Tag Archive - patrick lencioni

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Why Nice People Kill Churches

For the last 12 years I’ve had the incredible opportunity to serve on the Sr. Leadership Teams of some of the nations fastest growing and leading churches. Over that time I’ve observed time and time again one of the most destructive inclinations to church growth and the advancement of the Gospel is the simple fact that people on staff at most churches are simply too nice to each other.

5 Ways Nice People Hurt the Mission of the Church

1. Nice people have a tendency to hire people that they like rather than people who are going to advance the mission of the church. In other words it’s okay to lose as long as you’re losing with friends.

2. Nice people avoid conflict and by so doing don’t mine the best ideas out of their teams.

3. Nice people keep people on their teams well after the work has surpassed their capacity. This not only slows the mission but it exposes the weaknesses of and hurts the very person they’re trying to protect.

4. Nice people don’t confront the brutal facts and as a result “hallway conversations” take place and a lack of unity begins to undermine the mission.

5. Nice people sacrifice the flock for the sake of one sheep. This happens every time you let that one person sing who has no business singing (if you’ve been around church-world for any length of time you know exactly what I’m talking about).

Let me be clear, what I’m not saying is that the staff at your church shouldn’t be nice to each other. But when being nice begins to trump being honest because you don’t want to experience the discomfort of a difficult conversation, that’s not nice…that’s selfish. And when that begins to happen everybody loses.

In his new book “The Advantage” Patrick Lencioni says it this way, “Firing someone is not necessarily a sign of accountability, but is often the last act of cowardice for a leader who  doesn’t know how or isn’t willing to hold people accountable.” 

There’s a strong principle and clear message in there that many church leaders need to take some time and wrestle to the ground.


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willow creek association global leadership summit 2012

If you missed the 2012 Global Leadership Summit, then you missed some great content, great speakers, and incredible ideas that have the potential to shift your thinking when it comes to leadership. But no worries! Now you’ve got all the notes to every session right here at your fingertips for free! Hope you enjoy!

1. Bill Hybels Opening Session

Bill Hybels is the founder and Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, IL. He also the founded The Global Leadership Summit, now in over 200 U.S. sites and over 260 cities worldwide including 85 countries.

2. Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State, addressed the Global Leadership Summit.

3. Jim Collins

Jim Collins, researcher and best selling author of the leadership books Built to Last, Good to Great, and How the Mighty Fall.

4. Craig Groeschel

Craig Groeschel is the founder and Senior Pastor of LifeChurch.tv and author or multiple books.

5. Patrick Lencioni

Patrick Lencioni, is the founder and president of The Table Group and author of 10 best selling books. He gave an incredible talk about organizational health!

6. William Ury

William Ury is the co-founder and senior fellow at Harvard University’s Program on Negotiation.

7. Geoffrey Canada

Geoffrey Canada is a social activist and educator. Since 1990, Canada has been president and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone in Harlem, New York.

8. Mario Vega

Mario Vega is the Senior Pastor of Misión Cristiana Elim in El Salvador one of the world’s largest churches with 73,000 attendees.

9. John Ortberg

John Ortberg is the Lead Pastor at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, in Menlo Park, CA and author of “many books” according to Wikipedia (that means too many to count).

10. Bill Hybels Closing Session

Bill Hybels is the founder and Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, IL. He also the founded The Global Leadership Summit, now in over 200 U.S. sites and over 260 cities worldwide including 85 countries.


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global leadership summit 2012: patrick lencioni

These are the latest in the series of notes I’m posting from the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit. Hope these have been helpful to everyone. In this session Patrick Lencioni, founder and president of The Table Groupand author of 10 best selling books, killed it talking about organizational health! Enjoy the notes.

  • People need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed via Samuel Jonson
  • The single greatest opportunity for improvement and competitive advantage is free, accessible, and untapped. It is building a healthy organization.
  • What does it take to be a great company?
    • #1 Be Smart: finance, strategy, marketing, etc. this is what gets most of the attention because it’s easiest
    • #2 Healthy organization: What does a healthy organization look like? Minimal politics and confusion, high degrees of moral, low turnover among the best people, high productivity
  • There is a big difference between simple and difficult
  • It is impossible in this day and age to build a competitive advantage based on knowledge. But you can build a competitive advantage by building a healthy organization. Every team has a enough experience, talent, and industry knowledge…what they don’t have is a healthy organization.

