Questions That Strengthen Your Staff

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How do you develop a stronger staff?  As a leader, one of our responsibilities is to strengthen those that we lead.  When I was a young Second Lieutenant in the 9th Infantry Division, the First Sergeant of the company I was assigned to took a liking to me (or felt pity on me!).  One of the things he taught me was to be training for the next level of command.  He made the statement that when you do your job well as a leader then you can go play golf and your people would never know you were gone.  Quite a statement!

Think about what all goes into that statement.  One aspect of it is that you have strong people that think on their own and think well.  People who know how to make the right choices about their work.

In their book, A Coach’s Guide to developing Exemplary Leaders, James Kouzes and Barry Posner, suggest the following questions to start members of your team thinking about how to make right choices.

“How do you see . . .?”

“What if we . . . ?”

“What do you think about . . .?”

“How do you believe we could . . .?”

“Have you ever . . .?”

Some good questions and their book is full of more ideas.  The idea is to give your people the freedom to make choices and to think for themselves.

Have a blessed day!

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Do You Have a Money Problem? Symptoms to Check

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Silly question to ask in this current economic situation for most of us, right?

Actually, I am talking about another type of money problem – walk through the following symptoms from Life Action’s Revive magazine to do a quick self-evaluation to see if you exhibit any symptoms of a money problem:

Planning life around financial goals vs. God’s goals.

Relating success to outward gain vs. inward qualities.

Delighting more in material riches than in spiritual riches.

Letting the cares of riches choke out time for God’s Word.

Adjusting ethics to avoid financial loss.

Sacrificing friendships for financial gain.

Participating in “get rich quick” schemes.

Building family around the job vs. building the job around family.

Responding to loss with bitterness and lawsuits.

Transferring faith in God to personal wealth.

Assuming the right to make final decisions regarding my possessions and finances.

Striving for friendships with rich people vs. godly people.

Becoming the slave of discontent and ungratefulness.

“The love of money is a root of all sorts of evil.” (1 Timothy 6:10)

As I have been writing this, I am afraid I am showing a few symptoms.

To learn more about what it means to live generously, click here to read Life Action’s Revive magazine issue on living generously.

Hope you have a great week!

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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To Do Lists – Becoming More Efficient

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Good Monday morning to you!

For many of us, this is the morning when we are laying out our week and determining where we need to focus our attention this week.  One of the most powerful tools that we use to steward our time is the To Do list.

You can use paper or software, but you need some way of ordering and guiding your efforts for maximum impact. MindTools has a great article on To Do lists as well as a free downloadable template – click here to read the article.

Your time is one of the most precious resources that is a gift from the Lord and we are all to be good stewards of that resource.  To Do lists are one of the tools that will enable you to better steward your time.

So check out the article and see if it might help you.

Have a great week! BG

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Kill Your Darlings & Improve Your Presentations

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Good morning – we are still in the midst of Revival Week here at Life Action and it has been a great week so far.

Presentations – good ones seem rare.  As an adjunct professor in a business school, I have the opportunity to practice giving presentations quite often.  The students also have the opportunity to evaluate my presentations and as I teach graduate students, they are not too bashful about speaking their minds! So I have learned a few things.  The big thing is that taking away is better than adding to when it comes to presentations.  Less is more as the saying goes.

The Harvard Business Review blog has a good post on this subject that is well worth reading about “killing your darlings” to improve your presentations – if you make presentations it is well worth the read.  Also check out Nancy Duarte’s site as well as Garr Reynolds for some great tips.

Have a great Wednesday!

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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The Way of the Shepherd

7 Ancient Secrets to Managing Productive

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Good morning and I hope your week is getting off to a great start.  Here at Life Action, we are entering into an annual event we call “Revival Week”.  It is a time when we pretty much stop fir the week and collectively focus on the Lord seeking Him to work deeply within this ministry.  We would appreciate your prayers for us during this time.

The following is a slight update of a previous post about one of my favorite books.  I have used this book at the ministry and in many of the classes I teach at Bethel College and the impact has been tremendous. The book is The Way of the Shepherd, 7 Ancient Secrets to Managing Productive People by Kevin Leman and William Pentak.

