Archive - Staffing RSS Feed

0

The Best of Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit 2014 Pt-1

In the past I’ve regularly taken a large team to the annual Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit, this year was a little different. Thankfully the Global Leadership Summit is available digitally even after the live event! We previewed the talks and selected the best two from this years event to share with our team.

The first talk was from Joseph Grenny, Co-Founder, Vital Smarts: Social Scientist for Business Performance and New York Times bestselling author.

Key Question: Are there some moments in our leadership that are disproportionate in influence, that matter more than any others?

Crucial Conversations: these 3 things cause these moments to become more crucial than others

  1. High Stakes
  2. Opposing Opinions
  3. Strong Emotions

Principle #1  Any time you find yourself stuck in a relationship or team: There are always crucial conversations that we are not holding or not holding well

  • When it matters most you and I seem to do our worst

You have options when a crucial conversation comes

  1. Talk it out
  2. Act it out (if you don’t talk it out you will act it out…it will affect your behavior)
  • We buy into a lie early on and that is “We have to choose between telling the truth and keeping a friend.”
  • You can measure the health in a relationship or team by measuring how many undiscussables there are in the relationship or organization.
  • Progress in organizations begin when we as leaders discuss the undiscussables.
  • Our job as leaders is to model, teach, and measure these crucial conversations.
  • Crucial conversations are either a pit or a path – they can become an acceleration of intimacy – they become trust building accelerators
  • The Bible is a history of crucial conversations

“The vital behavior that enables most any positive organizational outcome is candor at moments of acute emotional and political risk”

7 Skills to Successfully Navigating Crucial Conversations:

  1. Start with the Heart
  2. Learn to Look
  3. Make it Safe
  4. Master my Stories
  5. STATE MY Path
  6. Explore Others’ Path
  7. Move to Action

In the first 30 seconds of a crucial conversations there are 2 things that determine if you will be heard:

  1. Mutual Purpose: Help them know that you care about their interest, concerns and interests
  2. Mutual Respect: Help them know that you genuinely care about them.

Candor is never the problem: people never get defensive about what you’re saying. People become defensive because of why they think you’re saying it.


Posted in Leadership, Spiritual Formation, Staffing

1

Why Bringing Problems to a Leader is a Problem

Leaders aren’t looking for problems. They’re looking for solutions. That’s one of things that make leaders…well, leaders. They find solutions, not problems. They lean into the future, not the past. Leaders naturally create chaos and tension in an organization they don’t resolve it. Because they know that every organization needs a certain amount of chaos or it stagnates and dies. And that’s why consistently bringing problems to a leader is a sure way to get your leader frustrated with you.

How to approach problems with your leader:

1. Seek Coaching: Seek out your leader early and often. Especially when you sense a problem is coming your way. If you are working with a good leader they’ll be happy to coach you…but don’t expect them to make the play for you.

2. Provide Solutions: If you are facing a problem that you feel like you need your leaders input on, then bring a couple of viable solutions with you.

3. Don’t Ask Them to Solve It: Don’t ask your leader to do your job for you. Your leader trusts you to execute the vision of the organization within the scope of influence you’ve been given or you wouldn’t be in the seat you’re in.

You know you have a problem with your team when:

1. Repetitive Problems: When you’ve got a staff member that has a problem that comes up over and over again, you’ve got a problem.

2. When you have to Point it Out: When your staff member is facing a problem, and they don’t recognize that they are facing a problem…especially if it’s a trend, you’ve got a problem with that team member.

Photo Credit: woodleywonderworks via Compfight cc


Posted in Leadership, Staffing

2

What every Executive Assistant wishes their Boss Knew

Fortunately I’ve had the opportunity to work with some incredible Executive Assistants through out the years. I recently asked my current Executive Assistant to do a bit of “market research” for me and have some conversations (a lot of conversations) with other administrative staff and come up with a list of top things they wish their bosses knew. Here’s some of the ideas that came back…

1. Consistency: Consistent weekly meetings are invaluable to me. Often the first and last of the week to touch base on tasks, projects, calendar, and objectives. This helps us effectively communicate and stay on the same page.

2. Trust: Don’t micromanage me. Help me understand the objectives and the playing field and then let me run.

3. Input: Let me have input into decisions that affect me. I see things from a different point of view than you, and you could be missing something.

4. Care: Care about me as a person, not just someone who gets things done for you. Ask me about my kids and my family and remember special days like my birthday and anniversary.

