Servanthood as Identity or Strategy?
By mark miller on May 06, 2013 06:00 am

I heard a wonderful and thought-provoking presentation a few days ago from Crawford Loritts. He was talking about leadership, so, of course, I was interested. Once he began, I was even more interested because he was talking about servant leadership!

He shared an observation I agree with but had never really considered. The best servant leaders see servanthood as their identity not as a strategy. Robert Greenleaf wrote about this idea decades ago. He said the best leaders are servants first. Servant is not a role we play but rather a reflection of who we are or are becoming.

What does servanthood as identity look like? It’s really a heart issue. My motivation and yours begins with a question: Why do we serve? If you haven’t thought about it, it’s a good question to consider.  

Here are a few others…

Do I serve to give or to gain? Crawford said:

“If we serve with an expectation of return, we’re not serving, we’re investing.”

Am I truly motivated when I help others win? How excited are you when the men and women you serve excel? How about when their career surpasses yours? Consider setting a goal to see how many of your protégés can exceed your level of influence and impact.

If servanthood as identity sounds intriguing, you may be wondering how to cultivate this lifestyle. Here are three ideas to consider.

Look for opportunities to serve… daily. My experience is the more you serve the more it becomes part of who you are. Don’t try to be strategic with every act of service – just serve. There will be ample opportunities to serve strategically in your future. Serve often to soften your heart.

Serve those who have little to offer in return. If we do this consistently, it can offset the investment mentality mentioned earlier. The young, the old, the helpless, the homeless, the under-resourced, the sick and disabled – serve them. I’ve learned a lot about the power of this idea from my youngest son, David. He has cerebral palsy. Serving him has made me a better person and leader; he has changed my heart.

Try hidden acts of service. Find people or organizations you can serve anonymously. This may be through an investment of time, financial resources, or random acts of kindness. When’s the last time you gave without ANY recognition? It can be a good discipline to strengthen your servant spirit.

My experience is servanthood as an identity is not a destination – it is the quintessential life-long journey. If you or I ever think we’ve arrived, we’re wrong. However, it is in the pursuit that the ideal can become more and more of a reality. I’m thankful to be on the journey with each of you.

Thanks, Crawford. I believe more firmly than ever, Great Leaders Serve!

What have you done to strengthen your identity as servant?

7 Principles for Leading Change

by Ron Edmondson

Every organization needs change to occur to continue to grow and remain healthy.

Every organization needs change to occur to continue to grow and remain healthy.
Change is hard for some people and is often rejected or rebelled against. Learning to lead change successfully is important for any leader.
Here are seven principles that can help you think through leading change in your organization:

1. Lead change from a pre-established trust in your leadership.

New leaders should be careful not to implement a lot of change early in their leadership unless that change is vital to the organization. Change will be easier if the leader is trusted.

2. Introduce change as early as possible. 

People need time to warm up to the change that is coming.

3. Prepare people along the way by keeping them informed of progress during a change period.

Include the good news and the bad news of change in these updates.

4. Get buy-in from as many people as possible. 

Sometimes leaders have to lead alone (for those times read this post on theloneliness of leadership), but, wherever possible, include others in decisions concerning change.

5. Follow through on commitments made. 

The quickest way to lose trust is to say one thing and do another. Likewise, do not make commitments you cannot keep.

6. Be consistent. 

You will keep people’s trust through the change if it is easy to figure out where leadership is at and what they will do next.

7. Do not make change a rare occurrence in the organization. 

Build a culture of healthy change in the organization so that change will be more naturally accepted.
What advice do you have for leading change? Have you ever been in an organization that lead change poorly?  

Ron Edmondson is a pastor and church leader passionate about planting churches, helping established churches thrive, and assisting pastors and those in ministry think through leadership, strategy and life. Ron has over 20 years business experience, mostly as a self-employed business owner, and he's been helping church grow vocationally for over 10 years.More from Ron Edmondson or visit Ron at www.ronedmondson.com/

Source: ChurchLeaders.com

Today’s Challenge: Biggest Lessons?
By mark miller on May 03, 2013 06:00 am

Each week, I take one question from a leader somewhere in the world and share my thoughts. Today, like last week, I’ll answer one of the questions I suggested you ask other leaders to accelerate your own development: What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned thus far in your career?

