On Leading Well

Tag: results

  • First, Change the Paradigms

    If things didn’t need to change we wouldn’t need you to lead.

    We could get by with some excellent management of existing resources. We could keep producing what we produced last year. We could point people to last week’s message (or book, or meeting, or event) and talk about how well things went. All of these are necessary, but none of them will help you and your tribe grow and continue bearing fruit through the next seasons of challenge and opportunity.

    One of the lessons I have learned during my seven year stint as a vice president for a 60-year old global nonprofit is this: to lead change, first change the paradigms. A paradigm is simply a mindset, a model, a template or an assumed way to look at things. In our case, I realized that in leadership gatherings, the ministry leaders I interacted with tended to emphasize two primary measures of success: (a) how many staff members they had working in their countries and (b) how many students were regularly attending their meetings. Both of those numbers indicate a degree of health and momentum. The paradigms were based on staff numbers and attendance.

    But our calling as an organization is to help fulfill the Great Commission which we do by making disciples among all tribes, tongues, peoples and nations. When we are at our best we raise and release leaders. So first we had to change the paradigms from staff-focused efforts to student-led efforts. Also, rather than allowing leaders to spend 90% of their time and emotional energy dealing with a handful of staff members on a few campuses, we asked them to dream about how they might reach out to students on the next 5, or 10, or 100 top tier campuses in their nation.

    This type of thinking took a few years to drive into the culture. It can’t be done in one leadership meeting or a single email blast. It required sustained focus through multiple conversations. We had to answer objections such as “we don’t have enough money, or staff, or time or whatever to think about adding more work to our schedule.” We helped people prune programs and events that were no longer necessary. We quit publishing and warehousing outdated materials. We highlighted early adopters who had voiced similar objections but had made the switch and were now experiencing the benefits of the change. We tried, in a friendly way, to starve ineffectiveness. In short, we changed the scorecard for effectiveness.

    The results? We’re praising God for a 39% increase in one year in the number of campuses we touch around the world, as well as a corresponding 33% increase in the student leaders involved with us. Most of the growth has not come from an increase in staff members, or from gathering more people into our meetings. It’s come from inspiring and releasing students to lead.

    If things didn’t need to change we wouldn’t need you to lead. What paradigm(s) do you need to change?

  • 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?

  • What Is A Movement? Part 2

    A couple of years ago a friend of mine asked: “If I were to parachute into a city where I could observe a true movement of God on a campus, where would you drop me and what would I see?” We discussed several potential locations in East Asia, then we realized we might be overlooking an obvious one staring up at us from the pages of Scripture.

    The movement at Antioch truly changed the known world. In just 10-15 years – only half a generation – key cities among four provinces of the Roman Empire (Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia and Asia) were “turned upside down.” Several of us sat down and began a long period of group study on this radical church-planting church. The highlights can be found in the New Testament record of the book of Acts, mainly between chapters 11-15. Many of the apostle Paul’s letters also illuminate the DNA flowing from this new missions-sending base.

    We asked ourselves two simple questions:
    1. What happened at Antioch?

    2. What principles can we take away?

    I’ll fill in the specifics in a later post.

    The conversation, though, has now become global. Many people have been asking the question, and here’s what we believe the old principles and new practices indicate as a working definition.

    Definition. A Campus Movement is where God is working supernaturally through a team of like-hearted people to Win, Build and Send toward fulfillment of the Great Commission. True spiritual movements cannot be created by men, but are founded by prayerful dependence upon God.

    Measurable results. Over time God’s grace would be increasingly evident in each of these behaviors:
    1. Connecting lost students to Jesus
    2. Life-changing discipleship
    3. Multiplying student leaders (who mobilize and mentor others to lead)
    4. Generation of local resources (vision, people, money, ideas, etc).

    The first two elements describe non-negotiable personal MINISTRY components that form the foundation of any healthy movement. Points three and four reflect the difference between ministries that gather and MOVEMENTS that reproduce.

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