LeadershipConneXtions

How About Some Inspiration Please? Wow Me If You Can?

Think about Jesus for a moment.

He said to people established in a career, "Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men" (Mark 1:17).  This meant leaving what they were doing and making a radical career decision.

Which they did!

Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23). Self denial and cross bearing! Not exactly your standard "marketing pitch."
 

But -- incredibly -- they did!

And just to be crystal clear about his expectations and standards, about what he was inviting them to, Jesus said "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyoen who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and anyone who does take up his cross and follow me is not worthh of me" (Matthew 10:37-39).

And still -- they followed him!

Why?
The challenge Jesus threw down is mind-boggling!
What in the world is going on?
Why are they following him? 

I'd suggest it is inspiration. There was something about Jesus which was inspiring? Jesus inspired people.

People were amazed by Jesus (Mark 1:22, 27-28).

• They were amazed with his teaching. 
• They were amazed with his ability to cast out demons. 
• They were amazed at his intimacy with God. 
• They were amazed at how he handled his enemies.

Jesus was amazing! Not manipulative. Not condescending. Not a charlatan doing tricks. Not a salesman pedeling a product.

But AMAZING!

When you are amazing you are an inspiration to others... and they want to follow you. They want you to lead them. They want to be with you. To learn from you . . . and yes, being honest . . . to benefit from what you have to give to them. Even if there is a great cost involved . . . because they believe WHO YOU ARE and WHAT YOU ARE OFFERING is worth the price that must be paid.

So, all you have to do is - be amazing! And when you are, you will inspire people and when you inspire them, you will influence/motivate them.

That's it. 
Just be amazing!

Are you thinking, this is no comfort at all?

I'm not amazing. I'm just ordinary. Pretty run-of-the-mill, down home, average!

I can't inspire people like that!

 

Now, I am going to lead you hanging for a bit. I'll come back to this topic of inspirational leadership in about a week with some thoughts about amazing leadership.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com 

 

 

Revisiting What You Already Know About What It Means to Lead

Here is a definition on leadership that I really like. It is from Peter Drucker's book, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, page 463. I have changed the wording to make it gender neutral.

Leadership is

the lifting of a person's vision
to higher sights,

the raising of a person's performance
to a higher standard,

the building of a person's personality
beyond its normal limitations.

When you empower others so they have a greater mission, vision, dream, passion and purpose, along with the desire, belief and confidence to move toward what they see...

When you empower others so they have a greater capacity, competency and opportunity to do what they are meant to do...

When you empower others so they grow internally (the heart, soul, character, emotional intelligence) and become who they are meant to be...

. . . then, according to Drucker - you are leading.

At the heart of leadership is the equipping, empowering, developing of those around you. When you are able to mobilize and coordinate the work of these empowered people so they are now working together toward shared dreams, each fitted in to the right place where they can make their contribution - you are moving to very effective and fruitful levels of leadership.

Think about the people whom you are leading and assess how you are doing what Drucker says is the heart of leadership.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com 

Use Ignorance Wisely (Another Druckerism)

Here is another "Druckerism." 

The theory is simple. When you don't know something, that forces you into the role of the interested, curious seeker of information. If you don't know something, you have to ask questions to find answers. When you don't know something and you need to know it, that is the context for unleashing creative energy.

William Cohen (A Class With Drucker) tells the story of Henry Kaiser, a North American who was contracted to build cargo vessels during World War II. The British were the world experts on ship building, but they were in trouble with the great losses being sustained. They needed allies to build ships.

The problem was that following the standard industry approach developed by the  British, it took well over a year to build a new cargo ship. 

Kaiser got the bid and had to learn how to build ships. He was outside the industry and asked questions from a new, raw perspective. He was not boxed in with conventional wisdom. His ignorance led him to bypass the tried and true methods as he innovated on nearly every part of the building process.

Kaiser and his team invented new ways to build these ships and eventually was able to produce them in about a month. Once, for a publicity event, a cargo ship was built in four and a half days!  (Wow - Extreme Makeover could learn a lesson or two from kaiser and his team!)

Ignorance can be the starting point for incredible, outside the box, build it better kind of thinking.

In part, I think it was my ignorance, more than my insights, that led me to developing the LCI Exercises. How to spiritually form leaders who are intimate with God, who bear much fruit that lasts, who are transformed from the inside out and finish well?

I just kept asking these questions year after year, experimenting, looking around, fiddling with approaches, reading, researching, learning . . . 

So, where are you stuck right now?

Where is your ignorance painfully obvious.

With the necessary desire (internal willingness) and the sustained disciplined, start asking the best questions you can and go looking for answers. 

A la Drucker - use your ignorance wisely...

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Give Bad News Early

No one likes to hear bad news.

Maybe that's why many of us don't like to give it (I know I don't).

But problems happen...
so does failure... 
things don't work according to plan...

and someone has to deliver the bad news.

If you are involved and have responsibility - that means you.

But we procrastinate!  

