Story-telling comes naturally.

… It’s the long-winded tale you made up to explain to your mom how her antique vase mysteriously crashed and broke into 1000 pieces.

… It’s the hours I played outside with my Tonka trunks and Barbies creating the stories of lives interwoven.

… It’s the hours that you and your friends played Star Wars and elaborated on elements of a story that you knew so well.

… It’s the scribbles of a novel that I started as an 8 year old when I was convinced I was going to be an author.

Story comes naturally.

And yet oftentimes we lose our affinity for telling a story as we grow up lost in the details of simply living our story.

As church communicators we have to embrace the power of telling the story.  We get the privilege of communicating “the greatest story ever told”.  Have you really thought about that?  Do you understand the weight and responsibility… and privilege you’ve been entrusted with?

That’s powerful!

And that’s why I’m so excited about STORY…

Founded by one of the most brilliant creative minds I know, I know that Story will be an experience that will push you to dream, to think and to pursue the power of story!

STORY
Sept 23-24
Chicago, IL

STORY is a conference for the creative class in ministry on September 23-24, 2010 at Park Community Church in downtown Chicago. The purpose is to fuel the church’s artists, writers and producers in communicating the greatest story ever told. You’ll hear from some of the best creative practitioners in both ministry and the marketplace, from filmmakers and authors to actors and musicians.

REGISTER HERE!

And just for some Friday Fun… What was the best story that you made up as a kid?

Trust is one of life’s greatest commodities. My friend’s 10 week old baby girl already knows to trust the sound of her mother’s voice and the safety of her daddy’s arms.

Earning trust and extending trust become a natural part of our life rhythm.

The same is true in our leadership.  Trust is foundational to our leadership relationships.

While there is much that can be said about earning the trust of those you lead, I want to focus for a minute on earning the trust of those that lead you.  Oftentimes I believe we overlook the importance of earning the trust of the person who is empowering your leadership.

To earn leadership trust, I believe you need to display these three things well:

1. Accountability
2. Communication
3. Consistency

Accountability

Leadership is a big responsibility and contrary to what many new leaders assume, it doesn’t come with autonomy.  In fact, I believe leadership requires greater accountability.  As a leader you have to determine who you are accountable to and then find out what accountability means to them.  For some that may mean checking in daily, for others it may mean weekly.  Know their expectation and then live up to it.

Communication

Learn what your leader values and then make sure he/she knows about it.  I suggest you over-communicate first and then get feedback from them on what they really want to know.  The more you are looping them in, the more confident they’ll feel about your leadership and the more quickly you’ll earn their trust.  I’ll add one caution though: communication doesn’t mean popping into their office repeatedly throughout the day.  Respect their time and their schedule and work within that.  The most important thing you can do each week is come prepared with a thorough update for your weekly meeting time (assuming you have one).  Never come unprepared to a meeting with your boss – NEVER!  Unpreparedness erodes trust.

Consistency

Be consistent.  Consistently do what you say you’ll do.  Consistently deliver on what is asked of you… and in the time frame it was requested.  Unpredictability erodes trust. If you can’t be counted on, you can’t be trusted.

Having the complete trust of your leader is an amazing gift, but don’t expect it.  Earn it!

Do you agree?  What would you add to the list?

If you are in the second chair, you have not been called to a place of comfort; you have been called to a place of leadership.“

This quote is from one of my all-time favorite books entitled Leading from the Second Chair: Serving Your Church, Fulfilling Your Role, and Realizing Your Dreams (Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Series) by Mike Bonem and Roger Patterson.

Leading at any level is difficult, but being a second chair leader – that leader that isn’t the CEO, Pastor, President, etc, but is the next tier of leadership directly serving these types of first chairs – has it’s own unique set of challenges. In my opinion, most second chair leaders have to balance many of the challenges of strategic planning, future development and business administration details with an awareness and intentionality to relationally leading the staff on a daily basis. The Second Chair is the leader that the team needs feedback, encouragement and direction from on a daily basis.

But, the see-saw of going back and forth from business to staff relations can make any good leader a little dizzy and unfocused.

