Andy Stanley on Leadership

Andy launched Catalyst 2008 with a great talk on leadership. Quotable…

• We want our leaders to have consistency between what they say and what they do.
• At the end of the day, everyone is a volunteer. They can quit at any time.
• Authenticity is a powerful leadership dynamic.
• Nehemiah got mad and asked the leaders to stop over-charging the people. They immediately complied. Why? Because for 12 years, Nehemiah had been living an authentic life in front of them. He had moral authority.
• As leaders, we must be the men and women who never carry into the future the hurt of the past.
• Perhaps the boldest leadership move you could make is to get on your knees and let go of your hurts.
• Men: If your wife feels like your church is your mistress, you are part of the problem you are trying to solve.
• If your kids feel neglected because of your time at the church, you are part of the problem you are trying to solve.

[from LeadingSmart by Tim Stevens]

Top Ten Qualities of Great Commission Leadership

1. Surrendered Life—The pastor is a slave of Christ.

2. Scriptural Life—The pastor lives both his private and public life according to the Word of God.

3. Spirit-filled Life—The pastor walks daily in the power of the Holy Spirit.

4. Soul Winning Life—The pastor involves himself weekly in personal soul winning.

5. Serving Life—The pastor serves his family like Christ died for the Church.

6. Sanctified Life—The pastor lives a holy life.

7. Selfless Life—The pastor leaves his ego and logo behind in order to partner with other ministers in his community.

8. Sacrificial Life—The pastor sacrifices the niceties in life in order to give more financially for evangelism efforts.

9. Stewardship Life—The pastor measures everything he does in life as to whether or not it helps him to fulfill the great commission. If an activity does not help him to fulfill the great commission, he simply does not do it.

10. Successful Life—The pastor has a fruitful ministry where his congregation is becoming more like Christ and souls are being added to the Kingdom of God.

[Jerry Davis]

Answers For Pastors

(Q) - I pastor a small church (60-70). My volunteer leaders continue to fail in following through after communicating my expectations. What do I do when there are no present replacements?

(A) - Try the following ideas:

1. Create Teams. Find the people in your church that have the MOST INFLUENCE besides you, and make them leaders over groups. Sometimes people will be more loyal to a friendship than an institution. Use these groups to get things done. A good book on this is Doing Church as a Team by Wayne Cordeiro. (http://www.enewhope.org/)

2. Motivate volunteers with perks. For instance, we need 90 people to staff our nurseries each week and that is a tough place to get volunteers. A big motivator we use is to give away a free vacation for two (approx $1000 from the budget) once a year. Each time a person worked the nursery, they could put their name in the box. At the Christmas party, we drew one name out of the box for the free vacation. If you work every week, your name is in the box 52 times. It was a great way to motivate. I have a long list of ways to motivate volunteers in our hospitality manual. It includes things like coffee rooms and free shoe shines for ushers.

3. Downsize. When companies don't have enough resources they downsize. The only way to downsize a smaller church is to downsize the programs. Many small churches are very over programmed. The same workers are rotated in and out of several programs that lack momentum and cause frustration because they are strangulating. It's better to be great at a few things, that bad at many things. Just a thought!

[Brian Cutshall - http://www.churchtrainer.com/]

Top 10 Qualities of a Successful Leader

Many writers have penned essays on the characteristics, behaviors, values and attitudes that spell success for the entrepreneurial leader. My top 10 list goes further -- blending the theoretical, practical and the common sense based on 25 years I've spent in the field assessing, coaching and consulting leaders.

1. The successful leader has a vision: Think things through and know where you want to go and how you want to get there. Work with others to ensure a vision is followed through. Direct the actions and resources toward making it a reality.

2. The successful leader communicates well: Articulate a vision clearly to others. Encourage two-way communication between managers and non-managers and always be available to others. Strive to be succinct and specific about directions and instructions. Above all, a good leader avoids generalizations and ambiguities that can lead to misunderstanding, conflict and poor performance.

3. The successful leader supports and guides the employees: Start by helping others clarify and achieve goals by identifying and removing any obstacles. Provide the resources -- time, money, people, information and equipment -- needed to complete the task. Don't reprimand others who make mistakes when taking a well-calculated risk. Instead, critique and analyze what went wrong and what went right. Next, work with the employee to correct the error. Decide whether another attempt at a previous goal is necessary, and offer encouragement if it is. During the entire process, provide appropriate feedback to ensure positive attitudes and actions. Serve as a model of good attitude and use approaches that others can emulate.