I like this question. I know I’m biased, that’s why I recommend using it. Like you, I’ve learned countless lessons during my career. Lessons about people, lessons about myself, lessons about leadership and followship, lessons about business and much, much more! That fact alone makes this a good question – it requires a thoughtful response. Here’s my attempt to call out a few of the biggest lessons so far. If you’ve read much on this site, you’ll not be surprised.

Servant Leadership is the highest form of leadership. I didn’t know this when I was a young leader. I’m not exactly sure when I learned it. It was not a moment as much as it was a progressive revelation. There were great role models around me and over time I just began to “get it.” Once I understood it, I committed my life and leadership to this approach.

My capacity to grow determines my capacity to lead. Thankfully, this was instilled in me early in my career as well. Once again, I was fortunate to have leaders around me early in my career who taught me this lesson. I also learned that I had to own this – in concept and in practice. It’s great to have an organization that supports my growth, but with or without support, I am accountable for my own development.

Leadership is about results AND relationships. I was slower to learn this one. In the early years of my career, I didn’t focus too much on results, I focused too little on relationships. I believe my results and my opportunities suffered as a result. Today, I completely embrace the fact that the path to superior results is paved with a focus on BOTH results AND relationships.

I don’t control my opportunities to lead, just my readiness. I’ve worked in six different roles over the last 35 years. After my first job working in the Chick-fil-A warehouse, I’ve not asked for any of the positions I’ve occupied – I was volunteered. Most of us don’t control where we lead – our organizations decide that. What you and I do control is our readiness. Like the player on the bench, when the coach calls our number, we’d better be ready. If we’re not ready, we may never get the call.

What big lessons have you learned in your career thus far?

Mark Miller is the author of The Secret and The Secret of Teams.

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ROARING OR BORING | Kevin Daum

Apr 26, 2013

Define Your Personal Core Values: 5 Steps

If your company has core values, shouldn't you? Establishing your own personal guidelines can remove risk and accelerate success.

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Most concede the power of core values in business. Jim Collins made a great case in Built to Last. But it's difficult to accurately create or accept core values for your company if your own personal core values are unclear.
Many claim to understand their own values, but I maintain you don't really know them until you have:

1. Articulated them clearly in writing.
2. Tested them through daily decision-making.

Much like company core values, your personal core values are there to guide behavior and choice. Get them right and you'll be swift and focused in your decision-making, with clear direction. Get them wrong or leave them ambiguous, and you'll constantly wonder how you got into this mess.

Although your personal core values may not exactly match anyone else's, they still help you determine your surrounding culture. Most smart people consciously or unconsciously use personal core values to select friendships, relationships and business partnerships. Your core values also help you wisely manage your personal resources such as time and money.

Simply put, I use my personal core values as decision guidelines that keep me true to myself, and out of trouble. Here are mine with brief descriptions:

Truth

Some people are skilled liars. I am not. I function best when people are direct and honest. I make it clear in conversation and in writing that truth is necessary in my world, no matter how painful. This is probably why I thrive as a New Yorker.

Diligence

I am a contact management freak. I focus on punctuality, returning phone calls and e-mails within the hour or at least the day whenever possible. I hear screaming in my head if I have left anyone hanging. I also make sure my statements are substantiated, hence the reason you'll rarely see me speak in absolutes without doing my homework.

Consistency

Since people pay attention to my writing and talks, credibility is critical, and I have a lot to live up to. Hypocrisy is deadly in my world and this core value reminds me to integrate humor, the Awesome Experience, ROAR! and all my other lessons into my life and work, every single day.

Creativity

You would think a writer, marketer, and theater graduate wouldn't need creativity as a core value. But when it's been a long month of travel, it's 3 a.m. and the column, speech, or book chapter is pending, I have to remind myself that I need to take that extra step to make my material compelling so I can intrigue, entertain, and connect with my audience.

Impact

Like most entrepreneurs, I see potential everywhere. This value reminds me to disregard when my brain is saying: "I can do that!" and instead ask the question: "Should I do that?" The criteria are simple: Maximum results for minimum effort. Each shiny new opportunity gets evaluated this way.

