The 3-hour workday: The truth about your peak hours as a leader
Your energy waxes and wanes over the course of the day. You're not a robot. You're human.
9 quick insights about church conflict
With many facets of society in turmoil, we often expect the church to be a place of solace, serenity and shalom. That hope and dream is not always realized.
10 commandments for building magnetic relationships with employees
Many employers are finding it harder than ever to fully staff up. However, while some organizations struggle to find 'warm body' hires, others have retained high-performing teams through all of the turmoil and uncertainty of this last year. To attract and retain the best people, you need to do two things. First, build a magnetic culture. Second, become a magnetic manager and leader. The magnetic managers and leaders aren't necessarily charismatic or the life of the party. But they attract and retain great people. They know how to build and keep productive relationships. Here are the 10 Commandments to become [...]
Who imitates you as you imitate Christ?
At whose shoulder do you stand to learn the rhythms and routines, the lifestyle of discipleship? Who provides you with instruction, example, and encouragement?
Are you still making team decisions? This is why they’re doomed to fail
The idea that there is such thing as a "team decision" is one of the biggest myths in leadership.
Permission to pause
Rarely is someone looking out for you and your long-term sustainability. Most people are just demanding more from you.
Walking by faith in your business life
Being led by the Spirit of God in your life is an adventure—one that will take all kinds of unexpected twists and turns.
Leader, look behind you
Ultimately, not everyone is a leader.
Building group culture
Not all ideal cultures look the same, but they have the same ingredients.
7 questions we did not hear from pastors 5 years ago
It is cliché to say the landscape of church ministry has changed in the past five years, but it is most definitely true.
10 tactics for leading creatives
There is a tension between leaders and creatives within any organization.
How prayer walking led to a step-by-step strategy
"He renews my life; he leads me along the right paths for his name's sake. Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me; your rod and your staff—they comfort me" (Psalm 23:3, 4, CSB). Gandalf was right when he said, "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door." For the first time in over two months, Ollie the Border Collie and Millie the Black Dog and I stepped out of our door for our morning walk. We have walked several times with my bride recently, but this was our first [...]
4 lies about success it’s time to defeat
Maybe you've heard a few lies about success. Worse, maybe you believed a few. There's a common thread…sometimes unspoken, sometimes articulated, that suggests that success always has to come at the expense of the deeper or more important things in life. Often, the narrative involves questioning the motives and tactics of anyone who's 'successful'—whatever that means. Even 'success' itself is an elusive term. What does it mean? For me, I like to define success at work as accomplishing your mission. When I was in law, it was serving the client well and winning as many cases as possible (remember, it's [...]
How to de-clutter your thinking for great decision-making
Clear decision-making flows from an uncluttered mind. Knowing how to de-clutter your thinking can make or break your ability to make the right call. When a decision is looming, it's time for clarity. It's the time for an ability to organize your thoughts, weigh the most relevant data and sift through the most important opinions. But if instead, your mind seems to be a cluttered maelstrom of swirling, confusing and even contradictory facts and perspectives, you are suffering from one of the most debilitating conditions known to limit the effectiveness of leaders everywhere: Your mind is cluttered. But since just [...]
4 reasons to turn your staff meetings into prayer meetings
If you love the preacher, you go on Sunday morning. If you love the church, you are back on Sunday night. But if you love Jesus, you attend the prayer meeting on Wednesday. Though its effectiveness was dubious, such guilt-ridden appeals were how pastors of old communicated the importance of corporate prayer. I may have used the line a time or two myself. Publicly praying, however, seems contrary to the heart of what Jesus taught on the matter. While pastors make the commitment to prayer meetings the highest badge of honor, Jesus spoke of private attendance in an unseen closet [...]
3 ways to be a hope dealer
Napoleon Bonaparte is quoted as saying, “A leader is a dealer in hope.” As biblical leaders, we have the greatest hope there is—in Jesus Christ alone. But what about this extended season we’re in? At times, hope seems hard to find. It feels hard to muster up. It feels hard to deal out.
When leaders get hooked on being right
If this has ever happened to you, a small almond-shaped structure called the amygdala has hijacked your brain.
What if I’m not ready to be healed?
Do you ever get cynical like the man in this story? Resenting those who have plenty, or who are healthy, or who seem to have opportunities handed to them?
Investing in clarity prevents conflict
One of the most common sources of organizational conflict is ambiguity regarding expectations; particularly, those wrapped up in the concepts of roles, responsibilities and organizational goals.
Become a better leader by learning to follow better
There is no MBA program that elevates the concept of followership as an essential element of leading a successful enterprise. But followership is essential to leadership done well.
