I’m a big leadership nut. I love reading about it, hearing about it, studying Scripture on it and learning from everyone and anyone about it. Today our Compassion Canada exposure team had the privilege to tour the head office of Compassion in Peru. What Compassion is doing in Peru is phenomenal to say the least, but more on that in a future post.

What struck me this mroning was the testimony I heard over and over about how much pepople appreciated their supervisor and country directory, Christina.  So, when I had the opportunity to meet her, I asked her.

“Chrisina, your team loves you, the Holy Spirit is blessing you, what can you teach me about how you lead so well?

Here are three leadership learning’s from Peru:

• Teamwork – Work with people smarter than yourself and learn from them. “You cannot do enough things together”
• Love Scripture – “Ensure your team reads, studies and memorizes Scripture.
• Serve - “My role is to serve the pastors in our country and my team who serve the children”
• Yes I know I said three. I added this one for her. Live humbly and with much thankfulness
• Christina epitomizes a humble and thankful life. She is so grateful to others and her Lord Jesus Christ.

So thankful for the consistent, sanctifying, work of the Holy Spirit in my life. He never stops convicting, teaching and extending me grace.

Loving life!

Creating a healthy staff culture is something that over the past couple years has been written extensively about. Leadership, Teamwork, all play a role. Even just saying or thinking those words bring John Maxwell to mind.

The Question. – How do you effectively assess the health of your staff team?

Now, I’m a big fan of systems, and efficiency. One of my frustrations in leading teams, staff and peers has been in determining where/how I should be spending my time so that it has the biggest positive impact on the team. To add to that questions is to also determine the impact my action has on the overall staff health of the organization. I have found it much easier to determine a staff need, versus evaluating the effect addressing that need will have on my organization.

For example let’s assume an organization scored low on both these two example questions below.

Staff are satisfied with their salary and benefit packages?

AND

Staff recommend this organizations programs and services to friends and family?

If you only had time to address one issue, and yet both concerns seemed pressing, which one should become your priority.

Possible Solution

Over the past four years our church has been partnering with Best Christian Workplace Institute in helping us assess our staff health and culture. In addition to providing a great assessment tool, their biggest help to us has been in showing us which staffing questions/concerns have the biggest impact on overall staff health.

We’re still making mistakes, still learning, but are also having a lot more fun along way.

Feedback?

So, how do you do this at your organization. I’d love to hear and learn from your experience.

Loving the journey.

Malcolm Gladwell is by far one of my favorite authors. He recently released his new book, What the Dog Saw.

Besides being a very insightful researcher and author, he is also one of the few authors to have all four of his books on the Best Seller list. Incredible considering his first book came out over 9 years ago.

As a speaker he is just as insightful. C-Span recently did an hour long interview with him. So, if you have some time and like Gladwell, you will enjoy the interview.

When I was a child and living at home, I remember getting grounded, spanked, chastised, given the “you disappoint me line” when I “talked backed” to my parents.  I course then proceeded to pout and rationalize that they just didn’t know what was best for me. Besides telling a lie, talking back was a definite “no, no” in the Herbold household.  Now that I have kids of my own, and I love them to pieces, but there are very few things that can upset me as quickly as them talking back to me. And afterwards they of course pout just like I did when they don’t get their way. I realize I have a serious lack of patience, and God is using them to work on me, but seriously, sometimes I feel like putting my head, or someones, through a wall. (I said I feel like that, not that I actually do that to anyone. )

While reading in Romans 9 today God reminded me that I sometimes, just as my kids, pout, and talk back to God when i don’t get my way.  Romans 9:20-24.

“But who are you O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “why did you make me like this?”

I am so thankful that He is much more patient with me than I am with my kids.  I’m working on it with His  help and strength and asking for forgiveness from Esther and Judah as I walk this journey with them. Most days I think that I am learning more about life from parenting than my kids are by my parenting.

What is God saying to you?

Here is the same passage taken from the Message. (This helps view the passage in a slightly different light)

Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn’t talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, “Why did you shape me like this?” Isn’t it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn’t that all right?

Read time: 15 min’s

You’ve probably seen Criss Angel walking on water illusion. What however can we learn from someone who actually did walk on water?  This is a recap of me struggling to hear God’s voice, hearing it, and being profoundly challenged and spoken to. I trust that there is something He would have for you as well.

