Trust

A little known fact among leaders is that your perception of reality is not the same as the facts. 

Leaders gets tunnel vision when they start looking at how they would do things by themselves and in the time they want things done instead of what is actually achievable. This is BAD, VERY BAD!   Here’s why, as leaders you have a team of people that need to work together.  If you’ve put your team together properly you have a good mix of talents and not a team of cookies.  One of the most motivating things said to me early in my career was this, “We hired you as a professional, do your job and let us know what you need to do it with.” The worst thing that can happen to any employee is to be given a job and not the responsibility or resources to do it with. The difference between these two extremes is TRUST, and not only the trust of your team but the trust in your own leadership abilities.  The result of these lack of trust issues is bad morale, polarizing staff against each other or yourself, continual staff turn over and eventually poor public perception of your organization.  We need to remember that to be trusted we need to first trust others, not with our words but with our actions. And realize that we all make mistakes. 

As leaders there are a few things that we need to keep in mind to prevent us from showing people through our actions that we don’t trust them. First of all, you need to work with facts and not your perceptions. Secondly, you need to understand that you don’t know everything and you need to allow the people you’ve picked do their jobs to the best of their abilities and supply them with the resources they need. Finally, listen to your people. And you need to understand their perspective. Not only will this build trust, but it will give you a better understanding of the facts. This builds a solid working relationship, staff loyalty and ownership in the organization by all involved. 

So when it’s all said and done, we need to remember that trust is the cornerstone of every quality organization and building upon that trust starts with you the leader.   

Geremy

Accountability

Accountability is a word that’s thrown around quite a bit nowdays, but do we truly understand what accountability really means when it comes to leadership? As leaders, it’s easy for us to focus on keeping those who we lead accountable for their actions. We, as leaders, keep ourselves accountable to a board or another team of peers to keep ourselves out of the troubles that society considers to be wrong. This extremely narrow definition of accountability, however, leads to a lot of pain and suffering amongst leaders, staff, family members and even society. Maybe instead of the word “accountable” we need to start using the word “responsible”. Because as a leader, we are not only responsible for the things that we or our people do wrong; we are responsible FOR our people. Because if we are not, we are falling into the sin that’s described in James 4:17 “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.”

One example of this in my career was when I had a staff member who one day just looked like something was wrong. So when the time was right, I pulled her aside and inquired about what was wrong. She told me that she was going through a hard time, but that it didn’t matter because she needed the work and she didn’t want to let me down. After hearing her story, I immediately offered to put her on a plane and still pay her what was already arranged. With tears in her eyes, she said she couldn’t accept it. But I told her that she and her family were more important than any job we would ever do together. 

Accountability in leadership means that we know who our people are, what their needs are, where they’re at emotionally and spiritually, and that we take care of them. This means making your people more important than your bottom line. And the bottom line is more than dollars and cents; but what you measure success as. 

So what does this mean for you? 

First of all, take a good honest look at where you’ve been lacking in accountability, how you haven’t been responsible for your people. 

Second, ask God to help you learn how to properly serve the people you lead. 

Third, start carrying out what God teaches you to do. And don’t forget to apologize where needed.

The accurate definition of accountability is best taught by a leader’s example. That’s why it’s our responsibility to lead the way God created us to lead: as servants. 

Geremy

Limitations

There are a world of pressures that make the responsibility of leadership sometimes overwhelming. One of the key principles that helps us as leaders is knowing what our limitations are. Too many times as leaders we think because we have the authority and the responsibility that we need to do it all. This can’t be further than the truth. We are all human and have limitations and will never be able to do it all. The trouble is that life becomes very miserable for everyone involved when we get sucked into the mentality that we have to do it all. For starters, when we can’t do it all, we compensate for our inability to get it all done with control. Without knowing it, we try to keep our  authority intact by controlling others. Usually, we try to control insignificant activities that have no bearing on productivity. Another issue that leaks out is the inability to forgive mistakes, while going overboard to defend your own actions. When these things don’t work (and they never do) we separate ourselves from others and that places a barrier between us and our staff. This separation gives a false and misleading impression of respect and authority. Finally, when we have dug  ourselves into a deep hole of frustration and everyone has lost all respect for us, it is human nature to get angry. We are not talking about justifiable anger here, but the kind where you kick your dog just to feel better about yourself. Needless to say, this doesn’t help either. 

So, how do we avoid all of this? First, we need to be honest with ourselves and others about our limitations. Remember, we are not all the same intentionally, and because of that we can work together successfully.  Second, we need to be up front with our mistakes and not try to cover them up. We all make them, so let’s all learn together. Finally, never take yourself or your people for granted. When we know our limitations, we can work together as a team and rely on our strengths. By working together, we avoid the barrier of separation and gain the respect and authority that has been given to us. It al boils down to being real. We need to stop trying to be somebody we’re not; then we will be the leader God made us to be.

