8 Questions that Leaders Should be Asking Themselves

by: Perry Noble

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Perry Noble, the founding and senior pastor of NewSpring Church in South Carolina, offers eight questions that leaders should be asking themselves on a regular basis:

#1 – Is there ANYTHING that God is really dealing with me about right now that I am trying to deny?  (Denial doesn’t make us a great leader…if God’s pressing in on YOU then He wants YOU to do something.)

#2 – Am I known as the person who sits around and complains about a problem or the one who rolls up his sleeves and dives into how to deal with it?

#3 – Would I rather hear about the church down the road having a major win or a major problem?  (This reveals our heart!)

Read the rest of Perry’s list here.

Read more from Perry here.

Tags: Leadership Development, Leadership Engine, Perry Noble

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5 Practical Ways to Try Leadership the Very First Time

by: Mark Howell

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Help! I can’t find enough leaders!

I don’t know about you…but that is the most common complaint/concern I hear when I talk with small group champions.  And the most common question I hear is “How can I find more leaders?”  I’ve written a number of articles in answering that question.  You can see them right here.

Today I want to talk about how to develop more leaders.  This is an essential skill for all small group leaders but it’s not intuitive for most and it will rarely happen naturally or on the initiative of your existing leaders.  If you want it to happen system-wide, you must teach the concept and develop the expectations and skills that make it happen.

Basic Concept

The basic concept is that every group has multiple people who can lead (or help lead) a group.  I’m not suggesting that everyone can lead.  I’m simply pointing out that there are many group members who actually could lead a group if they were given the opportunity and motivated somehow to try it.

Do you believe that?  I hope so.  If you believe that, then the next step is to help your existing leaders begin to practice the skills that will allow and encourage everyone who can lead to give it a try.

Leader Development Practices

Here are five practices that will help more adults give leading a try.

• Make it a fun experiment!  As you begin a new study, let everyone know that “we’re all going to take a turn facilitating this one.”  To do that, you’ll need to select a study that requires little preparation and comes very close to leading itself (which is always a great idea).
• Begin by handing off sections of every session.  “Bob, why don’t you lead the Connect section next week?”  “Sue, next week I’d like you to lead the prayer time at the end.  Watch how I do it this week and then you do it next week.  Okay?”  Starting members out with bite-sized assignments will ease a toe into the water of leading.  Always a good place to begin.
• Practice sub-grouping as often as you can.  Start when you have 7 members.  Never stop.   You can begin by random sub-grouping (I’ve tried everything from counting off by threes or drawing numbers from a hat) and move to more intentional (affinities that might ultimately result in a new group).
• Meet separately from time to time or on a regular basis.  Many groups have developed the practice of meeting together twice a month and separately twice a month (i.e., let the men and women have their own time on occasion).  This helps develop additional leadership capacity…as long as you don’t just recruit the usual suspects.
• Broaden the invitation list for leader training events and meetings.  Encourage all of your group leaders to bring additional facilitators to your leader training events.  Include a breakout designed for new facilitators in the skill training section on your meeting agenda.

Want to develop more leaders?  Start making leader development a priority.  Better yet…start measuring the number of groups that do what we’ve talked about here.  You’ll begin to see development.

Tags: Leadership Development, Leadership Engine, Mark Howell, Structure

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Want to Get More Done? Stop Doing So Much!

by: Todd Henry

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The world is accelerating, and there are more platforms and opportunities for expression than at any point in history. As a result, we often expect more of ourselves and others. If time is available for a project, then it seems reasonable to agree to take it on or to expect others to do so. However, as these commitments build they can quickly begin to suffocate our capacity to engage with the work. We find that we are still able to technically get around to everything, but our effectiveness is decreasing. We are sinking slowly into a sea of mediocrity.

This is why pruning is critical.

In a vineyard, the vine keeper knows that if a vine is not regularly pruned, new fruit will eventually begin to steal resources from the older, more mature, fruit-bearing parts of the vine. Over time, the unpruned vine will eventually succumb to systemic mediocrity because it simply can’t support that much fruit. There aren’t the resources available. The good fruit suffers in order to support the less mature fruit.

