The Work Does the Work of Developing
A basketball player can benefit from watching videos and going to clinics, but it is the experience in real games that forms the player. The same is true when it comes to developing young and emerging leaders, both in the marketplace and in ministry. In fact, leaders within the Human Resources discipline claim that 70% […]
Character Over Competence in Deciding on and Developing Leaders
Younger leaders have been passionately challenged with messages like: Don’t peak too soon. Your platform must not be bigger than the person you are becoming. Don’t let your gifting outpace your integrity. The messages are wise, good, and true. We must declare messages about the importance of character to younger leaders AND we must design […]
Succession Planning Is NOT Leadership Development (But It Is One Result)
Leaders sometimes equate succession planning with leadership development and even speak of them interchangeably. They are both important, but they are not the same. Don’t confuse succession with leadership development. Succession is not leadership development, but it is one result of leadership development. If leadership development is the root, wise succession planning is one of […]
How Do You Invest in Your Family AND Work Hard in Your Role?
I am leading the pastors at Mariners Church through the classic book Spiritual Leadership by Oswald Sanders. A few weeks ago, as we discussed his chapter entitled “The Leader and Time,” I shared some of the lessons I have learned about stewarding time and fielded some wise and insightful questions from our pastors. One of […]
Distinguishing Between Overwhelmed and Overworked and Why It Matters
2020 was, according to many and for many, a year of being completely overwhelmed. According to research by Gallup, 2020 marked a year of a twenty-year low in mental health for Americans. While people longed for the calendar to flip, the beginning of 2021 did not offer the relief people hoped for. We are still […]
Where Leadership Development Fails and 3 Ways to Overcome
In his book Leadership Pipeline, Ram Charan articulates the biggest reason leadership development efforts fail in organizations. It is a big claim to make, to say that there is one overarching reason leadership development, as a practice, fails. And here is what Charan claims is the culprit: Leaders are trained for their current roles and […]
Pressure and Shame from the Increasing Paradox Surrounding our Bodies
Joey Chestnut is the most dominant person in his field. People marvel at his ability and his dedication. He is consistently the national champion in the Nathan’s Annual Hotdog Eating Contest. He won again last year by downing 71 hotdogs (with buns) in ten minutes. 25 years ago, it took 20 hotdogs to win the […]
What You Say About Your Predecessor Says More About You
Leaders who bash their predecessors, either overtly or subtly, are speaking much louder about themselves than they are speaking about their predecessors. It is a common occurrence, sadly, in leadership. You have likely seen it. A new leader arrives and starts to speak poorly about the past, even about the leader of the past. Perhaps […]
3 Essentials for Leadership Development
In his book The Leadership Code Dave Ulrich articulates that being a “human capital developer” is an essential role of being a leader. According to Ulrich, with personal integrity as the indispensable and foundational characteristic of a leader, there are four other essential characteristics of leadership: strategist, executor, talent manager, and human capital developer. After […]
Character First, But Is Chemistry or Competence Next?
Several years ago William Vanderbloemen and I had a conversation where he asked me to force-rank important qualities to consider when bringing a new person on the team. Many leaders have used three our four C’s as a helpful alliterated tool to describe essential characteristics when interviewing potential team members. You have likely heard the […]