What’s Your SHAPE?

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I am not referring to body shape here – but actually, I am.

an occasional post in the “Brand You” series…

Popularized by Willow Creek Community Church and Saddleback Community Church in the 1990s, SHAPE is often depicted as an acronym of the following:

  • S – Spiritual gifts: a set of special abilities that God has given you to share His love and to serve others
  • H – Heart: the special passions God has given you so that you can glorify Him on earth
  • A – Ability: the set of talents that God gave you when you were born, which He also want s you to use to make an impact for Him
  • P – Personality: the special way God wired you to navigate life and fulfill your unique Kingdom purpose
  • E – Experience: those parts of your past, both positive and painful, which God intends to use in great ways

Churches who used assessments, interviews, and other discovery techniques wanted members to understand themselves – and what God was calling them to do in service to Him. Starting out as primarily document or paper-based, the process quickly migrated to the digital world. Countless churches now use some variant of the SHAPE acronym to help people focus in on their own irreplaceable, richly detailed personal design.

When trying to determine your “Brand You,” understanding your SHAPE would be a great place to start.

The Body of Christ – the church – is made up of many members, like you. Understanding your SHAPE will help the Body be in better “shape.”

Do you know your SHAPE?

Would you like to know more about SHAPE?

 

 

You’re an Original…

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… a unique, one-of-a-kind!

an occasional post in the “Brand You” series…

All of us start out as one-of-a-kind originals, but too many of us end up as carbon copies of someone else.  -Mark Batterson, “Soulprint”

You are unique – Ephesians 2:10 says that “We are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

Uniqueness is God’s gift to you, and uniqueness is your gift to God.  You owe it to yourself to be yourself. But more importantly, you owe it to the one who designed you and destined you.

So what is your “Brand You?” How do you find out?

What’s Your Capacity?

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Is your glass half-empty – or half-full? That tricky question has been around for a long time, and countless jokes and other comments have been made about it over the years. Rather than focus on the current state of the glass, what if we instead focused on its capacity?

The definitions of capacity are many and all are useful for this brief thought: Are we living up to the capacity God designed into us?

  • Do we have the ability to perform or produce something that will honor God?
  • Are we always doing the maximum amount of activity possible for God?
  • Do we understand a specific function that God has gifted us for?
  • Are we exercising our brains to increase the ability to store information for Kingdom purposes?
  • Do we have the power to learn and retain knowledge that will help us understand the facts and significance of our behavior?
  • Are we a vessel, continually being filled up, and then emptied out, for His service?

My initial thoughts about capacity always go to the last definition: What’s my capacity for receiving the gifts and blessings of the Holy Spirit? If I continually only receive, then eventually I am satiated, and can receive no more. But if I am continually pouring out, then there is always room for God to invest and indwell in me.

For me, it’s the process of filling and emptying I seek – I don’t want to be satisfied with the status quo of half-empty or half-full.

What’s your capacity?

 

Leadership is an Art: Tapestry

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If leadership is an art, then one of its most amazing forms has to be the tapestry.

Tapestry is a form of textile art, woven by hand on a loom. The vertical threads are hidden in the completed work; they are flexible in order to be drawn over and under the horizontal threads. The horizontal threads are visible, and thus have a finer quality. Because they are spun with a twist in opposite directions, they exist in tension. Together, the two types of threads create a beautiful image. Intricate, detailed images were created by artists which were then given to craftsmen to produce the finished artwork. Tapestries often contain symbolic emblems, mottoes, or a coat of arms. They were used by kings as a symbol of authority, able to be rolled up and carried to wherever the king was to be. The church used tapestries for displays on special occasions. They also served as a functional item, useful for insulation in drafty castles.

History lesson aside, a tapestry is a perfect metaphor for leaders God uses in His work:

  • God is the master Artist, creating the design of our lives; we are craftsmen who weave individual threads following His pattern
  • Leaders should not have a one-dimensional outlook on life; they need to be vertically connected to God while horizontally connected to people
  • Our connection to God should be constant, weaving over and under throughout life
  • Our connections with people are highly visible even though under some tension
  • Our leadership qualities should represent something; they are a symbol that others see and recognize what they stand for
  • As leaders, we represent authority – the question is how will you represent it?
  • Leaders are certainly visible for all to see, but they must always remember that leadership is not an end unto itself, but a function of “leading” others
  • Leadership is not fixed to a place; true leaders cannot help but lead, whether in the corporate office, the church meeting room, or the family kitchen table.

How are you weaving the threads of life into the beautiful masterpiece God has created for you?

