Have a good leader? Encourage them!

Working for a healthy, empowering leader is not something we should take for granted. Leadership is like health: You don't realize how important it is until you don't have it! Never take good leadership for granted because it is not as common as we might wish.

If you work for a healthy and empowering leader, consider telling them what it is about their leadership style that you appreciate. Be specific and genuine. Not only will you encourage them but you will reinforce in their thinking those characteristics that are important to their leadership. What we take for granted in a healthy leader may not be the case with a future leader.

If your organization has an ethos of healthy leaders down through the ranks it is because a senior leader and his/her team has created a culture of health and empowerment. This never happens accidentally but is created intentionally, often at significant cost to senior leadership whose commitments are often a threat to the status quo.

When I am with an organization to speak or consult and I find a staff that is happy, empowered and treated well I will specifically mention this to the senior leader. I know they paid a price and worked hard to create a healthy culture. I want to encourage them in that journey. If you work for one of those, thank them, encourage them and pray for them.

The folly of excuses

Have you noticed that almost no one takes responsibility for bad decisions or failures today? From the White House briefing room where everything is explained away, to our own lives where it is easy to say "It was not my fault," there is a dearth of those who take responsibility when something goes wrong. Witness the hearings on Capital Hill regarding the IRS or the roll out of Obama care where absolutely no one takes any personal responsibility but shifts the blame to others. Unfortunately it also happens in ministry organizations as well.

Common dodges of responsibility include:

• I didn't make the decision
• I was not informed
• I would have done things differently
• This is obviously spiritual warfare
• If person x had done their job right, this never would have happened
• It was a decision of the board

It is all quite foolish! And those around us recognize our excuses for what they are. It is also foolish because it robs us of certain important things.

It robs us of our integrity! Excuses are nothing less than a dodging of responsibility and to put the blame on others when we are responsible, in part or in whole is to lie. And those around us see the lie for what it is. The reason we would dodge responsibility is our pride. Ironically when we own up to what happened, we gain respect.

It robs us our leadership capital. Leaders take responsibility for what happens on their watch. The best leaders admit when things went south and take responsibility for it even if they were not personally responsible. They don't gloss or dodge. They also work quickly to fix it.

It robs us of an opportunity to learn and grow. Every failure is an opportunity to do something better and address something in our thinking or our system that caused that failure. When we dodge and gloss we effectively lose that opportunity because rather than facing the issue and fixing it we dodge the issue and therefore the opportunity to learn from it.

There is something deeply refreshing about men and women who make mistakes and are up front in admitting it. We are after all human! Admission is a sign of humility while excuses are a sign of foolish pride. Excuses started immediately after sin entered the garden as Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the serpent. Excuses are a sign of our sinful nature while taking responsibility is a sign of spiritual maturity. The former robs while the latter builds character.

Three groups of people I try to keep a distance from

To the extent that we have choices about who we work or spend time with there are three groups of individuals that I am generally wary about - and keep  my distance from. And, I would not choose to have them as colleagues or staff - if they were unable to address their issues.

Those who leave a trail of hurt or wounded people behind them. These can be highly successful people but their ambition and drive cause them to use people to achieve their ends even when it ends up hurting those very people. When there is a trail of bodies behind an individual, no matter how successful they are, there is a fatal flaw that does not reflect Jesus.

Those who are passive aggressive in their behavior. This can be crazy making because to your face these individuals are agreeable but behind your back and with others they can be be doing just the opposite. But because the behavior is not up front and honest it can be hard to pin down. The behavior is a form of dishonesty and double dealing that hurts the team or organization.

Those with significant hubris. Unchecked egos cause individuals to make selfish decisions that are primarily about them rather than the organization or team. Since healthy teams are built on the good of the whole unchecked pride is incompatible with team health. Whenever it is more about us than the mission we have a serious problem. Prideful people usually don't treat others well as life is about them.

It is not unusual for leaders to need to address these kinds of behaviors. To the extent that I can avoid them I do. I don't need the drama! 

