As I have transitioned out of a role that served tens of thousands of churches a year and back to the local church, leaders have asked me what lessons I am taking with me. “What learnings from serving many churches are you taking with you as you go back to serving one church?” The first…
Leadership Development
The Shared Values of Leadership Development by Todd Adkins
So how do you develop people? Through skills and style of training. You must identify core competencies required for every leadership level of your pipeline. For example, a small group leader and a parking team leader should be equipped in conflict management. Core competencies are universal, but skills also include role-specific skills unique to each ministry area.
3 Reasons Leaders Are Wise to Recognize Their Weaknesses
When a basketball player attempts to do too much on the court, the person is called a “ball hog” or chided for playing “hero ball.” Being a ball hog looks like not trusting your teammates, taking impossible shots instead of giving the ball to a teammate for a much easier one, and insisting that everything…
A Story of Two Landscapers and One Reminder on Motivating Your Team
Two landscape architects woke up today and essentially performed the same job, executed the same tasks, and worked roughly the same hours. Let’s call these two landscape architects Joseph and Christopher. Joe works for a landscape company and spent his day at the homes of clients of the company, planting annuals and mulching beds in…
3 Essentials in Christian Leadership Development
When I was a freshman in college, I served a local church as a youth pastor. I was growing in my faith and eager to pour into teenagers. The church was Southside Baptist Church and the pastor was Jerry Key. It was a small church with about 100 people and a handful of kids in…
Links for Leaders 4/13/18
Why Email Is So Stressful, Even Though It’s Not That Time-Consuming—Dorie Clark Each “yes” leads to more work. Saying no is a challenge for any professional: you don’t want to disappoint people, and any given opportunity may lead to positive outcomes. But analyzing the emails I received taught me an important lesson about why it’s…
Links for Leaders 4/6/18
4 Ways to Be a Better Communicator and More Present in Conversations—Hayden Field Specificity is the key to unlock effective communication. The problem: Finding the right balance can be tricky. Too few specifics can mean sacrificing clarity, while too many can be seen as condescending. If you lean towards over-explaining, instead of assuming the other…
What You Can Look Forward to on the Other Side of Being Overwhelmed
The cliché: “Don’t bite off more than you can chew” is unhelpful because it is good for a leader’s development to occasionally do so. The same is true with lifting weights. If you want your muscles to grow, you must lift heavier weight, and put your muscles under stress and pressure. If you lift the…
Links for Leaders 3/2/18
How to Fix the Most Soul-Crushing Meetings—Ron Carucci Meetings are notoriously one of organizational life’s most insufferable realities. U.S. companies spend more than $37 billion dollars a year on them. Employees in American companies spend more than one-third of their time in them. And 71% of senior managers view them as unproductive. In one global consumer products company that I work…
Links for Leaders 2/16/18
To The Person (And Leader) I Wish I Was—Sarah Piercy There is this version of leader and spouse and parent and leader that I wish I was. And then there is this version that I am. How about you? Sometimes the person I wish I was stares through the mirror at the person I am. …