You cannot see the picture if you are inside the frame

How often we are blind to the issues within our own organizations that in retrospect we wish we had seen. It is often a challenge to see what we need to see without a great deal of intentionality because you cannot see the picture if you are inside the frame. All of us live and work within certain frames and it is difficult to see the whole picture from our vantage point. It is the very reason we bring in consultants. They may not be brighter than us but they can see the picture better than we can.

There are ways to mitigate against not being able to see the forest for the trees. One is to intentionally maintain an outside perspective by asking how others would see our organization. Or, what would I say if I were a consultant to my own organization? Another is to routinely question why we do things the way we do, or "if we were building this today how would we design it?" Usually we would design it differently than it is designed today. Should we do something about that? In other words, we intentionally seek to look at our way of doing things from the outside rather than just assuming we do them well.

This is also why the best leaders spend time with other leaders asking them about issues that they wonder about. Many leaders never do this because they simply assume they have it down. None of us have it down perfectly or are exempt from learning from others. Run of the mill leaders are not inquisitive but the best leaders are.

Finally this conundrum of perspective is why it is so critical to create an organizational culture of openness, candid dialogue and the ability to question the status quo. It is the absence of this kind of culture (usually due to the insecurity of a leader) that keeps our own staff from naming issues that need to be seen. Staff will not go where they are not invited or allowed to go so leaders either create this kind of culture or don't depending on their own EQ.

There is one thing I can assure all of us. None of us see perfectly from inside the frame. That fact in itself ought to humble us and give us pause. And cause us to work diligently to see as much of the picture as we can.

All of T.J. Addington's books are available from the author for the lowest prices and a $2.00 discount on orders of ten or more.

What I wish more leaders did differently

Someone asked me recently what I wish organizational leaders did differently after all the consultations I have done. I have been mulling on that so here goes:

I wish more leaders cared about the health and vitality of their staff. There is frankly no good excuse for an unhealthy workplace or unappreciated staff. If we cannot create a healthy work environment we don't deserve to have staff working for us. If we are going to lead we must make the health of our staff one of our highest priorities.

I wish more leaders understood how important it is to clarify who the organization is, where it is going and how it is going to get there. The truth is that our staff deserve this clarity. The other truth is that without that clarity we don't know where we are going. And if that clarity simply resides in the head of the leader it is not understood by those who need to understand. If we are going to lead we need to be clear about what is important.

I wish more leaders were willing to empower others rather than to control others. Leaders who control, micromanage or make decisions others should be making are unempowering leaders who are treating their staff poorly. It is usually a sign of threatened and insecure leaders! Those who cannot empower should not lead and don't deserve to have staff working for them.

I wish more leaders paid greater attention to their own Emotional Intelligence (EQ). It's health or dishealth directly impacts their staff. Too many leaders are defensive, don't allow candid dialogue, marginalize those who disagree with them, don't listen, don't ask questions and cannot handle push-back. What they get in return are people who don't tell them when the emperor has no clothes because staff know they won't hear or don't want to hear. They are poorer leaders and people because of it.

I wish more leaders paid attention to their personal and professional growth. The quality of leadership depends on the quality of our spiritual, emotional, relational and skill health yet so many leaders have no development plan. They are too busy leading to become better leaders! Eventually those who don't pay attention to growth hit a wall and can no longer lead well. That could have been avoided if they had paid attention to the right things along the way.

I wish more leaders would ask their key reports how they could lead better and what their reports wish were different. Because most leaders don't ask they simply remain ignorant to issues that they should be aware of. It takes courage to ask but if we really care about the health of our staff or team we will. If we are not courageous enough to ask we are really saying that it is not important to us and that is a sad statement. Unfortunately many will never ask.

What is interesting about this wish list is that the burden of poor leadership falls to one group - our staff. The blessing of good leadership falls also to staff. How we lead directly impacts all those who work in our organization. I meet too many staff who live with the burden rather than the blessing.

(Written from Berlin, Germany)

The most important issue for each of us: God's agenda for our lives

It is an amazing thing that God has designed a role in this life just for us - a role that we are uniquely wired and gifted to fill. A role that contributes directly to what He is doing in our world as part of His meta plan to redeem His broken creatures. It is exhilarating to be at the center of His purposes for our lives and to maximize the opportunity He has given us. Our responsibility is to figure out how to maximize that opportunity He has graciously given.

