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Leadership Email – Purpose, Values and Difficult Choices

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Here’s my email to leaders on Monday, January 14, 2013:

Happy Monday.  Well, we are 14 days in to a New Year.  I continue to think about holding on to purpose, though, in both my personal priorities as well as with the organizations I’m involved with, so today I wanted to write something about purpose and values and saying “No.”  Some of you have probably learned this lesson long ago, but I’m one of those people who have a hard time saying “no” to things when I am given an opportunity.  But, as we think about holding to purpose, we see that purpose is all about maintaining focus on what you want to accomplish, staying grounded, keeping entwined to those things crucial for progress.  This inevitably means that we will have to choose among competing values.  We might have to evaluate between 2 equally good things.  Holding to purpose will free us say “no” to one so that we can give ourselves to saying (and living) “yes” to another. 
I need to learn this.  There are many things that call for my attention.  I have a full time job pastoring a church, 4 kids ages 6 and under. I chair a non-profit in our community, write and help with some facilitation for Leadership Reno County and volunteer as a WatchDog at Lincoln Elementary.   Holding to purpose is important as I try to juggle things that are important and meaningful to me.  (And I’m sure some of you are even busier than I am).  I say all this to say, purpose helps us navigate around those competing values and make some difficult choices at times.  Holding to purpose undoubtedly makes us effective leaders. 
Today, then, hold to purpose and, in so doing, choose among competing values.  Make those difficult choices to say “no” to good things at times and “yes” to those things that line up most clearly with your purpose.  And let’s see if we aren’t able to see progress in those purposeful areas of our lives and leadership.

Leadership Email – Purpose Matters

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Here’s the email I sent out to leaders in Reno County today, 1/8/13:

Hello Everyone.  Welcome into a New Year.  As many of us are strategically thinking this time of year, I was privileged to be a part of 2 discussions and they both drew me back to the importance of purpose.  One was a meeting with the Leadership Reno County Advisory Board.  Lynette was presenting some details on the coming class and asked a gathering question, “What is the purpose of Leadership Reno County?”  Our discussion around this question really helped give us focus, and, specifically, encouraged us to dream about what we’d like to accomplish in the future.
My second discussion area was in the church work.  My leadership team was discussing the ins and outs of a particular decision and one of my leaders asked, “Well, what is the purpose of this?”  The light bulb went off in our collective heads as we realized that all our time in discussion would have been better served if we would have started with that question, because the discussion would have been a moot point.  A direction would have been clear if we agreed on purpose.    
So, purpose matters.  It serves a pragmatic purpose (as my examples show) but also keeps us on target and affects the decisions in the minutiae.  Time and again in life I see how important this is to unite people around purpose and chart direction accordingly. 
Let’s begin this new year, then, holding relentlessly to purpose and see if it doesn’t help foster progress in those issues we care about so deeply.

Leadership Email: Hold The Rope

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Here’s the email I wrote to leaders in Reno County Monday, December 17:

Happy Holidays Everyone.  This will be my last post of the year in light of the next couple of weeks (plus, my wife is due to deliver our 4th child Dec 31).  I hope you’ll indulge me a story from the church world that may very well relate to our lives as leaders.  One of the earliest missionaries to leave England in what we know as the modern missionary movement went to, at that time, the unknown world of India.  And, when he was leaving, he told his supporters: “Well, I will go down, if you will hold the rope.”  He understood the importance of uniting people around purpose.  I don’t know of a better way to end this year and begin looking to another one than to urge you to consider how you will hold the rope.  How will you hold to purpose more effectively in the coming year? 
Recently, I received a card from the Kansas Leadership Center on Holding to Purpose.  This resource was designed to help us engage in civic leadership more effectively.  It’s based on experiences shared by KLC Alumni in a Nov. 15, 2012 On the Balcony conference call, hosted by Ed O’Malley.  Here’s some bits and pieces from it:
“Holding to purpose is about maintaining focus on what you value and want to accomplish.  Staying grounded in an individual or collective group purpose is critical for progress.  The more provocative your vision, the more difficult the journey.”
What does hold to purpose mean?
·         Remembering to step back and evaluate whether the work you’re doing contributes to your purpose
·         Staying focused on the big picture beyond the small details
·         Remaining open to the possibility that your purpose might evolve as you engage people whose values and priorities are different from your own.
How do you help a group hold to purpose?
·         Challenge the assumption that there isn’t time to develop a shared purpose
·         Spend time diagnosing: listen and ask questions, specifically, “Why?”
·         Remind people there’s a difference between purpose and strategy
·         Repeatedly state the purpose.  Keep in top of mind at all times. 
How can you find and hold to your personal purpose?
·         Identify your passions and what you value to help you determine purpose
·         Engage others in your purpose, so you remain energized in the work
·         Pursue activities that relate to your purpose
·         Find someone who will hold you accountable and steady in your purpose
Principles and competencies related to holding to purpose:
·         Distinguish technical vs. adaptive work – adaptive work is rooted in values which will help you hold to purpose
·         Choose among competing values – to hold to purpose, you might have to sacrifice other things you care about
·         Take care of yourself – you stand a better chance of holding to purpose when you’re at your best
·         Give the work back – it’s easy to lose sight of your purpose if you don’t focus on your priorities
So, have a very purposeful and fruitful end of the year/start to next year and see if this doesn’t result in our making progress in those issues we deeply care about.  

