How leaders can facilitate better meetings

Many good leaders are not great leaders of meetings. Perhaps it is because they are often big picture rather than detail and good meetings require proper planning (detail). They may also be distracted by other issues and find meetings to be a distraction. Here is the good news. Leaders don't need to be great at facilitating meetings but they do need to have someone on their team that is.

Here is a freeing concept. A leader does not need to lead their own meetings. If there is someone on their team who is better than they are in planning and leading meetings, let them do it. This other staff member can consult with the leader to ensure they are both good on the agenda. Furthermore, this allows the leader to participate in the discussion without having to lead the meeting itself.

Second, there should be no meetings without defined outcomes, an agenda that is tight and time frames. Without these, meetings waste up to 50% of their time which is a huge waste of time and energy. 

We use a tool called The Meeting Compass which helps us build the meeting beforehand, keeps a record of the meeting and automatically transfers decisions, parking lot items and action items to an execution journal for accountability and better implementation. It has been so successful that most everyone in our office chooses to use it. No I have no stock in the company!

Third, and this is why the tool above is so helpful. Meetings don't mean much when there is not execution on action items. Getting action items done is the engine toward meaningful progress. But without some kind of accountability it often does not happen - especially in ministry settings. Execution is critical and a tool to help it happen is what people need.

Fourth. Good meetings have ground rules. Want better participation and to end on time? Come up with some meeting behaviors that everyone agrees to: no multi-tasking; cell phones and email off; computer screens down unless needed; we start on time and end on time; we leave the room the way we found it; everyone actively participates; we come prepared and so on. Think about how much time is lost when these kinds of behaviors don't happen.

Don't waste your life in meetings. Make them tight, meaningful, focused with participants engaged and you will get more done. Also check out the meeting compass. It is worth the small investment necessary.

Ten Practices that keep us Grounded

Staying grounded in the midst of life can prevent us from experiencing the negative side affects of stress or success. I intentionally make time for these ten practices which keep me growing and keep me grounded.

People we know

Cultivating a close set of quality friends who will do the journey of life with us, love us and speak truth to us is central to grounding and growth. They are a very high priority for Mary Ann and me because these relationships represent fellow pilgrims who we know well and who know us well and who give us needed life perspective.

Books we read

Time for reading keeps us sharp and thinking outside our own paradigms. I usually am reading five to ten books at any one time so that I can pick and choose depending on my mood or need. I read broadly, theology, history, biography and leadership. If my reading suffers I know that I am running too fast for my own good.

Experiences we choose

Intentionally choosing to participate in experiences that will stretch us keeps us from living only in the comfort zone. Whether it is leading a ministry endeavor that will stretch us, learning something new about ourselves or learning something new, experiences that take us out of our normal zone challenge our thinking and perspectives.

Defining moments we experience

Defining moments are usually experiences we do not look for or necessarily wish for but they come our way nonetheless and force us to either use them for growth or they turn us toward bitterness. Tough experiences are the leading cause for growth in our lives if we will let them. Growth takes place in the red zone, not the comfort zone.

Ministry we undertake

I am not talking about out professional ministry that is a part of our job but personal ministry with others that is not part of our job. Ministry, coming alongside others with hope and help keep us living where God designed us to live. When we are too busy for personal ministry we know we are running to fast.

Risks we take

When we stop taking risks in our life or ministry we generally have slowed our growth curve. We ought to ask ourselves, "what was the last real risk I took?" Risks force us out of our comfort zone and challenge us to something larger than normal - and to rely on God more than normal.

Questions we ask

Never stop asking questions - of everyone we come into contact with. It is amazing how much we can learn if we simply learn the art of asking probing questions. Give me someone who asks a ton of questions and I know that I have someone who wants to keep growing. The inverse is also true.

Obedience we pursue

I am convinced that a measure of our own grounding and growth is the intentional pursuit of following Christ more closely - all the time. That means that we need to make space for God in our lives, often something in short commodity for those in full time ministry. Before we can influence others, God needs to influence us.