Because I’m wired to be “task first”, I have to be very intentional to see-saw over to the relational side. The heaviness of the business, management and develop stuff can easily keep me grounded on that side if I let it. Remember when the big kid would get on the see-saw and keep you dangling in the air? Yep, that’s me. I’m the big kid on the business side holding down the see-saw while my staff are dangling in the air on the relational side dieing for a chance to come back down.

Odds are we all lean to one side or the other. Most of us are wired to be “task” or “people” first. Striking a balance between the two and having the discernment to know when to lean into one or the other, is a leadership skill that is developed over time.

Since I lean to the “task” side, I have created a few questions that help me know when and how to see-saw back to relationship.

My relationship questions:

• What does the team need from me today? Encouragement? Direction? A listening ear? Practical help?
• What tasks do I have and how can I take care of them so that I’m energized and able to focus on the team?

If you are naturally a relationship person who needs help see-sawing over to the task side more consistently, here are a few questions you might ask yourself:

• What is one thing I can do today that will help better prepare our organization and staff for the future?
• What is the best time and place for me to work on my leadership tasks and how can I adjust my schedule to create intentional time to work on these priorities?

Here’s the deal, the see-saw will never be perfectly balanced. Remember how hard you tried to scoot up or scoot back on the see-saw to balance the weight so both you and your friend would be floating in mid-air? A lot of work for short reward.

Embrace the see-saw… just remember to not get stuck on one side or the other!

How about you? Which side of the leadership see-saw do you have the potential to get stuck on? Task or Relationship?

You’ve been the leader of the country for a full year.

The honeymoon has worn off and the real work of leadership has begun.

Your approval ratings are mediocre.

We’ve come through one of the most difficult years for our country economically.

People are not very confident and not very trusting.

You’re the leader.  What do you say tonight?

What’s your brand?

In my former job I spent the majority of my time developing brand identities for artists.  I worked hard to determine the unique characteristics of the individual musician/band/singer and then figured out how to market that to set them apart from the rest of their competitors.  It was a fascinating, sometimes frustrating and yet, a very rewarding experience… especially when I felt like I captured the heart of the individual and got to share that with the world.

As much as the word “branding” sounds all-business, cold and impersonal, I really believe in the power of a brand.  More importantly I believe in the power of understanding your unique brand.

My personal definition of branding is: authentically being who you are and portraying that consistently.

Each one of us has been uniquely gifted by God with certain strengths, talents, gifts, passions, etc.  And this unique combination makes up your personal brand.

I believe there is great power in understanding who you are and who God has uniquely made you to be.  Some of us have learned this well.  Others of us have allowed life/people/circumstances to shadow our innate interests and desires… sometimes to such a degree that it takes years for us to dig up what’s been buried so deep.

So, who are you?

What makes you uniquely you?

How would others describe you?

Better yet, how would you describe the real you?

What’s your brand and are you living it with passion?

If these questions stump you, frustrate you or paralyze you, I would challenge you to go on a journey to understand who God has created you to be.  Here are a few things I would recommend to get you started:

1. Take a spiritual gifts assessment. This is a great tool to begin to help you unpack spiritual gifts as they are outlined in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, Ephesians 4.  Here are a couple of free online tests: Church Growth.org and First Baptist Huntsville
2. Understand your strengths. Read Now, Discover Your Strengths or Strengths Finder 2.0 and take the Strengths Finder assessment.
3. Develop a relationship with a mentor who can provide candid feedback, offer encouragement and coach you in your growth.
4. Journal your thoughts and feelings… especially the moments where you feel alive and thriving.
5. Pray for God to give you clarity, insight and passion for the purpose He has for your life.

One of my favorite passages of scripture is in Galatians 6 from The Message:

Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that.  Don’t be impressed with yourself.  Don’t compare yourself with others.  Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

Be uniquely you!!

Are you ready to get started?

We all like feedback.  Even when we fear it’s not good.  We generally want to know where we stand.

I’m sure it’s no surprise that I was a studious kid.  I wanted to achieve the best I possibly could, so as the teacher passed out graded assignments I eagerly awaited that circled letter at the top of my paper.

That part of me that longs for approval hasn’t changed much.  I want to know how I’m doing.  I want to know if I’m measuring up.

