About Inspiring Others...

You do not need to look hard to see the gifts that God has given other people, especially your direct reports. Unfortunately, with the stress of productivity, we fail to look deep enough to see and appreciate them.

A word from you—affirming their gift—will do more to motivate them to pursue it than perhaps any other encouragement. Be observant, and when you see it, capitalize on it.

“Hey Jonathan! I was watching you the other day, and I need to say… you have a unique ability for organization.”

Leave it at that. Don't follow with asking them to organize anything. Remember, it is about building up the individual, not manipulating them so that they will work for you. The first bears fruit, the second is evil.

If you are not first-and-foremost about building people, you will find yourself far less the leader than you otherwise would be. Through encouragement, give ‘em a glimpse of heaven in your leadership…

Lead Leaders

Stop Leading Followers and Lead Leaders

Picking the right people is a tricky proposition. Many of us have handed the sceptre to another only to find it is a "beat stick" in their hands. Bringing harmony to a team that has been destroyed by a less-than-capable leader whom you appointed is far more difficult than getting the choice right in the first place.

Even the ancients understood this. This interesting quote comes from Onasander, a Greek philosopher from the first century A.D., and shows that even 2000 years ago men wrestled with these very issues.

“Most men are distressed when placed under the command of ignoble individuals. For no one voluntarily puts up with submitting to a master or a leader who is inferior to himself.” (Onasander, The General 1.17)

Many leaders, given such an experience, will digress back to leading followers instead of seeking a new capable leader to assist in leading the organization. Stop! You need people you trust to help you carry the load of transformational change. You can be a mentor. Taking time and investing in another has huge benefits for the future. The time invested in another capable leader will multiply your abilities to lead.

About Mentoring...

If mentoring sounds like a great idea, you still have to decide whether it's right for you. The questions below should serve as a wakeup call as to your ability to lead other leaders as opposed to followers.

1. Do you get excited at the idea of sharing the knowledge and experience God has given you, or do you feel that you are incapable of imparting anything of value to another?

2. Do you enjoy encouraging and motivating people toward a goal and rejoice with them when it is accomplished, or do you make every effort to take the glory?

3. Are you comfortable challenging people to be better even if you know it may cause them discomfort, or would you rather accept sub-standard work and internalize your discontent?

4. Do you want to contribute to other people's growth and success, or do you see it as a threat to your value in the organization?

5. Can you faithfully invest your time in mentoring your leaders, or are you so absorbed in meaningless tasks that you cannot give anything to anyone without feeling like you are falling behind?

6. Do you feel that building a leader is the most important focus of your efforts, or do you feel the daily tasks you accomplish are greater organizational contributions?

7. Can you visualize the future leader that you would like to mentor? Can you describe their qualities and their talents, or are you one that grows frustrated because you grab any warm body that seems willing?

I hope that these questions, coupled with the understanding of the importance of building leaders, helps you make the next possitive step toward transformational change in your organization's culture. Perhaps they will serve as a mirror that reflects the deficiency of your leadership. Regardless of whether this motivates, or infuriates, you are faced with your introspection and that's a good thing. Knowledge truly is power.

Work on the System

Leaders Work ON the System, Not IN the System.

You have a work flow... How organized that work flow is depends on you. I want you to imagine yourself at your desk. If it is anything like mine we could say it's a disaster. Oh wait, I mean un-neatly organized! Now that you are picturing it, imagine all the related tasks that are on it's surface. The thirty-fifth paper in pile number two is related to the sixty-fourth paper in pile five. It has gotten this way due to neglect.

So, day to day you sit there. You take the top paper, work on it, put it somewhere else, or you throw it in the trash. You are in the system...

Now, imagine that you had perfect clarity. You are now standing OVER your desk (not sitting at it) and because you can see the big picture you can see how each paper corresponds to other papers and you begin to group them with all other relevant papers. You begin to see "mobilizations" instead of a to-do list. You are working ON the system...

As long as you are working one task at a time, you will fail to give ownership of anything to anyone. It is faster to do the task than to teach (or allow) someone else to do it. However, if the related and relevant items are grouped, and a mobilization is build around it, you can give ownership of something much bigger than a task, and relieve yourself of the minutiae of having to perform every task yourself. As a collective whole, those tasks can become a strategic mobilization which results in the training of your leaders and greater efficiency of the organization.