Read the rest of Todd’s post here.

Tags: Leadership Development, Less is More, Todd Henry

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Invest in People

by: Steve Caton

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Tags: Leadership Development, Staff, Steve Caton

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Turning Ideas into Reality, Part 2

by: Steven Furtick

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Organization Not Optional

Once an idea is recorded, we are now getting into territory where personal preference becomes more of a factor than before. Getting your ideas down isn’t optional. The process you use to organize them is. Ultimately, go with whatever you’re comfortable with and understand. If you can’t use your system, there’s no point in having it.

My own preference is using a spreadsheet with multiple tabs covering different categories and platforms of communication (e.g. blog ideas, sermon illustrations, leadership teaching, staff meeting teachings). Once a week I sit down with my assistants and list every idea I’ve had over the past week with the main idea, any scriptures I want to use with it, and the category or platform it belongs in. Each idea is then listed chronologically within its assigned category. This way, I can see all of the resources I have within a particular area and have access to the freshest concepts within it.

Whatever method you go with, keep in mind that your organizational preference is optional. Being organized isn’t. Many pastors use the excuse that they’re not naturally organized. Translated, that means, “I’m too lazy to take the time to make my ideas more accessible.” When God has given you inspiration, there is no excuse for mishandling it. Even if it doesn’t come naturally for you. Do the hard work. If nothing else, find someone who is more organized and empower them to do it for you according to your preferred design.

Execution Matters Most

Ideas are overrated. Execution is what really matters. Ideas become reality because of something you do. Not because they are written down. So it’s essential that you have some kind of a system to make sure your thoughts are being filtered into your sermons, blogs, staff teachings, and any other place where you have a platform. If not, all you have done is buried them in a document rather than in your memory.

In my case, I have an assistant who regularly goes through my spreadsheet and makes sure the strongest ideas are being implemented in their respective areas. For example, when it comes time to plan out our sermons for the year, he has access to every single series idea I’ve envisioned up to that point. If we want to do a series on giving, everything I need on that topic is put in front of me.

You might not have the luxury of having a paid staff member to help you do all of this. But don’t let this stop you. Find a volunteer. Or set aside a set time in your calendar every week and do it yourself. The dividends it pays far outweigh the time and energy you will ever put into it.

And remember that it’s not ultimately about efficiency. This is about learning to harness the infinite sum of knowledge and inspiration that is at our disposal because of the God we serve.

Considering the fact that we have a God who is constantly at work to reveal Himself, there should not be another group on the planet that is coming up with better ideas than the people he has chosen to use as his instruments of revelation. Let’s not waste what we have at our disposal.

Read Part 1 of this series here.

Read more from Steven here.

Tags: Leadership Development, Recasting Vision, Steven Furtick

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Turning Ideas into Reality, Part 1

by: Steven Furtick

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Yesterday I told you I would be giving you access to my system for recording, cataloging, and implementing my ideas. After writing it out, I’ve decided it’s much too long for one blog post. I don’t want to shortchange you by reducing it, so I’ve divided it in two. The second half will be posted tomorrow. Here is the first half of the process:

The Birth of the Idea

The genesis of any system for getting your ideas from your mind to reality starts with the initial moment of inspiration. I’ve found that these moments occur in two different ways.

Sometimes they will appear out of nowhere. I’ll be doing something that requires zero creativity, yet one of the most creative ideas I’ve ever had will come to me. You’ll find that your subconscious is often working harder than your conscious mind ever will. Collecting random bits of information and making connections you never would. When God decides to use it to present you with something fresh, be ready.

Others come through learned observation. What I mean is that you have to train yourself to become aware of everything around you and its illustrative and revelatory potential. The books I read are no longer just for my own personal edification. They are goldmines for ideas. Every conversation I have, my favorite memories from family vacations, everything has the potential to birth an idea inside of me. Because God has created the world, everything around us possesses the possibility of more fully revealing the One who created it. Or giving us insight into the way His creation is designed to work. So keep your eyes open.