Central to living out our destiny is a very simple concept: We need to follow God's agenda for our lives! Many people have agendas for us but discerning His agenda and sticking too it is one of the most critical decisions we could ever make. At my stage of life, I know what God has not called me to do and I am fairly clear on what He has called me to do. Thus saying no to the former and yes to the latter is one of my disciplines.

The ability to make those decisions means that we are willing to disappoint some who would tug us in different directions. Ultimately, however, we have an audience of One to whom we will answer for our life stewardship and He is the One who counts. Following Jesus has always been counter cultural and to others our decisions may not always make sense. 

Remember this: Our world has an agenda, our friends have an agenda, our family has an agenda, our church has an agenda and our work has an agenda. There are pieces of those agendas we must pay attention to and negotiate but ultimately the One agenda that truly matters is that of Jesus Christ and He has a definite agenda for our lives (Ephesians 2:10-11) that goes back to long before we were born as to how we would fit into His work and His plan and His meta story.

Perhaps the most important question we could ask Him on an ongoing basis is this: Jesus what is your agenda for me today? He might just surprise you with a response. 

Six areas that every leader needs to have clarity on

A critical factor in leadership development is that of coming to maximum clarity in a number of areas. This clarity frees us from the expectations of others and allows us to lead from a reliable internal compass. Unpredictable leaders or those who change direction often or who are hard to predict lack such internal clarity. As a result they create confusion for those around them as they struggle with their own issues.

Think about these areas of clarity:

One: Clarity around who God created us to be. God gave me a few specific gifts, the same with you. Being clear on how God gifted us allows us to focus in on what we are good at and find ways to say no to those things we are not good at. God designed us the way He did for a specific purpose!

Two: Clarity around how we lead. I cannot lead like you and you cannot lead like me. We can all learn from one another but ultimately we must lead out of who God made us to be. Leadership styles vary and they reflect our wiring and gifting.

Three: Clarity around who we need on our team. Because our skill set is limited we need others with requisite skills to work with us in the accomplishment of our mission. Being clear on what we bring to the table and what we need others to bring to the table is an important skill to develop. 

Four: Clarity about what drives us. For those of us in Christian ministry this is especially important. What motivates me and drives me? Is it more about me or more about God? It is easy to confuse the two and when it is about us we will often use people for our purposes rather than steward them for God's purposes. Understanding our hearts is critical for healthy leaders.

Five: Clarity over a cause worth giving our lives to. Some settle for a job while others pursue a calling. It is easy to settle into mid life with a job and rather than a calling. The best leaders always pursue a calling and never settle for a job.

Six: Clarity of being able to say no and feel good about it. This only comes when we have clarity on our calling, our gifting, our wiring and what it is that God has called us to do at this point in our lives. Until we can say no to those things we are not called to do so that we can say yes to those things we are called to do and feel good about it we don't live with adequate clarity.

Increasing our level of clarity allows us to lead with greater focus and a strong compass. 

The Twitter principle: Simplify, clarify and focus

The twitter principle is powerful when it comes to bringing clarity, focus and simplicity to almost any endeavor. The challenge is to clearly state your case in 140 characters or less. That forces one to simplify, clarify and focus!

Take, for instance the mission I lead, ReachGlobal. With 550 personnel working with scores of partnerships that touch nearly 100 countries there is obviously complexity involved. Yet we can clarify our purpose in the space of a tweet: We develop, empower and release healthy national leaders in order to see transformational churches multiplied. 

That simple statement sums up our philosophy (it is not about what we do but what we help others do), our goal (transformational churches multiplied) and our method (we develop, empower and release). In addition it touches on our culture of health since only healthy personnel can develop healthy national leaders.

Can your church sum up its philosophy, goal and methodology in a tweet? Chances are it it cannot it is too complicated and many even in leadership cannot easily remember or communicate what is truly important.

If you preach or teach, can you sum up the big idea in the space of a tweet? If not chances are that you are not clear on the essence of what you are communicating. And if you are not, neither will your listeners. How many left church today not totally sure what the message was about?

One can take almost any endeavor at work and ask the question, can we explain our mission in 140 characters or less? If so you know where you are going and if not probably not.

Clarity, focus and simplicity are keys to leadership at any level. Use the Twitter Principle to help you get there.

All of T.J. Addington's books including his latest, Deep Influence,  are available from the author for the lowest prices and a $2.00 per book discount on orders of ten or more.