Let go!

As a leader, your people need you to show them where they are headed, not ONLY how they will get there. Inspire them with the big picture. Reward them for every step towards that end. Celebrate when each victory is achieved and inspire confidence in their abilities. You know as well as I that they are going to make mistakes. We also know that at first, the tasks will get completed to a lesser level of excellence than it would had we completed the task on our own. However, that kind of thinking leads into a trap. You do not have the capability to work in the system and direct it from above. If you desire change in your organization, but refuse to let go of the inner workings, then step aside and let another lead. It's scary, but it is true. A leader rejoices more over a mistake made with effort than with inactivity perfectly executed.

About Delegation...

Delegation is a win-win when done appropriately, however that does not mean that you can delegate just anything. To determine when delegation is most appropriate there are five key questions you need to ask yourself:

1. Is there someone else who has (or can be given) the necessary information or expertise to complete the task? Basically, is this a task that someone else can do, or is it critical that you do it yourself?

2. Does the task provide an opportunity to grow and develop another person’s skills?

3. Is this a task that will recur, in a similar form, in the future?

4. Do you have enough time to delegate the job effectively? Time must be available for adequate training, for questions and answers, for opportunities to check progress, and for rework if that is necessary. However, this investment of time, in the long run, will greatly benefit you and the organization.

5. Is this a task that I should delegate? Tasks critical for long-term success (for example, recruiting the right people for your team) genuinely do need your attention.

If you can answer “yes” to at least some of the above questions, then it could well be worth delegating this job.

Learn Up. Train Down.

There is a great scene in "We Were Soldiers" where Mel Gibson says; "Learn the job of the man above you, and teach your job to the man below. We will be landing under fire gentlemen... Men will die."

It has been said that the measure of a great leader is this, that in his or her absence, the organization will continue to function in precisely the same manner. This is both honoring to the leader, and terrifying as well.

I remember telling my leaders that if we get to the point where someone else can run this organization better than me, I will happily step aside. I said that because I believed (rightly so) that the organization was the most important thing. But, did I actually believe that I would step aside? Of that, I am not so convinced… It sounded like a dignified statement from me as their leader, but each time I said it I trembled inside.

It’s kind of the same as confidently saying that we could die for our faith. Easy to say when the chances are slight that we will ever be tested in that manner. Each of us hopes that it is the truth, but we will never know unless put to the test.

Learning Up

Learning up is easy for many of us. In fact, we see it as preparation for promotion. I remember the moment I knew I would be moving into my current position, I made every effort to learn the job of my DoM. I went with him to meetings, learned from him, asked him questions, and prepared to take his place. His allowing of me to learn from him said more about his character than it did mine. I wonder if he ever hesitated to teach me when he knew I desired to replace him? I doubt it. He understood the second principle, Train Down.

Train Down

The transformational leader trains his direct reports to fill his shoes. A nominal leader avoids training others in their skills. The reason is most often a fear of being replaced or deemed unnecessary. However, when the transformational leader understands that the organization is the priority, he will allow others to learn what they need to learn to advance the missional causes of the whole. If this means that he becomes unnecessary, than so be it.

HOWEVER…

Most of the time, the resulting team building and empowerment leads to the solidifying of the leader in his position to lead the group or team. In other words, true value is found in that leader. He becomes indispensable.

Leaders Go First

In today’s unforgiving environment, both seasoned leaders and those coming into new leadership roles need to hit the ground running, or at the very least, come up to speed quickly. This is simply a reality. In the past, doing church work, you could coast for a long time before your lack of leadership was noticed or harmed the organization. No so any longer.

A Hard Reality

I am a diver. I have been avidly diving since 1986 and I have a passion for the sport. I have yet to be on a dive boat where, once we are over the dive spot, I am not one of the first in the water and the last to come aboard. Usually I am the first. Why? Because I am passionate about diving. PASSIONATE! I love every moment of it.

If you are not the first one in and the last one out on every new endeavor, as a leader you are losing your authority. I am not saying that you cannot delegate. Delegate the lesser things. The important ones are yours. Build the team, inspire them to act, and take the first step. Your passion for the new endeavor will be contagious and you will inspire those behind.

