Leadercast pt. 3: Sonya Richards-Ross

Sonya Richards-Ross is a 4 time Olympic gold medalist, 6 time World Champion, and at age of 28, is looking to compete in the olympics one last time.  Sonya knows what it takes to be a champion, and one of those qualities is FOCUS.  After a history of injuries, Sonya continues to come back and blow us away out on the track.  This is because she has found a way to stay focused in a world filled with distractions.

In the business world as on the track, we face distractions every day.  Issues that come up that aim to throw us off course.  Odds are that we aren't facing the same physical strains as an olympic athlete during our day-to-day, but the mental strain translates the same.  We live in a culture where we are never good enough.  To rest on one's success is to fall behind.  We are called to always be pushing the bar forward, and to keep driving our feet.  But what happens when we push too hard?  Have you ever seen a boy leaned into his father's palm, trying with all of his might to push his father backwards?  If you have, you have probably also seen this father step out of the way, sending his son stumbling forward to the ground.  We are that little boy.  We push and push until something gives, and we come crashing down to the floor known as failure.  This is not to say that failure is a bad thing necessarily.  As we all know, some of our greatest failures today, will lead to our greatest successes tomorrow.  But, what do we do after we fail?  We cannot allow our failure to bring us down, and surely not our team.  This goes double if you are in a leadership position.  As Sonya said it, "Don't let your personal failures, get in the way of team victories."

Lets use our same scenario again of the boy pushing against his father.  What if instead of moving aside, the father simply remained planted firmly in place?  Sooner or later the boy is going to get tired.  If you have ever run for an extended distance, you know what it means to "hit your wall".  This happens to most runners.  the "wall", is a point where a runner becomes both physically and mentally tired, and the thought of quitting the race becomes more and more appealing.  It is a distraction faced by every runner if they run far enough.  In our terms, maybe there is a problem that you are working on that you just can't seem to solve.  Or maybe there is a coworker who just won't cooperate.  Whatever your "wall" may be, it makes you want to throw in the towel more and more the longer it looms over you.  When this occurs, we have to choices.  Either give up, or push through to the finish.  If you have the focus to push through that wall, the race will get simpler.  Call it your second wind.  Once you finally get through that point of ultimate exhaustion, if you persevere and remain focused, everything will start to become much simpler again as you regain your stride.

One way to do this is to constantly be reminding yourself of your goals.  Why did you enter this race in the first place?  Keep a constant reminder of your goals, and stay focused on them.  Do not lose sight.  While you are at it, provide support and encouragement for your team as they strive to attain their goals.  Nothing takes the mind off of our own suffering better than shifting your focus to someone else.  In this way, you can build each other up, and push each other to the finish line.  Visualize your victory before it ever happens.  Plan on what it will feel like, look like, sound like to succeed before you ever begin the race, and make it happen.  If you can visualize the victory, it becomes much more probable to achieve it once the race begins.

Leadercast pt. 2: David Allen

David Allen, for those of you who don't know, is ranked in Forbes' top 5 of executive coaches in the US.  He works with individuals and companies all over the country, teaching them how to be more productive and successful in their business.  For a closer look at his company, you can find him at www.davidco.com

The main point that Allen wanted to make was, was that "Getting things done is not really about getting things done."  Just like last time, I have a few questions for you before I dive in to what this means.  These questions are based off of one overall umbrella question if you will.  That question is, How do you get appropriately engaged?  No I do not mean engaged like I was to my wife before we got married, but how do you get appropriately engaged in your work?  Now for the three questions.

1.)  What are you doing?

           2.)  Why are you doing it that way?

  3.)  How are you doing it?

First is the "what".  No matter what it is that you are doing, Allen says that it is important to have a good BALANCE, and to be in your ZONE.  Meaning, that you aren't taking on more than you can handle, but you aren't just sliding by either.

Second is the "why".  This is an important question meant to help you keep your focus on your goals.  Allen drew it up this way, and I will try to explain it as clearly as I can.  You will have to physically draw this out in order to get the picture, so go find a piece of paper and something to write with before you continue on reading...

Draw a standard graph, with an X and a Y axis.

Along the vertical side, write the word "perspective".

Along the horizontal side, write the word "control".

Place 4 points on this graph, one in each corner.

