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Think Like A Leader

March 7, 2012 By 6 Comments

In his little book, As A Man Thinketh, James Allen said, “As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.”  If that statement is true, you need to think like a leader to be a leader.  So how does a leader think, they read books and listen to lessons by other leaders.  They put into practice the things they learn. They don’t spend all of their free time in front of the television or playing games.

What you put into your mind is exactly what you are going to get out of your habits, actions, and words.  If you practice talking bad about people behind their backs it will show in the way you treat people.  If you practice being kind even to people who don’t have what you have, it will show in the way you treat people.

English: Sheep Worrying Just don't do it!

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When your worried, how do you think?  Do you focus intently on the thing you’re worrying about or do you focus on something else?  You focus on the thing you’re worried about.  You put every ounce of hand wringing effort into thinking about that one thing.  Why not use the same effort to think about good things, positive things, things that will change your life or the life of someone else.  I know bad things happen and they worry us.  Cancer, disease, bills all worry us. What I am saying is use the same effort you would worrying, when you’re not worrying, to think like a leader.

So how do leaders think?

Leaders think about the future.  They think about what God has planned for them and their organization 1, 5, or 10 years down the road.  They envision the changes that will have to take place in them and their people before the changes happen.  They dream about what’s to come and they let God change them through the process.

Leaders think about their people.  They want to know who is in the right position and who isn’t, because they understand people need to be good at what they do.  They want to know who is growing, and how they can help everyone grow.

Leaders think about their families.  I have never known a great leader who didn’t love his or her family.  If you are going to be a leader in the church especially you must lead your family first (1Timoty 3).

Leaders think about their legacy.  Who are you building up to become a better leader than you are? We all want to be remembered, and the best way to do that is by investing in someone else.  Find people who want to grow and invest in them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson put it this way,

Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.

 

If you’re looking for books to help your thinking here are some good ones

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Discover Your Passion

February 29, 2012 By 2 Comments
Mural in Barcelona

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Do you know what you are truly passionate about?  When you know what really gets you started every day you can focus you energy better.  When you discover your passion you are discovering what God created you to do.

Some short exercises to get you started

Think about what gives you the most pleasure. Is it surfing, books, knitting, carving wood, children, or music? Make a list of all the things you can think of that you really like to do.  I spoke in an earlier post about some of the people I know who do what they love.  These are people who just decided it was time to stop giving everything they had to a job, and start giving to themselves, their families, and others.

What if I don’t have a passion?  You do, I know somewhere deep inside there is passion about something.  For me it was going all the way back to high school.  I loved to write, but never had anyone tell me I could do it for a living.  I love to act, but no one ever told me giving talks could stem from that. This is not a quick exercise, this will take time and effort, but will pay great dividends for you in the long run.

On of the things Tony Robbins talks about is asking yourself the correct questions.  “What am I passionate about,” is a good and correct question and it wake you up at night with answers.  Some others may be:

  • What will I be remembered for?
  • What do I love to do?
  • What would I do if I could do anything?
  • What gives me the most satisfaction of knowing I’ve done it?
  • What motivates me?
  • Who inspires me?

There are many more questions you can ask yourself but these will get you started.

Your next step is narrowing down the list.  Take time to do the things on the list.  If painting is one of your passions then get a canvas and start painting.  Take a class at the local community college, or get an instructional video from the library or bookstore.  If you’re not van Gogh at first doesn’t mean you can’t do it, it just means you need to practice.  Yes practice.  I know we want instant gratification in the 21st century, but learning to delay gratification will help you learn to do the things you really love.

Find what you do best and learn to do it so well people will pay you to do it.  If you really stink at painting on canvas, but can paint on large walls then mural painting is what you need to focus on.  People will pay you to do faux finishes and murals in their houses faster than they will pay you for bad art.  You need to find your niche and stick with it.

What ever it is, find your passion and do it.

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To Whom Much Is Given

February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Much Is Expected.

As leaders we are given much in the way of people, resources, and opportunities.  One of the key things we need to realize is,  much is expected from us.  As a leader, the way you treat people, use resources, and leverage opportunities will be what you are remembered for.  If you are constantly looking for the next big thing, or the next hot church to further your career, people will recognize that.