I marvel at the many “leaders” that I speak to on a daily basis, and when I look behind them (figuratively) there is no one there. In fact, I’ve been there myself.

If you want to lead leaders, here are some of the things you will need to consider important.
• Time management skills
• Delegation and ownership
• Personal presentation
• The ability to drive values and objectives
• Complex decision making & problem solving
• Effective communication and consensus building
• Performance management and evaluation
• Dealing effectively with difficult conversations
• Ability to make the tough call
• Learning to tap into an individual’s innovation and creativity in times of great challenge
• Team building
• Giving and receiving constructive feedback that promotes growth
• Developing others
• Taking ownership of results (accountability)
• Self awareness and self-management

The last one’s a killer…

Ogilvy

I am sure this has happened to you. You hear a name, and drawing deep into the haze of distant memory you ask yourself, “How is it that I know that name?” Sometimes the name is forgotten as quickly as remembered, but occasionally the name will stick until you decide it is worth parsing. Such was the case three weeks ago as I was winding up my vacation. It’s amazing that I was able to remember anything at all, my brain still a mess from the blur of far too many points of interest in far too little time. Drawing from the depths of the well, I remembered the man. At least what I had learned of him. And, with a little research I was able to relearn some timeless truths from a genius. The name, David Ogilvy.



As an undergraduate, studying marketing and communications, David Ogilvy was boilerplate. Considered by many the greatest “ad-man” who ever lived, Ogilvy was the founding partner of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, one of the greatest foundational advertising agencies of the 1950’s and 60’s. Far more that his achievements in the ad world, he was a powerful force in creating one of the most power workplace cultures corporate America has ever seen. His leadership style was said by many to be greater than his skills as an ad-man.

Ogilvy was a master communicator. He communicated effectively to the outside world, enabling his agency to sell product for the client, but his ability to communicate internally is what made the organization such a success. Ogilvy was famous for creating a finely polished culture within the organization, something so few leaders achieve today. His culture was based on excellence, treating people like human beings and encouraging (and usually paying for) personal development of his people on all levels.

How did he do it?

He set standards and encouraged his people to achieve even greater than his expectations. He also empowered them to accomplish it, whatever "it" was. His recruitment brochure read; “We are looking for gentlemen with ideas in their head and fire in their bellies. If you join Ogilvy and Mather, we shall teach you everything we know about advertising. We shall pay you well, and do our damnedest to make you succeed. If you show promise, we shall load responsibility on you—fast. Life in our agency can be very exciting. You will never be bored. It’s tough, but it’s fun.”

Once upon a board meeting at Ogilvy & Mather, the board members each entered to find Russian matryoshka dolls on each of their seats. As each member of the board opened the still smaller dolls, each found the same message within the inner doll: “If you hire people who are smaller than you are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. If you hire people who are bigger than you are, we shall become a company of giants. Hire big people, people who are better than you, pay them more than yourself if necessary.” From that day forward the Russian dolls became a symbol of the corporate culture he had built.

We could learn from another of Ogilvy’s maxims: “Great hospitals do two things, they look after patients and they train young doctors. Ogilvy and Mather does two things: We look after clients, and we teach young advertising people.”

Ogilvy understood the importance of having great people who were greatly equipped. As a leader, you must understand this more than anything else. At Ogilvy and Mather there was training available at every level of the company. However, while mandatory at the early employment stage—to instill the culture and corporate values—the training was positioned as a privilege rather than a duty at each higher level. Again, this played to the master plan of creating a culture of constant improvement and self improvement. Those who progressed were invested in all the more, those who had not were (in Ogilvy’s words) “barnacles” which were regularly scraped off of the hull to keep the ship moving.

Ogilvy’s constant goal was to make the organization more professional and create a timeless institution. This was evident in the professionalism of all who were employed. In fact, everyone in the industry knew that anyone who worked at Ogilvy & Mather was gifted at writing. In fact, the ability to write well was at the core of Ogilvy & Mather’s corporate culture. Ogilvy was equally critical of himself in that area and placed his vulnerability before his people. He would frequently send copies of his writings into the company pool with his familiar note attached: “Please improve.”

