5 Aspects to Grow in Leadership

High risk leadership beckons many, but few accept the call.-Gene Kranz

In his book “Failure is Not an Option,” Gene Kranz details his involvement and instrumentation of NASA. He was the flight director who led the teams to get the stranded astronauts of Apollo 13 safely back home. Leadership opportunity is all around us. Will you be ready to answer when the call comes? In the following few articles, I will review the book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” by John Maxwell to help us all know and grow in our leadership. The world needs Christians to rise in leadership; if not, the world will be happy to fill our shoes.

The Law of the Lid

Put quite simply, your organization, business, team, ministry, and family will never grow past the lid of your leadership ability. Everyone can be a leader, but you will only grow to the lid you have placed on your leadership.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.-James 4:10

The Law of Influence

If you aren’t influencing anyone, then you are not a leader. Leadership is defined by people following you and their lives impacted by your leadership. I think of the millions of people who were influenced by the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His words and actions inspired people to make a significant change. Thomas Jefferson and the Founding Fathers inspired and led the nation through the Revolutionary War and forged a new nation.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” —John Quincy Adams

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.-1 Timothy 4:12

The Law of Process

Leaders learn, develop, and grow over time. No one is born a leader. Many people have leadership skills but may never develop or destructively develop them. Leadership is a process that encourages development, matures people, is a cultural issue, changes people, and is challenging but worth it. The success of any great athletes, Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, and Albert Pujols, didn’t come because they were great in a moment or a big game, but because they put in thousands of hours of practice before their time to shine came.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.-Galatians 6:9

The Law of Navigation

A good navigator sees the road ahead and prepares for it. Navigators don’t let emotion cloud their judgment; they draw on experience, know the difference between fact and faith, and are ready to apply it.

Commercial climber Rob Hall died because of a violation of the law of navigation. Rob would successfully lead most of his team to the summit of Mt. Everest within the safe time zone. Upon returning descent, he encounters one of his members, who had been resting due to sickness and blurred vision. This climber persuades Rob against Rob’s better judgment and leads him to the summit. Rob surrenders to this man’s dominating will and leads him up the mountain just before a deadly storm blows in. Due to Rob breaking the law of navigation, he loses his life on the mountain, and the other climber nearly loses his.

Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.-Psalm 119:105 NLT

The Law of Addition

To put it simply, this is the process of serving others. A good leader learns to serve his team. A good leader adds value to his team and builds others up. If you want to be a boss, learn to bark orders well and carry yourself with importance. If you want to be a leader, remember to add value and serve your team, ministry, organization, or family.

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”-Matthew 20:25-28 ESV

““The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.”
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— ― Ronald Reagan

Thought Leadership: Two More Steps to Influence

These last two blog post have been all about thought leadership. As Christians we need to be prepared, positioned and poised to be thought leaders in our generation. If we are not influencers the world will fill the void as we have seen time and time again. Jesus was a thought leader and influencer; He upset the established order and created a revolution in just three years. This blog post continues the steps that we started last week to help us become thought leaders and influencers in our time.

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds;-Ephesians 4:22-23

Begin to Organize and frame your Thoughts

“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.”—A. A. Milne

Good organization is a  mixture of strategy, roles, relationships, and coordination which is essential to collective performance. This is true of all organizations. Organization is the bringing together of the previous thought ideas into coherent action plans and strategy. Strategy comes from a Greek word that originally referred to the art of military leaders. Strategy has been defined in many ways. Five lessons in strategy.

• Plan: a conscious and intentional course of action.

• Perspective: an organization's way of framing where it wants to go and how it intends to get there.

• Pattern: a consistent form of decisions.

• Position: the way an organization positions itself in relationship to its environment.

• Ploy: a plan or decision whose purpose is to provoke a reaction from competitors.”

When organizing thought, and deciding on strategy here are some questions to ask:

• What is our mission?

• What actions are required?

• Who should do what?

• Who is in charge?

• How should we make decisions?

• How do we coordinate efforts?

• What do individual members care about most: time, quality, participation?

• What are the special skills and talents of each group member?

• How does this group relate to others?

• How will we determine success?

• How will we deal with failure?

Like an animal's skeleton or a building's framework, structure both enhances and constrains what an organization can do. Structure provides the architecture for pursuing goals. It is a blueprint for expectations and exchanges among internal players (executives, managers, employees) and external constituencies (such as customers, competitors, regulators, and clients).

