than succeed unless you possess the necessary social skills needed.

You Have To Hear What People Are Saying

So often we equate leadership with inspirational speaking. What we seem to miss is that making the human connection requires exceptional listening. The ability to understand the perspective of others is the most glaring difference between successful and unsuccessful leaders.

Sensitivity to others is a truly precious human ability, but not complex. It simply means that you spend time with each other. It means being aware of the attitudes, feelings, and nuances of communication in other people. When leaders are in tune with the emotions of others they create what is called RESONANCE. This means there is an emotional harmony and oneness with each other. Think how an orchestra sounds when the instruments are all out of tune, that is called dissonance. Resonance is what allows for teams to excel at high levels of performance.

Unite People Around A Shared Vision

It is said that one of the most powerful motivators on the planet is a sense of meaning around a shared purpose. Leadership is always a two-way street, never a one way street. When you take the time to listen with sensitivity to the aspirations of others you are able to stand before people and declare; “Here is what I heard you say that you want for yourselves. Here is how your own needs and interests will be served by enlisting in a common purpose.”

If you do not take the time to know people and speak their language, your future goals as a leader are going to be short-lived. The old mantra is still true; “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care!”

Make Others Feel Strong and Capable

Powerful things are not accomplished by powerful leaders, they are accomplished by powerful teams who are made to feel powerful by the leader. When asked to describe a leaders that you most admire and look up to, people say it is the leader that makes them feel empowered, listened to, understood, and important like they mattered.

Getting people to feel capable and confident, and to act like leaders themselves, requires making an investment into their personal development. Often people lack a little courage and confidence. However, they blossom when they have a leader who believes in them and gives them support and encouragement. As a leader, learn to ask GREAT QUESTIONS! This will send followers on a pioneering journey in their minds. They are more likely to discover new and exciting methods and inventions!

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

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FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

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Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!

A Journey Toward Significance – Take The SEVEN DAY CHALLENGE

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Focusing on the future is what sets leaders apart!

We have all had a glimpse into the future – you know, the dream you had about an amazing goal you see yourself accomplishing. The difference between followers and leaders is that leaders take their dreams seriously and act upon them. The capacity to imagine and articulate an exciting future filled with possibilities is the defining competency of great leaders. Leaders are custodians of the future! These are the people that are always asking “What’s new?” “What’s next?” “What’s going to happen when this project is completed?” Here are five truths about focusing on the future!

Leaders Look Long Term

In a 30+ year ongoing survey asking the question of what do people want in their leaders that they would willingly follow, the quality of being FORWARD-LOOKING is second only to being honest. Keep in mind this research is global and not confined to the North American context.

You Have To Spend More Time In The Future

Developing a forward-looking mind-set means you have to spend time in the future with your thoughts and skills. It seems too few people appreciate this skill and the time it takes to cultivate. Generally speaking you need to have a 3-5 view that anticipates events and projects of importance. Otherwise, you are left to chase glitz, bling, and sparkle leaving you clueless as to whether this glitz is what we actually need.

Learn to set aside time to think into the future about trends, ethical issues, financial trending, and future needs. Research tells us that top executives only spend about 3% of their time thinking about and getting others onboard about the next ten years of their organization. Michael Hyatt former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing states: “Vision is the lifeblood of any organization. It is what keeps it moving forward. It provides meaning to the day-to-day challenges and setbacks that make up the rumble and tumble of real life.”

Explore Your Past Experience

Aiming for the future always starts with a look back into your history. You enrich your future when you recall the richness of your past. In other words what are the recurring themes of my past that will give clarity to my present and a foundation to build the future upon. Your central theme in life is probably something that just occurred this morning. Rather it is something that has been there for a long time. What is the topic that you keep returning to over and over again.

Imagine the Possibilities

The World Future Society recommends six distinct categories that will assist in understanding business opportunities and trends.

1.Economics

2.Government

3.Environment

4.Society

5.Technology

6.Demographics

A collection of this sort of data will assist you in looking up fro your present gaze to see what is on the horizon. There is one source missing on this list that faith-based non-profits cannot ignore – The Bible! We look into the future with the information of scripture to guide and influence our dreams and hopes.

Be Optimistic

Warren Bennis University of Southern Cal suggests that leaders in today’s and tomorrow’s business climate should have the mantra, “Only Optimists Survive!” Being optimistic does not mean that we fail to face up to reality and hardships. It is not that you deny the diagnosis of a situation, you simply deny the verdict. Optimistic people will work harder against all odds or in spite of the odds.

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

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FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!

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Imagine that you are seated in a conference room meeting with a group of your colleagues. The door opens to the conference room and in walks someone who declares, “HI, I am your new leader!” What questions immediately come to mind?

The #1 question that surfaces in this scenario is, “Who are you?” The bottom line, people want to know your values and beliefs, what has shaped your attitudes, and what experiences have prepared you for this job?

The truth is that values drive commitment! You cannot fully commit to something that isn’t important to you. You cannot fully commitment to something that does not fit with who you are and how you see yourself. You have to know exactly what makes it worth doing in the first place!

Here are four guiding principles to focus upon

Listen To Your Inner Self

As a leader you have to understand what you believe deeply, people will not follow you otherwise. One leader expressed it this way…”understand that everyone has beliefs and values and that in order for people to lead they’ve got to connect with them and be able to express them. This means I have to let people know and understand what my thoughts are so that I can become a good leader. How can others follow me if I’m not willing to listen to my own inner self?…I let others know what I think is important and how hard I’m willing to fight for my values.” The lesson here is – To act with integrity, you must see clearly – what you believe and what you care about.

You Commit To What Fits

It is vitally important to understand the power of personal values clarity – your leadership effectiveness depends upon it. Take notice of the impact of values upon a persons understanding of organizational values versus understanding personal values.

You would expect to see a 6.26 rating for a person who understands what the organizational values are coupled with clarity of personal values. What is most striking however, is 6.12 rating for the person who has high clarity of their own personal value system. This 6.12 versus the 6.26 rating is that there is no statistical difference between a person with high comprehension of organizational value system versus clarity of their own value system.

What does this mean? A person’s clarity of their values system has the most impact upon that person’s performance in the workplace. This is not to say that shared values do not matter. People generally want to be part of something bigger than themselves. What is does say is that people cannot fully commit to anything that does not fit with their own belief system.

Discover What Really Matters

Here is the key question to discover what really matters; “What is my framework for living? You have to decide what matters to you! You have to find your true voice. Your voice leads to what pushed you to your calling in the first place, what is it that I want for my life? This will lead you to the question, What do I really care about in life?” A careful study of the English language reveals there are some 150-200 words that imply or represent values(depending on who you read). None of us can be guided by all of them, so you have to make choices. What are the top 5-7 values that speak strongly to your inner being and that you hold as enduring beliefs?

In leadership you cannot commit everyone to a list that you came up with in private and then expect them to enthusiastically endorse it. People will only commit to a group or organization if they sense a good fit with who they are and what they believe. In this issue leadership is more about listening than telling. You need to build and affirm a community of shared values!

LINKS

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Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!