4. The successful leader believes in his/herself: A good leader possesses a strong sense of confidence, built upon years of learning, experimenting and at times failing -- but always growing. Be aware of personal strengths and limitations, and demonstrate those skills and talents without boasting. Assume responsibility for faults and personal errors without hiding them or blaming others -- and know that if a mistake occurs, it does not equate to inadequacy. A successful leader believes that he or she can turn around a negative situation by re-examining the variables and other circumstances -- with input from others, when necessary.

5. The successful leader creates the atmosphere that encourages others to grow and thrive: Know that no one individual possesses all of the answers. By appreciating the role that motivational techniques can play in improving employee performance, you can work with others to increase organizational productivity and improve individual job satisfaction.

Here are some tips on how to create a motivational atmosphere:

- Ask people their opinion rather than telling them yours.
- When people ask you for solutions, have them come up with answers or options rather than telling them the best way to resolve a situation. Discuss the merits of their views and how to make them successful.
- Provide positive feedback when employees voice their opinions. Offer suggestions or try to resolve challenges. Reinforcing behavior on your part will encourage more spontaneity, thinking and innovation on their part.
- Ask questions -- even when you don't know the answer. Ask employees challenging questions that encourage them to think, plan and react. Above all, encourage employees to challenge themselves.
- Encourage employees to take appropriate risks. Support them when they do and also when the outcome of risk-taking isn't positive. In those cases, evaluate what went wrong and encourage other, more appropriate risks.

6. The successful leader manages by walking around: By getting out of the office and walking around the department, plant or building to interact with other employees, you get an opportunity to see people on the line doing daily tasks. Create an opportunity to informally chat with employees and learn something more about their work challenges and lives.

7. The successful leader acts and reacts in an honest manner: Authors and creators of The Leadership Challenge program Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner report that honesty is the No. 1 characteristic of superior leaders. Honest leaders easily build trust and confidence. Their employees are more apt to work harder, ask questions and respect leaders who come across as honest. Employees will also accept critiques, whether positive or negative, from leaders they trust and believe.

8. The successful leader creates and fosters a learning environment: Recognize that increased knowledge, more job experience and challenging different mind-sets increases worker satisfaction, motivation and productivity. Frequently encourage others to think outside-the-box and see issues from alternate perspectives.

9. The successful leader perseveres: Don't deflect from achieving goals simply because obstacles exist or no answer is readily available. Continue in your pursuit of excellence despite barriers and criticism, and encourage the same attitude in others.

10. The successful leader shares successes: Know that positive outcomes are rarely the result of only one person's attempts or input. A self-confident entrepreneur shares the limelight and accolades with others who contributed to the final product or service.

[Written by David Javitch of entrepreneur.com]

Leading Like Jesus for a Change

Jesus lived and walked in a very different world from the 21st century context of our day, yet He was able to implement profound systemic changes in His world.

Understanding His world enables us to more fully understand the context of His leadership and to better apply these principles to our own leadership realities.

This article briefly examines the context of Jesus’ leadership and looks at how He responded to these realities by initiating systemic change. It offers timeless leadership principles for contemporary leaders.

More …

New Leadership Books

Here is a list of some of the best leadership books to be released in September.

- A Sense of Urgency by John P. Kotter

- The Encore Effect: How to Achieve Remarkable Performance in Anything You Do by Mark Sanborn

- The Spider's Strategy: Creating Networks to Avert Crisis, Create Change, and Really Get Ahead by Amit S. Mukherjee

- On Leadership: Essential Principles for Success by Donald J. Palmisano

- The Truth About You: Your Secret to Success by Marcus Buckingham

Raymond Culpepper Speaks on Leadership

One Definition of Leadership

1. Align (around vision)
2. Empower (People support what they help create.)
3. Serve (People are not there to serve you; you are there to serve them.)
4. Collaborate. (In the organization and between organizations)

[Mark Beeson/Bill George]

Bill George Says Leadership Must Change

"I think leadership must change dramatically in the 21st Century. Command and Control leadership styles must change to 'empowering others ... '"

People in an organization often know more than their bosses. Give them opportunity.

People are looking for meaning and significance in their work.

What Kind of Leader are You?

We must become BELOVED LEADERS.

The “Beloved Community” was Dr. King’s phrase. There can be no beloved community if there are no beloved leaders. You must let a force come on you and flow through you.

