Posts Tagged ‘Leadership’

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Power of Imagination and Vision in Leadership

April 4, 2014

In “Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes,” Maria Konnikova discusses the power of imagination for solving problems. One of the traits of Holmes was to be able to separate facts from conjecture. Then, he used the power imagination to assemble and re-assemble the facts until he hits upon a solution.

Bill Hybels, founder and leader of the Willow Creek Community Church, discussed a couple of weeks ago his vision of a way to build community (or communities) among the 6,000 or so people who attend each of the three weekend services.

Backing up a little, when Hybels was in his early 20s, he was captured by a vision of how a church could be. Called an Acts 2 church, it was an organization that spread because of the changed lives of the people. As he executed the vision over the past 30 years or so, he continues to hold the vision and to try to keep it going.

Another vision came to him. People usually sit in the same section. Ever notice that even in large conferences, people will sit at the same table each day for the keynotes? Well, Hybels noticed it. Fact plus imagination plus vision.

Why not build communities of the people who always sit together, but who probably never interact more than to say, “Hi?” He imagined a gathering of the people in the group periodically. A leader of the section who would assume the leadership role of welcoming people, organizing short small group gatherings.

Then Hybels took the next step of leading the effort himself. He has a large staff. He could have delegated. He had a personal vision of the community he imagined.

They began to recruit section leaders. Every week, he teaches and interacts with them. This was how he implemented the vision.

Vision, imagination, action. A powerful combination.

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Leaders Take Care of Themselves First

March 12, 2014

The Bible tells the stories of many interesting and powerful people. Daniel has long stood out as one that I admire as much as any. He was a leader in two empires. He had to be good to survive the conquest of the Babylonians by the Persians and be a top leader and advisor to the kings of both.

One of the first things we learn about Daniel is that already as a young man he was focused and grounded. When he and his friends were chosen for the management intern program under the king of Babylon, he refused the diet of the royal household. They chose to eat a simple diet, low in fats and alcohol.

I have a friend who, the last time I saw him, was on the “Daniel diet.” We know even today that a diet filled with fruits and vegetables is healthy. Reduce the amount of fats and “bad carbs” in your diet and you will feel much better.

An acquaintance told me this week that she is practicing the Blood Type Diet to lose weight. I was curious, so I Googled it. Many years ago, a book became popular in Japan that did personality type by blood type. I am B+. Supposedly that’s one of the best (according to the secretary of the president of the company I worked at then, who told me to tell Alex right away to get on his good side). I’m not going to follow that diet necessarily. but it had interesting stuff. I’m not to eat corn and wheat and also avoid chicken. Whew, that’s a good thing. I haven’t eaten poultry since a bad experience around 60 years ago.

Daniel also took time out to pray three times a day. Some people today practice taking an afternoon nap. But I find, like Daniel, that taking regular times out to meditate helps both energy and focus.

Speaking of focus, I don’t think the ancient writers used that term, but I have to believe that Daniel was one focused individual. As Qui-gon said to Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode I, “Remember, your focus determines your reality.”

When you choose to do something, give it the benefit of your focus. We cannot really multi-task, but we can practice like a microprocessor–time slicing. We can juggle many things, but we have to give focus to each in small bursts.

Focus, diet, quiet. Three keys to taking care of yourself.

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Teach Them Well

January 27, 2014

Paul’s letter to Titus came up last week in my reading and listening. It’s been a while since I read it. There’s a wealth of information for leaders and others in that little piece of writing.

If you step back and look at the entire thing, you can see that Paul expects Titus to be a teacher as a leader. Many years ago I read about how legendary basketball coach John Wooden compiled such a winning record over so many years. He was observant of the strengths and weaknesses of his players. He devised ways for them to be successful. He put them in the situations where they could become successful. And he taught them what it took to be successful.

Paul expected the same from Titus. Teach the people well. Put people in a position to be successful. Even though Titus was on an island where the people were evidently looked down upon by the rest of Roman society. But Paul believed in Titus’ ability.

In whatever leadership position that we have, we need to remember Paul’s thought–to lead is to teach. Even in the largest corporations when leading extremely driven people, there is still the need to teach everyone about the mission of the organization (company, church, committee), why it matters, how to behave, where to focus.

