Whose Agenda are You On – Yours or God’s?

I was reading Luke recently and took note of a passage found in 4:42-44.  “At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place.  The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them.  But he said, ‘I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also because that is why I was sent.’ And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.”

To put this in context, the day before, Jesus had just healed Simon’s mother-in-law of the fever and healed many others as well.  So the word about Jesus was spreading like wildfire in the town where He was. It was like a wealthy man came to town handing out money and more and more people wanted to their piece of him (or more accurately, they wanted to get something from him). Yet, early the next day, Jesus got up and sought out from His Father what was on the Father’s agenda for Jesus that coming day.

But He was gaining so much notoriety in that town, surely He should have stayed to soak it all in, heal some more people, maybe get elected as the mayor of that town – after all no one else had come and made such a favorable impression.  No one else had such a positive impact on the people.  That is precisely the way many of us probably would have responded.  We may have said, “hey, it seems like I am really needed in this community – if I say for awhile, I can really do some good.” What we are really interested in is being noticed and looked up to by others.  Not that there is anything wrong with that, it is just that it is not how God wants us to decide how to spend our day!

Jesus gives us a lesson on how we should set our agenda each day.  Jesus began the day by spending time with His Father to hear what was on His Father’s heart.  That and that alone would establish His schedule for the day.  Notice what the people tried to do – “they tried to keep him from leaving them.”  They knew what a valuable person Jesus was and they didn’t want to let Him go or share Him with anyone else.  The people were focused on what they could get out of the situation.  But God had other plans and purposes. Jesus sought to see where the Father was working – that was His assignment for the day, and not what the people wanted Him to do. In the passage quoted above, Jesus said that His plans were different because He heard from His Father what was important for that day – and it wasn’t in the town where He was – it was elsewhere.

After the Resurrection, Peter and some others went fishing and were out all night. They didn’t catch anything.  Interestingly, there was no mention that they went to God beforehand to determine if that was what He wanted them to do that evening. The next morning, Jesus was on shore and after hearing that Peter didn’t catch anything, He said to drop the nets on the right side of the boat (See John 21:1-6). You remember what happened next – they caught so many fish, their nets were about to break!

Ask God each day for His revelation as to where He wants you to invest your time that day. Ask Him to let you know which side of your boat He wants you to drop the nets. Whatever you do in obedience to God’s agenda will produce far greater results that what you can possibly do on your own.

Do you seek out the Father each day and allow the Holy Spirit to set  your agenda for the day? Do you try to seek out where God is working?  Are you on the lookout for the people who may be seeking godly counsel?  Or are you too busy attending to what you think is needed to be successful today?

Leaders: Pride or Humility?

Proverbs 11:2 says, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”  With pride, we are self centered and believe we have a strength, skill, talent or accomplishment that we have achieved.  When we are self centered like this, we can no longer learn because we are so focused on how good we already are.  Pride is destructive, there is no doubt about it.

When we are humble, we know it is not because of anything that we have done and we are fully and completely reliant on God for strength, skill, talent and provision or accomplishment – anything good.  That is when we have an openness to gain wisdom – only when we take the focus off self and put the focus rightfully on God and how He plans to use the skills He has provided us.

As I look at the proverb quoted above, I find that there is a definitive action that happens depending on the attitude that I have.  If I have an attitude of pride, then disgrace will come.  Notice the proverb is emphatic – it does not say that disgrace might come, or the odds are better than even it will come, or that it will come on alternating Tuesday’s – it just about guarantees that disgrace will come.  It makes me pause and ask the question, is having pride worth the disgrace that will come?  Is pumping myself up so I feel better or that others will look highly upon me worth it when I know that at some point, I will encounter disgrace?

If I have an attitude of humility, then wisdom will come.  We know from other proverbs that wisdom is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold (2:14); wisdom is supreme (4:7).  We also know that fools despise wisdom. Therefore, if we want to have wisdom, one sure way to get it is to have an attitude of humility.  Having an attitude of humility is not about being weak or powerless or any of the other negative connotations that are typically associated with being humble.  Rather, a attitude of humility is displayed when we truly believe that we must still learn, be open to other ideas, that people all around us are more skilled than we are in certain areas, that we don’t have (or need to have) all the answers.

