Focusing Growth
Accountability,
Disclosure & Feedback
We do want excellence
in our lives, our families, the ministries we serve and the
organizations where we work. One of the best ways to ensure that
excellence is evident in our lives is by seeking wise and spiritually
grounded people to speak into our lives. With them, in a relationship of accountability, we can establish a reference point for growth and
change. By being humble, yet confident of who we are in Christ, we can
let people know the “real me” through the process of disclosure. We can
build trust through authentic relationship. And by maintaining an avenue
and receptivity for giving and receiving feedback, we create a healthy
dynamic for communicating personal and ministry excellence.
To read the complete article, be sure and
log in then go to My Training Record and click on the article, Accountability, Disclosure and Feedback.
Correcting Ministry
Performance
One of the more
uncomfortable responsibilities of leadership is to correct a team member
for behavior clearly contrary to ministry standards. The aim, of course,
is always to build up. Helping a ministry team member to correct
attitudes and actions of ministry is at the heart of discipleship.
Challenges to authority and how the correction is received are issues in both employee and volunteer situations. Finding
consistency in applying discipline and knowing when to terminate a
ministry responsibility are important functions of leadership.
Gentleness, with an eye on how the correcting will affect ministry and
the team member, not you, helps keep focus.
To read the complete article, be sure and
log in then go to My Training Record and click on the article, Correcting Ministry Performance.
Alignment:
Assuring a Spiritually Centered Ministry
Whether
you are sighting in for target shooting, calibrating an analytical
instrument, aligning the wheels of a car or organization, or spiritually centering a ministry or personal life, one fact holds true—if you don’t have
influence over the forces controlling accuracy, you have no mechanism to
assure you will hit anywhere close to your intended target or goal.
Optimal functioning requires alignment.
To read the complete article, be sure and
log in then go to My Training Record and click
on the article, Alignment: Centering Ministry.
Empowering Leaders
Preparing for Change, Assessing Risk & Making Decisions
Strategically responding to Change is a calling specific to leaders. Managers must respond
differently to change. As simple as it sounds, it’s true: leaders lead
change, managers manage change.
- Leaders
capitalize on the opportunities presented by a change event.
- Managers, because of their responsibility to perpetuate the status
quo (established policies and plans), tend to resist change.
- Leaders
are at their best in times of change because vision and influence
are about change.
- Managers, by the nature of their job requirements, must limit the
impact of change on an established system.
The role of a leader is to embrace change as the
life-blood of the enterprise and to see the status quo almost as an
enemy. Of course, change simply for change’s sake is reckless. But
stimulating, challenging and seeking change as a part of a strategic
vision is an essential role of leader stewardship.
Risk is the
consequence of change. To embrace change is by necessity a decision to
take risks.
Leaders are in the business of taking risks. They
frequently ask the leadership question, What If. What if we do this?
What if ‘X’ is added to the solution—what are the possible outcomes?
What if we weren’t here as a ministry—what would be the consequence?
What if we reorganize the way we do ministry—what would be the result?
Effective leaders know how to leverage risk to get the best outcome
without tipping the ministry over.
Decision Making is
the response to risk analysis. If “What if?” is the question of a
leader, and “How?” is the question of a manager, then “What should we
do?” because it is visionary, again presents a leadership question. Good
decisions must have the visionary questions answered; it is leaders who
take the risk of asking them.
Effective leaders are on a continuous journey, taking
the leadership team and the enterprise through the process of making
decisions affecting new issues and opportunities.
To read the complete article, be sure and
log in then go to My Training Record and click on the article, Change, Risk & Making Decisions.
Serving Power
Power
is like gravity or love or trust. You can’t see it but its presence
permeates everything on earth. Power can make things good for people and
can further the Kingdom of God on earth, or it can be an instrument of
horrible evil.
As
natural man, we want more power to feed the self-corruptions of control,
preservation and gratification. For the spiritual leader, when natural
power yields to supernatural power, the whole purpose of spiritual
leadership is accomplished—that of getting people onto God’s agenda.
To read the complete article, be sure and log in then go to My Training Record and click on the article, Serving Power.
Embracing
Conflict
If
you think it’s hard being a leader when all is going well, try leading
in the midst of conflict. In times of tension and dissension, when the
core qualities of leadership are plumbed, when disagreements surface and
interpersonal friction threatens division, the characteristic that
distinguishes a truly effective leader from a good leader emerges:
relationship with God. It’s the spiritual leader—the leader in secure
relationship with God—who can not only tolerate tension but can actually
embrace it. It’s the spiritual leader who is able to take people of
common purposes and achieve uncommon results.
To read the complete article, be sure and log in then go to My Training Record and click on the article, Embracing Conflict.