As I leader, I believe I have a responsibility to give our staff “a grade”.  No, not an A, B or C grade.  Frankly a grade is really the easy way out.  A grade represents feedback and feedback is all about communication.

I firmly believe that one of the most critical components to being an effective staff leader is creating communication with your team.

And while I believe this is critical to my success as a leader, it doesn’t mean that I naturally do it well.  Oftentimes I find that in my haste and busyness I haven’t given the clear direction that  I think I have and I certainly don’t rush into conversations where I need to give construction criticism.

But whether I always like it or not, I’m not helping myself, our staff, or our organization if I’m not committed to providing our team these two key things:

1. Clear direction
2. Candid feedback

Most organizations have a system, or at least a form, for performance reviews.  I’ve seen all kinds of different reviews.  I’ve been graded, dictated, manipulated and persuaded in performance reviews.  I’ve worked in organizations that had no written plans at all and then I’ve been in organizations where the system was so formalized and structured it didn’t allow for relationship or conversation of any kind.

While I by no means think that our system at Cross Point is perfect.  I do believe that we’ve created a process that encourages conversation - and conversation is the key word.  Without conversation, performance plans become  rigid, passionless rules that lack motivation and buy-in from your team. Creating conversation is critical to a successful performance plan system.

Here’s a quick step-by-step guide to our performance plan process at Cross Point:

Step 1: The manager writes a vision for the employee for the upcoming year.  The manager shares what he sees as the employees strengths and shares how he feels the employee can uniquely contribute this upcoming year.  This is a motivation piece that doesn’t include “needs improvement” statements or a list of expectations.  While this is a written piece, it is communicated in a one-on-one meeting and is used to generate a conversation about what the employee’s key objectives could be for the next year.  This should be a brainstorming/dreaming session between manager and employee.

Step2: The employee writes a first draft of 5-8 performance objectives and 2-3 development objectives. Performance Objectives are specific, job-related objectives or key accomplishments that represent the most critical things the employee can contribute to the organization in the upcoming year.  Development Objectives are specific, personal goals for the employee.  These are goals that are connected to their job but have more to do with their personal growth and development; ie. leadership skills, technical training, communication skills, etc.

Step 3: The manager reviews the objectives the employee has written measuring them against key criteria:

• Do these goals meet the SMART criteria – Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Results-driven, Time-sensitive.  Basically, will you be able to clearly state whether the objective has been met or not at the end of the year?
• Do these goals align with our overall goals and direction as an organization and a ministry department for the upcoming year?
• Do we have the budget to support these goals?
• Can I as their manager adequately help them achieve these goals?

Step 4: The manager and employee meet back together to discuss and finalize the performance plan.

Step 5: The employee begins working the plan

Step 6: Every 3 months the manager instigates a meeting with the employee to discuss progress.  At the manager’s discretion adjustments can be made in the plan in the event that circumstances indicate a change in direction or timing.

Step 7: At the end of the performance plan year, the employee and the manager each individually write a summary of each objective.  Then they meet together to compare notes, discuss any discrepancies and wrap-up the plan for that year.

This system is by no means perfect, but it does create the conversations that are so critical to providing clear direction and candid feedback.

Remember, leadership is rarely black & white.  It’s not as easy as scribbling an “A” or “F”.  Leading through “the grey” in performance assessments requires the tough work of communication, but I promise you it’s worth it!

How about you?  What systems or processes does your team have for effective performance reviews?

I’m a huge student of great companies and great leaders.

(I know that comes as a huge shock to those of you who visit here frequently )

Today our staff headed down to Financial Peace Plaza in Franklin to see what Dave Ramsey and The Lampo Group are up to.  Rated one of the best places to work in Middle Tennessee, I wanted to see how this organization stacked up to my experience at Zappos a couple of weeks ago.  I was equally impressed with The Lampo Group.  While not the outrageous experience of Zappos, the environment created by Dave Ramsey and his team made it obvious to me why landing a job at this organization is such a big deal.

What I observed:

• Sleek, neat, professional environment in EVERY area of the building
• Fierce loyalty to vision
• Constant celebration of milestones and successes (both for the organization and the people they serve)
• Relentless pursuit of excellence and growth
• A balance of confidence and humility
• Consistent recognition of God’s favor

These two quotes/formulas were displayed on their walls and give a great glimpse into the values of their culture:

“Focused intensity over time multiplied by God’s power creates an unstoppable momentum.”

