Thoughts About Leadership: 2007

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Leaders Don’t Quarrel

Proverbs 20:3 (AMP)

Keeping away from strife is an honor for a man, but any fool will quarrel.

The mix of humility and relentless will may define a “Level 5” (Collins, Good to Great), but for the Christian at work, there may be more to consider. Humility is more than some building block toward leadership: it must be an essence of the leader that drives a desire to serve others.

The land could not support both Abram and Lot’s herdsmen who were quarrelling (two groups professing faith) in a land of unbelieving people. Abram’s plea for peace came with a powerful offer to Lot: take half. Lot did not deserve it: was not promised it. But “keeping away from strife” drove Abram’s decision. He trusted God to provide even though Lot chose the best land.

Sometimes moving from “good to great” demands sacrifice to demonstrate greatness – a “move” that gives glory to God alone.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Leaders Lead with the Future in Mind

Proverbs 23:18 (NIV)

There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

Life happens. The problems of the present may be huge. Leadership is the art of bringing a proper perspective into play – vision casting, inspiring hope.

Iwo Jima is a good example. Hardships were the rule of the day. Taking the island so our fliers could land was the hope. Grounding our flag at the top inspired troops for the battles that raged long after. There was hope and a future for that island!

The Christian Worldview offers hope that will never be cut off. The Christian leader understands that the eternal impact of her/his business life has little to do with market share and domination and more to do with the relationships he/she builds into employees, suppliers, competitors and customers.

Are you building a hope that matters?

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Motivation and Leadership

Proverbs 21:4 (MSG)

Arrogance and pride—distinguishing marks in the wicked—are just plain sin.

Why we do what we do says more about our character than what we do. Our motivations are often hidden – sometimes even from us.

Leadership that is self-centered is limiting. In Success Built to Last, the authors suggest that leadership that succeeds over time is attributable to the strength of the cause they pursue: "Enduringly successful people serve the cause--and they are lifted up by its power."

John Kotter observed in his article What Leaders Really Do , "Well-led businesses tend to recognize and reward people who successfully develop leaders."

Now there’s a cause. Find and control the motivations that are just about you. Feed and nurture the motivations that are about developing your team.

Leading is about others.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Celebrating 2007 President’s Day

Proverbs 19:27 (NKJV)

Cease listening to instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.

In her book, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, author Goodwin noted that Lincoln was consumed with learning. His Bible was never far from him and one of his quotes, no doubt stimulated by his constant reading of the Scriptures is, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.”

His character was demonstrated in a paradoxical mix of humility and resoluteness of will - one of the hallmarks of “Level 5 Leadership” (Good to Great, Collins).

Resoluteness in leading a team – his cabinet – made up of many who opposed him in his bid for the presidency to keep the Union together and emancipate the slaves.

Compassion (expression of humility) demonstrated in his 2^nd Inaugural Address when he declared: "With malice toward none; with charity for all" that began the process of healing between the North and the South.

As great of a leader that Lincoln was, we have even a better model. Lincoln died. Christ rose from the dead, is living and still “instructs” us today.

Are you listening?

Friday, February 16, 2007

Leaders Connect the Heart and the Mouth

Proverbs 16:21, 23: 6 (NAS)

²¹The wise in heart will be called understanding, and sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness. ²³The heart of the wise instructs his mouth and adds persuasiveness to his lips.

One definition of leadership incorporates the word influence: another includes the words process of persuasion.

Definitions of leadership agree simply that a person who has followers is a leader. Street gangs have leaders. Criminal organizations have leaders.

It’s NOT about leadership; it is about the right kind of leadership. Wise leadership develops from other-centeredness that can only flow from a changed heart. Motives are changed. The intent of this heart yields gracious speech that increases impact.

When your heart is in sync with God’s heart, your persuasiveness takes on a winsome patina that results in mobilized action in your followers.