We tend to forget these things. Even leaders tend to forget. That’s why Paul is reminding Titus, the person he left behind in Crete to lead the new Christian community there.

The song recorded by Crosby, Stills and Nash years ago keeps popping into mind. “Teach…your children well.” Followed by “Teach…your parents well.” We all have something to teach. We’re all leaders in some contexts and followers in others. When you lead, teach…them well.

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Foundation of Leadership

January 23, 2014

Recently my attention was brought to the little letter the apostle Paul wrote to Titus. In this letter, Paul instructed Titus how to establish the local church. He was much concerned about the qualifications of the leaders.

Remember that Paul’s task was two-fold. He was an evangelist who spread the message of Jesus to the greater world of the Gentiles. He was also the consolidator of the revolution. He turned the movement into an organization. Eric Hoffer, called the “Longshoreman Philosopher” wrote an interesting book, The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature of Mass Movements. You can still get this book on Amazon. I read it in the 60s. That is where I first had my eyes opened to the greater work of Paul.

Paul left Titus behind in Crete, a place thought to be quite barbarous, to lead the group of Jesus-followers. He wrote that Titus should establish a formal leadership of “elders” and “overseers”. Then he explained to Titus the qualifications of the leaders.

As I read the list, I was struck by the fact that all the qualifications dealt with character issues. He didn’t mention organizational skills, what today we’d call leadership skills, speaking skills. He basically said, select men with good character.

He said elders should be “blameless.” It’s not that they are without fault, after all, who could be that. But the congregation can look at their life and see that they do not act in ways that bring disrepute. They should be a strong leader of the family. This is the first crucible of leadership training. If they cannot lead their family, how can they lead the church? They should overuse alcohol to the point of often being drunk. They should not be rebellious.

Paul continues with overseers (bishops, but not in our sense, yet), that they are to be good stewards, not arrogant or greedy, not quick tempered or violent. They should be hospitable, prudent, upright, devout and self-controlled.

Don’t you wish that our business, government and church leadership reflected those qualities of leadership?

If you are called to leadership, either in your family or a committee or an organization or business, it would be wise to reflect on Paul’s criteria for leaders. How do we measure up to this standard? Does our character qualify us as leaders?

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Giving and Receiving Appropriate Feedback

December 19, 2013

I can’t believe I had gone so many days without writing. Yesterday I tried out a new iPad app for WordPress. It published before I added categories and tags. Today, I’ll play around with it a little, but I’m far behind in my other two blogs–not to mention a feature article about using Ethernet networking in manufacturing and a column on automation standards.

These days much of my leadership seems to be behind the scenes guiding others into thinking through things so that they arrive at sound decisions and move their projects forward. In the midst of that, I forgot that others are constantly evaluating me.

Someone in a position of some authority offered some feedback that just seemed a little lame to me. So, I pondered the feedback and what sort of feedback is useful. Part of the feedback was that “I hear great things about you, encourage more people to tell me how good you’re doing.” Was that useful feedback? What sort of sample size was that? Was it just one or two off-hand comments?

Then it sounded like how we are trained to offer feedback to soccer referees after a match where we are assigned officially as an assessor–point out one or two strengths and one or two areas for improvement with guidance containing a strategy for improving that area.

The soccer feedback assumes that I as the assessor know what constitutes good officiating and that I have already proven myself so as to lend credibility to my feedback. In other words, if the feedback is given from a person whom I respect and given to help me improve my performance, that’s one thing; but if the feedback is superficial pointing out only superficial things that do not really guide me into a way to improve, then it just feels lame.

I spent the better part of ten years setting and developing the direction of a magazine and constantly asked people wherever I went for ideas on improvement. Starting from September, I’m doing that all over again. In this case, I didn’t start the magazine but rather have assumed leadership of one that is older but has been failing for several years. So, I want ideas on what I could do to improve the property. My ideas will be shown next month to the public. Then I start the feedback process again.