As a leader, do you desire wisdom?  Certainly, the answer is yes.  How do you acquire wisdom?  One way is to have an attitude of humility.  Another is to have an attitude of continued learning from those you can trust.  See the post Who Are You Listening To for more ideas on this.

What has been your experience?  How do you contrast pride and humility? Have you experienced a time when your attitude of humility has resulted in wisdom?  Have you experienced a time when your pride has led to disgrace?  Share with others so we can all learn.

Vision or Revelation?

Each morning I make it a practice to read the Experiencing God Day By Day daily devotional from Blackaby Ministries International. Earlier this past week, I read the entry that focused on Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint, but happy is he who keeps the law.” I want to quote what the Blackaby’s have said about this proverb:

“The world operates on vision.  God’s people live by revelation.  The world seeks grand and noble purposes and goals to achieve. Institutions establish goals and then organize themselves to achive them.  God’s people function in a radically different way.  Christians arrange their lives baed on the revelation of God, regardless of whether it makes sense to them.  God does not ask for our opinion about what is best for our future, our family, our church, or our community (or our business); He already knows!  What God wants is to get the attention of His people and reveal to us what is on His heart and what His will is, for God’s ways are not our ways.

“Whenever people do not base their lives on God’s revelation, they cast off restraint.  That is, they do what is right in their own eyes.  They set their goals, arrange their agendas and then pray for God’s blessing.  Some Christians are living far outside the will of God, yet they have the audacity to pray and ask God to bless their efforts.

“The only way for you to know God’s will is for Him to reveal it to you.  You will never discover it on your own. What you hear from the Father, you have an immediate agenda for your life: obedience.  As the writer of this proverb observed, happy is he who keeps the law.”

So, is this saying that goals, resolutions, plans and other tools that help us to stay focused and organized are not appropriate or meaningful?  No, I don’t think so.  I think what is being said in the Proverb and by the Blackaby’s is that we must first hear a revelation from God before we go off and set our agendas, plans, goals and deliverables.

What is God’s agenda for you? Have you asked Him or taken the time to allow Him to reveal it to you? If you want to learn more about this, my recently published book devotes the first chapter to this topic and it is entitled Setting a Vision.  Purchase it here.

True Words of Wisdom

I was struck recently about the real words of wisdom in Proverbs 2.  The whole chapter contains such great advice for anyone, especially leaders.  There is a call to action, the rewards for that action are clearly spoken of, and there are clear consequences for those who do not heed the call to action.  Let me give you a few snippets:

Call to action

Verses 1-4 tell us we are called to:

• Store up the commands that will follow within you

• Turn your ear to wisdom – we have to be willing to listen to wisdom, and not just secular wisdom (especially not secular wisdom) but godly wisdom

• Apply this wisdom to your heart so you will gain understanding

• We are to call out for insight – it just doesn’t come without our calling out for it

• We are to cry aloud for understanding – this is not an tearful cry but an impassioned pleading to gain understanding

• We are to treat it as silver (valuable) and search for it as hidden treasure

Simple, yet profound truths

• The Lord gives wisdom – real, truthful wisdom does not come from any other source, despite what we may want to believe

• The Lord holds victory in store for the upright and He is a shield to those whose walk is blameless

• He guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.

• Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men – there are many wicked people out there, and the only way we will be saved from them is to really know wisdom that comes from one source and one source only.

Rewards for that action

• After following the call to action, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God – how awesome is that!

• After following the call to action, then you will understand what is right and just and fair

• After following the call to action, wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul

• After following the call to action, discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you

Notice that in each of these, we must take an action first before the reward comes.  I know that is contrary to our “instant gratification” and “microwave solutions” world we live in today, but it is reality.

Consequences for those who do not heed the call to action

• For not following the call to action, you will wind up being influenced by wicked people who will take you to places you don’t want to go

• For not following the call to action, you will be taken by devious people who are out for themselves, despite what they tell you

• For not following the call to action, you will be considered wicked and you will be cut off from the land, or cut off from resources you need to just survive

• For not following the call to action, you will be considered unfaithful and will be torn from the land that provides resources needed for survival.

