Leadership Communications

One of the most significant roles that a leader has is the role of communicator. I have found over the years that everything rises and falls on communication. I know, I just ripped of John Maxwell and his quote that everything rises and falls on leadership. He is right, but if the leader cannot communicate, it is just an interesting exercise in setting direction. One of the primary things that I have focused on in my own personal leadership, is building effective communication.

Over the past several years I had experienced a significant increase in the usage of voice mail and email. I had also discovered that people believed that they have communicated “with” me, even if they have simply left me a message, or sent an email. The reality that I may not get or understand that message was irrelevant. It was simply the fact that they communicated “to” me that mattered to them. By definition, this was not communication.

In recent months I have changed the way I handle my email and voice mail. I am limiting the frequently that I check email to 2 times a day(and not everyday), at 1:30 PM and 9:00 PM. I have an auto responder that lets people know my email schedule. The response also includes a phone number they can call if it is truly an emergency. Those calls are very rare, and at the same time, the number of emails I receive has dramatically decreased (many of them were forwards or cc’s) ! Based on that success, I am getting ready to do away with all but two of my four voice mailboxes (home, office1, office 2, and cell).

So what does this have to do with effective leadership and communication? I am forcing people to interact with me directly. This change alone has increased my effectiveness as a leader. Miscommunication is down significantly, and productivity is rising.

Pretty good combination for any leader, don’t you think?

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Organizations versus Strengths

In a past article, I wrote about the importance of focusing on the strengths of individual employees as opposed to trying to “fix” their weaknesses.

I fully believe and embrace this concept. However, I seem to find myself unable to effectively apply this concept to the other areas of my consulting.

Imagine that you hire me (now there’s a great idea!) to evaluate and make recommendations for your church or organization. You , like most clients, will expect me to figure out what is wrong and to give you a plan to fix it. That’s how the system works.

A Strengths based approach discovers what your organization/church does well, and how to do that even better. For some reason, this idea meets with fairly significant resistance. often from the key leaders. Why?

For starters, we are still in the industrial age when it comes to our thinking about organizational structure and functions. We view the organization as an assembly line with various pieces and parts that perform specific functions. Leaders like to find a part that is broken and can be replaced - or a part that can perform better than the old part. It is simple and clean.

But - it doesn’t work (and never really has). For years futurists predicted the time that computers and robots would completely replace people. The consistency and interchangeability was highlighted as the vital key. It hasn’t happened. And it never will.

At all areas of the organizational process, the ability to think and function on both a rational and emotional level is vital. It is the unique ability that the human mind has to simultaneously process both types of information and act accordingly that sets them apart. That being said, your organization is simply a collection of humans that function in a system based on their abilities (and inabilities). They may oversee automated processes and systems, but it is still the person at the controls that determines what the system does.

This collection of people brings a combined strength to your organization. That strength can be evaluated and identified by a good leader. It can be made even stronger. Just as the individual grows the most in the area of their Strengths, and least in the area of weakness, an organization can see the same results.

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Community Impact - 101

So what does it take to truly impact a community?

Maybe the first question a leader should ask is “Why do we want to impact our community?” - or “Do we really want to impact our community?”.

Over the years I have seen leaders of various churches and organizations boldly proclaim that they are going to have a positive impact on their communities. The sentiment is seen as some sort of rallying cry to get the members on board with this new directional goal. Often times the reality of what this means goes undefined. Maybe that is intentional, maybe it’s just assumed people know, or maybe the reality is that those leading the new movement really don’t know what it means.

“Community” is a new buzzword. It brings up all kind of images in our minds. It can mean anything and everything from a small group of people who are friends to a neighborhood, or even to the idea of the global community. It is a word that is used to connect us to whatever feels good about the idea of ‘belonging”. So when leaders announce the plan to impact the community, we hear whatever we connect to. You may translate it to ” We are going to reach the people in your neighborhood and make them feel great about this church/organization that you support”. “Fantastic!” you think to yourself- “I want my neighbors to think highly about the church/organization that I belong to”. Unfortunately, 1000 others hear their own version of the message. Clarity is nowhere to be found.

First : Define it. The very first step is for the leadership to clearly define community for your organization. Is it a 3 mile radius from your church? Is it the county that you serve through your organization? Is it the world? Let people know what the target is.

Second: Describe it. What do you mean by “impact”? Are you trying to bring about change, or just offer assistance? Are you expecting people to be radically different or just more aware of what you do? What does the end result look like? Come up with a 30 second “word picture” that can describe the community after it has been impacted.

Third: Fund it. Unfunded mandates are the joke of most organizations. It screams “political move” to everyone who hears it. If you are serious, then find new funds or divert existing funds to make it happen. Give your people the resources that they will need to get the job done.

Finally: Do it! It is amazing how many times churches and organizations never get off the ground with new initiatives. You can make it through the first three steps and still fail if you never get the ball rolling. There are many people in leadership positions that enjoy getting the idea out there and sold - but do not have the ability to get it done. Make sure that the right people are empowered to make things happen!

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Catalyst Conference 2007

Catalyst is an incredible event for Christian Leaders. If you have never gone, I encourage you to put it on your calender for next year. Through out the event, speakers challenged the mostly young leaders to focus more on who they are as Christians than what they will do as leaders.

Over and over again, the message was recast in different voices from the center of the arena. It is about who you are at your deepest core, not the position of leadership that you hold.

This is a significant paradigm shift in leadership. For decades, we have been taught that leadership is about the methods and power of influence that you use. I have read countless books and articles about the things that a leader must do. They talk about various positions of authority, and how to leverage them to get things done. We learned about dressing for respect, talking so people listen, leading meetings that get things done, and a million other things that are based in what you do.

Now, we are faced with a new concept. Leadership is based on who you are.

At first glance, this sounds easy. Be yourself! Stop reading all the leadership books and focus inward! Easy - right? No.

Like many other things in the Christian faith, what seems easy at first is actually harder. Remember when Jesus changed the way that people looked at the Mosaic Law? It sounded great when He told them that it wasn’t about keeping the law anymore (what you do) - until he explained that it was about your hearts’ attitude (who you are).

Not killing someone is fairly easy, but not looking at them with anger in your heart is much much harder!

Catalyst raised the standard for the next generation of Christian Leaders. What you do will flow out of who you are.

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Exerpt from “TeraChurch”

Christianity Today reports that less than 20% of Americans regularly attend what we consider the common local church. George Barna includes house churches in his numbers and gives us 47%. Either way, what does that say about our churches?

According to church researcher and author Thom Rainer, in a 2002 survey of 1,100 churches, his researchers found that 6% of the churches were actually growing. He defines growth as increasing in attendance, AND increasing at a rate above the surrounding community’s population growth rate. “Stated inversely, 94% of our churches are losing ground in the communities they serve,” he says.

Christianity Today continues, “So what is the future of the American Church? Does declining attendance mean declining influence? If present trends continue, the percentage of the population that attends church in 2050 is estimated to be at almost half of 1990’s attendance had a drop from 20.4% to 11.7%. These projections for the years leading up to 2050 are less than encouraging. He estimates a drop to 16.6% in 2010, and 15.4% in 2020.”

So what is our response? Do we want to succeed or fail at our mission? Anything short of total commitment to turn this trend around will result in failure. We, as church leaders, are failing the millions out there who need Christ, and we are failing Christ.

So, lets commit to being successful.

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