Developing Kingdom Leaders – Tom Yeakley

Taking the Mystery out of Leadership

Archive for the tag “Personal development”

30 Nov 2015

Leading with Love

Jesus said in John 13:34-35, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” The one outstanding character quality for Kingdom leaders is that we are known as men and women who love Jesus and one another.

We are to know Him intimately, trust Him explicitly, and are growing in our love for Him with each passing day. This knowledge of God and His love is not just cerebral, but a real-life experience. We are experiencing His love and it is expressed in our lives and in how we relate to others.

Leaders who lead with love are helping others to experience the love of God and become followers of Him. These people have a commitment to multiplying their lives in the lives of others. They want to reproduce Jesus in the lives of as many as possible and thus help make disciples of all the nations. They are not satisfied with spiritually adding, they want to multiply the number of spiritual laborers for the harvest fields of the world.

If we are to see this become a reality it must begin with us today. We will only reproduce who we are. An Indonesian proverb states, “The coconut doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

Here are some questions for you to consider:

1) Are you truly experiencing the love of Jesus in your own life? Is this love growing?
2) Are you manifesting God’s love in your relationships with your family and friends?
3) Are those in your ministry falling in love with Jesus and seeking to live lives that are pleasing to Him?
4) Are those in your ministry understanding the vision of spiritual multiplication?

This will take a commitment, a decision to love, even when others do things that are not lovable. This kind of love is more than a feeling; it is an act of the will. May we all model the great and wonderful love of God to one another first and then to the world.

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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?

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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?

Posted in #1 KNOW- How a Leader Thinks, #4 REPRODUCE - Developing More Leaders 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?

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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.

Posted in #1 KNOW- How a Leader Thinks and tagged , , , , , , , , ,
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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13 Jul 2015

A Sacrificial Life

Sacrifice means, “to give something up for the sake of something of higher value.” Sacrificial living is to give up our own lives for the purpose of following Christ. Jesus modeled the perfect sacrificial life by giving His very life for the sins of mankind. It is this type of lifestyle, one that chooses to live for others instead of self, that models real love for people (John 15:12-14).

Sacrificial living is a daily decision, not a one time event. Paul urges us to, “…. offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1).” We are to continually offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices as an act of worship to God for all He has done for us. He died for us! Living for Him is the least we can do!

Jesus reminds us that being His disciple means, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). To follow Christ means that we must first deny ourselves. That is, give up all rights to our own plans, desires, dreams, and hopes for our lives and let God determine our future. It is an abandonment of self into the loving hands of God. Secondly, we must take up our cross daily. To the first century audience, the picture of a person carrying a cross meant that they were condemned to death by the Roman government. They had no future–only death. Jesus uses this picture to illustrate that this death to self is to be daily, not just a one time decision. Each and every day we must choose to live for Christ and not self.

Sacrificial living goes against the wisdom of this world. The world says to seek self-gratification. “If it feels good do it!” The implication being, if it doesn’t feel good, then it should not be acted upon. To choose to deny self in order to gain the opportunity to serve God is something that will be hard for others to understand.

Are you living for self or dying to self?  It’s a daily, moment by moment choice and lifestyle.

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