Developing Kingdom Leaders – Tom Yeakley

Taking the Mystery out of Leadership

Archive for the tag “Intentional leader development”

16 Nov 2015
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Acting Locally, Thinking Globally

World vision has always been at the heart of our work. In the 1970’s and early 1980’s, at the peak of the national collegiate ministry renewal (The Jesus Movement), we sent many staff around the world. Dana and I had the privilege of being one of those sent. But, with the decline of the collegiate work in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, our vision necessarily turned inward. We now had to focus on solidifying our sending base and regaining the needed momentum at home in order to be able to once again send to the world. Though never lost, world vision was not emphasized as we sought to rebuild at home.

When we regained momentum at home, we can once again move the topic of “world vision” to the “front page” nationally. God continues to bless us with many new staff and laborers. But this blessing is not an end in itself. We are blessed that we might be a blessing to others. That was the word the Lord gave to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 when He said, “I will bless you…and all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.”

God’s heart has been and always will be for the whole world. We see this theme throughout the Scriptures. Take a moment and reflect on the consistency of God’s heart for the world in the following passages: Gen. 12:1-3, Isa. 49:6, Mat. 28:18-20, Acts 1:8, and Rev. 7:9. “For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son…”

Isa. 49:6 reminds us that it is too small of a vision to focus only locally. God’s burden is for the entire world and we are to pursue that end also. As we begin to see God multiply our people, making them as numerous as sheep (see Ezekiel 36:37-38), we will want to see many of those He gives us sent to the nations.

One last thought on sending to the world. Let’s remember that there is no “higher good” in crossing an ocean to serve God. Geography does not determine value in God’s service. It is equally valuable in God’s economy to reach, disciple, and equip the ‘nations within’ the U.S. as well as some foreign country. Those that go are no more “committed” or “better” that those who stay.

We all make our strategic contribution for “making disciples in all the nations.” We just do it in different geographical locations around the globe. Some people God gifts and calls for serving cross-culturally. Others are better designed by God to serve within their home culture. All are valuable! All are strategic! All are important!

Beginning at our Jerusalem, may God bless us to reach our Judea’s and Samaria’s and the ends of the earth!

Posted in #1 KNOW- How a Leader Thinks, #4 REPRODUCE - Developing More Leaders and tagged , , , , , , , , ,
02 Nov 2015

The Grateful Leader

The Apostle Paul in his message to the Athenians while standing in front of the Areopagus says this about God:  “…he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else” (Acts 17:25).  Has is every struck you that all you have as a leader finds its source in God Himself?

Yes, you have accomplished some things as a leader through your wise decisions, good stewardship, faithfulness, and hard work.  But think a minute.  Who gave you the mind to be able to make decisions?  Who created an ability to discern what was good and not so good in your stewardship?  Who created within you a will that enables you to choose to be faithful?  And who created within you a desire to work and accomplish a task?  Yes, all these things, and yes, everything we are and have finds its source in Him.

Therefore, what should be our response?  It must me one of contrition for taking any credit upon ourselves, humility, and a proper perspective that truly “in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

How about making a gratefulness list?  What are you grateful to God for?  Express them to Him from a sincere heart of praise and thankfulness.  Can you truly thank Him for everything including those things that don’t feel or seem good or pleasant?

Here’s some things to get you started:  your relationship to Him, your spouse and family, your mind and body, your spiritual gifts, your role and influence, your opportunities for service, your friends, your team, your possessions, your experiences, and your weaknesses (see 2 Cor 12:9).

A grateful, thankful spirit is attractive.  It bleeds authenticity.  It brings proper perspective.

“Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

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19 Oct 2015

Leading Change

John Kotter has written a foundational book on the subject of leading organizational change titled simply, “Leading Change.”  One of the primary obstacles leaders must overcome is the sense of complacency that sees little need to change.

Here’s Kotter’s thoughts on how to overcome such complacency.

