A Life Out of Balance – What is at Risk?

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Balance in life – what does that mean?  To me it simply means having right priorities and then actually living your life according to those priorities.

Much has been written about living a life of balance.  A life whose rhythms produce health and effectiveness in what you are called to do is one indication of living a life in balance.  We have seen too often leaders, especially Christian leaders, who have fallen due to wrong priorities.

When you are not living wisely – not according to the right priorities, you put so much at risk. Not just yourself, but to those you love the most.  They are the ones that seem to suffer the most.

Michael Hyatt has written recently on “Five Consequences of A Life Out of Balance”.  The things you are putting at risk he mentions are:

1. Your Health

2. Your Family

3. Your Friends

4. Your Effectiveness

5. Your Example

If you are not living a life of balance – a life of right priorities – it will catch up with you and you won’t like the consequences.

Wayne Cordeiro has some good resources regarding this topic as does Tony Schwartz.

My priorities are:

My relationship with Jesus

My wife

My daughters

My country

My ministry

My health

What are yours?  Do you know?  If not, maybe it is time to get away and decide.

Blessings on your day!

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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The Ten Commitments of Leadership

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James Kouzes and Barry Posner are widely recognized experts in the field of leadership.  Their book, The Leadership Challenge, is considered a classic in leadership literature.

They also have a 2010 book out – A Coach’s Guide to Developing Exemplary Leaders that is excellent.

In that book they list The Ten Commitments of Leadership that are excellent in my opinion.

The Ten Commitments are grouped under five major headings

Model the Way

1. Clarify values by finding your voice and affirming shared ideals.

2. Set the example by aligning actions with shared values.

Inspire a Shared Vision

3. Envision the future by imaging exciting and ennobling possibilities.

4. Enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations.

Challenge the Process

5. Search for opportunities by seizing the initiative and by looking outward for innovative ways to improve.

6. Experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from experience.

Enable Others to Act

7. Foster collaboration by building trust and facilitating relationships.

8. Strengthen others by increasing self-determination and developing competence.

Encourage the Heart

9. Recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence.

10. Celebrate the values and victories by creating a spirit of community.

A great list.  I would add one thing from The Way of the Shepherd – you must have the heart of a shepherd towards those you lead.  Leadership is a lifestyle.

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Four Stages of the Creative Process

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Creativity is something that fascinates me – as a “left-brain” thinker, the “right-brain” folks intrigue me and I desire to better tap into my creative side.  My youngest daughter is an artist and the way she looks at the world is wonderful.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am reading Thinking for a Living by Joey Reiman.  Pretty good book.  In the book, he lays out their Journey of Ideation.  This journey consists of four stages:

1. Investigation – this is where you gather and analyze qualitative and quantitative data. This step usually leads to what he calls the destiny statement for the project.

2. Incubation – this is the longest stage.  This is where they “allow our minds to go out and play.”.  This is the brainstorming stage – both independently and collectively.  This is the time you are searching for the one elusive insight or idea that will provide clarity.  This is the “daydreaming” phase.  Usually they come out of this phase with hundreds of ideas.

3. Illumination – He makes the statement that ideas don’t appear, they evolve.  This is the stage where the editing of the ideas from the Incubation Phase takes place.  This is where they are attempting to illuminate the one Big Idea.

4. Illustration – In this phase, you are visually portraying and personifying the Big Idea.

Looks like an interesting framework for ideation.

How does your organization set up the creative process? Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Work as Art – you are an artist

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You are an artist, you just may not realize that yet.

You are creating a thing of beauty when you do your work well, with creativity, with passion and most of all when you do it as unto the Lord.

When you cooperate with the Holy Spirit, when you allow Him to guide your hand on your piece of the canvas of life, you are creating something that is beautiful.

Some of us don’t feel like “creatives” as we don’t make paintings, videos, music, and etc.  We balance the books, input the data, make the sale, assemble the part, attend meetings, and so on.  In reality, what you do impacts lives – especially when guided by the Spirit and for the Lord’s glory.

When He guides your hand, you create something beautiful – and it is an act of worship.  So this week, create for His glory and see what happens.

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Are You Living Intentionally?

Here is a tool to help you live intentioanlly

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“Striving to be Intentional” – this is the e-mail signature block of a friend of my wife.  She and her husband see life as a wonderful gift of God that is to be lived intentionally and not squandered.

To live intentionally requires seeking God in prayer and the Scriptures, times of deep reflection and deep discussion to better understand your purpose.  It also requires planning.

Daniel Harkavy of Building Champions and Ministry Coaching International, the sister organization to Building Champions, have a couple of great tools for life planning. Building Champions has a Life Plan and Ministry Coaching International has the Life Book.  Both are great tools for living life intentionally.

In an earlier post I talked about the Life Accounts in the Life Book and how they are so very helpful in living life intentionally. Click here to read that post.

Additionally, Michael Hyatt has taken the Life Plan and turned it into a great e-book and is offering it free for a time – click here to read Michael’s post and to register for the free e-book.

