5 Tips to Inspire Teams

My mom sent me a great short article on inspiring people. The rules for inspiring others listed below can be used in all kinds of leadership settings.

Ron Clark taught elementary school in North Carolina. After watching a program about a New York City school that had a hard time attracting qualified teachers, he decided to head to New York with the goal of teaching in one of its toughest schools. Clark eventually landed a job doing just that—in Harlem. He asked if he could teach a class of fifth-graders who had been performing at a second-grade level. The school’s administrators wanted to give him the gifted class, but Clark insisted on the underperforming students. In one school year, Clark’s fifth-grade class outperformed the gifted class. [Read more]

Some ‘rules’ identified in the article include:
1. Raise expectations
2. Explain why before how
3. Encourage celebration and praise
4. Show genuine interest beyond business
5. Be positive and enjoy life

Kern Dinner and Tips to Avoid Moral Failures

Had a great dinner tonight at Bethel Seminary with Stephanie and a group of students. Six years ago I was the recipient of a gracious scholarship from the Kern Foundation which covered all my seminary tuition for three years. This evening I was invited back, along with other alumni, for a time to eat and reconnect with other Kern Scholars. Besides seeing old friends, I was given the opportunity to co-keynote the event and share where God has lead me since graduating seminary.

While it was difficult to publicly share about the trials Stephanie and I have faced, it was very rewarding to be given the chance to possibly help save others from the pain we’ve gone through. The goal of my talk was to give the Kern Scholars a list of things they can do to protect themselves from sin and the failures that too many pastors end up committing. I hope to adapt the talk into an article in the near future. I’ll post it all when it is written. Until then, here is a summary of the tips….

1. Believe you are broken

Romans 7:18 – For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

2. Trust in the value of marital transparency

Genesis 2:25 – And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

3. Understand the process is painful

John 12:24 – Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

4. Consider Christian counseling

Proverbs 19:20 – Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.

5. Share your struggles with someone

James 5:16 – Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

6. Build your boundaries

Proverbs 16:17 – The highway of the upright turns aside from evil; whoever guards his way preserves his life.

7. Stay away from dangerous situations

1 Timothy 6:11 – But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.

8. Cling to Christ

Psalm 63:8 – My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.

Keller on Selecting a Leader

A leadership insight from the Buzzard Blog…

Most churches make the mistake of selecting as leaders the confident, the competent, and the succesful. But what you most need in a leader is someone who has been broken by the knowledge of his or her sin, and even greater knowledge of Jesus’ costly grace. – Tim Keller from the latest issue of World, under the “Books” section, original source unknown

Fire Fast!

Tony Morgan gave a talk at a conference recently about 10 mistakes he’s made in leadership; Tim Stevens blogged the list and ironically (for a reason you’ll see below) the very first one was:

#1 Hiring Too Fast. Firing Too Slow.

I have scene first hand the carnage that firing too slow leaves behind. At my company all new employees get a learning period. After that learning period it is very difficult to let people go. Therefore it is extremely important that people are evaluated and decisions are made about their performance in a timely manner. And in the unfortunate times that things aren’t working out, people have to be let go. If this doesn’t happen you get stuck with people who hold others back, frustrate their leaders, accomplish little, and are detrimental to the rest of the team.

Today, for the first time, I had to bring an employee into my office and inform them that they were being terminated. It was unpleasant. I was nervous and my stomach was kind of feeling weird. But I had to do it. The person had shown, over an extended period of time, a pattern of behavior that was hurting the team and they had done nothing to change their behavior after being coached on it several times. I knew that letting them go would be tough, but in all honesty, the pain of letting someone go is much less than the problems that come when someone is kept around too long.

Leadership Lessons from Work

Some things I have been learning at work (maybe they’ll apply to your life as well) …

- You have to own your own development. No one is just going to hand things to you that will magically make you grow.
- Some of the best lessons are found in trial and error, evaluation, and trying again.
- Conflict usually isn’t as bad as we think it is going to be.
- A lot of problems can be avoided with a simple conversations.
- Everyone requires recognition in a different form. Identify it and give it.
- Slowing down to think and evaluate is difficult. But it is worth the effort.
- Setting aside your feelings about a person to objectively evaluate their performance is tough.
- Most people want to be trained so they can succeed.
- It is crucial to have your ‘aces’ in the right places, at the right times.

