Some questions to ask yourself as you finish 2019

A good post from Dave Kraft!

Socrates is often quoted as having said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” This might be a bit of a stretch, and some even question whether Socrates ever said it, but someone obviously said it, as we still quote it today.

However, I do believe that it’s safe to say that an examined life stands a better chance of succeeding in significant ways as opposed to a life which is never examined evaluated or reflected upon.

Every year in late December, I take some time to both look back and to look ahead. It’s okay to use the past as a guidepost, but not as a hitching post.  I don’t want the past to hold me back but to point me forward through lessons learned as I reflect on what happened or didn’t happen, and plan for the next year.

I love what Paul says in Philippians 3:10-14 (ESV):

“That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Paul is learning from the past, but not living in the past. With great energy, and Jesus-empowered resolve, he is pressing into what lies before him as he desires increasing maturity in Jesus.

With these thoughts in mind, here are some questions we can all ask ourselves as 2019 comes to a close, as we reflect on this past year and lean into the new year which is just around the corner.

1.  What is the greatest lesson you learned this past year that you never want to forget?

2.  How might you have behaved or acted differently this past year if you could do it over again?

3.  Looking back over the year, what did you set out to do that you didn’t do and why?

4.  What key discipline did you live out this past year that had a significant impact on your life? What was the impact? 

5.  What are you most proud of this past year?

6.  What were the key surprises (good or bad) that happened this past year?

7.  Which relationships in your life grew this year and which regressed?

8.  If you could go back to the beginning of this year, what piece of advice would you give yourself and why?

9.  Looking back, what was the overarching theme for the year?

Please don’t just read these probing questions, but take a good block of time and carefully and prayerfully respond to them. 

HOW TO DEVELOP TEAMS THAT TALK LESS AND ACHIEVE MORE

A great post by Dan Reiland.

Talking gives the illusion of action!

If the room goes quiet when you ask, “What are we going to do about that?”, you have a team that talks too much and achieves too little.

The illusion that talking is achievement leads to:

1. Smug superiority. You look down on the people you talk about.
2. Self-satisfied frustration. Leadership teams that talk more than act develop frustration toward the people they should encourage and support.
3. Self-deluded stagnation. Teams that talk – but don’t act – imagine they’re getting things done.

Teams that talk focus on the responsibility of others.

Action creates personal responsibility.

Hidden value of action:

1. Openness to listen and learn. People who talk too much over-estimate their knowledge.
2. Momentum. You’re stuck until you act.
3. Clear thinking. Guesswork happens while you sit and talk. Clarity happens when you get off the stool of do-nothing.

How teams overcome inaction:

#1. Set deadlines.

Before the discussion begins, ask, “When would you like to be doing something about this agenda item?”

Make small decisions now. Procrastination invites overthinking.

Distill big decisions into a series of small action steps.

#2. Ask for action.

Before the meeting ends, ask, “Is there any reason we can’t move forward on this now?” If the answer is, “We CAN’T move forward right now.”:

1. List and rank the top reasons you can’t move forward now.
2. Focus on the top three concerns.
3. Assign concerns to the people around the table. “Please return to our next meeting with three possible answers to the concern you’ve been assigned.”
4. Schedule your next meeting soon. “If we had to, how quickly could we act on this item?”
5. Set the tone. The purpose of our next meeting is to find small ways to move forward.

Take a small step if you can’t take a giant leap.

7 Actions that Cripple Leaders

A great post by Ron Edmondson

I’m constantly thinking about how I can help people on our team improve as leaders. Of course, in order for that to happen, it means I must constantly be improving as a leader. I realize our team’s potential to get better at leading others is limited to the extent I am willing to become a better leader.

I’ve learned along the way to being a better leader that there are some things that simply keep leaders from being effective. I used the word “cripple” in the title and I don’t think that is too strong a word. The things I’m going to list have all crippled me during the seasons of my leadership. There are some actions or characteristics which can simply derail a leader’s potential for success if not identified and addressed.  Understanding these and disciplining ourselves to avoid them can make us better leaders.

Here are 7 actions which can cripple a leader:

Trying to personally handle too much.

Too many changes at one time. Too much on your plate. Refusing to delegate. You can only do so much and when you try to do more you almost always lose efficiency and effectiveness.

