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How Leaders Grow Part 2

#2 - Through Reading Books

I am a huge advocate of reading because it has transformed my ministry. When you read a book, you are gaining the wisdom of 1,000's of hours of research, life experience, and knowledge.

Plus, you get the opportunity to sit at the feet of men and women who may not even be alive anymore. I've read and re-read "Lectures to My Students" by Charles Spurgeon and have learned much from a man who died 80 years before I was born. That's the power of books. It opens our minds up to the world from the viewpoint of someone else. We can learn about any area of life, all we have to do is pick the book up and read.

Action Steps:

1. Decide how many books you are going to read between now and December 31st.

2. Keep a list of the books you read for your own personal accountability.

3. Start reading!

How Leaders Grow Part 1

There's tons written on discipleship and how Christians grow in their faith, but it begs the question: How do leaders grow?

I believe there are 5 ways we as leaders grow that we'll look at this week:

#1 -Growing leaders learn from other leaders

It has been said that "experience is a wonderful teacher if you can afford the tuition." I believe we can learn a great deal just by being around other leaders and asking good questions. I can always tell a church planter who is going to do well and one who is going to struggle simply by the questions (or the lack thereof) they ask.

When I meet with a church leader who spends the entire time talking about great his vision is and how he essentially knows everything, I'm looking at someone who is going to have a tough season ahead of him. Why? Because it is nothing more than arrogance to think you know it all. And even more foolish to waste the time of a leader when you could be learning.

When I meet with leaders I want to learn from, I have a list of questions (sometimes I even bring a notebook and pen) and start firing away. Leaders love to share what they've learned because they don't want one more person to go through what they went through. Learning from other leaders is our opportunity to stand on the shoulders of giants.

Actions steps:

1. Make a list of 5 leaders you'd love to spend 30 minutes with.

2. Write down 20 questions that you would really like to know the answer to.

3. Make a commitment to not let one month go by where you aren't learning from other leader.

Sunday Stuff...

- Today was great! Great crowd and great energy.
- Lots of newcomers. It was cool connecting with some new folks.
- Loving teaching Song of Solomon. Everyone should teach it as some point.
- There's no place I prefer to teach that at Calvary. I always feel like I'm in my element here.
- Our small groups sign up is going great. However, I think our percentage (of church attender to group attender) will be down because we've grown over the last few months.
- Looking forward to hanging out with some Pastors this week. Always a time of learning for me.
- There is a bookstore going out of business. I am there tomorrow at the break of dawn. (I'll let everyone know what bookstore it is after I've done my shopping :)
- I know I've said this a 1000 times, but do yourself a favor and buy Mac. We bought a new printer in the office today and it was connected to every computer on our network in 5 minutes (no exaggeration)
- I can only imagine what that would have been like if out offices were filled with PC's (can you say "nightmare"?)
- Going to see Van Halen this week! I can't wait!

Time Management Tips Part 5

"What is the most valuable use of my time right now?” - this is a question that I ask myself a few times a day. I have a limited amount of time to accomplish a huge amount of tasks. This requires me to decide what gets done, delegated, delayed, or deleted.

1. What gets Done - this is the stuff that is most important on my list. It is the stuff that only I can do.

2. What gets Delegated - anything that someone else can do. The general rule is that if a person can do a task 75% as well as you, it should be delegated.

3. What gets Delayed - there are things that I need to do, but they aren't a priority. So they get delayed until I can give them the proper time. This is especially true of things that you need to do but aren't time sensitive.

4. What gets Deleted - This is the nonsense that comes across my desk. This is the stuff that has no benefit engaging in (i.e. answering an irate email from a person who's mind you aren't going to change).

I look at everything I have to do through this lens. The truth is, you're probably doing too much. This has helped me sort through everything that comes my way.

Valentine's Day Thoughts...

1. If guys would do for their wives what they do on Valentine's Day, the divorce rate in America would plummet!

2. Buying flowers doesn't even count today because it's expected.

3. This is how a girl wants to be treated everyday!

4. It's weird to book appointments for today. It's regular day, but not exactly. Very weird.

5. Today always reminds me of Billy Ray Valentine! Why don't they make movies like this anymore? "Looking good Bill Ray!" "Feeling good Louis!"

Time Management Tips Part 4

Plan your day the night before - Before I go to bed, I sneak into my home office and write down the 15-20 things I need to accomplish the next day. They vary in size, shape, and scope but once I write them down I know they're going to get accomplished.

If you wait until 10AM to plan our day, it's over. Your morning is half over and several small fires have already hit your desk. But if you will take 15 minutes the night before to plan your day, you will get twice as much done, and more importantly, you'll get the most important things done.

By the way, it doesn't matter what kind of to-do list you have, as long as you have one. If you walk into your office without a to-do list and time blocked out in your calendar to accomplish them, they won't happen.

When you take time to write out what you need to accomplish, you're saying, "My time is valuable and the tasks I need to accomplish are valuable as well." This will carry over into the kind of work you produce and how you value your time and the time of others.

Book Review: The Art of the Strategist

There aren't too many books on strategy, but The Art of the Strategist by William Cohen is a good one. It took me a little while to get into this book, but it had some gems that made it worth the time to read it.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"You cannot develop an effective way to get 'there' until you know exactly where it is."

"People will not follow you if they think that your commitment is temporary, or that you may quit short of attainment."

"Strive to keep things simple and you'll be pleased with the results."

"The less complicated your overall plan, the better its change or success."

"Doing the right thing at the wrong time can be as bad as taking an action which is not the right thing to do under any circumstances."

Time Management Tips Part 3

Eat That Frog! - I got this tip from a book by the same title, but the principle is so true! If eating a frog is on your list of things you have to do in a given day, here's the tip - eat the frog first! If not, the frog will be looming over you all day and you won't accomplish much because you'll be distracted.

If your frog is a conversation you need to have, then have it first thing in the morning so you can get it out of the way and you can get on with your day. If it's a project that has to get done, then do it and get on with your life. You'll be glad you did.

The best part is this - eating a frog (whatever that is for you) is probably the worst thing you'll have to deal with that day, so your day can only get better from there :)

A First Step into a Larger World...

Mia tried ice cream for the first time on Saturday. I treat her like royalty, so of course we went to Dairy Queen :) This goes without saying, but she loved it! These are the things that make me love being a dad!

Time Management Tips Part 2

Manage your energy - Understanding your own rhythms is one of the best ways to get a lot done in a normal work day. Like many people, I have most of my creative energy in the morning, so I never book appointments in the morning (except our weekly staff meeting). This time I use to write, study, research, and create.

Afternoons are when I'm at my creative lowest, so I use that time to have meetings, return email, write thank you cards, and clean my office.

The point is, you have to manage your energy wisely or you'll find things that are low priority taking your best energy.