Posts Tagged ‘awareness’

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Leaders, How Well Do You Know Those You Serve

May 29, 2015

Recently the Keurig CEO made news by acknowledging in the face of declining sales that customers did not like the “lock-in” strategy of his new coffee machines. He had tried to use technology to assure that his one-cup-at-a-time brew machine would only work if you used coffee in his specially designed little cups (K-cups). No more freedom to use your own favorite beans.

Well, customers walked away and bought competing brands. (Duh!)

This week, the CEO of McDonalds, the fast food hamburger chain, also in the face of declining sales said that the company would change its grilling process such that it would provide hotter, jucier burgers.

Probably a genius industrial engineer goaded into finding cost-cutting processes changed the process of going from griddle to bun to going from griddle to a bin to a bun. As a result, burgers came out cold (on a relative scale) and dry.

Customers rebelled. They went elsewhere.

Leaders of organizations serve someone. Remember where Jesus said that leaders would be servants? Well, that wasn’t just for his 11 friends. It’s true today. And a leader forgets that at his peril.

Whom do you serve? Who is your customer?

If you are a pastor, do you realize that people want to be taught, not preached at? Do you realize the value of guidance to the point leaders?

If you are leading a team for buildings or missions or youth or whatever, do you know the wants and needs of your customers? Do you think of ways to serve them in ways to help them grow?

In business we talk about providing a product or service that helps someone solve a problem or improve their life. Notice the emphasis on “their”? Our thoughts, vision, effort must be directed outward toward those we serve or hope to serve.

When people become numbers on a spreadsheet, when we are focused inwardly on our costs or comfort zone, then we are in grave danger of failing. 

Then we wake up one day and realize that people have voted with their feet–they’ve left and headed for something or someone who cares about them and their problems.

How well do you know those whom you serve?

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Distractions Steal Your Awareness

May 28, 2015

They had important guests. A bunch of guys they knew had dropped by for a couple of days of relaxation and conversation. These were friends. But still, one had to show appropriate hospitality.

Two sisters and a brother lived in the house. One sister was busy doing the right thing. She was being hospitable. She asked the guests what they wanted to drink. She scurried around assembling a dinner for 13 guests.

Like most women in the situation, she was a bit frazzled. And a bit upset. No, more than a bit.

What was that worthless sister of hers doing sitting there talking with the guests leaving her with all the work? Doesn’t she know that men sit around and talk. Women prepare the meal. That’s the way it was then. That’s the way it had been for 1,000 years before.

So, she goes to the head guy and asks him to tell her sister to go help.

“Martha, Martha,” Jesus replied. You know you’re in trouble when he repeats your name. “You are distracted by many things. Your sister Mary has chosen the better way.”

Mary was focused on learning and growing and on the relationship they had with Jesus.

There Martha was, a chance to learn from the world’s greatest teacher. Right there in her living room. And she was distracted.

The guests would have been happy with whatever they could pull together to eat.

Distraction steals from your awareness. It therefore steals from the future. Awareness leads to focus. Focus leads to becoming. By focusing on the right things, a person can grow to be all that God created them to be.

What is today’s distraction? Or, even what is the distraction of the minute?

I sometimes need noise around in order to focus better. I can sit for two hours at a noisy coffee shop and focus better than in the quiet of my office. There are all those opportunities for distraction that I can tune out. In the quiet of my office, I can glance up at a familiar painting or at my bookcase, and my mind can go off on some tangent. I’m distracted.

Then I remember, don’t let distraction be a thief.

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Lacking A Core Equals Leadership Weakness

May 22, 2015

“It’s all about the core.”

That is the foundation saying about the exercise regimen called Pilates. In Yoga, we also work on the core–your abdominal, lower back, and glutes. We do Plank, Boat, Bridge, Crocodile, and several other poses designed to strengthen the student’s core muscles.

It takes a strong core to sit straighter, stand straighter, project strength, and build good health.

You work on your core in every session. It degenerates quickly. Oh, and for you men–the famous “beer belly” is less due to beer than to weak ab muscles.

What happens when a leader has no core?

A good leader is a joy. A toxic leader–abusive, manipulative–you can run from. But a leader without a core breeds frustration.

