Learning Leadership

The Biggest Discourager to Your Dream

I'm always digging into writing books trying to learn and improve my writing.

Recently I've been reading, Chicken Soup for the Writer's Soul where it shares lots of short stories from writers.

An observation I made after reading about 250 pages is how the biggest discouragement to the dreams of young writers are from older people.  Not just anyone who is older, but older people who also had a dream to become a writer, but couldn't pull it off.  Many of these young writers are discouraged and told they have little or no talent to write by people in their lives who have little success in writing.

For you as a leader, beware that the people who are most likely to discourage you from your dream and vision are people who also had a dream and vision, but weren't able to pull it off.  Don't let those people derail you and keep you from dreaming, visioning and seeing those things come to fruition.

Do what you do best, and find others to do the rest

This past Friday some guys in my Bible study and I worked through Acts chapter six, verses one through seven (Acts 6:1-7) looking to learn about leadership.  I entitled the bible study lesson:

Do what you do best, and find others to do the rest

The original thoughts for this lesson came from Tony Robbins' audio program, Time of Your Life where he helped me get some clarity on the topic of my priorities.  And back in April I heard a talk from Andy Stanley entitled, When Less is More (read part 1 and 2).

As you might know, the book of Acts has many crazy events going on.  Jesus has recently been crucified and now the twelve apostles are traveling throughout the world to spread the good news and teach what it means to be saved and follow Jesus.  People are being saved everywhere and amazing events are happening daily.

However, as the momentum is going well, the apostles are faced with a difficult circumstance.  Complaints are shared with the apostles about the need of food for the widows.  One group of Jews is complaining to to the apostles about another group of Jews who are discriminating against the widows.  These complaints had been voiced to Peter and the other apostles so they clearly had to do something about it. 

Here's the passage from Acts 6:1-7 in the New Living Translation:

1 But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. Those who spoke Greek complained against those who spoke Hebrew, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers."We apostles should spend our time preaching and teaching the word of God, not administering a food program," they said. 3 "Now look around among yourselves, brothers, and select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. We will put them in charge of this business. 4 Then we can spend our time in prayer and preaching and teaching the word." 5 This idea pleased the whole group, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (a Gentile convert to the Jewish faith, who had now become a Christian). 6 These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them. 7 God's message was preached in ever-widening circles. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.

Peter and his apostles were clearly men who knew what they were called to do and were not going to allow anything to prevent them from doing what they did best.  They were living every part of "Do what you do best, and find others to do the rest."  The most amazing part of this passage are these few words:

"We apostles should spend our time preaching and teaching the word of God, not administering a food program " Acts 6:2 (NLT) [emphasis mine]

These men were on a mission and nothing was going to get in their way of doing what they did best.  They were called and equipped with gifts and abilities that very few other people had, and they weren't going to allow anyone else to get in their way.

My friend Gene Hill at the Bible study worded it well when he said, "Leaders don't have to do it all and they shouldn't do it all."

At the study I shared four questions I felt were really important for leaders to think through and follow.  These are those four questions that relate to a leader's focus on doing what he does best:

1. What is it that you do best and what is most important to you?
2. When opportunities and needs are requested to you, what is your automatic response?
   - Is it to say "no"?
   - Is it to delegate as the apostles did?
   - Or, do you just do it?
3. How can I select the right people to delegate to?
4. When I delegate, what do I do to prepare and equip the person(s) to do the work I have delegate?

Taking a Day Off

Last year I realized that I needed to begin taking one day off a week.  At the time I was working very hard seven days a week, often going many months without taking a day off to rest and relax.  At the time I was a single bachelor with very little family in the area where I lived, so I didn't really have anyone I would rather spend time with instead of working.  I had work and some friends, but not much else.

At the time I was working eight hours a day at United Way until 5 PM, then I would transition into "A Day of Hope mode" where I would work for the next three hours on fundraising letters, recruiting volunteers, our e-newsletter and social media we had going.  Then, on Saturdays I would often do a fundraiser car wash for A Day of Hope and then Sunday was catch up day on administrative work.

However, after working for several years this way it began to take a tole on my body.  I began to have some tendinitis in my right arm and felt really burnt out.  Because I knew my mild health issues were probably self-inflicted from my extremely hard work regimen, I realized that it was something I could probably change, if I changed my work and rest habits.

So,
as a result I began taking Sundays off from work.  The affects this has had on me has been extremely significant in my life as a leader and as a man.  Let me quickly summarize what I learned from taking one-day off a week:

1. I was refreshed - When Monday morning came around, I always felt refreshed because I had an entire day off to rejuvenate and get ready for the week.  Before, when I was working seven days a week, Monday would come around and I would feel burnt out and tired.  I never gave myself a break to just rest and relax.  But once I began taking one day to just rest and relax, I was able to actually start every week fresh.  And it felt good.

I never quite realized how burnt out I was until I took some time off.

2. I was more productive with the time I had - When I realized I only had six days a week to get the work done that I normally took seven days to do, I had to find a resolution.  And that resolution was to be more productive by focusing on the work that was so important that it had to get done.  Especially the work that needed to be done by me.  

