Do or Die Roles for Every Senior Leader (Michael Warden)

Being the senior leader of an organization is a tough job. Of course, if you are a senior leader, you already know this. People at all levels of your organization regularly place a diverse array of expectations on you and your time. Everyone, it seems, has an opinion on how you should do your job and even what your job should be. And they don't mind telling you (and/or everyone else) when they don't think you're doing it right.

In such a cacophonous environment full of disparate and often opposing demands, it can be difficult for senior leaders to discern just where the lines should be drawn between their job and everyone else’s. Regardless of the size of the organization or the specifics of your particular org chart, what are the roles all senior leaders must fulfill in order for their organization to thrive and grow? Opinions vary—so here’s mine: a list of a few of the roles that I believe are essential for all senior leaders to hold.

1. Keeper of the Mission & Vision for the organization:
Part of your role is to champion the Mission & Vision of your organization and to ensure the team is always moving toward those ends. Because Vision leaks and Mission slips out of focus over time, you have to make it your job to keep the Mission front and center in your people’s eyes, and keep casting vision for the better world you’re all trying to create by pursuing it. And while you should consistently avoid micro-managing your people, in any area where you see the Vision or Mission not being effectively pursued and honored, you have full authority to step in and make whatever changes are necessary to bring that area back in alignment with the Mission & Vision.

2. Keeper of the Values:
Another part of your role is to continually promote and champion the core values of the organization. Every action you take, every conversation you have, every request you make of your team needs to be clearly grounded in and motivated by one or more of your organization’s core values. Anything you’re doing that can’t be directly tied to your core values in this way—either drop it or delegate it to someone else. As the visionary leader of your organization, you are the embodiment of the values. If you don’t live them, who will? As with Mission & Vision, anytime you see the values not being honored in a process or project, you have full authority to step in and do whatever is required to see that the core values are not undermined.

3. Voice of Reality:
Many leadership experts say the chief job of a leader is to “define reality” for those they lead. Another perhaps more useful way to say this is simply “naming what is going on.” Part of the role of Senior Leader is to help the team see the truth of where they are and what needs to happen next to move forward. In this sense, you become like the “red dot” on the map in the shopping mall, identifying “We Are Here.” This defining work includes several areas, such as where we are financially, where we are relationally, where we are with respect to our Mission, Vision, & goals, where we are in relation to our values, and so on.

4. Developer of Teams:
In particular, the core leadership team of the organization. Part of your role is to lead, coach, and mentor the core group of leaders who report directly to you and have significant oversight over the organization as a whole. For you to do this effectively, this team must be filled with people who you believe in and trust and who (like you) think in terms of “we” instead of “me” (in other words, Stage 4 Tribal leaders). You have full authority to choose those team members that you know you can work with and who have the appropriate skills for this role.

5. Chief Encourager and Celebrator:
Senior Leaders are typically wired to always be pushing forward toward the next challenge, so this can be a tough role for them to fill. But celebration and affirmation for a job well done is a critical part of every senior leader’s job. You must be the champion and cheerleader for those you lead—frequently encouraging them as they move toward a goal and regularly pausing to reflect on both victories and defeats and celebrate success as well as lessons learned. This rhythm of engagement and reflection/celebration is essential to your team’s overall health and critical to your role as their leader.

Source and full article here.

How I Almost Quit (John Piper)

If you are a disheartened pastor or leader, this is for you.

Are you so discouraged you don’t know what to do next? I want to help you get through this. Maybe this will help.

The following quote is from my journal dated November 6, 1986. I had been at Bethlehem 6 years. If you have ever felt like this, remember this is 24 years ago and I am still here.

The point is: Beware of giving up too soon. Our emotions are not reliable guides.

Am I under attack by Satan to abandon my post at Bethlehem? Or is this the stirring of God to cause me to consider another ministry? Or is this God's way of answering so many prayers recently that we must go a different way at BBC than building? I simply loathe the thought of leading the church through a building program. For two years I have met for hundreds of hours on committees. I have never written a poem about it. It is deadening to my soul. I am a thinker. A writer. A preacher. A poet and songwriter. At least these are the avenues of love and service where my heart flourishes. . . .

Can I be the pastor of a church moving through a building program? Yes, by dint of massive will power and some clear indications from God that this is the path of greatest joy in him long term. But now I feel very much without those indications. The last two years (the long range planning committee was started in August 1984) have left me feeling very empty.

The church is looking for a vision for the future—and I do not have it. The one vision that the staff zeroed in on during our retreat Monday and Tuesday of this week (namely, building a sanctuary) is so unattractive to me today that I do not see how I could provide the leadership and inspiration for it.

Does this mean that my time at BBC is over? Does it mean that there is a radical alternative unforeseen? Does it mean that I am simply in the pits today and unable to feel the beauty and power and joy and fruitfulness of an expanded facility and ministry?

