My Five Favorite Personal Productivity Tools

People often ask me what tools or systems I use to maximize productivity, to stay organized, or to complete tasks. My answer is typically perceived as underwhelming, as I don’t have a project management system (though I am not against them) and the tools I do use are a bit “old-school.” The five productivity tools […]

Five Reasons a Team Lacks Joy

Being on a team that is filled with joy, passion, and purpose is invigorating. Being on a team where the collective soul lacks joy adversely impacts everyone. A joyless team harms the people on the team and those the team serves. Here are five common reasons joy eludes a team: 1. An unclear mission When […]

Four Ways to Adjust Your Leadership Style to Fit Your Team

Great leaders are servants of those they lead. Because each person on a leadership team is unique, wise leaders lead each person differently. Instead of insisting that every person adjust to the leader, great leaders adjust to those they lead. Here are four practical ways to adjust to those you lead: 1. Communication If you […]

Five Reasons Leaders Must Constantly Clarify and Communicate Mission

Strong teams, ministries, and organizations are filled with a clear sense of mission. You won’t have a strong culture without a strong sense of mission. A healthy culture is cultivated, in part, by a clear sense of “here is what we are going to do together.” Jim Collins wrote that when an “organization has a […]

Four Practical Ways to Avoid Burnout

After posting a blog called “Four Warning Signs You Are Approaching Burnout,” I heard from several friends and leaders who were struggling with burnout or felt they were headed in that direction. They wisely recognized warning signs in their lives and were committed to making adjustments. Self-leadership is critical. We must lead ourselves well, and […]

Why It Is Unfair to Treat Everyone the Same

Should Phil Jackson (once head coach of the Chicago Bulls) have treated Michael Jordan (if you don’t know who he is, this illustration won’t make any sense) the same as the other players on the team? Some reasoned that Jordan should be treated like the other players; after all, “They are a team. Every player […]

Three Ways to Get the Most Out of a Leadership Book

Francis Bacon said, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” You may approach some leadership books with the intention of a quick browse, a read where you are merely keeping up to date with current thinking in your field or looking for some pithy […]

Leaders Must Create More Capacity, But How?

Wise leaders apply their best thinking to the most important things. This is, of course, easier said than done because of the sheer volume of things that leaders are asked or required to think about. Because we are finite and flawed, we have a limited amount of mental capacity. For a leader, there are always […]

Five Ways Leaders Can Get “Fresh Eyes”

There are a plethora of upsides to tenure. You learn the organization over time. You understand the context better and better. You build relationships with the team and the people you are serving. For the most part, tenure makes leaders more effective. But there is a major downside to tenure; leaders can lose their fresh […]

Five Thoughts on “Makers” and “Managers”

As we are considering what a new facility will look like at LifeWay, some of our leaders recently toured offices throughout Nashville to gain perspective and insight on structuring work environments. The good folks at Red Pepper (a marketing and advertising agency) were very gracious with their time and gave a few of us a […]