If we want to maximize the God given opportunities of our lives then it’s essential that we operate in our strengths.  Marcus Buckingham defines a strength as “consistent near perfect performance in an activity.” This is a simple but profound description of a strength.  When we operate in our strengths results come easy, our work is almost effortless and we experience a deep sense of satisfaction and joy.

While I’m a big proponent of knowing and developing strengths, yesterday I sat down and did an inventory of my weaknesses.  It was a very insightful and helpful exercise to begin my week.  As leaders there are times we need to focus on our weaknesses…not to develop them but to design systems and structures to minimize their influence in our leadership.

As you begin your week give this a try…

• Write down your top three weaknesses
• Look at your top performance priorities for the upcoming week
• Review your schedule for the upcoming week
• Decide how can you minimize your weaknesses and maximize your strengths to produce the intended results for the week.

Today’s Leadership Challenge: Write out a Strong Week Plan where you are functioning 80% of your time in the areas of your strengths.

There is no shortage of opportunities for each of us to do good things.  And not just good things but significant things that will have eternal impact.  While this can be exciting for a leader it can also be debilitating.  The leader who naively says “yes” to every opportunity will soon find himself frustrated and ineffective. Choosing to narrow the focus of our lives is a difficult discipline, but essential to maximizing the impact of our giftedness.

If you feel your a little scattered lately here are a few questions that might help you narrow your focus:

• What’s the ONE problem in this world that God wants to use me to do something about?
• What’s the ONE thing I’m doing today that will make an impact in that area of need?
• What’s the ONE gift or strength God has given me to make a difference in that area of need?
• What’s ONE thing I need to stop doing to make me more effective in my mission?
• Who is ONE person that can regularly check on my progress and hold me accountable for staying focused?

Take ONE hour today to process these questions.

Sometimes we become so busy doing what we do that we forget to stop and ask if what we’re doing still matters.  The culture around us changes, people change and needs change.  This is why it’s crucial to build feedback systems into everything we do.  An organization that doesn’t solicit feedback will soon become irrelevant and eventually non-existant.

So find ways to ask your customer about their experience with the services you provide.  Ask: What did we do well?  In what way was it helpful to you? What could we do better next time?  Seeking this type of feedback and then acting on it will help improve the reach and impact of your organization.

Where do you need to ask for feedback about your organization?

When leaders allow themselves to be overwhelmed by uncertainty fear will grip their spirit and stall progress toward their calling and mission. Ultimately fear is rooted in a belief that God is not in control. So when a leader is struggling with anxiety it’s a matter of changing their mindset more than changing their circumstances.

One morning i was meeting with an individual who talked to me about the problems he was facing and expressed a sense of defeat in the overwhelming odds against him.   Later that day I had another meeting with an individual who held a similar position and was facing similar circumstances.  But instead of talking about the problems he was facing he told me about the opportunities in front of him.  He acknowledge the challenges yet spoke with hope and optimism as he anticipated the hand of God to move in his situation. Both men were facing financial difficulty, relational challenges and lack of resources.  The only difference between the two was their perspective.

Paul told the Philippians “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 1:6) Paul expresses a strong confidence that the work God has begun in us will be brought to completion, perfection.  He’s certain of it.  That Greek word for “confident” (peitho) means persuaded, already convinced. I’m reminded of that every time I begin to feel fear and uncertainty.  My circumstances may not be what I would like but I can be confident that God is in control.  And when the conviction that God is in control grips my heart it changes the way I lead.

“Organizational decline is more about what you do to yourself than what happens to you.” –  Jim Collins, Global Leadership Summit 2010

Leaders never face a static environment.  Conditions are always changing, culture is alway shifting and challenges are always on the horizon. Unfortunately in the face of unexpected difficulty many leaders experience decline in attitude, vision, action, hope, faith, courage or confidence. And when the spirit of the leader is in decline organizational decline is not far behind. Our response to the challenges we face as leaders will make us or break us.  That’s why it’s important to process them well.

If you’re facing challenges in your leadership today here are a few questions to consider…

• Am I responding in fear or faith?
• What does God want me to learn as a leader?
• What’s the most important decision I can make today?
• What are the top three things I need to do to move the organization toward the mission?
• Who do I need beside me to provide encouragement and strength through this season?

When you invest in the development of your own leadership everybody wins.  Bill Hybels (Global Leadership Summit 2010)

Personal development isn’t just about improving our leadership, it ultimately raises the level of leadership in the whole organization.  When you grow others grow.  While there may be many obstacles that prevent us from being perfect leaders, there is no excuse for not being a growing leader.  Leaders who are not practicing self development make repeated mistakes, maintain poor leadership habits and lack the leadership wisdom that will enable them to adapt to a changing culture. But leaders who develop the discipline of personal growth are making constant adjustments, learning from their mistakes and developing leadership wisdom that will sustain their leadership over the long haul. But our self-development not only impacts the way we lead but it impacts the leadership of those around us.  I’ve always believed that growing leaders grow leaders.  Here are three keys to making sure that “everybody wins” through your personal leadership development.

• Commit yourself to a daily leadership growth plan. If it’s reading one chapter of a book a day, researching a leadership topic on particular blogs or asking veteran leaders key questions, try to learn something new everyday.
• Carry a notebook and write down one new thought or insight every day.
• Put what you learn into practice.  The best way to learn something new is not to think about it but to do it.  Find ways to apply your new insights right away.
• Teach others what you’re learning.  Each time you share what  you’re learning you reinforce those principles in your own mind and you help others on their leadership journey as well.