Why?

1.  Maybe we are afraid of the "shoot the messenger" syndrome.

2.  Maybe we hope that somehow, magically, the bad news will go away, that things will improve.

3.  Maybe we hope that the bad news will leak out and get around without "me" being the messenger.

4.  Maybe we are afraid of looking bad by being associated with the bad news.

*******

If you are responsible for the bad news being bad news... DEFINITELY, you are the messenger and the sooner you say it the better. But go in a plan about what to do about the bad news. When you talk about it, do so in clear, concise, language. Don't blame, spin, excuse, rationalize and so on. That makes you look bad. Maintain a strong, problem solving presence.

If you are not responsible, but you are involved, help the one who is responsible process what to do with the bad news and how to deliver the report.  (See the guidance in the above note.)

If you know about bad news, but are neither responsible for it and not even involved, then just find out what appropriate action is on your part. And be responsible as best you can.

I love the business card for this Don't Shoot the Messenger courier service.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com
 

 

 

 

Be Interested (and so become Interesting)

This is the last post that has emerged out of my reading and thinking about The Idea Hunter.

It is one of the "core ideas" from their model.

The core idea is that great leaders are curious leaders, they are inquisitive, exploring, learning, discovering kinds of people.

Great leaders are just INTERESTED in so many things.

Here is a hodge-podge of ideas for how you can become a more "interested" leader. Some of them come right from The Idea Hunter. Others are my paraphrase of stuff from The Idea Hunter. Still others are my own thoughts.

1.  Ask lots of questions.

2.  Listen much more than you speak (especially once you ask a question).

3.  Pay attention to details that others overlook.

4.  Take notes.

5.  Ask why and why not - often.

6.  Hang out with smart people. Make sure some of them are smarter than you are. Especially, find people who are truly smart in areas where you are not smart.

7.  Be self-aware enough to know your limits, strengths, weaknesses and needs.  "Be critically suspicious and skeptical about what you think you know"  (me).

8.  Don't ever say, "We don't do it that way around here."  This kills learning. It shouts, "I am not interested in change and newness."

9.  Remember, conventional wisdom is wrong - a lot.

10.  Think continuous improvement and wonder what can be improved next and how will we do it?

11.  Look for paradox, puzzles, conundrums, problems and mess . . . this is where some of the most fertile soil is and where you fill find some of the most interesting stuff there is.

12.  Don't take up the burden of having to be original. There are few truly original people. Find good ideas and just be personal in how you can use them, tweak them, morph them and improve them.

13.  Therefore . . . beg, borrow, steal (and cite) all the time.  "Good artists copy. Great artists steal" (Picasso).

14.  Fully engage the process.  "Something magnificent happens to a curious, fully engaged mind" (Tom Peters).

15.  Read. Read in your area of interest. Read outside it. Read stuff you would normally not read. "Done well, reading gives us a deeply meaningful framework for living" (M. Jackson, Distracted).

16.  Prioritize life long learning. Learners are inevitably curious and interested people.

17.  Regularly TRY new things. Experiment. Act. Do - new stuff. Don't be afraid of failure.

18.  Relentlessly build your network of idea generating people.

19.  Be a daredevil, a misfit, a black sheep - at least occasionally. Go outside the status quo, push the envelope, stir up a little trouble, buck the system . . . 

20.  Recognize the power of analogies and metaphors. Mix things up. Crash strange ideas and images together and see what happens.

Now, do you want to this to be a learning experience? If so, read on:

To really maximize this exercise, you want to revisit it.

Copy and paste the 20 ideas into a Word document and print it out.
Put it in your journal.
Jot down a few thoughts as to which ones already describe you.
Which ones are you really lacking.
Which ones do you need to work on and develop.

May Christ make you an ever more Interested Leader and in so doing, transform you into a really Interesting Leader.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com
 

Your Circle of Competence

I knew I was in over my head. I had signed up for a major task and it was out of my areas of expertise. It had been an area of interest twenty years earlier, but since then, I had done little work in that area. Still, I signed up for a major responsibility and now I (and the others who were depending on me) were experiencing the repercussions. To be honest, I was probably able to navigate my way through this responsibility without them really knowing how inadequate I felt. 

Still . . . I was outside my "Circle of Competence."

Charlie Munger is an investment partner with Warren Buffet and he talks about the circle of competence and how important it is that you stick close to that circle.

It takes a long time to get really good (competence, fluent, expert) at something. When you move to these levels of substantial ability, you generate good results. This is part of the reason why the Pareto Principle is true. You generate 80% of your results from 20% of your time, but most likely, that 20% is when you are working in your Circle of Competence.

Tom Watson, the founder of IBM said,

"I'm no genius. I'm smart in spots, and I stay around those spots."

It is an illusion to think you can be equally good at other things at which you have not worked to become highly competent. 

So your first need is to know what you are really competent at doing. 

Then, have a plan to add competencies, or, expand your circle of competency.
 