ESTABLISHING A SENSE OF URGENCY
“With urgency low, it’s difficult to put together a group with enough power and credibility to guide the effort or to convince key individuals to spend the time necessary to create and communicate a change vision.  People will find a thousand ingenious ways to withhold cooperation from a process that they sincerely think is unnecessary or wrongheaded…In this complacency-filled organization, change initiatives are dead on arrival.

SOURCES OF COMPLACENCY
“Nine reasons help explain this sort of complacency.

(1)  No highly visible crisis existed.
(2)  That meeting was taking place in a room that screamed “success.”  The subliminal message was clear; we are rich, we are winners, we must be doing something right.  So relax.  Have lunch.
(3)  The standards against which these managers measured themselves were far from high.
(4)  The organizational structure focused most people’s attention on narrow functional goals instead of broad business performance.
(5)  The various internal planning and control systems were rigged to make it easy for everyone to meet their functional goals.
(6)  Whatever performance feedback people received came almost entirely from these faulty internal systems.  Data from external stakeholders rarely went to anyone.
(7)  When enterprising young employees went out of their way to collect external performance feedback, they were often treated like lepers.
(8)  Complacency was supported by the very human tendency to deny that which we do not want to hear.  Most of us, most of the time, think we have enough challenges to keep us busy.  We are not looking for more work.  So when evidence of a big problem appears, if we can get away with ignoring the information, we often will.
(9)  Those who were relatively unaffected by complacency sources 1-8 and thus concerned about the firm’s future were often lulled back into a false sense of security by senior management’s “happy talk”.

“Big egos and arrogant cultures reinforce the nine sources of complacency. Never underestimate the magnitude of the forces that reinforce complacency and that help maintain the status quo.”

Are you seeking to lead a change process that is finding it difficult to get traction or overcome inertia?

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05 Oct 2015

Leadership Jazz – 5

Continual personal development as a leader is essential for implementing great leadership.  Max DePree addresses this topic in his book titled, “Leadership Jazz.”

“We need to take into account not only the needs of our careers, but the “careers” of every member of our families.

“Leaders think about polishing their personal gifts.

“Leaders see a twofold opportunity—to build a life and to build a career.  And the fact is that people become leaders only by building both.

“Leaders deal in substance and the quality of life, deaf to the calls to pursue quantity and appearances.

“Good leaders know that moving up in the hierarchy does not magically confer upon them competence.  They know that being elected president, for instance, gives them the opportunity to become president.  Leaders also know that their real security lies in their personal capabilities, not in their power or position.

“A leader’s capabilities begin to be tested shortly after she arrives on the job.  Spontaneity and reflection begin to fade away amid the din of schedules leaders don’t make and commitments they don’t seek out.  Required reading begins to edge out elective reading.  More and more energy goes into resisting pressure to move in undesired directions.

“Followers adamantly demand that a leader possess a high degree of integrity when it comes to self-perception.  A combination of self-confidence and humility seems to me to be crucial.

“Organizations have a right to expect decisiveness from leaders.  Being decisive in an area of one’s strengths is not too difficult.

“Acting in the face of one’s weakness requires courage and risk.

“Am I willing to reserve time on my calendar for reflection?

“In learning to listen, have I thought about improving my ability to practice the art of silence?

“Am I prepared to think about polishing gifts as a way of dealing with time and leaving a legacy?  As the years slip by, am I learning to see through the lens of mortality?  How does this improve me today as a leader?

“What will give me joy at seventy or eighty?

“At the end of life, what will I face?  Or, more important, whom?

“Ask yourself frequently, “What truly gives meaning to my life?”

Are you continuing to develop yourself over a lifetime?  Are you continuing to be a life-long learner?

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21 Sep 2015

Leadership Jazz – 3

Max DePree has the following to say about leading from beliefs, values, and vision in his excellent work titled, “Leadership Jazz.”

“From a leader’s perspective, the most serious betrayal has to do with thwarting human potential, with quenching the spirit, with failing to deal equitably with each other as human beings.

“Beliefs and values are the footings on which we build answers to the questions, “Who matters?” and “What matters?”  The promises we make as leaders must resonate with our beliefs and values.

“It behooves us, then, to find our voices.  Leaders must speak to followers; we must let them know where and how we stand on the important issues.

