On Leading Well

Author: Ken

  • 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.

  • Model a Different Way

    Yesterday the US stock markets plunged another 7.3 percent, the seventh day of declines. World markets followed Wall Street’s cue, as key market gauges dropped 9.6 percent in Japan, 8 percent in India and 7.2 percent in Hong Kong, 7.3 percent in London, 7.7 percent in Germany and 7.5 percent in Paris. Radical pendulum swings between greed and fear always take a heavy toll.

    On the personal side: 30-40% of our hard-fought savings seems to have disappeared. Apparently we’re one of the dozen or so people who haven’t liquidated all our mutual fund holdings, so we haven’t logged many actual losses… yet. The weird thing is that we’re actually considering buying a little more, once the dust settles. My dad was and still is a stockbroker, and his advice was to buy low and sell high. Hmm….

    We have a golden opportunity to model blessing right now. People are afraid, angry and legitimately concerned. We can walk a different way by seeking to bless and give, to encourage and strive, to solve rather than criticize.

    The amazingly fruitful ancient churches in Antioch and Philippi gave generously and sacrificially during times of others’ profound need. Most of us are probably experiencing a significant shift in excess resources, or non-essential wealth, right now. I pray we will not miss the opportunity to learn, trust and grow into a new level of maturity and contribution within and beyond our current circles of influence.

    Let’s model a different way.

  • Overcoming Plateaus

    For the past 8 years I’ve been stuck. At least when considering my weight, which has been pegged at a certain number. I’ve tried multiple methods to shake off the extra 7-8 kg around my middle, but little seems to work. Over the years I’ve eliminated sodas, white flour, and most junk food from my diet. I regularly bike, swim, run and lift a few weights. But regardless of whether I spend a week buffeting my body in a series of meetings or working out with extra intensity, within a few days the scales seem to revert back exactly to the same value as before.

    Physical trainers, coaches and athletes refer to this as a plateau. When athletes experience a performance plateau, some radical change is needed to overcome inertia, get off the well-beaten tracks, and forge new pathways to fresh levels of desired results.

    For me, this is taking the form of a 90 day experiment in radically adjusting my diet and exercise regimen. I expect to see some radically different results by the end of this year.

    It occurred to me this morning that I may be experiencing the same phenomenon in my leadership. Over the past several years, my role required me to serve many leaders from many different countries over vast physical and cultural distance. Working with an amazing team of people, we figured out ways to communicate, clarify direction, coach, listen, assess and motivate people toward fulfilling a common mission. We stretched, grew, failed, learned, and experienced many moments of shared victory.

    Over the past year, I’ve discovered that my new role requires many of those same skills. So I’ve been doing my best with another good team of folks. The difference is that I sense a personal plateau in some tough areas that I have not yet been able to surmount. Specifically, this relates to how I internally process the natural conflicts that come from leadership. I keep experiencing some of the same situations, and I keep responding in the same manner, and I keep getting the same results. Albert Einstein identified this pattern – doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results – as insanity. It’s a leadership plateau.

    Leadership is influence. And what is the point of influence? To help an individual or a group of people move together in a new direction. By this definition, conflict is inevitable if leadership is occurring. Now it’s a question of degree and response. I’m asking myself: what lessons of the heart do I need to learn in order to experience different results in the next 90 days in my leadership?

    Are you hitting a plateau in your leadership? What attitudes or behaviors might need to be radically addressed to bring new results?