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Owner Vs. Hireling

In the Biblical book of Acts chapters 20 & 21 we read about Paul’s emotional farewell to some of his fellow leaders as he was boarding a ship to sail to his next assignment. The narrative reads how the Spirit of God came upon Paul, challenging him to preach the gospel in Jerusalem as he had done in Ephesus. A fellow prophet intercepted him and questioned Paul’s decision. He warned that this decision may cost you your life. Paul reminded the fellow prophet that the God of heaven has entrusted me with this vision – I am ready to give my all.

This narrative messes me up every time I read it. It begs the question, “What motivates your living and will you pursue your vision in life?” The implications are huge as you ponder your response.

Great leaders understand the single greatest determinant of whether followers will ever own a vision deeply is the extent to which those followers believe the leader will own it.

Based upon empirical evidence, those following you will formulate an assessment of the depth of your ownership and will adjust their ownership accordingly. Followers take their cues from the leader! People will only take a bullet if they thoroughly believe that you as a leader will do the same. Understand your followers will see, sense, and smell your level of ownership.

The Value of A Good Idea

Has it ever occurred to you that you are one idea away from the next greatest sermon series, fundraiser, or outreach. All pockets of success for your organization can be traced back to a good idea!

The truth is that Leaders traffic in idea creation. As you read about the great leaders, it seems that all of them are ferociously disciplined about seeking good ideas and they are incredibly committed to stewarding them.

Beware of an atmosphere that kills good ideas. For example, do not ask your team to assist you with good ideas about an upcoming launch when you mind is already made-up. You waste people’s time. They may not be so generous in the future when this happens. Another idea killer might be to work together and develop a good idea for it to become derailed by non-essential business.

Steward creative moments in your life. I remember while doing short term mission work in South Africa in the pre-Mandela era, I came across an old church that was converted to an Antique Shop which was titled “Has-Beens and By-Gones.” Needless to say that picture became a powerful catalyst for vision casting at our church for one of the most significant transitions in its history.

It is told that in the early years of Motorola’s history that you could not enter a strategy meeting as a senior leader without having a list of new innovative ideas. If you came to the meeting without your list, you would not be allowed into the meeting.

Steward your ideas! This means to have pen and paper at your bedside or have an electronic means to record your thoughts and ideas. Otherwise the next greatest idea for your organization will escape and never be discovered.

LINKS

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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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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

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

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!

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

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

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!

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

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

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!

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

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

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!

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

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

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!

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

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

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!

A Journey Toward Significance – Take The SEVEN DAY CHALLENGE