Some of my personal traits like passion, integrity, and energy don't qualify in my mind as core values because I follow these instinctively without consideration. They are unnecessary in my decision making process. I refer to them as my Table Stakes.
Now it's your turn to identify your values.

Personal Core Values Exercise:

Grab a notebook. It's time to do some writing. Give yourself quiet space, no distractions, and at least an hour to reflect on each section.

Step 1--Think through and describe the following in detail:

1. What have been your three greatest accomplishments?
2. What have been your three greatest moments of efficiency?
3. What are any common rules or themes that you can identify?

Step 2--Think through and describe the following in detail:

1. What have been your three greatest failures?
2. What have been your three greatest moments of inefficiency?
3. What are any common rules or themes that you can identify?

Step 3--Identify three or four brief sentences of advice you would give to yourself based upon these commonalities.

Step 4--Next try and reduce them to a few words. For example: If your advice is: "Don't overindulge in food and booze at parties and get in trouble," reduce that down to Keep Control Through Moderation, or even Moderation.

Step 5--Now comes the fun. You need to test the value. Think of a situation where following your core value hurts you rather than helps you. For example you might think Innovation sounds good until you realize that your life thrives on stability rather than constant change. You have to think it through carefully. If you can't identify a legitimate case where the value steers you wrong, you probably have a good core value.

Know that this process requires focused time and thought. I recommend doing it with someone you trust. Then you'll get honest feedback and you can help each other. It may require several discussions over weeks or even months. Your values may adjust and develop over time just as you do, so embrace the change.

As Mahatma Ghandi said, "Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny."

Like this post? If so, sign up here and never miss out on Kevin's thoughts and humor.

An Inc. 500 entrepreneur with a more than $1 billion sales and marketing track record, Kevin Daum is the best-selling author of Video Marketing for Dummies. @awesomeroar

Source: Inc.

(Indpndnt) Jonathan Brown—Isolated: single Christians feel unsupported by family-focused churches

from TitusOneNine by Kendall Harmon

Single Christians feel "isolated, alone and lonely" within their churches, according to new research. More than a third of worshippers who were not married or in a relationship said they did not feel treated the same as those that were part of conventional families.

Nearly four out of ten single churchgoers said they often felt "inadequate or ignored" whilst 42.8 per cent said their church did not know what to do with them. A total of 37 per cent said they "did not feel treated as family members"

The findings were based on the responses of 2,754 people who used the Christian dating site Christian Connection and suggest there is a significant minority of worshippers who feel alienated by the prevailing attitudes within protestant denominations in Britain including the Church of England.

Read it all.

The Pastor and Growth of a Congregation

from Kevin on Congregations by Dean Kevin

In my last blog, I talked about the dynamic of the size of a congregation, how long it has been that way, and how these dynamics predict the possibility of growth in churches. I learned this from Lyle Schaller.

According to Lyle Schaller, the second dynamic that comprises 80% is contained in “Who is the pastor and what does the pastor know about growing a church?”

To be more specific, what Schaller was asking was on a general level and a specialized level. The general question is “what does the pastor know about growing anything?” The principles of growth extend to many areas of life. For example, a farmer knows that she will have to prepare the soil, plant seed, fertilize, weed and eventually harvest. A business owner knows that he will have to identify a need, meet the need, and make this known to his market. This kind of knowledge about growth is translatable into congregational life.

Unfortunately, many clergy believe that by preaching sermons, offering the sacraments, and making pastoral visits is all that is needed lead a church toward growth. Of course, it is important for every pastor to be faithful to our pastoral duties. I am just saying that carrying these out faithfully will not lead to growth. I usually phrase this as “managing a church and growing it are not the same thing.” Here seminary education can also be a hindrance because what professors think their students should make a priority is not what leads to growth in congregations. Consequently, armed with such seminary training, new pastors go out and are ineffectual in growing their congregations.

The specialized question is “What does the pastor know about growing the size congregation that he or she is leading?” Growing a pastoral size church with 100 people attending each Sunday is very different from growing a congregation with 400 in attendance. The pastor needs to focus on the activities that matter for each size.

