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Leadership Reno County Wrap Up 2017

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I’m blessed by my church to be freed up to serve our community through a program called Leadership Reno County.  It’s a program of the local Chamber of Commerce and we use a curriculum from the Kansas Leadership Center.

This year’s program ends tonight with a Graduation ceremony at the Crazy Horse Sports Club & Golf Course (formerly known as the Highlands).  We’ll also have KLC CEO & President Ed O’Malley as our guest speaker.  We’ve had a great year helping our participants learn about leadership and make progress on issues they care about.  Tonight will be a good ending to this experience.

Further, if you’re in a position to donate, we’d love to have you participate in the LRC Go Fund Me campaign which helps raise scholarship monies for future participants.

Monday Leadership Email – Progress In The Board Room

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Each week, I write an email to alumni of the Leadership Reno County program (which I also help facilitate).  Today’s email got at how progress can be made in meetings that seem to be stuck.  You can read the post, but here’s a quick summary:

  1. Begin with diagnosis.
  2. Look inward.
  3. Aim high.
  4. Play.

I hope it encourages you to engage in acts of leadership for the good of those around you.

 

LRC 2016 Wraps Up Today

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I wrote an email to the alumni of Leadership Reno County explaining all the different ways they can connect to our program.  I love this program.

The backstory is that in 2010 I didn’t know what was happening in the community in which I pastor.  I was in a meeting with other pastors and was shocked to hear about some big issues plaguing our community.  I knew I had to do something.

So, I used the Leadership Reno County experience as a time to learn and refocus on the community in which I live and serve.

Fast forward to today and I get the privilege of serving as a facilitator of this program.  We are working for the common good of Reno County by trying to do something about the leadership behaviors of people.  I love this work.  We wrap up another class today.  There’s a celebration tonight of this group.

Leadership is an activity, not a position.  I’m hoping I continue to model and live this reality out through our local community leadership program.

Weekend Recap – Retreats…

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I’m coming off a super busy weekend…

On Thursday and Friday, I was in Hesston, KS with Leadership Reno County kicking off the 2015 class with a retreat.  I love playing a small part in the leadership development of our community.  Many of the things our community continues to work on are big, hairy, adaptive problems.  I think LRC helps equip people, regardless of their background, to make progress in these areas.

As soon as I returned from this, our Elders got away for a Bible Intensive Retreat with Jim Elliff and Kole Farney.  In church work, especially among church leadership, we can spend so much time doing important, even necessary things, that we can neglect the more vital things.  I’ve noticed over the past few years that studying the Bible together would be a great thing.  Jim’s preferred method for reading the Bible is really where we spent much of our time, working through John 1 together.  By the way, Jim did preach for me (and Kole shared his testimony).  ‘Twas a great sermon on what it means to be a True Disciple.

Today, this busy weekend ended by being able to participate in the Reno County Youth Leadership Summit.  I was able to speak on how leadership starts with you and must engage others.

So, I’m pretty beat, but it’s a good tired and I’m grateful to get to serve both our community, local church leadership and the church at large.  Have a great week.

LRC Email – 3 questions with Bob Bush

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Here’s my latest installment for Leadership Reno County alumni…

In this, Bob Bush answers the following questions:

1) Our program defines leadership as “mobilizing people to do difficult work.”  How have you seen this definition at work in our community? 
2) How does having a clear purpose flesh itself out in your life? 
3) How do you work to build bridges between parties that disagree in our community? 
Hope this is encouraging to your work in leadership.  

LRC Email – Hard Stuff

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Here’s my 2/24/14AM email to Leadership Reno County alumni:

“This leadership stuff is difficult.  I mean I have wonderful ideas it’s just all these people around me that need to change.”  Sure we don’t verbalize much of this sentiment, but isn’t it laying dormant as a very real reality in our thoughts?  We’re not the problem…all THOSE people are.  Today, I want to remind you of one of the competencies at the core of our engaging in acts of leadership: Manage Self.  When we are thinking that everyone else is the problem, we’re forgetting that leadership starts with you and must engage others.  Today, then, it might be the case that you have a managing self issue more than a “THOSE people” issue.  Know your strengths, vulnerabilities and triggers.  Know the story others tell about you.  Choose among the competing values waging war in your heart.  Get used to uncertainty and conflict.  Experiment beyond your comfort zone.  Take care of yourself.  As you engage in these managing self behaviors, you’ll jump start your engagement and undoubtedly be more effective.  So, today, do the hard stuff—change yourself—and see if this doesn’t help you make progress in this issues you care about.