Leadership Email — Coming Up for Air and One Thing

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Here my leadership email to leaders in Reno County this week:

For the past few weeks, I’ve really been hammering on our need to diagnose the situation.  And, I want to diagnose our situation of diagnosing the situation by coming up for air today.  So, let’s take a deep breath.  Seriously.  It’s Monday.  Breath.  And, as we jump in, a quick review:  We started highlighting the importance of diagnosing and followed that up with a couple of reasons why we misdiagnose: we rush into solutions or we try to find pain-free fixes to problems.  Then, we emphasized the importance of determining whether our problem is adaptive or technical.  So, coming up for air today, let me try and “Give The Work Back” by asking you to define this difficult challenge of diagnosing.  Why do you and I tend to misdiagnose or rush right past this important piece?  What might be some potential solutions to your lack of practice in diagnosing the situation? 
I know these are hard questions for a Monday, but your consideration of them is an act of leadership and leadership is a difficult, risky work.  I think we all wish that leadership was easy and the world would just cater to our best laid plans, but the reality is that leadership is an opportunity for us to propel our purposes in the world.  We can make a difference.  Today, what’s one thing that you could practice in this whole diagnosis piece that might further your leadership?  That’s what I’m hoping all these weeks of engaging in this subject might provoke.  My hope is that we would make progress on the issues we care about.  So, will you join me today by stepping back from the minutiae for a second and asking diagnostic questions?  It just might help us make that progress we long to see take place.  

Leadership Email – It’s A Sucker, Stupid.

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Here’s the email I sent to leaders in Reno County on 12/3/12:

Funny story from a couple of old codgers here at the church: they were sitting in Daylight Donuts for a morning coffee and in walked a family with a little girl, who had a sucker in her mouth.  One of these guys said to her, “Are you enjoying that lollipop, sweetie?”  And she said without batting an eye, “It’s a sucker, stupid.”  I’ve laughed about this story time and again, but all too often this is how our civil discourse is about issues we care about, isn’t it?  We sincerely want to make a difference or make progress, only to be stopped in our tracks by the “It’s a sucker, stupid” people.
I, for one, have been helped by the competencies at this point.  You see, what is exposed in my bristling at this statement is my lack of diagnosing the situation.  I’ve begun to treat a problem as a technical one when it’s an adaptive one.  Here’s another quote from Ed O’Malley in The Competencies For Civic Leadership, p.3: “Technical problems live in people’s heads and logic systems.  They are susceptible to facts and authoritative expertise.  Adaptive challenges live in people’s hearts and stomachs.  They are about values, loyalties and beliefs.  Progress on them requires the people with the problem to do the work, and the work involves refashioning those deeply held beliefs.”  To relate it back to our situation, it’s the belief that a sucker isn’t a lollipop that caused the girl to rebuff those codgers.  Might some of the resistance we face be due to the fact that we’re treating adaptive problems with technical solutions?    We’re engaging brains and not hearts.  So, get back to purpose.  Dive deeper to find that common ground.  And, see if this doesn’t help us make progress as a community. 

Leadership Email – Torching Glaciers

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Here’s the email I wrote this week to leaders in Reno County…

I once heard a speaker use an amazingly graphic image about “torching glaciers.”  I guess this cemented in my mind because it’s such an interesting image.  Think of a glacier, with its slow moving, voluminous mass.  And, picture someone beneath that glacier with a blowtorch, with water dripping little by little.  For many of us, our work seems like torching glaciers.  We know that there are huge, adaptive, wide needs that exist.  I think of non-profit work that I’m involved in and how there will always be another child or family that needs mentoring or strengthening.  I know many of you are on the ground floor, “torching glaciers.”  It’s difficult work at times, but little by little, just like the drops of water from the torching of the glacier, we see successes.  And, even if you’re not in non-profit work, progress may come in big chunks at time (like, undoubtedly, when you are torching a glacier) but by and large, progress seems slow or even nearly stagnant at other times.
For this reason, all of us involved in leadership roles in Reno County should be encouraged about the happenings in Hutchinson this week.  The Hutchinson Community Foundation is sponsoring Match Day.  I view Match Day as a torching of a glacier.  In a sense, we’re empowering the 26 different non-profitswith resources.  We’re widening the scope of the blowtorch so that the HCF’s vision of “a one-time opportunity to dig deeper, to grow each endowment exponentially, so that our nonprofit partners can enrich people and programs for even greater impact” is reached.  Match Day isn’t the final solution to the problems we face.  But, it is certainly a means to be mobilized to make some progress.
Let me personally invite you to consider (if you haven’t been asked already) what you might give on Wednesday, November 28th at Eagle Media (here’s some more details).  We are all, I believe, united around the goal of making progress on the deepest needs facing our community.  Maybe this Wednesday could be a way you can torch a glacier and help make some progress in areas you care about deeply.  

