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Dealing with Your Unconscious Incompetence

By Stephen Blandino on April 24, 2012 in Leadership, Personal Growth with 0 Comments

Author and leadership consultant Dr. Sam Chand observes in his book, Cracking Your Church’s Culture Code:

“People have an almost limitless capacity for self-deception. We don’t know what we don’t know and are therefore unconsciously incompetent. If we were aware of our deficits, we’d ask questions and find solutions, but because we’re not aware, we stay stuck in the status quo until something shakes us awake” (p. 41).

There’s an element of not knowing what we don’t know that sounds crippling, almost even hopeless. If you don’t know that you don’t know something, where do you even start? There’s obviously not a fool-proof answer to this question. In fact, the answer to your “how do I know what I don’t know” question isn’t what you don’t know. Confused?

There are thousands of “I don’t know what I don’t know’s” out there that I will never know. And I can’t frantically search for the answers I don’t even know that I need. Instead, the only way to deal with our unconscious incompetence is to cultivate a set of ingredients that make it easier, and more likely, to discover what I don’t know. What are those ingredients? I suggest five:

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Ten Insights from the ARC All Access Conference

By Stephen Blandino on March 30, 2012 in Church, Leadership with 0 Comments

This week our staff attend the ARC All Access Conference at Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas. It was a great event and very encouraging and challenging for our team. Here are a few thoughts from some of the conference speakers.

1. “You cannot stand before people for God unless you first stand before God for the people.” Robert Morris shared this thought in his challenge to pastors to pray. He said that every pastor at Gateway is required to have a team of intercessors who pray for them. He also encouraged pastors to start every elders meeting with 30-60 minutes of prayer. It builds unity and reduces conflict.

2. “You must lead the shepherds and feed the sheep.” Robert Morris shared this in his challenge to be committed to studying God’s Word. His message came from the story of Moses and Jethro in Exodus 18.

3. ARC Values - Greg Surratt, the new president of ARC, shared three essential values of ARC: We Plant Life; We Love Each Other Deeply; We Will Never Forget the Little Guy. These values contribute to the ARC’s success rate: 93% of churches started by the ARC are still in existence 5 years after their launch.

4. “Your response to offense will determine your future…Travel light because resentment is a dream killer.” Chris Hodges from Church of the Highlands was very transparent about challenges he has experienced in his life, leadership, and ministry. He encouraged leaders to refocus on what’s happening in them not to them.

5. “Draft impact players…don’t hire projects.” Ed Young fired off 20 different leadership thoughts…this being one of them. He encouraged pastors to keep T.H.E.Y. in mind when hiring. Hire people who are Tough, Honest, Encouraging, and Yes men & women (They say yes to God and yes to the vision).

6. “Give people what they want, not what they think they want.” Greg Surratt challenged leaders to consider that most people really don’t know what they want. When asked, their only point of reference is that which has already been done. Leaders must invent the future. Only then can they truly give people what they want.

7. “Honor empowers and dishonor disables.” Dino Rizzo from Healing Place Church encouraged leaders to realize that their best days are ahead of them. He reminded leaders to guard their hearts (Proverbs 4:20-24). And he encouraged leaders to create a culture of honor.

8. “Today’s relevance becomes tomorrow’s religion.” Preaching from Exodus 37, Stovall Weems reminded us that something might look dead, but if it’s not buried it can live again. We need the right form (function)…which has been a major emphasis of the church in the last 15 years. We want to be relevant. But the end game is the transformation of lives. Otherwise our relevance becomes tomorrow’s religion. Relevance is not the goal, transformation is.

9. “Four Phases of Uncommon Clarity.”  Speaking from Acts 20:22-24, Craig Groeschel from LifeChurch challenged leaders to consider four phases of uncommon clarity. Clarity begins with the Spirit’s prompting, and then leads to certain uncertainty. God only gives you steps one, two, and three and then expects you to take a step of faith before he’ll show you steps five, six, and seven. If you’re not afraid, you’re not leading in faith. Then predictable resistance follows. Groeschel observed, “If you’re not ready to face opposition for your obedience to God, you’re not ready to be used by God…Don’t worry when you face resistance, worry when you don’t.” The outcome of this process is uncommon clarity.

