On Leading Well

Year: 2008

  • Let Your Message Come Through

    The ability to clearly communicate sets excellent leaders apart from the others. One way to ensure poor communication is by medicating people with boring, run-on, predictable presentations.

    You’ve got something important to say. How do you say what you mean and increase retention of what was said?

    Here are a few tips:

    • The greatest teacher the world has ever known used three time-proven methods. He told stories, asked questions, and practiced what he preached.

    • Give me a word picture, or a great image. Unless you’re training someone for a very specific task, avoid powerpoints with lots of small bullets.

    • Read this FastCompany article on good presentations.

    • Make it Stick. Consider reading Made To Stick by Chip & Dan Heath. They help us communicate SUCCESsfully by exploring six qualities that make ideas easily memorable. Keep things:
    1. Simple
    2. Unexpected
    3. Concrete
    4. Credible
    5. Emotional
    6. Stories

    I think I can remember those.


  • 35th Spiritual Birthday

    On a Wednesday afternoon in a bank’s unused meeting room, one woman banged out some hymns on a piano while 40 some-odd kids followed along. A second woman then began telling stories from the Bible using a felt-board. Felt-boards were what people used to communicate before Velcro, Power-point, 3M sticky notes and cell phones were invented.

    This felt-board had a big heart with a door in the middle. Jesus waited politely on the outside (the side without a door handle). Only the person inside (me, in this case) could invite him in.

    As a 10-year old fourth grader, I didn’t need a lot of data to convince me of my own sin and my need for a savior. Later, after dinner, I vividly remember going upstairs to my room, kneeling beside my bed, and inviting Jesus to invade my life, forgive my sins, and help me follow Him. That was Halloween night 1973. Shout at the devil.

    Thank you, Ann Pugh, for faithfully presenting the message to a kid who desperately needed to hear it. Another ten years would pass before I fully surrendered to Christ’s wonderful Lordship. You have borne good fruit to God’s glory among the nations. Your labor was not in vain.

    Did you know…? On this day in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenburg, Germany, pouring gas on the flame of the nascent Reformation. Shout at the devil again.

  • Growing in Self-Leadership

    One of the greatest – and most rewarding – challenges of any leader is to grow in conquering the towering mountain of Self. Contemporary culture and media thrive on selling Self-interest, Self-promotion, Self-preservation, and Self-indulgence. But those who lead well have mastered the art of putting others’ interests first.

    I am now three weeks into my 90-day experiment in overcoming physical and leadership plateaus. I’ve been examining my ways and listening to the echoes of “self” in what I say and do. My mirror has been a page from a letter written by one of the greatest and most selfless spiritual leaders of all time – the apostle Peter. Here’s a guy who hung around with the savior of the universe for 3 years and could easily have claimed titles, pulled rank, or dropped names. But after 30+ years of serving others, he called himself a slave of Jesus Christ.

    Here’s what grabbed me:

    “[Jesus’] divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness…. so that through [his great promises] you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,
    and virtue with knowledge,
    and knowledge with self-control,
    and self-control with steadfastness,
    and steadfastness with godliness,
    and godliness with brotherly affection,
    and brotherly affection with love.

    For if these qualities are yours and increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful…. if you practice these qualities you will never fail. (2 Peter chapter 1, ESV)

    As I have been meditating on this cascading list of character qualities, many observations surface. Two worthy of note are:

    1. The value of growing in more knowledge (books, seminars, sermons, professional development stuff) is limited if it does not lead to greater self-control. This is a call to greater self-leadership. It echoes Jesus words, “If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

    2. The ultimate goal of all growth and development is brotherly affection and love. Maybe the litmus test of “Am I growing?” is really “Am I loving others more?” This should start showing up in my life.

    What about results? A new physical regimen should result in some noticeable changes in body shape and overall well-being. Check. Spiritual growth should also result in some noticeable fruit in how others experience me. Yesterday someone thanked me for exhibiting a specific quality I had been trusting God to grow in from the list above. I’ll take that as progress.

    How are you growing in self-leadership? Check out this practical article by Bill Hybels on The Art of Self-Leadership.