Love we give

God's people are givers of love in all sorts of practical ways. That takes a heart that is constantly on the look out for those who need love and the time to give it. One of the marks of grounded believers is that they are experts in giving love and they take the time to do it.

Community we participate in

All of us need community. In community, face to face with others, we are challenged in our own lives and growth. In community we learn to love, forgive, accept, overcome differences and challenge one anther's thinking. When we no longer have time for community we lose a bit of our grounding.

These are the practices that we intentionally put into our schedules. They keep us grounded and growing. The cool thing is that anyone can do them if they will make space for them. When one of them starts to suffer it serves as an early warning system that life is no longer in balance.

Extroverts, Introverts, and Leadership

One might think that most good leaders are extroverts. After all they are up front, in the public eye and in constant communication with someone, whether staff, boards, constituencies or others. My experience, however is that many leaders actually introverts in a job that requires them to be public figures. My observation is that neither side of the continuum makes for a better leader and that whichever side one falls on one needs to make adjustments for ones wiring.

The upside to an extrovert in leadership is that they love to be with people and generally enjoy being in the center of things. Because they become energized by people, they can stay engaged for long periods of time.

There is often a downside, however to an extrovert in leadership. Because extroverts love being with people they often find it difficult to do the hard work of thinking, planning, reflection, those things that are usually done in private. Thus unless an extrovert intentionally modifies their natural bent in order to do the behind the scenes work of leadership they can often lead in a rather scattered fashion - which is a challenge to those they lead.

The upside of an introvert in leadership is that they have no problem taking the private time for thinking, planning and reflection. After all they recharge more in private than in public. 

Their downside, is that unless they compensate for their private nature, they can seem distant, remote and unattached to the very staff they lead. And, they can be read as disinterested in people. Introverts in leadership must therefore carefully compensate for their need to recharge in private while learning to be highly engaged in public. For them, the public role is more of a learned skill while for extroverts, the private role is more of a learned skill.

In one of these better than the other in leadership? I have no reason to believe so. There are upsides and downsides to both and either set of wiring requires the learning of new skills if one is going to be truly successful.

See this interesting article on the subject from the New York Times.

Paying attention to sweet spots

Leaders are exegetes of the people they lead. Too often we simply see people as filling a slot in our organization rather than finding the best people we can and building their job around the gifting and skills that God has given them. When someone is in the right seat and they are in a place where they will be successful because the seat was designed for them, they are in their sweet spot.

In the absence of paying attention to a person's sweet spot and playing to their strengths, people are frustrated and not as productive as if they were positioned for maximum effectiveness (and joy) in their work. As a team leader, one of my core missions is to help position the great people who work on my team in the place where they will be most effective. that means that I must watch them, dialogue with them, be willing to modify their job descriptions and do all that I can to keep them engaged.

How do we determine our own (or others') sweet spots?

Consider asking these questions:
-What things fill my tank and what things deplete me?
-What things do I love to do and which do I put off?
-What am I most effective at and what am I either marginally effective at or really poor at?
-If I could design my perfect job description it would be....
-How do others evaluate my areas of strength and weakness?
-If I could change one thing about my current job that would make my job a lot more fulfilling, what would it be?
-What do others think that I am good at?

For many years, conventional wisdom was that one ought to work on strengthening one's weaknesses. We now know that it is far wiser to focus on our strengths than to try to fix our weaknesses. In fact, people will be the most productive if they can spend no more than 20-40% percent of their time in areas of weakness and 60-80% in areas of strength. We need to help people design their responsibilities in ways that maximize their strengths and find other ways to support their weaknesses.

If someone is really in the wrong spot (they are not playing to their strengths) it may be necessary to help them find another seat on the bus or if there is not another seat on your bus, a seat on another bus.

Helping those on your team understand the sweet spot concept will then allow them to apply the same thinking to those whom they lead. People who are in the right seat and playing to their strengths are happy and productive.

A Leadership Scorecard

Take a moment and give yourself a grade (A, B, or C) in the following areas?