5. Clarity: Allow me to ask for clarity. When you give me a list of tasks to get accomplished on Tuesday and you already gave me a task list on Monday, allow me the freedom to push back and get clarity on what’s most important now, what can wait until next week, and what can wait until next month.

6. Boundaries: I’m your Administrative Assistant not your Personal Assistant. I’m not all that interested in picking up your laundry, scheduling hair appointments and the like.

7. Calendaring: If you want me to keep your schedule, then let me keep your schedule. 2 people trying to manage the same calendar just creates confusion and overlap. Help me know what kind of work routine and rhythm works best for your week, month, and year.

Photo Credit: libraryman via Compfight cc


Posted in Leadership, Staffing

0

Your First 90 Days

Some have said that your first 90 days in a new job are your most important 90 days in that job. After all in those first 90 days a new leader sets the tone for and posture from which they are going to lead. They begin to reveal how they will interact with other team members, how they make decisions, their communication style, and their ability to assess the landscape and implement change. During the first 90 days leaders are literally setting the tone and the underpinnings for the culture that they are going to build moving forward.

There are two distinct veins of thought when you’re beginning a new job, and they’re polar opposites. The first is to change everything you can during the first 90 days because you’ll never get another window of opportunity like this again. After all the reason that you’re in the room is because the last person couldn’t affect the change necessary to move things forward and so change is to be expected with a new hire right? The second approach is to be patient, seek first to understand, and chart a clear course of action to begin to implement change and build the culture you hope to become reality in the organization you find yourself leading. My encouragement whenever possible is to go with option #2. While not every job situation will allow you the luxury of seeking understanding first, some situations demand immediate change and definitive decision making, taking the time to seek organizational and cultural understanding will allow you to execute the right change, with the right people and resources, at the right time, with the right approach. Get one of those four out of order and you could be in trouble.

In his book, “The First 90 Days,” author Michael Watkins writes…

“There are no universal rules for success in transitions. You need to diagnose the business situation accurately and clarify its challenges and opportunities. Start-ups, for instance – of a new product, process, plant, or completely new business – share challenges quite different from those you would face while turning around a product, process, or plant in serious trouble. A clear diagnosis of the situation is an essential prerequisite for developing your action plan.”

To be sure, each unique situation that you walk into will require a unique approach. In “The First 90 Days,” author Michael Watkins unpacks what it means to develop a strategy that matches the unique situation that you’re walking into.

#1 Start-up: Is this a new team or company?

#2 Turnaround: Is the group in trouble, do you need to help get things back on track?

#3 Realignment: Do you need to revitalize the project, team, or processes?

#4 Sustaining Success: Is this a well-oiled machine that simply needs you to keep moving it in the right direction?

A blessing and a curse of being new to the organization is the gift of fresh eyes. You haven’t been in the organization long enough to catch the disease of the organization, and so you see things others do not. So be honest, sober-minded, go slow when you can, don’t get stuck in minutia, keep first things first, and be decisive when decisions need to be made. You can do this!

Need help developing an actionable strategy to lead from where you are to where God wants you to be? The Unstuck Group helps churches clarify their mission, vision, and core strategies—and then realize it through prioritized action initiatives! Check it out!

Photo Credit: Skley via Compfight cc


Posted in Staffing

0

You’ve Got to be Stupid to take that Job!

Thinking about taking a new job? Think twice, because you’ve got to be stupid to take that job. And I mean it. There’s a special blend of arrogance and naivety needed to take a new job, especially in church-world.

Arrogance: To believe that you can actually be the one and only special person to walk in the room and change things.

Naivety: To cover up for the fact that you can’t possibly know everything you’re actually getting ready to get yourself into.

There are quite a few biblical characters that demonstrated this same special blend of arrogance and naivety. A couple in particular come to mind.

Joseph was naive enough to share a dream that he had about his brothers bowing down to him. It came off a bit arrogant and he ended up getting beat up and sold into slavery by those same brothers. Then after a while God would use him to save the entire group of people (there weren’t many yet) that would end up being the nation of Israel.

David was arrogant and naive enough to walk onto the battlefield with Goliath. He carried an attitude that cried, “Well of course my God is big enough to do this. What’s wrong with the rest of you guys, why are you afraid?” It came off as complete arrogance.

 Peter was naive enough to act first and think second on many accounts, not least of which was getting out of the boat in the middle of a storm to walk to Jesus on the water. Yea, good thinking Peter.

It takes a bit of stupid faith to follow Jesus, a special blend of arrogance and naivety. Make sure you’ve got it before you say yes to your next church job.

Photo Credit: MïK via Compfight cc


Posted in Leadership, Staffing