From the category archives:

Leadership

Who’s On Your SWOT Team?

by Andy Wood on January 30, 2012

in Executing Your Plan,Five LV Laws,Leadership,Life Currency,LV Cycle,Principle of Increase

They called their hangout at Chip’s place the Land of O.Z. Not because there were witches, wizards, or munchkins there, but because whenever Chip, Blake and Tony got together, the ideas would start flying. And they were living in the Opportunity Zone.

The three friends met in the dorm at their university, and were all business majors.  And they were dreamers.  Entrepreneurial types, always looking for the next big idea or opportunity.

In the Land of O.Z., no idea was considered taboo.  These friends would dream and scheme, design and research, test and toss away ideas before breakfast was done.  They even tried one or two, mostly for fun.  Not much happened.

Their big opportunity came when they anticipated the emergence of smart phones and the apps that drove them.  This would be their surefire thing – what the Internet boom (and bust) had meant to the 1990s.  They would establish a software design company that specialized in apps for iPhones.

A year later, Wizard of Apps was more or less history, and the friends-for-life had moved on.

Why? [click to continue…]

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Dear Texas Department of Transportation

by Andy Wood on January 25, 2012

in 100 Words,Leadership,Life Currency,LV Alter-egos,Pleasers,Spoofs

Thanks for spending the money and manpower to tell us, not once but three times, what we already knew from the rattling and bouncing of our vehicles.

Is it too much to ask you to actually solve the problem?

I guess if you can’t amaze us with the outcomes, you can always astound us with the obvious.

Hmmm. [click to continue…]

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The Courage-Giving Leader

by Andy Wood on January 18, 2012

in Executing Your Plan,Five LV Laws,Hoarders,Leadership,Life Currency,LV Alter-egos,LV Cycle,Pleasers,Principle of Abundance

Quick Question:  What do the people you lead (and you do lead somebody) do when trouble shows up?

Quick Answer:  They do what you lead them to do.

More Thoughtful Question:  Do the people you lead (and you do lead somebody) run for the hills or cower in fear at the first sign of trouble, or do they courageously rise up to the challenge?

More Thoughtful Answer:  They do what you lead them to do.  Not necessarily what tell them to do or manipulate them to do.  What you lead them to do.

That reminds me of a story.  True story.  About a guy named Eli.  Now Eli was a soldier, and being a soldier, he had a Commander-in-Chief.  And the reason Eli’s Commander-in-Chief was the Commander-in-Chief was because he was the biggest dude in all the land.

You know what the problem is with making the biggest dude in all the land the Commander-in-Chief?  Sooner or later he’s gonna run into a bigger dude.  And that’s what happened.  Eli’s boss went quaking in his boots to the rear of the line because he was staring down the barrel of an overwhelming challenge.

So you know what Eli did?  He quaked in his boots too.  I’m talking, Give up now.  Better fled than dead.

One day later – one day! – that’s Eli with his shield up, his sword drawn, charging headlong into the enemy’s camp and taking no prisoners.  What made the difference? [click to continue…]

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How Does Your Leader Make You Feel?

by Andy Wood on December 12, 2011

in Enlarging Your Capacity,Five LV Laws,Leadership,Life Currency,Love,LV Cycle,Principle of Increase

Okay I need your feedback.  Now.  Humor me, it’s easy.  Scroll down to the comments section. Or click on the article title if you’re reading this on the feed or email, then scroll down to comments.

When you get there, give me your first response to this question.

Think of someone who is in a leadership position over your life – work, church, nonprofit, political.  How does that leader most often make you feel?

One word answers are fine.  Diatribes are fine.  Rants are fine.  Gushing is allowed, too.  First names are OK.  Give your answer,  then click “submit” and come back to the top.

I’ll wait right here.

(This is me waiting.)

Okay.  Back?  Let’s talk. [click to continue…]

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How Mrs. Mays Got Her Four-Year-Olds to Listen

by Andy Wood on December 9, 2011

in Enlarging Your Capacity,Five LV Laws,Leadership,Life Currency,LV Cycle,Principle of Increase,Turning Points,Words

Jackie Mays was a legend.  Maybe not everywhere, but certainly in some of the circles we roamed in when our kids were small.  And to a couple of four-year-old twin girls, Mrs. Mays was larger than life.

Sending your kids off to school for the first time is a big adjustment.  Especially when they’re your oldest, and they’re the ripe old age of four.  Enter Mrs. Mays.  Not only was she a faithful member of our church in Birmingham, she was one of the K-4 teachers at Grace Christian School.  And a legendary gift she was, to both parents and their little darlings.

“Daddy, Mrs. Mays says…”

“Daddy, that’s not how Mrs. Mays…”

In Mrs. Mays’ class they learned the basics of reading and writing and that other “r.”  They learned the pledges and the Star-Spangled Banner. (Cassie used to come home with that wistful, “I just love America.”)  They learned to love God’s word, and learned the gospel and about heaven and hell and the price Jesus paid to snatch us from the one to take us to the other.  And they had fun learning it all.

There were no assistants, aides, or volunteers.  Just one amazing woman and a room full of four-year-olds, who most days sat mesmerized or did what was expected.