Where do you get your wisdom from? I talked about this in an earlier post on Who Are You Listening To? As we can see, it really does matter. We must be very diligent as to whom and where we go to for answers to our questions, for advice in our problems and for guidance to live life.  As the Lord is the only source of true and real wisdom, those who desire this wisdom (which is like a hidden treasure) need to spend a lot of time listening to Him.  Leaders, are you listening to Him or to the world?

What is it I really treasure?  That depends on my motivation, interests and attention.  If my motivation, interests and attention are on obtaining and understanding the wisdom that is available to me only from God, I will spend a great deal of time there.  If my motivation, interests and attention are to obtain the comforts of this life, of the riches of this life, then I will spend a lot of time in that secular world listening to what it has to offer and implementing the techniques it claims will bring happiness and contentment.

There is so much wisdom in this book of Proverbs.  What else are you finding in it?

Character Based Leadership

What is character-based leadership?  Quite obviously, it is a leadership style based on character. Duh, you may respond and rightly so.

Digging a bit deeper, what is character?  Some of the words that Webster’s New World Dictionary uses to describe character include “a distinctive trait”, “behavior typical of a person or group”, “moral strength”, “reputation”.

So, I suppose that the leadership style can be based on traits that are positive or negative, that are moral or immoral, and traits that can contribute to or define one’s reputation.  Given these considerations, I guess that most leaders would want to have a good reputation, don’t you think?  We can agree that many leaders who are in the news today including business, government and all other sectors, are “newsworthy” because a flaw has been discovered in the character of their leadership.  We read the story, sit back and say something like, “Well, there goes another one.” For some, it is not just a flaw in the character of their leadership; it is a flaw in their character.

I often wonder what our world would be like if more of our leaders would embrace, practice and really attempt to live out the principles of character based leadership – of having a positive influence on others, on having a focus on the success of others more than self success, on earning and keeping a good reputation.

There is a group that has taken on a challenge to engage other leaders in not only defining character based leadership but doing something intentional and almost revolutionary about advancing it.  The group is called Lead Change Group and is headed up by a friend of mine named Mike Henry.  He and some of his colleagues (and I am privileged to be one of them) have put together plans to gather people to talk about this and do something actionable and intentional about it.  The following comes from the Lead Change Group website providing more of the details. This is unique from the very start, as evidenced by its name – LeaderPalooza 2010.

We’re throwing an un-conference.  That’s right. We want to leverage each others’ ideas and energy in a get-together this February 19-20 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  We won’t have formal speakers and you won’t get a binder.  You will meet great leadership people and create opportunities to be part of something different.  You won’t just sit and listen; you will contribute.  Everyone (who will be attending) is capable of speaking on leadership anyway.  Come and share ideas and create ways to collaborate with other like-minded leadership friends. Will you join us?

The conference registration site is www.LeaderPalooza.com. The location will be at a Hilton Hotel very close to the Ft. Lauderdale Airport. (The room rates are very low, especially considering the time of year and location.) We want to get together, share energy and ideas and make a positive difference through character-based leadership. We believe together we will collaborate and create in a way that we can’t even imagine until we’ve done it. This is a chance for you to act on your beliefs about leadership.

Our world needs your ideas and energy applied toward advancing character-based leadership. Your contribution matters. But more than your individual effort, we need you to be part of a community committed to the same idea, supporting, energizing, equipping and mobilizing each other.  Our world needs us to pull together. Will you? You can get more information and register at www.LeaderPalooza.com.

Are you planning to go?

Who Are You Listening To?

We live in a world where leaders are constantly bombarded with messages that make big promises or guarantees.  All kinds of people and organizations are clamoring to get your attention.  If you sit back and analyze some or all of the clamoring, I bet you’d agree that it comes from people and organizations that want something from you rather than are willing to give you something.  Am I right?   The secular world is placing a tremendous amount of pressure on organizational leaders of all types to follow their leadership methods and to turn their backs on God’s methods.

As leaders committed to following a Biblical worldview and Biblical principles, we have to be careful who we are listening to for information on how to do this leadership thing better. We have to be careful where we are seeking advice to handle life’s difficult problems.  We are running the great risk of relying on the “wisdom” of the secular world instead of God’s wisdom. We can easily be led astray even by well-intentioned individuals, consultants, bosses, or other advisors who we turn to in time of need.