Geremy

Real

There are a lot of people we try to please on a daily basis, family, employees, employers, friends, strangers, clients, potential clients, church, pastors, mentors, God and a lot of others. Have you ever noticed that the more you try to please someone the more you start to change? You start looking in the mirror and see them instead of yourself. Before making decisions you ask what they would do. Then to be safe you err on the side of your interpretation of what they would do. Then if you are lucky, fifty percent of the time, you may do what is right in their eyes. As your percentage of accuracy increases or decreases your self esteem tags along. This continues on until you ask yourself the question, “Who am I?” Why is it that if we all know that we are all different, why do we try so hard to be the same? We have all lead different lives with different experiences. For us to be productive in our actions we need to learn to understand each other’s uniqueness while being real to ourselves. It is only by being real to others and ourselves all the time that we can gain common ground and work together successfully. Some of the perks of being real are that we avoid misunderstandings, we reduce unpredictability and build strong relationships. When we are who God made us to be, our self esteem and confidence increase. We are at peace and have joy in our heart in whatever we do. This doesn’t mean that we get to go out and do whatever we want, but what it means is that we need to utilize the gifts and talents that God has given each of us. We need to respect others and work together in ways that allow each of us to be real. Remember that we will always have good and bad days, but by being real it allows us to avoid a whole lot of the self-inflicted bad days. So make a change, be yourself.

Geremy

Respect

There are a lot of people in leadership positions who got their position because they interview well or have a good resume. There are many more who are promoted because they are talented in their field but are not trained and/or gifted as leaders. Even more people work for someone who they think is a bad leader and know that “I can do better.”

There are a couple things we all need to remember. The first is this: trust is earned, not granted. Whether we are a leader or a follower, we all need to earn the trust of those we work with. The second is this: it is our responsibility to communicate clearly with each other without reading into what people say or do. If you have a question, ask it. If you misunderstand, clarify. If you are asked a question, humbly answer it and don’t be burdened by the question. Third; care about other people more than yourself. Nothing builds a team better than knowing that your teammates have your best interests at heart. Finally, be honest about your feelings, mistakes and successes with those you work with. 

See, it all boils down to respect; for yourself and for others. We have to be able to respect others to be respected ourselves. We have to understand why people do what they do and why before we criticize them. We have to build workable relationships so that we can communicate honestly with each other respectfully. This means setting aside our own selfish pride, self-proclaimed wisdom and endless knowledge. Then we will meet people where they are at. Until we do, we will never be successful as leaders or followers. 

Geremy

Wake Up

You know those days when you wake up in the morning and your body says to your mind, “
Are you nuts? There’s still 6 more hours of sleep!” The mind responds, “But you’ve already hit the snooze 5 times!! Are you gonna ask me to get you 7 pillows?” And the body responds, “That’s a great idea, I didn’t want to _________ anyways!” 

One of the never ending dilemmas of leadership is motivation for volunteers, staff and yourself. This stems from a few things, but the most prevalent is a lack of motivation or passion due to the lack of common vision. First, what is the organization’s goals and common vision to get there? Second, does everyone in the organization know the vision, goals and purpose? Third, do all the people agree with the method of reaching the purpose, achieving the goals and share the vision of the leadership? Finally, what is the heart of the people who work within the organization? 

As leaders, it is our responsibility to clearly communicate with those we lead so that they fully understand our vision, goals and purpose. After doing this, leaders need not be offended or hurt when people leave the organization because their heart is in a different place. It is also necessary to have the freedom to ask someone who does not have vision, goals and purpose to reconsider why they are there (this doesn’t mean you can “can” everyone who doesn’t agree with you!). An organization with differing purpose, goals and vision is a ticking time bomb and any successes are tempered with internal, leading to external failures. While an organization built with individuals with the same vision naturally agree upon the same goals to reach a common purpose. 

It is easy to be motivated as leaders, when working in an organization with one vision. Take away the common vision, purpose and goals, however, it produces frustration, increased workloads, and a sense of failure for everyone involved. To cultivate an atmosphere that draws an organization together, each leader need not only communicate vision, but understand that motives are different than vision. We have all grown up with different life experiences and the motives each one of us has are a result from those experiences. When we mistake our personal motives for organizational vision it creates turbulence. Leaders who understand this, get to know their people, who they are, what they have experienced, and what their motives are. This allows a leader to put together a group of people with different motives but who are focused on one vision. This creates unity within the organization with a successful outcome. As a leader, we need to serve those who we lead, understand them, show grace, and keep our heart on the common vision. This way, the mind and the body can work together successfully. 

I think I’m gonna take a nap now...

Geremy

Cookie Cutter or Leader

Psalms teaches us that we are all delicately and uniquely made by God. 

Ever wonder why organizations crumble due to poor leadership? Well, there are many reasons but one recurrent reason is the ignoring of the fact that God made us unique for a reason. Paul, one of the guys in the Bible, says it best. If we are all eyes, how do we walk, hear or feel? Human nature, however, is to work with or hire people that are just like we are. This way we don’t have to waste our time trying to understand them and unfortunately, it  is easier to manipulate them. If we can’t get someone like us, then it is our nature to get someone we can mold “into” us. In essence, we are just cutting out cookies that look like us, with our same strengths, weaknesses and shortcomings. This leads to our strengths being amplified, along with our weaknesses and shortcomings. The bigger the organizations the bigger the amplification and the weaker the foundation of the organization. It may look good on the outside but it’s ready to collapse at any time. 

Each of us has to make a conscience decision not to fall into the trap of being a cookie cutter, but a true leader. Someone who picks unique people who’s strengths and weaknesses complement each other. By doing this, strengths are built upon and weaknesses are compensated for. This is not the easy road, it takes hard work and grace, selflessness and honesty, teamwork and forgiveness. This road requires servanthood as a leader, caring for and encouraging a group of unique people who God created. As group of people who God designed to work together with a common purpose, goal and character. Who are inspired by a leader by a leader who doesn’t cut cookies, a leader who understands that we are made different so that we can work together.

Geremy