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Archive for August, 2010
Tuesday Morning Controversy – Crying Baby
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
So here’s the situation:
You’ve got an 18 month old crying (I mean, he’s pretty upset!) More importantly… you’ve got a 38-year-old volunteer upset…because he/she is so frustrated with this child’s inability to “settle down”.
You know a little of the back-story of the baby’s family and basically… mom and dad need a break. They need the time in the service alone.
What do you do? Do you:
A) Page the parents for the sake of the volunteer?
B) Do you tell the volunteer to “toughen up” and remember why we’re here?
C) Do you take the child yourself…thus leaving the leaving “the leader” unable to handle any other situation that arise?
What would you do?
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Willow Creek Leadership Summit Re-Cap (Jim Collins)
Friday, August 13th, 2010
How the Mighty Fall – Jim Collins
- No company / church / nation / society / individual is immune – anyone can fall. – Many do, but not all.
- You can look strong on the inside, but be very sick on the outside.
- The mighty fall through many stages (5 STAGES)
- Stage 1 Hubris born of success
- Outrageous arrogance to neglect our 1st calling
- “Bad decision taken with good intentions are still bad decisions.”
- What makes a “great leader” – HUMILITY
- Stage 2 Undisciplined pursuit of more
- The mighty doesn’t fall because they slow way too down or allow the energy to drain… they fall because they over reach
- Patrick’s Law
- If you allow growth to exceed you ability to have “fantastic people” at all 4 seat – you will fall.
- Stage 3 Denial of risk and peril
- When a culture of denial has taken hold we’re in Stage 3
- The Stockdale Paradigm
- I never wavered in my faith that I would not get out.
- I never doubted that this was happening for a reason
- You must never confuse faith and facts
ú The ability to bring those together
ú Great teams came with both sides
- Stage 4 Grasping for salvation
- Looked for the silver bullet
- Greatness is never a single event or decision
- Stage 5 Capitulation to Irrelevance or death
- At this point most everything is gone – out of choices /options
- Why / how do companies continue despite all that happens
- Because the have a reason to endure.
- They cling to their core values above everything else.
- 10 To-Do’s
- 1.Do you diagnostics (jimcollins.com) free good to great tools
- 2. Count their blessings
- 3. What is your questions to statements ratio
- 4. Answer the question – how many seat, who are the right people, and how do we get there
- 5. How the mighty fall diagnostic
- 6. In your next meeting – inventory of the brutal fact
- 7. Have a stop doing list
- 8. Define results and show clicks on the fly wheel – mile markers – how can you demonstrate / celebrate
- 9. Double your reach to young people by changing your practices and not who you are.
- 10. Set a BHAG
- Peter Drucker “which is your favorite book –my next one”
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Willow Creek Leadership Summit 2010
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
Sorry my posts have been hit and miss lately. I think I’m finally emerging from the huge pile of to-do list. With summer finishing up and fall…well here! It’s been a really crazy couple weeks. Anyway, last week I attended the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. As usual, there were some really great speakers. To be honest, I generally don’t get into this kind of conference, but this year was different. Every speaker pleasantly surprised me. I wanted to post a few of my take-a-ways. Here’s my “boiled down” notes from Bill Hybles talk on leadership.
I. Leaders move people from HERE to THERE .
- During the vision casting… there are always a lot of “good people” who like it HERE and don’t want to go THERE
- Leadership 101 – Vision casting
- Don’t describe how great THERE is – describe how terrible it would be if we stayed HERE.
II. Leaders Find “Fantastic” People (people you can’t live without)
- Character
- Chemistry
- Competency
- Culture (new category)
- It’s vital that new people “fits” into the Culture of the church – pace, pressure, and feel.
- Effective Leaders know how to value and encourage the fantastic leaders.
- Are there sensitive conversations you need to have with fantastic people / “phew people” (people you’d like to see go)
III. Leaders effectively utilize Mile Markers and Celebrations
- The dangerous part of the journey is not at HERE or THERE… it’s in the middle. This is where they hit the wall.
- In the middle
- Refill the vision bucket
- Celebrate every Mile Marker you can.
IV. Leaders listen to the Whispers from God
- My sheep here My voice and heed it.
- These whispers are what keep us from quitting
- DON’T QUIT
V. APPLICATION Possible Whispers from God
- Don’t quit
- Step up
- Take the risk
- Apologize now
- Make the tough decision
- Get help
- Stop running from God
- Slow down
- Show your heart
- Let others lead
- Feed your soul
- Bless the team
- Make the ask
- Do something more impactful
- Come Clean
- Embody the Vision
- Celebrate the victories
- Speak the truth
- Pay the price
- End the secrete
- Check your motives
- Set the pace
- Give God the best
- Serve your family
- Pray …
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Where should we spend our time?
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010Moment of transparency – I work in a church of 4,300-4,500 and often think “Why in the world am I wasting my time!” Here’s what I mean, and know this – I love my church and the people in it. With that being said, here’s my struggle: we are a predominantly white-collar church and to be honest, the people here have money…lots of money. Now, some of these people are using their resources in AMAZING ways to impact the kingdom… but not many. I knew going into this that it’s always hard to minister to the person “who has everything”. Your task becomes having to “show” them they have the need… then help them with the need. Here’s my struggle after doing this for 9 years: this task often comes at the expense of helping people who know they have a need and are desperately looking for help.
Check out this video: This is a place very near and dear to my family’s heart as we’re adopting from Ethiopia.
The Village of Korah – A short documentary from Session 7 Media on Vimeo.
At what point do we stop trying to convince people of their need and just go for those who know their need and are desperately searching for help?
How does your church (or any church for that matter) blend these two tasks… callings?
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