Do not just float through life – live intentionally and with great passion for the glory of God.

Have a great weekend! BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Who are you as a leader? 6 questions to

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I like good questions – especially those that really make you think.  David Witt has a post on the Blanchard Leader Chat blog that has six great questions that cause you to really examine yourself. (click here to read the entire blog)

Enjoy!

1. Who have been the leadership influencers in your life?

2. What is your overall purpose, and what do you want to accomplish?

3. What are your core values?

4. What are your beliefs about leading and motivating people?

5. What can people expect from you as a leader?

6. What do you expect from your people

Good questions in my opinion.

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Creativity is Inseparable from Context

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Creativity – a hot topic now and rightly so. In an earlier post I talked about IBM’s 2010 study, Capitalizing on Complexity, involving over 1500 CEO’s from around the world.  The basic result is that complexity is the major challenge facing organizations world-wide and that the most important characteristic needed now in senior executives is creativity.

According to what you read now, creativity is a rare commodity.  Why is that?  Why have there been great periods of creativity and innovation and times of “drought”?

In reading Joey Reiman’s Thinking for a Living, he references Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who states that creativity is inseparable from context. In his opinion, raw talent is less essential to creativity than a rich domain (environment) and receptive judges.  He goes on to say that the difference in great periods of creativity such as the Renaissance, people didn’t suddenly get smarter or more talented – the difference was the socio-cultural environment (the domain) in which they lived. The culture provided ways to fund, nurture, spark and reward creativity.

Judges are those people with the power to pass judgment and hand out rewards and penalties.

My question for you (and me), is if you are in the position of a “judge”, are you creating an environment (the domain) whereby creativity is encouraged, nurtured, and celebrated? Or are you throwing a “wet blanket” on the spark of innovation in your area?

These questions take some careful searching out of yourself to find the answer.

So this week, start developing the right context for your team to truly become creative.

Grace and Peace to you,

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Values – Are They Really Important?

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Leading with Luv by Ken Blanchard and Colleen Barrett is a great little book as I mentioned in my last post and I want to share another little tidbit for your consideration.

Being a “values driven organization” is a popular topic today, but most of us deal with a gap between our stated values and our functional values – what we really do.  A key task of leadership is to work to close that gap.

The question the authors ask is key to assessing how serious you are about actually operating according to your stated values.

“Are people who don’t live your values tolerated in your organization? If so, what has been the impact? If not, how are they dealt with?”

The answers to the questions above could be a good indicator of truly how serious you are about your stated values.

(watch a video of a conversation between Ken and Colleen about the book by clicking here)

Hope you have a great weekend!

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Keep People Informed and Lower Costs

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Quick quote from a great little book – Lead with Luv by Ken Blanchard and Colleen Barrett (President Emeritus of Southwest Airlines):

“If you keep your people well informed and let them use their brains, you’ll be amazed at how they can help manage costs.”

Makes sense to me.  This is a good book and a quick read.  Good one to add to your tool box in my opinion. Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Work Less, Think More

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What do you “think” about that title?

Well, it is the title of a chapter in Mark DeMoss’ great book on leadership called The Little Red Book of Wisdom.

Mark goes on to quote Albert Einstein who says, “The significant problems we face in life cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”

Taking time to STOP and actually think for an extended period of time is a critical leadership discipline and one of the most neglected of the leadership disciplines.  It seems we live our lives reacting to our e-mail, texts, daily tasks, and etc. to the point that we are constantly living at the operational or survival level in our jobs instead of at the proactive conceptual or strategic level.

And short-sighted decisions or living produces short-sighted results.

So, consider instituting the leadership discipline of “disciplined, uninterrupted thinking” into your life.  It will be hard, in fact very hard, at first, but the results will be transformational

Serving Christ,

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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More Leadership Questions for You

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Good questions are powerful tools in the toolbox of a leader.  If you aren’t continually searching for and effectively using questions, you are limiting the impact of your leadership.

I have posted some questions before and you can see these posts at:

Four Questions Leaders Should Ask Themselves

Two Simple Questions

12 Great Questions for Leaders

Do You Need to Look in the Mirror?

Also, I just saw a post by Seth Godin with Seven Questions for Leaders.  Click here to read the entire post.  Following are some of the questions:

What do you do with people who disagree with you?

Are you open to multiple points of view or you demand compliance and uniformity? [Bonus: Are you willing to walk away from a project or customer or employee who has values that don't match yours?]

Is it okay if someone else gets the credit?

How often are you able to change your position?

If someone else can get us there faster, are you willing to let them?

Collect and use good questions – you will become so much more effective. Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Capitalizing on Complexity

http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/ceo/ceostudy2010/index.html

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Complexity has now superseded change as the most pressing challenge according to the 2010 IBM CEO Study titled Capitalizing on Complexity. The study covered over 1500 CEO’s from around the world and is a fascinating study.

