Don't Make this Mistake!

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Years ago when I was in the quality field, I remember a saying of one of the quality gurus.  He basically stated that all firings are the fault of management.  I initially scoffed at that idea, but over the years have come to agree in the main with his statement.  I don’t quite believe that ALL firings are the fault of management, but I now believe that most of them are caused by leadership (or lack of).A personal example.  Year ago, I was the commander of an Army Reserve unit in Texas of about 230 soldiers.  We had a great deal of heavy equipment so one of our largest platoons was the maintenance platoon.  This platoon was critical to the overall unit, but was not performing well and one reason was the platoon sergeant.  He simply was not leading well and his lieutenant was constantly coming to me to relieve the sergeant of his position.

I finally gave in and was about to start the process, when an older warrant officer (warrant officers are technical specialists) came to me and said, “Boss, I have an idea for you before you move ahead with this”.  Fortunately I listened.  Since we had so much heavy equipment, we often had to coordinate with the state for special permits for the movement of our equipment as well as arrange for special civilian trucks to move the equipment.  To do this we had a Transportation Coordinator position in our headquarters detachment.  So, we moved this sergeant into this position.

Bottom line – the sergeant excelled in this position and improved the performance of the unit.  I had almost derailed the Army Reserve career of a man simply because I did not know my people well enough.  Fortunately, I had someone on my staff that saw the potential in this man and who had the courage to intervene.  The sergeant was not a good leader of people, but was a great individual contributor.  He was simply in the wrong “seat on the bus”, but he definitely belonged on the bus!

So – do you know your people?  If you have read my blog in the past, you know that one of my favorite books is The Way of the Shepherd and two of its principles are:

Know the condition of your flock and

Know the S.H.A.P.E. of your flock.

Don’t make the mistake I almost did and derail a man’s carer – get to know your people!

Have a great week! BG

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Encourage the Heart and Keep Hope Alive

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Good morning to you this Friday morning.  I hope you have a great weekend planned of spending time with people you love and setting aside time to quietly meet with the Lord.

As a leader you are, or should be, a dealer in hope.  Actually that should be fairly easy as we serve the One who is our Hope.  However, I am afraid that at times I lose sight of that fact in the midst of busyness.  We of all people should be brimming over with hope.

James Kouzes ad Barry Posner in their excellent book Encouraging the Heart make the following statement:

“Encouraging the Heart is ultimately about keeping hope alive. Leaders keep hope alive when they set high standards and genuinely express optimism about an individual’s capacity to achieve them. They keep hope alive when they give feedback and publicly recognize a job well done. They keep hope alive when they give their constituents the internal support that all human beings need to feel that they and their work are important and have meaning. They keep hope alive when they train and coach people to exceed their current capacities. Most important, leaders keep hope alive when they set an example. There really is nothing more encouraging than to see our leaders practice what they preach.”

So are you keeping hope alive in those that you lead?  Including your family?

Have a great weekend.

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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What is THE Most Important Trait of a Leader?

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Good morning – would you be interested in learning what is one of the most important traits of a leader?  It has been found to be absolutely vital to effective leadership by both Christian and secular leadership “experts”.

Business authors such as Jim Collins (Good to Great), Patrick Lencioni (The Five Dysfunctions of a Team) and others agree on this point.  Christian authors such Crawford Loritts and Oswald J Sanders also agree that this trait is vital.

The antithesis of this trait is also the cause of the downfall of most leaders.

Humility is key to success as a leader – pride is a sure path to a leader’s downfall.

Click here to read a powerful piece by Patrick Lencioni on this vital trait of leaders.

Remember, as leaders you are called to serve and shepherd – not command and dictate.

Blessings – BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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A Most Sublime Word

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Good morning!

A leader once commented that the word duty is the most sublime word in the English language.  Nowadays it seems it is a most forgotten word.

Wikipedia gives this commentary: “. . . . [duty] is a term that conveys a sense of moral commitment to someone or something. The moral commitment is the sort that results in action and it is not a matter of passive feeling or mere recognition. When someone recognizes a duty, that person commits himself/herself to the cause involved without considering the self-interested courses of actions that may have been relevant previously. This is not to suggest that living a life of duty precludes one of the best sorts of lives but duty does involve some sacrifice of immediate self-interest.”