10. “Three Levels of Impact.” Craig Groeschel concluded his message with three levels of impact: Make a name for yourself (which focuses on how good I am and everyone else is the enemy); Make a Difference (which focuses on how good we are and everyone else is the enemy); Make History (which focuses on how good God is and Satan is the enemy). Our focus should be making history.

There were many other great thoughts from the conference. These are just a few. If you attended All Access, what would you add to the list?

 

Amazon’s Culture: How to Shape an Enduring Organizational Culture

By Stephen Blandino on March 23, 2012 in Leadership, Organizations with 2 Comments

The growth and success of Amazon.com is remarkable. There’s a good chance you’ve ordered something (or many somethings) on Amazon. You might even be a loyal customer taking advantage of Prime Membership with free 2-day shipping. But what you might not know is how Amazon created their organizational culture.

Recently I’ve been reading Change or Die by Alan Deutschman. In his book, Deutschman shares the story of David Risher, a marketing executive with Microsoft who interviewed with Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, in 1996. At the time, Amazon was was only one year old and losing money. They were renting space in “an old brick building on Seattle’s skid row, a dismal block with a needle exchange, a defunct pawnshop, a grocery store with barren shelves, and an outreach service for troubled youths” (p. 46).

Bezos was very frugal, refusing to spend money on things that simply were not important. His desk was a wood door from Home Depot with two-by-fours for the legs. Despite the glamour-less looks of Amazon’s headquarters, Bezos had assembled a team of 30 employees. They were just like Bezos…incredibly smart, frugal, risk-takers, and information analyzers. Bezos told Risher, “I’d rather interview fifty people and not hire anyone than hire the wrong person.”

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Is Your Leadership a Carbon-Copy?

By Stephen Blandino on March 21, 2012 in Church, Leadership with 2 Comments

Leaders lead–nothing new about that statement. But there’s an element of leadership that implies leading into new, uncharted territory. That uncharted territory is where we see the greatest breakthroughs as well as some of the biggest failures. Everybody wants the glorious victory…it’s the possibility of failure that keeps us in our safe zone.

Several years ago I read Andy Stanley, Lane Jones, and Reggie Joiner’s book, 7 Practices of Effective Ministry.  I recently picked it  up again and was reminded of a powerful statement that drives the idea of entrepreneurial leadership. The authors write, “Most churches now being built are patterned after churches that already exist.” That statement is unsettling. Think about it for moment. Do you understand its implications?

If leaders are doing nothing more than leading people toward already proven models, then where’s the creativity, the innovation, the entrepreneurial faith, and the risk-taking necessary to reach people that otherwise won’t be reached. It’s not that we shouldn’t look to other effective models for inspiration and ideas. I’ve researched plenty and there truly are some great approaches to local church ministry that are making a significant impact for the Kingdom. We should do everything we can to learn from these models. But if we’re not careful, we’ll become so focused on carbon-copy ministry, that we’ll lose the courage to step into the unknown.

What about you? Are you leading your ministry or organization toward proven patterns or are you pioneering new territory? New territory is always accompanied by fear. It isn’t always safe. I’m not suggesting you make unwise decisions or walk blindly into the future. Jim Collins urges leaders to fire bullets then cannonballs as a proven and practical way to innovate.

Question: Is it always bad for your leadership to be a carbon-copy? What can leaders do to innovate for the future without always being a copy of somebody else’s leadership? 

 

Leadership: The Catalytic Gift

By Stephen Blandino on March 19, 2012 in Leadership with 0 Comments

Author and pastor of Willowcreek Community Church, Bill Hybels makes a great statement in his book, Courageous Leadership. He says, “The church must come to grips with the fact that the gift of leadership is the catalytic gift that energizes, directs, and empowers all the other gifts” (p. 68).  

