Flexibility is an ability

 

There was a day when the ability to do one thing and do it well was a valuable asset. That day is gone. In fact, we are seeing the rise of the "generalist" in the workplace and ministry who is able to do multiple things rather than simply one thing. The reason for this new found appreciation for the generalist is that the pace of change is so fast today that it is necessary to pivot regularly and that takes the ability to do multiple things and have the ability to change strategies in order to accomplish one's mission.

The generalist often has a skill that others don't have: flexibility. This is the ability to shift one's focus, strategy or tactics easily to meet new demands and a changing environment. We have watched the need for flexibility take on new meaning in the age of Covid. All of us know people who were flexible in meeting this new environment and others who struggled in a big way. Flexibility is an ability and an increasingly important ability.

How do we develop the ability of flexibility? It largely comes down to how we view the world, our world and ourselves.

First, we need to consciously understand that our world is not static but constantly changing. If we see the world as static, we find security in that unchanging environment and we will resist the inevitable changes in our environment leaving us ineffective. A mindset that expects change and embraces that change is critical to developing flexibility. 

Second, we need to view work as a place of change rather than a place of stability. The mission of an organization may remain the same but tactics and strategies will change regularly, testing our own flexibility and ability to pivot and try new things. Increasingly, risk taking and an entrepreneurial spirits are necessary to meet our changing environments. If we regularly expect change and embrace it, flexibility will come. If we don't expect or want change, we will atrophy.

Third, we need to develop a mindset that sees our organization's ministry as stable but the things we do to accomplish that mission as changeable. Thus, a large part of my effectiveness is found in my flexibility to change roles and tactics to meet that mission. To put it another way,  rather than focusing simply on expertise at what I do, I need to focus on my ability of flexibility. It is going to be those who are flexible who will be the most valuable players in the future.

Can flexibility be learned and developed? I believe the answer is yes. And, it starts in how we think about our skills and our work. Leaders who train and teach the art of flexibility have an advantage over those who don't because flexibility is an ability that is and will be in high demand in rapidly changing environments. It is a worthwhile thing to think through each of your key staff and ask the question as to how flexible they are and how you can intentionally develop this ability.

Who should you listen to and who should you ignore. Nine questions to consider when facing criticism

 

All of us have critics. Those who disagree with us, who don't like our leadership style or who offer candid feedback to us on decisions we make. These may be fellow colleagues, employees, board members or even supervisors. How should we respond to the criticisms we encounter? For those who want to be humble, the answer may be that they will accept everything at face value and try to appease their critics. For those who are prideful, it may be a matter of ignoring critics altogether. Neither of these responses are healthy or helpful.

How we respond to those who are critical of us depends on some key factors.

1. Are the individuals who are critical people who we know have our best interests in mind? If yes, we should listen. If not we should be wary of their advice.

2. Is the criticism accompanied by helpful solutions or is it just criticism? Those who want to help bring solutions to the table. Those who simply want to criticize don't. 

3. Is the criticism delivered in a loving or an unloving manner. Those who deliver it lovingly are likely to have your best interests in mind. Those who don't usually do not have your best interests in mind.

4. Are the individuals who make suggestions people who normally are encouraging to you or discouraging to you? The former should be listened to, the latter probably not.

5. Is the criticism leveled at you personally or at a decision you might have made? If it is levelled at your personally you may want to take it with caution as opposed to a critique of a specific decision.

6. Does the individual who is critical desire a dialogue and conversation with you or simply want to critique you? There is a big difference between the two. If they want a dialogue it is worth having it. If their interest is simply to attack you or a decision, it is likely that they don't have your best interests in mind.

7. If the individual who is critical is someone who has developed trust with you over a period of time it is worth listening. If they have no history of trust, probably not. 

8. If those who are critical indicate that they speak for others but are unwilling to identify who the "others" are it is not worth your time to take them seriously. Anyone can claim that "others" agree with them but if they are unwilling to share who those individuals are, their comments should carry little if any weight.

9. Are your critics flexible and thinking people or are they black and white in their thinking. The first category should carry more weight than the second. 

It is easy for someone to try to make us feel guilty for decisions we make. There is no limit to those who will do so. That does not mean that we should listen to them or be intimidated by their counsel. We should be smart about who we listen to and who we ignore. Listen to those you should listen to and ignore those you should not.