Now, the dot in the bottom left corner, where "perspective" and "control" meet, is going to be labeled "victim".  These are the people who feel like they have no control whatsoever, and also have a terrible lack of perspective on their life.  The dot directly above in the top left corner is going to be labeled "crazy maker".  These are the folks who have it all mapped out in their minds, but do nothing to put there ideas into action, therefore driving themselves crazy that nothing works the way they think it should.  Next we will do the bottom right corner.  This will be labeled "micro manager".  These are the ones who are going to make sure everything is done their way, at all costs.  Our last point, is going to be labeled "captain & commander".  This group has the right balance of control AND perspective.  They have a vision, and act on it, but then give control down to others who can then keep the vision moving forward.

The next question, is the "how".  How is it that you are engaging?  Are you being flexible?  Are you quick to adapt?

All that being said, the goal is to engage in your work effectively.  Don't get bogged down with with trying to make sure everything goes exactly according to plan, or just toss your ideas to the wind and hope that someone will catch one and run with it.  Be engaged.

Allen also wanted to demonstrate the importance of getting your thoughts and ideas out of your head and onto paper.  Ideas have a tendency to morph or fade away if left mulling around in the brain for too long.  When you have an idea worth pursuing, write it down, and then make outcome or action decisions for how to pursue the idea.  These are decisions that will move the bar forward.  I need ____ to happen, so I am going to do _____.  Then, step back every now and then to make sure that you can still see the whole game.  It is easy to put the blinders on and focus on the one area, but it is important to keep focused on the big picture.  Don't lose sight of your goals.

Leadercast pt. 1: Andy Stanley

A few months back, I was lucky enough to get to attend the Chick-Fil-A Leadercast seminar.  For those who are unfamiliar, this is an annual event held live in Atlanta, GA.  No I was not lucky enough to fly out there to see it live.  This event is also broadcasted to hundreds of locations all across the world.  There were many great speakers this year, and all had something different to offer in terms of how to be a leader.  So, I will be starting a series all focused on what they had to say and how I am applying it to my life.  For the sake of organization, each segment will be focused around one specific speaker.  I hope you enjoy reading along...

Andy Stanley is a pastor out at North Point Church in Atlanta.  According to his website, (www.andystanley.com) more than 33,000 people attend one of his churches each week!  In addition to these thriving churches, Stanley has also planted more than 30 churches throughout Atlanta's Metro area.  This man, is a leader if there ever was one.  Stanley began his speech by asking 3 simple questions; 

            1.) What are we doing?

              2.) Why are we doing it?

            3.) Where do I fit in?

Take a moment to think about these questions yourself as it relates to your leadership role.  This could be at work, at church, or at home.

Answering the first question, "What are we doing", should bring you clarity.  This should tell you exactly what your purpose is.This is important too, because if you don't know what it is that you are doing, you are going to have a very hard time doing it.  For me, There are 3 different answers depending on the role I am referring to.  At work, the "what" is being a light to my community through excellence in service, our community, and our team.  At home, the "what" is Leading my family in our walk with Christ.  At church, the "what" is serving the Lord faithfully, and bringing glory to His name.  Now put those three together, and you might summarize it this way, I am leading the people around me in a positive way to bring glory to God.  I want to be a positive leader to those under my leadership.  One phrase that Stanley said which stuck out to me, was this.  He said that "We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen."  I love that.  It says something about the way we should be holding ourselves, as well as the way we should be treating those who we serve.

The second question can be followed by another question.  "Why are we doing it?" and "What would happen if we weren't doing it?" I have had the unique pleasure of seeing a glimpse of what might happen if I stop doing what I am doing.   I went on a 1 week vacation with my wife to serve at our church's Jr. High summer camp, and I have never felt so popular.  My phone and email were going crazy!  Luckily, there were others available who were able to manage things and keep things running smoothly until I returned home.  PTL for them!  So why am I "being a light to my community", or "leading my family", or "serving the Lord"?    Because that is what I am called to do.  Take a moment to look up a few passages from the Bible.  The first, is Matthew 5: 14-16.  Next is Ephesians 5:23.  Finally, read 1 Peter 4:10-11.  God calls us to lead in this world, and it is our duty to obey him.  I have been blessed with many things, and so I give back by lending myself to the service of others.

"Where do I fit in?"  This is an interesting question, and not one you usually hear from a leader.  Like who wants to follow a leader who doesn't know where they fit in?  This is again though meant to help you find some clarity.  What is your unique contribution?  What is your core responsibility?  What is it that you do, that no one else does?  If you are having trouble answering any of these questions, here is an activity for you.  Take 5 minutes, and come up with your job description.  Seem too easy?  Now try summing up your job description into one sentence.  While your at it, have the rest of your team at work do the same.  It is an interesting challenge.  How to fit all of the things that you do into one single sentence.  It will cut out the fluff for sure!  If you can do it though, good for you.  Simplicity is a wonderful thing in this crazy fast-paced world of ours.  Another quote from Stanely says, "Growth creates complexity, which requires simplicity."  This means that as your company (for example) grows, things will undoubtedly become more complex.  If you have any hope of continuing that growth, you must bring simplicity to it.  You have to find a way to smooth out the jagged edges.  The more simple you can make it, the more likely people are to follow you and remain happy.