Do you want willing, motivated, committed followers? Start with your heart.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Leaders Communicate Carefully

Proverbs 15:2 (NKJV)

The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness.

The stored-up knowledge of experience becomes most useful when communicated wisely. It takes care to communicate – proper time, proper place, and proper thoughts.

Using any of the many personality inventories gives clues to how a person processes information – how to speak their language. Blanchard/Hershey’s Situational Leadership posits that the right leadership style is based on the person being led: leaders communicate with awareness so that relationships can be built – that’s using knowledge rightly.

Foolish people practice “throwing it out there to see what sticks” with no concern to listener’s style, their underlying fears, or where they are in work experience – that’s more like “belch[ing] out foolishness” ^(NLT) than speaking.

Are you taking the time you need to communicate wisely?

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Leaders Understand the Promise of the Budget

Proverbs 14:4 (NIV)

Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength of an ox comes an abundant harvest.

Core Values are the promises the “team” makes to each other about how they will fulfill the mission and march to the beat of the vision. The budget puts teeth in those promises.

Whether personally or corporately, the heart follows the dollars – where your treasure is, there your heart will be.

As leaders, you may espouse one thing: your budget tells the team what you really believe.

Oh yes, budgeting is paradoxical: it is about both now and the future. Without the proper foundation (now) growth is limited (future). Does your budget reflect the promises of your values, your vision and your mission?

No oxen. No harvesting of the crop.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Your Worldview is Critical to Leadership

Proverbs 8: 22-23(NASB)

The LORD possessed me [Wisdom] at the beginning of His way, before His works of old. From everlasting I was established, from the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth.

The literature on theories of leadership has been around a long time and studies have emerged from every discipline you can name. All are based on a worldview that assumes origins (matter vs. spirit as eternal), defines the problems with mankind and the offers a (leadership) solution.

From Plutarch’s Lives, to more moderns writers like Selznick (1957 – infusion of values and purpose), Burns (1978 - ethically and morally transformational leadership) Greenleaf (1977- “servant leadership”), Bennis, Blanchard, Kotter and others offer valid ideas and processes on leadership.

God (Eternally Existent) tells us that effective leaders are first followers (of Him) and then lead by example (after your heart is born anew (shaped in Proverbs, demonstrated in the Gospels).

Man’s theories come and go. God’s have remained constant. Your worldview matters – today at work and eternally.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Leaders Know What’s Precious

Proverbs 7:3 (NKJV)

Keep my commands and live,
And my law as the apple of your eye.

The idiom in this verse literally means the “pupil of the eye” but has come to mean, “that which we hold most precious.”

God’s laws, like principles of leadership are fundamentally about two issues: personal integrity and the value of others. Robin S. Sharma in Leadership Wisdom from The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari put it this way: “The greatest privilege of leadership is the chance to elevate lives."

Robert E. Staub - (The Heart of Leadership: 12 Practices of Courageous Leader) - reveals that those who purport to lead fail because they don't understand who it is they're trying to lead – which takes competency, intimacy, integrity, and passion.

Leaders know what is precious: It not the stuff that must be done. It’s the people who team with them to get it done.

What’s most precious to you?

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Leadership Lessons from the Ant – Part II

Proverbs 6: 6 (AMP)

Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise! -

The instruction is simple, but profound. The ant society has no leader, no guide, no management team, but follows pattern of work built into them by their Creator.

Three observed ant “behaviors” that mirror our work include:

Career Training: Ants learn particular jobs, especially worker ants; then, on some schedule, change & learn new careers
Education: Ants may be the only group of animals besides us in which interactive teaching behavior has been observed during their life: they pace instruction to the learner’s ability
Limited Free Will: It seems that ant inter-relationships more symbiotic than coercive.

Observe and be wise: Leaders mentor, sacrificing time often to teach; a caring leader paces the instruction; and, an effective leader actively listens, interacting and communicating.

What kind of relationships do you cultivate: symbiotic or coercive?

