Principal #5- Who, before What and How Thus far the focus of this Leadership Skills Series has been to resource you, as a Christian leader, when you’re in conflict. The first four distinctions, plus those remaining, will support you becoming skillful when you’re in “deep weeds”, as my pal and mentor Gary Mayes often says. You, like […]
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Principle #4b- contender, know thyself! Last time I introduced the idea that you’re enormous advantaged, as a leader, when you’re honestly aware of your vulnerabilities. Ignorant of them, you undermine your own effectiveness. These blindspots lead directly to conflict. Sometimes you’re aware of the row they produce. If you’re like most pastors I know, you hate
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Principle #4a- contender, know thyself! It’s been playoff time in the NFL. The Saints, my Saints, with Purdue Quarterback Drew Brees just tonight won their first Super Bowl. Ever wonder how teams prepare for these one-and-done contests? Obviously, they study their opponent’s moves and strategies, personnel, and predispositions under various game conditions. The best teams
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Principle #3- Get to neutral Ever met a powerfully influential person who was great in conflict? They are a rare breed, and have intentionally developed the disciplines and rigor to effectively govern themselves when they’d rather just react, explode, shut down, counter-attack, or evaporate. Yet, they don’t, more often than not. The Christian leader, at
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Principle #2- Go for altitude There may be no more essential skill than successfully handling yourself in conflict. Many a career has been ruined when executives mishandled themselves when mired in an important disagreement. Mike Leach, the very successful head coach of the Texas Tech football program, is but one contemporary example. As I write
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Principle #1- Focus on you There may be no more important life skill than successfully handling conflict. For a leader, it’s essential that you govern yourself well in conflict. More than anything else, this can affect how you’ll be keeping good, healthy people on your team. And, every leader knows that the best determinant of
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You don’t think your thoughts. Neither do I. Most of the time, our paradigms think for us. In Acts 10, Peter’s worldview was under siege. His experience illustrates the four stages of a paradigm shift. Stage one is to close ranks on what you already “know”. Entering stage two, you allow yourself to wonder. Peter’s
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You don’t think your thoughts. Neither do I. A unique collection of beliefs, expectations, judgments, and preferences powerfully influence your thinking…all the time. I invite you to examine the Apostle Peter when his beliefs, expectations, judgments, and preferences were under siege… by God. If you’ve walked with God for any time, you know what it
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You don’t think your thoughts. Neither do I. Both of us do our thinking inside a paradigm. Some call it a “mental map”, “worldview”, or “belief-system”. The idea is that a collection of beliefs, expectations, judgments, and preferences powerfully influence our thinking…all the time, every time. These conspire to focus our thinking, shape the pathways
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Reading Simple Church by Rainer and Geiger, I was arrested by the power of one more shift, essential to the many churches with which I work. That shift is from programs to process. In the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, churches often grew by offering programs to address the perceived felt-needs of baby-boomers. The more the merrier.
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