The first source of inspiration requires little to no work. The second may require intensive examination and reflection. Both are required if you want to maximize your mind’s full potential.

Get it Down.

The next step is crucial. It’s the one most pastors never get to and why most ideas never see the light of day. Ingrain this instruction in your head: write everything down.

Record every creative impulse. Every good idea. Every bad idea. Every possible vision initiative. Every potential illustration. When you’re reading, if the author says something in a fresh way that could illustrate one of your own concepts, record it immediately. Don’t highlight the sentence and hope you remember to flip back and find it later. You won’t.

Write it on a napkin. Record it on your phone. Write it on your iPad. Tatoo it on your arm if you have to. Whatever you have to do, just get it down. Some of your best sermon ideas were never preached because they weren’t written down. You thought you’d remember. You didn’t.

I write most of my thoughts in a Moleskin. But I’ll also do whatever it takes. I’ve called my own voicemail before and left a message just so I wouldn’t lose an idea.

However I end up recording it, I follow up and transfer it to either my computer or my iPad to make the second half of the process more efficient. We’ll pick up there tomorrow.

For now, keep your eyes open for every little piece of inspiration God gives you. And have a pen ready.

Read Part 2 here.

Read more from Steven here.

Tags: Leadership Development, Recasting Vision, Steven Furtick

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A High-Level Leadership Question

by: Steven Furtick

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I want to give you a simple, high-level leadership question you can ask every day that could significantly enhance the way you lead. This question is for everybody. Corporate executives. Low-level managers. Teachers. Parents. Teenagers. Anyone who has any measure of influence.

How can I help you succeed at something today?

It’s simple, but this question could change the standard approach to leadership that many people take:

Cast vision. Set goals. Demand success. Wait for results.

Sounds good and authoritative. Something a leader would do. But the problem is that sometimes the deck is stacked against your people from the get go. Sometimes for one reason or another, they can’t accomplish what you’re asking for and what they genuinely want to give you. And because they can’t succeed, neither can the goals or vision you’re striving after.

Before the success of your goals can be realized, the success of the people you lead must be prioritized.

Servant leadership has often been misunderstood. It isn’t doing menial tasks that take you away from your sweet spot. Servant leadership is essentially about equipping and empowering. Not scrubbing toilets. It’s about doing everything in your power to put the people you lead in a position where they can succeed.

And their success benefits everyone.

• They gain confidence in themselves and in your dedication to them.
• You are setup for success because they have been successful.
• The vision you have cast becomes attainable.

Make a commitment today to start asking how you can set others up for success.

If you’re a boss, ask your people if the systems you have in place are unnecessarily obstructing them from doing their job well.
If you’re a parent, rather than just demanding that your child do better in school, ask them how you can help them ace that upcoming test.
If you’re a husband, ask how you can create space for your wife to recharge spiritually so she can be everything she needs to be.

The question might create extra work for you. But the dividends it will pay will be worth it.

Read more from Steven here.

Tags: Leadership Development, Leadership Eng, Steven Furtick

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Do You Trust Your Pilot?

by: Mark Driscoll

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Can you remember a time when you were flying in a plane and it made a sudden turn that made you feel scared, helpless, and wondering if you could trust the pilots to get you to your destination safely? Do you remember feeling out of control, as someone else was in charge and your fate was in their hands?

Working for an organization, including a church or ministry, is kind of like a plane in flight. The senior leaders are up front getting data from private channels and have a perspective out the windshield that no one else has. Most people on the proverbial plane are going about their lives without considering the competency of the pilots’ leading, until there is a hard turn and they feel it.

A commercial pilot in our church explained these turns as “bank angles” where one wing stoops down. He said that the response of the passengers directly correlates to the degree of the turn. For example:

• 25–30 degrees: 1.1–1.2 g-force on the body, most people won’t feel a thing.
• 45 degrees: 1.5 g-force, people start to feel it.
• 60 degrees: 2-2.5 g-force, people really feel it and start to freak out.
• 70–80 degrees: Around 5 g-force, people start getting tunnel vision as the blood rushes out of their eyes.

