On Leading Well

Year: 2014

  • Is Your Leadership Messy Enough?

    Confession: I love working from a clean desk.

    My creativity blossoms when I see a clean whiteboard or a fresh page in my journal. At least to start something. But once the ideas get flowing and people and projects come together I have learned, over many years in leading, that mess is best.

    Over the past year I have been working with a team of creatives. These folks thrive amid messy desks, crazy decor, strange art, police tape, hi viz colors, unfinished meals, and the constant buzz of collaboration. Our little area in the corporate HQ doesn’t quite fit into the normal culture. A discarded oversized whiteboard maps out the next iteration of a mobile app. No Thomas Kinkade paintings here.

    It’s one of the messiest places I’ve ever worked. It’s also one of the most productive. We’ve nicknamed our little corner The Oxpen.

    Howard's snake and gator head.
    Howard’s rattlesnake and gator head
    Oxpen 1
    The Oxpen

    Proverbs 14:4 says: “Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come from the strength of the ox.”

    Translation: You can choose clean and orderly, or you can choose messy and productive. You can’t have it both ways as a leader.

    Movements of God are messy. People are messy. Leadership is messy. Leaders embrace the mess. As we lead in a 21st century world of rapid iteration, agile product development, and 7 second social media attention spans, we’ve got to create environments where the oxen can make a mess. The farmer’s goal isn’t a clean manger; it’s a well-tended highly productive field. Unless you’re running a hospital or a silicon chip factory, your goal as a leader is not a well-ordered workplace. Your goal is fruitfulness.

    Don’t be afraid to step in the fertilizer and embrace the mess of the oxpen.

    Is your leadership messy enough?

  • What is Digital Maturity?

    What is Digital Maturity?

    How digitally mature is the organization you work for?

    One year ago I didn’t even understand the question, much less have any way to answer it. Over the past 12 months a number of my colleagues and I have been exploring the implications of being digitally immature in a 21st century global culture in which:

    • 4 continents have more mobile phone subscriptions than they have people
    • 25% of North Americans access the internet only via a mobile device
    • terrorists have become experts at using social media to recruit and radicalize members toward their cause

    Digital maturity occurs when an organization is increasing both in digital capabilities (mobile apps, social media engagement, delightful user experiences) and transformational leadership across every nook and cranny in the organization.

    Here’s a short four-minute video that explains some key concepts I’ve shared with some of our staff about digital maturity. The “10M” represents our desire to empower 10 million multiplying leaders around the world to do what God has called them to do.

    http://youtu.be/UYHFj-pgAjw

    Look at the chart below. Which quadrant best describes the current state of your organization, church or business?

    Credit: Capgemini Consulting, The Digital Advantage
    Source: Capgemini Consulting, The Digital Advantage

  • Striving to Enter God’s Rest

    Ann and I just returned from a much needed five-week sabbatical season of rest, reflection, and renewal. Our two main goals were simply to spend unhurried time connecting with God and with each other. One highlight for me was getting in the habit of sleeping eight hours per night. It’s amazing how much easier it is to walk in the power of the Spirit when one’s body is fully rested. I had been struggling to sleep a full night after so many international trips in the first six months of this year. Key lesson: If I want to love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, sometimes it helps to start at the end of the list and work backward.

    The writer of the book of Hebrews exhorts, “Let us therefore strive to enter God’s rest.” (Hebrews 4:11). Resting, genuinely breaking away from the compulsions of perpetual work, requires some serious striving.

    Here’s a brief excerpt from my journal on the final day of our sabbatical:

    Lord, you are changing me. I feel it. I feel it when someone looks at their watch and comments on how they are taking my time and should go, but I can freely offer myself, like I have all the time in the world.

    I feel it when I am not hurried to finish a conversation, a workout, a chapter in the book I’m reading, a phone call, a project I’m working on, or a meal. Hurry in me creates apathy and thinness. Ease creates spaces for authenticity, genuine concern, acute awareness, and ultimately LOVE. Remember, “Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” (Dallas Willard)

    “I feel like a kid in a guitar shop”

    When we reentered the world of meetings and email, people’s first question was “How was your sabbatical?” I shared that I felt like a kid in a guitar shop – I am eager, excited, ready, and can’t wait to roll up my sleeves and dig back into all God has for us. That’s how I know I’m refreshed and ready to go. I love this job!

    What have you found helpful to enter rest?