Sunday, November 11, 2007

Resources to Engage

Links to help provide resources and to engage with others of similar mindset:

CABE: A initiative among Business Executives. Well worth exploring: http://www.cabe-online.org/history.htm

BE THINKING: This website keeps our minds alert and in-gear: http://bethinking.org/

2SIGNIFICANCE: Businessmen with a flair for influencing others for the Kingdom: http://www.2significance.com.au/

ETHICAL LEADERS: The Don Soderquist Business Centre is well worth checking out: http://www.soderquist.org/

By Global Nomad

4 Leadership Secrets Revealed


I was browsing through a bookshop the other day and found a couple of books including a recent edition of Fortune irresistible. I simply couldn’t walk away from a magazine and books that promised to share the secrets of leaders from companies such as GE and P&G. The articles were well written and interesting, but as I read, I was struck by the fact that I have seen these same ideas in dozens of books over the years.


The truth is that there are no secrets to leadership. We know what it takes to successfully lead organisations. It is however just simply put - tough, and we'd like to find an easier way to do it. Perhaps Ken Chenault of American Express has the answer.


Leading today's organisation is not for the faint-hearted, but the elements of what it takes to be successful at the craft are well-known.


1. Be the kind of person to whom others attribute the qualities of leadership. Words like authenticity, integrity, trust, and respect are often used, but it boils down to having the requisite personal stature, as measured by organisation members, to earn the right to lead. (Bonus points: create an organisation of stature.)


2. Determine where the organization is going and how it is going to get there. (Bonus points: create an organisation that can effectively respond to the inevitable changing winds and tides that will surely throw it off course.)


3. Craft innovative business models, systems, processes, and structures which unleash the natural talents and capabilities of people, while harnessing the inevitable chaos associated with organisation life. (Bonus points: create teams and organisations that re-design themselves as they encounter obstacles and opportunities.)


4. Build a purpose-driven community where all members get to contribute, learn and earn in a big way. (Bonus points: create the environment and processes that will supply an endless supply of leaders that are even better than you.)


Great leadership is not a secret; it's just hard work on four well-known fronts.

Give Us Trainers With Credibilty


The following is a quote from Bill Hybels book 'Courageous Leadership' page 132. It captures what we desire to see in trainers for the Leadership Matters Course.

"I usually hesitate when people ask me to participate in leadership development programs. 'How is it going to work? ' I ask. If they respond in the typical fashion: 'We are going to get Jo Shmo (with a Ph.D. in this or that) to teach on leadership' I tell them the same thing I tell everybody else. 'Most good leaders are not going to want to participate in that program because Jo Shmo is not a leader. He's a classroom teacher. He might even be a great teacher, but he never really led anything. True leaders want more than theory from teacher types. They want to be around other leaders who have actually been in the game, leaders with a few bloodstains on their uniforms. "

This powerfully illustrates the point of why we are intentional in recruiting key trainers for the Leadership Matters Course. We are looking for individuals who have a lot of experience. For each LMC, a team of three experienced leaders, who are good trainers, should be able to lead a successful course. They work together with others on their team who have a little less experience.

That's why we desperately need people with ample life and ministry experience to be the key trainers in each LMC. Our focus is to train leaders in pastoral and mission work. We need people who are leaders in their ministries; who have field experience. They have "a few bloodstains on their uniforms". We have often recognized this. In fact this has been an issue where some have disagreed with us. They say: 'Anyone can teach LMC, because it's about principles and the philosophy of training'. But we said 'No' to this, for the very reason that Bill Hybels so clearly points out to us.

The tendency may be to become somewhat lenient on this point, due to the pressure of our great need for trainers. At the moment, this is not so much an issue, since we have many who want to help out. A few years ago, we recognized that if experienced leaders, with this stature of giftedness and experience, have the desire to do training, they will prove to be the ones that can successfully carry several courses in a given year. We knew that if we worked almost entirely with people with less leadership experience, we would soon find out that the reputation and effectiveness of the LMC would suffer and eventually die a quiet death.

The ongoing involvement of David Cummings for example has been an enormous significance and has been widely appreciated.

In this sense we can't over estimate the value of people like David in the process of making the course as successful and popular as it is right now. We need people with much respect, a clear maturity, obvious skill, and with plenty of ministry background. We want to grow; we want to keep a good reputation and we want to gain admittance into more organizations.

As you read this you can pray that God will give us more of these experienced trainers. We also need them in the French and Spanish language world, as we are purposefully trying to get the course going in those languages. Depending on the level of an individual’s giftedness we can train people in the skills of being a good trainer. We can't train people, however, to have the credibility that comes from a rich life and ministry experience. Only God can bring about that growth. He also needs to call them to be involved in training other leaders. They need to see that with all their experience, the best investment they can make with their life and ministry is to pass on some of the lessons they have learned to others. That is investing in the future!

In Bill Hybel's words: The 'Jo Shmo's’ won't do it because leaders want to learn from leaders!' That is for the 'pillars' in the team.

by Joop Strietman