How well do you really know yourself? One of the first basic laws of leadership is that you cannot lead others until you lead yourself! So I ask the question again, “How well do you know yourself?” Let me ask the question slightly different, Think about a major crisis that you have faced in life. Now ask, “Who was I before the crisis and who am I now after the crisis?” Asking the question this way brings me to two key thoughts about knowing yourself.
First of all when you are settled in your knowledge of who you are you become comfortable within yourself. Why is this important? You remain true to God’s design and pattern for your life. Without this knowledge you will forge your life into something or someone else.
Secondly, because crisis moments make you better or make you bitter, there is one level above belief and that is knowing! Crisis moments of life brings us face to face with the fact with our confession of what I believe. Crisis moments reveals that what I believe, I truly know it to be true! The end result is security of faith and confession. I have gone through my crisis moments and I have faced my confession of faith and found it to be true. I know that God is real!
One question yet remains unanswered, How can I know myself better? Here are ten insights in discovering yourself so that your leading of others is effective.
Values – What are my foundational beliefs? What are the non-negoitables of life?
Purpose – Why am I here? The greatest days of life, your birth and the discovery of purpose!
Strengths – Where am I gifted?
Weaknesses – What things do I not do well?
Priorities – What is most important to me?
Passion – What energizes me?
Challenges – What things must I conquer?
Failures – What mistakes must I learn from?
Vision – Where do I want to go?
Qualities – What kind of person do I want to be?
The essence of this list can be summarized by reflecting on my….
Actions – What I do says something about me. What am I doing?
Reflection – What I think says something about me. What do I feel? What do I think? What do I know? These three questions reveal my emotions, mind, and heart.
Interaction – What others think about me says something about me. What do others think about me? The Coaching of Shepherds Advantage coupled with the Birkman Questionnaire, is without a doubt the very best tools in comprehending God’s design of ourselves.
Who is in your life that you trust to speak into your life?
Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!
PSS: Leave a comment below to let me know what you wished someone would have told you earlier in life. Go ahead and hit the SUBMIT BUTTON – leave a comment!
In case you have not noticed, the world is made up of PEOPLE! That said as a leader you must….
Value People – place a high value upon others, show them worth as God’s creation. There is enough criticism and put down in this world. Bestow worth and honor on others.
Believe In People – I find it interesting that out of all the options that our Creator Mighty God had at his disposal, he chose human instrumentality. Believe in people, they will amaze you at their insight and comprehension about how life functions.
Unconditionally Love People – Be the first to mend fences and set right bad relationships. Judge-mentalism and love cannot function in the same sentence.
While we love people, there are a special inner circle of people that we cultivate more intentionally. What are the qualities of this inner circle of influencers? Here are six suggestions to consider in developing the type of people for your inner circle.
Change Your Mindset Regarding Personal Development
It has been said that what I can grow to – I can grow to become! The key question on personal growth is not, “How long will it take?” Life is not lived in the 30 second mellow-drama. The key question is “How far can I go?” Jim John stated that your success will rarely exceed the level of your personal development. Everyone thinks they are teachable, but successful people move from teachable to learnable! John Maxwell states that learnable people are (1) hungry to learn, (2) Intentional in the their learning habits, (3) Applies what they have learned quickly into their life, and (4) Passes what they have learned to others.
We all have a road map that enhances our learning. Here are 11 facets of our learning journey:
»» Instead of leading themselves, immature leaders only lead others
Seeing the big picture – As you mature you give up the right to see things from your perspective. You realize there is a bigger picture and you are not the center of it. You make decisions based upon the well-being of the team first before you are benefited. Immature leaders want everyone to get on their leadership train and to your leadership destination.
Valuing the vision without devaluing the team
Making right decisions for the right reasons – always what is best for members of your team!
Moving forward by growing and making transitions
»» Leaders are constantly shifting and adjusting – this allows you to take other people with you – It is not always about you!
»» The ability to be flexible and to shift is essential to strengthening leadership.
BEING A MATURE LEADER:
Not acting entitled
Increasingly OK with not knowing everything
Increasingly perform better under pressure
Surround oneself with people who have gifts greater than theirs – you have to be confident in who you are first to allow people that are more gifted than you are in strategic areas. It is a sign of a mature leader who will hire people greater than themselves in key areas. Only bigger people make you bigger. Lesser people will make you less.
»» Will have the chance to increase – Greater people make you greater
»» Turns you away from answering questions and toward asking questions – When you surround yourself with people lesser than you you tell people what to do. When people are bigger than you you ask questions because you understand that you do not know everything.
