Category Archives: Personal Development

Level 2: Lead by Permission

Posted on by

Definition of a Level 2 Leader: People follow you because they want to

The agenda for leaders on Level 2 isn’t preserving their position. It’s getting to know their people and figuring out how to get along with them. You can like people without leading them, but you cannot lead people well without liking them.

–          John Maxwell, The 5 Levels of Leadership

Today’s post is the second of a series of five that takes a closer look at John Maxwell’s latest book, The 5 Levels of Leadership. As indicated in the introduction to this series, “5 Levels” has been five years in the making. I’ve been in leadership development in ChurchWorld for over 30 years – and I’ve been looking for a resource like this.

To whet your appetite and convince you to drop everything and get your own copy today, over this series I’m going to quote Maxwell’s top 3 points in each of five sections for each of the 5 Levels. In math shorthand, that’s 3 x 5 x 5. The product of that equation is a leadership development gold mine for you! 

Level 2 – Permission

The Upside of Permission

  1. Leadership permission makes work more enjoyable
  2. Leadership permission increases the energy level
  3. Leadership permission opens up channels of communication

The Downside of Permission

  1. Permission leadership appears too soft for some people
  2. Leading by permission can be frustrating for achievers
  3. Permissional leaders can be taken advantage of

Best Behaviors on Level 2

  1. Connect with yourself before trying to connect with others
  2. Develop a people-oriented leadership style
  3. Practice the golden rule

Beliefs That Help a Leader Move Up to Level 3

  1. Relationships alone are not enough
  2. Building relationships requires twofold growth
  3. Achieving the vision as a team is worth risking the relationship

Guide to Growing Through Level 2

  1. Be sure you have the right attitude toward people
  2. Connect with yourself
  3. Understand where you’re coming from

Moving up to Level 2 is an important development in leadership because that is where the followers give their supervisors permission to lead them. People change from being subordinates to followers for the first time, and that means there is movement. Leadership always means that people are going somewhere. They aren’t static. No journey, no leadership.

Tomorrow: Level 3 – Production

Level 1: Lead by Position

Posted on by

Definition of a Level 1 leader: People follow you because they have to

Positional leadership is based on the rights granted by the position and the title. Nothing is wrong with having a leadership position. Everything is wrong with using a position to get people to follow. Position is a poor substitute for influence.

–          John Maxwell, The 5 Levels of Leadership

 Today’s post is the first of a series of five that takes a closer look at John Maxwell’s latest book, The 5 Levels of Leadership. As indicated in the introduction to this series, “5 Levels” has been five years in the making. I’ve been in leadership development in ChurchWorld for over 30 years – and I’ve been looking for a resource like this.

To whet your appetite and convince you to drop everything and get your own copy today, over the next five days I’m going to quote the top 3 points in each of five sections for each of the 5 Levels. In math shorthand, that’s 3 x 5 x 5. The product of that equation is a leadership development gold mine for you!

Level 1 – Position

The Upside of Position

1.       A leadership position is usually given to people because they have leadership potential

2.       A leadership position means authority is recognized

3.       A leadership position is an invitation to grow as a leader

The Downside of Position

1.       Having a leadership position is often misleading

2.       Leaders who rely on position to lead often devalue people

3.       Positional leaders feed on politics 

Best Behaviors on Level 1

1.       Stop relying on position to push people

2.       Trade entitlement for movement

3.       Leave your position and move toward your people 

Beliefs That Help a Leader Move Up to Level 2

1.       Titles are not enough

2.       People – not position – are a leader’s most valuable asset

3.       A leader doesn’t need to have all the answers

Guide to Growing through Level 1

1.       Thank the people who invited you into leadership

2.       Dedicate yourself to leadership growth

3.       Define your leadership

Position is a good starting place – but great leaders are not content to stay there. Moving up from Level 1 to Level 2 requires the greatest personal change from a leader. It requires a change of beliefs and attitudes toward other people and leadership. But here’s the truth: once you decide to include others in the leadership journey, you are well on your way to achieving success at the other levels.

Tomorrow: Level 2 – Permission

Getting a Handle on this Leadership Thing

Posted on by

A church leader I was having a conversation with the other day posed this question: “How can I develop leaders in my church?”

Talk about a loaded question!

The topic of leadership development is usually one of the top three categories of questions that ChurchWorld leaders ask when I am consulting with them. It was a question I always had in the 23+ years I served on a church staff; it’s been a recurring question over the last 7+ years I have been serving as a church development consultant. I also suspect it will be around as long as we have people in our churches!

I don’t have the definitive answer, but I do have an excellent resource on all things leadership: the wisdom and writings of John Maxwell. From his foundational service as a pastor to the founding of EQUIP, Maxwell’s leadership lessons have enlightened corporate CEOs, foreign government leaders, non-profit leaders – and countless ChurchWorld leaders just like you.