I realized this as our church plant was growing quickly. I was trying to meet with people, be active in the community, lead our staff and organizational structure and still preach effectively on Sunday. Something had to give. I started giving some things away and it was amazing how much better my messages became on Sunday – and how much more effective I was in my other responsibilities.

Refusing to rest.

Resting isn’t just a nice quote on a 10 commandments plaque. It’s a command for a reason. Our bodies and minds need time to rejuvenate and recover. Burnout is almost always a result of leaders who fail to say no or are never still.

I have had more than one hard learning curve in this area. Thankfully, I’ve matured and now I can say the more stressful the season the more I discipline myself to exercise and get away from the office. In the busier than normal season, I don’t have to work harder, but smarter.

Allowing critics voices to dominate.

You will always have critics. And, you shouldn’t ignore learning from them – even when you don’t agree with them. As leaders, we must remain humble and teachable. But, this doesn’t mean we allow the dominant voice to be those who aren’t even supportive of leadership or where we are leading. In my experience, most of the time there are some people that are critics regardless of who is leader.

I’ll never forget the time this one lady continued to blast me about the “satanic” music our church sang. It wasn’t satanic at all. In fact, we were careful with our lyrics on every song we used in our worship services. The problem was it wasn’t her style. For a while I let this haunt me every Sunday. I was paranoid about what others might be saying. But, then I realized there were lots of people who were better engaging in worship because of our style. Plus, there were plenty of other churches that might have more closely aligned with her preference. I couldn’t allow her preference to control what was leading a couple thousand other people in worship every week.

Ignoring the hard decisions.

Leadership isn’t needed if we simply manage the status quo. Leadership takes people to unknown places. This requires change – and change can be uncomfortable. Let me correct that – change is always uncomfortable – to someone. In my experience, leadership is often crippled until someone is willing to make hard decisions. As leaders, we must not lead to be popular but to do the right things to achieve the worthy, pre-established visions of our organization.

This has been true so many times as we have had to change or stop programming in an established church. I’ve learned “we’ve always done it this way” is rarely true. When a church is over 100 years old there’s nearly nothing done the same way it was when the church started. They’ve simply done it that way long enough to be comfortable. But, part of our success has been the willingness to move forward – strategically and cautiously – with needed improvements towards our vision. This has included hard decisions involving programming, but even harder decisions regarding people. (And, the people decisions are always the hardest – but, sometimes the ones most needed.)

Controlling everything.

When the leader has to know everything happening in the organization or when they are paranoid because they don’t, we know there is crippled leadership somewhere – either with the leader or those being led. Most leaders don’t want to be surprised on major things, but when they have to be intimately involved in every decision and every detail it usually indicates they don’t trust their team. That’s crippling to any leader – and the team.I’ve always been pretty good at delegating. It may have come when we bought a small manufacturing company and I was completely in over my head as a leader. I quickly realized if I was going to have any success I had to release control and trust other people – often people more qualified in areas than me. That learning experience has surely helped me as a pastor.

Impatience.

Rome wasn’t built in a day. And, neither are healthy organizations. Leaders must learn to have patience and perseverance, even when those on the team are growing weary. Many times we quit just before the turnaround.

I have sat with so many pastors – especially attempting revitalization – who were short-term at their churches – not because the work was finished, but because they were not patient with how long the process of change was taking. The best leadership happens over seasons and years – not over days and weeks.

Developing a sense of entitlement.

The leader who ever feels they’ve “arrived”, stops learning, or begins to take all the credit for success in the organization has become a very crippled leader. The team will no longer support the leader fully. They will trip on their own ego. It’s simply the quickest way to failure. I could spend a whole blog post – and probably should – on how I have personally witnessed egos lead to moral, spiritual and professional failure. Chances are, however, you have witnessed this plenty of times also. Pride always goes before the fall.

Those are a few actions or attitudes which I have seen cripple good leadership. It’s always sad to me to see a good leader fail. My prayer is this could be a check for any leaders who may be struggling in any of these areas.

HOW TO RISE ABOVE PESSIMISM AND LEAD OPTIMISTICALLY

A challanging post by Dan Rockwell 

Pessimistic leaders focus on faults and weaknesses.

Success with people requires optimism.

You choose:

Think of optimism as a skill, not a disposition.

Choose optimism over pessimism. Optimists honor progress, affirm strength, and celebrate good. Pessimists notice shortcomings, complain about things they can’t change, and anticipate bad.

