Archive for Leadership
· Categories Family, Leadership
The ice maker portion of my mother in law’s refrigerator hasn’t been working for 2 years. The refrigerator itself works fine, but the ice maker quit making ice and then she developed a leak behind the fridge. After having an appliance repairman take a look she was told it would cost $200 to fix…so she cut off the water line and bought ice trays for her freezer.
While I was there this weekend for my niece’s birthday party she mentioned not having ice, and I said “let me look at it.” (I am no Bob Villa, but I’ve recently completed some projects around the house, my wife bragged about me to her friends, and I have a new found confidence) It appeared to my novice eye that a little rubber piece connecting the water supply line and the pipe that feeds the water into the ice maker had a tear in it. My little brain thought, “I bet if we replace that little piece with a new one, the water wouldn’t leak allowing it to get to the ice maker and make ice”. So I took it to Home Depot and bought a replacement and some silicon tape. I replaced the piece, turned on the water, and we waited. Today I received a text message from her that said “I have ice”. My total investment…$4.
The refrigerator was falling short of it’s full potential because of one bad piece. The bad piece wasn’t allowing water to flow correctly from point A to point B. Eventually it became more harmful to let it leak so that functionality was turned off altogether after getting some bad advice.
Now think of your organization, team or ministry. Is there a problem that might seem like a $200 problem that could be fixed with $4 worth of investment? Could it just take a fresh set of eyes to look at the problem? Maybe someone to start working on it, instead of talking about it?
Look for areas where things aren’t flowing as smoothly as they should, or where functionality has been turned off completely. Get creative. Imagine what might happen if you change just one piece.
August 30, 2010
· Categories Leadership
I ran across this post from November 2008, loved the practicality and decided to rebirth it.
How far can you see?
It has been said that leaders can see farther than those they lead, but do we?
I was in a meeting yesterday with my Pastor and he showed an incredible ability to see far into the future. He had such a great view of the next few years, that it made some of the more immediate decisions easier to navigate.
As a leader do you tend to only look at the near future? Do you/can you see farther into the future? How do you articulate that to the people you are leading? When do you let them in on it?
My observations:
Reasons we can’t see very far into the future
1. We haven’t spent time with The Father. He sees it all. The more time I spend with Him, it’s quite possible I’ll get a clearer picture of what He’s up too.
2. We aren’t planning to be here that long. As the statistics of pastors and youth pastors tenure grows shorter and shorter it’s harder to make plans much beyond 12-14 months.
3. We aren’t organized. The more organized I become, the farther I’m looking into the future. It’s a natural by-product.
4. We don’t take the time to look. I have to have a day every month or so that I pause from the busy-ness of my normal routine. Those days I do 2 things. I reflect and project. I got this from my former pastor. Once a year we made a presentation to the whole church called, “Reflections and Projections”. We looked back to highlight wins and in that context presented the future. It was time consuming to plan and pull off, but well worth it.
How can you improve your ability to see the future?
August 6, 2010
· Categories Leadership
I’m confronted today with the tension between these 2 terms as I fulfill responsibilities of my job that fall in both areas. I believe these terms are often confused for one another and while they are in the same family, they are not the same thing.
Leadership is about recognizing where we are now (Point A) and defining where Point B is going to be. It’s saying, “here’s our direction, let’s go”. Obviously, if no one follows, you aren’t leading no matter how good the direction is. It’s dreaming the dream, setting the course, and communicating those things effectively to at least one other person (or a group of people) who can help start the process of following the leader toward the destination.
On the other hand it’s been said that Management is maintaining but I don’t think that’s entirely fair. Effective management can create efficiency and momentum that push an organization forward. However, a lot of management is about tasks and process. It’s about making sure once we know where we’re headed, that we are moving in the right direction, that we don’t leave anyone behind and that we hit all the necessary steps along the way.
Even still, Leaders most likely have to manage something or someone and Managers usually have to lead something or someone. So there is a good bit of crossover.
