Proverbs12:15 (MSG) Fools are headstrong and do what they like; wise people take advice.
Listening leaders are the ones who have learned that the more they know, the more there is to know and they cannot know it all. Simply listening to advice and actually taking advice are two different activities.
In which activity are you engaged?
Showing posts with label advisors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advisors. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Leaders Take the Time for Counsel
Proverbs 20:18 (AMP) Purposes and plans are established by counsel; and [only] with good advice make or carry on war.
Of course, you might say, leadership asks for advice.
Not according to a survey of 1,400 leaders and managers (by the Ken Blanchard Group) as reported by Nic Paton in www.Management-issues.com. It seems that a whopping 81 per cent of the respondents reported that leaders failed to listen or involve others in the process of planning.
Listening to the team and collaborating drives businesses success. The new CEO, with a new perspective and philosophy, has the difficult, but essential task of mining the imbued wisdom of the existing team before personal adjustments are made. Strategic planning process should be a team effort. Established leaders must develop an intentional process to collaborate. A process that cannot be cookie-cutter – it must match the leader’s learning style and/or communications style. Intentionality is key.
God, who promised us wisdom, not only imparts His wisdom through his Word, but also through others. The growing success of groups like Christ@work) or Wise Counsel or the Internal Coalition of Workplace Ministries demonstrates the benefits of wise, Biblically-based business counsel. A new resource can be found at Kingdom Business.
Are you connected to wise counsel?
Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell
Of course, you might say, leadership asks for advice.
Not according to a survey of 1,400 leaders and managers (by the Ken Blanchard Group) as reported by Nic Paton in www.Management-issues.com. It seems that a whopping 81 per cent of the respondents reported that leaders failed to listen or involve others in the process of planning.
Listening to the team and collaborating drives businesses success. The new CEO, with a new perspective and philosophy, has the difficult, but essential task of mining the imbued wisdom of the existing team before personal adjustments are made. Strategic planning process should be a team effort. Established leaders must develop an intentional process to collaborate. A process that cannot be cookie-cutter – it must match the leader’s learning style and/or communications style. Intentionality is key.
God, who promised us wisdom, not only imparts His wisdom through his Word, but also through others. The growing success of groups like Christ@work) or Wise Counsel or the Internal Coalition of Workplace Ministries demonstrates the benefits of wise, Biblically-based business counsel. A new resource can be found at Kingdom Business.
Are you connected to wise counsel?
Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell
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Friday, April 17, 2009
Leaders Know Who to Fear
Proverbs 17:12 (NIV) Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool in his folly
You are on a leadership retreat in the wild. Does this proverb seem like a hyperbole? A bit melodramatic? A stretch? A human - a living, thinking fool spouting off foolishness -is more deadly than an upright 500 pound Syrian Brown Bear, with bared teeth, menacing growl, towering height and long claws, diving down and running at you?
Hard to imagine that, but we are asked to. We would desperately try to avoid cute little bear cubs if we found them while hiking. No provocation from us. Avoidance at all costs – just as we are to avoid the advice and counsel of those who live life as if there were no God.
A bear; a fool: A person wise in their own eyes can do greater damage After all (we think) we can debate the fool but are not strong enough to withstand the bear - unless we had a sufficient weapon and we knew how to use it so as not to enrage the bear and spawn further attacks. Ah, the comfort of false thinking!
Relationships, not rhetoric wins people. We have become a timid lot, we followers of the Way. Some, because they are not sufficiently armed to “fight” with both an intellectual resolve and a non-judgmental relationship strategy. Others have accepted the marginalization of the Christian worldview as the way things should be (separate business from faith) and, fearful of rhetoric, never engage in relationship.
We are willing to listen when we should stand up to speak; and we stand up to speak only when the audience is “safe.” The attack of the “foolish” can be as divesting as the mother bear! We really do know that.
Are you sufficiently armed to stand up and speak?
Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell
You are on a leadership retreat in the wild. Does this proverb seem like a hyperbole? A bit melodramatic? A stretch? A human - a living, thinking fool spouting off foolishness -is more deadly than an upright 500 pound Syrian Brown Bear, with bared teeth, menacing growl, towering height and long claws, diving down and running at you?
Hard to imagine that, but we are asked to. We would desperately try to avoid cute little bear cubs if we found them while hiking. No provocation from us. Avoidance at all costs – just as we are to avoid the advice and counsel of those who live life as if there were no God.
A bear; a fool: A person wise in their own eyes can do greater damage After all (we think) we can debate the fool but are not strong enough to withstand the bear - unless we had a sufficient weapon and we knew how to use it so as not to enrage the bear and spawn further attacks. Ah, the comfort of false thinking!
Relationships, not rhetoric wins people. We have become a timid lot, we followers of the Way. Some, because they are not sufficiently armed to “fight” with both an intellectual resolve and a non-judgmental relationship strategy. Others have accepted the marginalization of the Christian worldview as the way things should be (separate business from faith) and, fearful of rhetoric, never engage in relationship.
We are willing to listen when we should stand up to speak; and we stand up to speak only when the audience is “safe.” The attack of the “foolish” can be as divesting as the mother bear! We really do know that.
Are you sufficiently armed to stand up and speak?
Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell
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Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Leaders Choose Advisors Carefully
Proverbs 14:7 (AMP) Go from the presence of a foolish and self-confident man, for you will not find knowledge on his lips.
Concerning issues of character, morality and ethics where you get your advice is critical.
It is in the “gray areas,” where arguments can be made on both sides of an issue, that “solid” advice is critical. Parsing issues based on legality and balance (is the solution just for all parties involved?) is generally straightforward but are only two legs of a stool: it is the third leg of – “rightness” – that can cause real problems. Even law has issues: for example, do you law as a moral minimum rather than a ceiling?
In today’s atmosphere of “relative truth” (an oxymoron for a Believer), the question of right and wrong can be quickly muddied with expediency. This drive to accept relative truth seems to come from those who could be labeled as “foolish and self-confident” persons. These people live as if God is irrelevant: they would posit that the “God-stuff” is really simply a personal decision and is not really life and certainly not applicable to business.
Their foolish words often are pronounced from positions of power. Don’t be mislead: your discernment that an integrated Christian worldview does not separate law and ethics has power – supernatural power. God's way is not negotiable: business must be run in a way that pleases God and the people you impact.
When “coloring” the gray areas, are you choosing your business advisors carefully?
Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell
Concerning issues of character, morality and ethics where you get your advice is critical.
It is in the “gray areas,” where arguments can be made on both sides of an issue, that “solid” advice is critical. Parsing issues based on legality and balance (is the solution just for all parties involved?) is generally straightforward but are only two legs of a stool: it is the third leg of – “rightness” – that can cause real problems. Even law has issues: for example, do you law as a moral minimum rather than a ceiling?
In today’s atmosphere of “relative truth” (an oxymoron for a Believer), the question of right and wrong can be quickly muddied with expediency. This drive to accept relative truth seems to come from those who could be labeled as “foolish and self-confident” persons. These people live as if God is irrelevant: they would posit that the “God-stuff” is really simply a personal decision and is not really life and certainly not applicable to business.
Their foolish words often are pronounced from positions of power. Don’t be mislead: your discernment that an integrated Christian worldview does not separate law and ethics has power – supernatural power. God's way is not negotiable: business must be run in a way that pleases God and the people you impact.
When “coloring” the gray areas, are you choosing your business advisors carefully?
Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell
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