Maybe they are just so entirely self-absorbed that they don’t really care about others. Or maybe there is no belief, goal, direction, or passion.

They sit in meetings without contributing. They let staff go where they wish. If a staff person decides to do something that is detrimental to the whole, they don’t take them aside and lead them into an understanding of the whole and how their actions affect that.

How did this person in the leadership role who has no core of leadership get there? Maybe a fluke of the organization where corporate appoints a district manager. Maybe money. Maybe the other leaders bailed and this person was the last one standing.

If you find yourself in this position, when you’re just not sure where you stand. When the organization you’re supposed to lead is floundering unsure of direction or purpose–that is when you had best make like Jesus. Before he became a leader and assembled a team, he spent 40 days in the wilderness. 

Just so, you had best take a personal retreat. This can be alone or with a mentor/coach. It is time to search for your purpose, your goals, your core values. Define these. Write them. Print in large font, frame them, put them on your office wall.

Set a direction and start sailing.

If, on the other hand, you work under such a leader, then you have a situation. If you are the one on the team who recognizes the situation, perhaps in meetings you subtly guide direction through questions and proposals in such a way as to convince others as to the direction the organization should be going.

You can be a leader without being The Leader.

The danger lies in the situation when the team all recognize the weakness. If the team all have differing agendas, then heaven help the organization. It will be split in a dozen directions with no core and wind up like the middle-aged guy with the beer belly.

Go work on your core.

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The Art of Leadership Requires The Art of Communication

May 15, 2015

He just sort of went his own way. Left the others behind and bewildered. Instructions were muddled. Text messages with u and 4 and ty rather than spelled out, complete sentence communiques.

She could talk and talk; and then when you walked away you wondered, “Just what did she say?”

Worse still is the leader who just doesn’t talk, or text, or send emails.

A friend of mine used to say, “Just pick up the phone and call.”

The leadership lesson I’m contemplating today is when a leader does not communicate–either clearly or at all.

We all know them. We’ve worked for them. Maybe when we look in the mirror we see one.

In the Bible I can think of Joseph who clearly communicated–first to the king and then to the people and saved them from starvation. Daniel who spoke clearly to a number of kings and the people who served him.King David, who was able to give clear and explicit orders–even when they were wrong. Nehamiah. Oh, yes, Nehemiah. He spoke clearly to his leader to get permission to travel to Jerusalem. Then he spoke clearly to the leaders of the Jews when he arrived. And he did a great work.

Are you aware of your weakness in communication? I know that I’m a better writer than one-on-one communicator. I hate “just picking up the phone” even when I should.

Recently I know of a situation that I’m trying to rectify where there was almost a total breakdown of communications that almost wrecked a project. One person didn’t speak up. Another didn’t assure that he was undersood when he talked. Worse, most was done by brief email exchanges.

I consulted with an executive director of an agency once where I was trying to get him to see how to communicate with his board. It started from within, that he felt like an equal. That his opinion and vision mattered. And then he needed to take his vision to the board collectively and individually.

What I have learned through bitter experience–a leader must be a great communicator. There is no one correct style of communication. But she’d better have a good one and be good at it.

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When Faith And Works Intersect

May 14, 2015

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

No, I’m not going for a bad joke for a 7-year-old. On the other hand, this sounds like a question to meditate on to break your preoccupation with the cares of the world.

Last night, our small group was studying Romans (like we have for the past several months and we’re only to 8:1). We were talking faith and living by faith. But where do the spiritual disciplines fit?

“What comes first? Faith or disciplines?”

This is really a faith versus works argument. Can we make ourselves right with God through our work?

James tackles this question. Actually Paul does, just not as succinctly. Jesus does.

People who have had faith and who have realized that they were drifting away from their relationship with God have rekindled their faith through regular reading from the Bible.

When I lead people into an understanding of the spiritual disciplines and try to lead them into practice, my counsel is that the purpose of practicing study, prayer, mediation, service, worship, simplicity is not to earn your way into God’s favor. It is to work on yourself so that your relationship deepens.