Maxwell’s latest book, The 5 Levels of Leadership, contains one of the most succinct answers to the question above. The Five Levels of Leadership:

  • Provides a clear picture of leadership
  • Defines leadership as a verb, not a noun
  • Breaks down leading into understandable steps
  • Provides a clear game plan for leadership development
  • Aligns leadership practices, principles, and values

Maxwell’s book is dedicated to understanding, and developing, the 5 Levels. Each section  gives you the opportunity to learn the upside – and downside of that level; the best behaviors for that level; the beliefs that help a leader move up to the next level, and how that level ties into Maxwell’s “Laws of Leadership.” Each section then concludes with a growth guide for that level.

Beginning tomorrow and continuing for the next 5 days, I will pull out the highlights of John Maxwell’s 5 Levels of Leadership in his own words. I hope that will entice you to pick up a copy and dive into on your own!

As for me, the next time a ChurchWorld leader asks “How can I develop leaders in my church?” I will simply pull out my Kindle and invite that leader for a discussion around the 5 Levels.

Tomorrow: Level 1 – Position

 

Be a Curator

Posted on by

You don’t make a great museum by putting all the art in the world into a single room. 

That’s a warehouse. 

What makes a museum great is the stuff that’s not on the walls. Someone says no. A curator is involved, making conscious decisions about what should stay and what should go. There’s an editing process. There’s a lot more stuff off the walls than on the walls. The best is a sub-sub-subset of all the possibilities.

It’s the stuff you leave out that matters.

So constantly look for things to remove, simplify, and streamline. Be a curator. Stick to what’s truly essential. Pare things down until you’re left with only the most important stuff. Then do it again. You can always add stuff back in later if you need to.

What will you curate today?

The inspirational words above come from the book Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier, the founders of 37signals.

If you don’t own it, you should.

The artwork is by illustrator Mike Rohde.

 

 

 

 

Long Lists Don’t Get Done

Posted on by

Start making smaller to-do lists. Long lists collect dust.

When’s the last time you finished a long list of things? You might have knocked off the first few, but chances are you eventually abandoned it (or blindly checked off items that weren’t really done properly).

Long lists are guilt trips. The longer the list of unfinished items, the worse you feel about it. And at a certain point, you just stop looking at it because it makes you feel bad. Then you stress out and the whole thing turns into a big mess.

There’s a better way. Break that long list down into a bunch of smaller lists. For example, break a single list of a hundred items into ten lists of ten items. That means when you finish an item on a list, you’ve completed 10 percent of that list, instead of 1 percent.

Yes, you still have the same amount of stuff left to do. But know you can look at the small picture and find satisfactions, motivation, and progress. That’s a lot better than staring at the huge picture and being terrified and demoralized.

Whenever you can, divide problems into smaller and smaller pieces until you’re able to deal with them completely and quickly. Simply rearranging your tasks this way can have an amazing impact on your productivity and motivation.

And a quick suggestion about prioritization: Don’t prioritize with numbers or labels. Avoid saying, “This is high priority, this is low priority.” Likewise, don’t say, “This is a three, this is a two, this is a one, this is a three,” etc. Do that and you’ll almost always end up with a ton of really high-priority things. That’s not really prioritizing.

Instead, prioritize visually. Put the most important thing at the top. When you’re done with that, the next thing on the list becomes the next most important thing. That way you’ll only have a single next most important thing to do at one time.

And that’s enough.

 

The inspirational words above come from the book “Rework,” by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the founders of 37signals.

                           If you don’t own it, you should. 

The artwork is by illustrator Mike Rohde.

Emulate Chefs

Posted on by

With the culinary art/leadership connection going on, and the fact that I’ve been rereading Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson’s great book “Rework“, I thought the following post from last year would be appropriate again.

You’ve probably heard of Emeril Lagasse, Mario Batali, Rachel Ray, Paula Deen, Bobby Flay, Jacque Pepin, or Julia Child. They’re great chefs, but there are a lot of great chefs out there. So why do you know these few better than others?

Because they share everything they know.

They put their recipes in cookbooks and show their techniques on cooking shows. They want you to take what they have developed and make it your own.

Great organizations should share everything they know, too. Don’t be paranoid and secretive, but be open and generous.

A recipe is much easier to copy than a business idea. Shouldn’t that scare someone like Mario Batali? Why would he go on TV and show you how he does what he does? Why would he put all his recipes in cookbooks where anyone can buy and replicate them? Because he knows those recipes and techniques aren’t enough to beat him at his own game. No one’s going to buy his cookbook, open a restaurant next door, and put him out of business. It doesn’t work like that, but many organizations think that’s what will happen if others learn how they do things.

Emulate famous chefs. They cook, so they write cookbooks.

What do you do? What are your “recipes”? What’s your “cookbook”? What can you tell the world about how you operate that’s informative, educational, and promotional?

What’s cooking in your “kitchen” that you should share?

 

Pursuing Excellence…

Posted on by

Always.