AGAPE love = the unconditional love of God.

AGAPEO = to be loved and loving simultaneously. We lead by loving the world. This same John wrote, “God so loved the world…” God wants to do something about education, forced child prostitution, and all the other problems in our society.

When Jesus comes back it’ll be Justice. Until then friend, it is “Just-us.”

Nobody loves across racial lines like God! There was a force beyond this place that came into this place … and loved everybody. A leader needs love! Go ahead and get all the knowledge you can, read all the books you can, but if you can’t love across racial lines you can’t lead!

We must be loving leaders.

We must be an ABIDING LEADER.

John says, “… love of God abides in us ... ” People must see that. We abide in something beyond us. Some people don’t step out and lead in a multi-cultural world because they feel like they are not qualified.

It’s not about qualification!

The church should be multi-racial and multi-ethnic. Tribalism is still a deep evil force that courageous and bold leaders must take on. No matter where you are, you cannot escape disparities around the world that exist because of race, class and place! Disparities exist in the church!

We abide in the force of God’s love.

We stay where the hurting people are; we created dwelling places. Sometimes, to lead, we have to stop dreaming about church buildings and we need to have visions about dwelling places where hurting people are.

We must be CONFESSING LEADERS (1 John 4:15).

Take responsibility. Say, “My bad,” when you mess up. Take responsibility. Jonah had to say, “The reason there is a storm in the world, is ‘my bad.’”

NOTE THIS ... When high pressure collides with low pressure a storm erupts. When the high pressure of God's will bumps against the low pressure of what we’d rather do, a storm erupts.

There is no institution in the USA that can make the case, “We only cater to people who are like each other.” That’s “low-pressure.”

The Confessing Leader says, “I’m confessing, ‘I don’t know what to do.’”Whatever you are, confess that. Be honest. Wherever you are, just confess that. What if we actually did something about the system and ethos that created the black church, and the Korean church? What if we saw ourselves beyond black and white?

(1 John 4) Some things have to be rearranged. A case can be made for ethnic specific churches ... but, we still cannot deny all of the communities around the world that are mobile, hip-hop and multi-cultural. Crazy kids come in all colors and sizes and places all over the world. We don’t need any more grown men with “little” in front of their name.

[Mark Beeson/Ephrem Smith]

Can You Lead With Kindness?

I highly recommend this book. Whether you are a business leader, local church leader, pastor, overseer, or ministry leader, when you read the book you will move toward absorbing the many great insights the book has to offer. The book is research-based, practical and realistic. They suggest that:

Kind leaders are framers. They reinforce expectations for others by establishing clear boundaries, standards of conduct, challenging goals, and organizational values.
Kind leaders are interpreters. They tell the truth about how each person and the entire group is doing. They help individuals adapt to change and make sense of their efforts.
Kind leaders are enablers. They stimulate calculated “stretch” and risk-taking, without sheltering people from their own mistakes. They fight cynicism and facilitate growth.

Baker and O’Malley ascribe six attributes and behaviors to leading with kindness:

Compassion … Staying in touch with people's everyday challenges and problems.
Integrity … Reliably acting on established values and keeping promises and confidences.
Gratitude … Appreciating others for their essential help in keeping a business going.
Authenticity … Being honest about being oneself and not playing for the crowd.
Humility … Tempering optimism with realism and accepting responsibility for failures.
Humor … Tapping the power of laughter to diminish anxieties and bolster group cohesion.

In the end, it gets down to character, maturity and a genuine respect for other people. Kindness is a way of viewing the world and it can only come from within.

Leadership Lessons Learned

The following represents collective pastoral experience.

1. The “God-Thing” Comes Before The Vision
Most leaders make the mistake of thinking that change starts with their vision; change starts with a “God-thing”. It is the leaders’ job to identify where God is at work and to communicate the vision of what God is doing and how we must get involved in His work.

2. Money Always Follows Vision
People give money to a compelling cause with a clear vision. When economic times are hard leaders are tempted to reduce the budget and the vision. NO! Increase the vision and money will follow. Never forget - God is always at work and vision is free!

3. Make It Fit On A Napkin
If it can’t be explained on a napkin it is too complicated. Make sure everything from your slogan, to your process for disciple-making to how you will create a movement can be explained on a napkin. If is simple and reproducible you can mobilize the masses.