Do you ever really stress about making the “right” decision about something? Not the kind of decision where you know God doesn’t have a preference for you. This is the kind of decision where you know that God does have a preference and you just can’t quite nail down what it is.  This was me the night before and morning of a conference I recently attended. It wasn’t a huge decision, but I knew there was one “perfect” choice God wanted me to make. You see, I had to choose which seminar i was going to attend. That’s it, nothing crazy, nothing extravagant, just choose one seminar from 5 choices.

I had it nailed down to two choices that I assumed/felt I should take.

• Option 1 was a great place to network with great church leaders and innovators
• Option 2 was a great environment to interact with missional church leaders doing “church” a little differently.
• Option 3 close my eyes, spin around, point at a door and enter. (not my favorite)

So, with the hallways empty, everyone had entered their chosen seminar and I still had no peace. I did the most rationale thing I could think of. Walk into each room and see if it “felt” right. I started walking toward option #1, and knew before I got to the door it was wrong. Walked to option #2, stepped inside, nope felt wrong.  Feeling frustrated, and still praying why God just won’t tell me where to go, I opened my brochure and looked at the faces of the seminar presenters, saw a smiling face and said, “I like his face, I’m going to go listen to him.” That guy was Herbert Cooper, and God used him to speak to me, challenge me, and allow me to be utterly overwhelmed by the Spirit. It was incredible, as Herbert started talking, I was awash in emotion and knew I was where He would have me. I wanted to share my notes from that seminar, trusting that He as something for you as well.

NOTES: 5 Lessons About Getting Out of the Boat

“Get out of the boat. Peter was a change maker”

Read Matthew 14:25-33 first.

1. Don’t be influenced by the crowd. Listen to Christ’s voice and not the crowds voice. The bible says all the disciples were afraid and fearful. You can just imagine the disciples saying, “don’t do it. you can’t”.  Are there people in your life saying similar things? Yet Christ says, ”Peter, get out of the boat”. You can’t worry about being popular. The crowds live in he boat. Leaders are outside of the boat. Leadership can be lonely, because the crowds aren’t ouside the boat. Be a water walker.
2. It requires radical faith to step out of the boat. If you’re going to get out of the boat it will require radical faith. Imagine this: It was night time, waves , dark and they see someone walking on the water. Scripture says the disciples were scared. They thought it was a ghost an apparition, spirit coming towards them. Peter says, “if it’s you Lord tell me to come.” Peter recognizes Christ’s voice and gets out of the boat. Radical faith is developed through radical relationship with Jesus Christ. What calls Peter to get out of the boat? Jesus did, and Peter knew and recognized his voice and obeyed immediately.

• As leaders, followers of Christ, we can’t afford to be lukewarm, distant from God. As leaders, or stronger people of faith, we don’t usually struggle with good decision vs. bad decisions. No, more often than not, as leaders we struggle with good decisions and good decision. Distinguishing between two good decisions is to know Jesus voice. To have a radical faith.

Sub Point: 3 keys to develop a radical relationship with Jesus Christ.

• Pray. Are you spending consistent, intentional time praying, talking to, hearing God’s voice. This takes time. There is no way around this, you need to take time to pray and that means you need to sacrifice something else to do it. For me that means less tv or activities in the evening so that I can get up earlier to spend time in prayer.
• Read and memorize the bible. Honestly, this is very hard for me. If anyone has a good way of doing this please let me know. Again, this takes consistent time and reflection. I have never done this well, but am starting and trying to intentionally do this. Psalm 119:11. Matt 4:4-10 (interesting that the devil knows the word and twists it)
• Be consistent with reading your bible and participating in the church community. Spend time in His word and spend time in community with other believers.  I mention both because its easy to think you dont need the church if you are in the word or vice versa. I often see people, and myself choose one over the other. The reality is we need both. We have to know His voice. that is he key.

3.  Realize there will be trouble. When we venture out, their will be trouble. Peter has just heard the voice of Jesus takes some steps and starts to sink. You can hear Jesus voice, be In His will and still have trouble. Trouble is just part of venturing out and starting something new.