»» The better the team, the better questions that get asked
Embrace the process more and more – We over estimate the goal, and under estimate the process.
»» Stop asking “how long will it take?”
»» Start asking “how far I can go?” You become a passionate student. The finish line keeps moving
»» There is no set finish line
»» The only finish line in your life is the one you place there – The finish line is always moving away from you – not moving toward you! Epitaph: He ran out of breath! Don’t die before you are dead!
You must have a healthy view of failure
»» We have two choices:
We leave it
We learn and improve from it
»» Wisdom is the process of learning from failure
THE CYCLE OF SUCCESS
Test
»» How you see failure determines how you see a test
Fail
Learn
»» Wisdom is the process of learning from failure – What did you learn? How did you change as a result?
Improve
»» You know what you did wrong, but did you get better?
Re-enter
»» The moment you re-enter you begin the cycle again
THE CYCLE OF DUMB
Fail
Re-enter
Repeat the TEST
TWO TYPES OF PEOPLE WHEN WALKING INTO A NEW SITUATION
“I hope this works out alright”
“I am going to prove that this is alright”
LINKS
Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE
Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE
Here are four character qualities that Billy Graham spoke about at a Civic Luncheon in Denver, Colorado in 1987. When you consider where Colorado is spiritually today versus when the late Billy Graham spoke these four truths into their life, you realize that God always positions his messengers in strategic places to speak life and goodness.
The first quality that I would like to mention is integrity. Integrity has to do with soundness, completeness, unity and consistency. Wayne Porter wrote in TIME magazine last month, “Integrity has increased steadily in importance as a public issue since 1985.” When we speak of integrity as a moral value, it means a man is the same on the inside as he claims to be on the outside. There’s no discrepancy between what he says and what he does; between his talk and his walk.
The second quality necessary for leadership, it seems to me, during these difficult days is personal security. I do not mean this in the sense of physical security, job security or financial security. Newsweek magazine ran an article some months ago entitled, “Uneasy Men at the Top.” They described the job insecurities of some in the top levels of corporate management in large companies. It set the stage for one newly installed CEO to say in jest; “I didn’t mind it when they wrote my name on the office door in chalk but I did think it was a little unethical to have a wet sponge hanging from the doorknob.”
Besides integrity and personal security, the third quality which is necessary in a leader is a sense of priority. This is the ability to separate the important from the unimportant, the critical from the trivial, the vital from the insignificant, the eternal from the temporary. It is essential for our daily tasks, but it also is true for the overall directions of our lives. Until a man gets his priorities in life straight, everything else is going to be out of order.
Then, there is one final quality that I would mention briefly, the quality of vision. When there’s no vision, the Bible says, the people perish. This is the quality of seeing what can be and ought to be done and how to get there.
So, I challenge you today to be a person of integrity, a person of security, a person with a sense of priority and a person of vision. But most of all, I challenge you to be individuals who are committed to Christ.
I want to impart some truth that I have learned on my journey of leadership. The value of asking good questions can increase your learning exponentially. I have read literally hundreds of books attended hundreds of hours in great seminars and conferences. The one thing that I have come to learn is to ask good questions of leaders that are presently influencing my life and those leaders that I have the opportunity to meet each year. This one skill has accelerated my leadership development more than anything else that I could suggest to you. The better the questions that you ask directly equates to your growth, development, and ability.
Here are seven questions to enhance your leadership development when you are around other leaders;
Wisdom – What is the greatest lesson you have learned?
Passion – What are you learning right now?
Attitude – How has failure shaped your life?
Networking – Who do you know that I should know?
Growth – What have you read that I should read?
Experience – What have you done that I should do?
Gratitude – How can I add value to you?
Bonus Question:
If you only had five minutes, what is one thing that you would tell me?
1. Culture Eats Vision for lunch by a factor of 10 to 1. Culture is the most powerful factor in any organization – Culture is what you are doing – Vision is where you are going! If you do not get right what you are doing you will never get where you are going. Culture is the visual of the values of the people in an organization. Culture is the sum of the habits of the people. It is what people do on a regular basis. Culture is not what we say so much as it is what we do. We model belief around common convictions.
Leadership puts a lid on an organization. If you have enough leaders in your organization you can scale new heights faster than others. Most organizations have a limiting capacitor called “NOT ENOUGH LEADERS!” Everything rises and falls on leadership. You must develop leaders. If you do not have bench depth you will not have band width. There is a shortage of leaders.