 

So, get out a piece of paper, or your journal and draw a circle. This is your Circle of Competency. Make it large enough (bigger than what is pictured) so you can write some things in it. Write down a half dozen or so areas of expertise, area of interest, specialities, etc. This is the stuff of high or reasonably high competency. When you work from within this circle you tend to see good results.

Of course the Strengths Finder 2.0 is a very helpful tool for you to understand and name your strengths and competencies.

Now, add another circle around that (smaller than what is pictured). And write down a few other things that are potential competencies. If you give some time and focused attention to develop yourself in these, you could expand your Circle of Competency.

Now, as you consider your Circle and your potential Circle - what is your plan to work out of that circle and to grow it?

(Thanks to The Idea Hunter for this theme.)

Both Peter Senge and Peter Drucker are lead promoters of these concepts.

Senge talks about the "personal mastery" that comes from those who live in a continual state of learning. Learning must be a life long discipline for leaders.

Drucker, the forerunner of the StrengthsFinder core concepts encouraged leaders to always be learning more in their areas of core competency. If you are good, seek to become very good... and then expert... and even superb and outstanding. Then, continue to investigate new areas of learning and development (the second circle).

This "inner work of leadership learning" makes the external work of leadership activity fruitful and faithful.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Being Lost, Walking in Circles and Having Maps

What happens when we don’t have a destination, a map and/or a compass?

Seth Godin, in Poke the Box, shares this thought from Dr. Jan Souman

Simple – we walk in circles.

Literally!

Lost people walk in circles!

Research literally shows that we walk in circles. 

Are you walking in circles these days?

Closely related is back-tracking and retracing well trod paths.

Even worse, camping out, unable or afraid to venture on.

Are you doing any of this?

 

I was lost the other day. I had my google map quest directions printed out. The road I was suppose to turn on to had a different name then the MapQuest name. So I kept driving, for several more miles, looking in vain for the next part of the directions. So I stopped, got out the DROID and used my navigational app to find out where I was, where I was supposed to be and how I could get there.

 

Leaders can't afford to be lost.

Leaders are those who have their bearings, their orientation, their direction, their goal and who know the way.

Leaders need a map that will help you get to where you’d like to go.

Call it a plan… a way… a process…

These days, I am helping a lot of leaders with “Way-Finding” and “Way-Making.”

To really maximize this post, get out some paper.

What is your current location?

What would you like to be?

What roads will take you to where you’d like to be?

Don't be lost in circle walking.

 

Brian K. Rice 
Leadership ConneXtions International 
www.lcitypepad.com

 

Are You Surrounding Yourself With Fools? (You Should Be.) | Fast Company

Not having broadcast TV, my husband and I just discovered The Tudors. Beyond the fun of religion, sex, and beheadings; at its heart, the series is a fascinating depiction of how a young Henry VII of England transforms into an infamous tyrant, to whom no one who dares speak the truth or else find themselves on the chopping block--quite literally.

via www.fastcompany.com

A long time ago I became fascinated with the idea of the "jester" or the "fool" or the "king's clown." This was the person who was able to speak truth into the life of the absolute monarch through wit, cleverness and trickery. So I love this little thought here on this very subject.

Brian Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Wicked Problems Revisited

So on my trip back from Austria in September, I learned about "wicked problems" for the first time. Then, a few days ago, as I am reading a great book - Visual Meetings, on page 139, the author talked about Wicked Problem Solving and provided a bullet list to define a wicked problem. Here is that list:

Wicked Problems are Ones Where . . .

• The problem is ill defined.
• Conditions impacting the problem are dynamic and changing.
• Different stakeholders with different interests enter the process as it unfolds.
• Solutions for one part affect and change other parts.
• There are different and changing criteria for success.
• There is no defined solution.

More and more, we are facing seriously complex Wicked Problems that are extremely difficult to understand, much less engage and solve!

What "wicked problems" are you facing?

I always suggest we consider the definition of insanity:  "Continuing to do the same thing and expecting different results." When it comes to wicked problems, it is not only insane to do the same thing, it is deadly.

By the way, the book, Visual Meetings: How Graphics, Sticky Notes and Idea Mapping Can Transform Group Productivity, is a great book. I discovered I have a new skill set to learn...

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

 

Wicked Problems

I was recently introduced to this idea in a nice little book by Keith Grint - Leadership: A Very Short Introduction. This is one of the more than 200 volumes in the Very Short Introduction series published by Oxford. These are very cool little books and you can find all of them on their website.

A "tame problem" is one that may be complicated but we can resolve it through the application of familiar ideas and approaches.

A "wicked problem" has a level of complexity that goes beyond the limits of knowledge and previous methodologies that worked in the past. In fact, wicked problems appear virtually unsolvable and unresolvable. Which is why they are WICKED.

We are seeing Wicked Level Problems everywhere in the world. The current global economic crisis is one such VERY WICKED PROBLEM. This image on complexity is found on this site.