Jon Swanson is writing on routines again. He says, “Think of it this way: a ritual is something we do hoping to influence God. A routine is something we do to work on us. A routine like daily prayer or weekly Sabbath or monthly celebration brings our minds back to the story of God’s work. But thinking about a routine this way means we have to think about what we are doing rather than ritually acting.”

I am a person who needs routine. If my routines are interrupted–such as almost every time I travel–then I can feel it physically as well as spiritually.

Routine, practice, discipline–if done intentionally, they are all ways to work on ourselves.

Faith comes first. Then we go to work.

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Only God Can Label You

May 13, 2015

He was a quiet kid. Kept to himself. Freshman trumpet player in the university marching band. Away at band camp before school even started. Probably his first college experience.

We were in the same cabin. I was also a freshman, first experience away like that, percussionist. We shared the cabin with the drum major. Head guy.

He sensed a weakness, I guess. I only thanked God that it was the trumpeter he picked on. Labeled him a nerd. I guess that’s worse than geek. He was merciless the entire week. 

The trumpeter? He kept his head down and never said a word.

Labels that others give us can really hurt. They can also misdirect our lives.

Label someone as fat early in their life, and even though they may get fit as an adult, chances are they’ll always feel fat. It’s really hard to outgrow the hurts of adolescence.

I think it was third grade when they gave us some kind of intelligence test. I was clueless. All I know is that my parents got called to visit the teacher. When they came back, I had a label–smart. I’m still clueless. I’ve been trying to disprove that my entire life. <smiles> But that resulted in lectures every time I didn’t get straight As until dad gave up on me while I was in college. I never played the game to get a grade. I’d learn enough from the class and then go off and  study what I wanted to study. (And, yes, I did get a degree. The department shut down the graduate program before I finished my master’s work, and I never finished that. No need to have a paper.)

Yesterday I listened to Andy Stanley talk to a group of 8th graders about labels. He warned them about letting other people label you. What great advice!

We are children of God. That is the label God puts on us. We don’t need another. It’s hard to overcome a label that someone in authority puts on you–even if it’s just the drum major. 

By the way, I recommend listening to Stanley every week. I listen to Bill Hybels, John Ortberg, Gene Appel (when they load his talks into iTunes), Stanley every week. I also listen to technology news and other podcasts that broaden my experience. I recommend finding your favorites and listen to something daily for your growth.

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A Call To Men To Be Clear

May 12, 2015

first published April 9, 2015

Adam should have spoken. He didn’t. We’re all screwed.

That is the problem statement of “Men of Courage” by Larry Crabb and others. Men are too often silent when they should speak up.

I had the privilege of working as part of a small team of local men who had an idea for a men’s conference. Call to Convergence was held this past weekend. We had no clue how many men would show, but we picked 75 as a good target number. 70 registered. It was a good weekend.

Our principle speaker used that book as the starting point of his talks. Men are called to speak up, to share. Maybe not sharing every emotion like women seem to be wired to do. But, as one person said after the Friday night talks, it’s all about transparency. Not hiding.

The solution part of the book calls men to mentoring. We are called to intentionally find someone who could use a mentor and take action. Invite someone for breakfast or lunch. Ask. Listen. Guide. Help them on their journey.

By the way, we live in a small county. Population of about 56,000. To have 70 people come out in the snow was a great blessing. We all felt that the event wasn’t about us, but about God. And God blessed the gathering. 

Men asked about what to do during the year until we have the second one. Always a great sign when people ask for action steps.

Reading the Bible

By the way, you might want to re-read the story of Adam, Eve, the serpent, and the metaphorical tree. 

When we read the Bible (or anything, really), often we let past memory guide us and fill in the blanks, so to speak. Did you realize that Adam was present during the whole episode? Not my memory either. When I read it later after learning about the story, my memory took over and I didn’t read the passage clearly.

The passage clearly implies that Adam was right there. It doesn’t say that Eve went to him sometime later. It says she turned to him and offered him the fruit. Adam heard the whole conversation. Surely he knew better. But he didn’t speak up.

Two lessons:

Speak up when you see someone going off the path.

When you read the Bible, clear your mind and read what it really says.