Leaders and the fruit of the Spirit

Why is it that there seem to be so many leaders in the ministry world who are pushy, pugnacious, self-centered, unkind in their comments and generally not nice people to work for? And, while they want staff to serve them they often do not serve staff and in not a few instances create toxic workplaces for those below themselves. Sometimes, their behaviors are so extreme that they make headlines in CT and other publications. The number of dysfunctional Christian leaders seems out of proportion to the general public. There I have said it!

Juxtaposed to these behaviors are the Fruit of the Spirit which are to characterize all believer's lives and one would assume an even higher standard for those who are in ministry leadership, including church board members: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, goodness, gentleness and self control (Ephesians 5:22). It is interesting that the last descriptor listed is "self control" which means that our impulses are kept in check whether it is attitude, treatment of others, use of power, our words or our demeanor.

My sense is that we pay far too little attention to our inner life as leaders which would include the nurturing of the behaviors that reflect the Holy Spirit rather than our own ambitions or inadvertently taking on the leadership methodology of the world around us. Thus what we espouse and how we lead are often in conflict with one another. 

It is sad for me to see the number of visits to blogs on dysfunctional leaders, toxic workplaces and abusive behaviors. Since my readership is largely from the evangelical world that says something about what people struggle with in terms of their own leaders. My conclusion is that leaders whose behaviors don't reflect the fruit of the Spirit should not be in ministry leadership roles. Sadly if they can "produce" they keep ending up in such roles. 

For my fellow leaders, a regular check on how we are doing against the Spirit's grid is an important exercise. We also might become happier and healthier in the process.

Is your denomination slowly committing suicide? A must read from Church leaders.com

A most insightful article from George Bullard on denominations today.

Is your denomination slowly committing suicide?

Boots on the ground

In the political arena there is often a debate over whether our country should intervene in world conflicts such as the ISIS emergency in Iraq. The question is often whether there will be "boots on the ground" or if intervention will be "safe and sterile" through the use of drones or the air force. We have learned over time that it is difficult to deal with a real threat without people who are actually on the ground. Be sure here that I am not arguing for more US intervention globally.

There is an analogy here, however, to missions where there are those who would like to redefine missions in the west in a way that virtually eliminates long term missionaries in favor of short term training and the support of national missionaries. The argument is that it is a cheaper and more efficient way to do missions. After all it costs significant dollars to send full time missionaries. And then there are language acquisition challenges as well as the challenges of living cross culturally.

I am a huge advocate of effective short term teaching as well as helping nationals from around the world send missionaries. I also believe that the role of missionaries is changing from being primarily doers to being primarily equippers of others. That being said, I would argue that having boots on the ground is a non-negotiable for the church in the west as well as the church in any other part of the world.

Why? Well, lets think of Christ's instructions to the church in the Great Commission. He said “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

 His explicit command was that we go to all nations and the promise that He is with us to the end of the age implies that this missionary mandate stretched from His ascension to His return. To abandon this mandate is to ignore one of the last and key instructions of Christ.

Furthermore, Jesus Himself gave us the example of what it means to reach the lost through incarnational ministry. He came to us, He lived with us, He became one of us in order to identify with us. Why would we do any different?  If Jesus was willing to forgo the advantages of heaven for us, why would we not be willing to forgo the inconveniences of another culture for the sake of the Good News? 

Think of how Jesus discipled His disciples. He was with them and shared His life with them. He ministered in their presence and then got the disciples involved in ministry. Eventually at His ascension he gave His ministry to them. This was life on life ministry that could not be done from a distance. 

In every sense of the phrase, Jesus' ministry was a boots on the ground ministry. That kind of personal and incarnational ministry must continue till Jesus returns. It should be supplemented by short term ministries and it should be focused on developing, empowering and releasing healthy national leaders wherever we work but it is and always will be a boots on the ground ministry.

How powerful is your passport? Check out this infographic

Passports matter and some are more powerful than others. Check out this infographic to see how powerful your passport is.