People should always come first.  And your family should always come before other people. If you can’t take care of your home life then you shouldn’t try to lead anyone else.  Our training ground is our home, and it is the most important leadership area of all.  Being where your kids and spouse need you to be when you need to be there is more important than making the deal.  Surprisingly, your kids want to spend time with you more than they want you to make a million dollars a year.  People are your greatest asset and learning to work well with people is the key to long term success.  If you aren’t good with people start reading books on how to be.  Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends and Influence People is a great book to start with.  John Maxwell’s Winning with People is a more modern book and just as good a Carnegie’s.

How we use our resources is another way people view us.  If we are continuously under budget people are more apt to trust us with there money.  But if we are taking out more loans and deepening our debt to look like we are doing well with the budget, people will lose trust in us.  If you can’t stick to a budget, consider handing it over to someone else to keep you accountable.  Let’s face it, there are some people, me included, who are just not good with numbers.  We need help so we have to be willing to let that part go and trust who we put in charge.

Opportunities are a big deal breaker.  If you have led for any amount of time you know the continuous drum beat of opportunities knocking at the door.  Being willing to say no more than you say yes will keep you from becoming overloaded.  Opportunities can use up our resources, and our time, which takes away from our family and others.  I’m not saying opportunities are bad, most are just not the best for us, and learning to only take to use the best will keep us sane in the long run.

Think about your opportunities today.  Are you choosing the right ones or are you just picking?  Do you even know which ones are the right ones? 

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Don’t Let Your SalesPeople Tell Lies

February 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I worked in the service industry for ten years before I started Pinnacle Balance.  One of my biggest problems while I was there were salespeople.  Of the three companies I worked for, all in the same industry, sales was always the one with the highest turnover and lowest customer satisfaction.  Three companies, same problems. Why?  After talking to one of the sales guys who left but stayed in contact I answered the why.  All of the sales people would drift between companies so wherever they went the culture was always the same only the paychecks were different.

Okay, so why does the customer satisfaction carry over? Because when you are accustomed to lying to customers to get sales, they get mad when you don’t deliver. So what happens next? You lose a customer, but not just one, probably several.  When you lose a customer they talk to people in their line of work and if you lied they tell it.  Here is an example.

I walked into a customer office who to my surprise had bought a completely different item than they had tried out.  When I questioned the lady she said, “No it is the same type just a smaller box.”  Knowing she had been lied to I let my boss know. When he spoke to the salesperson he explained that they had to come in under a competitor so they sold her an inferior product to cover their commission.

The salesperson made the sale but we had lost the customer with in a year because the other company wasted no time pointing out our lies.  So in the end yes there was a sale but probably many lost sales from repeat business.

As a leader you have to train your people not to look out for themselves.  Being intentional with your training is the only way you are going to keep good sales people and continue to succeed in whatever line of work you are in.

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Learn From People Who Are Where You Want To Be

January 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

So many people want to be leaders, if for nothing more than the status that comes with it.  People want to win, but not pay the price of learning to lead.  In 1998 I attended a John Maxwell conference in Jacksonville Florida, and I can say that was the pivotal point in my life. From that point on I started taking notes from any and every leader I could find.  I got Dr Maxwell’s InJoy Life Club that later became Maximum Impact  I still have those cd’s that I listen to when I drive.   I bought cd’s from JimRohn, Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, yes even Tony Robbins. I read book after book, because I knew what God was calling me to do.  I bought them because I knew I was called to lead, and the only way I was going to learn how was to find people who had been there and learn from them.

When you find people doing what you want to do get as close to them as you can. For me it was tapes and cd’s, but today you can get blog posts, and podcasts from just about every type of business in the world.  Don’t just try and imitate these people.  If you try to “Fake it, till you make it” you’ll end up just going in circles at best, broke and discouraged at worst.  What you want to do is learn from them and pay the price of personal growth.  You may not see the change today or tomorrow, but one year from now you will see a difference, five years from now you will look back at the person you are now and not know that person.  But it starts with finding people to learn from and applying the principles to your life.