Following are the highlights of the book:

1. Know the Condition of Your Flock a. Follow the status of your people as well as the status of the work. b. Get to know your flock, one sheep at a time. c. Engage your people on a regular basis. d. Keep your eyes and ears open, question, and follow through.

2. Discover the Shape of Your Sheep a. Your choice of sheep can make flock management easier or harder. b. Start with healthy sheep, or you’ll inherit someone else’s problems. c. Know the SHAPE of your sheep to make sure they’re in the right fold.

3. Help Your Sheep Identify with You a. Build trust with your followers by modeling authenticity, integrity, and compassion. b. Set high standards of performance. c. Relentlessly communicate your values and sense of mission. d. Define the cause for your people and tell them where they fit in. e. Remember that great leadership isn’t just professional; it’s personal.

4. Make Your Pasture a Safe Place a. Keep your people well informed. b. Infuse every position with importance. c. Cull chronic instigators from the flock. d. Regularly rotate the sheep to fresh pastures. e. Reassure the sheep by staying visible. f. Don’t give problems time to fester.

5. The Staff of Direction a. Know where you’re going, get out in front, and keep your flock on the move. b. When directing, use persuasion rather than coercion. c. Give your people freedom of movement, but make sure they know where the fence line is. Don’t confuse boundaries with bridles! d. When your people get in trouble, go and get them out. e. Remind your people that failure isn’t fatal.

6. The Rod of Correction a. Protect: Stand in the gap and fight for your sheep. b. Correct: Approach discipline as a teaching opportunity. c. Inspect: Regularly inquire about your people’s progress.

7. The Heart of the Shepherd a. Great leadership is a lifestyle, not a technique. b. Every day you have to decide who’s going to pay for your leadership—you or your people. c. Most of all, have a heart for your sheep.

Again – a great little book.

My question – Are you shepherding your people or are you just managing them? Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Three Questions to Improve Your Performance

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We all want to improve and one of the best ways to improve is through good feedback from those we work with on a regular basis especially those that support us.  At times we may ask open ended questions such as “How am I doing?” which really don’t help very much.

Thomas DeLong writes in the Harvard Business Review blog about the SKS method.  It is simply these three questions:

What should I keep doing?

What should I start doing?

The SKS also counteracts our tendency to avoid seeking out other people’s opinions of our attitudes and behaviors. The SKS process breaks the hold our illusions have on us.

He also recommends using the following questions to help you identify the behaviors that are keeping you stuck and the behaviors that will help you move in new directions:

Stop

Are you hearing that you should quit doing something that you feel is a skill or strength?

Is your first response that quitting this behavior will have catastrophic consequences?

On reflection, is it possible that you’ve fallen into a behavioral rut? If you stop doing one thing, might you have an opportunity to try something new and different?

Keep

Is there something you’re doing right that people feel you should do more of?

Have you been dismissive of this particular behavior or skill for some reason?

What might happen if you used this “keep” more? How might it impact your effectiveness and satisfaction with your job?

Start

Are people recommending you do something that feels foreign or scary?

What about it makes you anxious? Is it because you are afraid of looking like you don’t know what you’re doing?

Why are people suggesting you start doing this new thing? What benefits do they feel will accrue to you, your group, or your organization?

Some good questions – click here to read the entire article.

Blessings on your weekend!

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Too Much Going On?

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Good Monday Morning!

Question – did you wake up with a slight feeling of dread possibly thinking of your “To Do” list?  Do you feel like it is “one step forward, two steps back”?

Try these questions to see if they provide you any clarity as to what you should be working on – and what you shouldn’t be doing:

- What are the things only I can do?

- What are things I can delegate that will help someone else grow (even if they don’t do it like you – be ready for a surprise when they do it better!)

- What are things that seem urgent due to the “noise” being generated, but really don’t matter?

- What can (should) I simply stop doing as they are non-productive activities? What are my “time-wasters”?

Hope you have a highly productive week serving our Lord!

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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