Church giving trends in 2021. A post from Church Answers

What to Expect in 2021 with Church Giving Trends

Seven commitments of great ministries and non-profits

Non profit work is challenging. Often there are limited resources but unlimited needs. It is not unusual to have talented staff who are underpaid and overworked. Thus, the way in which the non profit does its work becomes very important. It is not necessary to settle for mediocre results because of these limitations. Rather, the adoption of a set of operating commitments can provide unusual leverage for organizations with limited resources.

Create a clear and focused mission
A clear and focused mission can save an organization from spending its time on ancillary or non mission critical things that suck its time, energy and money. If non-profits actually focused on their chosen core area and chose to eliminate non mission critical enterprises they could accomplish more and accomplish their mission far better than if distracted by peripheral things. It means that they need to learn how to say no to good things for the sake of their core mission.

Hire the very best, pay well and staff lean
Too many non-profits have too many staff because they don't pay well enough to hire the best. Yet, when you hire well you actually need fewer staff. Organizations that don't pay well end up with more staff than they would if they could hire the best. Thus it is a self defeating strategy. Hire the best, pay them fairly and then keep the staff lean. It works! This applies to both executive and support staff.

Think leverage always
The best organizations are always looking for ways to leverage their impact and results. Traditional thinking says that to do more one needs more money and more staff. Those who think leverage look for ways to do more for less. That does not mean that financial resources don't matter. They do. But those who think leverage look for new ways of accomplishing the mission which allow them to maximize their impact and minimize their need. See Looking Away from the Lamp Post for an example.

Measure results
Too many non-profits use optimistic language to describe their results without carefully measuring results. Real results matter. I am not talking about anecdotal results. Those are great for illustrating one's work but not good measurements of how one is doing. The results that matter are those that directly relate to the missional focus of the organization. The more diligence one puts into measuring results accurately the better you can hone your strategies for even better results. Inadequate measurements result in inadequate results.

Use Resources for mission critical purposes

Non-profits can have an insatiable need for additional funding and can find ways to use those resources. Generous funding is not always a blessing for a non-profit. Often it results in the organization branching into non-critical or non-missional directions and moving away from its primary focus. A great question to ask is this: "If our funding were cut by one half tomorrow, what services would we keep and which would we let go of?" That will identify what is truly mission critical. Resist the temptation to move beyond your primary mission. Diffusion of focus results in a diffusion of impact.

Create an innovative environment

An ongoing challenge to all non-profits is to change strategies as the environment and needs change around them. What was a great strategy in the past may not be today but organizations often don't realize this and lag behind the times. While our mission remains the same, our tactics need to change regularly. The best non-profits are constantly innovating their strategies to better meet current realities. Innovation in strategy is a constant in the best organizations.

Engage differing generations

The best non-profits intentionally engage multiple generations to join them in their mission. Understanding this is critical because to focus on a single generation of donors and participants such as baby boomers will inevitably lead to a declining funding base. This will mean that we understand the concerns, commuinication and engagement patterns of different generations and be intentional in our engagement efforts. Remember the next generation is always to future to your missional success.

It is always a challenge to build a new organization around a specific mission. What we often forget is that it is also a challenge to keep that organization vital and relevant over the long haul. The challenge never ceases. It simply changes. These seven commitments can help you navigate the challenges long term.

Evangelicals and their false god of politics

As I look at the concerns of evangelicals on social media over the past year, I have come to the conclusion that the God of evangelicals today is not Jesus but politics. When God proclaimed in the Ten Commandments, "You shall have no other gods before me," He was writing about any priority or concern that would take our primary attention off of Him. This is why, speaking of money, for instance, in Matthew, he says, "You cannot serve God and money." 

Many things can supersede our highest commitment to Him. I suggest that power and politics have become a false God of Evangelicals. One can trace the genesis of this back to the founding of the Moral Majority in 1979, founded by Jerry Falwell Senior. Those were heady days for the religious right. It was pivotal in bringing Ronald Reagan to the White House, a friend of evangelicals, and the religious right realized that it could wield power previously unknown as a voting block. 

Evangelicals became a powerful lobby in the halls of power. The seduction of power is not the purview of politicians alone. We, as evangelicals, were seduced as well. We became convinced that we could turn the levers of power and solve the issues of our nation through the election of allies in the White House, legislation that was in our interests, and turn the judiciary in our direction.