The power of simplicity

Too many ministries suffer from the confusion of complexity. That complexity keeps leaders and staff from focusing on what is most important by the distractions of all the possible things we could be doing. And there are many!

The most productive organizations and staff are those who have taken the time to simplify the complexity of their work, understand what is most critical and focus on those key areas. They also have taken the time to message that simplicity so that everyone in the organization (or part of the organization they lead) gets it. 

Remember:

Ministry is complex

Complexity is confusing

The job of leaders is to simplify complexity

It is that simple! But it is hard work to get there.

Can you clarify in one sentence what your organization is about and in a second sentence how you accomplish that mission? Can you clarify on one sheet of paper what is truly critical for your ministry? If not it is too complex. Or we are not yet clear!

The second question is whether one can clearly articulate what they do personally. While there are many ancillary things I do, I can spell out my four areas of focus with four big rocks and can therefore organize my life around those four rocks. 

Simplicity is all about clarity. Until our complexity is made simple we are not clear on what is most important. 

Do you want to raise the bar for you and your team?

I am convinced that one of the most important discussions we can have as ministry teams is how we can raise the bar on our effectiveness - personally and corporately. This is not about working harder or longer but working smarter and with greater focus. It is easy for all of us to gravitate toward the comfortable rather than to stay focused on what is most important.

There are a number of questions that can help us reflect on ways we can raise the bar.

As I look at the coming week what is the single most important thing I need to do in order to move the ball down the court? That may sound simplistic but the truth is that getting the most strategic thing done in the course of a week is far more important than getting many non strategic things done.

Do I take time each month to prioritize my work and activities? One of the secrets of highly productive people is that they take the time to think about their upcoming month and prioritize their activities so that what is most important gets done and those things that are of lesser importance are done last. I do this with a Personal Retreat Day each month to think through my schedule and activities.

If there was one thing that would help me be more productive, what would it be? This can be as simple as scheduling the most important activities at the time when we are at our best, or blocking out time without interruption, email or phone calls. Answering this simple question - and acting on it - can make a significant difference in effectiveness.

Are there activities in my schedule that I could simply eliminate to free up time for more important things? We often accumulate activities and obligations that over time start to weigh us down when critical analysis would tell us that they are no longer critical to our work. Time is the one thing we can never get back so jettisoning those obligations that are not critical can help us move to the next level.

Are there activities that need to get done that can be done by others in order to free up my time for those things that only I can do? Often, there are activities that someone needs to do but that we don't need to do. On the other hand, there are some things we must do because we do them better than others. Delegating what we don't need to do frees us up to do those things that we really must do. A rule of thumb is that if someone else can do something 70% as well as I can, I should generally let it go.

Can I connect my activity with specific key results that I want to see from my work? Remember that there is a difference between activity and results. Often our activity gets in the way of focusing on the few key results that we want to see from our work. Making sure that our activity is the right activity to get to those results is a simple but profound principle.

Does my calendar reflect my priorities? Our calendars (how we spend our time) tell the real story of what our priorities are. Unfortunately there is often a disparity between what we would say our priorities are and how we actually use our time. Bringing our calendar into alignment with our priorities is a game changer.

Taking time to reflect on our activity, lives and work will almost always help us raise the bar on our effectiveness. Taking the time to slow down and think through what we are doing and how we are doing it can be truly freeing.

Moving from ambiguity to clarity

The single most important job of a leader is to ensure maximum clarity for the organization he/she leads. Without absolute clarity your people will not know what defines you, what your mission is, where you are going and what the desired end result looks like.

One of the five dysfunctions of ministries is that of ambiguity. And it is the reason that so many ministries are not more missional and effective in what they do.

This is especially true with churches. Often, churches grow to a certain size and then plateau. While many do not realize it, one of the key causes of a church to plateau is lack of clarity on mission, guiding principles, central ministry focus and the desired end result (for more information on these four areas, see Leading From the Sandbox).

Why would ambiguity cause a church to plateau? Because general clarity yields general ministry with general results. Ambiguity or lack of clarity prevents the staff from being deeply missional (we are not really clear on what we are about), aligned (around what?) and focused on clearly defined results (we have not defined those). Lack of clarity does actually cause a church to start to stall at some point and before it can move forward it must come to clarity on the four areas above. This can be true in a church of 500 or a church of 4,000.

