SermonLife

Some of the pastors I've had over the years stand out prominently in my mind. The fondness of those memories have little -- or nothing -- to do with their oratory skills or deep biblical knowledge. What drew, and draws, me to them is their spirit.

What about their spirit influenced and influences me so? They were/are...

• Kind
• Calm
• Caring
• Selfless
• Inclusive
• Thoughtful
• Empathetic
• Non-judgmental
• Service oriented
• Powerful listeners

Neither pastors nor Christians have the market cornered on that stuff. What if we all..........

Our life IS our sermon.

LeadershipBondage

Leaders often delude ourselves into believing some things that actually work against us. Those faulty beliefs serve, rather, to hold us back. 

What kind of faulty beliefs limit our impact and effectiveness?

• Culture is the by-product rather than the antecedent
• Negative mindsets can be "fixed"
• Perfection must precede deployment
• Wisdom is isolated in an elite few
• Control affects higher productivity
• Transparency is too costly
• Little things can be ignored
• There is an endpoint to the work
• Talk is more powerful than listening
• "Stuff" is more important than people

Try reading each of those detrimental beliefs out loud, then pause briefly and say "NO!" (also out loud).

What are we to do, then? 

Break them chains!

FailForward

Tackling tough tasks and challenging complex conundra is what leaders do. (The easy stuff is almost always handled down the hall or on another floor of the building.)

Consequently, our work disproportionately carries higher risk levels for failure. 

No prob! Failure is how we learn -- to improve, to adapt, to reassess, to re-engage, to re-imagine.

Some failure triggers to anticipate:

• Information sharing among the team is sporadic, cluttered, or non-existent
• Micromanagement and/or bureaucracy generate inertia
• Poor onboarding processes of new team members
• Launch or deployment time windows are too tight
• Political protectionism
• Resource famine

If we effectively forecast the triggers of failure, we stand a chance of interdicting or mitigating them.

Failure is rarely fatal. 

Fail Forward!

RelationalCalculus

Leaders traffic in relationships. That's our jam.

We can either bolster or bruise those relationships through our actions.

Relationship bruisers include stuff like:

• Devaluing
• Disrespecting
• Blame casting
• Micromanaging

Relationship bolsterers look like this:

• Caring, and showing it
• Engaging -- personally, often, authentically
• Acknowledging problems but focusing on solution crafting
• Perseverating on the wildly important things (but keep 'em few)
• Noticing, then acknowledging, effort and good work toward goals
• Fostering a culture of learning by modeling what a Lead Learner looks like

We can energize others through our relationships. Or, we de-energize them.

Yep, it's our choice...

Condescension'sDividend

When we, as leaders, choose to engage in condescending behavior there are some guaranteed results that can be expected:

• Others will feel devalued
• Trust in us will plummet
• Polarization will ensue
• Our message will be throttled
• Our impact and influence will be diminished

Kinda hard to see how any of those things move us toward betterment.

Condescension might be tempting. It might feel good. It might allow us a sense of self-righteousness. It might score a few short-term points. It might even get a few laughs.

Perhaps we should step away from the microphone and think twice -- or 100 times -- before engaging in condescension. Doesn't look like it pencils out.............

SimpliClarity_NOT!

Clarity and simplicity are NOT one and the same. The consequential problems we deal with, as leaders, are rarely simple. Thus, clarity is elusive. Rarely, if ever, are the solutions to our complex problem(s) clear. 

While we strive for simplicity and clarity, wise leaders understand that both are illusory. 

A similar dynamic tension exists between curiosity and knowledge. BOTH are necessary in our efforts to gain better grasp of the problem(s), and the potential solution(s). While curiosity + knowledge bring us deeper understanding, they almost always are accompanied by the unveiling of previously unbeknownst circumstances, motives, variables, history, etc.  

Beast mode LEARNING is the requirement for effective leadership. 

Whenever we hear someone (especially in leadership) say something like ..."The solution is simple and clear"... that is our cue to begin backing slowly toward the exit. They are either delusional, or they're trying to sell us something (that will likely NOT solve the complex problem we're dealing with).

learn >> Learn >> LEARN!

DownstreamLeadership

Our impact as leaders -- in our families, in our communities, in our workplaces -- is the downstream effect of our influence.

Our influence as leaders is the downstream effect of the TRUST others have in us.

The TRUST others have in us as leaders is the downstream effect of what they conclude from their interactions with us.

What others conclude from their interactions with us is the downstream effect of decisions we make (either consciously or otherwise) about what we believe, why we believe it, and how we communicate it.

Evidently we should be paying purposeful attention to what we are doing upstream.