Consider just a few verses from Scripture:

Psalm 1 talks about man being blessed if he follows the law of the Lord and walks in the counsel of the godly. The wicked, or those who don’t follow the law of the Lord, are like chaff that the wind blows away!

Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (or discipline, depending on the translation used).

Proverbs 2 is clear about the requirement God places on us to consider carefully the sources from whom we obtain our wisdom; it spells out the consequences we will face if we fail to follow His wisdom. Consider verses 12-15:

“Discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you. Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who leave the straight path to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.”

Does the description of wicked, evil, devious, perverse words remind you of the secular or worldly messages we are receiving today? You might think that I am being too harsh or exaggerating.  Yet think of the messages that focus on self, on short-term gain, on the ease of doing this or that technique, etc.  If they are not godly messages, God calls them evil, devious and wicked.

It seems to me that God is pretty clear about who He expects us to listen to and what He calls us if we listen to people who are not connected with Him and His purposes; He call them fools!  So, who are you listening to for your advice on being a leader, running a company, being a parent, or just being a friend to someone? Are you listening to God and godly people, or to fools?  Apparently, those are our only two choices.

Share with us what you do or would like to do to ensure you are listening to the right choice.

Five Reasons Every Executive Needs a Leadership Coach

I recently finished reading a book entitled “De-Railed” by Tim Irwin.  In this book, he profiles 6 CEOs who once had a thriving reputation and had been enjoying success, yet came to a point where they de-railed – they were fired from their CEO role.  Some of those profiled included Bob Nardelli (former CEO of Home Depot), Carly Fiorina (former CEO of Hewlett Packard) and Dick Fuld (former CEO of Lehman Bros.) If you are a leader or work with leaders, I highly recommend reading this book.

One of the key points that Irwin makes to avoid de-railing is to be aware of self and others.  I have talked about being open to criticism in another post.  Yet, it is apparent that one needs to be more than willing to be open to criticism; leaders need to be highly self aware of not only their strengths and weaknesses, but also how they are perceived by others, especially those they are leading.  Hence, I believe that every executive needs a leadership coach.

Those who are reading this who know me may be saying, “Well come on Bill, this is what you do for a living, so you are just being self-promotional here” and to that I would respond, “Yes, but…”  Consider the following statements:

“You may be good. You may even be better than everyone else. But without a coach you will never be as good as you could be.” This is from Andy Stanley, the highly regarded Senior Pastor from North Point Church in Atlanta, arguably one of the fastest growing churches in American today with over 16,000 people attending each Sunday.

“As a leader, you can’t afford to not have a coach.” This is from Michael Hyatt, the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing.  He has had a coach for many years.

Here are my top five reasons that every executive needs a leadership coach:

1.    Leaders need to have people around them that will be completely honest with them.  Oftentimes, leaders have people around them who, for a variety of reasons, just don’t share the honest truth with the leader.  The leader then develops a false awareness about his or her effectiveness.

2.    As a leader, you need to continue growing if you want your people to grow underneath you.  One of the most effective ways to grow is to seek feedback from others and utilize the services of a leadership coach to help you process and integrate that feedback.
3.    Coaching by a professional in the field will help ensure the leader remains open to hearing feedback and has a process to do something with it. It has been proven over and over that effective leaders are open to learning new information about themselves as well as their plans.
4.    As Proverbs 12:15 (NLT) says, “Fools think their own way is right but the wise listen to others.” Leaders who think their own way is right, without consulting others who are not yes-men, are nothing more than fools.  Fools are never successful, nor are they going to ever maximize their effectiveness as a leader.
5.    Proverbs 1:5 says, “A wise man will hear and increase in learning, and a man of understand will acquire wise counsel.” Breaking this down, a wise leader is one who is open to hearing what others have to say so that their learning can increase.  A person of understanding does not become that way on their own – they rely on obtaining wise counsel.  One of the elements of wise counsel for an executive is a leadership coach.

They say that it is lonely at the top.  I say that the people at the top can choose to be lonely or not. Executives need to have at least one person they can consult with who will be candid, open and honest about the leader’s behavior.

What would you add to this list of reasons?  Your comments and dialogue are most welcome.