Focused, aligned, results oriented ministry depends on a high degree of clarity regarding who the ministry is, what the culture we are trying to create is, what we need to do day in and day out and what our target is. In the absence of clarity, staff will simply do what is right in their own lives but one will not have a focused, aligned, results oriented ministry.

Interestingly enough, when a senior leader walks through the process of clarifying the essential issues (mission, guiding principles, central ministry focus and preferred result) they often discover that they don't have all the right players at the table. In the absence of clarity they have assembled some good people but not all of whom want to or can live with focused, aligned, results oriented ministry. They have not had to live there in the past and now they have a great deal more accountability for how they do what they do. In fact, they are part of the reason that the church has plateaued. Some staff would far prefer the comfort of ambiguity over the accountability of clarity.

Maximum clarity combined with truly missional staff will provide great lift for a ministry organization. If you need help in getting to clarity, Leading From the Sandbox is all about that. It is job one of a good leader and it will make all the difference in the effectiveness of the church or organization you lead. While this is a simple principle it is one that is largely not understood or practiced.

Clarity if job one for leaders!

What is your gold standard?

A distinguishing difference between organizations that do exceedingly well and those that are average is that the former has a Gold Standard that defines who they are, what they do and what the results of their work should look like. There is great clarity which is known and lived out by all employees.

The Gold Standard reflects the deeply held aspirational values of the organization. It includes clarity of mission, guiding principles, knowing what must be focused on day in and day out and the culture it is committed to creating. Without such a Gold Standard, there is no clearly focused missional agenda that brings alignment, ignites passion and keeps everyone moving in the same direction.

I am not referring to those ubiquitous documents that reside in dusty binders – the work of the obligatory five year strategic planning. We all know how effective most of those documents are. I am referring to a Gold Standard that is known and personally held by leaders as non-negotiables for the organization and communicated all the time to all the staff. Every staff member from the senior leader to the building engineer should understand, know and be able to communicate that Gold Standard.

The Gold Standard brings clarity to the aspirational values of the organization. I have written elsewhere that the first most important job of a leader is to provide maximum clarity to his/her organization or team about what is important to the organization. The second most important responsibility is to see that there is alignment around that clarity and the third most important responsibility is to see that there are results on that clarity.

But it all comes back to an articulation of what that clarity is – the Gold Standard for your church, your team or your organization. Without clarity you can be good at some things but you will never be great. My rule is that if you cannot communicate your clarity on one page it is too complicated and will not be remembered. Ministry is complex, complexity is confusing so your Gold Standard simplifies your complexity into an easy to understand, easy to articulate one page picture of your clarity.

Those who have read Leading From the Sandbox know that the organization I lead uses a sandbox metaphor and picture to communicate our clarity. With one picture we can visually communicate our Gold Standard. 

There is no more important work for leaders than to do the hard work of identifying your Gold Standard. That Gold Standard becomes the glue that holds the organization together because it communicates who you are, where you are going, your non-negotiables and the results of your work. It is your true north, the directional arrow, the goal and the target. In the process it aligns your people in a common direction and helps focus the organization on what really matters to you. Get to clarity and you have a shot at greatness.

Organizational culture. Are you satisfied with the default culture or have you created a preferred culture?

Every organization has a culture. In the vast majority of cases that culture is simply a default culture because leaders have not created a preferred culture.

Organizational culture is the combination of its people's attitudes, practices, relationships, leadership style and values. Think about the implications of those five areas. When healthy they reflect a good place to work but when unhealthy it can be toxic. Culture matters a lot.

Default cultures are highly problematic because they simply reflect the aggregate character and practices of those in it - good and bad. They reflect the habits of the organization. The problem is that while there may be many good things about the people and organization, there are also unaddressed habits that hurt the organization whether in attitudes, practices, relationships, leadership style or values.

Transformational leaders do not settle for a default culture. They intentionally create a culture that reflects the health they want to see. Organizational health is after all the key to organizational success in the long run. It is also the key to retaining and attracting the best people. By far, the culture a leader creates is an indication of their true leadership commitments.

My book, Leading From the Sandbox can help you think through how you create an intentional culture rather than settling for the default culture. Choose transformation over accidental when it comes to culture.

The power of focus

Those of us who lead others have a special responsibility to keep those they lead focused on the most important missional activities - those activities and priorities which will help accomplish your mission.