Having these allies, friendly legislation, or addressing the concerns that we have as believers was not wrong. However, in the success of our efforts, we started to believe that the key to our nation's success and to the advancement of Christianity was to be found in political power rather than in the God we worship, who is above all, over all and in all. Our confidence moved from God to political power. And in the process, political power became a god that rivaled the one and true God.

This also led many evangelicals to ally themselves with the Republican Party because this is where their power base existed. Pastors and evangelical leaders became spokespersons for their party. They often became unapologetic cheerleaders for politicians who lacked any moral compass or personal integrity - or concept of truth. After all, they were joined at the hip to a political party, and come "hell or high water," they intended to hang on to that power. And power has become the key to national transformation in the minds of many rather than God and the Holy Spirit. In fact, numerous posts by evangelicals in the run-up to the recent election insinuated that one could not be a believer and vote for other than the Republican Party. 

When we ally ourselves with a god that is not God, we often overlook corruption, lies, ungodly behaviors, and unrighteousness because we cannot offend our power base. Power corrupts evangelicals and the issues they attend to, just like power often corrupts politicians. Power becomes a god, and in the end, political power starts to defuse our ultimate power that is found in Christ and His transforming work in our lives. 

Regardless of how we as individuals vote, the marriage of the religious right with a political party has done us no favors. It has diluted our influence, caused us to overlook unrighteousness, and has stolen our prophetic voice in society. When one cares about power and the influence it brings, we move away from speaking truth to power.  

Jesus did not and does not carry the card of any political party. Nor did Jesus or Paul say much at all about the politics of their day, which were far worse than the politics in our nation. Why? Because neither Jesus nor Paul put their trust in the political system. Rather, they put their trust in God, the transformation of the Holy Spirit, and a Gospel that has the power to transform individuals, communities, and institutions. Jesus put it well when he said, pay to Caesar what is Caesar's and pay to God what is God's. Perhaps we have paid more attention to Caesar than to the concerns of God.

All of us are at risk of elevating various gods above the one God who claims our full allegiance. In our individual lives, we can elevate our work above Him, we can put our trust in our resources rather than Him, and we can also put our trust in political parties rather than in Him, whatever that party is. Or the power that comes with allegiance to a political party. 

Can Christians impact the political system? Yes! Daniel did in his day serving one of the worst tyrants of the ancient world. Wilberforce did in the abolition of slavery in England. We should be deeply thankful for men and women of faith who serve in government and live out their convictions in their places of influence. Paul had supporters who were in high places of government in his day. 

Should Christians challenge unjust laws or practices in the fabric of our society? Yes. But we have been very selective in what we concerned ourselves with. Absent from the concerns of many white evangelicals, for instance, is the concern for racial reconciliation and justice - a concern of the prophets throughout the Old Testament. And Paul, in the New.

We have been outspoken on the issue of abortion and the evil that it is and have neglected the truth that to be pro-life is to be pro-life in all situations and for all people. Being pro-life means that I care about righteousness, justice, and fairness in all of society. The command, "Thou shall not kill," is stated in the negative because one cannot catalog all the ways that we keep this commandment by enhancing the lives of those around us, caring for the needy, the hurting, the poor, and the hungry, or in dealing with racism that destroys the dignity and opportunities of many - those who are without power or marginalized by society.

We should always use the means that we are given to bring about a better nation. Jeremiah advised the Jews living in captivity to pray for the peace of the city in which they lived and to contribute to its success. For us, that includes using the political system, courts, and legislation to pursue a more just society.

But politics is not the ultimate answer to our nation's ills. As God told Solomon, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14. 

If we spent as much time cleansing our own lives, seeking the face of God, and praying for our nation as we do arguing about politics and engaging in the political system, we would see a more righteous and just society.

Only God is God, and He is the One who can bring healing to our nation. All other gods, including our god of politics and power, will not and cannot. 

The place that resolve and focus plays in successful organizations

 

Resolve is a quality that is often in short supply, especially in ministry organizations. I define resolve as the ability to chart a course that we know to be right and to not deviate from that course. We may change our tactics regularly but resolve is the discipline of going a long way in a specific direction to reach a specific result.

Why is resolve often in short supply? First, we have not done the hard work of determining exactly where we should go and therefore when a new or better idea comes along we grab that in our effort to be successful. In fact, when leaders in many organizations lay out a new plan to their staff, many yawn, and ignore the new direction as they have become used to the flavor of the month. Charting a ministry path that will yield significant results takes a great deal of thinking, prayer, dialogue and effort. Easy answers are rarely great answers. They are often common answers when what is needed is something other than conventional wisdom.