Give back what you learn.  One of my goals is to personally mentor two people every year and challenge them to pass that on to someone else.  If you are a leader I believe you should pass on what you know. If you are an aspiring leader find someone to come along side you and learn together.

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Discipline Yourself

January 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Self discipline can be one of the hardest changes to make because it is born out of habit.  We are habitual creatures, so anything that breaks our habits is viewed as a nuisance.  When we understand that we need to change we can begin to look for things to help us.

First of all has to be books.  We are a book buying society.  Whether or not we read the books we buy is another story, and that is part of the self-discipline problem.  If you buy a book to help you then at least take the time to read it.  You can read five pages a day and complete a 200 page book in a month and a half, so reading is not hard.

Next you can get apps on you computer or phone to help teach you discipline.  I have an app that I enter every bite of food that goes in my mouth on.  It tells me how many calories i need, what I take in, and how much exercise I have done.  I use it because I needed discipline in that area, and it is great.

Find someone to keep you accountable.  If you can’t hire a coach then get a friend, but make sure he or she is willing to ask you tough questions, and make sure you are ready to give truthful answers.  If you are not willing to be honest, you will never do this.

The bible says Knowledge begins with respect for the Lord. but Foolish people hate wisdom and discipline. (Proverbs 1:7 NCV) Get smart, learn to discipline yourself, and get growing.

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Being Friendly To Others

October 3, 2011 By 2 Comments

It’s not hard to imagine a Christian that is unfriendly.  I have been unfriendly when it was not what I should have done.  Craig Groeschell writes in his book WEIRD <Affiliate Link>about a man who chastised a visitor for wearing clothes he thought were inappropriate.  While most people reading this cringe, it does happen, and I bet it happens more than you think.  Being friendly to others especially visitors to our churches is something we should strive for even if they don’t believe what we do.

Coming from the southern United States we have a saying about being friendly to people we don’t agree with,

It’s easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar.

If you are hard and judgmental to people you disagree with, you will do nothing but reinforce their belief that Christians are jerks. It wasn’t people outside the church that Jesus was harsh with, it was the church leaders that Jesus scolded.  He was friendly and welcoming to those that did not fit into the culture of the day.  He had dinner with the sinners and tax collectors, and instead of judging them he welcomed them and judged the leaders who said he was doing wrong.

Jesus talked to the woman at the well, who was not only a woman normal men of that day would not talk to, she was also a different nationality the Jews thought were dirty and hated.  Jesus loved her, and was very straight forward with her about her sin.  He gave her real life, but none of this could have ever happened if he closed his mind to people his culture said was less than human.

If you grew up hearing that God was waiting to strike you down, and punish you for anything bad you did, I want to urge you to read the New Testament and see the love Jesus showed.  Being friendly is a trait we should all have as Christians and not just on Sunday Morning.

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What You See

September 28, 2011 By 5 Comments
Advertising on Times Square, New York City
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We are bombarded with information and advertisements.  what you see many times is a blur, unless the ad is about something you are looking for.  Marketers know that you see what you want to. If you set up a website and want to advertise you know that what you see is not what others looking at you site see.  In Your life, you see what you want to. If you believe your boss is a jerk you will see everything he or she does as a behavior leading you to know that you are right. If you believe a certain stereotype about another race, everything you see or hear will steer you toward the deepening of that belief. If you believe all poor people are lazy then that is what you will see.

We are called not to have these general beliefs about anyone.  We are called to love not our friends but also our enemies. Every day I hear Christians say they hate the leaders in congress, or hate the president (present or former you chose). We can’t hate, we must love people whether we agree with them or not. 1 Corinthians 13 says:

  4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

One of the first steps you must take is freeing yourself of beliefs of other people and cultures that are destructive to your growth as a Christian. We have become so caught up in the political name calling we see each night on our news or hear on our radios that we have carried it into our Christian churches, and it must stop. Defend your message, but you must still love the other messenger. When a Christian makes a derogatory statement about someone they disagree with they hurt the church as a whole not the person they are attacking.

We have been called to a higher standard and we have lost site of that. Change the way you think and you can change the way you see things. Paul tells us this in Romans 12

2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

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10 Things To Remember When Leading A Small Group

July 11, 2011 By 11 Comments

Leading a small group can be a big task for some people.  If you follow a few simple steps you can see your group flourish.