Mission drift often occurs because our attention is diverted from the most important to ancillary issues. Or, because we are too busy with all of the stuff that comes our way - email, phone calls, meetings, problems that need solving - we simply lose focus on what is most important.

The leader of a church of 7,000+ told me not long ago that he realized that their church had been on "auto pilot" for the past year because his attention had been diverted to other things. He owned the issue and again took the helm to lead but it he acknowledged that when he went on auto pilot so did everyone else and significant momentum was lost by the diffusion of purpose.

If leaders do not stay focused those they lead will not either. Because this is often the case, many ministries settle for OK results instead of great results.

Don't get me wrong. It is not that we are not busy. It is that we are so busy that we are not focused on what is most important.

I asked some senior leaders recently how they stay focused on what is most important for their organization. One of them has a white board in their office that reminds him of the most important things he needs to pay attention to. Another said that regular dialogue with a colleague on missional issues was the most helpful to keep him focused. One indicated that he took one day a month to think through his Key Result Areas and remind himself of his priorities.

Staying focused on the big rocks is a challenge even for the most competent leaders because of the incessant demands that divert that focus. What is necessary is developing a strategy to refocus on a regular basis.

Of course this assumes that leaders have clearly defined the priorities of their organization or team and have a clear picture of their priorities and direction.

The leadership discipline of paying attention

It was a few years ago that an American submarine off of Hawaii managed to blow to the surface and smash into a Japanese fishing boat. Note to self: before surfacing, put up the periscope and look around! Carefully!

Healthy leaders pay close attention to what is going on around them. They regularly look around, ask questions, look in the closets and drawers as it were to understand the climate, mood, realities and issues that their team or organization faces.

Not to do so is to invite unhappy surprises! A pastor realizes one day that his staff have gone south on him and he has a coup on his hands (it happens). An organizational leader finds out that members of their board are unhappy. A team leader realizes that a staff member is undermining him or her in an unhealthy way. Or, something is going on that has the potential to create a crisis - like the submarine taking out the hull of the fishing vessel.

Organizational or team culture requires vigilance and care. Leaders who ignore threats to the culture are likely to pay a price for their lack of attention. The submarine captain lost his job!

I have watched leaders ignore significant staff discontent or lack of alignment because they didn't want to face an unpleasant reality. In the end they lost leadership capital because it was obvious to staff that their leader was not dealing with real issues in the organization that needed attention.

Some leaders are so self absorbed that they are clueless to what is actually going on around them. Then they feel betrayed when they realize that a collision has occurred. If they had been looking around and paying attention, they would not have been surprised.

Wise leaders ask questions and look for honest feedback in order to understand where people are at. Leaders who are threatened by honest feedback don't and find out what is going on the hard way.

Organizational culture and health is one of the primary responsibilities of leaders. But you have to look around and know what is on the water! Keep your periscope up and avoid surprises.

Clarity and why it matters

Clarity is a common topic of this blog because its presence or absence has a major impact on the satisfaction level of staff. I spoke recently with a newer staff member of a ministry organization and I asked him what had surprised him. His answer was the lack of clarity within the organization which has caused him a great deal of frustration in his role. Since there is not adequate clarity and he cannot read the mind of the senior leader he lives in a fairly unempowered culture. He is not alone. 

New staff are often the best barometers of how much clarity an organization has since those of us who have been around awhile know the unwritten and unspoken rules and think there is pretty good clarity. Those coming into the organization, however don't know the unwritten or unspoken paradigms by which the organization operates and it often bites them when they cross an invisible line.

In my book, Leading from the Sandbox I talk about the major pieces of organizational clarity: mission, guiding principles, central ministry focus and culture. However there are other areas of clarity that impact staff in a direct way as well such as the following.

What decisions am I allowed to make without getting permission first? Clarity on this issue is a big deal. Most ministries are permission withholding rather than permission granting within boundaries. If I think I have authority in an area and find out otherwise, it is highly disempowering. This assumes that there is clarity in the large areas (above) and that there is a clear annual plan with objectives that can guide the decision making process. In the absence of this you cannot empower staff.

If I don't have permission to make decisions, what is the process I need to go through? Interestingly, even in many large ministry organizations the answer is that one needs the sign off of the senior leader because they are the arbiter of what can or cannot be done. It is really about their preference rather than about organizational clarity. Or, one must get permission from the Executive Pastor who is the only one who knows what is in the mind of the senior leader. Again, not an empowering ethos.