You Can’t Improve by Coasting Downhill

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I’m training to participate in the 24 Hours of Booty bike ride in a couple of weeks. It’s my 7th annual Booty ride; I won’t ride all 24 hours, but one or more members of my team will. As you might expect, riding even part of 24 hours takes training. I don’t mind training, but I hate hills – at least going up hills. Coming down, now that’s pretty cool. You can coast and catch your breath.

The only problem is you can’t improve by going downhill all the time.

Living in North Carolina, there are hills everywhere; you can’t train without encountering them regularly. When I plan my training rides, I used to dread the uphill parts. No matter what techniques I tried, going up long, steep hills was a killer. Give me a flat surface and I can move along at a pretty good clip. Even better was a slight downhill run. I haven’t found a one-sided hill yet, so I would labor through, barely surviving, looking forward to the flying downhill on the other side.

Business blogger Seth Godin caught my eye with this comment: It’s very difficult to improve your performance on the downhills. 

I agree completely. No matter what I try, I am not going to get any better by just going faster on the downhill side. The place to improve performance, to get better, is to work on the uphills. That’s where the work is, the fun is, the improvement is. On the uphills, if I work hard and don’t give up, I have a reasonable shot at improving my time. The downhills are already maxed out by the laws of physics and safety.

Suddenly, the truth about biking can be translated into my work world as well. The best time to do great customer service is when a customer is upset. The moment you earn your keep as a public speaker is when the room isn’t just right or the plane is late or the projector doesn’t work or the audience is tired or distracted. The best time to engage with an employee is when everything falls apart, not when you’re hitting every milestone. And everyone knows that the best time to start a project is when the economy is lousy.

Godin’s book “The Dip” is a quick read that reinforces this line of thinking. A Dip is a temporary setback that you will overcome if you keep pushing. But maybe it’s really a cul-de-sac, which will never get better, no matter how hard you try. According to Godin, what really sets superstars apart from everyone else is the ability to escape dead ends quickly while staying focused and motivated when it really counts.

Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt – until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons. Winners seek out the Dip. They realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it.

What uphill are you facing right now? Will you push through it, improving your performance along the way and on the next hill?

Or will you be satisfied with coasting on the other side?

 

Are You Smarter Than a Nine-Month Old?

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I think I have met my match when it comes to a carnivorous learning – my nine-month old granddaughter. Pound for pound, I’m pretty sure her hunger for learning outpaces mine.

Carnivorous and nine-month-old don’t usually go in the same sentence, much less the same page. A little background…

“Carnivorous learning” is one of the values of Auxano, the first “clarity first” consulting group for ministry leaders. I’m a part of the team of navigators who journey with churches to help them discover their “Church Unique.” I’m proud of the label, and do all I can to earn it! In a recent post, Auxano founder Will Mancini wrote about “The Greatest Secret for Continuous Learning.”

“Learning is a free, daily opportunity to those who seize it.”

Enter my granddaughter.

At nine months old, she seizes everything – literally – and explores it with all her senses to see what she can learn. John Medina, writing in “Brain Rules,” states that:

Hypothesis testing is the way all babies gather information. They use a series of increasingly self-corrected ideas to figure out how the world works. They actively test their environment, much as a scientist would: Make a sensory observation, form a hypothesis about what is going on, design an experiment capable of testing the hypothesis, and then draw conclusions from the findings.

Babies may not have a whole lot of understanding about their world, but they know a whole lot about how to get it.

It’s a pity adults don’t.

What are you learning today – right now?

Are you learning as much as a nine-month-old?

 

 

Play the Way You’re Facing

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As the father of four children, I suppose it was inevitable that they would become involved in sports, and therefore I would be involved in coaching their teams.

My initial adventure in coaching was with my oldest son in pee wee basketball, coaching a coed team of first-third graders. After three years of that, he migrated to soccer and I began a ten-year soccer coaching career with all four kids: team manager, assistant coach, and coach, with teams ranging from a preschool beginning team to a senior high classic team – and everything in-between. From 5-year-old “herd” ball to 16-year-old girl’s recreation to 18-year-old classic, I’ve pretty much seen it all. Not growing up with soccer, it was pretty much on-the-job training for me.

I read the books, watched the CDs, went to training classes, and got the coaching certifications. Practices for my teams were all the same: learn the game, learn to play together, and have fun doing it. In spite of the practices, hard work, and game plans, when game day rolled around and the first whistle blew, it was like a blank canvas for a painter: where do you go from here?