A few thoughts:
Solicit feedback from people affected or people with expertise
Offer feedback that is truly helpful
Consider the feedback, but neither be unduly uplifted by superficial praise nor discouraged with unthinking criticism
Take all feedback as a source of potential personal improvement

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Making a List And Checking It Twice

December 6, 2013

Remember the song about Santa? “He’s making a list and checking it twice. Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice.”

Bet you’re making a list this time of year. Present for Johnny, present for Sue, present for spouse, present for me, too.

I like Jon Swanson’s daily meditations, 300 Words a Day. Someday when I’m making the trip from Sidney, Ohio (with an “i”) to Chicago, I should set an appointment just to meet him. I drive past a couple of times a month. He has written a book about Nehemiah, Great Works, available on Amazon. I have purchased it ($4.99) for my Kindle reader on my iPad just now. Looking forward to reading it.

Jon says in yesterday’s blog post that he was afraid that it might become just a list. Well, lists are not all that bad. One of my favorite writers, Umberto Eco, wrote a book about lists and says that the ability to make lists was essential to the development of civilization. Ben Franklin was a list maker. David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, proposes that we make several to-do lists (one for when available to use the phone, one for when running errands, one for when we’re online, etc.). I am a disciple of GTD, use a software application called Nozbe, and fail to refer to my lists often enough 😉

Lists are how you organize yourself if you are busy like I am (see yesterday’s post). One key is to know your “one great work” and key your essential to-do items to point toward accomplishing your one great work.

Andy Stanley made a verse from Nehemiah one of his key verses for personal life and teaching his children. While Nehemiah was organizing the people for the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem (financed by the country now known as Iran, by the way), his enemies invited him down to the plain for a “diplomatic discussion.” Nehemiah replied, “I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down.”

Nehemiah teaches us great lessons. What is your great work? Figure it out and then start making lists.

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Respect for Humanity

November 18, 2013

Some years ago, there was an executive of a major corporation who made himself (with the aid of some skilled public relations people and a couple of books) into a “god” for managers. He had only a couple of big ideas. One was that every manager should rank every employee on a bell curve and fire those who ranked in the bottom 10% regardless of their actual contribution.

Last week, another CEO of an American technology company was exposed of implementing that same philosophy at her company despite the fact that this management philosophy has now been long discredited and dropped by many of its former followers.

The first executive is Jack Welch of GE. He built a house of cards that took his successor several years to fix. Yet many people still extol his “virtues” even until this day.

The second is Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo. She is trying to turn around a failing company. That is hard enough, but she also faces strong competitors and a shortage of skilled people. Seems like she would be better served by doing things to lead her people into greater performance.

Bell curves, as all of us who endured the education system know, inevitably force people to compete with one another. That is certainly not the way of modern, high-performance organizations.

Toyota has long held three principles as its core value: Customer First, Respect for Humanity, Eliminate Waste. Hmmm, Respect for Humanity. Think Mayer missed the plane when that idea went.

When Jesus came along (and you have to read the entire New Testament in this light), the main and only organization was Rome. Its CEO, if you will, was the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Prince of Peace–Caesar. The only value Rome extolled was power. Life was all about who had power over whom.

Jesus turned the entire Roman world on its head. He reversed every Roman teaching and replaced it with Love first. He who would lead must be a servant.

Many of us in management roles have tried to live this one out. Obviously many have not. Even in Christian organizations, power seems to rule over humanity. And where God is in all that, I guess God only knows as the saying holds.

Thought for the day: How are we treating others?

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Leadership and Vision

October 11, 2013

I’m reading in the book of Exodus for a while. Interesting stories. Familiar to many of us. Overall, it is the story about a leader. A leader who was reluctant to lead, but whom God convinced was the one man who had the talent and upbringing to be that leader. He grew into the role and became a great leader, the builder of a nation, and the builder of a religion.

He was Moses, of course. A great prophet in the sense that he spoke with God. He accepted God’s leadership and vision. He was to form the diverse tribes of Hebrews into one nation who worshiped the one true God.

From the text, I have to believe that the 400 years spent in Egypt, much of it as slaves, separated the majority of the people from true worship of God. Moses had to convince them in the desert that God was real. I think the detail about priests, garments, alter and so forth–remarkable that it was written and preserved–was basically a leadership method to instill the habit of worshiping God into future generations.