4.   Remember to quickly refocus on Jesus. As soon as Peter “begins” to sink Peter calls out to Jesus. As soon you face adversity quickly refocus on Jesus. Just like Peter, it usually doesn’t work out just like you think it will. Just like Peter get your eyes off of people and refocus on Jesus.

5.   Recognize that miracles happen outside the boat! The only way Peter could experienced the miracle was that he had to get out of the boat. Notice that the other disciples got to rejoice, got to be excited, and share in the miracle, but they never got to walk on water by themselves. Miracles happen outside the boat.

My hope is that you will take the necessary steps to deepen your walk with Christ. To have a radical faith so that you can hear His voice clearly. So that choosing between two good choices is not difficult because you hear and recognize His voice clearly. I pray that when He calls that we would both step boldly out of the boat. That when we begin to sink, we would refocus quickly on His face. That we would not look to the crowd, but instead Jesus Christ in all we do so that He may be glorified, lifted up and given all glory on heaven and earth. Where is He calling you to step out of the boat….?

Loving the journey…

I’ve been musing on a quote by Tony Blair. Recently I heard him speak on leadership and the importance of a leader knowing what his or her “irreducible core” is.

Irreducible Core defined: (as per Tony Blair)

• The thing about leadership is that you have make a decision inside of yourself that there will be things you will stand on and be faced with the fact other people might not like it.
• Part of leadership is having an inner core, an irreducible core, the thing that cannot be chipped away at.
• You cannot yield on what is at your core.

So, I started wondering what my irreducible core is. Intuitively I think I know what it is, but I want to be able to define it in one sentence.  In sales terms an “elevator speech” of who I am. To me when I hear about an irreducible core I not only think of what I won’t compromise on, but also what motivates me, challenges me, holds me accountable and simply excites me like nothing else. Simply, who I am.  When I describe my irreducible core I want it to release an electrifying charge of passion and potential from deep within me. Intuitively I know what it is, but I want to be able to define it.

My plan of attack: Get some initial feedback from friends and colleagues, and then spend some time creating a one sentence definition of who I am, my irreducible core.

Have you ever created a one line bio about yourself?  If so, I’d love to hear it.

Not only do I think it’s fun to have a vivid definition of oneself, but I actually think it is quite useful.

You should follow me on Twitter here

I’ve been thinking a lot lately. I don’t think I’ve been getting anywhere though. It seems like I have so many thoughts and ideas, but they seem surrounded in fog. I know God is peaking. I feel as if He has shown me a glimpse of something special, even spectacular. Its as if He has shown me a portion of a beautiful picture of a finished puzzle and then took the cover away so I couldn’t see the whole finished project. He’s given me 1000′s of pieces and then it seems I’m blindfolded. A hopeless situation. I know I must rely on Him and His working through me, so I submit to His work. But the reality is, I absolutely love these seasons when it seems God is speaking more than He usually does (perhaps I’m just listening more), but it can also be more frustrating. So, all I know is that He has begun a process within me. It feels like change, like transformation. To what end, I don’t know, but my trajectory is fwd and He is guiding me. Do you ever feel like this? So many thoughts, so little clue about what it all means?

I was reminded agin in Phillipians 4 to think on what is right, “Finally, whatever is true,whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.”

MalcolmGaldwell in his book “Outliers” Talks about the 10,000 hr rule. Basically it is the assumption (through much research actually) that it takes approx. 10,000 hr’s of practice to become an ‘expert” at any given task or area of learning. So, I embrace the process of learning, contemplation, etc. We are actually instructed in Scripture to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. It’s interesting that we need to get our thinking straight before transformation comes. So I continue to pray and think on what is right. I continue to try and use Phillipians 4 as a foundation for this journey He has me on. What is the journey He has you on currently? Are you spending your time on that journey, on Him? Or what else are you spending your 10,000 hr’s on? What are you becoming an expert at? What am I becoming an expert at? Actually embarrassing to think about for me sometimes. So, what have you been thinking about…is it to have the mind of Christ?

And even more important, Phillipians 4:9 ends with…whatever you have learned put it into practice. 10,000 hours is a lot of practice…Lord I’m not even close, forgive me for losing focus so often.