“Momentum plus unity with the power of God creates waves over obstacles equaling emergence.”

As we wrapped up our tour, our entire staff was invited to pray with Dave before he began his afternoon radio show.  We circled up in the hallway and prayed together before he stepped into the studio.  What an honor!  I was amazingly moved by the power and influence this man has in our culture and how he is unashamedly pointing to this faith and the power of the Gospel.  So impressive!

What leader or organization has most inspired you recently?

It’s been a little while since I’ve done a book review.  Not because I haven’t been reading.  Just because nothing has wowed me enough to tell you about it.

Well, the drought is over.

I finally finished Jim Collins new book “How the Mighty Fall” and LOVED IT!

There’s no question I’m a Jim Collins fan.  I believe “Good to Great” is the defining business book of our generation.  “Right seat on the bus”, “hedgehog”, “flywheel”… all terms that have become part of our universal vocabulary as leaders.  But honestly I wasn’t sure what to expect from “How the Mighty Fall”.  I was definitely intrigued by the concept but frankly wondered if Jim had a another great book in him.

What I love about this book is that Jim wrestles with a fear that leaders of any organization wrestle with “what if we fail?”  As a church leader, I can’t help but watch the dying churches all over America and wonder “how did they get there?” No church sets out to reach hundreds of people, have a thriving, growing ministry and then one day find themselves rapidly declining and struggling to pay the bills.

Let me clarify.  There are differences between businesses and churches and I’m not suggesting that “How the Mighty Fall” is the antidote for struggling churches.  What I am saying is that reading Jim’s observations and analysis of businesses that have fallen provides a framework from which to ask questions and seek direction.  In fact, one of the chapters of the book could have easily been called “pride goes before destruction” (Proverbs 16:18).  It wasn’t difficult to find some Biblical themes running through this one in regard to the lack of character, integrity and wisdom of the leaders of companies that had fallen.

Here are a few quotes from the book that got me thinking:

“Every institution is vulnerable, no matter how great.  No matter how much you’ve achieved, no matter how far you’ve gone, no matter how much power you’ve garnered, you are vulnerable to decline.”

“While no leader can single-handedly build an enduring great company, the wrong leader vested with power can almost single-handedly bring a company down.”

“The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change.  The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconsistency.”

“When you abandon hope, you should begin preparing for the end.”

Have you read the book?  What would you add?

One of the things I was most excited to do when I went to Las Vegas was to tour Zappos.  This company impresses me with their customer service and staff culture.  I’m always inspired by companies that “get it” and Zappos does that… and then some.

Friendly, welcoming faces. Popcorn. Free library. Christmas trees of shoes. Obnoxiously decorated cubicles. Free lunch. Bowling. Nap room. Culture book. Customer stories. Monkey Row. Themed conference rooms. Hoola hoop contests. And much, much more.

Named one of the top 100 companies to work for by Fortune Magazine, Zappos has an infectious energy that you can’t deny.

“We believe that a company’s culture and a company’s brand are really just two sides of the same coin,” said Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh. “If you get the culture right, then most of the other stuff will happen naturally on its own, including delivering great customer service and building an enduring brand.”

Tony and his team have created a remarkable environment that clearly reflects their core values.

Zappos Core Values:

1. Deliver WOW Through Service
2. Embrace and Drive Change
3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
5. Pursue Growth and Learning
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8. Do More With Less
9. Be Passionate and Determined
10. Be Humble

Here’s a video I found on YouTube that gives you a tour similiar to the one we took.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Truly remarkable.

Best of all they made me queen for the day!

What do you think makes a company or organization remarkable?

I’ve found that different seasons of leadership bring different areas of focus for me.  Recently I’ve found myself constantly evaluating the effectiveness of my communication and that of our team.

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing some thoughts with our staff about our communication challenges and ways to improve the effectiveness of our communication.  I’ll share those notes here on the blog soon.

In the meantime, here’s a video that I shot about effective communication for multi-site leaders for “Leading Multi-site“.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I list clarity and candor as two important elements to effective multi-site communication.

What would you add?