Thick Skin, Tender Hearts, and Four Types of Leaders
Leaders are often applauded for and encouraged to develop “thick skin.” A leader with “thick skin” is not crushed by criticism nor destroyed by disappointing results. The pain, the criticism, the challenges seem to “roll-off” the leader’s skin without seeping into the leader’s heart. While a leader with “thin skin” is often paralyzed by challenges […]
Two Simple Ways to Reinforce Culture
Culture is powerful. Peter Drucker famously declared it more important than strategy when he said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Culture is the shared values among a group of people that drives their behavior. Every single organization has a culture; some are healthy and some are harmful. How do you identify the culture you are […]
Three Ways Leaders Must Communicate Vision
If you have not gotten tired of speaking about your team’s mission, the team does not yet know it. If you have not articulated the current vision over and over again, the team vaguely knows what is important. Most leaders fail to understand how long it takes for organizational direction to be understood and embraced. […]
The Peter Principle and the Saul Syndrome
The Peter Principle, developed by professor Laurence Peter, reveals that people are often promoted based on their performance in their current roles and not based on their ability to function and lead well in the role they are promoted to. The result is “people are promoted to the level of their incompetence.” If the Peter […]
Four Practical Ways to Change Organizational Culture
Changing the culture of an organization is extremely difficult, and it is not something that can be done with a new logo, a purpose statement, a white board session, and a few media slides. In fact, Tom Peters has accurately stated, “It is easier to kill an organization than it is to change it.” And […]
Eight Steps to Leading Change: From Nehemiah to Kotter
Perhaps the most definitive business book on leading an organization to change is John Kotter’s book Leading Change. When ministry leaders speak or write about leadership, they often look to the wisdom found in the Book of Nehemiah, as it chronicles Nehemiah’s leadership in rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. Nehemiah led wide-scale change. Nehemiah never […]
Four Reasons to Have a “Stop Doing” List
We don’t drift toward greater efficiency and effectiveness. An organization’s natural drift is toward complexity and a fruitless fury of activity. It takes discipline and focus to continually move to greater effectiveness. For this reason, Jim Collins has encouraged leaders to develop a “stop doing” list. A “stop doing” list forces you to evaluate what […]
Four Indications You Have an Untrustworthy Team Member
Bad company corrupts good character (1 Corinthians 15:33). An untrustworthy team member can spoil and corrupt the collective character of a team. One team member can adversely impact the whole, can adversely impact the culture of the team you lead. Here are four indicators of an untrustworthy team member: Negative about everyone else If the […]
Four Leadership Personalities: What Color Are You?
With our leadership team, we use the Insights Discovery tool to help each other understand our unique personalities. The tool is validated and has proven helpful to our team in serving and communicating with one another. Our Auxano consulting team often uses the tool when consulting with churches. Though there are variations of each color […]
You Are Wasting Your Weekly Staff Meeting If…
Most people struggle with meetings, unless they are leading them—and they think those are awesome! The truth is that meetings are important. Without meetings, teams can move in a plethora of directions, communication gaps can grow, and execution can suffer. But weekly meetings, if not led well, can be an absolute waste of time. And […]