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We Limit Ourselves

May 6, 2015

A TV series that ran in the late 1960s followed the travails of a baffled man who found himself in a village. It was a happy place. Everyone was smiling. Everything was clean and neat. It did not seem sinister, at least on the surface. Perhaps a little like that city Disney built outside Orlando where every thing must be the same. Nice and neat and clean. And everyone is happy all the time.

The man felt trapped even though very well cared for. There was no way out.

The man was in constant pursuit of Number Two. This person would be the gateway to discovering Number One—the true overseer of the captivity.

Gene Appel, pastor at Eastside Christian Church in Anaheim, CA, pointed out something that resonated at a deep level. “Your past mistakes limit your future options.”

You’re a guy with a group of guys. Just hanging out. After midnight. Do I need to state that nothing good happens when there is a group of guys hanging out after midnight.

Someone has a brilliant (well so you thought) idea. The net result is that the whole group is busted. Arrested. Jailed. Tried. Even if it’s a misdemeanor, it’s on the record.

Now you want a job that requires security clearance. Oops.

Or, you’re a girl or young woman. All the other girls have guys. They all talk about the great sex they are having (or so they say). You’re guy applies a little pressure, and…now you’re pregnant. Yep, your future is now limited.

Our choices may not be that extreme, but they do limit future options—sometimes that’s good. Sometimes it’s bad.

When we are limiting ourselves, we had best do so intentionally. Stop and think about the future consequences of our choices.

Oh, and the man in the village? During the last episode he gains a meeting with Number Two. An empty chair is in the room reserved for Number One.

Number Two of course tells the man to have a seat. He’s been Number One the entire time. He has imprisoned himself!

What about you and me? Have we let our mistakes and poor choices imprison us? Time to break free.

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Leadership: Connections and Changed Behavior

May 1, 2015

My customer had a problem. During one process of assembly, if a little spring was not installed correctly–and there were six per assembly–it would lead to warranty problems when its customer used it.

So, we installed an automated vision system that would work alongside the worker to assure the quality of the product.

It was not an inexpensive solution.

The worker did not like this intrusion and refused to work with the vision system. So, they turned it off and decided at that level that the company could live with potential warranty risk.

The technology was good. But we didn’t change the behavior of the worker. So, it failed.

This week, I heard a speaker talk about technology in terms of changing behavior and connecting people.

It’s not just about technology, he said. Think the iPod, which changed the way we listen to music. The iPhone which changed the way we connect with friends and the Web. These changed behavior and connected us.

I thought about leadership in that way.

Good leaders connect us. They connect the team. They connect the company’s parts. They connect the company with customers and suppliers.

They aso lead us to changed behavior. We came into the company as a collection of individuals. The leader gets everyone to modify behavior to get along with each other–at least enough such that work can be done to fulfull the mission of the organization or committee.

I thought about how James tells us that unless our belief changes our behavior that belief is not real–or at least not deep enough. James was a leader in the formation of the church. He knew what he was talking about. No doubt he lived it.

So go about connecting people together and connecting them to the mission. And lead them to changed behavior that forges a team that accomplishes much.

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On Leadership–Placing Blame

April 24, 2015

The results were in. The project had “gone south” as they say. Actual numbers were far from projected. Team members were discouraged. Worse, they were scrambling to justify themselves by placing blame on others. It was as if a serious virus had invaded the body of the organization spreading disease and death.

Now is the time for the leader to step forward. Can she bring everyone together and salvage something in order to move forward into the future. After all, things fail. Not all projects are successful.

But the leader, oh what a narcissist or worse. The leader places blame. 

“If only the economy were better.”

“If only the designer had done a better job.”

“If only the sales people were better.”

“If only….”

How about–“I’m sorry I let people down. I failed to plan adequately. I failed to get the team working together. I failed to make decisions quickly enough.”

One of my spiritual mentors says that when things are bad there are two responses we should never make. These responses to suffering, failure, bad results will prohibit any further spiritual (or other) growth.

These responses are placing blame and festering in bitterness.

Experience comes from making bad decisions. Wisdom comes from learning from those bad decisions.

The leader could go to the team and own up to the mistakes and then leading a reflection on what went wrong in order to position the team (or committee, business, church, non-profit) for future success.

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