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The
start of a new year brings a host of resolutions — to lose
weight, focus on priorities, accomplish business goals. Yet
the lack of one thing keeps most resolutions from being fulfilled:
initiative.
J.R.R.
Tolkein, author of The Lord of the Rings, once observed,
"It's the job that's never started that takes longest
to finish." Or as Babe Ruth said when asked how he hit
so many home runs: "I just keep swinging at 'em."
You
can't hit anything if you don't swing. You can't get anywhere
if you don't start somewhere. May 2004 be the year we set
great goals — and then get started.
Michael
Duduit, Editor
Michael@leaderlinks.com
Please
forward your copy of LeadingNow
to friends and colleagues who are also interested in Christian
leadership. Our best source of new readers is current readers,
like you. So thanks for your help in leading others to LeadingNow!
Courage
can create defining moment for leaders
In
an exclusive interview in the January issue of Leader
Links (www.LeaderLinks.com),
Andy Stanley talks about leadership insights young leaders
need, including the role courage plays in the life of a leader:
"Many
times it's our acts of courage that establish us as leaders
in the minds of other people. God has gifted us but nobody
knows. God's called us, nobody knows. How do we become leaders?
Often it's the person that steps out first. That act of courage
establishes people as leaders in the minds of others.
"I
say to young leaders eventually there is going to be a defining
moment and everybody will be looking off the cliff and you'll
realize, 'If I jump first they'll follow me.' And you'll jump
and you'll become the leader. You'd already been called. You'd
already been gifted but suddenly in that moment is when people
say, 'That's somebody worth following,' so be on the look
out for that moment." (Click
here to read the entire interview with Andy Stanley)
http://www.leaderlinks.com/feature07.htm
Business
leaders should use Bible, survey says
A
national survey by American Research Group recently confirmed
that 70.7 percent of Americans think business scandals would
be avoided if CEOs followed principles found in the Bible.
The
survey, conducted on behalf of David Steward, author of Doing
Business by the Good Book (Hyperion), also confirmed that
94.4 percent of Americans believe companies run by individuals
who observe the Bible will grow at least as fast as or faster
than those that are not; and, more than 54 percent said they
would be more likely to invest in a company run by a CEO who
uses the Bible to guide his or her business decisions. (For
more information on the book Doing Business by the Good
Book, click
here.)
This
month's Leadership Link
In
an interview in the May 1999 issue of Fast Company
magazine, Peter Senge (author of The Fifth Discipline:
The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization) talked
about leadership, learning and change. It is a fascinating
discussion, and you can find it at
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/24/senge.html
Here's
a brief excerpt:
"The
first problem with all of the stuff that's out there about
leadership is that we haven't got a clue about what we're
talking about. We use the word 'leader' to mean 'executive':
The leader is the person at the top. That definition says
that leadership is synonymous with a position. And if leadership
is synonomous with a position, then it doesn't matter what
a leader does. All that matters is where the leader sits.
If you define a 'leader' as an 'executive,' then you absolutely
deny everyone else in an organization the opportunity to be
a leader . . .
"We
developed our own definition of 'leadership.' To me, the simplest
definition of that word is 'the ability to produce change':
'We used to operate that way; now we operate this way.' Then,
using what we saw inside companies, we identified three leadership
communities: local line leaders, internal networkers or community
builders, and executive leaders. For significant change to
take place, you need to create an interplay among those three
communities. One community can't be substituted for another.
Each community represents part of a necessary set."
"When
the job of a leader is to be responsive or to serve his or
her people, that means that leader will give people whatever
they need to win — accomplish their goals. If they need direction,
they should get it. If it's support they need, then that's
what their leader should provide." (from Leadership
by the Book by Ken Blanchard, Bill Hybels, and Phil Hodges)
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From
this month's Leader Links
The
January edition of Leader Links
(www.LeaderLinks.com)
includes an excerpt from the outstanding new book Spurgeon
on Leadership (Kregel Publications) by Larry J.
Michael. Here's a portion of that excerpt:
"Leadership
in America was redefined nationally during the Clinton
era to exclude the issue of character. This historical
development was bound to reap devastating fallout as
leaders at all levels were given the green light to
emulate the lowest common denominator of moral leadership.
The recent debacles of the financial collapse of huge
corporations such as Enron and World.com are cases in
point. The corporate officers bilked their stockholders
for personal profit while issuing falsely positive financial
reports. They sought to pad their own pockets when they
knew that the companies were failing. This occurred
in the late 1990s, at a time when national moral accountability
was at an all-time low. Hopefully, these dire examples
are not indicative of a pattern that will last. If they
go unpunished, however, it could be the moral undoing
of our nation.
"Christians
must never subscribe to low standards of morality among
their leaders. Counter to aberrant popular notions,
business leader/consultant Warren Bennis contends that
character is the "essence of leadership."
Leaders cannot lead effectively without the trust of
their followers. When people see hypocrisy, they withhold
their trust. When people are betrayed, they withdraw
their support. Trusted leaders are consistent in their
public and private behavior, they are authentic in their
concern for their followers, and they are true to their
word."
(Go
to www.LeaderLinks.com
to read the full article. Click
here to learn more about the book Spurgeon on
Leadership.)
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Warren
Buffet observes, "In looking for people to hire, you
look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy.
And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill
you."
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