4. Lead With A “Yes” And Ask “How” Later
If you want to lead in bringing about innovation learn to lead with a “yes” and not “how”. People are born with dreams from God and they want to make a difference. What they need most is a leader who will say “yes” when they ask for permission to give it a try.

5. Take Risks On Emerging Leaders & Artists
Resist the urge of telling young leaders to wait a few years; they need and deserve opportunities to lead, so take a risk on them now! Good art always involves risk; so if you want good art in your church you must take risks on your artists!

As a pastor, have you learned more important lessons? Click "comments" below and share them.

[By Dave Ferguson]

Four Rules of Influence

John Maxwell says that leadership is influence. You can't lead without it. You can drive people without it, but that won't work for long. Leadership by fear or intimidation is doomed for failure.

Chris Widner’s new book, The Art of Influence, gives the proper emphasis regarding the topic of influence. He says in this entertaining short story, that influence is a gift followers give you because you have become the kind of person they want to follow and be influenced by. He provides four rules of influence:

• Living a Life of Undivided Integrity. Notwithstanding that integrity is in fact being undivided, he writes that while leaders do make mistakes, followers “do expect their leaders to admit and correct their mistakes, mend the cracks in their integrity, if you will. Left unchecked, eventually a lack of integrity erodes the trust that is needed between a leader and a follower.”
• Always Demonstrate a Positive Attitude. People respond to optimism. Bad things happen. And when they do, you need to ask not “Why did this happen to me?” but “What’s next?” or “What good can come from this?” “You are choosing to believe that something good can come from negative circumstances and that the future will be better than the present.”
• Consider Other People’s Interests as More Important Than Your Own. “Even more important than being interesting, is being interested.”
• Don’t Settle For Anything Less Than Excellence. Widner encourages us to grow our influence by improving ourselves around seven areas of excellence: physical appearance, emotional health, intellectual growth, spiritual depth, relationships, financial success, and charitable giving. Excellence is in the details.

Servant Leadership

"Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave - just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matt 20:26-28).

A rider on horseback, many years ago, came upon a squad of soldiers who were trying to move a heavy piece of timber. A corporal stood by, giving lordly orders to "heave." But the piece of timber was a trifle too heavy for the squad.

"Why don't you help them?" asked the quiet man on the horse, addressing the important corporal.

"Me? Why, I'm a corporal sir!" Dismounting, the stranger carefully took his place with the soldiers.

"Now, all together boys - heave!" he said. And the big piece of timber slid into place. The stranger mounted his horse and addressed the corporal.

"The next time you have a piece of timber for your men to handle, corporal, send for the commander-in-chief."

The horseman was George Washington, the first American president.

Whenever someone mentions your name does the word "servant" come to their mind? Jesus modeled servant-hood to twelve young men and changed the world. If you want to see others become servants you must model it yourself. George Washington was a great example of a Christian leader who was a great soldier and servant to those he led. No wonder God used this great servant to establish a new nation.

Moses was also a great leader of men. The Bible says that Moses was the most humble man on earth. That is why God could use him to lead hundreds of thousands out of slavery into the Promised Land.

Pray that God makes you a great humble servant leader of others.

[Os Hillman]

Leadership Conference - Cleveland, TN

"Leading While Bleeding"

Conference

Presented by Brian Cutshall

September 27, 2008

At The T. L. Lowery Ministry Center

Cleveland, Tennessee

Learn how to fulfill God's will for your life through the obstacles in your way.

Session 1: The Law of Replenishing

Session 2: Dealing with Tares in Your Wheat Field

Session 3:The Prophet's Assignment and the Prophet's Anointing

Registration Cost: $25

Stay and have lunch with Dr. Cutshall for an additional $15. Limited seating available.

Secure your spot HERE.

How To Determine If a Leader Is Truly of God

Humility: True Greatness by CJ Mahaney is one of the best books I have ever read. If you have not read it yet, you should.

Isaiah 66:2 provides Mahaney with a biblical foundation for writing this book. I offer a list of quotes that I hope get your attention enough so that you will read this book.

• Humility gets God’s attention.
• Humility is honestly assessing ourselves in light of God’s holiness and our sinfulness.
• Pride seems to have a strange and sure way of ignoring logic altogether.
• Pride is when sinful human beings aspire to the status and position of God and refuse to acknowledge their dependence upon Him.
• You and I hate nothing to the degree God hates pride.
• And in true humility, our own service to others is always both an effect of His unique sacrifice and the evidence of it.
• The cross never flatters us.
• Sin doesn’t wake up tired.
• Too many Christians are more readily aware of the absence of God than they are of the presence of God, and they are more aware of sin than they are of grace.
• It is possible to admire humility while remaining proud ourselves.