Today’s Leadership Challenge: Discover one new leadership insight today and find a way to put it into practice this week.

When executed properly core values define the way a company operates, gives clarity for decision making and assures greater engagement of employees.  However most leaders invest all their energies on vision and tend to neglect values.

Leaders love to think, dream and inspire people to pursue a better future.  While this type of visioning is essential for organizational direction, if the leader doesn’t provide a clear set of values it may be difficult to achieve the desired outcomes. Having a clear vision doesn’t ensure the necessary behaviors to achieve that vision. That’s why it’s essential the leader invest as enthusiastically in values as he does in the vision.  There may be a great vision but if the people in the organization don’t operate according to a unified set of values they will find themselves unable to move forward in a productive way.

What are the essential core values for your organization?  How well are those demonstrated in the attitudes and actions of the leaders in your organization?

Fear is not a quality many leaders long to develop in their lives.  But I do believe there is a healthy dose of fear that every leader needs. Today I was reading Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” The Hebrew word for knowledge means wisdom, discernment, understanding, skill or perception. These are all things that I long for as a leader. One of my constant prayers is that God would give me “Leadership Instinct”. I define leadership instinct as the wisdom to act in the right way at the right time for the right reason. Solomon says that type of instinct starts with fearing God. Why? Because God is all wise and all knowing. And He shares His mind and heart with those who love and revere Him. So I must move forward throughout my day with a healthy fear of the Lord.  And as I do it’s more likely that I will hear His voice, know His heart, do His will and be the Leader He has created me to be.

What does the fear of the Lord produce in my life? According to Proverbs fear of the Lord…

• Gives me Knowledge 1:7
• Gives me Knowledge of God 2:5
• Gives me a distaste for evil 8:13
• Gives me Wisdom 9:10, 15:33
• Adds length to my life 10:27
• Aids in living a righteous lifestyle 14:2
• Helps me Avoid evil 14:16, 16:6
• It is a fountain of life 14:27; 19:23
• Produces an atmosphere of security in my home 14:26
• Brings wealth and honor 22:4
• Keeps me from being envioius 23:17
• Brings blessing 28:14

Not a bad list of benefits!  Move forward with fear.

In every organization there is an enormous amount of untapped wisdom and knowledge. If you have 30 people on your staff there are 30 different points of view.  This amounts to a wealth of man hours of learning, experiences and wisdom that could be tapped into to solve organizational problems or dream up innovate opportunities. Collectively your team may just have that idea your organization needs for the next big breakthrough. So if you can’t afford a consultant, why not capitalize on the wisdom and experience of your team?  Pull them together for a brainstorm session and see what happens.  Here is a simple outline to get you started.

• Write out the objective of your brainstorming session.  What do you want to accomplish?
• Set a time limit for the meeting.  Usually it takes at least 2 hours to get some good thinking going.
• Gather your team, state the objective clearly, define the problem/challenge clearly and invite them to give honest and open input.
  I like to follow this format:
  • WHAT is?  Let’s work to describe our current reality.
  • WHAT could be? Let’s dream together and think of all the possibilities.  Capture, evaluate and prioritize the ideas to determine which ones you need to act on.
  • HOW do we get there?  Brainstorm a list of action steps that will help you move from What is to What could be.
• Assign follow up action steps
• Get back together within a few weeks for evaluation and follow up.

Give it a try, you never know where your next big idea will come from.

When I was on staff at Highland Park Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas in the late 80′s our pastor started every staff meeting by saying, “Guys let’s celebrate some wins, what have you seen God do in your ministry this past week?” It was in those weekly staff meetings I discovered the power of celebrating wins.  If you’re not including this type of celebration in some of your meetings you’re missing an important team building opportunity.  Here are a few benefits:

• It keeps the focus on what God is doing. Sometimes we get so caught up in doing ministry and moving from one project to the next that we forget to stop and really focus on how God provided or worked.  If there are no “God showed up” stories to celebrate maybe the team isn’t thinking big enough. Pastor Greg Surratt at Seacoast Church would joke with us sometimes after hearing our goals saying we had “THS”, which means “Tiny Heart Syndrome”.  Regular celebration allows you to reflect on the big things God is doing through your team.
• Acknowledges successes of team members. Most people work really hard and give their best effort to the organizations goals and objectives.  Stopping to recognize their efforts re-energizes them for the next challenge they will take on.
• Gives you as the leader the opportunity to reinforce key values. After someone shares a success during the celebration time follow up by talking about how what they shared was a visible representation of the values of your organization.  So for example if Jim celebrates the development of a new leader.  Say something like, “That’s great, you guys if we want to continue to expand the influence of our ministry then we have to continually reproduce ourselves in the lives of others just as Jim has done.  As we find ways to develop others each of us are expanding the impact of our ministry.  Great job Jim!”
• It’s a valuable way to give someone on the team greater visibility or credibility. There are times people are accomplishing valuable wins but they are low visibility wins.  Celebrating in the context of a team meeting allows everyone to hear about the efforts of a team member that they  otherwise may not have known about.
• It breaks down silos and strengthens unity. When team members hear each other pointing out each others successes it brings a greater level of team unity.
• It trains people to look for positive rather than negative. Some people just can’t seem to help it, they always see the negative first.  While that can be helpful at times to help a team see areas of improvement, it can also be discouraging if all they ever do is point out the negative.  Sometimes as leaders we need to say, “Today I want everyone to share one positive thing they’ve seen happen over the past week.”   This helps the negative team member learn to look for the positive.

This Weeks Leadership Challenge: Take 5 minutes to celebrate some wins in your team meeting this week.