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.

Do you ever find yourself in that place where you’re desperate to see the hand of God in your life?  You’re confused, hurting, bored or anxious and you just want to see God do something in your life.  Many of you have been asking about the story behind my calling to make a transition from Seacoast to help start up a new church planting network based out of Atlanta called The Launch Network.  Below is the video where I shared my story with Seacoast Church at the First Wednesday service in July.  In this message I share how God worked in my and Cindy’s heart to prepare us for this new challenge. If you are longing to see the hand of God in your life, I hope you find our story encouraging to your own journey.

First Wednesday July 2010 – Mac Lake from Seacoast Church on Vimeo.

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.

You may think a question is a question, but different questions are designed to achieve different results.  This is why it’s important that leaders master the art of question asking.   Here are 4 types of questions to consider as you lead individuals on your team:

• Personal questions - These questions allow you to get to know a person, their background, interests, personality, and heart.   This is important because the better you know someone the better you will be able to work together.  The goal of personal questions is to CONNECT relationally.
• Evaluation questions - When you go to the doctor he tends to ask evaluation questions trying to discover  the source of your pain or problem.  As leaders it’s important that we take time to ask evaluation questions to discover the health and effectiveness of the ministry that we’re responsible for.  The goal of evaluation questions is to ASSESS what adjustments need to be made. 
• Coaching questions -  I’ve discovered that most  people really want to do their best and are very open to learning and growing.  Coaching questions are important because they’re intended to guide an individual to think on their own and uncover learnings from their experiences.  Too often as leaders we tell people what they need to learn rather than asking questions that help them solve their own problems and develop their skills.  The goal of Coaching questions is to DEVELOP an individual performer through self-discovery.
• Accountability questions -This one is the toughest for many leaders, yet so essential in getting things done.   These questions are asked after someone has made a commitment to a particular task or goal.  They’re very direct and remind people of personal responsiblities.  The goal of accountability questions is to FOLLOW UP on commitments to insure individual or organizational progress.

What are other types of questions leaders use?

My son Brandon leaves for Kenya today on a three week mission trip.  I would like to ask you to pray for him and the team from Seacoast as they reach out to the people of Kenya.  I was able to make my first trip to Africa a few months ago.  While there I was witnessed first hand the despareate need for clean water and the gospel. As Brandon was preparing for his trip he reflected back to the first time he went to Africa and what he witnessed there and wrote the song below to share with his team.  A couple of people at church who loved the song asked to make it into a video to use with Bread of Life missions organization.  I hope you enjoy…

Turkana Music Video- “Bread of Life” Missions from Maclake on Vimeo.

Turkana

Empty bellies, dried up streams, so much famine, so much need.
Miles of darkness, miles of dirt, millions hungry, millions hurt.
In the Corruption, in the war, thousands dying, thousands more.

Damaged families, broken tribes, lost and lonely children crying
In the trenches, in the mud, countless children without homes
From the trash, by their feet, this is dinner, off the street

We will bring, we will bring, your living water
So they hurt no more, thirst no more
We will sing, we will sing, of your great hope and promise, yeah we sing!

By his bones, by his blood, came to save, came to love
Turned the water into wine, braved the cross, healed the blind
You have raised the dead to life, you have called us to bring light

Send your rain
Father Reign

The pictures below are from my recent trip to Togo, Africa where I saw first hand this desparate need.

In yesterday’s post I wrote about, ”Day One of a New job“.  I’m happy to report that my first day at West Ridge Church went great.  I walked into a pimped out office with new furniture, cool lamps and snacks!  Tons of staff  members randomly popped in to introduce themselves.  But the thing that suprised me was the level of enthusiasm I felt from the staff about starting up The Launch Network.  Pastor Brian has done a great job casting the vision to the members and the staff for this new church planting network.  Overall it was a very encouraging day.

So once you make it through day one what do you do with the rest of your week?  Here are a few things to think through.

Gain an Understanding of the Corporate Culture – Corporate culture is “the way we do things around here.”  If you don’t understand the culture of your new organization you could find yourself fighting against it rather than working with it.  Refrain from saying, “The way we did it at (your former place of employment).” Instead work hard to ask questions, listen and seek to understand the vision and values of your new place of employment.  This week I’ve scheduled four one on one appointments with long standing staff members in order to help me understand the DNA of West Ridge Church.  Next week I have several appointments with younger staff members in order to connect with them and gain an understanding of how they view the organization.  Week one is just the beginning of learning the culture, it will take a long time but if you approach it with intentionality you can raise your learning curve significantly. 

Make Priority based Decisions - Being new you will have a lot coming at you, people wanting to meet with you,  new opportuntities, tasks that are “urgent” and expectations from a wide variety of people.  The temptation will be to please everyone.   However, one of the downfalls of many new employees is to over promise and under deliever, which hurts your crediblity with the team.  So keep your top 3-5 priorities in front of you where you look at them every day and make decisions based on these priorities not the pressure you feel to please others.     