This is by no means an arrogant statement. Rather, it is the reality that leaders are responsible to recruit, equip, and mobilize others to serve through their God-given gifts. When leaders fail to act as “gift catalyzers,” they become the lid on their church, organization, family, department, or whatever else God has called them to lead.

Have you stopped to recognize the gifts of the people around you? Are you faithfully stewarding your influence to help others maximize their God-given potential? When you view yourself as a “gift catalyzer,” your perspective on your leadership and areas of responsibility completely changes.  

People Development Over Program Development

By Stephen Blandino on March 13, 2012 in Church, Leadership, Personal Growth with 0 Comments

The church today has evolved into a complex system of programs designed to meet needs and help people. Many of these programs were started with a clear vision, and many of them remain true to their original purpose. However, like so many organizations, churches often protect what is at the expense of what could be. Unfortunately, protecting programs replaces  fulfilling mission.

How did we get to this place? In his book, Missional Renaissance, Reggie McNeal makes a poignant observation about the church and it’s program-driven modality. McNeal writes:

I maintain that the rise of the program-driven church correlates directly with the rise of the service economy in post-World War II America. The manufacturing engine powering the economy yielded to the service sector as Americans could afford to pay other people to do things they no longer wanted to do themselves or couldn’t do themselves. People began to outsource food preparation, lawn maintenance, laundry, oil changes, and child care. And Americans outsourced spiritual formation to the church. It was during this period that the concept of church as a vendor of religious goods and services became entrenched in the ethos of the North American church culture. (p. 92)

McNeal asserts that the church made an assumption that all of these programs were actually helping people grow. Perhaps some–maybe even many–of them do. But our assumptions are usually based on attendance rather than outcomes. We assume that if people are showing up, they must be growing. Our growth equation is often nothing more than Activity + Attendance = Personal Growth. As a result, people fail to “own” their growth.

I’m not suggesting that programs are bad. Rather, I’m challenging leaders to keep people development in focus. If programs can be leveraged to truly develop people, then those program should be resourced and maximized. But like so many things, the purpose of programs often evolves into nothing more than self-preservation. They shift from mission to maintenance.

So what might a new model for people development look like? I don’t claim to have all the answers, but when I observe healthy growth in people, I often see three important elements:

1. Customization - There is no one-size-fits-all personal growth system that everybody fits into neatly. Truthfully, most growth that seems to gain traction in our lives is customized to who we are and sensitive to our unique learning styles. Cramming square pegs into round holes only creates tension in the growth process. More times than not, people quit programs or drop out midstream because it doesn’t match their growth objectives or learning style. As a result, they fail to close their personal growth gaps. Question: What would happen if we helped people develop a customized growth plan to accelerate their growth?

2. Coaching - The coaching industry is accelerating like never before. And because true coaching is client-driven, people being coached tend to own their growth and are more deeply committed to seeing change in their lives. Good coaching doesn’t come with a pre-assigned solution to your problems. Rather, good coaching takes AIM at your potential. Question: How could we create a scaleable coaching strategy in the church in which people access the coaching they need to fulfill their God-given purpose?

3. Community - People need the ongoing support, encouragement, accountability, and growth-focused conversations of people who believe in them. When they experience true community, they often find themselves motivated toward growth. When you talk about community in the church, the focus is almost always on small groups. I believe in small groups, but I don’t believe small groups are the only way to experience deep relationships. Outside of my family, the most impacting relational connections in my life have occurred through one-on-one supportive accountability relationships with mature leaders.

Question: What other suggestions can you offer for creating a people-development culture over a program-development culture in the local church?

 

10 Words of Wisdom to Young Leaders

By Stephen Blandino on February 29, 2012 in Leadership, Personal Growth with 2 Comments

Young leaders are full of energy, vision, passion, and faith. Identifying emerging leaders is essential to building good teams, and established leaders play an instrumental role in their growth and development. After 20 years of leading, here are a few tips I’d like to share with young leaders…things I wish somebody had shared with me. And if you work with young leaders, consider how you can help them grasp these ideas.