Frustration usually arrives for leaders when they see the dreams fall to the ground because no one is managing the process. Frustration for managers shows up when they don’t see a compelling leader that they can follow. So leaders start managing (meddling) more than they are effectively capable of, bringing more frustration for everyone. And managers start leading outside of their responsibilities, creating silos and competing visions.
Ideally, every leader would have an efficient manager (or 9) to carry out the process and every manager would have a trusty-worthy, visionary leader to chart the course.
Otherwise you might find yourself managing to lead no one, no where!
August 5, 2010
· Categories Church, Leadership, Staff
Recently James Hathaway, our Community Development Director announced that he and his wife Yulia are moving to Bergen, Norway to continue pursuing his education in the Masters program in Public Administration for Non-profit leadership at the University of Bergen. It is my understanding that this university provides a unique learning experience that was exactly what James was looking for as he furthers his education in this area of passion for them. This is a great opportunity for the Hathaways and we will miss them once they transition in August.
So, we are looking to fill this position. The job description is two parts.
1) It includes an emphasis on local community outreach. James was the area director of Unite, a non-denominational effort among churches to partner with government officials, schools and businesses to meet the needs of our local community (disclaimer: our church position doesn’t necessarily assume this parachurch leadership position, but we will remain involved in this effort). This involvement helped put Mt. Paran North folks into places of need to fulfill the Serving Others portion of our ministry vision. There were other local outreaches that help us take the Gospel outside the walls of our church, and we’ll want to continue those efforts while looking for even greater ways to serve our community.
2) This position oversees our Guest Services ministry. This includes managing a dedicated group of volunteers who serve in our parking lots, welcome areas, and within our sanctuary to help visitors and regular attenders have the best experience possible at North. They attempt to make people feel welcome and navigate what can be a sometimes confusing facility. This is an area that we have made great strides in recently and feel can be “beefed up” even more. This is a vital part of our Sunday and Wednesday experiences helping cut out the stress and distraction of getting in and getting settled so that people can worship and be presented the Gospel.
If you or anyone you know might be interested in this position, feel free to contact me at jeremy @ mtparan (dot) com or 678.285.3219. This is such an exciting time at North, and I believe God is up to big things. Maybe you’d like to be apart of that.
June 8, 2010
· Categories Leadership
About a year or so ago I noticed one of my tires had gone flat, so I put on the spare and took the original tire to my local tire shop. I assumed as before that I had picked up a nail on the road (this seems to happen to me FAR MORE OFTEN THAN MOST). Upon looking at the tire, the mechanic pronounced, “there’s nothing in the tire, you may just have a leak.” When I pressed him on how this happened, he stated that tires just get old and start leaking.
In several conversations over the past 2 weeks inside and outside the church, I’ve heard the phrase “vision leaks”. To step away from the cliche for a moment, what actually happens is that the structure or vision that was originally created or cast rallied people together but eventually, without proper care, reinforcement, etc the original motivation is lost. Usually it’s because people can’t remember why they are doing what they’re doing. They signed up to teach this class on recruitment Sunday or joined a small group at a GroupLife event or pledged to support a missionary after watching a video or started attending the church because they loved the intentionality of ministry here, or…
…but now they can’t remember why.
Sometimes this can look like:
- discord and discontentment among staff and volunteers
- new, “alternative” systems created
- lack of energy and excitement
- or a million other things
So what do you do?
Don’t panic and change the vision, charge after new endeavors, or placate to people just to generate new excitement.
- Go back to your original answer to the question “why?”
- Look for ways (new, creative, or otherwise) to communicate that.
- Be consistent in your language. (for a great example read THIS POST from Kevin Lloyd)
Things may not be as bad as you think. You may just have a leak.
February 22, 2010
· Categories Church, Leadership, Personal, Student Ministry
My friend Eric Brown wrote a GREAT POST over at CREATINGCOLOR.ORG recently about staying where you are. He writes:
Often times our lack for intentional investments steals our attention towards bigger and better dreams, rather then, the community you live in…Living life investing into next opportunities most of the time will sour influence…So here is a question:
“What would happen if you invested into one idea and one community your entire life?”
It’s a challenging read from a great guy. Give it a look!
November 18, 2009
Next entries »