Transition from independent producer to leading through team ______

Intentionality in my spiritual life _____

Intentionality in my family life _____

Intentional growth in my professional life ____

Management of my 'dark side' ____

I regularly keep the mission in front of my team ____

I constantly clarify with the team what we are about_____

I constantly ask questions _____

I regularly take time to think ____

My team members are in the right seat ____

I provide maximum missional clarity to the team _____

I empower staff rather than control or micromanage ____

I intentionally mentor/coach my team members at least monthly _____

I have an intentional plan to develop new leaders ____

Mobilization of resources is high on my list ____

My schedule is designed to allow me to lead with excellence _____

Ten ways our personal walk and theology profoundly impact our leadership

Jesus was clear that what is in our hearts spills out to our actions and therefore impacts others. There are profound ways that our personal walk with God and our theology impacts our leadership. Think about these issues:

If I do not understand grace and personally live in God's grace I will not likely give it to others. Many driven leaders are trying to prove something to God and their drivenness spills over to their staff. 

If I do not believe that God truly forgives me and if I don't therefore forgive myself for my failures I will likely not be a forgiving leader. Leaders who hold grudges and don't forgive create an unhealthy ethos on their team and destroy relationships.

If I do not understand that in God's Kingdom, leaders serve others rather than are served by others I will lead selfishly rather than selflessly. My leadership will be about what I can gain personally rather than what I can give personally to help others be successful.

If I do not live with the humility of Jesus I will start to believe that my success is about me rather than about what a team has accomplished with God's help. Prideful leaders are selfish leaders.

If I do not believe in the theology of spiritual gifts and that God has uniquely wired people with specific strengths (Ephesians 2:10) I will not build teams around gifting and wiring or release people into their giftedness. 

If I do not understand that Jesus and Paul (and others) released rather than controlled people I will likely seek to control and micromanage rather than equip and release. Our need to control others is often a sign of our lower nature.

If my pride causes me to need to be right all the time I will not admit failure, live with transparency or listen well to others. Personal defensiveness kills good leadership and team and comes from a poor understanding of gifting and wiring and living in God's grace.

If I don't get that people are made in God's Image I will likely use them rather than serve them, be inclined to marginalize some and see tasks as more important than people. If I see all people as made in His image I will want the best for them in all circumstances.

If I don't put Godly integrity first in my life I will likely not put it first in my leadership leaving me vulnerable to cutting corners, placing expediency over integrity and 

If I don't live under God's authority I may not desire to live under the authority of others be it my supervisor or my board. Those who cannot live under authority cannot lead with authority.

Our personal walk and theology impact everything we do as leaders. Attention to our own lives is the first step in good leadership.

Why arrogance is so deadly

Few people in Scripture model the sin of arrogance better than King Saul. For most of his reign he did his own thing, followed his own path and actively resisted the counsel of Samuel and God. In fact, one of the core traits of a person of arrogance is that they resist the counsel of others - at least anyone who chooses to disagree with them. 

There is a defining moment in Saul' life in 1 Samuel 15 where he again disobeyed the Lord's commands and when confronted by Samuel, made up well sounding excuses that were transparently false nonetheless. It is here that Samuel uttered the famous words, "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?" This goes to the heart of arrogance, doing our own thing our own way regardless.

But there is another piece to Samuel's words to Saul that is equally telling. He says that arrogance is like the evil of idolatry (1 Samuel 15:23). Idolatry of course is the worship of something other than God.

Arrogance is like the worship of an idol precisely because that idol is self. It is nothing else than self worship, believing that we are autonomous, that we are the final authority, that we are wise and right. This is a deeply dangerous place to be yet Christian leaders are not immune from this disease - and it is a disease. There are other professional critics in the church as well who display that kind of arrogance and cause a great deal of harm to those around them. After all, they are right and everyone else is wrong.

Self worship, arrogance goes to the heart of the sinful nature. Isaiah put it this way. "We all like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way (Isaiah 53:6). Again the autonomous self that sets itself up against God and others. 

Humility is not just a nice thing. It is the antidote to the autonomous self that worships itself. Arrogance is a disease that has no good ending because the more we believe in our own wisdom and actions the more deluded and isolated we become until we are unable to see our own sinfulness and foolishness. I have met some who have crossed that fatal line and cannot see what everyone around them sees.