I want to tell you one of her not-so-secret secrets. [click to continue…]

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What To Do When You Realize You Aren’t Going to Change the World

by Andy Wood on December 7, 2011

in Consumers,Enlarging Your Capacity,Five LV Laws,Insight,Leadership,Life Currency,LV Alter-egos,LV Cycle,Principle of Increase

Change your nation instead.  Or your community.  Or your neighborhood.  Or in those really desperate cases, change yourself.

Changing the world has become a cliché.

“This generation will change the world.”

“You have the power to change the world.”

“That [insert role of another person] you [insert action you perform] may just change the world someday.”

Maybe they can.  Maybe you will.  And yes, it is possible.

And no, you probably won’t.  [click to continue…]

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What to Do When You’ve Suddenly Lost Your Vision

by Andy Wood on November 25, 2011

in Insight,Leadership,Life Currency,Turning Points

The other day I turned left out of a parking lot and started heading south on Avenue Q, between 19th and 34th Streets in Lubbock, where I live.  If you’re not familiar with that stretch of road, it’s a seven-lane thoroughfare, with three lanes each heading south and north, and a turn lane.  Big.  Wide.  Sprawling.  Busy.

It was in the afternoon, around 3:00 or so.  I was talking on the phone with Joel, my son.  Traffic was busy enough, but not nuts.  I was in the middle lane, with cars pretty much all around me – left and right, front and back.  I was probably about a quarter mile from the 34th Street intersection when the strangest thing began to happen.

I went blind. [click to continue…]

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Someone Out There Still Believes

by Andy Wood on November 21, 2011

in Five LV Laws,Following Your Passion,Leadership,LV Cycle,Principle of Eternity

When the Son of man comes will he find faith on the earth?

-Jesus Christ (Luke 18:8)

Welcome to the waterdown season.

Welcome to the days when we’re thankful, but not really sure Who to thank.

Where we count our blessings, but choke on the Name of the Blesser.

Welcome to the days where we deck the halls and hang the balls,

And sing wistful songs about traffic jams and bells and chestnuts.

When the world becomes a Winter Wonderland without a Wonderful Counselor –

And seeks peace on earth without the Prince of Peace.

But I’m not whining or pining away for the days of Rockwell or Currier and Ives,

Because God has always had a remnant of believing hearts and transformed lives.

And I’m still hopeful and expectant that in the city sidewalks or crowded stores,

In festive churches or feastful tables, someone out there still believes. [click to continue…]

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What You Can Learn From a Ghost House

by Andy Wood on October 31, 2011

in Five LV Laws,Leadership,Life Currency,LV Cycle,Principle of Legacy,Protecting Your Investment

I don’t know what else to call them.  But if they were all in the same vicinity or neighborhood, they’d be part of a ghost town.  They’re usually uninhabitable, with windows and doors gone or broken, and the roof letting in morning sunshine.

There’s at least one near you somewhere, but it may not be as easy to see as the hundreds that dot the wide open landscape near where I live.

Abandoned, but never empty.  For lack of a better term, I call them ghost houses.

Not haunted houses, though I’d rather not wander into one of these things after dark.  Broad open daylight either, for that matter.

Once upon a time these places provided a home for families.  Now they sit empty.  Sometimes the reason is obvious; sometimes it doesn’t make sense at all. Just in the last week I’ve seen several once-lovely and spacious homes now left to the elements, vandals, and critters.

Maybe someone died, and left no heir.  Maybe business dried up or sold out and forced a move.  Maybe the place got tied up in some sort of disagreement in court or with a bank.

Regardless, the end result is the same – empty, eroding testaments to lost usefulness and life.

Oh, if they could talk!  Oh, if they could teach us!

Call me weird (okay, who said that?).  But what started as a years-long fascination has led me to visit and photograph over 200 of these old places over the last week.  Most were houses.  But there are also old stores, gas stations, barns, schools, and even a few abandoned churches.

Some are part of the three certifiable ghost towns I’ve visited (a story for another day).  Most stand alone on the edge of town or in the middle of nowhere.

Nobody built one of these planning for them to sit desolate.  But sit they do.  And while the ghost houses have lost their primary purpose because nobody can actually live or work in them anymore, they being dead still speak.

And no, they’re not hollering, “Boo!”

They’re teaching some powerful lessons that speak to us as individuals and leaders, churches and organizations. [click to continue…]

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The Unselfish Leader

by Andy Wood on October 8, 2011

in Leadership,Life Currency

Disciple:  Oh wise one, why do people put others up on a pedestal?

Guru:  Target practice.

+++++++

Leadership is in the crosshairs these days, and it sure seems as though everybody has an itchy trigger finger.  The most hated man in the world is the President of the United States – whoever he is.  Change the name and face, we just paint new targets.

And Congress?  Ha.  First of all, they aren’t elected leaders; they’re elected representatives.  Second, until we can vote for all 435 offices, we’ll always love ours and hate everybody else’s.

But our hostility to leaders isn’t limited to government.  Whether in business and banking, sports and entertainment, churches and nonprofits, or pretty much any other endeavor, leaders are perceived as self-serving – even at the expense of employees and the good of the organization itself.

Is that fair?  No and yes. [click to continue…]

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