Start On Time – If you want to lose people fast then start late every meeting.  I know people arrive at different times, but adults need to be adults and we need to start when we say we will.

Don’t Answer Your Own Question – If you have a stronger knowledge of the bible than your participants this can become an out for participants.  Just be quiet and wait.  A little silence can go a long way in building a group.

Make Sure Everyone Feels Safe When Sharing - Nothing will destroy a group faster than some one telling another member they’re wrong.  You have to let every one know that not all of us are at the same faith or knowledge level so we need to be patient and help each other grow.

Ask Leading Questions – I learned this when I sold cars.  Never ask a yes or no question.  We were trained to ask, “Did you come in looking for a new or used car today?” or “Are you looking for a car or Truck today?”  Leading questions help people formulate their own ideas and build their faith.

Ask Follow-up Questions – If a question comes to your mind while someone is answering a question then ask it.  You may not be the only one who is thinking it.

Be Excited About the Group – If you’re not excited no one else will be.  You are going to set the mood for every meeting.  If you see people at church or around town then say something about how great the last time together was and build the group up.

Let The Questions Soak – This is another car sales tactic.  like I said earlier silence is okay.  When people are silent after a question it doesn’t mean they don’t have an answer, it means they are trying to formulate it in their heads.  While we are uncomfortable today with silence you have to not say anything and be willing to wait it out.

Make Sure Everyone Has a Chance to Answer - You may have one person who answers most of the questions either because of knowledge, lack of knowledge (they want to look smart), more comfortable answering, they hate silence, or many other reasons.  You have to encourage others to answer as well. Dissenting views are the hardest to get because they don’t want to look like they are trying to pick a fight or look wrong.  Getting multiple answers to a question may be the hardest task of all, but it gets easier with practice.

Have Fun – If this is looked at as a time of serious fun more people will take part.  Take time to just meet and share a light meal or coffee.  Go to a park or the beach together.  Build relationships while you build your faith.

Pray – If you are leading a small group, these people need you to be a spiritual leader for them.  You need to pray for each person under your leadership and pray for the meeting times as well.  You don’t have to be the one who prays at every group meeting, but you do need to be the one leading the prayer charge behind the scenes.

What Tips Do You Have For Leading Small Groups?  Do You Have  A Small Group Story You Can Share?

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We All Want More Time

June 27, 2011 By 4 Comments

If you waste the time you are given, you will never get it back.  While we realize time is short or that we do not have as much time as we thought we begin to use it more wisely.  Many others understand how much money we have and we live on a budget.  We can stay within our means because we can see how much money is coming in.  But time is different, we all have the same amount of time every day but some people seem to manage that time more efficiently than others. How can we learn to live on 24 hours a day.

We have to divide it up. By dividing up our day we understand what we are supposed to do in each division.  We can divided it up into three, eight-hour parts.  We can divide it up into six, four-hour parts.  We can divided it up however we want, but we need to understand the time that is in each division.

Most of us should get 8 hours of sleep each night so that 8 hours should be one division.  Most of us work 8 hours a day so that should be another division.  That leaves us with 8 hours of free time. There is no more time than that in a day.  So we need to stop living like there is.

The other 8 hours. I understand that in this 8 hours most of us spend one hour getting ready for work and between one and two hours commuting.  This 3 hour time frame should not be wasted either.  You should be listening a two motivational or spiritual CDs or mp3s during this time.  Zig Ziglar always said you could get a masters level course within three years if you would just listen to good CDs commuting back and forth to work.

Developing yourself. Many people want to be paid before they do anything. If you really want to get promoted and make more money at your job then you need to develop yourself.  If you don’t like your job then this eight-hour time window is your key to the advancement or to another job.  If you waste it then you will be where you are or you will be out of the job.

Time with family. This is also the time you need to spend with your family.  It is not the time to watch television and become a vegetable.  If you are putting your kids in a room with a television or computer and you are sitting in another room watching television or playing on the computer you need to turn it off and do something with your kids.

Please don’t waste the time you’ve been given.  Think about what you have to do then make out a time-sheet so you can do what you need to do.

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