“Vision is the basis for the best kind of leadership.  A vision exists somewhere when teams succeed.  Instinctively, most of us follow a leader who has real vision and who can transform that vision into a meaningful and hopeful strategy.

“Another fragile facet of a leader’s character is what I call an eagerness for the fray. The best leaders I know are always anxious to get to the job at hand, to do what they are there to do.

“Real preparation consists of hard work and wandering in the desert, of much feedback, much forgiveness, and of the yeast of failure.

“Moving up in the hierarchy does not confer competence.

“The only appropriate response to a promotion is ‘Good grief, have I got a lot to learn now!’

“Success tends to breed arrogance, complacency, and isolation.  Success can close a mind faster than prejudice.”

A leader’s communication, both verbal and written, will focus those around them on various issues.  Pick and choose your communication topics to ensure that your influence is focused on those issues that are most strategic and important for the mission at this time.

What are you communicating about?  What are your followers focusing on as a result of your communications?

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17 Aug 2015

Leadership is an Art – 3

Here’s a final thought from Max DePree’s classic leadership book, “Leadership is an Art.”

“In addition to all of the ratios and goals and parameters and bottom lines, it is fundamental that leaders endorse a concept of persons. This begins with an understanding of the diversity of people’s gifts and talents and skills.

“Understanding and accepting diversity enables us to see that each of us is needed. It also enables us to begin to think about being abandoned to the strengths of others, of admitting that we cannot know or do everything.

“When we think about leaders and the variety of gifts people bring to corporations and institutions, we see that the art of leadership lies in polishing and liberating and enabling those gifts.”

One of our primary leadership functions is the development of those we lead.  This development must be intentional, seeking to maximize a person’s contribution to the mission.  This development must be individualized, with forethought given to opportunities and personal needs.

Are you developing those you are leading or just hoping that with the passing of time and more experience that they will be developed as better leaders?  It has been said, “Experience is not the best teacher, but it is evaluated experience that truly develops leaders.”  Give feedback to those you lead and they will be better leaders.

 

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10 Aug 2015

Leadership is an Art – 2

A friend reminded me of the following, “Tom, there comes a time in everyone’s life when you become the one who gets to tell the history.”  With aging comes responsibility to pass to the next generation the stories that represent the values of the community.

Here are some additional thoughts on communication from Max DePree is his great leadership book, “Leadership is an Art.”

“Every family, every college, every corporation, every institution needs tribal storytellers.  The penalty for failing to listen is to lose one’s history, one’s historical context, one’s binding values.  …without the continuity brought by custom, any group of people will begin to forget who they are.

“We intend to make a contribution to society.  We wish to make that contribution through the products and services we offer, and through the manner in which we offer them.  In an era of high technology we wish to be a “high-touch” company that makes the environmental connection between persons and technology in the markets we choose to serve.  We intend to be socially responsible and responsive…

“Good communication is not simply sending and receiving.  Nor is good communication simply a mechanical exchange of data.  No matter how good the communication, if no one listens all is lost.  The best communication forces you to listen.

“The right to know is basic.  Moreover, it is better to err on the side of sharing too much information than risk leaving someone in the dark.  Information is power, but it is pointless power if hoarded.  Power must be shared for an organization or a relationship to work.

“Plato said that a society cultivates whatever is honored there.  Let us make no mistake about what we honor.

“An increasingly large part that communication plays in expanding cultures is to pass along values to new members and reaffirm those values to old hands.”

How’s your storytelling?  How’s your communication skill?  Are you intentional about the stories you tell that will reinforce key principles and values that you wish to pass to the next generation?  Are you self-aware when talking to others you are influencing about the principles and values you are communicating?

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03 Aug 2015

Leadership is an Art

Max DePree in his classic work titled, “Leadership is an Art” had the following thoughts regarding a basic definition of leadership.

“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.  The last is to say thank you.  In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor.  That sums up the progress of an artful leader.

“Leaders don’t inflict pain, they bear pain.

“The measure of leadership is not the quality of the head, but the tone of the body.  The signs of outstanding leadership appear primarily among the followers.  Are the followers reaching their potential?