LRC Email: Head and Mouth

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Here’s my Monday Email to Leadership Reno County Alumni on 2/17/14:

We’re always on the look out for new and exciting ways to press you into thinking differently, to not be about “work avoidance” (anything below the threshold of change above) but to get into the “productive zone” (the orange highlighted area in the middle).  Hopefully, my Monday emails get you to think about these things (or at least keep them on your radar).  Here’s a short summary of a recent experiment we tried with the current Leadership Reno County Class.
In their book, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership, Heifetz, Grashow and Linsky suggest that one of the reasons we don’t break into the productive zone by lingering in work avoidance is that we often don’t “speak the unspeakable”, giving language to the more provocative interpretations that are going through our minds.  On any issue, there are 2 conversations happening: the conversation you or someone else is saying publicly and the conversation inside your head related to the public conversation.  Usually, only a small portion of the “in my head” conversation emerges in the public convo.  And, what emerges is “polite banter” which we call “Kansas Nice.” 

So, think about a time when the head and mouth didn’t line up.  What could have been voiced?  What progress might the group achieved as you voiced your “in the head” conversation?  It’s not so much about others hearing you roar as much as helping the group or organization make progress on what you care about.  Today, then, think about how the head conversation needs to inform the public conversation and see if it doesn’t help you break out of work avoidance and engage the productive zone more effectively.

LRC Email – The SOP

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Here’s my email to Leadership Reno County alums today, 2/10/14:

S.O.P.  Many of us live by it.  Certainly our work operates by it.  We trust that those police, fire safety and ambulatory service individuals among us will follow this for our good.  S.O.P. is a terrific was to engage in work.  What is S.O.P.?  Our standard operating procedure. 
I was challenged recently by a quick update from the Kansas Leadership Center which encouraged us to make experimentation your standard operating procedure.   The reasoning?  “Over time, ‘acting experimentally’ will become a way of being in situations that demand leadership.  It’s somewhat difficult at times to see experimentation as relating to leadership, though.  Here’s another quote: “Exercising leadership requires a resilient spirit and willingness to fail for the purpose of learning.  Test your assumptions by actively experimenting.  Imagine several possible approaches, then pick one and see what you learn.  Take smart risks to reveal the best path forward.” 
Another reason this is such important activity is because one of our main contentions is that we aren’t making the progress we’d like to see because we are doing the same old things in the same old ways.  The gap (between our reality and dreams) isn’t necessarily shrinking, in some cases it’s expanding.  So, it will require us act in different ways. 

How can you act experimentally today?  What can you try?  Experimenting might just be a key that helps unlock progress on your difficult challenges.  So, experiment and see what happens.

LRC Email – Keep The Change

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Here’s the email thought I wrote to Leadership Reno County alumni today (1/27/14):

It’s been said that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”  What this is saying is that sometimes it’s difficult to adapt or (*scary word coming*) change.  Most of us change all the time, though. Sure we have staple menu items we like, but we also like to try something new (didn’t we Pin 100 new things yesterday).  When it comes to ourselves, we think we’re progressive.  Those of us who swore years ago we’d never have a cell phone suddenly can’t get enough of our Jitterbug.  We change.  Part of the personal challenge comes when change doesn’t happen in others the way we’d like to see it happen.

And, this process of change (or rather changing others to be precise) is precisely why we engage in an act of leadership.  Leadership is mobilizing people to do difficult work.  Leadership may include mobilizing people to change.  It starts with you and engages others.  It’s purposeful.  And, it’s risky.  So, today, as your heart is possibly growing faint with the lack of change you’d hoped would be so prevalent in the New Year, recommit yourself to this amazing work.  You can keep the change.  You can engage in act of leadership.  What would that be for you?  Pursue a step in that direction today and see if it doesn’t help us work together for the common good of our community.