Controlling What You Can Control…a Balanced Approach to Organizational Success!
In my posting prior to this one I discussed leadership versus management, if you have not taken time to read that leadership lesson, I encourage you to do that first by clicking here. It will give a bit more insight and maybe give this posting a bit more context of where I am coming from. I will also refer back to that post some, so it will give you a frame of reference as well. 
Previously, we discussed the 10% that is not going well in your organization and the 10 times longer it may take to identify, fix and change the behavior behind the 10% not going well. Why is controlling the 10% so critical to your organizations success? The answer lies in the fact that there is so much outside of your control that you absolutely have to control the things you can control. If you are only controlling 90% of the 100% you can control, then you and your organization are not hitting the maximum potential of the organization. And eventually that will be discovered and someone will be in place that will control 100% of what is controllable. Organizational success is based on 10% of what is outside your control and 90% what you do control. If you don’t control it someone else will.
Preparation, Vital to Opportunity
In our year end staff meeting I quickly touched on some introspective points we as people need to focus on to make us better as a distance learning team. These characteristics can also be used to make us better husbands, wives, sons, daughters or ministry workers etc. The specific characteristic I touched on in the meeting was “prepare for opportunity before it comes”. What you do today really does effect what happens tomorrow. I could continue this and spin it into why we should prepare so we are better as an organization, but instead I want to take that principle and spin it so you grasp for other areas of your life other than just work. God really does have a plan for your life, but He also expects us to prepare for the time when He is ready to move within us. If we are lazy, complacent or disobedient to what He is refining us for, He will not be able to move you into that opportunity that He has waiting. Consider Noah, he had to build an ark that took between 80 and 120 years of preparation before God could move and fulfill His plan in Noah’s life. Read more
Are You A 9-1-1 Leader Or A Manager?
9-1-1 Leadership. How do you know if you are a leader or a manager? Certainly if you Google this topic you will get a laundry list of different articles or answers. There are many well known spiritual leaders who have written numerous books on leadership; my favorite being Bill Hybels. I would like to take an approach that comes from personal work experience as well as a biblical example. I have never heard it explained the way I will attempt to in this blog. I like to call this the 9-1-1 approach to leadership. The “9” stands for the 90% that is working correctly in your organization day in and day out. Let’s face it, not everything is broken on a daily basis. If you are a positive person it is easy for you to identify the areas that are hitting on all cylinders. The first “1” stands for the 10% that is not going well and is causing you headaches. Some organizations recognize the 10%, while others do not even know the 10% exist. And the last “1” stand for the up to 10 times longer it will take to identify, fix and change the behavior behind the 10% not going well.
So back to the initial question, how do you know if you are a leader or a manager? In my opinion, if you focus and spend a majority of your time on the 90% that is going well…then I would call you a manager. However, if you spend most of your time and energy in the 10% area that is not going well…I would call you a leader. Managers keep the organization rolling and steering the ship on a day to day basis. They are there to “manage” what processes/policies already exist within the organization. They quickly identify situations that start to slip or get out of whack with what is the norm. Managers have typically been handed a proven solution and told to carry on the way it was designed.
I Guess God did not produce enough leaders after His own heart!
Every now and again I am just hit with something that drives me crazy. This time I am talking about an upcoming Leadership Conference that my church is one of the satellite campuses for this event. My problem is not that they are hosting the conference as a site, yet my issues are with some of the speakers the conference is willing to promote. Sometimes this conference will bring in secular speakers to teach leadership principles. Where I have an issue is it is hard to apply most of these secular leaders’ leadership principals if the church wants to build into people’s lives. These speakers don’t want to build into lives they want to build the organization…BIG DIFFERENCE. They promote getting rid of problems and training the superstars, but doesn’t the upside down kingdom of God stand for a discipleship model that has one-on-one, life on life opportunities?
Some of these secular leaders’ principles are in clear contrast to what bible believing churches promote every Sunday. Wouldn’t it be better to meet people where they’re at and then it wouldn’t be so critical to put people in one of two categories like these leaders promote of a problem or a Superstar? Jesus met many people where they were at… that by these secular leader’s standards” would not be of any value at all. In the book of John, would they put a value on the lady at the well or the lame man at the pool…I doubt it, but Jesus saw the value.
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