From an instructor at the Culinary Institute of America:

Cooking is an inexact science, and this is where the art comes in. You’ve got standard ratios that work up to a point. There are always variables, as far as: Did you cook all the roux out? How high was your cooking temperature? How much evaporation did you have? How much did it reduce? You have to take all those things into account, and see what your final product is, and figure out how to fix it. You have to be not so stressed out or under pressure that you can say “I know it’s not right and I need to fix it.”

“You can’t ever send a product out if it’s not right,” he continued. It doesn’t matter how busy you are – your reputation is on the line every time you put a plate out. If you send it out hoping they won’t notice, then that’s the kind of chef you will be all your life.

“So. Start. Good habits. Early! Do it right. Take your time.”

As Tom Peters would say:

EXCELLENCE.

Always.

If not EXCELLENCE, what?

If not EXCELLENCE now, when?

Excellence is not a goal – it’s the way we live, who we are.

What’s up at your place, excellence-wise? Are you content with the same old, same old? Is is good enough? Or are you pursuing excellence?

Strive for excellence – ignore success.

What’s Your Stock?

Posted on by

Stock…

…the foundation for all classical French cooking.

At the CIA (that’s Culinary Institute of America), you start off your three-year education by learning how to peel vegetables and prepare a basic stock. You don’t do it once – you do it every day during the three-week rotation of the first class. Students move on after the first three weeks, but will continue to use the stock prepared by the next class of new students. Every three weeks, a new rotation of prospective chefs learn how to prepare stock.

A great stock is judged by:

  • Flavor
  • Clarity
  • Color
  • Body
  • Aroma

The perfect stock has what is referred to as a “neutral” flavor. This is a kind way of saying it doesn’t taste like anything you’re used to eating or would want to eat. But you can do a million different things with a great stock because it has the remarkable quality of taking on other flavors without imposing a flavor of its own. It offers its own richness and body anonymously. When you reduce it, it becomes its own sauce starter. You can add roux to stock and create a demi-glace, and with a demi-glace, you can make over a hundred distinct sauces that define classic French cooking.

What’s your stock?

Personally. Organizationally. However you want to define it.

What’s that basic “thing” you are, have, or do that makes everything else come together to make things happen?

Learn to make a basic stock, and the possibilities become endless.

Making a Leadership Emulsion

Posted on by

Some of the most flavorful, satisfying, and versatile sauces in the culinary world are an emulsion – but you’ve got to work to make one.

This is an emulsion: an agreement between two unlike elements (butter and water), achieved by heat and motion. If you get it slightly wrong – as when the sauce starts to dry out, destroying the balance between the fat and the liquid – the unlike elements pull apart and break up. When that happens, it takes more work to get the emulsion back to where you want it than it did to get it in the first place.

As a ChurchWorld leader, you are, in effect, an emulsion.

Both leadership and management are necessary skills to bring your organization forward. While many people separate “leadership” and “management,” they are both necessary.

Leadership involves inspiring, motivating, crafting a vision, setting direction, strategic thinking, and bringing out the best in your people.

Management involves planning, tracking, and measuring – in short, handling all the nuts-and-bolts of day-to-day business operations.

People in positions of responsibility and leadership – like you – need to do both well in order to be successful. This need dramatically intensifies during times of economic uncertainty, shifting internal and external forces, and the constant need to do more with less – like now.

You need to be an “emulsified leader:” building solid skills in both leadership and management AND the ability to switch gracefully between the two.

If Only Things Were Like They Used To Be

Posted on by

Nostalgia is a natural human emotion, a survival mechanism that pushes people to avoid risk by applying what we’ve learned and relying on what’s worked before.

It’s also about as useful as an appendix right now.

That quote is from Fast Company Editor Robert Safian, writing the cover story “Generation Flux” for the February 2012 issue. He goes on to add:

When times seem uncertain, we instinctively become more conservative; we look to the past, to times that seemed simpler, and we have the urge to recreate them. This impulse is as true for organizations  as for people. But when the past has been blown away by new technology, by the ubiquitous and always-on global hypernetwork, beloved best practices may well be useless.

ChurchWorld, to a great extent, finds itself in that situation right now.

There are huge shifts occurring in the economic, social, cultural, and spiritual fabric of our lives right now. That’s not new – change has always been a part of who we as humans are. But what’s different is the pace of change. It’s not just getting faster – it’s accelerating along an exponential curve.

And the response of ChurchWorld?

Put a fence around your facility and charge admission to a museum dedicated to the 1990s – or 1980s – or 1970s – or 1960s – or 1950s – or…

Oh, it’s not that blatant – but it is obvious.

It’s time to change.

My absolute favorite quote about change is from Will Rogers:

Will Rogers quote

To survive THRIVE in this age of flux, you have to claim what makes your church unique, what sets you apart from 10,000 other churches, what God has uniquely gifted your people to be and do.  Hold onto that – and change any and every thing else that needs to be changed in order to live out God’s calling.