For example, when I was working for the Diocese of Texas, I was meeting with the young vicar of a congregation with an ASA around 40. The priest was just out of seminary and new to the congregation. He was what I would call a warm- hearted evangelical (a Trinity Seminary graduate) who wanted to lead folks to Christ and to grow the Church. But after leading it for about a year, there had not been much growth. So I asked him, do you know what a priest in a congregation of this size has to do to grow the congregations? He speculated about evangelistic preaching, bible study and a few other areas but said that he had been doing these and didn’t see any results.

We were at lunch so I took a napkin and said, let me write down the five things you will need to do to actually grow this place. I did and then handed the list to him. He read the first item and looked surprised. He then said, “That explains our two new families.”

The first thing I wrote was this; Spend 15 to 20% of your time with un-churched people. In a smaller church, the pastor needs to nurture relationships with people who have no church affiliation. The two families were a result of his helping coach his son’s baseball team. We then discussed the resistance that his congregation would have to him doing this. By the way, when I have told this story at clergy conferences over the years, the most common question I get asked is “What were the other four?” I respond that it doesn’t matter if you don’t do number 1.

Of course, the creative management of staff is critical to the Rector of a Resource size church. So to is creative planning of new areas of ministry. The pastor of a large church must also see to developing an effective assimilation program for the church.

Moving beyond these two specific questions, I would point to the following as important issues for pastors that relate to the growth potential of a congregation.

1. Does the pastor have a contagious spirituality?

2. Can the pastor communicate the mission of the Church and of this specific congregation?

3. Does the pastor like people and is willing to spend time especially with un-churched people? I find too many clergy today who spend too much time in the office and at their computers. Christianity is about people, their relationship with Christ and one another.

4. Can the pastor disciple present members with an eye toward their sharing their faith with others?

5. Does the pastor believe that becoming a Christian is absolutely important?

6. Does the pastor believe that people are “lost” and that lost people are as important to Christ as present Church members?

7. Does the pastor fear conflict and spend too much time trying to please present members?

8. Can the pastor explain “how” to become a Christian to someone who is not a church member?

9. Can the pastor communicate enthusiasm and inspire others?

10. Is the pastor a life-long learner who has a curiosity about leadership and is willing to change and grow?

I know these can be tough questions, but they are worth asking ourselves.

Lastly, I am asked frequently if the skills for growing a church can be learned. The answer is yes, but most frequently the skills needed are learned from a mentor or another pastor who has them.

Can You Hear Me Now?
By mark miller on May 01, 2013 06:00 am

Are you a good listener? My fear is that most leaders, including myself, think we are. However, the truth may be far different. I believe without constant effort a leader’s natural tendency is to not listen – or at least not listen well.

Why would our listening skills drift without focused attention? I think there are at least five reasons:

• Leaders are busy
• We’re not taught how to listen
• Many leaders are easily distracted
• There’s so much to listen to, it’s hard to focus
• Great listening is not modeled for us

So, how do we respond? Here are five ideas that may help you and me be better listeners…

Try to find a way to add value to the person you’re listening to. Often, we listen with an ear to what we want or need. That will always be part of the conversation; but to add value, we have to discern a need or an opportunity. This type of needs analysis is usually not possible without a listening ear.

Try to focus on the person – not the crowd. If you are in a meeting and someone is speaking, don’t focus on everyone in the room, just the individual. Don’t try to read the reaction of the others. Just listen to one person. Make eye contact and focus on them alone.

Repeat what you think the person is trying to communicate. This is not a new idea – but it is still powerful. When you repeat what you’ve heard, the person can clarify as needed, just in case you’ve missed something. Also, if you’re able to replay what’s been said, the person will most likely feel affirmed – they’ll know you were listening. It’s a win-win!

Don’t try to formulate your response to the other person while they are talking. After someone finishes speaking, repeat what you heard if it’s appropriate, then pause to consider your response. If it takes a moment, that’s fine. This may even signal the to the other person that you were actually listening to them.

Eliminate as many distractions as possible. We’ll always have distractions, but do all you can to eliminate as many as possible. Turn off your phone, meet off site, close your door, meet in a conference room – do what you can to eliminate noise, literally and figuratively.

The rewards of good listening are many – people feel valued, mistakes can be avoided, execution can improve, followship can be strengthened and a culture of honor, dignity and respect can be nurtured.

If you haven’t focused on your listening skills for a while, give it a try. You might be surprised what you’ll hear.

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