Ask most any Christ follower who or what the ultimate model for leadership is, and they’ll point you to Jesus Christ.
Ask that same Christ follower what the ultimate standard for leadership is, and they’ll probably land on servanthood. “Jesus was a servant leader,” they will opine, “and He called His followers to lead by serving.”
Okay, so far, so good. One more question.
Ask that same believer to name somebody from among the most successful ministries or institutions who actually practices servant leadership across the board…
…and watch their pupils widen. The headlights just caught the deer.
In spite of all our claims to servant leadership, the honest truth is that leadership on a grand scale means knowing what to do with opportunity, influence, power, and public image. Can a leader have all of that and remain a servant?
Yes.
But will he?
Camels and the eye of the needle come to mind. [click to continue…]
The happiest man I ran into yesterday had a distinguishing feature. He only had one arm.
I don’t know is name, but I know his game; he’s a manager at one of the local fast-food Italian restaurants in town. In the short time we were there during the lunch rush, I saw him take orders at the register, manage those delicious breadsticks they’re famous for giving away, manage his team to make sure orders got out and the place stayed clean, and – most importantly – see to it that his customers were happy.
We sure were. And it started with him showing us that he was happy to be there. He has an infectious smile and a good-natured laugh that invites you to laugh along. Sure comes in handy when the lunch line is snaking out the door.
Hmmm. [click to continue…]
Your most trusted employee visits your email inbox with a request for a meeting. When you find the time to get together, he discloses to you that he has a substance abuse problem that requires in-house treatment. Upon further review, you discover that his abuse took place on more than one occasion while on the job – a fireable offense. This is his first sign of trouble. What do you do?
Your teenage daughter is at a friend’s house for a sleepover; you know the friend and are at least familiar with the friend’s parents. You’re awakened at 1:20 a.m. by your daughter asking you to bail her out of jail. The charge: drunk driving. This is the second time you have caught her drinking, but the first time you have had any evidence of drinking and driving. How do you respond?
Your youth pastor has been rumored or accused of inappropriate relationships with girls in his youth groups – one former, one current – which he vehemently denies. He explains that he was just showing Christian concern for someone who had been abused or hurt in the past, and his kindness was misinterpreted. Nevertheless, Scripture is clear that there shouldn’t even be a hint of immorality or impurity among God’s people, and particularly leaders. The youth pastor is very popular among the students, but has his critics among your adults. Keeping him could leave you liable to a lawsuit or public accusation; firing him could decimate your youth group. What do you do? [click to continue…]
Leadership is generational
Every great or good leader I have studied or known all had one thing in common: Somebody saw their potential and called them out. They had an authority figure or a prophet, an “evangelist” or a teacher/coach who handed them the reigns one day, or encouraged them to go out and find their own place of influence.
There comes a point at which every leader must see past his or her own headlights. [click to continue…]
An interesting op-ed headline appeared in The Chicago Tribune a few days ago. It read, “Govern like a leader, not a politician.” The author, Mike Lawrence, proposed that the current financial mess in Illinois would only be solved by politicians who had the courage to do unpopular things (raise taxes, I presume) rather than trying to please people.
Oh… leadership.
Ooh… politics.
Can they ever really coexist? [click to continue…]
Ask an adult to define leadership, and sometimes you’ll get a blank stare, or a wad of contradictions. Ask a child to do it, and he or she will often have a much easier time. The leader in a kid’s world is the one who can get his friends to do what he wants them to do. Or leadership may begin with the words, “Hey, you know what would be funny?”
One thing adults should know that kids often don’t, however, is that anybody can lead. That skinny, awkwardly-shy girl in third grade may be a corporate CEO or trailblazing missionary in the making. That boy who’s always picked last for the kickball team may own a sports team one day.
Everybody is a potential leader. Leadership is not synonymous with talent or personality types. Leadership ability is not always obvious. And it sure isn’t the same thing as authority.
