Helping Churches Make Vision Real

Launching New Leadership Coaching Networks this Fall

Monday, May 26, 2014

Over the last 3 years of working with The Unstuck Group one of the most rewarding and enjoyable things I’ve had the opportunity to do is facilitate leadership coaching networks for Sr. Leaders serving in local churches around the country. I’m excited to let you know that I’m receiving applications for my next coaching network beginning this fall. Be sure to get your application in before the deadline of August 15. A couple of the spots have already been filled so space is limited!

Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. This is not an opportunity for someone looking for inspiration. These coaching networks involve work. You can’t just show up. You will have to commit to six months of reading and engaging exercises with the ministry team at your church. This is designed to help you discover new systems and strategies.

2. This experience isn’t for people looking for leadership theory. Yes, you’ll learn some leadership skills, but this experience is designed for you to put those skills into action. Every month you will leave with new tools to implement in your ministry setting. I want to help you shift your thinking and shift your behaviors.

3. This is not a conference experience. In a conference you can sit and soak in the teaching without engaging anyone else. In this coaching experience, you will be encouraged and challenged by other leaders who will be counting on you to fully participate.

Interested in Joining Us?
Here are all the details about the leadership coaching network in Phoenix. My teammate at The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan, is facilitating a similar network in Atlanta

Complete the coaching network application and pay your initial deposit to hold your space. The deposit will be your first month’s fees. The next Phoenix and Atlanta networks will start in October 2014. The deadline for your application is August 15, 2014.

Posted in Leadership

Take the 2014 Church Budgeting Survey

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

At the end of April I announced a new project I’m beginning to work on, a Church Budgeting Survey. While I’ll admit that at first pass a church budgeting survey may not seem very sexy, the results will be very helpful. At the end of the day my hope is to help churches make vision real, and if churches can begin to allocate their financial resources in a way manner that helps them move towards their vision, then the Kingdom wins!

I’m excited to let you know that since the release of the survey, responses have been coming in from churches of all kinds of sizes and denominational affiliations. Church plants, multisite churches and megachurches of more that 15,000 in attendance have all participated!

In a couple of weeks the research gathering phase of this project will be complete and I don’t want you or your church to miss out on the opportunity to participate.

The responses from this survey will allow churches to gain valuable information such as:

What percentage of our budget should go towards Staffing, Operations, Ministry, and Missions?
What is “normal” weekly giving at a church our size?
How much debt do churches of similar size carry?
Do these percentages change as the size of our church changes over time?
How do different churches go about building their annual budget?

The more churches who participate, the more specific comparisons can be provided.

Click Here To Take The Survey

Benefits of participating: For those who participate, you’ll receive the full results in an executive summary before findings of the survey are made public! And, you’ll be provided with a copy of the data. No worries, the data will be sanitized to remove possible church-identifiers for anonymity. All for free. Thanks ahead of time for participating in the survey and for helping churches make vision real!

Posted in Leadership

4 Indispensable Truths about the Art of Planning

Sunday, May 18, 2014

All of us have been in planning meetings before with a team that seemed to have had a break through moment. You know, that moment when everyone says, “Yes! That’s exactly the direction we need to move, and that’s exactly how we need to get there from here!” There was energy, excitement and unity as everyone left the meeting. But the more time that passed after the meeting dismissed the more that energy that was there faded and the less movement towards actualizing the plan took place. In fact a large majority of planning meetings don’t actually provoke much real change in most churches and organizations. Here are 4 reasons why many of your plans aren’t really getting you anywhere:

1. Planning is Hard Work

Anybody who tells you any different is lying to you. Not only do you need to have the ability to get the stakeholders in the room but, there are some key questions you’ve got to wrestle to the ground. There are probably a lot of things we could do, but what must we do? What plan best fits and reinforces our culture? How will we resource the plan? How do we know if the plan is working? What staffing structure best suites our plan? Will the plan actually get us where we want to go?

2. Plans Don’t Self Execute

No matter how incredibly airtight your plan is, no plan self executes. You’ve taken the time and put in the hard work of putting a plan together and in so doing you’ve taken one of the first steps in making vision real. But now comes the really hard work. Executing the plan.

3. No Plan Survives Contact with the Enemy

I have a long and rich military heritage in my family. Maybe that’s why I love this statement so much…because that’s where it comes from. All great Generals and Military Leaders know that no matter how well conceived that plan is at Head Quarters; Officers on the field of battle are the ones who are actually leading their men to take the hill. The enemy never behaves exactly as you expect him to. Great Military Leaders understand the art of making adjustments on the fly all while keeping their eyes on and men moving towards the objective.

4. A Good Plan that can’t be Changed is a Bad Plan

If you’re inflexible you’re going to find executing a plan to be nearly impossible. No matter how much preparation you put into it there are still going to be unforeseen obstacles. You may find you have the wrong leader executing the plan. You may have underestimated the resources required to execute the plan. Or you may overestimate the pace at which the plan can be properly executed.

Is your church stuck? Need help clarifying where God is taking you? The Unstuck Group can help you clearly articulate you mission, vision, and core strategies while build alignment and movement towards your future through prioritized action initiatives! Follow this link to learn more!

Posted in Leadership

Leadercast 2014: Simon Sinek

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Leadercast concluded with Leadership Expert and best selling author Simon Sinek. Interested in learning more about Simon’s past work? Check out this post: “Why Telling People What to do Makes them Stupid”

“In the military we give medals to people who sacrifice themselves for the sake of other. In the business world we give bonuses to people who sacrifice others so we may gain.”

Leaders always set the tone for the organization
We can’t solve complex problems by ourselves but in groups we’re remarkable
The only thing we have control of is the environment inside the organization
At the sound of violence it’s a mother’s instinct to throw themselves on the top of their child
When danger threatens, it’s the leaders instinct to save their teams.
We call someone a leader because they go first

“The one characteristic any successful leader needs to have is courage”

Great leaders want their followers to grow beyond where they are themselves
Marine Corp tradition: The most junior person eats first. The most senior officers eat last
But in business, we tell entrepreneurs, “Pay yourself first”
Leadership is a responsibility not a rank
When you put the well-being of others before yourself, they in turn look after you
You can’t measure good leadership on a daily basis.
Leadership is a practice, not an event.
We all want to feel safe around the people we work with. Are you creating that safety for your team?

Posted in Leadership

Leadercast 2014: Bill McDermott

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

These are my notes and take-aways from Bill McDermott, Co-CEO and Executive Board Member of SAP.

Leaders all have one thing in common…all leaders have followers
All winners have a dream
It all begins and ends with the customer
Dream jobs aren’t as easy as the dream
There are 2 kinds of people in organizations:
- #1 People who go for whatever opportunity comes along
- #2 People who wait around for the perfect opportunity
When opportunity knocks…you have to be ready to go
He took leadership of the worst performing region in the company
In business everyone is so busy telling people what to do they forget to listen. And people always listen.
He spent his first 3 weeks in his new job just listening to why they were 66 out of 66 in production (last).
3 things that the employees in the worst performing region asked for:
- #1 Stop cutting costs (give us the tools to do our job)
- #2 Give us a clear vision of what you want (tell me where I’m going)
- #3 Bring back our Christmas party (let’s have fun getting there)
High expectations + simple plan = an underdog come from behind story
“I am petrified of leaders who don’t understand the power of celebrating victories”
The first thing that had to change was the mindset about what is possible
Build your strategies for where the world is going…not where it has been
In today’s world purpose matter more than ever before
Your organization is either getting better, getting bored, or going broke