Two more things I love about this book. The first is the way CJ Mahaney includes some very challenging and inspiring statements from the likes of John Owens, John Calvin, Charles Spurgeon, John Stott, DA Carson, RC Sproul and others. Secondly, this book isn’t just theory and theology. It also includes very practical ways to begin and end each day so that we can walk toward true greatness which is only found in humility.

[From What Leadership Demands by Shane]

5 Skills of Good Leaders

Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi recently told Training+Development magazine that she believes that each one of PepsiCo’s 18,000 employees is a leader.

She names five skills that she believes are the hallmarks of a good leaders:

1. Competence. You must be an expert in your function or area of expertise. You will become known for that.
2. Take a Stand. You must be known for your courage and confidence to act and say what you believe is right.
3. Communication Skills. Communication skills are critical. You can never over-invest in them.
4. Coaching. Surround yourself with good mentors. Listen. Learn. Your mentor is a major force.
5. Your Moral Compass. Have the strength and courage to do what’s morally right, not what’s expedient. Your moral compass must be your true north.

On building leaders she says:

We are building talent with an enterprise mind set. We strategically build skills for key talent through carefully planned developmental assignments.

Succession planning is also critical. Our succession planning process is designed to identify the kinds of experiences our leaders need.

Once identified, we put people in assignments that enable them to build those skill sets.

Spiritual Formation and Leadership Formation

The New Testament speaks clearly that God's call upon our lives is to be transformed into the image of Christ.

So, how does this process of transformation connect with the concepts of leadership formation? Does leadership formation happen alone or in an organizational context?

In this session, Drs. Bekker and Gomez encourage leaders to delve deeper as they discuss the connection between leadership and Christian formation and how our innermost being affects how we lead, our organization and ultimately the world.

To listen, click http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/leadershiptalks/home.htm

In Pursuit of Excellence

Psychologist and executive coach Graham Jones believes that the real key to excellence is mental toughness. In the current Harvard Business Review he writes that the most successful keaders do five things to get better and stay that way.

1. Learn to Love the Pressure. To do that you must dedicate yourself to constant self-improvement. That is made a lot easier if you learn to compete with yourself and block out the drama of those around you. It’s a choice. “Greg Searle, who won an Olympic gold medal in rowing, is often asked whether success was worth the price. He always gives the same reply: ‘I never made any sacrifices; I made choices.’”
2. Fixate on the Long Term. Map out short-term goals in every area that affects your performance to make sure you meet your long-term goal. Long term success is paved with small achievements.
3. Iron Sharpens Iron. Spend time with people who will push you the hardest. “Smart companies consciously create situations in which their elite performers push one another to levels they would never reach if they were working with less-accomplished colleagues.”
4. Reinvent Yourself. Once you become the benchmark, you need to keep reinventing yourself. To do this you need to develop an insatiable appetite for feedback; you need to be “hungry for advice on how to develop and progress. One word of caution, however: While it’s good to feel challenged, you need to make sure that any feedback you get is constructive. If criticism doesn’t seem helpful at first, probe to see if you can get useful insights about what’s behind the negative feedback. Get more specifics. You should be able to see concrete improvements in your performance after getting detailed coaching advice.”
5. Celebrate the Victories. Think of it as constructive celebration. Otherwise it can lead to complacency. “Celebration is more than an emotional release. Done effectively, it involves a deep level of analysis and enhanced awareness. The very best performers do not move on before they have scrutinized and understood thoroughly the factors underpinning their success.”

In the end, the keyword is resilience. Jones concludes, “Most of those participating in the Olympics this summer will walk away from the games without grabbing a single medal. Those with real mettle will get back into training again. That’s what truly separates elite performers from ordinary high achievers. It takes supreme, almost unimaginable grit and courage to get back into the ring and fight to the bitter end. That’s what the Olympic athlete does. If you want to be an elite performer in business, that’s what you need to do, too.”

Today's Leadership Tip

Have people on your staff bring their own reports to the staff meeting instead of sitting at a table and giving out assignments. This will teach them how to think for themselves and lead ... and it will take much needed pressure off the Pastor!

[Brian Cutshall]