Monday, February 05, 2007

Leaders Ponder the “Right Stuff”

Proverbs 5: 6 (NKJV)
Lest you ponder her [a sexually promiscuous woman’s] path of life-- Her ways are unstable; you do not know them.

People at work often times are put in situations that can breed the wrong kind of “pondering.”

Godly leaders (at home or at work) are called to bring captive every thought by being saturated with Wisdom and then meditating (pondering) on the “right stuff.”

Meditating on the Word is foundational. In addition, developing an integrated Christian Worldview will yield insights, attitudes and behaviors that make the Sunday stuff alive at work and play.

Ponder that!

Friday, February 02, 2007

Leaders Are Willing To Be Changed

Proverbs 2:2 (NLV)

…make your ear open to wisdom. Turn your heart to understanding.

William Penn, in 1699 wrote, “No man is fit to command another that can not command himself.”

There are two commands in this verse – make open and turn. It’s a matter of the will. Demanding a choice. And it’s not any wisdom: The leadership stories in both Testaments provide foundational understanding of leading. Just knowing about them is not enough. We must turn our heart (including our head, hands and habits) – ah, there’s the rub!

What is naturally in us is all about us: what is supernaturally assimilated in us changes our focus to others. That’s the key to “servant leadership.” If you want to influence others, first allow yourself to be changed – the head and the heart internally, the hands and the habits externally.

Are you willing to be changed so you can lead like Jesus?

Monday, January 29, 2007

Leaders Understand “Experiences”

Proverbs 29:13 (MSG) The poor man and the oppressor have this in common: The LORD gives light to the eyes of both.

These two have little in common, at first glance, except their business dealings; but, with all life experiences, there is more here than meets the eye.

Experiences shape us, not by what happens, but by what we do about what happens. Enlightenment is offered to both the oppressor and the oppressed. Both can experience the hope for something more than this life offers: the poor for wealth that comes without anxiety and the oppressor for wealth not built on abusive behavior, but on right living.

It always come down to what we do with the light the LORD has given. Do we turn away, seek the shade; or do we reach out, no matter the pain, and ask our Creator to teach us something more?

Are you learning or leaving?

Friday, January 26, 2007

Leaders March to the Beat of God’s Drum

Proverbs 26:12 (MSG) See that man who thinks he's so smart? You can expect far more from a fool than from him.

Conceit has captivated humans from the very beginning.

It manifests itself in what otherwise may be thought of as “good” people who may be very successful, and might even do good things for mankind - taking care of the windows, orphans and the generally less fortunate.

However, conceited people, but well-meaning people, who have become their own gods and lives as if God is irrelevant, lives life to the beat of his or her own death-march drum.

Professing Christians, who try to work-in or run a business without God, are operating as practicing atheists, even though they profess a personal relationship. Acknowledging a need for God and working in a way that acknowledges that He is the boss, is not an option.

Who's beating-out the cadence of your life?

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Clear Water Leadership

Proverbs 25:26 (AMP) Like a muddied fountain and a polluted spring is a righteous man who yields, falls down, and compromises his integrity before the wicked.

The “secular-progressive” movement is dominating American thought in movies, television, so-called news coverage and business. The educated opinion makers are increasingly marginalizing a Christian worldview. What’s a Christian leader to do – especially in the workplace?

Lead. Lead like Moses, Joshua, Joseph. Lead like Jesus. Keep on continually standing firm in the battle for the American mind. You can because the battle has been won. We know the victor. We know the outcome.

As a “Christian Business Leader” your faith has a place in the workplace. If you abdicate it, the “secular faith” will swiftly fill the void.

The question is: are you a muddied fountain, a polluted spring or are you clear, life-giving water? The world is thirsty: are you a place to quench their thirst?

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Leaders Work With God In Mind

Proverbs 23:4 –5 (MSG) Don't wear yourself out trying to get rich; restrain yourself! Riches disappear in the blink of an eye; wealth sprouts wings and flies off into the wild blue yonder.