O Lord, have mercy on me. I am so discouraged. I am so blank. I feel like there are opponents on every hand, even when I know that most of my people are for me. I am so blind to the future of the church. O Father, am I blind because it is not my future? Perhaps I shall not even live out the year, and you are sparing the church the added burden of a future I had made and could not complete? I do not doubt for a moment your goodness of power or omnipotence in my life or in the life of the church. I confess that the problem is mine. The weakness is in me. The blindness is in my eyes. The sin—O reveal to me my hidden faults!—is mine and mine the blame. Have mercy, Father. Have mercy on me. I must preach on Sunday, and I can scarcely lift my head.

Source: Desiring God

5 Things That Can Destroy A Person’s Leadership (Brian Dodd)

Muhammad Ali once said, “It’s not the hardest hit that knocks you out. It’s the one you don’t see coming.” We can often survive direct hits. It’s the ground shocks that can destroy our ministries and leadership influence. So keep your ear to the ground.

As you are keeping your ear to the ground and listening to your people, the following are five things you should be aware of:

Lack of Unified Leadership - Disunity, or fragmented leadership, can destroy a leader’s influence. The result is competing voices and agendas. Factions are formed and certain individuals often attempt to fill the leadership vacuum.

Lack of Vision - Vision produces a visual need. Without vision, your people and teams walk around aimlessly. Often people will line up under a charismatic leader and whatever vision appears the most compelling.

Lack of Urgency - Because there is a lack of vision, there is a lack of urgency to fulfill it. Nothing exists that is worth sacrificing or investing your life in. Movement and advancement stops.

Lack of Trust - This results from continual missed expectations or broken promises. You must combat this by beginning to get a series of small wins under your belt. Declare victory anywhere you can.

Lack of Financial Resources - Ministry and organizational advancement costs money. Life change costs money. Financial resources fuel your future.

Pastors and leaders, if you have a lack of unified leaders, lack of vision, lack of urgency, lack of trust, and lack of resources, you are about to get hit with a ground shock.

Take a direct hit instead and address the issue today. You can survive a direct hit. It may be what it needed to save your leadership.

Source: Brian Dodd on Leadership

Sobre Visão

Baseado em uma palestra de Jeff Henderson

3 Níveis de Compromisso com a Visão em sua Igreja ou Organização

Nível 1 – As pessoas tem compromisso com a visão por se beneficiarem dela.
Nível 2 – As pessoas tem compromisso com a visão e contribuem com ela, desde que não precisem se sacrificar.
Nível 3 – As pessoas tem compromisso com a visão o suficiente para se dedicarem de coração a ela.

Observações

Nosso papel como líderes é guiarmos as pessoas do nível 1 ao nível 3.

As pessoas do nível 1são geralmente as que reclamam.

Mais sobre visão

Visão não é informação. O que as pessoas pensam: “não me dê informação, eu já tenho informação o suficiente; me dê inspiração”.

Visão é um exercício diário: o que eu fiz hoje para implementar a visão?

Como começar um movimento

Comece onde você está.
Comece com o que você tem.
Faça o que for possível.
Líderes que comunicam bem a visão são bons contadores de histórias.
Seu papel como líder é convencer as pessoas de que elas estão perdendo algo por não participarem deste movimento.

The Disease Of Leadership Regression (Bryan Dodd)

How many leaders want to go back to the “good old days” when life was much simpler? Often we wish to go back to a time that we feel was safer and felt much more in control. Leaders, this is an illusion! Don’t go there!

When we take our churches, organizations, and thought processes back to an earlier time, we run the risk of contracting Leadership and Organizational Regression. Though it feels safe, the “good old days” were not that good. In reality, going there can, in worst cases, destroy your organization.

“Been there. Done that” was cute when said by Forrest Gump but is not a leadership statement. Leaders should be “Going there. Doing that.” For leaders, the best days are always in front of us. Leaders by definition are taking people somewhere. They love breaking new ground.

Choose Innovation. Choose Spontaneity. Reject Regression. Reject Repackaging and Recycling Old Ideas.

Leaders, yesterday ended last night. Seize the day. Make a difference. Be the leader you were created to be. And for the sake of your leadership and all those you are responsible for, keep moving forward!

Source: full text here

Live Your Mission, Don't State It

The problem with most mission statements is that they are full of jargon and platitudes that apply to any organization, not just the one they were written for. Don't wring your hands over the wording: focus on action instead. A mission statement is an abstraction. An organization on a mission is inspiring. Think about what it is you want your company to do — create the best personal computer, change the way people think about coffee, end hunger, etc. — and make that your charge. Mission statements can galvanize and align employees or explain to others what you do, but only if there is a true sense of purpose behind them.

Fonte: HBR