Many years ago, James Emory White wrote a book called, Serious Times. He took the title of his book from a letter written by John Adams to his friend Thomas Jefferson, after the American Revolutionary War was ended. Adams said:

"My friend, you and I have lived in serious times."

Serious times indeed they were and are today.

Do you remember the opening paragraph from A Tale of Two Cities?

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way . . .
(Charles Dickens)

Best of and worst of times indeed they were and indeed they are today.

Serious times, best/worst of times, Wicked Problem times . . . which require leadership far beyond average, considerably better than good, and in fact, great may not be sufficient. Superlative leadership is the need for today.  At all levels. From many, many people. Will we be such leaders?

I think I'll go and pray . . .

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

How Am I Using My Time? (Roger Oliver)

Roger Oliver (in the yellow shirt) is a friend, a leader and a trainer of leaders I met when John Hilliard and I first went to Puebla Biblical Seminary to teach on leadership. I won't go into all the background that would give you the context to know Roger a bit more, but he is a highly intentional follower of Jesus, he loves the church and mission, and he is passionate about raising up a new generation of leaders for Latin America. One of his many roles is the current president of Puebla Biblical Seminary.

Plus, Roger reads and thinks a lot. Here are some insights he has gained into his own Life, Priority and Time management. I think you'll appreciate both the model and how Roger illustrates it with his own situation.

And as a bonus, I added a video of Puebla Biblical Seminary at the end that will give you a flavor of the place where Roger works and the people he empowers. 

Thanks Roger for blogging for us some of your insights and experiences. And Feliz Navidad to you and the family and community at Puebla.  -bkr-

***********************************************

 How Am I Using my Time

David Allan teaches a great exercise in Getting Things Done to help focus your efforts. Using the metaphor of altitude when flying, it helps us see what it is we are doing. The idea is to review what you are doing to see if it is coherent with what you say are your projects, responsibilities, long and short term goals as well as your lifetime calling.

• 50,000 ft, your calling or mission in life
• 40,000 ft, where you want to be in 3 to 5 years
• 30,000 ft, what you hope to accomplish in the next 1 to 3 years
• 20,000 ft, areas of focus and responsibility
• 10,000 ft, projects on the burner
• Landing, what you have in front of you to do day-to-day

 You start at the bottom because if you don’t get your day-to-day under control you will tend to be too distracted to think about the higher levels. I use the Getting Things Done (GTD) system to get a handle on all of my tasks and projects. The key idea is to get everything out of your head into a system that you trust. That way you can focus on one thing at a time, the key to relaxed productivity.

In the GTD system tasks are very discrete steps called next actions like call Fred and ask for an insurance quote. Anything that requires more than one step is a project. It is really hard to do a project in one step so it is really hard to get started on a project that you have mistakenly called a task or next action. They key to success with a project is to define the outcome and one next action you can take to move the project forward.

It is a whole-life system. Everything goes into the system from buying eggs and milk on the way home to reviewing the masters program at the seminary. The key to trusting the system is the weekly review. You have to review the system regularly to remind yourself what is on your plate and what you need to do to move things forward.

 Once you have the minutia of actions and projects under control you can confidently stop thinking about them long enough to consider the higher levels of your life.

The hardest level for me is 20,000 ft. I have identified the following areas of focus with a list of attendant responsibilities for each, not in order of priority necessarily.

• The seminary
• My personal (non-professional) life (family, me and God, friends, personal development)
• The mission (CAM International)
• The church (Familia de Paz, the new church plant)

For each of these areas of responsibility I have identified key responsibilities. I use an outlining program to write down what I think belongs at each level. For example, I defined my responsibilities in the seminary as follows:

• Spiritual life of the seminary family
• Peacemaking/reconciliation
• Promotion
• Fund raising
• Student Recruiting
• Board development
• Personnel Mgt/staff development
• Financial management
• Administration oversight
• Academic programs oversight
• Planning/organizational development
• Counseling
• Serve the churches
• Conferences and preaching
• Short Term Mission support
• Write for ObreroFiel and other publications

 I have a task in Outlook to review the 20,000 foot level every 3 months. I take a look at my landing level (next actions) and 10,000 feet (projects) and try to evaluate whether or not the next actions and projects are contributing to my 20,000 foot areas of focus and responsibilities. Often they are not. It is OK as long as it was a conscious decision based on what God has placed in front of me to do. I also check to see if my activities are in balance. Am I spending too much time at the seminary and not enough with my family?

I try to set aside a day or so every year to review all the levels, landing to 50,000 feet. Are my activities coherent with what I say are my areas of focus and responsibility? Are they moving me towards my 30,000 foot 1 to 3 year goals? Are the moving me towards where I think I should be in 3 to 5 years? Are my activities, areas of focus and responsibility, 30,000 foot goals and 40,000 foot dreams in alignment with what I believe God has called me to do with my life? If they are not, time to review and make changes.