7 advantages of optimism:

1. Better health.
2. Longer life.
3. Richer relationships.
4. Greater achievement.
5. Less stress.
6. Emotional health.
7. Grit.

When seeing bad is good:

Optimism is usually the best approach, but pessimism isn’t always bad.

Pessimism is useful in high risk situations. You don’t want your brain surgeon saying, “Let’s try it and see what happens.”

You want airplane pilots assuming the worst, not the best.

The upside of pessimism:

1. Lower expectations. (Less disappointment.)
2. Preparing for the worst, as long as you don’t catastrophize everything.
3. Attention to detail.

The downside of pessimism:

Successful leaders have the gift of strengthfinding, not faultfinding.

Faultfinding leaders…

1. Destroy morale.
2. Demotivate teams.
3. Create caution.
4. Motivate blaming.

Your team is better without you if you’re a faultfinding pessimist.

A lunchtime challenge:

I challenge you to only notice good until lunch. No faultfinding, complaining, or finger-pointing allowed. None!

Rules:

1. If you’re a diehard pessimist, think of how much worse things could be and be thankful they aren’t that bad.
2. Don’t hide in your office until after lunch! (Cowardice)
3. Silence isn’t optimism. Sometimes silence is a good thing. If you’re a negative leader, your silence will help your team feel better. But for this challenge, you must practice optimistic speech.
4. Ask an optimist for suggestions if you can’t think of anything good to say.
5. Expect people to be shocked, but don’t let that deter you.

What concerns you about optimistic leadership?

How might leaders develop the skill of optimism?

Quotes:

“The learner always begins by finding fault, but the scholar sees the positive merit in everything.” Hegel

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Jesus

To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult. Plutarch

Don’t find fault, find a remedy, anybody can complain. Henry Ford

8 FOOTPRINT TRACKS TOWARD MORAL FAILURE

Thanks to Dave Kraft for posting this article - very helpful for leaders who see the importance of building safeguards into their lives and ministries.

Author Jim Collins (Good to Great) also wrote a book titled, “How The Mighty Fall.” It deals with why companies fail and fall. In Scripture, we also observe story after story (especially in the Old Testament) about mighty leaders falling. Things haven’t changed much in this regard. Well known and seemingly successful leaders both in the church and in the world of business are “Falling.” Chuck Lawless shares eight steps that can assuredly lead to a fall. Please read carefully and prayerfully with an open heart to the Holy Spirit.  Originally posted by Chuck Lawless

By God’s grace, watch your step!

I love hiking and backpacking. Recently, I read an article about recognizing “critters” in an area by looking at footprint tracks in the dirt. Some tracks aren’t alarming, but others say, “Be careful. There could be trouble in the area.” Based on my knowledge of far too many moral failures among church leaders, here are some “footprint tracks” that could signal upcoming trouble:

1.     An unhealthy marriage somewhere. It might be that only a few people know the troubles, but every moral failure I’ve seen occurred in the context of somebody’s struggling marriage.

2.     Undisciplined living. I’ve never met a fallen leader who says, “But, I was walking faithfully with God, reading the Word and praying intimately – and the affair just happened.” I’ve met several, though, who admit they weren’t meeting with God in their spiritual disciplines at the time of their fall.

3.     Ministry companionship. Some church-based affairs begin with two people doing ministry together in some setting – perhaps as simple as serving on a committee together. The time together becomes alluring, and it’s easy to excuse it because it’s ministry.

4.     Unwise sharing.  If you want to invite trouble, tell someone of the opposite gender the difficulties you’re having in your own marriage. Even pastors must be careful when they’re in counseling situations dealing with such matters.

5.     Email or social media flirting. It’s surely not an affair. It’s only jesting. Just words, and just for fun. Nobody really means anything . . . . except that I don’t want anybody else to see what we’re writing . . . .

6.     Conversational hints. People in the midst of a fall sometimes inadvertently give hints about what’s going on. They speak more often about the person. They respond differently when the person’s in the room. The problem is that others don’t recognize the “tracks” until after the failure’s made public.

7.     Emotional connections. More than once, I’ve heard, “But, it was just an emotional affair.” That may well have been the case, but I’ve also never seen a physical affair that didn’t start with an emotional connection – tracks that indicate coming trouble.

8.     Ongoing lies. It’s hard to have moral failure without telling lies at some point. In fact, it’s not uncommon that the church leader living a lie also lies about other stuff as well.

What about you? Are you leaving any tracks that could spell trouble? 

