As leaders we face the push and pull of pressures and distractions on sticking with our values and our plans. For many years I have internalized the axiom that “a plan is a good place from which to depart.” However, I have also realized that before parting ways with my plans I should sort out some very good reasons for doing so. In the face of a crisis it is very tempting to abandon the plans and even the purposes before us, because we believe that if others think we are doing nothing then they will think badly of us. Sangeeth Varghese wonderfully illustrates this leadership trap in his recent article in Forbes. In a crisis or a difficulty whether the leader chooses to maintain the course or to change course one of the essential choices is to be clear. Keep talking. Talk clearly. Explain the why. Reinforce the values. And talk about the plan in regard to the current conditions.
leadership
leaders create opportunities
In the last few months I have been captivated by this leadership idea: leaders create opportunities. I observe this practice in every significant arena of leadership whether it be at home, on sports teams, at work, in church, in government, or in neighbourhoods. Leaders create opportunities for the people in their sphere of influence.
I have observed a parent putting down money and time in order to understand what a child needs in order to learn well. I have celebrated Jan Miko, principle, for creating an opportunity for children at Brock Elementary to sing at the opening of the new Olympic Curling Centre here in Riley Park when 4 weeks before Brock did not have a choir. I have observed a youth hockey coach going way beyond the call of duty for his players to play on the GM Place ice and to meet Trevor Linden. And last night I watched a pastor, Corneliu Ardelean, enjoy the fruit of all his labours to create opportunities for at least 20 other people to lead in a worship service.
Great leaders create opportunities for people to excel, to grow, to advance, to meet other leaders, to serve meaningfully, to succeed, to share the joy of life, to risk, to fail, to stretch… What… to fail? That’s right. Even to fail. Leaders create opportunities that encourage their followers to try and even to fail…but also, then to learn from those failures.
Leaders create opportunities for people to grow. I have a built in matrix for considering the people I lead (and myself.)
Head: What do they need to know?
Heart: What do they need to build character and to fuel passion for God?
Hands: What skills do they need to master?
Home: What relationships do they need to nurture?
Horizons: What dreams and visions are they aiming at?
Jesus was a brilliant leader. As an exploration of leadership I suggest that you read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in order to observe how Jesus created opportunities for the people he served.
Here are some more questions for reflection:
1. Who created opportunities for me in my journey in life so far?
2. What was at stake for these leaders when they created the opportunities for me?
3. When have I not fully appreciated the opportunities in front of me?
4. For whom am I creating opportunities?
5. What needs to change in me in order for me to create new and extraordinary opportunities for the people in my sphere of influence?
6. What strategic alliances can I make that will create opportunities for the people I lead?
a matrix for identifying and empowering reliable people
Last Sunday I preached from the hard-working farmer metaphor highlighted by Paul to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:1-10. Paul directs Timothy to reflect on the soldier, the athlete, and the farmer in order to gain insight for investing his life and ministry in reliable people who will in turn be able to invest their lives in other people who in turn will be able to invest their lives in other people. Paul envisions the Gospel life and message being passed on through a chain of discipleship. A few years ago I developed a matrix from these three images for identiying and empowering reliable people for discipleship. You can download the pdf: matrix-for-identifying-and-empowering-reliable-people-for-discipleship
when lattices fail and leaders fall
Perhaps it was a hot day in Israel when Ahaziah leaned back on his upper room lattice and fell to the ground injuring himself. (2 Kings 1) Ahaziah must have been stricken with dread as he was picked up by the servants and laid out on a couch. He couldn’t wait, fear of the future took over, he had to know what the future held for him. Would this fall be the death of him?
What he did next reveals the true condition of his heart and the devotion of his life. Ahaziah sent messengers to consult with Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, to see if he would recover from this injury. However, on this day, what may have been the usual practice of Ahaziah was interrupted. “The angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, ‘Go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!”
Now Elijah’s message from God set up a series of confrontations with Ahaziah’s military leaders. 102 were consumed by fire from heaven. The third leader pleaded for the lives of his men and himself. Ahaziah never repented and died on his bed.
When the walls you have built to provide security and protection fail, who are you going to call on first? What patterns of devotion and worship have you established in your life? Is your security in Jesus Christ or in your own health, ability, savings, or savy? Are you dependent on false gods, sinful habits, shallow people for assurance of your own well-being each day? What will the crisis reveal about the integrity of your heart?
The writer of Hebrews calls on us to enter into the presence of Jesus Christ and pursue his holiness in our lives. Pressure whether it is economic or in the realm of our physical health will come. Choices remain to be made in a crisis. However it is the pattern of our hearts devotion that is most likely to prevail when times are tough. Stick close to Jesus even when times are good; stick close to Jesus even when times are tough.
Hebrews 10:19-39
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. 33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. 34 You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. 37 For in just a very little while,
“He who is coming will come and will not delay.
38 But my righteous one will live by faith.
And if he shrinks back,
I will not be pleased with him.”
39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
NIV
another transition for Bill Gates
On Friday Bill Gates makes another transition in his leadership at Microsoft. It would be a mistake to say that he is leaving Microsoft. Rather he is shifting his responsibilities around and the kind of leadership he gives to Microsoft. It seems he will give more time to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and their philanthropic work.
I am sure that the leadership books will soon be full of commentary and consideration of the many leadership lessons to be learned from Gates and the last 30 years with Microsoft. But the story is not finished yet. I believe that the same determination and skills will be applied in the Gates Foundation. Scientific American provides a quote on the type of innovative and risk-taking leadership Bill Gates offers.
“Bill Gates is the quintessential risk taker,” says Joshua Schuler, executive director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lemelson–M.I.T. Program, a nonprofit organization that awards hundreds of thousands of dollars to inventors annually. “He understands that innovation is all about taking risks and being okay with the prospect of failure.”
Under Gates’ leadership Microsoft succeeded far more than it failed, transforming the computer from simply a number-crunching calculator into a platform for mass communication. This has proved to be essential to subsequent generations of entrepreneurs. “How many calculations for business plans have been created using Microsoft software?” Schuler asks. “Anyone has the capacity to be inventive, and Bill Gates and Microsoft created tools that are used to build, test and convey those ideas.”
The abilities to innovate, communicate, persist, and transition through many many seasons of change of been hallmarks of Gates leadership. In the next transition I wonder if we will celebrate and watch what will be a different type of significant and utterly necessary leadership with as much enthusiasm as we have watched the last 30 years. I wonder, in the wealth saturated lands where computers have become common-place what new philanthropic innovations will Gates develop to more effectively create opportunity with the desperately under-resourced people’s of our planet?
urbanfoot 