1. Put Character at the Top of Your List - Most young leaders want to prove themselves. It’s a natural reaction because you’re trying to get people to take you seriously…which tends to happen when you have a solid track record. But be careful not to sacrifice your character on the altar of achievement. Ruth Barton once said, “We set young leaders up for a fall if we encourage them to envision what they can do before they consider the kind of person they should be.” What kind of person do you want to be? Work hard to cultivate character so that what you do doesn’t outpace who you are.

2. Make Listening Your Default Response in Meetings - As a young leader who wants to be taken seriously, you may feel a temptation to continually voice your opinion. However, it’s important to realize that when you give voice to your opinions, credibility hangs in the balance. Remember the words of Jonathan Swift: “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” Ask yourself, “Is what I’m about to say helpful, respectful, and beneficial?” Helpful is “what” you’re going to say; respectful is “how” you’re going to say it; beneficial is “who” will benefit from it. As Jim Collins says, “What’s your questions to answers ratio, and how you can you double it in the next year?” Learn to ask more questions rather than declaring all of your answers.

3. Develop the Master Skill - Authors Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner once wrote, “Learning is the master skill. When you fully engage in learning–when you throw yourself whole-heartedly into experimenting, reflecting, reading, or getting coaching–you are going to experience the thrill of improvement and the taste of success. More is more when it comes to learning.” You may have graduated from school, but never graduate from learning. Being a lifelong learner is what empowers your relevance for the rest of your life. Eric Hoffer captured it best when he said, “In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” Don’t be equipped for irrelevance…keep learning.

4. Sharpen Your Self-Awareness - All of us are trying to figure out who we are when we’re young. That’s a natural part of the growth journey. What’s sad is when people get older and yet still lack the awareness of who God made them to be. Increasing your self-awareness while you’re young allows “life purpose decisions” to compound over time. In other words, the more you understand how God wired you, the better decisions you’ll make about the direction you choose for your life. Good self-awareness always leads to better decisions about jobs, priorities, and time management. To increase your self-awareness clarify your strengths, discover your passions, and reflect on your dreams.

5. Seek Out Coaches - Coaching is possibly the most important strategy to help you grow. Seeking out coaches and mentors will push you light years ahead of where you would be if you travelled alone. As Andy Stanley says, coaching helps you go further, faster. Good coaches take A.I.M. at your potential and help you close the gaps between who you are and who you have the potential to become.

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Vision-Casting: Keep it Simple

By Stephen Blandino on February 24, 2012 in Leadership with 0 Comments

A great deal rides on a leader’s ability to cast vision. Not only must leaders capture a vision, they must effectively communicate the vision in such a way that they inspire teams and catalyze forward movement in organizations. Unfortunately, leaders tend to complicate vision casting. But as business author, Dave Anderson observes, the key to effective vision casting is to keep it simple…“The best things ever spoken or written were brief.” Dave sites the following example:

  • The Lord’s prayer has 66 words in it
  • The Gettysburg Address has 286 words
  • The Declaration of Independence has 1,332 words

On the other hand, the United States Department of Agriculture regulation on the sale of cabbage has 26,911 words. Your vision must have substance, but you must keep vision casting simple. People don’t remember complicated messages.

Question: What can you do to simplify your message? How clear and concise is your vision?

 

Put Your Problems in Perspective with 3 Words

By Stephen Blandino on February 22, 2012 in Leadership, Personal Growth with 0 Comments

You may be familiar with the axiom, “You either have big PROBLEMS and a little god or little problems and a big GOD.” It’s all a matter of perspective. While it’s an easy thing to say, it’s a much harder thing to live…especially when you’re leading in a crisis.

Moses understood the overwhelming feeling of despair and inadequacy when God called him to lead the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage. In Exodus 6:29 God addresses Moses, saying, “I am God. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything I say to you.” But Moses, full of fear and insecurity, shot right back, “Look at me. I stutter. Why would Pharaoh listen to me?” (Exodus 6:30).