On what basis do I make decisions in my area of responsibility? If this is not clear there is a serious lack of organizational clarity. The reason that many even qualified leaders in ministry must get permission is that there are no clearly stated guidelines as to how they are to make decisions. Again, it often comes down to the 
preference of the leader which means that one either has to read their mind or ask their permission.

When there is not clarity on these kinds of issues or when the clarity is "ask the senior leader," good staff often choose to leave as they are living in an unempowered work culture. In fact, as I listened to one staff member recently  who described the culture of the organization he worked for I suggested that his time there might be shorter than he planned on because of the gap between his leadership gifts and the relatively unempowered culture he was in. If so it is a loss for the organization he is working for.

Providing maximum clarity is job one for a leaders. When it does not happen they have disempowered their whole staff.

What got you to here won't necessarily get you to there

Think about that phrase: What got you here won't get you there. Those of us who lead organizations, ministries and churches often forget that truth. We assume that if we simply continue to do what we have done in the past we will get to the next level of effectiveness. Here is the truth. What got you to where you are got you to where you are. But without thinking differently, one is not likely to get to the next level.

An example of this is that of boards and what they spend their time on. In the early days of a ministry, boards often get involved in management decisions because there are few staff. As the ministry grows, however, unless they start to focus on governance and the future, they will become barriers to growth. What got them here will not get them there. Transition is needed in order to go to the next level.

Leaders themselves must continually reinvent themselves for the next run. Time priorities, focus on building strong team, constantly evaluating methods and strategies, awareness of the ministry environment in which they work and ensuring that the right people are in the right place in the ministry all become crucial elements. What got them here will not get them there. Figuring out what will get them to the the next place is one of the most important jobs of a leader.

It is the difference between General Motors who thought one could just do what they always did and continue to be successful and Toyota who knew that could not happen. One ended in bankruptcy and the other weathered the economy. Those principles apply to churches and ministries as well.

Understanding what got us to where we are is important. Understanding what will get us to the next level of effectiveness is even more important. Just thinking that it will happen by itself is naive. It is worth taking the time to think, pray and dialogue about your team and what will allow your team to go to the next level. It will require change - it always does. It may require rearrangement on the team - it often does. It will require a new way of thinking in certain areas.

Before you determine strategy

As an organizational leader and consultant I encounter many can do people with lots of creative ideas as to what the ministry they are a part of should be doing. Readers of this blog know that I love creative ideas. However, ideas and strategies can also be your undoing if you don't do some critical work first.

Before you go to strategy you need to go to another harder place - ministry clarity. Ministry clarity answers the four key questions every organization needs to answer: Why are we here? What are our non-negotiable guiding principles? What do we need to do day in and day out to maximize our impact? and What culture must we create in order to see our dreams realized. 

Without clarity which becomes the true north of your ministry strategies (whether good or bad) are merely floating ideas which may or may well not contribute to your end result. 

It is only when you know the specific direction you are to go that strategies come into play and the ones you choose should only be those that allow you to move toward the direction you have chosen. Many ideas will take you somewhere. The question is whether they will take you toward the God given vision you have articulated as to where your ministry needs to go. Many ideas and strategies will actually be counter productive to where you want to end up which is why clarity must come before strategy.

As a consultant I am often asked early in a relationship if the ministry should do thus and so. My answer is always "I have no idea." That surprises ministry leaders until I explain that until they have clarity on where they need to go there is no point in discussing specific ideas and strategies. It is truly the cart before the horse.

Many ministries do a lot of good things but never achieve the impact they could have. Usually that is because there is insufficient clarity to guide their decision making process. Clarity is always first, other issues come second. Chapters two, three and four in Leading From the Sandbox are all about getting to clarity. If you know this is a need for your ministry I would encourage you to take a look.

The unique fingerprint of your church

God's creativity is amazing. With 7 billion people on our planet, no two fingerprints are alike. No two people are alike.

And, no two congregations are alike. But too often we try to make "our ministry" look like "another ministry," because we like the "success" of that ministry. The problem is that you cannot clone congregations. And when one tries, we lose the uniqueness that God built into that particular congregation. Leaders who try to emulate someone else's ministry not only are chasing an impossible dream but they are denying the uniqueness that God intentionally built into their church.

Plastic surgeons get patients all the time who want to change something so that they can look like some celebrity who is rated as the picture of what a beautiful person should look like. They are chasing a dream that is not real. And, usually not necessary.