Being known as a “hard worker” is good: working for the right reasons; now that is important.

We are called in our work life, to use a heavenly screen, as it were, to filter out everything that is about us. Doing it for me is dangerous: God warned us that. "...when your herds and flocks grow large and your sliver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery."

It is all about attitude - about what is in our hearts. New cars. New houses. Hobbies. Vacation homes. Traveling. Season tickets to the Symphony, Opera, to sporting events. All of these are subject to our attitude. God has given us a certain level and ability to accumulate resources. What we do with those resources, what we think about this resources, what we say about them reflect our heart.

The question is do these things possess us or are we stewards of God's bounty to us?

Leaders Want To Be Known For The “Right Stuff”

Proverbs 22:1 (NIV) A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.

Two attributes are more desirable than all the wealth we can accumulate: to be well spoken of and to be held in high esteem by others.

Both point to personal purpose: knowing who you are and what your purpose is. I hope you have a handle on that.

A.W. Tozer offered seven “tests” for us to use when we want to understand better how we are “known” and what really drives us:

What we want most
What we think about most
How we use our money
What we do with our leisure time
The company we enjoy
Who and what we admire
What we laugh at

And remember, as my Mom used to say: “What you do speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you say.” How are you “doing?”

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Leaders Learn to Be First

Proverbs 17:16 (NLT) It is senseless to pay tuition to educate a fool who has no heart for wisdom.

Just as money cannot buy happiness, it cannot buy wisdom.

The purchase of wisdom is a heart thing. The heart must first be changed since God's ways are not the ways of the world.

What are leaders at work to do? Stop funding all educational incentives? Disparage the educational system? NO! That MBA will help do stuff: a heart for God will help you be.

Believers are called to a different world: to a different way of living: we are called to learn God’s ways and apply them. It matters little whether we are a butcher, baker or candlestick maker: we are each models of applied wisdom.

What are you working on: being or doing?

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Leaders Are Ambassadors

Proverbs 11: 2 (NIV) When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
James 3:13 …Let him show it [being wise] by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom….

James observes that there is a humility that comes from wisdom. Humbling yourself releases you from what would hold you back from acquiring God’s wisdom.

Our deepest desire must not be for the things of God, or for the blessing of God, but for God himself. Harboring selfish ambition of any kind – especially in your business lives – is all about you, not about Him.

Apostle Paul reminds us that a life lived in humility and wisdom make us “ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us…” The ambassador gives glory to the person or country represented. Not her/himself.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Rich Leadership. Truly rich.

Proverbs 10:22 (AMP) The blessing of the Lord--it makes [truly] rich, and He adds no sorrow with it [neither does toiling increase it].

Quite a promise when you think about it: riches with no sorrow; wealth without anxiety. No worrying about who might take it away; or how you might loose it; or the tax burden because of it; or the misunderstandings about you because you have it.

Blessings from the Lord do not come with continuing lust or passion or focus on “toiling” for more riches. Blessings from the Lord are freeing, not enslaving.

So, just whom does the Lord bless? Those who are diligent to know: Diligent to be like Him; to bless others as He did; and, to obey Him. Without a scent of self-centeredness; without a hint of disputing His law; obeying wholeheartedly.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Leaders Walk the Right Path

Proverbs 9:6 (NIV) Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding.

Whether it's Business School or the school of life, any learning that leaves out God, is foolish. A Christian Worldview should be totally integrated – it defines walking in the way of understanding.

Many of the business decisions are not clearly legal or illegal; rather, it is which ethically right path should be followed - and that takes Wisdom. Sometimes we cannot clearly see down the path: following God's lead is a walk of Faith and not sight.

This faith walk begins with "knowing God" and that results from feasting at the table of His Word, praying, and having a transparent relationship with Godly people. You got “walk?”