On Leading Well

Year: 2019

  • There Is Power In The Paceline

    Most Saturday mornings you can find me riding 100 km (60 miles) with 10-20 other cyclists in our local cycling club. The ride requires three hours of steady physical effort and mental focus because we ride closely together at high speed in what is known as a paceline. 

    Every cyclist in a paceline takes his or her turn riding up front for a few minutes “pulling” the group. Pulling in the lead spot requires up to 40% more effort than the person riding immediately behind! There is no way the group could go as far, or as fast, if one or two people had to pull the entire way. So we rotate. We share leadership. This requires a lot of communication because people riding in line can’t see cars, people, or debris as clearly as those up front.

    Eastside Cycling Club Paceline

    During the last hour of the ride people are tired. Increased fatigue highlights the importance of staying together and keeping alert. At this point the body needs continuous water and calories, or else the brain gets fuzzy. All it takes to cause a serious crash is for one tired rider to lose focus for a moment, overreact by braking too hard, or touch another rider’s wheel. 

    It’s during this final hour when my body is screaming that my brain makes a lot of connections between cycling well and leading well.

    There Is Power In The Spirit

    In the non-profit ministry in which I serve our team is about halfway into the implementation and execution of our shared 2019-2020 Digital Strategy goals. God has shown up. Lives are changing. Small teams around the world are creating more contextualized gospel content than ever before. 

    But many of my colleagues have confided to me that implementing the vision is a lot harder than it looked. Some fatigue may be setting in on our long ride toward digital maturity. It’s not surprising. Projects look so easy on a consultant’s whiteboard with lots of bulleted lists in colored markers.

    But innovation and change leadership is hard work. Failures, missteps, and conversation fatigue abound. We need perspective and power to stay the course.

    Lately I have been meditating in the book of Galatians. Paul’s words give me fresh energy: “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25). Paul’s command to keep in step with the Spirit comes from a military term that means “stay in line, follow!” The verb is plural in form. Paul is not exhorting a believer to be filled by the Spirit alone (though that’s important, too). He is calling the community to keep in step, stay in line, move together, in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

    Friend, are you fatigued in the middle of a long pull? I pray you will experience fresh power as you keep in step with the Holy Spirit. Let’s stay alert and agile. Let’s communicate. Let’s watch out for debris and adjust quickly. Let’s share leadership and pay attention to what God is doing around us so that we can move farther and faster together. If we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

  • Feeling Stretched? Try this.

    If I had one word to describe 2019 so far it would be “stretching.”

    I’m a pretty high-capacity person, but the doors the Lord has opened during this season, especially new opportunities to partner and collaborate, are far more than I seem to be able to walk through. I know it is not all dependent on me, but I have felt stretched beyond my ability to find sufficient time to connect meaningfully with key people. To deepen my knowledge of our strategy. To invest in dozens of new relationships formed during our Global Digital Summit. To set aside personal desires in order to be more available to others.

    To be honest, when time is short my heart becomes impatient with those closest to me. And yet, my ability to collaborate well is directly related to having more meaningful, positive relationships. That is why I feel stretched. The stretching reveals a place my character needs to grow.

    While pouring out my heart to Him, the Lord with His great sense of humor brought this passage from 1 Peter 4:7-8 to me: “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint.” 

    “Keep fervent” means to love “fully stretched out.” The idea here is that we are all going to fall short of our own or others’ expectations. Sometimes we will make mistakes and sometimes we may sin. I take comfort in knowing that “loving fully stretched out” covers a multitude of sins and bad meetings.

    Peter continues, exhorting us to be hospitable to one another without complaint. “Be hospitable” comes from the compound word philoxenos, or “loving strangers.” Collaboration requires me to love people who see the world differently than I do.

    We know that fruitful leadership in our VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world requires us to be more collaborative and partner-oriented than ever before. For me, that requires trusting God to love and serve others at full stretch.

  • You Don’t Have To Be The Hero

    Almost every good story features a hero that overcomes a challenge. Sometimes this hero discovers that he or she is the “chosen one,” like Neo in The Matrix, Katniss in The Hunger Games, Diana as Wonder Woman, Frodo, or Harry Potter. Each became a hero of their own story.

    In leadership I often feel subtle pressure to be “the hero.”  I’m tempted to feel I need to solve every problem. Have all the answers. Be perfectly prepared for every meeting or circumstance. Always say the right word. Answer every email. Ensure our team hits every faith goal. Save the day.

    Do you feel the pressure to be the hero? If (and when) you do, I have really good news for you. You don’t have to be the hero. There is only one true hero. The apostle Paul emphasized this truth when he wrote to people in Colossae who struggled with worldly standards to be right and righteous – to be their own heroes. Paul, who by our standards could be considered a hero in his own right, explained how powerful and great and amazing Jesus is:

    He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

    Colossians 1:15-20

    Paul then compels us not to become “our best selves,” but to journey in faith with the one true hero: “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” (Colossians 2:6).

    The pressure is off. My heart is at rest. As simply as I received him — by faith — I take the next step in Him. This is gospel personalization, to be known by and moving with the one true Hero of God’s larger story.

    Relax, hero.