Identify Key Partners – To make things happen quickly it will be important that you identify who you will be working with.  This may be volunteers,  team members, or staff from other departments.  Regardless of who it is you will need to build a team of people that work together to accomplish the vision.  Spend time early on meeting with these individuals getting to know them and allowing them to get to know you.  Don’t be so anxious to “get it done” that you miss the relational connections.  While you are committed to building a specific program or vision, the most important thing you can build when you’re first starting is TRUST.  Take the time to get to know people, their gifts, strengths and passions then you will be able to place them and utilize them in their gifted areas where they will flourish the most. 

Connect, connect, connect – Spend time with people.  I’ve heard it said, “People are your greatest asset”.  But that’s not really a complete statement.  The truth is, people’s strengths, wisdom, experience, passion, gifts and influence are your greatest asset.  The only way to discover these are to spend time getting to know the people you work with.  Don’t forget that it’s not just getting to know their story or their strengths, it’s getting to know their soul.  Discover the fresh things that God is doing in their life and how it connects with God’s purpose for bringing you into your new position.  Connect, connect, connect.

What else would you focus on in your first week in a new position?

Walking into a new workplace for your first day can be a really strange feeling.  Not only do you feel like an outsider but you may have that overwhelming feeling of “where do I start”. Just like a sprinter in a race it’s important that a new employee get a good start out of the blocks.  Well, today is my first day as the new Chief Launch Officer of the Launch Network.  So I thought this would be a good time to share my Day One plan.

The first day on a job is about getting yourself set up for maximum efficiency. So I would recommend thinking through 4 key areas to help you get a good start.

1. Relationships - Strong relationships will always be a key to success in any organization.  It’s a good idea to ask for a list of employees prior to your first day.  Have someone who knows the office well to go over who does what and the systems it takes to get things done in your new environment.   Once you have a basic idea of who does what spend some time walking around introducing yourself and getting familiar with where people office.  Don’t wait on others to help you get integrated, take initiative and reach out to everyone you can.  If you have an administrative assistant spend at least an hour with him/her getting to know them, their strengths and establish common expectations.  Also let them know your strengths, weaknesses, values and priorities.
2. Information – Being in a new workplace means learning a lot of basic things all over again.  So it’s important to set up an orientation that will help you learn how to operate some of the basic equipment and systems: Phone system, Copiers, Fax machine, computer, database.  Have someone give you a tour so you will know where to find what you need.
3. Supplies -More than likely you will walk into an office that’s pretty bare, so you will need to have the person responsible for ordering office supplies place an order so you can get set up with the basic necessities as quick as possible.  Here is my supply list:  Stapler, Tape dispenser, paper clips, files, 6 x 9.5 spiral bound notebookwhiteboard, dry erase markers, board eraser, four color highlighters, sticky notes,  In-out box, Giant wall calendar, magnetic numbers and months labels, large easel size sticky note pads and a scanner.
4. Priorities - More than likely before taking a new role you have had time to think through some of the top things you want to accomplish early on. Because you’re new to your role and will still be learning what’s expected of you I would recommend that you put together 4-6 priority objectives for your first 90 days.  Think through the most important things for you to accomplish during this crucial time period.  Type these up and post them where you can see them every day.

What would you add to this list?

Its not an uncommon for a leader to hurt someone’s feelings, rub someone the wrong way or mis-communicate to those they lead.  If you follow a leader it’s likely you have been offended by them at some time or another.  How you handle that offense speaks volumes about your character.  When a leader has hurt your feelings you have three options:

1. Remain Silent
2. Complain to others
3. Talk to them about it.

Okay, let’s break down each of these options to determine which approach we should take.

OPTION #1  REMAIN SILENT - While this may seem honorable to some, it’s extremely dangerous.  Those who take this approach actually undermine authentic community and can develop a spirit of self-righteous pride.  If a leader has offended or hurt you, not dealing with it allows resentment to build in your heart.  And if the leaders actions were truly wrong then not addressing it allows that potential blind spot to persist in their leadership character. Remaining silent hurts you and the leader in the long run.  Solomon declares in Proverbs 10:18 “He who conceals hatred is a liar.”    Be careful, your silence may not be as honorable as you think.

OPTION #2 COMPLAIN TO OTHERS – Many people feel justified using this approach because they were truly wronged.  However, complaining to others spreads discontent and division among the team.  Even the most subtle complaints to co-workers undermines the authority of the leader and weakens the unity the organization.  Someone one told me, “If you speak poorly of an individual, what would make tha person you are talking to think you would not speak poorly of them as well.”  When we speak negatively about others it diminishes peoples confidence in our character.  Solomon gives warning in Proverbs 16:27-28 “A scoundrel plots evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire. 28 A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends.”

OPTION #3 TALK TO THEM- The reason most people fail to confront is they view confrontation as a means of recompense rather than reconciliation.  Viewing the confrontation from a selfish perspective (What am I going to get out of it) will only build walls and create a defensive spirit in most leaders.  But a Christ Centered perspective of seeking reconciliation and restoration is more likely to produce an open spirit within the person being confronted.  When they sense a humble spirit with a selfless motive walls of defense will melt and it’s more likely to produce a healthy, productive discussion.  Solomon reminds us in Proverbs 27:6 “faithful are the wounds of a friend.”

Hurt? Offended?  What’s your next step?