All Aboard!

It is always so encouraging for me to hear about the great things that God is doing in the lives of others.  Yes, I know that I am blessed beyond belief and for that I am grateful, but for me to hear how God is blessing someone else?  This brings me even greater joy.  This weekend at my church, I got a great opportunity to experience this.  As a part of our outreach theme for this month our church brought back three pastors who were sent out from our church to plant a new one somewhere else in the country.  Throughout the sermon, these three men shared with us some of their God at Work stories and they were nothing short of amazing.  It was great to hear just how God works things to fit into his perfect plan.  With that being said, I hope that this will be an encouragement to you as well readers.  I hope that my words are uplifting and encouraging for you as you read them today.

At what point did it become ok to be lazy?  To cut corners?  To take the easy way out?  I am finding more and more that this is the path that is taken with many if not most of my generation.  I don't know where it came from.  Our parents weren't this way, and our grandparents certainly weren't.  So why the change?  Why are we so quick to settle on the mediocre?

I had these thoughts in mind as I was working alongside several of my peers last night during closing time.  After yet another frustrating evening of what became a very late night, I summoned everyone together for a quick debriefing session.  What I came to find out was interesting.  They were very open with me in saying that they didn't have a lot of motivation to get out early at the end of the night.  This was clear, so I asked them what it would take to get them motivated.  There response to me was, well there was no response.  You see, they didn't even know.  Long story short, this brief chat about quicker closes turned into a discussion about putting forth your very best effort to honor God first, and their boss second.  While I am still looking for that perfect motivation for my team, I found it interesting that Dan Cathy of Chick-Fil-A was discussing this very same topic in his blog update titled "Sweep Well" just last Thursday.  In it, he quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he said "If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare composed poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."

What this is saying, is that no matter what task you have been given to do, you should look at it and approach it as if it were of utmost importance to you.  This is your task.  You own it.  You are to be held accountable for it. If that quote dosen't do anything for you, maybe this next one will hit home.  It comes from Colossians 3: 23-24

It says, "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ."

In other words, Whatever you do, do it for the glory of the Lord in Heaven who created you, and will judge you for your deeds.

I am not completely innocent either.  I can recall many occasions where I cut corners to get the job done more quickly, but in the end, I always knew that I hadn't given my all and that the final product could have been better.  If there was a way to give my entire team this thought process, I would do it.  To take ownership of yourself and your work, to treat our store like it it their store.  Something that they are personally responsible for. What a change we would see.  Imagine working with a group of people in which every one of them takes pride in the work they are doing.

It has to start with us though.  We cannot sit idly by waiting for someone else to start the revolution.  After all we only have control over one thing, and that is ourselves.  If we change the way we think about our work, and take pride in everything that we are doing, the odds are that this will catch on with the team.  Maybe not right away, but if they see you acting this way consistently  they won't be able to help themselves but to jump on board along with you.

All aboard!

In Christ

What's The Problem?

"What is the problem when the problem is no longer the problem?" This was the question asked by Dr. Emerson over and over again this weekend at the Love and Respect conference.  In other words, what he was asking, was when an argument becomes about more than just the petty issue which brought it about in the first place, what is that deeper issue?  This got me to thinking, when we have an employee who regardless of their training, the extra time and effort put into forming a positive co-worker connection with them, and despite daily reminders, cannot perform up to the level being asked of them, what is the real issue?

You see, it applies the same way as it does in a marriage.  This worker is holding on to some issue, and they feel as though they can't express what they are feeling, so it just festers and builds until someday, the negativity they have been storing up, rears its ugly face, and now we have a problem.

So why the frustration?  What was it that caused this worker who surely didn't come in the day they were hired with hostility towards you in their heart to suddenly blow a fuze?  Do you know?  Isn't it our place as leaders of our team to protect our people, and to grow them up in the business as well as in life?  It's easier just to look at them and bring down the hammer because they aren't performing, or because of their attitude.  But the easy way is not always the correct way is it?  We should be looking at this person, and asking why are they behaving this way?  What has brought this about?