Ideally, an organization makes as many 25–30 degree turns as possible. If so, there can be ongoing changes and course corrections without people freaking out and panicking, running through the proverbial cabin. But, sometimes a really hard turn simply has to be made. Those on the plane usually don’t understand why, because they neither have the data nor see the reality that’s confronting the pilots flying the plane. Those on the plane have five basic options on how they will respond when the organizational plane makes a hard-banked angle turn:

1. JUMP OUT OF THE PLANE

Stand up, freak out, make a scene, grab a parachute, and jump out of the plane with your résumé in hand hoping to land a job somewhere else. If you are really freaked out and negative, you can try and take as many passengers with you as possible, which is in your mind some kind of heroic act.

Read the rest of Mark’s post here.

Read more from Mark here.

Tags: Leadership Development, Mark Driscoll, Staff, Structure

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Lead Small

by: Bruce Wesley

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Leading small is a big deal.

When churches (or other organizations) are new and small, we tend to lead small. I’m not talking about having a small vision or a small heart. Leading small is about how we interact with people to prepare them to lead in the church. Leading small is interpersonal and dialogical. Leading small is an act of discipleship. The leader who leads small asks questions like,

• “Is he operating in his gifts?”
• “How can we help him actualize his potential?”
• “Is she demonstrating concern and patience with her team as she keeps them aligned to our mission?”
• “Does he inculcate our values in the way he relates to people?”

Leading small happens on the front lines, in the moment, at a breakfast table and in the afterglow of serving. It seldom happens 9 to 5.

The church needs leaders who can lead large too. Leading large serves the entire organization at once. Leading large is about vision, values, plans, processes and resources. Leading large is a team function, but usually it’s a strategic team having animated conversations about the preferred future in a boardroom. Charts and graphs give way to carefully crafted communication strategies. Leading large creates big plans, and that’s not bad in itself, but it is bad by itself.

Here’s a word of prophecy. If you only lead large, I see a sinkhole in your future. Whatever it is that you are leading is about to cave in.

Problems arise when you lead large to the neglect of leading small. You have plans, but you don’t have prepared people. When your plans outdo the people who are prepared to carry out your plans, you are just writing music that no one can play. If you are constantly trying to find a leader to carry out your plans, you better listen for the sinkhole warning blaring in your ears.

Notice the contrast in these two types of leadership.

Leading Large vs. Leading Small

Making Plans vs. Preparing People

In the future vs. In the moment

In the boardroom vs. At the breakfast table

Professional vs. Interpersonal

Presentation (One way) vs. Conversation (Dialogue)

With the Crowd in Mind vs. With the Person in Mind

Leading small is essential to building healthy congregations. The leader who leads small will continually build an army of people who are equipped for the mission at hand; he will prepare that army through meaningful, personal encounters. Leading small will keep the leader engaged with people. Leading small will create a multiplying culture for disciple making and leadership development. Leading small will help you remember that it’s about people—who give glory to God.

By all means, lead large. Dream great dreams and cast big visions. Get the best thinkers in the room. Push through to clarity about who God made your church to become and map out a credible strategy to make disciples. By all means, do the hard work of leading large.

But for heaven’s sake, don’t neglect leading small. Make sure every leader at every level is face to face with a few people, on their knees with future leaders, at the breakfast table, answering questions, recasting the vision and building the army of saints who will carry out the mission.

Tags: Bruce Wesley, Leadership Development, Leadership Engine

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The Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs

by: Walter Isaacson

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Steve Jobs is among America’s greatest business leaders. He transformed industries, changed society, and altered how companies do business. After his best-selling biography of Jobs came out, author Walter Isaacson saw many commentators focus on Jobs’ personality — without understanding how he led.

Listen as Isaacson and Harvard Business Review Editor Adi Ignatius talk about the keys to Jobs’ success, and the lessons that leaders of any organization can use in their own work.

Click here to view the webinar: A conversation with Walter Isaacson.

Tags: Leadership Development, Leadership Engine, Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson

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