Frank Blake, CEO Home Depot

I recently read an interview between SmartMoney and Frank Blake, CEO of Home Depot. Blake is credited with remodeling the 2,200-store home-improvement chain during a tough real estate market. The interview asked Blake what he looked for during his frequent store walks. He replied,

“I rarely make a specific store-related comment.  I don’t want it to be a career-ending thing when I walk into a store and it is bad.  I’m not so much interested in the individual store as what the individual store might say about larger issues.”

Instead of focusing on individual problems, Blake concentrates on the big picture issues.

This is a very wise strategy for pastors and other church leaders to remember. It is easy to react emotionally to a problem instead of asking, “How is our system broken and what needs to be fixed?” In my experience, ninety percent of the time the problem is a systems issue rather than a people issue. In either case, reacting emotionally rarely helps.

Think about it this way. We’re counseled to never punish our children when we’re angry. What would happen if we applied this principle to our leadership? What if instead of allowing a culture of fear to fester in our organizations, we used problems as opportunities for leadership coaching and systems improvements?

Click here to read the interview in its entirety.

Big news!  We recently released the third eBook in the Leisure Suit series.  This book is called Stayin’ Alive: Build a Legacy of Leadership.  Among other things, this resource includes strategies and practical steps for:

• being intentional about leadership development
• developing dynamic leadership teams
• addressing leadership, vision or strategy gaps
• evaluating the health of your organization
• making uncomfortable but necessary changes
• investigating your personal disciplines and priorities

Like our other two previous eBooks, this resource is FREE.  We encourage you to share it with your teammates and friends.  The book doesn’t take much time to read and it includes relevant exercises and discussion questions that can be used the next time you connect with your team.  We want this resource to help you develop healthy conversations that lead to positive change.

We know that all of you are very busy so we wanted to provide you with a resource that can be used right away.  You don’t have to visit a bookstore or wait for the Amazon box to arrive on your doorstep.

Again, I’m grateful for the partnership with Church Community Builder.  Because of their generous contribution to Engage Burkina, this entire series is available to you for free.

Our team’s primary mission is to help leaders and churches have a bigger impact.  We don’t want you to be stuck.  We are praying for this eBook to help you take your next steps in your leadership and ministry.  Help us spread the word!  We want everyone to benefit from the entire Leisure Suit series.

Earlier this month, I wrote about Leaders Book Summaries.  The company summarizes books for busy leaders.  Each month, they review a couple of books and then send subscribers helpful 10-20 page summaries and a detailed 2-page super summary.

This week, I checked out their free sample summary and was really impressed.  The free sample was a summary of the book Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.  The actual summary was a PDF document with a very professional layout.

The writing was clear, concise and easy to follow.  I really enjoyed reading the “Pastor’s Perspective.”  This section shared specific ideas for applying the book in a Christian organization.

The company issues thirty (30) summaries of leadership books each year.  The books are written by secular and religious authors.  Recent examples include…

• Integrity by Henry Cloud
• Talent is Never Enough by John Maxwell
• The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive by Patrick Lencioni
• On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis

A subscription is only about $6 a month (cheaper if you pay for an entire year in advance). For the price of three hard-back books, you can receive 30 high quality book summaries.

Leaders Book Summaries is currently offering a free one-month trial for our blog readers. Save time and money as you grow your leadership skills!

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This is a sponsored post from Leaders Book Summaries, one of my ministry partners on TonyMorganLive.com

I recently connected with Ted Vaughn, Director of Production and Creative Arts at the Rock Church in San Diego, California.  Ted’s team created this manifesto.  The word manifesto is defined as a declaration of principles.  This manifesto is a great challenge for us not to settle for where we currently are in our leadership and ministry.  Where are you settling?  Possibly it’s time for your own manifesto.

Stop and Start 2012

I hope you enjoyed our “Stop and Start” series.  I had fun learning from some of America’s top leaders. I would love to hear what some of you have already stopped or started doing in 2012.