The Top 5 Traits So-Called “Leaders” Are Missing

The Top 5 Traits So-Called “Leaders” Are Missing

There has been so much written about leaders and leadership, and I am no exception having written several articles and a book about the topic.  I thought for this post, I would take a different twist and talk about what many so-called leaders are really missing.  This is by no means a complete list; nevertheless, I hope to get some conversation going.

So here is my list of what leaders are missing and why it is so important:

1.    Integrity – I think we’d all agree that it helps to have followers, right? Well, if a leader is missing integrity, the followers will lose trust and confidence that this leader will take care of them and lead them to a common destination. Followers must have a strong sense that the leader can be trusted, and that comes when the leader does what they say they will do and acts in a consistent manner all the time – that’s integrity.
2.    Self Confidence – There is a delicate balance between a healthy belief in one’s abilities, competencies and talents vs. having an unhealthy belief creating low self-esteem on one end of the spectrum or arrogance, pride or hubris on the other end of the spectrum. Healthy self confidence is that balanced place in the middle that others will sense is positive without being arrogant.
3.    Vision – Without a clear and compelling vision, the leader nor the follower have any motivation to get up and go each and every day.  The proverb says, “Without vision, the people perish” and it is true.  Without vision, the followers will look to someone else who has a vision that fits their ideals, values and goals. Without vision, the leader will soon find him/herself alone.  An essential ingredient in the vision must be that it serves others and not the needs of the leader. When the vision serves the leader, it is hard to have integrity.
4.    Communication – Unfortunately, many leaders think they are communicating when they are talking.  Communication takes much more than talking – it requires connecting by listening, understanding what others are saying, knowing how your audience will best receive what you are trying to say, and so many other elements.  In today’s world, communication not only includes what is being said, but how it is being said and how it is being delivered.  All of these elements must be focused on the audience and not the leader.
5.    A Heart to Develop Others – What good is it to have all the above elements and not be able to have others carry it out in your absence – whether that absence is for a vacation, or whether the absence is permanent?  Leaders who do not develop other leaders are not only failing themselves, they are failing the organizations that have hired them in the first place.

What do you think about this list?  Do you agree, or would you substitute another element in place of one of the items discussed? Let’s hear what you have to say.

Opportunity to Participate in Blog Tour

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Learn more about Leadership Lessons From THE BOOK HERE.

Investing Time in Developing Leaders

We have heard many of many well-respected and influential leaders talk about the necessity for developing leaders underneath them, and to ultimately take their place. Jack Welch was known to say that his most important job was to identify and develop his successor.  He would say that he spent 50% of his time on developing leaders.

Leaders must commit to spend some of their precious time developing leaders beneath them. If you are the CEO, Executive Director or Senior Pastor, then your responsibility is expanded to ensure the organization as a whole spends the appropriate amount of time and resources on developing its leaders – both current and next generation leaders. The CEO is accountable for ensuring the overall leadership development strategy is well-defined and works effectively to achieve its targeted goals. If a leader is not spending time developing other leaders, he or she will have failed in his or her full leadership role. They have also failed the organization that has entrusted them as leaders and failed God who appointed them in the first place. (See earlier post on Appointing Leaders.)

Leaders must develop other people to take their place; to not do so is a sign of self-centeredness, short-term thinking and pride that no one can replace you. It is the prideful leader that believes that no one can replace him as leader. This attitude fosters a reluctance to balanced or calculated risk-taking, a trait that has been well researched as being needed to sustain and grow and organization.  We are ALL replaceable no matter what our position is or how we attained that position.  The prideful attitude is not honoring God.

A planned approach to developing leaders must be a key and top priority among today’s leaders.  The approach must be multi-faceted and must be given months and years to take effect, not days or weeks.  Developing leaders does not happen by sending them to a two or three day seminar.  Moses didn’t send Joshua to attend workshops given by the Hebrew Management Association; he spent a great deal of time with Joshua to provide mentoring, hands-on and experiential training, coaching and feedback. Likewise, Jesus modeled for us that mentoring and developing those who would take His place took several years.

As a leader, do you have a plan to develop those underneath you?  If you do, why not share some of the elements of that plan with us.  If not, let me know and perhaps I can help you develop a plan that will enable you to fulfill one of the most important tasks of being a leader.