Building a healthy organization

  • #1 Build a Cohesive Leadership Team:
    • If a leader on the team can’t be vulnerable first he won’t have a culture of vulnerability and trust on his team
  • #2 Create Clarity:
    • 6 questions to align around:
    • Why do we exist? When you know your purpose it informs and guides decision making
    • How do we behave? A core value is something you’re willing to get punished for. Permission to play values are minimum standards for qualifying to be on the team. It’s not unchristian to reject an applicant because they don’t fit your culture
    • What do we do?  Core business. Great organizations define what the 2 or 3 things are that drive them and then they’re relentless about them.
    • What’s the most important thing for us to do right now?
    • How will we succeed? Strategy should be accessible to everyone. Strategy is the myriad of decisions that you make which differentiates you between you and your competitors. Effective strategies make decisions easy and empower your teams to make decisions that reflect and build your culture and values
    • Who around this table needs to do what next?
  • #3 Over-Communicate Clarity:
    • People have to hear it 7 times before they remember it.
    • Great leaders never get tired of repeating themselves.
    • If you’re people can’t do a good impression of you when you’re not around then you’re not saying it enough
  • #4 Reinforce Clarity:
    • If your company tries to be everything to everyone it will end up becoming nothing to no one

 


Posted in Leadership

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death by meeting

This past week on vacation I took advantage of some down time to catch up on some reading and even had the opportunity to go back through one of my favorite books about meetings. Yes…a book about meetings. No, I’m not crazy. I’ve had the tendency to despise meetings just as much as the next guy. I mean who wants to go to another meeting right? But Patrick Lencioni’s “Death by Meeting” has become one of my go to resources when it comes to meetings. Not only is it full of great concepts and ideas but; they’re accessible and applicable for real world work place solutions. Below is an overview of the four kinds of meetings that Patrick Lencioni creatively discusses in his book Death by Meeting.

Meeting Type: Daily Check-in
Time Required: 5 minutes
Purpose and Format: Share daily schedules and activities
Keys to Success: Don’t sit down. Keep it administrative. Don’t cancel even when some people can’t be there.

Meeting Type: Weekly Tactical
Time Required: 45-90 minutes
Purpose and Format: Review weekly activities and metrics, and resolve tactical obstacles and issues
Keys to Success: Don’t set agenda until after initial reporting. Postpone strategic discussions.

Meeting Type: Monthly Strategic
Time Required: 2-4 hours
Purpose and Format: Discuss, analyze, brainstorm, and decide upon critical issues affecting long-term success.
Keys to Success: Limit to one or two topics. Prepare and do research. Engage in good conflict.

Meeting Type: Quarterly Off-site
Time Required: 1-2 days
Purpose and Format: Review strategy, industry trends, competitive landscape, key personnel, team development
Keys to Success: Get out of office. Focus on work, limit social activities. Don’t over structure or overburden the schedule.

Continue reading below for more highlights and take aways from Death by Meeting:

Continue Reading…


Posted in Leadership

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chick-fil-a leadercast

If you missed the 2012 Chic-fil-A Leadercast, then you missed some great content, great speakers, and incredible ideas that have the potential to shift your thinking when it comes to leadership. But no worries! Now you’ve got all the notes to every session right here at your fingertips for free! Hope you enjoy!

1. “3 Questions to Choose By”

Andy Stanley, Author & Lead Pastor of North Point Community Church

2. “An Interview with Urban Meyer & Tim Tebow”

Urban Meyer, Head Football Coach of Ohio State University, former Head Football Coach of the University of Florida, 2 Time BCS National Champion    Tim Tebow, Heisman Trophy Winner, 2 Time BCS National Champion, Author, NFL Quarterback

3. “An Interview with Angela Ahrendts”

Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry

4. “Stand Out”

Marcus Buckingham, best selling Author & Speaker

5. “The Personal Growth of a Leader”

John Maxwell, best selling Author & Speaker

6. “Leadership Thoughts”

Soledad O’Brien, CNN Anchor & Author

7. “Changing Culture”

Dr. Roland Fryer, Professor of Economics at Harvard University and founder and CEO of The Education Innovation Laboratory at Harvard

8. “The Psychology of Choice”

Dr. Sheena Iyengar, Author and Professor of Business in the Management Division of the Columbia Business School

9. “Organizational Health”

Patrick Lencioni, best selling Author, Speaker, and President of The Table Group


Posted in Leadership
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