His desire to treat people as equals and at the same time extract every bit of positive energy they contained for the improvement of the company was unique, especially because it worked. He demanded much, but never forgot that people need to feel pride. He did all he could to improve the individual, understanding that the growing man has more to give and gives his all—willingly—for a team that moves positively. He never lost site of the fact that individuals need to be respected and empowered.

He wrote: “We treat our people like human beings. We help them when they are in trouble—with their jobs, with illnesses, and so on. We help our people make the best of their talents. We invest an awful lot of time and money in training—perhaps more than any of our competitors. Our system of management is singularly democratic. We don’t like hierarchical bureaucracy or rigid pecking orders. We abhor ruthlessness. We like our people with gentle manners. We like people who are honest: honest in argument, honest with clients, honest with suppliers, and honest with the company. We admire people who work hard. Objectivity and toughness are admired. Superficiality is not. We despise and detest office politicians, toadies, bullies, and pompous asses. The way up the ladder is open to everyone. We detest favoritism, nepotism, and prejudice. In promoting for top jobs, we are influenced by character as by anything else.”

What more need a leader say.

Passion and Uranium238

Understanding why we should invest in first generation converts as future church leaders.

What!?
If this was your reaction to the title, put your thinking cap on and continue reading. This article was birthed from a conversation I had with a pastor friend of mine. There are people who add value to my life, and he is one.

Remember physics? You learned all sorts of information that left you scratching you head as you pondered Strong Force, Gravitation, Mass and various other weird and wonderful things. Personally, I needed an apple to fall on my head and wake me from my dreams of a distant tropical shore. One thing I do remember, however, is that the half-life of Uranium238 is about 4.5 billion years. After all these years I have finally found a use for what seemed then to be useless information.

Half Life Explained
A half-life is the fixed, invariable amount of time it takes for an original sample of a radioactive substance like uranium, radium or carbon-14 to break down (decay). This decay happens nucleus by nucleus. For instance, the half-life of Uranium238 is roughly 4.5 billion years, which means that at the end of 4.5 billion years, a one-pound block of the stuff will weigh only one-half pound. In another 4.5 billion years, it will weight in at one-quarter pound, and so on.

Have I Lost You?
Back to my conversation with my friend. We were sharing the immediate need for fearless Christians in our churches. The need to excite and mobilize Christ-Followers and the difficulties associated with stimulating the complacent. I shared with him that when I accepted Jesus I was transformed by His power. Fearless! That exuberance has not diminished in 22 years. I love Him, He is mine, and I am His. Something reminiscent of what Buber called the “I-Thou.”

I verbalized my concern; that I don’t see a “take-up-you-cross” kind of Christianity in our churches, except among the youth. I shared how I see many of them as fearless. They seek more than complacency from their relationship with Father. They want to change their world!

Moment of Insight
So he looks at me and says; “It’s not the young, it’s the first generation Christian.” BAM! He was right. It is that first generation Christian that is fearless and ready. They have not grown complacent due to familiarity. Their nuclei have not yet decayed. They have not reached their half-life, half of what they were, decaying by the moment.

Something happens when a life is transformed. Like a child growing up poor appreciates the gift of hard labor and moderate success while the child of abundance looks upon it with disdain. Such is the church. This leads me to ponder if the half-life of Christian passion is equal to one generation or if second generational Christians could ever understand what transformation means. Can the child of abundance identify with the child who knows nothing but need? This is why we must invest in those of the first generation.

Leadership Farming
Where do we go from here? Paul warns us in 1 Timothy 3:6 of the dangers of placing individuals in places of authority too soon, so I am not advocating taking leaders from the waters of baptism, handing them a towel, and saying “Let’s Go!” This is not a “time” thing, it is a “passion” thing. As leaders, we must, in a focused manner, spot those whom the Holy Spirit has transformed and excited, father them, and help to transform them into what God would have them to be. No small task, but the rewards will be huge.

Back to Uranium238
Everything dies: people, trees, metals, galaxies, and even atoms. Only one entity is eternal and He is the source of an eternal future. All that decays is slowly dying: people, trees, metals, galaxies and even Christian passion. It all has a half-life. I only wish the half-life of Christian passion matched that of Uranium238.