3 Phrases That Continually Betray Leaders and Team Members

On healthy teams, dialogue can be robust and transparent. When there is trust, communication can be open and honest. Getting to solid decisions can happen much faster on teams that trust one another. When there isn’t trust, even routine decisions take insane amounts of time as people waste time building alliances with pre- and post-meetings […]

Getting a Team to Self-Destruct

A team that fights with itself wastes an incredible amount of time and energy. When a team or church or group fights, everyone loses. Energy is stewarded away from what is most important and given to tearing one another apart. Instead of rallying in the same direction around the same mission and values, time is […]

4 Types of People on Your Team (Only One Is Effective)

In his classic work Pensees, Blaise Pascal profoundly wrote: Four kinds of persons: zeal without knowledge; knowledge without zeal; neither knowledge nor zeal; both zeal and knowledge. The first three condemned him. The last acquitted him, were excommunicated by the Church, and yet saved the Church. Clearly Pascal was affirming those who are filled with […]

4 Ways Leaders Can Express Gratitude to Those They Manage

Max Depree once said that the best people on your team are really volunteers, no matter if you pay them or not. They are volunteers because they can utilize their skills and talent elsewhere and they choose to utilize them on your team. Which means, of course, that you must lead with much more than […]

4 Essentials When Bringing New People on a Team

Growing up in the New Orleans area meant my mom became really skilled at cooking gumbo. It is amazing. While the roux is the part of the gumbo that impacts its taste the most, each new ingredient alters the taste. Add shrimp or crab and the taste changes. Throw in okra or a bell pepper […]

6 Ways the Team Reflects the Leader

One of the most challenging and convicting insights Brad Waggoner has shared with me is that “a leader can complain about the culture of the team for only a few years because after that, the culture reflects the leader.” In a church or an organization, there are multiple teams or groups. Obviously there should be […]

5 Great Things That Happen When Leaders Get Out of Their Offices

It takes a love for the people and the work, coupled with a discipline to throw oneself into the work, for leaders to leave their offices. The pull to stay in your office can be strong. There are plenty of emails and plenty of meetings to keep leaders stuck in their offices. But wise leaders […]

3 Reasons Leaders Must Excel at Prioritization

It has been said that management insists on doing things right and leadership insists on doing the right things. While not a fully accurate or helpful statement, as it paints a false dichotomy between leadership and management, it is a common cliché for a reason: We can waste incredible amounts of time doing things right […]

My View on the Debate About Annual Reviews

There is an ongoing debate among leaders as to the value of annual reviews. Some insist they are a bureaucratic waste of time. If you want to make a case against providing annual reviews, there is plenty of fodder to bolster your argument. Those who speak against them make several good points. Many managers don’t […]

3 Risks of Personality Tests

As I recently wrote, utilizing a personality test with the team you lead can foster a greater appreciation and communication among team members. But there are some cautions. Here are three ways we can misuse personality tests: 1. Justify unhealthy approaches. One pastor joked about the proclivity of tests to justify a person’s unhealthy behavior […]