Church leaders do it as well - by trying to become something they are not. Just as people chase a dream with plastic surgery - when they use it to emulate someone else - so church leaders can be caught in the same trap.

Success for every congregation is living out the Great Commandment and serving the Great Commission. It is not found in the particular program, music style or the number of people we can gather on a particular weekend.

The fingerprint of a congregation is a unique blend of its ministry philosophy, history, geography and neighborhood, the gifting of its people, its vision, and the gifting of its leaders. And, because of its unique fingerprint, God will use it in unique ways. In fact, it is in a diversity of ministries that the church will be most effective and reach the broadest swath of people.

If we can celebrate diversity of ethnicities and the uniqueness of each individual, why cannot we celebrate the diversity of congregations: large, small, in-between, house church, cell church, ethnic, traditional, non-traditional, seeker driven, seeker sensitive, inner city, suburban, rural, high church, low church, or just church!

We ought to be all that God made us to be and maximize our unique potential and commit to health, honoring Christ, becoming like Christ, living out the Great Commandment and committed to the Great Commission. And celebrate the unique opportunity that God has given us as a congregation.

God would be delighted if:

We could learn from one another but not try to be one another.

We would celebrate one another's ministry and not covet the unique mandate of another church.

In our success we would not assume that other ministries should look like us - leadership hubris.

We would gladly cooperate with one another and not be threatened by one another.

We humbly claimed our place in ministry and maximized our opportunity as a congregation.

He would be delighted because he has given every congregation a unique fingerprint. Celebrate it. Maximize its uniqueness. Don't try to be someone God did not make you to be.

I am privileged to work with many different kinds of churches. I am always amazed at the creativity and passion of healthy leaders and the unique ways they are making a difference for Christ. I learn something new with every church I consult with. It is in our uniqueness that we are effective, learn new ways of reaching people, innovate and reach those God has called us to reach.

The dysfunction of ambiguity

Where there is not a high degree of clarity around who we are and where we are going, it is very difficult to know how to make good decisions (based on what?) or to know how to focus one's efforts. One of the main jobs, if not the most important job of a leader is to bring clarity to those he or she leads on what the organization is all about and how it will function.

Ambiguity is ubiquitous in ministry organizations. Often our mission is so broad that it cannot be quantified and our values so general that they cannot really be used to define who we are and how they impact the day-to-day activities of the ministry. Most ministries have never defined the central ministry focus that they must concentrate on day in and day out if they are going to have maximum impact. And it is rare to find a ministry that has thoughtfully and carefully defined the culture that they are committed to intentionally create for the health of the organization.

Ambiguity around these core issues makes it very difficult to achieve any kind of significant organizational alignment because one does not have anything with which to align. It also means that team members can claim to be in alignment whether or not they are because the alignment mechanism is so loose.

On the other hand, it is deeply refreshing to find organizations that are crystal clear about who they are, where they are going, the central ministry focus they must have, and the culture they are creating. Where you find this clarity, you also find highly motivated and focused team members who, because of the organizational clarity, have great personal clarity as well. Getting to clarity is hard work but it is some of the most important work that leaders will do and it has a huge impact on the organization's ability to see true results.

Personal clarity for 2013

December is a great month to think through the past year and to plan for the next year in our personal lives. God designed our lives with a rhythm on purpose. Each new day turns a new page, each month is a new chapter and each year a new volume. Volume 57 starts for me on January 1 and I want it to count. As the number grows so do the stakes as time cannot be reclaimed. 

Don't move on to 2013 before evaluating and celebrating 2012. Consider these questions:

• What were the significant events of 2012 and how did they change me?
• Where did I see significant growth in my  life this past year?
• How did God prove Himself to be faithful to me?
• Is there anything I need to confess and put behind me?
• Are there any relationships that need reconciliation?

Since each year is a new volume and offers new opportunities, these are the kinds of questions I ask each December:

• What are the key areas of personal growth I need to focus on this coming year?
• How will I stay fresh in my spiritual life, marriage, family and professional life in the coming year? 
• I feel God nudging me in specific areas of my life. How will I respond to those nudges?
• What are the three to five big rocks that I must accomplish in my work life?
• What is my plan to stay on track?

Whatever volume you are on 25 or 75, don't waste it. Take the time to think and reflect before the new year starts.