 Recently I thought through my 20,000 foot level areas of focus and responsibilities and discovered some disconnects. There is too much there to do. They are each too discrete and separate. There is not enough of me to keep up with all of that. Something has to change. I am not God.

Looking at these levels helps me to soberly consider my life and to do so regularly not just when a crisis forces me to. It is a very enlightening exercise very similar to an instrument check. I pick up warning signs that I am headed for a crash in time to change course and make appropriate adjustments.

Of course I am very, very human and often do not pay attention to the warning lights. God has a wonderful way of letting me trip over my shoelaces when I do. When you land flat on your back there is nowhere to look but up.

GTD has been a great help in redeeming the time because the days are evil. I recommend it. I’ll end with a humbling quote from David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done.

“You can’t manage time. Time just is. Time management is really managing what we do during time. But it’s easier to say that time is what needs to be managed rather than ourselves. It’s easier to make time the enemy and parade our worthiness (I have so many big, important things to get done) rather than say, ‘I don’t keep my agreements.’”

Roger Oliver
Puebla Biblical Seminary 
www.seminariobiblicodepuebla.org

Take Any Risks Lately?

Hmmm?

Good question.

I'm not inclined toward risk taking. That also means I am not inclined toward faith or courage.

I am inclined to safe... stable... doable... achievable... 

Yes the fruit is out on the end of the limb and so is a broken neck.

Like I said, I'm not exactly the most famous risk taker there is.

And that is a real weakness. 

  

For life itself is risky.
Love is risky.
Relationships of any kind are risky.
Leadership is risky.
Change is very risky.
Believing passionately in a vision - that's risky too.
BHAGs are risky, by definition.
Trying something new - you guessed it, risky.
Taking up a cross...
Confronting injustice...
Going against the crowd with its conventional wisdom...
Following Jesus...

The list could go on and on and on...  RISKY!!!

Risk means that the possibility of failure is real. Danger is real too. Loss is hovering around as an option. 

Not every one or every leader will be as willing or able to live on the edge, live adventurously, live courageously, live with faith and hope . . . but occasionally you are going to have to go to those places. And when you do, vaya con Dios.

Tu Amigo  
Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

 

Initiate or Respond (and the Distortion Bias)

You would think that leaders spend most of their time initiating new ideas, plans and strategies, implementing the next phase or program or event that will lead to great results.

You would think that and you would be wrong.

And if you, the leader, think you spend most of your time initiating, you are wrong also.  This is a case where reality is far different than our perception of it.

We have a distortion factor (my language, I haven't found it said this way) that kicks in on this and which leads to flawed self-assessment. 

It is kind of like when people are surveyed as to how much TV they watch on a daily basis. Almost everyone "under-estimates" how much daily TV they view by one to two hours.
 

It is the same thing in action as when leaders are asked how much time they spend working. Almost everyone "over-estimates" how many hours they work per week, by 5-10 hours!
 

It is the same thing at work when "preachers" are asked to evaluate themselves as a preacher. Almost every preachers scores themselves as "above average" when it comes to preaching. You ask their congregation and their congregation gives them an "average" at best and often, a below average score.
 

There is a distortion bias that minimizes our weaknesses and (well let me say) quite generous, when it comes to assessing our strengths.

The same thing comes into play when leaders assess how much time they spend initiating and how much time reacting/responding.  The fact is, the vast majority of time for the vast majority of leaders is spent reacting to needs, problems, crises, urgencies, etc.

So, just take it as so that you spend much of your week in a response/react mode. One of the best things you will do for your family, your team, your organization, your personal ministry is to be highly intentional about initiating.

In the words of the Men's Fraternity core ideas:  reject passivity and in this case, the passivity of responding and not leading.

Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

Another Leadership List (this one a la Drucker via Krames)

I sometimes wonder if lists are even useful?  Are they just the abbreviated, sound-bytes we prefer over a more substantial dig into a topic? Perhaps . . . 

For me, the nature of blogging is to deliver the "bytes" with enough suggestion on how to go further and deeper if one is so inclined.

Jeffrey Krames is the one who provides this short list of leadership skills from Drucker. It is found in his book, Inside Drucker's Brain, pps. 77-80).

ONE:  Leaders can place people in the right position where they can make the greatest contribution.

TWO:  Leaders can hire and fire people without becoming emotionally upset. Organizational success requires having the right people in the right spots who can make contributions that generate results. If they can't generate results then the question is why keep them in that spot? They are hurting the organization (and themselves).

THREE:  Leaders excel at establishing and maintaining priorities for self and others. It is the focusing on and achieving of these priorities where results are generated.

FOUR:  Leaders constantly ask themselves and others - how can I/you maximize your contributions? This is getting at the issue of continuous improvement and strengths based functioning.

FIVE:  Leaders have the ability to discern reality and then ask the right questions. Few things are as bad as coming up with answers to the wrong questions!

SIX:  Leaders have a bias for action, especially in times of difficulty. When the going gets tough, leaders do not call for meetings. Meetings are so often the anti-thesis of action. Leaders require action.

