Developing Kingdom Leaders – Tom Yeakley

Taking the Mystery out of Leadership

Archive for the tag “kingdom leaders”

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 , , , , , , , , ,
09 Nov 2015

Becoming a Multiplying Leader

“Spiritual Generations.”  We’ve heard it many times. We’ve even had conferences with that title. It’s our heartbeat.

In a recent conversation with a younger staff, he asked me what I thought was unique about The Navigators’ ministry. He was trying to sort out in his mind our contribution as compared to other ministries. I answered that all ministries are about trying to help fulfill the Great Commission and expand God’s Kingdom. But that one of our unique contributions is the multiplication of spiritual laborers for the Kingdom harvest.

The objective of the Great Commission is making disciples of all the nations. But our (The Navigators) strategy to help fulfill this commission is the multiplication of spiritual laborers. A spiritual laborer is one who can do evangelism and follow up (establishing). This is someone who can make disciples of all the nations. By focusing on the need for more laborers (Matthew 9:35-38) we will make disciples and help fulfill the Great Commission, for laborers make disciples.

But even that explanation is incomplete. We are about the multiplication of spiritual laborers, not just increasing their numbers. Spiritual multiplication implies raising up laborers who will then in turn raise up other laborers, who will in turn do that to still more.  We are disciples first and then disciplemakers, who make more disciples and disciplemakers.

It is a multiplying effect, not just addition. It is one becoming 2, becoming 4, who become 8, and so on. It is exponential growth through spiritual generations. That is what we are about—spiritual multiplication through successive generations!

May God continue to lead you to men and women who will be “good seed” that will multiply 30, 60, and 100 fold!

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).

Posted in #2 BE - Who a Leader Is, #3 DO - What a Leader Does and tagged , , , , , , ,
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?

Posted in #3 DO - What a Leader Does and tagged , , , , , , , ,
12 Oct 2015

Leadership Jazz – 6

Here’s the final installment from Max DePree’s outstanding book titled, “Leadership Jazz.”  In this section DePree addresses the topic of what are the key attributes needed for great leadership.

Attributes of Leadership:  A Checklist

  • Integrity.  Integrity is the linchpin of leadership.
  • Vulnerability.  Vulnerability is the opposite of self-expression.
    There is no such thing as safe vulnerability.
  • Courage in relationships. Followers expect a leader to face up to tough decisions.
  • Discernment
  • Awareness of the human spirit.
  • Sense of humor.
  • Intellectual energy and curiosity.
  • Respect for the future, regard for the present, understanding of the past.
  • Predictability.  To their followers, leaders owe predictability as a human being.
  • Leaders must be calculable forces in organizations; they are not free to follow a whim.
  • Tending a vision is as difficult as conceiving one.
  • Breadth.  To borrow from Walt Whitman, leaders are people large enough to contain multitudes.
  • Comfort with ambiguity.  Healthy organizations exhibit a degree of chaos.
  • Organizations always delegate the job of dealing constructively with ambiguity to their leaders.
  • Presence.  Leaders stop—to ask and answer questions, to be patient, to listen to problems, to seek the nuance, to follow up a lead.
  • Leaders stand alone, take the heat, bear the pain, tell the truth.”

How’s your assessment related to the above checklist?

Posted in #2 BE - Who a Leader Is and tagged , , , , , , ,
28 Sep 2015

Leadership Jazz – 4

How does a leader ensure good, creative work and how does a leader effectively lead creative people?  Max DePree in his work, “Leadership Jazz” reminds us of the following related principles.

“1. How does a leader approach the process for creative work?
A leader protects unusual persons from the bureaucracy and legalism so ensconced in our organizations.

“A leader works with creative people without fear.

“While respecting them, a leader is wary of incremental changes.  Don’t let small changes—perfectly good in their own right—replace true creativity and real innovation.

“A leader arranges for projects to proceed along a narrowing path.

“In the end, true innovation will never be a democratic event–it’s just too risky for group-think.  Majorities seldom vote to change.  A small group of accountable leaders together with the creative people involved must make the decision and take the risk.

“Peter Drucker once said:  ‘When you have a real innovation, don’t compromise.’

“A leader paves the way for change.

“2. What do creative people need to be fruitful in the worlds of organizations?  First they need access to (even intimacy with) senior leadership.

“Creative work needs the ethos of jazz.

“It matters a great deal how leaders give work to gifted followers.

“Creative people, like the rest of us, need constraints.

“A leader needs to give creative people license to be contrary.

“Leaders welcome the committed skeptic, who wants to be held accountable and demands a share of the risk.