Sometime along that coaching journey, I picked up a saying that became my favorite instruction as a coach, whether on the practice field or in a game situation:

Play the way you’re facing

In soccer you must be prepared for instant action no matter what the situation. Your opponent may be driving down the field, heading toward your goal; you may be set to defend them one way but a sudden pass finds a whole new situation confronting you. You don’t have time to call a timeout, put in new players, and start a new play. The situation calls upon your instincts and training and awareness of your surroundings. You have to play the way you’re facing, and make the best out of it.

Isn’t it like that in ChurchWorld too? We have our long-range plans and strategic actions and bold initiatives and so on. More often than not, the world doesn’t work like that. New challenges can arise overnight. A crisis doesn’t wait on us; we have to meet it head-on. At that point, your leadership team can’t call a time out to let you regroup and develop a new action plan.

Church leadership is at its very best when the skills and characteristics instilled in the normal everyday learnings of a disciple are allowed to mature and be put into practice when the situation demands it. We don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring, but we know the Creator and Lord of the days. If we are obedient to Him, He will see us through any circumstance, all the way to the other side.

 

Dilbert 2.0

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If there were no such thing as the ubiquitous office cubicle, there would be no Dilbert comic strip.

A whole generation of managers, office dweebs, nerdy engineers, and cubicle dwellers have relied on the wry humor and dead-on happenings that Scott Adams wrote about in the iconic office space design of the ’60s.

Now, it seems the office cubical is undergoing a much-needed redesign. Led by big-name design firms Knoll and Herman Miller, the cubicle is moving away from rows upon rows of stark utilitarian spaces and towards features that emphasize comfort and collaboration.

Read more about it in the July/August issue of “Fast Company” or take a quick look at the online version here.

What’s your favorite Dilbert cartoon or personal cubicle story?

 

Beaches Aren’t the Only Place for Summer Reading

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It’s July – the middle of the summer. Many people are heading out on vacation – to the beach, to the mountains, to a family gathering. I hope your vacation is a safe, relaxing time for you and your family.

Oh, and by the way, take a book – or two.

Summer is a great time for reading – even if you’re not on vacation. Admittedly, I’m biased. I’m a voracious reader – to the tune of 3-5 books per week. For me, reading is a discipline – but it’s also a gift.

You should be a reader, too, because leaders are readers. To explore that thought, click here. Need some recommendations? Here are my favorite books from the past couple of years:

2009    2010

And if you’re really curious, follow this link to my Leader’s Library – a Google Books listing of my library, including books I own, books I’ve checked out of the library this year, books I’m reading now, and books I’m looking forward to reading. Look for an interesting book title – and “check it out” at your local library.

Want to know more about reading, or any of the books mentioned above or in my library? Leave a comment or email me!

So – what are you reading this summer?

What I’m Re-Learning from a 9 Month Old…

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I’ve made an astounding discovery: If you want a definition of curiosity and exploration, just watch a 9 month old discovering her surroundings.

A little backstory: while my son is going through basic training in the Air Force, our daughter-in-law and 9 month old granddaughter are living with my wife and me. It’s been a long time since we’ve had an infant in the house – over 18 years, in fact. Even with four children, I forgot how fascinating babies are – they are learning machines.

Babies are born with a deep desire to understand the world around them and an incessant curiosity that compels them to aggressively explore it. Even though she hasn’t yet begun to crawl more than a few feet at a time, my granddaughter is constantly in motion when she is on the floor – looking at objects, responding to sounds, grabbing things, and putting most of them in her mouth (GrandBob disclaimer: I only let her put Mom-approved objects in her mouth).

Babies younger than a year old will systematically analyze an object with every sensory weapon at their disposal. They will feel it, kick it (we have a budding soccer star on our hands), stick it in their mouth, stick it in their ear, and even give it to you to stick it in your mouth. I proved the last item at a cookout last night: after mauling my name tag, my granddaughter insisted that I put it in my mouth – which, of course, I promptly did.

Babies methodically do experiments on the objects in their universe to see what else they will do. We are natural explorers, and the tendency is so strong that it is capable of turning us into lifelong learners.

Music to my ears!

Our brains are not wired to outgrow the thirst for knowledge, but sadly, most of the time we are “educated” out of this natural curiosity. How sad.

As John Medina, author of the absolutely fantastic books “Brain Rules” and “Brain Rules for Baby” states:

The greatest Brain Rule of all is something I cannot prove or characterize, but I believe in with all my heart. As babies try to tell us and show us, it is the importance of curiosity.

What will you be curious about today?

For a few prior posts taking a look at specific topics from Medina’s book, click on these links:

Brain Power

Wiring

Short-Term Memory

Sleep

Vision

Also check out his books:

Brain Rules

Brain Rules for Baby