In the absence of being sure of one's direction and having a set of values that undergird that direction, resolve is not possible. Instead, we settle for an easy solution that is easily changed when a new idea comes along.

Resolve is also in short supply because any direction or strategy you choose will elicit pushback from somewhere. That pushback may be valid if the hard directional work has not been done. But pushback will come and leaders, boards and staff often cave when faced with opposition. 

One of the most important traits of good leaders is that they have done their homework, are sure of the direction the organization needs to go and don't cave no matter how much opposition they face. This is not about hubris because a good leader runs process and has key people with them. It is about courage to do what is right in order to go where God is calling them to go. Undeterred by those who don't agree. 

Courageous leadership is willing to go where the organization needs to go and to push the organization out of the comfort zone and into more missional work. That takes resolve because there will be any number of reasons to retreat or take an easier route.

Some suggestions to those who want to grow their resolve.

• Make sure you have done your homework and understand where your organization needs to focus.
• Be prepared for pushback because organizations naturally gravitate to the comfortable.
• Have a communication strategy that is clear and allows for dialogue in order for individuals to grasp the new reality and adjust to it. Clarity matters!
• Be sure you have a guiding coalition of key individuals who can help you convince others and who will give leadership to the new direction.
• Keep the main thing the main thing. Don't be diverted from your central message and focus. Talk about it, demonstrate it and over communicate.
• Remember that people grasp new paradigms differently. Some will get it with explanation. Many will require a great deal of dialogue. Some will only get it when they see it. Be patient but keep pressing forward. Don't deviate from your central message and direction.
• Let people know that the organization is going in the direction you have committed to. This is not the flavor of the month. It is going to happen! And demonstrate that by your own actions.

Resolve sets some leaders apart from most leaders. It also sets some organizations apart from most organizations. It is a disciplined and courageous commitment to a course of action that will maximize an organizations effectiveness.

Simplifying complexity

 

Leaders deal daily with complex issues. Because they have the context as well as the ability to think conceptually, this is often second nature to them. Unfortunately, those they try to communicate their ideas to often find the complexity confusing. And what is confusing cannot be grasped by those who need to understand it.

Ministry or business is complex. Complexity is confusing. The job of a leader is to simplify complexity.

Simplifying complexity so that people can grasp a concept or paradigm is one of the hardest tasks a leader often faces. Especially for those leaders who love complexity and whose minds naturally move toward complexity. But if the average individual cannot grasp your concept or paradigm, it is difficult to move in the direction that is desired. It results in confusion rather than in clarity.

There is also the desire by many leaders to share everything they know or have thougth through with those they are selling an idea to. The reality, however, is that much of that complexity is not important. What is important is the underlying principle to the complexity that people do need to understand. 

A good example of this principle can be found in the negotiations between the United States and Russia during the Reagan administration over nuclear weapons. This was a very complex and complicated issue that almost did not come to a settlement. But it did and President Reagan's statement explained the concept to the public exceedingly well: "Trust but verify."

Those three words took immense complexity and work and explained the concept brilliantly. So succinct was that expression that it has found a way into our vocabulary. In three words a much larger story was told. But in a way that the average individual could understand. It became the guiding principle for the agreement that took place. 

In the church I serve, we have a deep commitment to becoming a church that is friendly and accessible to everyone. That means no matter what their age, their background, their race, their socio economic status or anything else that might define them, they are welcome here. This is not an easy task and there is a great deal of complexity that goes into making this a reality. However we can articulate that complexity with simplicity: "A church for everyone and anyone."

Simplicity also builds culture. When staff talk about a church for everyone and anyone, the simple statement reminds them of a commitment that is fully understandable: it means something. And the simple statement is becoming a part of the culture of the church. Complexity does not build culture. Simplicity can!

One of my rules is that if something cannot be explained on one sheet of paper it is too complex and will not be remembered. It is one thing to do the hard work to arrive at a paradigm that you want to embrace. It is another to simplify that paradigm so that everyone can grasp it easily. It is the difficult construction of an idea and the necessary deconstruction in order to make it understandable.

If something in your organization cannot be easily explained, is not remembered or is not lived out, ask yourself if it has been simplified in a way that is memorable and easy to explain. If not, do the work of simplifiying complexity.

In my book, Leading From the Sandbox I show how an entire organization's purpose, values, culture and central focus can be articulated with one picture.