“Leaders give odds to creative people that their work will get to market.

“Creative people need a fundamental level of trust from leaders.

“The work of creative people is only part of a whole; it cannot be taken in isolation.

“Finally, creative people need to work with others of equal competence.

“3. What should a leader be careful about when dealing with creative people?  First, a leader will be careful about the utilitarian self-concept so much in favor with administrators.

“Second, just as moving up in the hierarchy does not confer competence, so organizational power does not guarantee wisdom.

“Be wary of setting out to win prizes.

“Good work is the goal; recognition is a consequence.

“A last caution: Don’t fail to give credit.  People who through their unusual gifts bring change and innovation and renewal to organizations need to be identified.”

Are you leading well those creative people around you?  Are you encouraging or stifling their creativity?  Have you defined their contribution and identified their boundaries?

Posted in #1 KNOW- How a Leader Thinks, #3 DO - What a Leader Does and tagged , , , , , ,
14 Sep 2015
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Leadership Jazz – 2

Max DePree in his great leadership book, “Leadership Jazz” has some excellent thoughts regarding a leader’s promises.

“Though I’m still learning things about being a leader, I can tell you at least two requirements of such a position:  The need to give one’s witness as a leader—to make your promises to the people who allow you to lead; and the necessity of carrying out your promises.

“Followers can’t afford leaders who make casual promises.  Someone is likely to take them seriously.

“For no leader has the luxury of making a promise in a vacuum.

“A leader who backs away from her promises under duress irreparably damages the organization and plants the seeds of suspicion among her followers.

“The best leaders promise only what’s worth defending.

“It’s important to understand that leadership is a posture of indebtedness.  The process of leading is the process of fulfilling commitments made both to persons and to the organization.

“Knowing what not to do is fully as important as knowing what to do.

“Remember to think of followers as volunteers.  Remember, too, that the goals of the organization are best met when the goals of people in the organization are met at the same time.

“Here are several questions that leaders should expect to hear.  The answers to these questions, you see, are some of the promises leaders will make.

  • What may I expect from you?
  • Can I achieve my own goals by following you?
  • Will I reach my potential by working with you?
  • Can I entrust my future to you?
  • Have you bothered to prepare yourself for leadership?
  • Are you ready to be ruthlessly honest?
  • Do you have the self-confidence and trust to let me do my job?
  • What do you believe?”

If you are a verbal processor you can unintentionally make promises that you never intended.  As a leader your words carry extra weight and your thoughts expressed are assumed to be decisions.  You did not intend your words as final, just talking and thinking aloud, but others remember and will quote you in the future.  Beware of communicating what to you are just thoughts in a process but others hear as final decisions.

Are you a faithful leader?  Are you faithful to your word?  Can you be counted on to do what you say you will do?

Posted in #2 BE - Who a Leader Is, #3 DO - What a Leader Does and tagged , , , , , , ,
07 Sep 2015

Leadership Jazz

Max DePree has a second leadership classic titled, “Leadership Jazz.”  Here are some of his thoughts on the subject of faithfulness in the section, “Finding Your Voice.”

“Let me suggest five criteria as a way to start thinking about faithfulness.

  • Accountability for others, especially those on the edges of life and not yet experienced in the ways of the world, is one of the great directions leaders receive from the prophet Amos.  Amos tells us that leaders should encourage and sustain those on the bottom rung first and then turn to those on the top.
  • Integrity in all things precedes all else.
  • The servanthood of leadership needs to be felt, understood, believed, and practiced if we’re to be faithful.
  • There is a great misconception in organizations:  That a manager must be either in control or not in control.  The legitimate alternative is the practice of equity.
  • Leaders have to be vulnerable, have to offer others the opportunity to do their best.  Leaders become vulnerable by sharing with others the marvelous gift of being personally accountable.

“One becomes a leader, I believe, through doing the work of a leader.  It’s often difficult and painful and sometimes even unrewarding, and it’s work.”

Are you becoming a faithful leader?

Posted in #1 KNOW- How a Leader Thinks, #3 DO - What a Leader Does and tagged , , , , , , , , ,
31 Aug 2015

Taking Time Away

I’m seeking to model leading from an overflow of my own walk with the Lord.  In doing so I’m taking time away from the routines of leadership in order to refresh my soul and body.

What fills your tank?  When was the last time you had an intentional break from your routine responsibilities?  Are you leading from an overflow or is your tank near empty?

Don’t think you need a break?  Ask your spouse?  🙂

 

Posted in #3 DO - What a Leader Does and tagged , , , ,
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.

 

Posted in #1 KNOW- How a Leader Thinks and tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

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