Moses had the vision from God, totally incorporated into his life, of leading the people into the land promised to Abraham centuries before. He overcame opposition to God from people who wanted a god they could see (the golden calf). He formed them into a structured society. He led them to the edge of the Promised Land.

But, he still could not instill in them the courage to take the land and believe that God could be trusted.

That was left to the next generation of leaders–primarily Joshua.

But think about Moses.

  • He had early training in leadership as a member of Pharaoh’s household
  • He served an apprenticeship under a God-fearing man
  • When God talked, he listened and obeyed
  • He remained focused on God and God’s vision for the people
  • He built new habits within the people who had left security–albeit one as slaves
  • He built a structured way for the people to remember God and to worship Him
  • He persisted for the remainder of his life

He remains a great example for us no matter what we’re leading. Grounded in the right motives, firm vision of the future, building the right habits among his followers, persisting until the end.

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Leadership Example of Peter

September 25, 2013

Remember the first time you were thrust into a leadership role in your organization?

Did you feel prepared? Scared? Uncertain about the role of a leader?

It looks easy when you sit back and criticize other leaders. But to actually do it yourself…that’s quite another thing.

Or maybe it’s the first time you gave someone a leadership position for their first time. Did you feel you prepared the person? Did you wonder if they were ready?

I think often about the insight of Jesus and the growth of Peter. Jesus gathered twelve close followers in order to give them special training so that his movement would survive his death. The twelve were all talented, but they had different skills.

Jesus looked at Peter and saw the courage and personality of a future leader. But he also saw the rough edges. There was a sort of double meaning when Jesus told Simon that he was “Peter” (rock) the foundation of the movement. But this was the first indication of what Jesus saw special in him.

But still, Peter was unprepared for the events that would thrust him into the position. With John as his intellectual partner who could keep the theology straight, Peter was the man of action. It probably took him three months to digest the new reality of life after Jesus. But then he started preaching, healing, arguing.

And he grew into a great leader.

I love that example that we don’t just become great leaders overnight. It takes years of preparation and testing. It takes reflecting on what we’re doing as we do the work of leadership. We, too, can be like Peter and grow into leadership in whatever situation of life we find ourselves.

Reflect on Peter’s growth and overcome discouragement. Continue onward and grow you future leaders.

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Set Free The Oppressed

September 2, 2013

We are  observing a holiday in the USA. Labor Day. It’s a day set aside to remember the contributions of laboring people.

The concept and definition of “labor” changed dramatically over the course of the 20th century. The labor movement actually began in the mid-19th century. Originally the term referred to workers in manufacturing. These people were often almost slave labor for the factory owners. Various labor movements sprung up to organize workers. Much of the language used by unions today is derived from the early struggles.

By the end of the 20th century, engineers and managers, sometimes at the prodding of government regulators, had removed most of the hazards of working in plants. By the mid-20th century, factory workers could earn a middle-class income–although that changed beginning in the 1980s as relative wages plummeted due to many factors. But it’s still possible to earn a middle class income as a skilled technician and operator in a plant or factory today.

Management trends, such as the adoption of Lean which puts focus on the value of the individual, have also helped improve the situation for labor.

Oppression

Very early in the growth of manufacturing developed a “white hat” versus “black hat” mentality by people involved. Of course, who wore the “white” had and who the “black” depended on your point of view.

All this is not new, of course. Check out Isaiah 58–my current text for study and meditation.

God tells the people through Isaiah to set the oppressed free.

Is this not the fast (Spiritual Discipline) that I choose:

to loose the bonds of injustice,

to undo the thongs of the yoke,

to let the oppressed to free,

and to break every yoke?

If you are a business owner or manager, you will find it morally, ethically and financially rewarding to treat all the people in the company fairly. Treat them as fellow human beings who are children of God.

Since I have worked both as labor and management, I have trouble with the “black hat” / “white hat” way of thinking. I most often think in shades of gray. Some people are more trustworthy than others; but all people are worthy of my respect to the degree that their character demands it. For me, it is not us versus them, but rather “we.”

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