Here is a summary of the entire series:

Mark Batterson

Scott Belsky

Craig Groeschel

Chris Hodges

Tim Sanders

Perry Noble

Jon Acuff

Jenni Catron

Eric Geiger

Jeff Henderson

Ben Stroup

Jim Tomberlin

David Foster

Ron Edmondson

Lance Witt

Penelope Trunk, Sam Rainer and Maurilio Amorim

Dave Travis

Mike Foster

Will Mancini

Josh Griffin

Dan Reiland, Brad Lomenick and Dave Ferguson

Photo by Roo Reynolds.

At the encouragement of one of my good friends and with the help of Ben Stroup, three of the eBooks that I released several months ago are now available on Kindle. The two most recent were added just last week. Now, you can immediately download these resources directly to your Kindle reader. And, if you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can borrow all three eBooks for free. (I’m still a fan of free.)

Each of the eBooks is straight to the point. You’ll be able to read each one in about 20 minutes. They also are designed to read with your teammates. Each of them contain discussion questions for you to use with your staff or volunteer ministry leaders. Wondering what to do at your next staffing meeting? I just did the homework and preparation for you. (You can thank me later.)

Here are the three eBooks in the order that I would review them with your team:

1. Developing a Theology of Leadership – There’s a lot of conversation about leadership within the church, but very little of it is based on what the Scripture has to say. This resource was designed to help you begin begin to consider what a leadership development culture might look like in your ministry. It includes simple steps to begin a mentoring relationship.
2. Big Churches Getting Bigger – Surprise! This really isn’t about big churches. Rather, the eBook challenges church leaders to consider strategic barriers to growth. Big churches may not be healthy churches. No matter what the size, though, healthy churches should be growing churches.
3. The New Traditional Church – You may not say it, but internally you tend to mock the church down the street that’s stuck in the 1950s. Their methods have never changed. They’re a traditional church. Unfortunately, any ministry strategy that once was effective can become a tradition. Whether your church is 20 years old or 20 months old, you may have some new traditions that are limiting the impact of your ministry.

Speaking of staff meetings, I just spent the day with the staff team at Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Great church!) That’s part of what I do to resource churches. I spent a couple of hours with the staff leadership team talking about trends. Then I presented a very interactive three-hour session with the entire staff on building and equipping volunteer teams. And, finally, I spoke to over 500 volunteer leaders in the evening and encouraged them to take their next steps in their leadership. I’d love to do the same thing at your church. Let’s chat.

What are the resources you’ve recently used with your staff and volunteer leaders to help equip them to take their next steps? Join the conversation by sharing your comment.

On one of my recent trips, I finished reading EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey. The book offers practical wisdom from Dave based on his years of experience building a business from scratch. It offers insights on both entrepreneurship and leadership — it’s not an either or proposition when you’re launching a business.

As a leader launching a church consulting business, this book really resonated with me. However, most of the principles Dave outlines also apply to church planters and other church leaders. With that in mind, here are some highlights from my reading:

• “If you want employees, then boss them around; if you want team members, explain why you do what you do. If they won’t do what you ask, explain it again and again. Then, if they are simply contrary, they have to work somewhere else. But don’t lead with threats and fear.”
• “Just because an idea is a good idea does not mean it is good for you or your company to take it on.”
• “President John F. Kennedy said, ‘There are costs and risks to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.’”
• “Marketing has to have energy. Logic, while factual, is flat and moves no one to action.”
• “You can’t lead, market, and/ or run a company successfully without drawing fire from people who don’t understand. So as you win prepare to be misunderstood and lied about.”
• “The fact that someone got on your team who should never have been allowed in the building is your fault.”
• “There are some people you don’t need to hire—simply because you don’t like them. That is good enough.” (more…)

As part of my series on things leaders should stop and start doing, I connected with Dan Reiland, Brad Lomenick and Dave Ferguson.

Dan Reiland

Dan Reiland is the Executive Pastor at 12Stone Church in Lawrenceville, GA.  He previously partnered with John Maxwell for 20 years, first as Executive Pastor at Skyline Wesleyan Church and later as Vice President of Leadership and Church Development at INJOY.  Here are his thoughts on shifts leaders should consider making in the new year:

Stop unnecessary and unproductive record keeping. If you don’t use the information, don’t gather it. If you don’t know why you gather it, stop!