6 Dangerous Viruses That Take Leaders Down

The enemy of our souls and of His ministry through us is always on the hunt for ways to bring us down. Eric Geiger shares 6 dangerous viruses that take leaders down. Please prayerfully read what Eric has to share and pray for the protection of the Holy Spirit over your life and ministy.  Originally posted by Eric Geiger

6 Dangerous Viruses That Take Leaders Down

Six deadly viruses that leaders can be hit with!

Not all viruses have the same devastating impact on people. For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other organizations have plotted viruses on a chart with deadly on the y-axis and contagious on the x-axis. Some viruses are just more deadly than others. Regarding spiritual viruses, here are 6 (not an exhaustive list) that take leaders down.

1. Greed

Leaders, even ministry leaders, can be filled with greed—the continual desire for more— often more money. When greed has a leader’s heart, the leader makes decisions that are centered on cash and not on Christ and His people.

2. Lust

When lust resides in a leader’s heart, the leader makes destructive decisions. What once seemed unthinkable becomes a fantasy that can easily move to reality. When lust grows in the heart of a leader, a fall is inevitable.

3. Revenge

When leaders are harmed or feel like they have been harmed, they can wrongly feel it is their role and responsibility to right every wrong and extract pain from others—pain they feel makes the scales even. A leader filled with a desire for revenge fails to walk in wisdom.

4. Independence

Sometimes leaders use the excuse that “no one understands” as justification for their preference to be alone. But when leaders are alone, they make foolish decisions.

5. Pride

Because leaders are often in places of authority and influence, pride can easily build in the heart and mind of a leader. When pride spreads, the leader fails to learn from others, fails to recognize the fragility of the moment, and fails to serve for the benefit of others.

6. Laziness

Laziness can plague leaders who feel they have earned the right to stop serving or who have lost their passion for the mission they have heralded. When leaders grow lazy, the culture of those they lead quickly deteriorates.

These may start small, but they can quickly spread in the leader’s heart. Leaders are wise to continually ask the Lord to search their hearts to bring these to mind so repentance can occur.

6 Areas of Life Where Successful Leaders Practice Self-Discipline

No matter how you look at it, it all eventually comes down to discipline. Effective and fruitful leaders develop disciplines in key areas of life and ministry. Rick Warren shares 6 areas of life where successful leaders practice self-discipline.  Originally posted by Rick Warren

High achievers usually have one obvious thing in common: personal discipline.  Successful people are willing to do things that most people are unwilling to do.

I’ve observed that successful people express self-discipline in six key ways:

1. Successful people master their moods.

They live by their commitments, not their emotions. People who do the right thing even when they don’t feel like it accomplish most of what gets done in the world!

“A man without self-control is as defenseless as a city with broken-down walls” Proverbs 25:28 (TLB).

2. Successful people watch their words.

They put their minds in gear before opening their mouths.

“He who guards his lips guards his life” Proverbs 13:3 (NIV).

3. Successful people restrain their reactions.

How much can you take before you lose your cool? Unfortunately, a lot of potential influence can be cut short by a short temper.

“If you are sensible, you will control your temper. When someone wrongs you, it is a great virtue to ignore it” Proverbs 19:11 (GNT).

4. Successful people stick to their schedule.

If you don’t determine how you will spend your time, you can be sure that others will decide for you. When you lead a church that grows in size, you will inevitably be pulled in a multitude of directions. You’ll have to become a great steward of time to be successful in life.

“Live life, then, with a due sense of responsibility . . . Make the best use of your time” (Ephesians 5:15-16 Phillips).

5. Successful people manage their money.

They learn to live on less than what they make, and they invest the difference into savings and give to causes that matter. The value of a budget is that it tells your money where you want it to go rather than wondering where it went!

“The wise man saves for the future, but the foolish man spends whatever he gets” (Proverbs 21:20 TLB).

6. Successful people maintain their health.

They form habits in their eating and activities that keep their energy level up and help them last through stressful seasons in good health. That way they can accomplish more and enjoy their achievements.

“Every one of you should learn to control his own body, keeping it pure and treating it with respect”
(1 Thessalonians 4:4 Phillips).

Where do you need to develop self-control?  The disciplines you establish today will determine your success tomorrow.

But it takes more than just willpower to produce lasting self-control. It takes a power greater than yourself.

The more you accept God’s control over your life, the more self-control he gives you!