In the book “Rare Leadership in the Workplace,” authors Marcus Warner and Jim Wilder contend that maturity is the core leadership quality. They define maturity as a “collection of skills and habits we develop over time.” When thrust into leadership, our past skills of self-management are important, but incomplete. For now, we are charged with leading others as well. Relationships ...
Do you remember the 1989 movie, “Dead Poet’s Society”? Portraying an English teacher, Robin Williams teaches his students the Latin phrase, “Carpe Diem.” It simply means to seize the day or make the most of the present time. As Biblically principled leaders, it is imperative that we Carpe Diem, but do so with God’s will for the future in mind. ...
One not so positive thing I’ve learned about myself as a leader is that I sometimes procrastinate on the things I don’t want to do. One of those procrastinations involves having difficult conversations with staff. Can you relate? Mark Twain said, “If you ever have to eat a live frog, it’s best done first thing in the morning.” If you ...
Wikipedia defines leadership as “the art of motivating a group of people to act toward achieving a common goal.” Usually that goal is surrounded in selfish gains like success, power and the love of money. Christian leadership is defined as “the act of influencing and or serving others out of Christ’s interests in their lives, so they can accomplish God’s purposes for and ...
As business leaders navigate bringing their people back to the office, it may be hard for businesses to develop a one-size-fits-all policy for remote vs office work. My friend, Paul, collaborates with an architect firm. Paul said, “Many businesses can work remotely, but these architects are collaborating on designing a building. Remote work has been disastrous for them.” Another friend ...
In reading “The Moralist,” a Woodrow Wilson biography, I observed the futility of bluffing. Early during World War I, Germany’s submarines sunk multiple British ships with many Americans on board. President Wilson sent Germany letters and threatened them publicly, but the Germans believed, correctly, Wilson’s words were just a bluff. The Germans became so brazen that they eventually sank nine ...
The theory behind balancing a bank account seemed straightforward in college. But during my first auditing engagement, I worked two weeks trying to reconcile a payroll account. In theory it seemed easy, but with inadequate information it became impossible. When I told the audit partner, we were out of balance $900,000, he said, “Write off the difference. $900,000 is immaterial ...
After Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus’ disciples were confused by His death. Their hope for Jesus was that he would redeem Israel at that time. Although these disciples had spent time with Jesus for up to three years and were likely well trained in Scripture, they were confused by the death of Jesus. Jesus, however, joined them on the road and began ...
In 2000, at a Billy Graham Conference on Evangelism, God divinely hand-picked the ministry leaders seated at table 71. This group of leaders each had a passion for reaching the unreached people groups in the world with God’s Word. That table of leaders began a collaborative effort that has advanced the Bible translation movement years ahead of what could have ...
Stephen M.R. Covey in his book, Speed of Trust, wrote, “Trust is equal parts character and competence... You can look at any leadership failure, and it's always a failure of one or the other.” Leadership failure comes when a gap exists in character or in competence. Character and competence working together build trust amongst a team and give the leader ...
Equipping Others to Do Work Differently