Start studying a core competency for your work one hour each week that you haven’t studied in years.  Example, for a pastor, study Systematic Theology.  One hour is doable and it results in 50 hours a year minus vacation.  Dig for new insights and keep your mind sharp for the core of your work.

You can follow more of Dan’s thoughts and updates from his ministry on Twitter.

Brad Lomenick

Brad Lomenick directs and leads a movement of young leaders called Catalyst. He  equips, inspires, and releases the next generation of young Christian leaders through events, resources, consulting, content and connecting a community of like-minded Catalysts all over the world.  Here are his thoughts on shifts leaders should consider making in the new year:

Stop competing.  Especially churches.  We are all on the same team.  Also, stop copying what others are doing.  Be original and be yourself.

Start collaborating.  Especially between churches.  Also between denominations, different businesses and non profits.  Partnering is one of the best ways to extend the resources available to you to the greatest extent possible.

You can follow more of Brad’s thoughts and updates from his ministry on Twitter.

Dave Ferguson

Dave Ferguson is a Lead Pastor and Spiritual Entrepreneur with Community Christian Church and the NewThing Network.  Here are his thoughts on shifts leaders should consider making in the new year:

Stop leading with, “Here is the vision, figure out how you can help.”

Start leading with, “God has a vision for you and we want to help.”

You can follow more of Dave’s thoughts and updates from his ministry on Twitter.

Will Mancini

As part of my series on things leaders should stop and start doing, I connected with Will Mancini.  Will is a Clarity Evangelist who started Auxano and wrote Church Unique so that ministry leaders can have amazing vision and focus.  Here are Will’s thoughts on shifts leaders should consider making in the new year.

Stop imitating.

Make 2012 the year to stop imitating.  No matter what your role is ask the question, “Who am I imitating?”  Are you a group’s pastor?  Reconsider the model you are following so you can reinvent.  Are you a children’s pastor?  Think about where your pattern of ministry came from and rethink how you might do it better.  Essentially, the imitation question forces a leader to look at their own default mode.  

We most easily imitate a highly visible model (books and conferences) or we imitate the past (the way things were set up before we arrived).  Trust in Jesus to show you the best way for your ministry in 2012.  Take a courageous step and tweak something.  Move from fast following and best practicing to future designing and better experimenting.

Start meeting new people.

One of the best things I ever started was meeting with a few new people each year just to learn from them.  I highly recommend it.  This year, I have identified three people that I will spend a day with for mentoring.  One is a consultant in a field different than my own.  One is a church consultant who is two decades ahead of me in experience and the other is a church leader with a ministry model that I want to learn more about.  My only cost for these meetings will be travel which is a small price to pay for the value of learning.  

Who could you learn from in 2012?  Pick up the phone and be prepared with a compelling case of why they should invest time with you.

You can follow more of Will’s thoughts and updates on Twitter.

Mike Foster

As part of my series on things leaders should stop and start doing, I connected with Mike Foster.  Mike is a speaker, author, and consultant helping people live and tell a better story. He is the Co-founder of “People of the Second Chance” a radical grace movement made up of activists, artists and imperfectionists. He serves on the Executive Team of PlainJoe Studios and is the author of “Gracenomics: Unleash The Power of Second Chance Living.” He lives in Southern California with his beautiful bride and his 2 young children.  Here are Mike’s thoughts on shifts leaders should consider making in the new year.

Stop trying to be what others expect you to be.

I know very few leaders at peace with who they are and where they are at in their life and career.  Too many of us are privately and publicly clawing, scratching and slaving our ways to “just a little bit more” and “just a little bit better.”  The stupid game of managing our reputations and putting forth the best versions of ourselves is flat out exhausting.

Perhaps this year we can commit to finishing last in the rat race and stop wasting so much emotional energy trying to be what others expect us to be.  I think Steve Jobs put it best, “Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”  There is only one authentic version of you, so this year be that version.

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