SEVEN:  Leaders build culture and pay attention to morale (i.e. Goleman and resonant leadership). Create the right environment which is highly positive and encouraging (i.e. Kouzes and Posner) and people are empowered for productivity.

Okay, it is a list. 

It is not a definitive list. 

But it is a decent place to launch a little self-assessment. 

How are you doing on these leadership skills and functions?

And do you see any problems in your areas of life and responsibility because you are not doing well on some of them?

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

The Power of a Good Idea Strikingly Framed in the Best Words

Here are two leadership axioms from Bill Hybels that resonated with me. I morphed them together since they already seemed so closely connected.

First is:  The Power of a Really Good Idea.

Second is: The Way You Say It Matters (or Words Count)

Both "axioms" are great by themselves, but put them together and you have explosive potential for influence.

So, leaders make the time to pray and dream and strategize and come up with a Really Good Idea. Not a pretty good idea, but a Really Good idea, perhaps even an Amazingly Good Idea. Such ideas do not just drop from heaven into our laps (okay, occasionally God does this, but it is the exception and not the rule).

Really good ideas are the result of lots and lots of prayer, of searching, of dreaming, of learning, of thinking, of conversing with others, of brainstorming, of out-of-the-box exploration, of pursuing any and all leads . . .  They come to those who are willing to invest the time and energy to become an Idea Entrepreneur. A really good idea may gradually unfold, or it may dramatically appear in an 'aha' moment.

But when the idea is there, one more thing is necessary. What is the best way to communicate the idea, to describe its essence, to cast it forth to others, to grab their hearts and passion, to make it come alive and remain as a beacon. That's where Hybels says - words matters.

Leaders have to wordsmith and edit and re-edit until the really good idea can be said in a really powerful way.  A slogan, a well coined phrase, a catchword, a metaphor/image.  More work, but work that is infinitely worth it.

Leaders invest the time and energy to figure out the best way to communicate the best ideas.

SO:

What is your most up-to-date Really Good Idea?

And have you figured out The Best Words to Communicate it?

And if you don't have a really good idea that is on the front burner, go out and find one.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Good Quote Worth Thinking About

You can't talk your way out of something you behaved your way into. You have to behave your way out of it.  Douglas Conant, CEO of Campbell Soup

Here is a second good quote by Benjamin Disraeli speaking of William Gladstone (the two were fierce rivals as British Statemen of a previous century).

He (Gladstone pictured to the right) is "inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity." (Disraeli who is pictured to the left.)

Even those leaders who are exuberantly verbose (and proud of it) are not able to talk themselves out of something they behaved themselves into.

Is there anything you need to "behave your way out of?"

Brian Rice

Bold, Persistent Experimentation

The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it: if it fails, admit it frankly and try another.   Franklin D. Roosevelt

It is a great thought and a major tool for a leader. Bold change initiatives. The best leaders can make them and implement them.

Still, some of the most challenging and lasting change initiatives are not unilateral, from the top down. But they come about in the "vigorous interaction" between leaders and followers.

Are you pursuing any change initiatives?

If so, are you doing it on your own, or through conversations with those who look to you for leadership?

Brian Rice

Delegating

Delegating.

Leaders know it is a necessary skill, yet many of us don't do it very well. One of the very first books I read on leadership (way back in the early 1990's) was by John Maxwell - Developing the Leader Within You. Wow, was this ever balm for a struggling leader-wanna-be. I later read his follow up volume - Developing the Leaders Around You. In that book, Maxwell gives some reasons why leaders don't delegate very welll or very often.

• Insecurity (afraid that someone else will do the job better than you do)
• Lack of confidence in others (believing they won't do a good job)
• Lack of ability to train others to do the work that you want to delegate to them
• Personal enjoyment of the task (just because you enjoy doing it does not mean you should do it)
• No one else around who can do what should be delegated (often the problem with small organizations)
• Lack of time (sometimes we just think... I can do it more quickly if I do it myself rather than try to explain it to someone else)
• The "I do it best" mindset (which may or may not be true, but even it if is true, failure to develop others and to give them opportunities will hurt the organization)

Here are a few other thoughts I have about delegation.

Sometimes when we delegate, we are really just dumping unwanted tasks onto another.

Sometimes when we delegate, we give responsibility for the task but fail to give the necessary authority or resources needed for success.

Sometimes when we delegate, we do so having neglected to do the necessary empowering and training, so we set people up for failure.  This then reinforces the mentality that delegation is a waste of time.

Sometimes our delegation fails to include follow-up post assignment reflection and assessment time.

It might be worthwhile for you to take some time and reflect a little on your own approach to delegation.

How are you doing with this leadership skill and where can you improve?

Brian Rice

Creativity: Just Connecting Things That Aren't Normally Connected

"Creativity is just connecting things."    Steve Jobs, Wired Magazine

I like this idea. It makes sense to me.

