Entries Tagged 'leadership' ↓

“Do not wait for life. Do not long for it. Be aware, always and at every moment, that the miracle is in the here and now.”
~ Marcel Proust

“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.”
~ Leonardo Da Vinci

I have lived too many years of my life looking forward to the next thing. Especially as leaders, we all too often fail to embrace the present as we strive for the future.

Words of wisdom for tough times…

“When the times get tough, the last thing companies should do is make sacrifices on the human side. You should do the exact reverse. When times get tough, it’s the leaders that you have that are going to carry you through it.” – Jerry Grandey, the CEO of Cameco Corporation, the Saskatchewan based uranium mining giant.

I came across this quote today in some reading, and I was encouraged because it echoes the direction we have chosen to pursue as a church during these financially challenging times.

i guess that poor kevin getting left out of george’s whitehouse photos is a classic lesson in being very careful how you treat people, even if they’re not as smart as you… perhaps especially so… :-)

Wow! So in the end, Obama totally hammers McCain, and it’s all over. In fact, it was a funny feeling yesterday afternoon watching the numbers tick over on CNN and finally it was done and dusted.

This has been an interminably long campaign, and one of my regular routines each day or so has been to punch up the CNN Political Podcast (“The best political news from the best political team”… I got the tagline down pat now!), and that has been one of my regular news intakes each day for a very long time, whether home or away, on planes or early in my office, on my iPod or iPhone or Mac.

And now…?! It’s going to feel a bit quiet… I can’t even begin to imagine how Obama and McCain feel. McCain gets to take a big rest (perhaps a retirement from the big game?), and Obama now gets to work on the problems created by others… so much for whatever agenda he may have had coming into this election… everything shifted while the game was in play, and his first 100 days are basically going to be grappling with what he has inherited, perhaps more than any other president in recent history, barring perhaps the Vietnam era. Enjoy!

And Bush?! Well, I dunno, but I suspect that there are many who are very glad that America has a two-term limit on presidents!

Incidentally, I know there are some who feel that I am Dem fanboy, given some of my comments here and there on this blog, but this would not be true. In fact, I was very much a conservative in my early years, probably resonating with Australian Liberal / American Republican values and policies, but I have found that as I have lived for a while, my political views have slipped towards a centre that tries to appreciate the best of both sides of politics. In recent times, that centre has been hard to find, but I think that is the unfortunate fate of the true liberal (small “l” liberal) thinker.

American politics has reached new levels of total weirdness when Joe the Plumber becomes an icon for the last days of the election, especially when he actually isn’t the guy everyone thought he was… that is, he isn’t a licensed plumber (from what I gather), nor is he truly representative of middle-class America that both candidates are attempting to appeal to…

John McCain has really gone crazy with his focus on this, and it probably epitomizes the desperation with which he is trying to resurrect a big hail mary play in the final hours of the campaign.

As an Australian who has lived in the States, I have a fascination with American politics, but this campaign has gone into new territory here and there, even for American politics. Roll on Nov 4 so we can see what the world will look like beyond Bush.

By the way, here’s a very interesting piece I came across in Patrick Lencioni’s newsletter. I’ve read all his books and found them very helpful, even if the style is a bit simplistic. I think this is very thought-provoking article, especially for me living in a country where I have always lauded compulsory voting:

Not Everyone Should Lead – Patrick Lencioni

I always find it interesting—or maybe troubling—when people encourage everyone to go out and vote on election day. Don’t get me wrong; I’m an ardent fan of democracy. I just don’t think it’s a good idea for people to vote unless they’ve taken the time to understand the issues and make informed decisions. It would be far better, in my opinion, if those who are too busy or disinterested to stay abreast of the issues exercised restraint on election day. I think that makes perfect sense, and yet is often viewed as politically or socially incorrect.

Well, I have a similar attitude about leadership. Whenever I hear someone encourage all young people to become leaders, or better yet, when I hear a young person say glibly that he or she wants to be a leader someday, I feel compelled to ask the question “why?”

If the answer is “because I want to make a difference” or “I want to change the world,” I get a little skeptical and have to ask a follow-up question: “Why and in what way do you want to change the world?” If they struggle to answer that question, I discourage them from becoming a leader.

Why? Because a leader who doesn’t know why he or she wants to lead is almost always motivated by self-interest. Whether that manifests itself in terms of fame or money or power, it is a very dangerous thing.

