Week Three, Leadership: Immune Systems and Leaders

"Leaders function as the immune system for their institution."

                                                              -Friedman

       Sickness comes into our body. Invasive germs, bacteria, disease step into a healthy system to bring their chaos and sickness. The body has a built-in response to this invasion and when it's working well the invasive disease is put in it's place and taken care of. In an unhealthy system these invaders are able to run rampant and cause all kinds of trouble. What does any of this have to do with leadership? It's a great picture for the nature of the job of leadership.

       Ever had a boss like Michael Scott? Ever worked with someone who spread all kinds of chaos in the workplace? Ever had your child push a boundary or boldly walk right over it and ask what you're going to do about it? Ever had a player on your team cause division and strife for their own agenda? Ever have a leader claim they were exclusively right and everyone else is suspect?

       Boundaries are a big problem with diseases. They long for everyone else to be as sick as they are. They will stop at nothing but conversion. Leadership is the task of the immune system. To define and maintain health in the midst of all the germs around. As a parent, business leader, team leader...the ability to know who you are(being well-defined, well-differentiated) is the key to spotting the germs that come your way. The strength required to say no to sickness is a priority in leadership.

       Most leadership training puts great emphasis on motivating people rather than helping a leader understand the effect of their presence in the midst of a system. What happens to you in chaos? What happens when the rumors fly? What happens when the child screams and demands their way? How do we respond to the sabotage(rumors of adults, eye-rolling of our teens, screams of our two year olds)?

       In the Old Testament their is a fine example of leaders not being the immune system they needed to be.  Germs and sickness were coming in and instead of fighting off the problem like an immune system should, here's their response...JEREMIAH 6:14 They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace. Like having cancer in your body and having a Dr say, no need to do anything about it, it'll be okay.

       Can you think of a time when you've had to step into some situation and act like an immune system, fighting back something that shouldn't be happening?

       Is there something going on right now where you should be stepping in and offering leadership to make something go a different way?

Week Two: The world as best I remember: Faithfulness

       Faithfulness: Two things that come to mind when I think of this word...

• Holding on to a promise. God's promises don't run out or get cut short or have an expiration date.
• Marital vows. I promised my wife I would love her and her alone 'til death do us part.

       I've come upon a realization in my life. I'm a little weak on faithfulness...hold on it's not what you think. This week I've been thinking of faithfulness in terms of consistently, day-in-and-day-out keeping up with my obligations. I'm a project kinda guy. I can focus much thought and energy into a project. A beginning, an ending with steps along the way. Life is a series of projects strung together. The more varied the projects the better...intense short term focus that changes year to year, season to season.

       But you see there is part of my life that needs focus that is a little different. Everyday attention to a lifelong project...faithfulness. All the of the sudden the word becomes a little boring to me, you know...oatmeal again this morning kinda boring!! It leads me to another related observation this week...

       I love change...God is Immutable. God never changes. Hasn't changed for years (infinity X infinity). It dawns on me how much I love change, need change, see benefit in change. Something I value for my personal experience is an opposite value in my relationship with God... a rock that doesn't change, shift, move, wear down, give up, or wake up on the wrong side of the bed.

        I realize God is perfect...he has no reason for change. I'm imperfect...in need of more change than I could ever be aware. God's quality of faithfulness is certainly rooted in being unchangeable. My progress towards faithfulness can only come when I stop needing to change (another reason Heaven is a mind blower). In the mean time I'll be thankful for Him and continue on my path to become something new.

Week Two Leadership: System Traps and Well-Differentiated Leaders

"It's about leadership in the land of the quick fix, 

about leadership in a society so reactive 

that it cannot choose leaders who might calm it's anxiety. 

It's about the need for clarity and decisiveness in a civilization 

that inhibits the development of leaders with clarity and decisiveness.

-Edwin Friedman

       Much of what we are going to talk about in this next year comes from a favorite book of mine. "A Failure of Nerve" by Edwin H Friedman. Feel free to get a copy and read ahead.

       As I mentioned last week so many books about leadership give us some idea about how to motivate others. One of the premises of this book is that the leader's presence and being has more to do with the health of the system than anything else. How many times have you watched an episode of Dog Whisperer or Super Nanny?

       The dog owner/parent thinks they have invited an expert to fix their dog or their child. But in every episode the real issues lie with the leaders. The nanny or dog expert can step in and take control of the situation in almost an instant. What makes the presence of those people different than the current leaders of the system? How important is just the presence of a person leading?

       Just like the nanny or dog expert steps into identify what's going wrong in these relationships...Friedman has identified four major problems that should be addressed...

• Regression: systems become oriented to the weakest members, aka..."the Squeaky Wheel gets the grease." "Instead of focusing on strong, power is leveraged to the recalcitrant, passive-aggressive, anxious members of the system." The Bill Belichick interview this last weekend spoke about how things go best when the best players are the best leaders. I'm guessing he keeps it that way. Energy should be directed to the "visionary, imaginative, and the motivated."
• Devaluing decisiveness: We wrongfully hire experts without considering decisiveness. Things happen in a moment at work, home, church...The kind of person you are, will affect the knee-jerk reaction you and I give in these leadership moments. Judgements that come when you don't have time to weigh through all the facts are not valued enough.
• Data Junkies: There is an obsession of gathering info to make decisions. How often have you seen people live in a paralysis of analysis. So much information gathered that a delayed decision or inability to make a decision IS a decision. Know who you are, make decisions according.
•  Unreasonable belief in reasonableness: This is one of my favorites. When we were first parents we were told we had to explain everything to our kids. If we explained our expectations there would be no issues. Our children would understand and always yield to the way we were leading them. Being reasonable doesn't always work with people who are being unreasonable. Sometimes we had to step in and force our children to obey for the greater good for them and us. What happens when an invasive organism that lacks self-regulation needs to do something different? This is a pervasive problem in leadership.