Have you ever felt that way? God prompts you to do something and your immediate default button is to remind God of all of the reasons why His idea is a bad idea. Shaking your head you say, “Look at me.” You do your best to draw God’s attention to everything that’s wrong with you…your lack of talent, resources, skill, and good looks.

But I love God’s response to Moses. When Moses says, “Look at me…” God doesn’t waste a minute and fires right back: “Look at me” (Exodus 7:1). And then He proceeds to tell Moses,

“I’ll make you as a god to Pharaoh and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to speak everything I command you, and your brother Aaron will tell it to Pharaoh. Then he will release the Israelites from his land. At the same time I am going to put Pharaoh’s back up and follow it up by filling Egypt with signs and wonders. Pharaoh is not going to listen to you, but I will have my way against Egypt and bring out my soldiers, my people the Israelites, from Egypt by mighty acts of judgment. The Egyptians will realize that I am God when I step in and take the Israelites out of their country.”

God knows how to put things in perspective. When we’re crying, “Look at me,” God is quick to shoot back, “No! You look at me.” You can’t put your problems in perspective until you take your eyes off your problems and put them squarely on God. Then you’ll understand how God responds to your problems. So the next time you’re tempted to wallow in your insecurities, inadequacies, inabilities, and inferiority, step into the shadow of God. Be reminded of how big God really is. Let God’s still small voice speak three big words: ”Look at me.”

Question: In what area of your life is God saying, “Look at me.”

3 Strategies to Develop & Equip Your Small Group Leaders

By Stephen Blandino on February 21, 2012 in Church, Leadership with 0 Comments

Every pastor with a vision for small groups knows that they must do more than recruit small group leaders, but they must develop and equip their leaders too. Most pastors don’t need convincing, they simply need a systematic process and strategy. So here’s a simple lens to help you see leadership development more clearly:

1. ON-SITE TRAINING: Growth Opportunities that are Event Driven - When most pastors think of leadership development, they often think about an event that happens on-site and challenges and energizes their leaders. While training events cannot fully solve your leadership development needs, they do offer inspiration.

I’ve often said, “Events inspire change. Process creates change. Habits sustain change.” We all want to see people develop the habits to lead effectively, but sometimes they need the inspiration to get started. On-site training events with all of your leaders in one setting can offer motivation, inspiration, and practical tips to get the leadership ball rolling. A couple of on-site training events per year can be a great rallying point for your entire small group leadership team.

2. ON-DEMAND RESOURCES: Growth Opportunities that are Web-Driven - More than ever, technology should be leveraged to provide instant developmental tools and growth opportunities for your small group leaders. Whether it’s podcasts, blogs, free downloads, relevant websites, social media tools, small group software, or any other number of tools, work hard to create online resources that are immediately accessible.

Most leaders don’t know they need training until they’re hit with a problem. That’s when they need to know where to go to get what they need. I put 24 short and practical 2-10 minute training sessions online dealing with everything from childcare to group discussion, prayer to group multiplication, serving to conflict resolution, as a practical way to provide immediate training for our leaders. Most of your leaders won’t remember what you shared in your training events three months ago…but they will remember where to go for help if you’ve created a strong web presence.

3. ON-GOING RELATIONSHIPS: Growth Opportunities that are Relationally Driven - The third strategy to develop and equip your small group leaders is to provide relational support through coaches or community leaders. Mobilizing a team of people to provide follow-up, conduct huddles, and provide supportive coaching will help your leaders continue their journey without feeling overwhelmed, ill-equipped, or wondering where to turn in times of need.

The strategies above leverage training, resources, and relationships to help your leaders continue to grow and develop. Furthermore, it keeps you from forcing your leaders into a one-size-fits-all growth strategy. Some leaders will prefer training, others will appreciate the immediacy of online resources, and others will enjoy the personal nature of relational support. Having an on-site, on-demand, and on-going developmental system will help you meet your leadership development needs.

Question: What other strategies have you found helpful in developing and equipping leaders?

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