I became focused on the work that only I could do, and I didn't allow anything to stand in my way of getting it done effectively and of high quality. 

3. God and my team took care of the rest - This was due to a book I read entitled, Choosing to Cheat by Andy Stanley.  It totally changed the way I looked at the balance between my work and life.  I began to make family more of a priority, and work came second.  And in making work my second priority, I learned to trust God and my team to take care of the work I couldn't do.

This takes major trust as a leader and a follower of Christ.  I have learned to allow Him to take care of the work I can't get done and to allow Him to make the big things happen that I normally would make happen with pure hard work and motivation. 

Learning to trust my team to do the rest puts a big burden on them.  It causes them to have to be competent and effective in making things happen that I normally would see through all the way until the end.  I had to learn to let go, allow them to do the work, give them some of the credit in the process, and to trust them overall to make it all happen.

This past year of learning to take one day off a week has been a real stretch, but it has freed me up to be more productive and enjoy more time with family.  I encourage you to do the same.

Question: Have you had a similar experience where you began to work less?

Andy Stanley Leadership Notes from the Catalyst Leadership Conference (part 2)

Here's part 2 of my notes from Andy Stanley's talk at the Catalyst Leadership Conference in 2008.  To read yesterday's post, go here.

The boldest leadership decision you can make is declaring family as your #1 priority

Not only is this the boldest decision you will have to make, it's also the most difficult to live out and maintain. 

There always seems to be "one more" thing you can do, opportunity you can pursue, board you can serve on, volunteer need to fulfill, (you fill in the blank here).  When leaders declare their family as the #1 priority in their life it's bold because they tell the people they work with and lead, "You are not #1 on my radar.  There is something out there that is more important than you, and I will make sure that area is taken care of first and foremost."  Wow! 

This hit me like a ton of bricks, and it's something I constantly struggle with.  When I wrote this post I was going to have to leave in eight minutes to take my girlfriend go-carting.  We had been talking about going for months, and the day I originally wrote this post was the day we decided to go.  The only problem is that I wasn't going to be done writing this blog post in those eight minutes.  I needed more time and could easily have made the decision to pick her up late and say, "Sorry, but I was in the middle of writing a blog post and wanted to finish before I cam to see you."  But I didn't.  I stopped writing at the time I needed to pick up My Lady and take her out go-carting. 

It's a bold and tough decision to make when I decide that I'm going to stop writing this blog post at the exact time that I need to in order to pick her up on time.  It says, "family comes first."

Everybody is basically a volunteer

Amen Andy!  This is definitely a principle that I live by daily.  

In my role at United Way there are three staffers who I'm "above in position" which means I can delegate to them if I want.  But I never treat them in a way that they're required to do anything I say or ask.  I always operate from the point of view that these three ladies don't have to do anything I ask. 

The same is true with A Day of Hope which is ran by all volunteers.  Technically, I'm the "founder" and the "leader" but I don't treat people like I have position or authority.  Everyone who helps with A Day of Hope helps because he or she wants to.  Not because anyone is required too. 

This is one of the reasons why leading in churches and nonprofits is so challenging: you very rarely have influence over people.  You have to enter their model of the world and lead them from where they are.  Because, you can only make people do something for a limited time.  And once that limited time is over, you no longer have influence over people.  You can only force someone to do something for you for so long, and before long, that influence wears out.

Andy Stanley Leadership Notes from Catalyst Conference

In 2008 I attended Catalyst East Conference along with 12,000 other next generation leaders in their 20's and 30's.  It was an amazing event.  Recently I went back through my workbook and decided to share some of my note and thoughts with you.

These are notes directly from my workbook.  So the key thought might not be perfectly word for word from what the speaker said, but it will be pretty close.   In each section I'll share the speaker's "key thought" in bold, then I'll explain the thought in greater detail with my own commentary. 

Here's some thoughts from Andy Stanley's talk entitled, Louder Than Words (he also has an excellent book with the same title). 

Leaders can't make people do anything. We need to exercise moral authority by matching our creed with our deed.

This is true for leaders of for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations.  There are very few people in our work who consistently walk their talk which is sown by their creed (what they say) matches their deed (what they do).  If you're a leader who's creed matches your deed, there are few leaders like you. 

In a way, no one really has to work for you (the leader).  They might not want to come to work, but ultimately they could live a life of poverty and not work for you.  It's their choice to come to work, and that means they are essentially a volunteer.  Yes, they receive a paycheck, but they are a volunteer because they decide to come back to your place of work time after time.

When people see a difference between what you say and what you do, you lose influence

Very true.  Have you ever worked for a leader who talked at a staff meeting about how everyone needs to "do" a certain thing.  Like arrive to work on time, not make personal copies on the company copy machine, or only take two breaks a day instead of three or four.  Yet the leader was consistently coming to work late (or even leaving early), making photo copies for personal use, and taking long breaks to go to Starbucks?  I know I have, and it's not pretty. 

When a leader has a difference between what he says and what he does, he loses influence with the people he leads. 

People don't accept his words as fact, but more as fiction.