As their leader, it is our responsibility to find out.  Find out what is going on in their lives, what are their interests, what are their goals and their dreams?  If we can't even make the effort to connect even a little bit with our team members, then how in the world can we expect them to desire to give us everything they've got for us?  To fight the battles every day for us and for our business?  Something has to change.  I suggest looking inward and deciding whether you are being the leader that they deserve.  Take a moment and think about a time when someone invested in you.  It dosen't even have to be a major life-changing event, but they may have just simply provided a word of encouragement or a comforting pat on the back.  And what happened?  Something inside of you lit up, and your fire was renewed.  Connect with your team, and show them that you want them to succeed and you are on their side fighting right along side of them.  They will respect you for it, and they will surely want to work harder for you in return.

Believe in your team.  You hired them for a reason.  There was some trait that they possessed that made you think that they were an asset to your business.  Don't lose sight of that.  They are good people who want to do good things for you.  There is an issue stopping them from doing that, and it would be best for both parties to find out what it is and how to fix it or at very least how to work through it.  Love on them, and they will love you in return.  After all, we are called first to love God, and second to love others as he loves us.  He has blessed us with our business, so we better make sure that we are doing everything we can to honor and glorify Him by being a good steward over it and our team.  Love on them and show them that they are so much more than just a worker, but a person that we care for, and would gladly fight for.

I pray that you don't ever face this issue readers, and that you have already discovered the great return that comes from investing in your team.  If that is you, than bravo!  For the rest of you, I hope that these words encourage you and challenge you.  I hope that you will take this to heart and consider the opportunities that could lay ahead for you.  God bless you all, and thank you for reading.

In Christ

Reflecting on Paul

Paul was one of the greatest writers in history.  In his letters to the churches in Corinth, he shows us how to light a fire underneath those in our care.  Now Paul established several churches, and made these letters a habit, making sure to connect with them and encourage them along the way.  If we look at how Paul opens in 1 Corinthians 1:4 - 9, we see that he is just showering the church with hope and with blessings.

I absolutely love this about Paul.  He finds ways to encourage the church and build them up to show how much he loves them before letting them have it.  A lesson can be taken from this.  We will all face times when a team member under our care needs a good talking to.  I have found that it is better to encourage them, as Paul did, to let them know how much you appreciate them, and how grateful you are to have them on your staff before addressing any issues that need to be fixed.  This will cut down the odds of that person feeling attacked, and increase the odds that they will feel appreciated and loved by you, their leader.

In this letter, Paul continues by warning them about divisions in the church, and how very dangerous of a path that they were heading down.  He then goes on to give a little of his own testimony from the time that he spent with Jesus.  Not just in prayer and worship, but physically WITH him.  Again, this man is a great role model to take after.  He got it!  He knew not only what they needed to hear, but how to tell them in a way that would build them up and encourage them to keep moving forward.

Brothers and sisters, we as leaders are held to a higher standard than most.  We have been blessed with the task of growing the businesses that God has entrusted to us, and with growing up our team in Him, and to equip them to do the same for others.  Instead of ripping into our team time and time again for not getting the bathrooms clean, or not being fast enough, or not this or that, lets just take a moment to realize that they are only capable of accomplishing to the level that WE have equipped them to.  If something isn't right, ask yourself why that might be.  What steps have been missed?  How can I help them get better?  We made them a part of ou team for a reason, and that reason was probably because we saw some great potential within them.  Lets give them the chance to reach that potential.

I hope that this is both encouraging and helpful to you.  Please feel free to investigate further into Paul's ministry for yourself.  You can find his work through most of the New Testament in the Bible. Don't own one?  Check this out...

http://www.biblegateway.com/

That is all for now.  God bless!

Year 1

So I got married this year.  People always say that the first year of marriage is the toughest.  If this holds true, than I am truly blessed by the Lord.  Yes, we both have hectic schedules and we don't see nearly as much of each other as we hope to, but the time that we do share is amazing!  I recently stepped into a role of management at the Chick-Fil-A in Davenport, IA.  As a natural born introvert, this has been a stretch for me at times.  Praise God that I was made with a changeable heart.  Now I have not mastered this skill of managing people by any means, but thanks to the support of my loving wife, and the rest of the leadership team at CFA, I feel like I am making great strides toward becoming successful with this position that God has blessed me with.  My hope for this blog in the future is two-fold.  First is to share the struggles and the triumphs that I face in learning to manage people in a way that both promotes a strong business  and creates a desirable place to work.  Second, is to share similarly about managing this crazy thing called life.  I hope to encourage you by sharing God's grace in my life and support you in sharing what are sure to be some similar phases of life.  I hope that I am successful in this.  For now, that is all.

God bless!