A characteristic of a leadership is they have depth on their team. you have to create a culture of great leaders that can lead at any time. Over 75% of Chik-fil-A’s staff are under 25 years of age. Four things that are required to build a bench
Attractive – hire people who are over-qualified
Recruiting – attract the right people, leadership minded people, successful in others arenas
Training – You have to be passionate and have training as a non-negotiable item
Empowerment – if you hire someone that you cannot empower within a reasonable period of time, you do not have a bench player.
If you do not have a surplus of leaders then you are in a short-fall situation
FIRST you must define what leadership is! This is the benchmark. People need to know if they are in the game and in the correct zip code. Once you have forged a definition within your culture then everyone must speak the same language. You cannot build what you cannot articulate!
Six C’s on defining culture from John Maxwell
Character – It is not something that I talk about, I must be a person of Character
Clarity – you have to show people what you need. Do not leave them guessing what you want. 5 Minute Manager in which you model your love and appreciation for their service and effort.
Communication – Keep saying it! Constantly talk about the culture so others can see, hear, and feel what is in your heart. If the team does not hear the vision often they will drift quickly.
Contribution – Own it! I will own this company – this is on me!
Consistency – I have to do on a regular basis – daily 5!
Celebration – Embrace it together and celebrate the victory of everyone moving in the same direction
Culture is a visual of the values of what leaders want others to see. The only thing that limits an organization is the development of leaders.
5 Keys to Build A Leadership Culture – Template
Define the leadership culture that you want. Forge a consensus in your organization. There are over 6,000 definitions of leadership in the dictionary. You must define it.
Question #1 – “Do we have a common definition of leadership”
SERVE – JMT (John Maxwell Team)
Serve others
Excellence in all that you do
Responsible and accountable to do what we say
Value – we value our people as individuals as our most important asset. Are you properly valuing your team-mates?
Environment – foster a positive environment within the team
These five concepts compromise leadership culture
2. Teach it – Ensure that everyone knows that your point of view on leadership is being taught to them verbally and behaviorally. Talent is not enough!
Question #2 – “Do your current and emerging leaders have the skills to deliver on the definition?”
Practice it – Do we give people on our team an opportunity to prove themselves? ILL. Spring Training Camp for Baseball
Question #3 – Are we giving ample opportunity for leaders to lead? Are we giving emerging leaders opportunity to lead?
You have to give assignments that people will be stretched and will probably not succeed at. We wear out the heavy hitters and fail to give opportunities for emerging leaders.
Measure it – You can get good at developing leaders. A shortage of leaders is every organizations challenge. What gets measured gets done!
Question #4 – “ Do you have a way to evaluate to metrics of your culture?”
How many leaders are ready for the next level in your organization? This question should guide an annual leadership talent review.
5. Model It – People do what people see!
Question #5 – “Do our current leaders model the leadership behaviors of our organization?”
How we learn 89% IS VISUAL – Stanford research.
To many leaders tell the vision, too few leaders show the vision!
BONUS – SELL IT – Budget training! Where does your time and money go? You must become passionate about developing people. INVEST!! FREE does not make changes in people and organizations! How great do you want your organization become? How long do you want this organization to exist?
LINKS
Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE
Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE
“Nobody knows what they’re going to do with their *entire life.* Nobody… Having one giant purpose that you strive toward forever isn’t the goal. What is? An ikigai. A current aim. A reason to get out of bed in the morning. Retirement is a broken concept. It is based on three assumptions that aren’t true: that we enjoy doing nothing instead of being productive, that we can afford to live well while earning no money for decades, and that we can afford to pay others to earn no money for decades.” ~ Neil Pasricha – The Happiness Equation.
In North America while we think of retirement as a golden age of putting greens, staring at the clouds, and cottage decks. Guess what they call retirement in Okinawa? They don’t! There is no word for retirement for Okinawan’s. But there is a word that drives this culture – Ikigai (Icky-guy). It is the reason that I get out of bed everyday. It is the one thing that drives you the most at this stage of life. Okinawans live longer than most other cultures. They out live Americans by 7 heathy years!
Otto von Bismarck instituted mandatory retirement at age 65 in Germany in 1889. He wanted to free up jobs for younger people and guess what the average life expectancy was at that time? 67. Then, in the 20th century, other countries started instituting a mandatory retirement at the arbitrary age of 65 and—get this—marketing gurus spent a ton of money CONVINCING us that leisure was awesome, work was awful, and, well, here we are.
Issac Newton’s first Law of Physics says that a body in motion tends to stay in motion until acted upon by a larger force. Here is a daily principle to learn, “It’s easier to act yourself into a new way of thinking than to think yourself into a new way of acting.” Now go forward. Live out your Ikigai today!
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