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Vision
is not the only thing a leader brings to the table, but it
may be the most important thing to help an organization achieve
excellence.
In
an article in the Winter 2004 edition of Leader to Leader,
Ken Blanchard and Jesse Stoner point out, "Vision and
direction are essential for greatness. In world-class organizations,
everyone has a clear sense of where the enterprise is going.
Only when the leaders of an organization know that their people
understand the agreed-upon vision and direction can they attend
to strengthening the organization's ability to deliver on
this vision . . .
"Once
the vision is clarified and shared, the leader can focus on
serving and being responsive to the needs of the people. The
greatest leaders have mobilized others by coalescing people
around a shared vision. Sometimes leaders don't get it at
first, but the great ones eventually do."
As
Christian leaders, we have the best-possible model for setting
a great vision. Over and over as He taught His followers,
Jesus kept pointing them to the Kingdom of God. He helped
them (and us) understand that being a disciple is all about
being part of something much greater than we could have imagined.
And
even as we cast a vision for our own organizations, we also
keep in mind the gift we have been given: to be part of the
Kingdom vision our Leader set for us.
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!
Things
Leaders Do
Jeff
Immelt — CEO of GE — teaches future leaders at the company's
famous management-development center, and one of the key elements
of his presentation is his checklist of "Things Leaders
Do." In an interview published in the April 2004 issue
of Fast Company, Immelt reveals his own leadership
checklist. Here are a few of the ten items:
Simplify
Constantly.
"I
always use Jack [Welch] as my example here. Every leader needs
to clearly explain the top three things the organization is
working on. If you can't, then you're not leading well."
Understand
Breadth, Depth, and Context.
"The
most important thing I've learned since becoming CEO is context.
It's how your company fits in with the world and how you respond
to it."
Leaders
learn constantly and also have to learn how to teach.
"A
leader's primary role is to teach. People who work with you
don't have to agree with you, but they have to feel you're
willing to share what you've learned."
Manage
by setting boundaries with freedom in the middle.
"The
boundaries are commitment, passion, trust, and teamwork. Within
those guidelines, there's plenty of freedom. But no one can
cross those four boundaries."
Leave
a few things unsaid.
"I
may know an answer, but I'll often let the team find its own
way. Sometimes, being an active listener is much more effective
than ending a meeting with me enumerating 17 actions."
To
read the complete Fast Company article, click
here.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/81/immelt.html
Managing
change
In
the April 2004 issue of Leader Links
you'll find an exclusive interview with Jimmy Draper, President
and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, one of the largest
Christian organizations in the world. One of the things Draper
talks about in that interview is the challenge of managing
change. He says, in part:
"We
are going to be flexible. Flexibility is what keeps organizations
alive. When they become inflexible they die because it's the
old story of the Titanic. If it had been built where it could
have given a little bit it wouldn't have sunk. But it was
rigid and it cracked when it hit that iceberg. If we're not
flexible our organizations will be like that. Churches are
like that. Businesses are like that. So you build a culture
of change. You help people make decisions in change and then
you let them know that there's always going to be change.
"We're
going to do our best to manage it and to contribute wisely
to change and not be surprised and victimized by it. Give
good reasons why you're changing. It's not just because the
president woke up on the wrong side of the bed but there is
a real reason. You give people real information and then you
lead them because ultimately you know you've got to make the
changes but you lead them to have a chance to realize — to
buy into it. What we did in '92 and what we did recently is
we acted on the recommendations. When the organizational task
force back in 1992 came (with their report), they said, "We
have four recommendations and here are three. Now the fourth
one is our preference but we don't think that you all have
enough nerve to do it." And of course we shocked them
in doing it! Then everybody said "whoa." So you
have to move through change and get the buy in and endorsements
and the participation of people so they at least feel like
they have a voice in it. But you've got to tell people change
is inevitable. There will be change whether you like it or
not. We just don't want to be blindsided by it." (Click
here to read the full interview.)
http://www.leaderlinks.com/feature20040401.htm
Leadership
requires perseverance
In
the most recent issue of his Leadership Wired newsletter,
John Maxwell observes, "Perseverance and patience are
a result of seeing the big picture. Let me explain it this
way. A stonecutter, hammer and chisel in hand, pounds on a
hunk of granite. For a long time, there's no obvious change
in the stone, but he keeps tapping the chisel. And then, on
the 101st tap, a hairline crack appears. Does the 101st blow
make the fracture? Of course not. It's the constant hammering
on the chisel that causes the rock to split. The stonecutter
knows what will happen if he keeps pounding. He perseveres
because he sees the big picture.
"In
work and life, many people give up when they don't get immediate
results. They hit the chisel about three times, and then they
quit because they don't think anything is happening; but they're
wrong. When you're doing the right thing daily, something
is happening even when you can't see it. Don't lose sight
of the big picture."
(Used
by permission from Dr. John C. Maxwell's free monthly e-newsletter
Leadership Wired available at www.MaximumImpact.com.)
You
can not dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and
forge yourself one." (James A. Froude)
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From
this month's Leader Links
In
an excerpt from his book On-Purpose Leadership
(Beacon Hill Press), Dale Galloway writes about one
of the great tools church leaders need to possess:
"The
New York Central Railway Company claimed that its largest
locomotive thundering down the tracks at top speed,
could crash through concrete five feet thick. That same
train on public display was held in place by a one-inch
block. What made the difference? Momentum.
"When
sufficient momentum swells in a church, the congregation
becomes unstoppable. The members believe God for the
impossible. They become excited about bringing their
neighbors into the life of Christ's Body. They find
great spiritual joy in being involved in a cause that's
greater than the humdrum activities of daily life."
(Go
to www.leaderlinks.com
to read the full article. Click
here to learn more about the book On-Purpose
Leadership.)
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"Idealism
increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the
problem."
(John Galsworthy)
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