Kudos to Brian Barela for putting legs on a fantastic idea – the Blog-ference. Well done, Brian. Thanks for inviting me into the conversation. I’ve learned a lot – for free. I’ve been impressed with DJ’s discussions on contextualization, Brian Virtue’s thoughts on servant leadership, and Shane’s crazy ideas for people in the mission. I appreciate everyone who took time to read and comment on my thoughts. Thank you for the gift of focused attention.
To close the week, I am considering Jesus’ last 6 hours with his men, the night before he was arrested and taken away. The apostle John allots 5 chapters out of 21 to these special moments. After Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, he wrapped a bow around three years of life-on-life discipleship by his actions, sharing his heart, and praying for his men to change the world.
“Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13:17).
This verse has been a guidepost for me during the past 10 years of my spiritual leadership. No matter what scope of responsibility we’ve been given, leading and serving other people gets complicated. There is always another idea to run up the flag pole, more demographics to research, more needs that I can meet, more teammates to consult, more trends to analyze. Jesus cuts through it all: Do What You Know.
I can think of no better four-word summary of what change leadership is all about. Change begins with me. If I know it, own it, and act on it, by God’s grace and power, change happens and I am blessed.
The world is waiting for each generation to show the Way. May we all lead well by loving well. Selah.
Tagged as:
change
Leadership transitions can be fast, slow, smooth or brutal. All of them bring about change. And change always makes the people affected by the change a little bit scared about the future.
I’m currently immersed in two leadership transitions. One involves helping my successor begin well with his new team. We’ve done this, in part, through a five-day “New National Team School” that wrapped up today. The other involves me trying to lead a team 10,000 miles away through a change process. Yea, it’s been hard but good for the heart.
My good friend Kok Hiang is about 9 months into a leadership transition for the Singapore ministry. He’s hit a few bumps and grown a larger heart for God and people through the process. So, it seemed like a good idea to take the new team I’ve been coaching this week down to have a little team-to-team field trip. KH oozed with wisdom as our team asked questions and took notes (see pic) on some of his nuggets. The short version:
“Two keys to leading well through transition are 1) Timely communication with all the key stakeholders in the vision, and 2) To keep asking “What is God doing in my heart in the midst of the changes?
“Well-led change involves five Re’s:
- Re-kindling. Our hearts must grow with the vision.
- Re-prioritizing. Realignment, refocusing, and reclarification of our direction.
- Re-newal of leadership. Injection of new blood (hopefully not a complete transfusion).
- Re-structuring. Leveraging our critical resources in light of strategic moves forward.
- Re-source generation. Tapping new sources of innovation, tools, people and money.”
Thanks, KH, for the wise counsel.
Lesson for anyone in the change process: Consider KH’s advice.
Tagged as:
change,
transition