Creating Successful Teamwork

9 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: 10 If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. 11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? 12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.-Ephesians 4:9-10

The New England Patriots in American Football have won the Super Bowl 6 out of 8 years that they went. They have implemented these team building ideas. They are known for having very few “Super stars” or big name talents on their team. Their leader Tom Brady is not known for superior displays of athleticism he is known for his short but timely passes and management of the time and talent around him.

1. Respect the Culture. This culture has been crafted through the questions and work from the previous statements. Your team you are building but be able to fit the culture, be able to be coached to fit the culture or not join the culture.

• Know your foundational core

• Define a clear culture and ensure that everyone knows what is expected from them and the role they play to strengthen the culture.

• Identify behavioral patterns and anticipate long-term impact that may disrupt the culture, and make decisions accordingly

• Winning is about sustained excellence, not trying to force mediocrity to be great

2. Know your teammates capabilities. Leaders perceive themselves differently than how their employees perceive them.  These misaligned perceptions cause tension and turmoil and lead to untrustworthy relationships and a lack of productivity.

• Know your people intimately, beyond job titles. Know them as individuals.

• Talent should be constantly evaluated as marketplace demands change and competitors evolve

Tom Brady Ready to Go

Conclusion:

If you say your a leader but no one is following then your just strolling through the park. A leader must be a influencer of people. To do that you must be an influencer of thought.

I shared with you today 5 processes to be a thought leader.

1. Create and define your “What If” future.

2. Identify helpful or hurtful trends.

3. Frame or reframe thought

4. Begin to Organize and Frame your Thoughts

5. Create Successful Teamwork

Citations:

1. Bolman, L., & Deal, T. (n.d.). Reframing Organizations

2. Clinton, R., ( ) The Making of a Leader

3. Brosseau, D., & Kawasaki, G. (2014). Ready to Be a Thought Leader?: How to Increase Your Influence, Impact, and Success (1st ed.). Jossey-Bass.

4. Ministries, L. (2022, June 29). Leadership Lessons from Thomas Jefferson. Leadership Ministries. https://leadmin.org/articles/leadership-lessons-from-thomas-jefferson

1. P. (2021, May 11). Churchill: Leader and Statesman. International Churchill Society. https://winstonchurchill.org/the-life-of-churchill/life/churchill-leader-and-statesman/

3 Steps to Thought Leadership

Thought Leadership

Leaders attract followers in order to pursue shared interests. If you claim to be a leader but no one is following; you are just taking a stroll through the park. One of the goals of leadership is to attract followers.

The key to that is to influence thought.

Today I want to share with you some thoughts on how to influence thought and in doing so attract followers and ultimately influence others. If you can’t influence others are you really a leader?

Leadership is a lifelong process. There is no one set time of arrival. No good leader would say, “I arrived at optimal leadership at such and such day”. It is a continuous stream of adjustments, learning and framing thoughts and surroundings. Leadership is a lifetime of lessons. It is not a set of do-it-yourself correspondence courses that can be worked through in a few months or years. - Robert Clinton: The Making of a Leader. Let’s unpack some ideas on what it is to influence others.

Thomas Jefferson. Influencer.

  “Jefferson had a remarkable capacity to marshal ideas and to move men, to balance the inspirational and the pragmatic,” writes biographer Jon Meacham.

Jefferson preferring to befriend and reason with others instead of fighting and arguing with them. Jefferson transformed what would have been a mere political documents into a proclamation of America’s ideals. 

Thomas Jefferson

Winston Churchill. Influencer.

Historians say Churchill was an effective leader because of his ability to inspire people; his unique strategic insight; his passion; and his strong personality. He had the capability of inspiring people, even in the middle of one of the darkest times of human history. 

Thought Leadership Process

1. Create and Define your “What If” future.

As a future leader and influencer of people in family, business, economics or other; you need to start by creating the outlines or frames of your “What if” future. The goal of this is to become the go-to person in your particular niche. You may not have all the credentials or knowledge yet to be a thought leader but through this process you'll attain credentials and expertise by the actions you take to bring about that future. Your “What if” future should be exciting and energizing and inspires both you and other potential followers.

• “What future am I committed to making happen in this arena?

• What future do I stand for? What will I work to change or remove?

• What must I work to prevent from happening? What must no longer be allowed to happen?

• What “way it's always been done” is no longer the way it should be done?

• What do people not know yet that they must be informed about?

• What amazing transformation has already occurred that I know about and that needs to be shared more broadly?

• What legacy do I want to leave?”