While the CEO’s ay that complexity is the most pressing challenge, most of them also say that their organizations are not prepared to deal with that complexity, much less take advantage of the opportunities afforded in that complexity.

The key characteristic, according to the study, that leaders now need to deal with complexity is creativity.

The study found the following three ways to deal with complexity and I believe that they are highly relevant to churches and non-profits.

Embody creative leadership. CEOs now realize that creativity trumps other leadership characteristics. Creative leaders are comfortable with ambiguity and experimentation. To connect with and inspire a new generation, they lead and interact in entirely new ways.

Reinvent customer relationships. Customers have never had so much information or so many options. CEOs are making “getting connected” to customers their highest priority to better predict and provide customers with what they really want.

Build operational dexterity. CEOs are mastering complexity in countless ways. They are redesigning operating strategies for ultimate speed and flexibility. They embed complexity that creates value in elegantly simple products, services and customer interactions.

The study is fascinating and there is some excellent information on their website.  I would recommend you taking the time to read the study.

My question for you – how are you dealing with the ever increasing complexity of life?  Do you fear it or do you embrace it seeing the many opportunities for advancing the cause of Christ?

Is your organization prepared to deal with this complexity?  If not, what do you need to do to prepare your team?

Peace & Grace,

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Thinking vs. Just Operating

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Are you so busy operating or doing the daily tasks of work or ministry that you are not taking the time to think conceptually about your mission and your roles & responsibilities?

If so, why not?  What needs to change? Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Be-Know-Do – The Army’s Leadership Model

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Being a former Army officer, the Army holds a special place in my heart.  Additionally, they have been the premier leadership training organization in our country for the last couple of centuries.

The Army has a simple, but profound model for leadership:  Be – Know – Do.

By the way, the Leader to Leader Institute (Peter Drucker) has published a great book on this called BE-KNOW-DO, Leadership The Army Way.

The model is simply this:

BE – this is all about your character as a leader and is foundational to your ability to lead.  It gives you the courage to do what is right regardless of the circumstances or the consequences.  As part of BE, you should be aware of your personal core values as well as your organization’s values.  For the Army, their values are:

Loyalty

Duty

Respect

Selfless Service

Honor

Integrity

Personal Integrity

KNOW – This is about the knowledge and skill sets you need to be competent as a leader and cover four areas:

Interpersonal skills

Conceptual skills

Technical skills

Tactical skills

Your mastery of the knowledge and skills required for your role are essential to the success of your organization.

DO – Leaders act. They bring together everything they are, everything they believe, and everything they know how to do to provide purpose, direction, and motivation.  This involves the following three leader actions:

Influencing

Operating

Improving

For me, it’s a great model of leadership.  You can either order an actual copy of The U.S. Army Leadership Field Manual or the book on the model, BE-KNOW-DO, Leadership The Army Way.

Hope you have a blessed week serving those the Lord has given you to shepherd at your place of work.

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Do You Need to Look in the Mirror?

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‘When a leader isn’t getting what s/he wants out of someone, it’s important first to look in the mirror and ask ‘What do I need to change in the way I am leading to launch them into effective, independent action?’ ‘”

Great point from a post by David Peck.  We often blame those we lead for not performing well, misunderstanding instructions, or failing to meet our expectations when the real source of the problem can be found by looking into the mirror.

I remember when I worked in quality long, long ago being taught that Joseph Juran (one of the grandaddies of the Quality Management) made the claim that over 80% of all quality issues were managment caused – not worker caused.

We often default to the position that it is the fault of our team members when they err, when the real cause can be found in the mirror.

So, before assigning the blame to others, pause and take a look into the mirror.

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Bad Meetings – An Answer

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Bad meeting – have you ever sat through or endured one?  For many, that is the rule and not the exception.

Matt Perman, has a blog post on bad meetings entitled – “Bad Meetings Generate Real Human Suffering“.  Quite a statement and a little shocking at first glance, but after only a few minutes of reflection, it’s truth is quite apparent.  Matt goes on to quote Patrick Lencioni from his book, Death by Meeting:

“Bad meetings exact a toll on the human beings who must endure them, and this goes far beyond mere momentary dissatisfaction. Bad meetings, and what they indicate and provoke in an organization, generate real human suffering in the form of anger, lethargy, and cynicism. And while this certainly has a profound impact on organizational life, it also impacts people’s self-esteem, their families, and their outlook on life.

And so, for those of us who lead organizations and the employees who work within them, improving meetings is not just an opportunity to enhance the performance of our companies. It is also a way to positively impact the lives of our people. And that includes us.”

So what is an answer? First, I would recommend reading Death by Meeting.  Secondly, you need to decide what you want meetings to accomplish and to look like in your organizations and then start putting into place the mechanisms to accomplish your vision.

To make meetings a blessing instead of a curse we have developed a meeting protocol.  Click here to read an earlier post on “A Meeting Protocol“. Hopefully, this might jump start your thinking as to how you want meetings to run in your organization.

So what do you plan t0 change so that your meeting bless instead of curse your staff?

Have a great weekend!

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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