The upside of crisis situations

I don't relish dealing with crises. As an organizational leader, however, I must do so from time to time and as a ministry consultant it is not unusual to be asked to help ministries in crisis. One of the things I have learned in the process is that while all crises must be managed and many are painful, if handled well there are also positive opportunities. My advice to other leaders is never to miss the opportunities inherent in crisis. Let me explain.

When I think of crises I am thinking of a broad variety of issues with significantly impact an organization. It can be financial, the death of a key leader, the failure of a leader, a bad choice by a leader that impacts staff or partners or constituency, mass resignations over morale issues, major discontent on staff or other situations that force leaders to go into damage control to deal with a significant crisis. All of us in leadership can point to crises we have had to deal with: the list can be long.

But think about this:

Crisis situations can be a great clarifier. More than once in my long tenure with the EFCA we have faced major financial crises. Some because we overspent and had not controled budgets, other times because of the economy. Every time, however, we have been forced to ask the question, what is really important to us? What is central and core to our mission? What are we doing that is ancillary and needs to be set aside in order to focus on the core. These are not easy situations because they impact wonderful people but they are necessary conversations for ministries to have on a periodic basis.

Crisis situations can build greater trust between leaders and staff and constituencies. 
When crisis happens, the one thing staff and others often do not expect is that their leaders will be open, transparent and honest with them. There is so much spin in our world that we are not used to being trusted with the truth. Leaders who choose to tell the truth about the situation gain great trust from staff. Candid answers go a long ways in building greater trust.

Crisis situations allow you to refocus and change paradigms.
Change is often difficult when there is a perception that all is going well. In a crisis, everyone knows that this is not the case and it is often possible to make changes and to refocus with the crisis as the presenting reason. 

Crisis often flushes out other issues that need to be addressed.
Take for example, a financial crisis. The presenting issue is that there is a shortage of funds. But there may be other issues involved that you can and must now look at including: Are we focused on the right things; are there areas we could be consolidating for savings; do we have a clearly defined mission that causes our constituency to support us well; do we have staff who are under performing? Thus the presenting issue simply brings to the surface other issues that need addressing.

Crisis tests the mettle of leaders in a good way.
The test of leadership is not what happens when all is well but when it seemingly comes apart. Do they fact he issues squarely and honestly? Do they tell the truth or spin? Do they take corrective actions with courage? Do they convey hope or despair? Everyone reads their leadership carefully in crisis and watches their reactions and actions with equal care. 

Crisis builds faith and can unify.
If handled well, crisis can be a faith builder and unifier as leadership pulls the organization together to pray and to work with them to resolve hard issues. Here is a principle: healthy organizations unite in crisis while unhealthy organizations come apart. The difference is in the culture that exists and the kind of leadership the organization has. Our staff and constituency are our best help in crisis situations in a healthy organization. If disunity occurs, it is simply an indication that there are deeper underlying health issues that need to be addressed.

Never waste a crisis!

When conflict is a good thing

You may be surprised by the title of the blog but the fact is that there can be significant value in conflict if it handled correctly. I am not talking about conflict that arises from poor EQ or power games. I am talking about the conflict of ideas, methodology and priorities.

Why can this be a good thing? For one, it reveals that there are issues that are not clear among those who are experiencing the conflict. Lack of clarity is never a good thing (see yesterday’s blog) so the very fact that there is a lack of clarity gives you the opportunity to work through the issues and come to clarity on an issue that needs clarification.

In addition, it is in the clash of ideas that the best solutions are found. That is why the best organizations today are relatively flat where information is available to all and where it is OK to press into things that we believe need pressing into. Where robust dialogue cannot be had, you have an organization that will suffer because of it. The ability of staff to be able to be candid with one another and their leaders is a barometer of the health of the organization.

One of the common mistakes in conflict is to personalize it rather than to keep it de-personal and seek to identify the clash of values, ideas, or outcomes that has caused the conflict. Getting to what lies behind the conflicting views can help us understand the root issue(s) and allows the group to think through the implications of those root issues. This takes a non-defensive posture by all and a willingness to allow the robust conversation that needs to be had. Often, when you dig to find the root issues – and this only happens in dialogue – you realize that there is an important issue at stake and it was the conflict that brought it to the surface.

Healthy groups have learned the skill of non-defensive conversation and have the ability to keep the conflict centered around issues rather than people. That is a learned skill and a sign of healthy emotional intelligence. It also allows you to use conflict to your advantage rather than allowing it to control you.