Creativity is when you connect "things" that haven't previously been connected.  The iPhone is an example.

Some of the best "wordsmiths" are those who are great at connecting words that are not normally associated with one another. When the wordsmith makes the connection (or in some cases - collision) the result is a synergism that is greater than the parts.

How about:

• A Severe Mercy, Sheldon Vanauken.
• Ruthless Trust, Brennan Manning
• The Beautiful Fight, Gary Thomas
• A Grace Disguised, Gerald Sittser

Len Sweet is a master of wordsmithing. So is Eugene Peterson. Read their books (Sweet's especially) for endless examples of creative wordsmithing.

Servant Leadership is one of those creative connections. This one has been around for awhile, so the power of surprise has been lost, but still, it is a creative connection.

It helps to have a variety of diverse experiences and think about ways to connect them.

Brian Rice

The Leader as Imaginator (Creative Imagination)

One of the graduate courses I team in Latin America is Emerging Paradigms of Leadership. It is a course that looks at the emerging culture and the Christian engagement with that culture and the new kind of leadership needed for serving the purposes of God in our historical situation.

I will be teaching that course this fall at Lancaster Bible College and Grad School and I am doing some re-reading of key texts to be covered in that course. It hits me again that so many of the emergent authors give a central place of importance to imagination. Tim Keel (Intuitive Leadership) and Alan Roxburgh (The Missional Leader) are just two of these voices.

Now, I guarantee you, that if you work through the standard texts on leadership, you will be hard pressed to find imagination listed in the top ten leadership skills needed for today (for example, check out Kouzes and Posner, the Leadership Challenge) unless the author sneaks it in when discussing visionary leadership. But even then, it is not being used the way the emergent leaders talk about imagination.

I think Keel and others are on to something important.

We live in a post-modern world and in that world, rationality and logic, while still important, are not enough.  Imagination, creativity, intuition and more are just as vital. Leaders will have to cultivate their creative side in the season of life that is ahead of us.

The Leader as Poet, Leader as Artist, Leader as Story-Teller and even Leader as Fool are all useful metaphors for the new kind of leadership in a "post" world.

With that said, here is a great thought from Jeffrey Sobosan in Romancing the Universe:

My increased years have taught me that, like competence in all other things, competence in imaginative effort also takes deliberate and focused attention. The listlessness of mental effort that often characterizes our behavior, the refusal to attend to anything that is not immediately apparent or useful - the narcissistic temperament - can give way to intellectual passion only when the mind is diligently and carefully exercised over a wide variety of experiences.

This challenges me. Like everything else, I can practice imaginatino. When I practice and exercise the imaginative aspect of life and leadership, it can grow.

In the last two months, I have posted several times on practice.

What are you doing these days to practice being imaginative?

Brian Rice

Redefining the Questions (and Vision as an Example)

Many times we are stuck on an old problem or a long-standing question. We don't normally think to reframe the question.

Questions are always more important than answers, because it is the questions that frame and direct the conversation. A question always (to some extent) predetermines the range of solutions and answers.

Creative leaders find ways to ask new questions, unexpected questions, paradigm-shifting questions.

I believe that mentors need to offer the GIFT of asking new questions to those they mentor.

***********************************************

EXAMPLE:

Here is an OLD QUESTION:  How do I, the leader, get the people to follow my vision?

And of course, there are endless workshops, articles and books (including Andy Stanley's) on new and improved, better than before vision casting! But somehow vision continues to leak. Maybe our need is to find a new question.

Here is a POSSIBLE NEW QUESTION: How do I, the leader, help people discover and pursue their own visions?

I have run this one past a lot of "visionary leaders" in the last year and for some of them, the lights go on, they have an "aha" moment and a new way begins to emerge. If you re-read those two questions, it is quickly obvious that they will lead to very different "ways" of leading!

The old question simply tries to find a better way for the leader to be a Vision-Caster.  The new question suggests the leader may be better as a Vision Multiplier or Vision-Releaser.

For the old question - the leader will function in highly directive leadership ways that motivate others on the leader's vision. For the new question - the leader will have to discover empowering styles of leadership that enable the others to discover and move into their vision.

What are your troubling old questions that may need to be reframed? Get out a piece of paper. Write down the old question. Now try writing at least three or four new questions. This is not a skill that is immediately learned. It takes time.

Check out this website for some help on asking new questions.

And even though it is a long and difficult (at places) read, check out Senge's The Fifth Discipline if this is an area of interest for you. Senge tries to help organizations learn how to become learning organizations who think in new ways, in part, by asking new questions.

Ron Martoia also did some really good stuff on this. I have it buried in my files someplace and I'll try to find it and make it available to you sometime.

Brian Rice

The Power of Communication (Illustrated in the Primaries)

I am very interested in communication.

Creative communication.

Informative communication.

Biblical communication.

Practical communiction.

Motivating, inspiring, empowering, engaging, firing up, turning on, educating, uplifting . . . this is what all good communicators want to do when they speak.

