“Everyone like to work with someone who is a team player, and every boss wants to hire one. But being a team player does not mean abandoning your primary responsibilities, those for which you were hired. It will ultimately hurt you and the organization.” Art Rainer shares about how you can say “No” without being…
Productivity
10 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Time
Several months ago we ran a blog survey seeking to understand those who read the blog on a regular basis and what would be helpful to them in future posts. Many people asked about managing schedules and getting the most out of time. It is wise to ask the question because desiring to steward time…
5 Reasons Leaders and Creators Need Routines
The myth on creativity is that creativity hates routines, that creativity is stifled by a schedule or plan. In reality, leaders and creators thrive in routines. Mason Currey, in his book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, chronicles the daily rituals and habits of many of the world’s most influential artists, authors, poets, and composers. What…
3 Reasons Execution May Be Suffering on Your Team
Peter Drucker quipped, “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” The hard work of execution requires more than just you, and even more than just your team.
Links for Leaders 9/9/16
“When we believe that God is wise, we believe that He is not negligent when it comes to the timing of circumstances in our lives. Instead, we trust that God is operating on His own time table which, contrary to what we might feel, is actually the best time table,” Michael Kelley shares his wisdom…
Links for Leaders 8/5/16
Churches must be developing leaders, as we’ve talked about a few times this week on the blog. Last week, on the LifeWay Pastors blog, Tim Parsons shared four essentials for any leadership development program in the church. I think these are helpful. “I made a mistake” and “I was wrong” are not even close to…
3 Emails You Should Never Send
In a recent meeting with my leadership team, I shared my concern that email has a tendency to make us less efficient while promising to make us more so. An article from Harvard Business Review prompted the discussion with my team and has caused me to evaluate my own email habits and learn some ways…
5 Ways to Reduce Time on Email
I recently shared a Harvard Business Review article bemoaning the inefficiency of email with my team. The article recounts the story of IBM’s initial intent with email and the surprising and disappointing results. Cal Newport wrote: In the early 1980s, IBM decided to deploy an internal email system. In typical careful IBM fashion, they began…
Links for Leaders 5/13/16
Most likely, if you’re in any sort of leadership role, you have to make presentations from time to time. If you’re a pastor, you’re likely preaching with some regularity. If you’re a manager in your workplace, you’re likely leading team meetings on occasion. Here are five tips that may help you improve your presentations—I found…
Two Ways to Create Urgency
John Kotter, Harvard Business School professor, has written extensively about the need for leaders to first create a sense of urgency when attempting to implement change or launch a new initiative. Kotter has stressed that most change efforts fail because leaders are unable to create sufficient urgency. Urgency helps foster both focus and action. Without…