The single most important thing to remember about any enterprise is that there are no results inside its walls. The result of a business is a satisfied customer. Peter Drucker
Outside the Walls of the Church Building
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Making a Change at Church: Eight (not so) Simple Steps
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In a previous post I quoted John Maxell who observed that older and “insecure leaders view change as a threat rather than an opportunity. ” But what if you have to change. Many small churches are facing declining membership because their traditions have not changed in decades. The prevailing belief is worship traditions are Biblical and any deviation must certainly be a sin. Even...
Change: Threat or Opportunity?
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Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck asserted, ‘It is the nature of man as he grows older to protect against change, particularly change for the better.’ By its very nature, empowerment brings constant change in that it encourages people to grow and innovate. Change is the price of progress. Insecure leaders view change as a threat rather than an opportunity. – John Maxwell
Leading from the Outside
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Unless you are prepared to see things differently and go against the current, you are unlikely to accomplish anything truly important. And to go against the current, you have to be something of an outsider, living on the edge, a member of a small but vibrant counterculture. You must free yourself from habitual ways of looking at things, cultivate an independent and questioning perspective, and...
Management Since 1800
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I’m a proponent of leadership over management as the primary course of study to improve one’s ability to influence people. Management, however, seems to have reigned as a subject in books since the 1800s. The google Ngram below charts the usage of the keywords “manager,” “leader,” “management”, and “leadership” in books since 1800. I...
Humility, the Basic Leadership Virtue
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Benedict believed the basic leadership virtue was humility. Leaders had to demonstrate competence and ambition, but their passion was to derive from a desire to improve and contribute to the health of the organization, not from individual ego. He believed that true humility was a skill one had to learn and practice. John Mount, in a Forbes.com review of the book The Benedictine Rule of...
Greenleaf on Servant Leadership
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The great leader is seen as the servant first. – Robert K. Greenleaf
Kotter: Great Leaders Have Emotional Impact
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Great leaders tell stories that create pictures in our minds and have emotional impact. Martin Luther King Jr., had a dream, not a strategy or a goal, and he showed us his dream, his picture of the future. People change when they see something visual (the vision) that touches their feelings, challenges their thinking, and incites actions. People may realize the need for change, but not do...
Leadership Lessons From A Janitor
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The following leadership lesson was circulated around our organization today. I’ve read this before, was inspired, and moved on to the popular leadership theories and acronyms of more “modern” leader training. But this is a story that deserves to be revisited often, it teaches lessons lacking in today’s leaders. In an article published in the Warton Leadership...
Bible Class: The Blessings of Christ Part 2
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Before you begin this study read Matthew 18:21-35 Servants who have approached the master with a poor spirit, acknowledging how broken and unrighteous we are without him and mourning over the sins we have committed, will have the master bring them into his kingdom and comfort us. Only in this state can we with meekness bring our power under his control and crave the righteousness which he has...