Leaders carry the double burden of providing clear vision for the organization or ministry and then ensuring the plans to accomplish that vision are executed. Leadership is daunting because leaders must simultaneously cast a compelling vision for the future and enable execution today. These two frameworks placed alongside one another have helped me and teams…
Vision
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…
5 Warning Signs a Leader is Leading at “Too High” a Level
Leaders are often encouraged to lead “at a high level.” “Lead higher” is a helpful way to describe rising above the details and the day-to-day operations so a leader can look to the future. By “leading higher,” a leader is able to set direction, remind people of the why beneath the work, clarify mission and…
3 Things That Will Happen Naturally to Your Team This Week
Peter Drucker said, “Only three things happen naturally in an organization: friction, confusion, and underperforming. Everything else takes leadership.” Like a lot of his pithy statement, Drucker effectively captured the natural drift that occurs in organizations (and ministries) and the importance of leaders to rally people against the natural drifts. Just as a person does…
3 Mistakes Leaders Make When Starting a New Year
Here is a typical scene the week after Christmas… A leader gets some rest, feels rejuvenated, and the burden to lead the team better in the New Year starts to grow. The leader reads a book, favorites a dozen blogs, listens to some leadership training on a variety of topics, and is fired up for…
3 Shortcuts Leaders Should Never Take
In a culture that values instant everything and struggles waiting for anything, shortcuts are all the rave. Hack has even become a buzzword for taking shortcuts, maximizing time, and getting things done more quickly. “Hack your schedule.” “Hack your calendar.” “Hack your leadership meeting.” “Hack your life.” I am not against all hacking as some…
Five Thoughts on Leaders Being Poets and Plumbers
James March, professor emeritus at Stanford, is known for his research and thinking on organizational design and behavior. March believes that every skilled leader is both a poet and a plumber. The poet work of leadership includes articulating direction and formalizing cultural values, crystalizing beliefs with words and stories. The plumbing work of leadership includes…
Three Reasons Urgency Must Precede Vision
In his highly regarded book Leading Change, John Kotter articulates that establishing urgency must always precede communicating vision. Before attempting to implement change, leaders must create dissatisfaction with an ineffective status quo. They must help others develop a sense of angst over the brokenness around them. Without urgency, a vision will not take root in…
Five Ways Leaders Can Get “Fresh Eyes”
There are a plethora of upsides to tenure. You learn the organization over time. You understand the context better and better. You build relationships with the team and the people you are serving. For the most part, tenure makes leaders more effective. But there is a major downside to tenure; leaders can lose their fresh…
Three Warning Signs Your Life Is Drifting from Your Vision
Harvard business professor John Kotter has stated, “Behavior from important people that is inconsistent with the vision overwhelms other forms of communication.” If Kotter is right, and I believe he is, then a leader whose life does not match the vision being articulated nullifies the vision message, the website, the brochures, and the catchy slogans….