As a leader, you need to know your duty and to do it irregardless of how you feel and to understand that with doing your duty comes a price.

Being a leader comes with a cost – if you are not willing to pay it, then you may not need to be in a position of leadership.

Make a difference this week and advance the Kingdom of Christ!

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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The Radical Aspect of Being a Leader

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Good Friday morning to you!

In Crawford Lorritts’ book, Leadership as an Identity, the final and fourth trait of a leader is Radical, Immediate Obedience.  Interesting – we are talking about leaders and yet he says obedience marks a leader.  In many leadership books I have read, obedience is seldom discussed, but as they taught me in the Army, you can’t lead until you learn how to follow.

Of course, Dr. Lorritts is talking about radical, immediate obedience to the Lord.  That is often a very difficult thing to do.  Well, following are a few notes from that final section of his book:

Radical, Immediate Obedience

Staying In The Game:

“But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” Acts 20:24

Biblical leadership is characterized by radical, immediate obedience.

Obedience acknowledges the supremacy of God over all things.

Enduring The Challenge:

“They all wanted to frighten us, thinking, ‘Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.’ But now O God, strengthen my hands.” Nehemiah 6:9

See it through!

Courage is complete obedience in the face of opposition.

The Legacy of Faithfulness:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Hebrews 12:1

A long obedience in the same direction is sustained by the small choices we make each day. Be aware of the cumulative nature of our little choices.

Hardship and difficulties are part of the leader’s portfolio.

Well – that is the last of the book.  I would recommend adding it to your toolkit as a key aspect of understanding true leadership in the Lord’s Kingdom.

Hope you have a great weekend and spend time iwth your family and treasure them!

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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“some competencies matter more than others”

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Good morning – getting cooler up here in Michigan! Being a Southern boy with thin blood, I am not looking forward to that winter weather!  But I am greatly enjoying the fall colors.

The Harvard Business Review has a good article on the competencies you need if you are a senior leader in your organization. For example: “For C-level executives, for example, technical expertise matters far less than the art of influence: you can hire people with great technical skills, but then you’ve got to motivate, guide and inspire them.”  And,”. . . technical skills and self-mastery alone allow you to be an outstanding individual contributor. But to lead, you need an additional interpersonal skill set: you’ve got to listen, communicate, persuade, collaborate.”

Good article – click here to read it in its entirety.

The bottom line is that leadership is all about relationships.

Serving Christ, BG

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Uncommon Communion - A Leadership Trait

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Now what does Dr. Lorritts mean by uncommon communion and why is that important      in a leader?

Here is what he means, “He is using what He called us to do to not only accomplish the task but also to call us to plummet the depths of intimacy with Him.  It is in those seasons of seeking Him for His direction and solutions that we tap into His power and we cultivate a deep heart connection with the God of the assignment and the God of our souls.”

As a leader in God’s Kingdom, we have to realize that is it by His strength (Zechariah 4:6) that anything of lasting worth is accomplished.  The minute we start trusting in our own talents and competencies we achieve mediocre results at best. Competency is a good thing and we should always be working to become better, but we must realize that the source is God Himself.

As leaders, we should be seeking greater intimacy with the Lord realizing that we are in desperate need of Him and that it is through this uncommon communion with our Lord that we derive our ability to lead effectively in His kingdom.

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Four Traits of a Leader – Trait Number 1

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Good Monday morning to you!  It has been an extraordinarily beautiful few days here in Southwest Michigan.  Mild weather and the trees are beautiful!!

Now – to the topic at hand – what do you consider to be the key traits of a leader?          Dr. Crawford Lorritts has altered my list through his teaching and especially through his book, Leadership as an Identity (I have written on his book before – click here).

This week, we are going to walk briefly through what he considers the four traits of a leader.

Trait number one – Brokenness.  Bet you weren’t expecting that one!  I wasn’t.  A leader is supposed to be broken?  Really??  Aren’t leaders the ones who are supposed to have it all together?  Confident and bold in their abilities?                     Well – not really.