True leadership, the kind that results in the greater good, requires a level of selflessness and vision that most people simply don’t have. We forget the loneliness and sacrifice and great personal risk that George Washington and Abraham Lincoln endured during their times, and that the personal benefits they received for their sacrifices were minimal, if not non-existent. But that is what was—and is—required of any truly great leader, which explains why leadership is a rare trait in society, and always has been.

When people without selflessness become leaders, they often end up exploiting people and leaving them worse off. As long as they escape relatively unscathed, they feel that they have succeeded. And this is not limited to CEOs of big companies or members of Congress, though those cases are both more public and potentially harmful. It applies to small business owners, little league coaches, school principals, and mid-level managers as well.

Perhaps that’s why society has become so cynical about leaders, especially in the world of politics and, more recently, big business. People have come to expect—even accept—that their leaders are motivated by fame and fortune more than real service. Which is a shame because we are starting to get cynical as a society. As a result, the wrong people are being drawn into positions of leadership for all the wrong reasons.

So what is the solution? Like so many other aspects of life, it is both simple and difficult. First, we have to stop hiring, appointing and electing people who are ego-driven. That requires a level of discretion and vigilance on the part of CEOs, hiring managers, boards of directors, and yes, even voters. Of course, that means we also have to work hard to discern why a person is truly motivated to seek a position of leadership, and be wary of anyone who lacks humility, maturity and selflessness.

When it comes to elected office, this will require voters to pay close attention to the candidates who plea for their support. And if voters can’t find the time and energy to do that, then the wisest decision they could make would be to exercise restraint and stay home on election day.

look, i fully accept that we’re all sinful and stupid, and we do dumb things because of our fallen condition, but some folks seem to take this to all-time lows…

i discovered this a few days ago, and i just couldn’t really believe anyone would do it, especially anyone with any kind of profile… check out this crazy situation… it’s just beyond belief.

i have mixed reaction to this sort of thing. as i said, a big part of me goes, “well, that’s people… we’re sinners…”, but another part of me gets a little aggro because as a pastor this guy just made my job tougher as a leader in God’s church. jeepers! faking cancer!?!? you gotta be kidding me…

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;  the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.  Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” – George Bernard Shaw

I’m looking forward to my new Amazon delivery, which includes a book on narcissistic leadership and how that isn’t always a bad thing… should be interesting reading!

Every so often, here and elsewhere, I’ve been a part of discussions and disagreements about leadership and its significance, and recent experiences in my own life have confirmed to me the critical nature of leadership in just about every corporate endeavour I can think of. I’m not really a huge Maxwell fan (just comes across a bit too cheesy and “shrink-wrapped” for me, in some respects), but I think he’s attributed with saying that “everything rises and falls on leadership”.

If he said it, I’m 100% in agreement. You will have to go a very long way to prove to me otherwise. No-one has done it yet, and I just tend to think that people who want to argue otherwise are folks who have either had bad leadership experiences or they struggle with authority in general as a theme of their lives. Now, whether particular forms of leadership are good or healthy is another issue, but the critical nature of leadership is indisputable, in my view.

Every year a group of Senior Pastors from across our movement in Australia get together to work our way through a free form agenda of issues confronting us in our roles, to encourage one another, build relationships, and attempt to find ways to help each other practically.

Normally we meet somewhere over east for a couple of days. This year we’re being kindly hosted by South Perth Church of Christ (very generously too, I might add), and so far it’s been really good stuff. It’s been fantastic hearing the stories of where people are at, the issues that they’re working through, and the good stuff that is happening as well.

Sometimes, the very best antidote to a lot of the downsides of ministry leadership is to spend some authentic and real time with likeminded peers who know exactly what your world looks like, many have been where you are, and who have the capacity to lift you up in ways you need most. This is not a “rah-rah” sort of thing, and I have found the authenticity and honesty in this year’s conference really encouraging and inspiring.

Looking forward to the day ahead…

Wow… nothing like a nice slow return to life… NOT.

I’ve come back to a bunch of stuff happening, so it’s all go around here. I have a definite sense of God being in action here in Warnbro. Crisis and transitions ALWAYS present the opportunity for God to do something completely new and fresh, so I’m learning not to get too nervous about these sorts of things. Jesus calls us to a life of faith and trusting him, and I’m learning more and more what that’s about too.

I’m also pretty excited about where God has been leading me in terms of the preaching for the next stretch… really excited. I’m looking forward to it immensely, and I know that God is going to speak big time.

We’ve had some awesome stuff happening at Warnbro while I’ve been away, including several people giving their lives to Jesus! How cool is that?! I’m so encouraged when that sort of stuff happens…