2. Identify Trends

Trends are the larger conversations, the big ideas, the popular things happening being talked about right now. How might current trends benefit or hinder you? If you know the current trends, you can inspire others to think in new ways, and beyond these boundaries.

• What economic trends may help or hinder me?

• What local, regional, national, and global political trends might impact me?

• What are the technological trends? What technology advancements will be needed to bring about my ‘What If Future’?

• What client, customer, vendor, market, and industry trends will impact my ‘What If Future’?

What trends can you buck? Meaning what trends can you ignore, or not pay attention to? Bucking the tend may help people question the status quo and view things in a new light. To make a difference you need to find new ways of approaching the problems or opportunities ahead. You'll have to push out of your normal boundaries and explore many different paths; inspire in yourself and others divergent paths of thinking.

Reframe your thought

3. Frame or Reframe Thought

A frame is a mental model—a set of ideas and assumptions—that you carry in your head to help you understand and negotiate a particular “territory.” A frame is a way of thinking about a situation.-Reframing Organizations, Lee G. Bolman & Terrence E. Deal

Frames define the questions we ask and solutions we consider.

In The Art of War, Sun Tzu: “Many options bring victory, few options bring defeat, no options at all spell disaster”.

Think like this to start reframing your situation to get a new perspective.

“What is the sum of 5 plus 5?” The only right answer is “10.”

“What two numbers add up to ten?” Many more options right?

“If I had a problem to solve and my whole life depended on the solution, I would spend the first fifty‐five minutes determining the question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in five minutes”-Albert Einstein

Asking the right question helps to break frames.

“There is nothing so confining as the prisons of our own perceptions”-William Shakespeare

Five Steps to Help you Create a Vision

Sunset in Beijing

If you don’t have a vision for your life or your business, begin to do these things to help you create and cast a vision. Vision doesn’t come from the outside in. It comes from the inside out. Vision is a stem of what is important to you.

1. Meditate. Think about the values that are important to you. What values do you want to be known for? If you know how to worry, you know how to meditate. Think of such things that are pure, lovely, or that make you happy, that are different than others, of good report, that inspire you and others. How can you be of service to others?

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.-Philippians 4:8

Allow all thoughts to come first. Don’t hold back. But then start to cast off the things that are too out there.

The empires of the future are empires of the mind-Winston Churchill.

2. Write those core values that keep resurfacing, that keep coming to the top of your mind. Let the Holy Spirit draw out the gold in the depth of your heart. These are the values that are truly important to you. Reflective Questions: Ask yourself the following foundational questions for your business or even for your life; to have better insight in writing your vision statement. This can be during your meditative stage or your dialogue point.

• What is your organization’s purpose? Why are you here?

• What are your core values? Remember no more than 3 core values. Others can stem from these, but there should be no more than 3 core values.

• Why are your products/services important? Why do people need them? Want them?

• As a company, how do you want to make a difference in the world? Why do you matter?

• What is our vision for our company culture?

• What impact do we want our company to have on the world?

• ( https://leadershipstack.com/blog/how-to-write-vision-statement/ )

3. Dialogue with close friends, family, mentors, and advisors about the direction of these core concepts. Don’t surround yourself or talk with “yes-men” who will go along with whatever you say. Make sure you are meeting and dialoguing with true Godly mentors who will share with you what you need to hear and not what you want to hear. These people can and should influence your vision. Eventually, you will want to talk with stakeholders, investors, and other top-tier leaders; so dialoging with these close mentors first will prepare you for speaking with these important investors.

The other thing dialoguing does is when you begin to speak it out loud. When you hear yourself say it, it will become more real to you. Your life flows from the belief you have in your heart and that belief will blossom when you speak it out.

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.-Proverbs 4:3

“You have to be able to articulate your priorities very effectively... over and over and over again.” -Bob Iger, Disney CEO

4. Focus. Narrow down your values and concepts to three core, or pillar values that will build your company vision. Any more than three and your vision becomes saggy and bloated or it will go into too many directions. Focus, will keep your vision clear and uninhibited.

5. Act. You won’t know your true self until you are forced or force yourself to act on your principles or your vision. What will or do you truly believe in? If you won’t act on it then do you truly have a vision for it? Do you truly believe in it?

“Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.”
― Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson writing the Declaration of Independence

Helen Keller was both death and blind. She could have been a victim but she worked tirelessly to make something of herself. She achieved her BA degree and went on to author 12 books, and worked for the American Foundation for the blind. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Legion of Honor award. Though she was blind and death, she had great vision.

“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision”-Helen Keller.