Passive-Aggressive Leadership

One area of my leadership (and life in general) that I am working to develop is the ability to confront issues with other people head on instead of taking out my frustration and anger in a passive-aggressive way. If you’re not familiar with the concept of being passive-aggressive let me illustrate with some examples…

• When an employee is not performing and meeting expectations, instead of sitting down and discussing it, you simply schedule him less hours.
• When a friendship is not going the way you anticipated it to, instead of getting together for coffee and sharing honest feelings, you simply stop calling him.
• When you don’t think your spouse is holding up their end of the cleaning bargain, instead of talking it through, you simply leave the dirty wine glasses on the counter and silently count the days until they get washed.

As you read the example above you might be tempted to think, “How childish is that behavior?,” and you’d be right. It is childish. It reminds me of what the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corninthians 13:11,

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”

Becoming a man doesn’t happen just because we get older in years. For me personally becoming a man is about becoming a different kind of person. The kind of person who responds to frustrating situations with levelheadedness, courage and maturity not passive-aggressiveness.

How are you doing? In what areas of your life are you still behaving in childish ways? A great way to find out would be to ask your spouse or a close friend where they see childish tendencies in you. I would also recommend praying and asking Jesus to reveal to you any of the areas in your life where he wants to do a maturing act in you.

Trusting God and Trudging Forward

The older I get the more I realize how much fear paralyzes us and prevents us from moving forward. This week I had to face some personal challenges at work head-on and in each instance I’ve walked away kicking myself for spending emotional energy worrying about it before hand. The conversations I needed to have went smoothly and respectfully. It turns out all the drama I anticipated was in my imagination.*

In his Letter to the Philippians Paul writes that we should be ‘anxious about nothing.’ In Matthew Jesus teaches us to not ‘be anxious about tomorrow.’

So…what are you anxious about? Be strong in the face of your future. Don’t let imaginative fear paralyze you. Move forward with the confidence that Jesus loves you and desires what is best for you. Trust him and trudge on in the face of whatever it is you are facing.

* Sometimes facing conflict is physically unavoidable. Here’s some good advice from Gary Lamb on How to Handle Conflict.

Leadership Lessons: The Challenge of Asserting Yourself

I love my job. Most days. One of the hardest parts of my job is leading people who have been in a position for a long time. With the way my company runs things people in my position come and go around every 18 months. However, many times the people we manage have been in position for many years.

This is a huge leadership challenge, especially as a 28 year old working with 35-50 year olds. It has been difficult for me to lead when I am challenged back or when I’m told me idea is wrong. Sometimes when I approach individuals I’m told not to worry about it, that they’ve got it, and I’m kind of left standing there like, “Ah…ok?”

A big learning for me right now is how to lead people who don’t just follow. Does that make sense? I have to earn the right to lead people. Coming in and just barking orders is a very bad idea. And yet I am their boss, so I have to pick the right times to assert myself whether or not that assertion is received positively. I’m not a confrontation guy at all so there are moments in my week when I really feel stretched.

Through it all I’m thankful because I know that I am acquiring experiences and skills that I can build on for the rest of what God has ahead of me. But there are those days where I just feel small. And on those days I gotta push through.

Are you having to push through anything right now? Don’t back down. Go for it and overcome the obstacles that you face. You will be better for facing it. And God will use whatever your circumstance to shape and form you for your good.

Becoming the Greatest by Being the Least

Three times in Mark 9 & 10 Jesus teaches about servant leadership: becoming first by being last. This is a wonderful Biblical teaching and ideal that many people in the Christian faith, I presume, would espouse to. It is also a wonderfully difficult truth to put into practice in a world where it seems the majority of people who rise in leadership do so through networking, brown nosing, manipulation, underhandedness and power-over strategies. The power-under servant leadership variety of Jesus requires a tremendous amount of faith for the person hoping to climb a corporate ladder or assure themselves of the opportunities they feel they deserve. There is a tremendously delicate balance between taking the reins for the assurance of our own success and allowing God to move through our humility and continued service to others.

Leading From a Cave

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to speak to a group of students in Bethel University’s “Foundational Leadership Program.” My sister is the coordinator and she invited me to kick-off their fall session of speakers. The topic I was given was faith and perseverance.

I focused the talk on encouraging leaders to remain faithful to God and to persevere through ‘cave moments’ in their leadership. I talked about how both David and Joseph had keep going and push through some very tough moments in their lives before they were able to accomplish the things God had prepared for them.

The fact is that we will all, in leadership and in life, face moments where life is dark, cold, disorienting, and lonely. There will be times we don’t know where we are going or where we have come from. And it is in those times we have to cling to the promises of God and to draw our strength from the hope that God is preparing us for something greater. I borrowed a line from a pastor out east and said that leaders have to learn to change their perspective and view the challenges they face not as setbacks but as divine setups.

I enjoyed sharing with the students and will post a link to the talk when I find it.