Leadership is influence. And influence – especially good influence – can be taught. And here’s the really cool part: You can teach a child to influence others without them knowing that’s what you’re doing.
So whether you have kids of your own (works for grandchildren, too), or you work with children in some capacity, here are ten ideas for fostering leadership in the kids in your world. [click to continue…]
I got fired. I’d like to tell you why.
Just before I started grad school, I got a sales job with a unique premise. “Come to work for my janitorial company,” Sergio said, “and I will pay you a commission for as long as we clean the building.”
Remember that thing your mama told you about something sounding too good to be true? Yeah, that.
Living in a city the size of Fort Worth, I could easily see the potential for making some really good money for a long time. After all, the city was filled with office buildings, and that was the focus of Fort Worth Enterprises – particularly the big ones.
You can imagine how my eyes danced with dollar signs when I helped land the company’s first big account – no less than Hulen Mall. [click to continue…]
The boys of summer are back. You’ll find them hanging out in Florida and Arizona ballparks, getting those winter cobwebs cleared out, and setting out to prove they’re worth all that money (or should be paid all that money).
But while it still has to be worked out on the field, and the first word to start the proceedings is still, “Play,” make no mistake about it. The 2010 version of this game got started as soon as Mark Teixeira caught the last out of the ’09 World Series. And it was all business. That game is played by General Managers on telephones and at conference hotels and in corporate offices throughout North America and, in some cases, in island Caribbean nations or the Pacific Rim.
They were about the business of building a team. And not just for 2010.
Your payroll may be slightly less and your personnel decision may not involve as many people. But wherever you connect with others to get things done, you or somebody is building a team. And the decisions you make today can affect the quality of your team(s) for years to come.
Just ask Bobby Cox, who is retiring this year after 50 years in the game. Cox has the distinction of hiring his own boss as the GM of the Atlanta Braves and “demoting” himself back to the field manager in 1991. Between him and John Schuerholz, the Braves reeled off 14 consecutive division titles – a feat unmatched in professional sports anywhere.
So what can we learn from the likes of Cox/Schuerholz, or the New York Yankees, who won their 27th World Series title last year? [click to continue…]
(The Law of the Nail, Part 2)
In the previous post I introduced you to The Law of the Nail. A corollary to the Law of the Hammer (“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”), the Law of the Nail says,
If you are a nail, and especially if you’ve been pounded a time or two, everything (and everybody) looks like a hammer.
That’s even true when you’re a light bulb, not a hammer. Just watch the video:
Everybody gets banged up by people or by life sooner or later. But sometimes we are faced with situations in which we must work with, lead, or love people who, in nail terminology, are really bent up.
Because you are on the same planet, much less in the same building or room, they don’t trust you. Doesn’t matter whether you have earned their mistrust or not. They perceive, speak, and reason through their woundedness. And as far as they’re concerned, you’re just another hammer, waiting for your chance to pound away at them.
So what do you do with these people? Make their fears come true? Write them off? Get offended? Ignore them?
I’d like to suggest that you have an opportunity to both get the job done (whatever “the job” is) and be an instrument of healing. Here are some ideas: [click to continue…]
Okay this post is interactive, so get a pen and something other than your outgoing mail to write on. Or do what I did and pop up your word processor.
Here’s the challenge: Watch the 46-second video below and see if, based on that, you can think of at least one adjective that begins with each letter of the alphabet. (Confession: I had to watch about five times, but I got it.)
Why this video? Only because I saw it the other day and thought it was way-cool. Here’s the back story: A missionary had distributed Gideon Bibles to a village in Malawi, Africa. These people were so happy to get their hands on their own Bibles, they spontaneously broke out into song and dancing, worshipping God in gratitude. (When was the last time you did that when you got a new Bible?)
So click on the “play” button and start listing adjectives. See how many plays it takes for you to get a full list. I’ll show you my list after it’s over and you have yours.
[click to continue…]
Ask most any Christ follower who or what the ultimate model for leadership is, and they’ll point you to Jesus Christ. 