“Leaders are also responsible for future leadership.  They need to identify, develop, and nurture future leaders.

“Leaders owe people space, space in the sense of freedom.  Freedom in the sense of enabling our gifts to be exercised.  We need to give each other the space to grow, to be ourselves, to exercise our diversity.

“Another way to think about what leaders owe is to ask this question:  What is it, without which this institution would not be what it is?  Leaders are obligated to provide and maintain momentum.  Leadership comes with a lot of debts to the future.

“Leaders are responsible for effectiveness.  Much has been written about effectiveness—some of the best of it by Peter Drucker.  He has such a great ability to simplify concepts.  One of the things he tells us is that efficiency is doing the thing right, but effectiveness is doing the right thing.

“To be a leader means, especially, having the opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those who permit leaders to lead.”

Leadership is an art to be developed over time.  It is attention to  development of ourselves, seeking to be the best leader we can be.  And the amazing thing is that the Lord allows us to ‘practice’ on His people.  This should serve as a good reminder that we are not that important in the total equation.

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27 Jul 2015

Great Leadership Books

‘Of making many books there is not end…’ (Ecclesiastes 12:12).   Just enter any bookstore and look at the litany of leadership books filling the shelves.  I’m often asked to help leaders sort through the many and find the few best books on the subject of leadership.  Here’s my suggested list of foundational leadership books for someone who wants to get a good start on this challenging subject.  It’s a good start for building a leadership library.

Leadership Bibliography

Books to be read for a foundational understanding of leadership

 The Bible  –  read and study this Book first as your basis for understanding the principles of spiritual leadership;  this will be the grid through which you evaluate all other teaching on the subject of leadership

Leadership Concepts

   1.      Spiritual Leadership / Sanders

  2.      Leadership is an Art  /  DePree

  3.      Leadership Jazz  /  DePree

  4.      Leaders:  Strategies for Taking Charge  /  Benni & Nanus

  5.      Principle Centered Leadership  /  Covey

  6.      The Leadership Challenge  /  Kouzes and Posner

7.      The Making of a Leader /  Clinton

Leadership Practice

  1.      The Effective Executive / Drucker

  2.      Developing the Leader Within You  /  Maxwell

  3.      Developing the Leaders Around You  /  Maxwell

  4.      The Training of the Twelve  /  Bruce

  5.     Leading from the Sandbox   /  Addington

  6.     Leading Change  /  Kotter

7.     Biographies of great leaders  –  Dawson Trotman, Hudson Taylor, George Mueller, J.O Fraser, Adoniram Judson, Amy Carmichael, etc.

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20 Jul 2015

The Amazing C.T. Studd

There are no guarantees we will live a pain-free life. God does not apologize for asking much of His followers. It is His right. He owns us. He bought us with His own blood. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

But God also promises us that whatever cost we are asked to pay in denying self and following Him He will repay multiple times over. “I tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields–and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30). Therefore, whatever has been sacrificed for Christ, when compared with what has been gained in return, will not seem to be too great a cost to pay.

C.T. Studd came from a wealthy English family and was a 21 year-old student at Cambridge University when he trusted Christ as his personal Savior. Studd was an outstanding athlete, with a possible career in professional sports, in addition to being a good student. After his conversion, he dedicated his life and wealth to Christ.

He and six other Cambridge students offered themselves to Hudson Taylor’s China Inland Mission in 1885. Nine years later he returned to England with a wife, but broken in health. After recuperating, he gave away his home to the mission and traveled throughout America for two years recruiting young men and women to give themselves to missions. In 1900 the family moved to India for six years when once again they had to return to England. In 1910 he left his family in England to pioneer a new mission into the heart of Africa. This ministry eventually became Worldwide Evangelization Crusade (WEC) which continues to this day.

Studd personally had a ministry on four continents and through those he touched, the entire world. But this adventure began with a decision to deny fame and fortune in this world in order that he might follow Christ.

Jim Elliott, martyred by Latin American Indians as a young man. said this, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, in order to gain what he cannot lose.”

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