While I haven't watched "tons" of the primaries, when I do, I enjoy it as much from an assessment of communication styles as a consideration of the political stances.

click Here to Read Great Observations About Political Speeches in the Primaries and Showing the Power of Communication!

This is a link to another blogsite that is a political site.

A friend of mine sent me this link due to its EXCELLENT observations about the power of communication and how the candidates are communicating.

I want to STRESS that I am not sending this out with any political motivations at all. This is simply an interesting assessment of communication styles.

By the way, this is an issue that we are not covering in this year's course.  But the best leaders know how to communicate and reach their audience, whether it is an audience of five or five thousand.

After you read it, let me know what you think.

And, perhaps most important - how are you at communicating? And what are you doing to get better at it?

Brian Rice

One final disclaimer...do not think that the size or placement of the pictures has any preference on my part. In fact, one might even say that if picture placement was important, I am pretty confused since I have the top two Democratic contenders on the right of the page and the top two Republicans on the left!

Leading in Times of Compulsive Anxiety

All great leaders have had one characteristic in common. It was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.  John Kenneth Galbraith (pictured to the left)

Eddie Gibbs is a professor in the school of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary. He has written two books that I really like. One is ChurchNext and the other is the follow-up book - LeadershipNext.

You can tell a lot about a book by reading who writes the blurbs on the back and on the inside. Pick up this book and you will see that it is the emergent community that is resonating with this book. Gibbs is an older voice who is in well in touch with the emergent culture and the kind of missional churches and missional leaders needed for faithful and fruitful ministry in that culture.

The point of this post is a very thoughtful assessment of the "pain" of the post-modern culture in which we live. Here are Gibbs' comments.

The challenges that tomorrow's leaders face are as complex as they are compelling. People are increasingly vulnerable and disoriented in these confusing and uncertain times. Their personal liberation has produced more compulsive anxiety than boundless freedom. Consequently, with a future too uncertain and terrifying to contemplate, the overwhelming tendency is to focus on "now."

Change and flux are normative and endless. Unassailable truths have been reduced to mere collective hunches. There is no solid ground, but simply a restless sea. Such is the postmoderns' sense of inadequacy; they have to constantly reinvent themselves in order to survive from day to day.

Dominic Crossan captures the postmodern predicament with the following lines.

There is no lighthouse keeper.

There is no lighthouse.

There is no dry land.

There is only people living on rafts made from their own imaginations.

And there is the sea.

Galbraith believes that the essence of leadership is helping people deal with the major anxiety of their times.

How we do church, how we communicate, and how we lead this way in this kind of culture requires Spirit-inspired innovation. One thing we do know is that old paradigms of church, communication and leadership won't cut it anymore.

So - what are you doing right now to learn how to become faithful and fruitful in this "Anxious New World?"

Brian Rice

Saying No to What is Wrong and Evil

My Global Ministry colleague and good friend, Andy R. alerted me to an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal. He gave me the article and I read it, liked it and put it in my blog file to write about later. Now, six weeks later, I have pulled it out again. It was from the WSJ, May 17, 2007.

Jenkins and Gilchrist was a Texas law firm of about 600 lawyers. They had ambitious plans for growth. They hired Chicago tax lawyer, Paul Daugerdas, who worked on tax shelters and told them he could generate $6,000,000 in revenues a year.

Some people in the firm had concerns about legality and going over the line in way that would bring IRS scrutiny. They ignored those voices, hired Daugerdas. They did go over the line and did get IRS scrutiny. This March, after signing a non-prosecution agreement with the federal government, Justin and Gilchrist closed their doors.

William Durbin, the chairman of the Board for Justin and Gilchrist had these powerful words to say:

"The task of leaders is to say no to what is wrong and evil. I wish I could have been more courageous . . . I played a very large part in bringing about the demise of a firm that I had been a large part of for 23 years, and that I loved."

Leaders need to have their moral radar finely calibrated. Leaders need to have their sense of discernment highly attuned to what is going on in their organizations. If you think something is close to the line of being proper - pay attention to it. It probably is. It is much better to be safe than sorry. An ounce of prevention is much more palatable than the pound of cure. (Sorry to our non-American readers who have to endure the truisms and proverbs of North American culture).

Live out of the courage of your convictions and be quick to say a strong NO to what is wrong and evil.

Brian Rice

Dreams

Poet and author Anais Nin had these great words to say about DREAMS. "The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle."

Thoreau said, "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

If Thoreau's words inspire me to be highly intentional about my dreams (and visions), then Nin's words echo the mystery and wonder of being able to be a part of something that is vitally important.

Here is an old poem that hit me as a teenager. So much so that I put it up on the door to my room, memorized it and have never forgotten it, though the author's name has long since been forgotten.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained,

don't be afraid to try,

So dream big dreams, reach for the stars,

and set your standards high.

Leaders are both dreamers and the dream releasers (for others who dream also).

Brian Rice