First – we need to realize that we have a desperate need for God – especially as leaders. Check out the book of John, Chapter 15.  ”I am the vine . . . apart from me you can do nothing.”  Notice that word nothing?

Secondly surrender is our response to our brokenness and demonstrates we always and forever need God.

Thirdly, a broken person realizes that they are capable of sinful failure.  That we are only one decision away from losing the ability to lead.

Fourthly, when we are weak – He is strong.  What we see as limitations He often uses to bring glory to Himself.

And finally, there are seasons of brokenness. These seasons come in different forms for different leaders and are so important – especially in how you respond to them.               Dr. Samuel Chand remarked, “No leader walks with a strut – the always walk with a limp.”

So – are you “strutting” depending on your own talents and abilities, or are you “limping” with an acute sense of your need for the Lord?

Blessings on your week as you shepherd the Lord’s flock. BG

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“Why I Dumped My iPhone”

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Happy Friday to you!  I like Fridays because that means I have a breakfast date tomorrow morning with my wife at one of our favorite cafes!!

Now I don’t use an iPhone, I am a Droid fan.  However a friend sent me an article on smartphones that caused me to pause and consider some things – click here to read why this man dumped his iPhone.

If you could go back in time and change something – what would it be?  Click here and read an article from Outreach Magazine about how 100 pastors answered that question.

Now, take a few minutes and look at these pictures and look with wonder at the handiwork of our Creator and give Him glory today.

Have a great weekend! BG

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Four Types of Meetings

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Meetings – the word makes most of us cringe, and with good reason. As I mentioned Monday, meetings poorly done can be crippling to your organization.  However, good meetings can propel you forward, the problem is, most of us don’t know what a good meeting looks like!

Patrick Lencioni in his great book Death by Meeting addresses how we can become better at this very important tool.  One thing he does is to help s understand that there are different types of meetings for different purposes.  For example, he gives us four types of meetings:

1. The Daily Check-In: this is a 5 – 10 minute stand up meeting where you & your direct reports quickly go over the plans for the day. Usually done every day or most days.

2. Weekly Tactical Meeting: usually 45 – 90 minutes where you review weekly activities and metrics and deal with tactical obstacles / issues.

3. Monthly strategic: usually 2 – 4 hours in length where you discuss, brainstorm and decide on strategic issues that impact long-term success.

4. Quarterly Off-site Reviews: usually 1 – 2 days in length where you go into depth reviewing and adjusting your strategy as well as the development of leaders.

If you want to get better at meetings, take some time to pick up and read Death by Meeting – you will be glad you did so.

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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Are Meetings Crippling Your Organization?

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“If an operating room were as sloppily run as our meetings, patients would die. If a restaurant kitchen put as little planning into a meal as we put into our meetings, dinner would never be served.”

“Regularly interrupting the day to bring our best minds together to focus on the urgent makes it impossible for these people to spend their focused energy on what’s actually important.”

Do these two statements resonate with you? Are you tired of continually spending time in the conference room and then walking out and wondering what, if anything, was accomplished? If so, the book The Modern Meeting Standard might be a good read for you.  In this book the author quite directly lays out many of the reasons for our ineffective meetings including it being a key way to avoid decision making and taking responsibility for decisions.

The author mentions seven principles of modern meetings (as opposed to traditional meetings):

- It supports a decision that has already been made.  - It moves fast and ends on time.  - It limits the number of attendees.  - It rejects the unrpepared.  - It produces committed action plans.  - It refuses to be informational.  Reading memos (emails) is mandatory.  - It works only alongside a culture of brainstorming.

Some excellent points in this book.  So if you want to quit wasting the time of your best and brightest, I would recommend you picking up this book and seing how you might apply its principles in your organization.  Additionally, another good book on meetings is Patrick Lencioni’s Death by Meeting.

Remember, you are a steward of your time and of the time of the people in your organization and they are your most precious resource.

Let’s serve our Lord with excellence this week. BG

BG Read more at bgallen.com

 

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