       So the antidote to the above is the well-differentiated leader. Here's the definition, we'll talk about it more next week...

       Well-differentiated Leader:  Someone who has clarity about their own life and direction. Someone who does not get lost in all of the anxiety around them. Someone who can separate themselves and yet remain connected with people. "I mean someone who can manage his or her own reactivity to the automatic reactivity of others and therefore be able to take stands at the risk of displeasing."

Week One Sermon Prep: HE IS

       Due to our Arctic blast of last week and and a cancelled Sunday Service, this week is a redo of last week. We ended our year through the Bible and I plan to speak on the close of Revelation and the invitation to come and show this video.
       This video was made by me a few years ago for a sermon detailing the many attributes of God. The song itself is done by Aaron Jeoffrey and pulls out a descriptor of God for each book of the Bible. God is all these things and more. Be blessed by it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP6vxOtDeFU&feature=youtu.be

Week One The world around me: Beauty Eh

       Beauty eh! Works if your Canadian! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is only skin deep. A thing of beauty. Age before beauty.
       I immerse myself in a hobby that is a constant consideration of beauty, pleasing lines, correct shapes and styles. When I get carried away sometimes I am reminded of the verse from Ecclesiastes ...

 All things are wearisome,

    more than one can say.

The eye never has enough of seeing,

    nor the ear its fill of hearing.

9 

      

        Looking more and more at beautiful things has a way of stealing the joy of beautiful things. At some point there begins to be an emptiness with the obsession about seeing beautiful things. 

       I was listening to the radio last week and a lady was speaking about beauty. She was talking about attributes of God and how we are created in God's image. That God's creation is beautiful. While it says of Jesus that he wasn't much to look at... the truth is..."Nothing compares to the Beauty of the Lord." God is beautiful. This lady on the radio was saying that part of the reason women wrestle with issues related with beauty revolves around the God given gift of beauty. The pressure to portray the beauty of God. The knowledge that men are attracted to beauty. The realization that God ordained ways become twisted and fallen and instead of bringing life as God intends, the sinful version steals life.

        Beauty is kinda like tastebuds, it's not a real requirement to run the universe, but the flavor of vanilla, and a towering waterfall, and my beautiful wife are all wonders to enjoy.

       The fall away from God mars these gifts, reduces them to things for our pleasure instead of a source for which we take in the sunset and say Thank You God!!

       I was forced to watch the Bachelor last monday(yes I was going to watch the BCS Championship Game). I noticed a lot of beauty. I noticed a lot of insecurity. I noticed a lot of irony. Gratefully I noticed a beauty born in the confidence of a right relationship with our maker. The coolest thing was the later was in my living room and said yes to me years ago. Beauty Eh!

Week One Leadership: An emotional component to leading

"The safest place for ships is in the harbor, but that's not why ships were built.

                                                                                     -Anonymous

       I'm a big believer in systems theory. We all live in systems. Your family, employment, church, boards, friend units, government, rotary club etc...are all systems. Every system organizes itself around those who exert influence into the system, and those who are along for the ride at best or sabotage influence at worst. Those who hold some sort of power in the system are least likely to see the weaknesses they exhibit. Those who follow those in power have great radar for the norms they see.(Think of the last time you participated in a group where you were the new one. How did that feel?) The weak notice the injustice that the strong can't see!

        Systems, like individuals, have the potential to go off track. January is a limited spending  month. Individually I just got used to spending a lot for the holidays. I can't keep that up, I have to pull back, control myself, get back on track. Systems get off track. Leadership is the act of  helping the system get back on track. But as we all know leadership that rightfully calls people to start doing something "different" is always met with a great big smile right!!! It's generally met with resistance (passively) or sabotage(actively).

        There are a lot of books and resources out there to try and inform you of several characteristics of great leaders. All of those things are true, I don't want to dispute that, but I've always felt there is something missing in those presentations. 

       There is an emotional toll in leadership that is not talked about and at the heart of becoming a healthy leader. The emotional toll of sabotage that comes from people you are trying to lead is important. Important to know where it's coming from, why people respond that way, what to do about it, but most important... who are we going to be in the midst of it. What does it look like in us, when our child or employee throws a temper tantrum in the midst of our decisions? 

       Whether you hold a position of high authority with many under you or you have a three year old, leadership is a priority. Those with high character and integrity need to infuse every system with healthy leadership. Healthy leadership starts with healthy people. Stay tuned next week as we see what that looks like.

            

New Year, New Plan

       I want to thank people for taking the time to join me last year in a journey through the Bible. My 2013 archive will be just that. Maybe over the years, I might go back and rewrite some of the more feeble attempts!!
       This year I knew I needed a plan. 6-7 days a week of blogging is a bit much and I also needed some themes. My goal in the coming year is to blog three days a week centered on three themes.

1.       Mondays will be on a favorite issue of mine: Leadership. What it is, what it isn't, how to do it better, how to avoid some mistakes AND that leadership is for everyone. Everyone has someone who looks up to them.

2.      Wednesdays will be some object lesson about life from my ongoing lessons!!

3.       Thursdays will be some content regarding my upcoming sermon for the weekend.

That's the plan. The invitation from Christ is still...come! I look forward to saying yes more often!!