Leadership Email – More on Misdiagnosis

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Here’s the email I sent out to leaders in Reno County this week:

Having seen the importance of diagnosing the situation and looking at one reason we misdiagnose, today, we think about another reason we misdiagnose:
“Find a Pain-Free Fix, Please.  Second, the actions that are preferred by the community are ones that address the manifestations of the crisis with as little cost or pain as possible.  The hurry-up legislation enacted to deal with the economic crisis was designed to stem the hemorrhaging rather than address the underlying causes.
“That approach to the economic crisis illustrates the single biggest diagnostic error people make in framing civic issues: treating adaptive challenges as if they were technical problems (The Competencies For Civic Leadership, p.3). 
Little cost, no pain, get me a solution now.  These things can contribute to our misdiagnosing an issue.  We must dig a little deeper into these adaptive challenges (more on that next time).  But, today, my purpose is simply to place in you a desire for more.  Don’t misdiagnose by settling for quick, pain-free fixes.  They may alleviate short term voices, but will exacerbate long term issues.  Diagnose the situation and see if we don’t make more substantial progress on those issues you care about so deeply.

Trifecta On Leadership

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I’ve been greatly helped in recent days by 3 books that have come out on leadership in the local church.

The first one was Dangerous Calling by Paul Tripp.  Tripp goes after the heart of every pastor.  When I preached on Hebrews 13:17 recently, I was reminded, convicted afresh and challenged to be a man who is worthy of a congregation’s trust and support.  Tripp helps expose the selfish tendency pastors have in ministry and then soothes us with deep, Gospel realities.

Secondly, Dave Kraft’s Mistakes Leaders Make has been another eye opener to be aware of some common pitfalls that can come our way in pastoral leadership and to choose a better path, that glorifies God and serves the good of the people (and ministry).  I’m still in this one, but have been very encouraged so far.

Finally, Al Mohler’s Conviction to Lead has proven helpful to seeing how leadership looks from an overarching and thoroughly Christian worldview.  Mohler deals with a leadership point and fleshes that out from Scripture and experience to point us in truth.  Honestly, I’m still in this and have been using it as a springboard for prayer in devotions.

Each of these books are very helpful in their each unique way in fostering healthy leadership for pastors in local churches and I commend them each to you.

Leadership Email – Why We Misdiagnose, Part 1

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My email to leaders in Reno County from Monday, 11/12/12:

Continuing a series we began a couple of weeks ago on diagnosing the situation, remember last time we thought about the importance of diagnosing.  Today?  “Why do people misdiagnose the situation?  Two reasons stand out:

“Don’t Just Stand There, Do Something.  When a community or organization is facing a difficult issue, there is almost always tremendous pressure, especially on those in authority, to act, to do something, making it difficult to spend the time necessary to do a deep diagnosis.  In the complex economic meltdown in the fall of 2008, President George W. Bush and the Congress took unprecedented steps in a matter of days.  Inaction would not have been easily tolerated by the public.”  (Taken from The Competencies For Civic Leadership, pp.2-3)

While most of us are go-getters and recognize the need for action, we can easily rush into action plans at the neglect of diagnosis.  This may later reveal that actually we did misdiagnose the situation.  So, today, realize that part of your action in solving a problem may very well be hitting the pause button on that action plan and seeking some diagnosis so that wise(r) plans are made.

We’ll look at another way we tend to misdiagnose next week.  Thanks for taking time to consider this important step today.  Take time to diagnose and see if it doesn’t help us make progress on the issues we care about deeply.

Weekend Prep (2) – Godly Leaders

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Following up on yesterday’s post, having seen what kind of godly men leaders are to be, we see that there is, indeed, an appropriate response to godly leaders.  Hebrews 13:17 gives us this:

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give  an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning,for that would be of no advantage to you.

Now, we may not like what the Bible has to say to us about our response to godly leadership, but we are called to such a thing nonetheless.  We aren’t to follow our leaders into sin or encourage them in paths that are dishonoring to God; however, following them is all about God being in charge and having authority over our lives.  If we esteem Him, then we will respond to the leaders He’s given the local church appropriately.  This weekend, we’ll be exploring this text.  I hope you come with a humble, teachable heart to love God supremely, especially in your local church.