The Secret of Leadership: SERVE

As a question guy, I love it when I run across practical questions that help you get going in a good direction. I thought you'd enjoy this post from Leadership Freak.

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Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller capture, “The Secret,” of leadership in five letters, SERVE. The beauty of SERVE is inescapable simplicity and actionable clarity.

Serve

See the future: envision and communicate a compelling picture of a preferred future.

• What do I want to be true of the future?
• Why should anyone care?
• How will progress be measured?

sErve

Engage and develop others: recruit and align people for the right job. Create environments where people bring vision to life.

• What invited my engagement in the past?
• Which of these factors are missing in those I lead?
• How can I help teams and individuals grow?

seRve

Reinvent continuously: continuously focus on improvement.

• How do I need to change?
• Where do I want different outcomes?
• What organizational changes will accelerate progress?

serVe

Value results and relationships: generate measurable results andcultivate great relationships.

• Which is my personal bias as a leader – results or relationships?
• How can I compensate for the area that’s not my personal strength?
• What happens if I don’t broaden my definition of success?

servE

Embody values: live fully aligned with stated values.

• What values do I want to drive behaviors in my organization?
• How can I communicate these values?
• What are my actions communicating?

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Which question do you find most helpful in your leadership?

Strengths are Important!

"Effective leaders surround themselves with the right people and build on each person's strengths." Tom Rath and Barry Conchie, Strengths-Based Leadership

We are going through a process in the Kats for Christ ministry where we are intentionally trying to enhance the principle in this quote. I want to help us all learn our strengths so that we can live fully alive and experience God's fullness in that!

Isaiah sees a world that I desire for our ministry. It is a world where students come because they know God will reveal himself directly and they will learn more about themselves. Isaiah says all kinds of people will river toward God's place and will say, "Hey, let's climb God's mountain....He'll show us the way he works so we can live the way we're made."

This image compels me forward as we are in the process of developing a Kats for Christ Student Leadership Team. The exciting part of this process is giving nominated student leaders an opportunity to take Tom Rath's StrengthsFinder 2.0.

While we've been talking about working in our strengths for a long time, we are now taking a big step in integrating that idea into our organization. I love how the assessment gives you your top five strengths, explains the tendencies for each of those strengths, and even factors in the other four strength areas in giving you that feedback! Amazing!

On top of that, the report includes practical ideas for action so you can utilize and enhance your strength areas! It is also insightful in offering perspective on how others may be perceiving your strengths.

As each student goes through this process to develop our KFC Leadership Team, I plan on communicating a little more about my own discoveries! This, actually, is one of the suggested "Ideas for Action" under my Input theme.

What do you imagine happening when we focus on our excelling in our strengths?

Wrestle God

I am excited about the semester! Who knows what plans the Lord is about to unfold? My prayer is that I have the courage to empower students to experience God in powerful ways. I pray that God move in such a way that when looking back one cannot help but say, "That was God!"

Tomorrow we begin our semi-leadership retreat. I say "semi-" because I haven't advertised it as a leadership retreat at all. This retreat is a small step toward one of my major goals this year: to develop a team of students committed to lead other students closer to God's heart! This will take a major investment of my time and energy.

I have even considered not doing the discipleship group for this year in an effort to streamline some of my time and energy. This is the time that I wrestle with God in what to choose. Where do I spend my time? What good, wholesome things do I choose not to do? What will have God's blessing? What should I avoid? What do I teach? Dare I say, like Jacob, "I will not let you go unless you bless me?" We will see.

Lord of the Harvest

"Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.'" (Matthew 9:35-38)"

The campus is full of students who are harassed and helpless to do anything about it. They are sheep without a shepherd. They will tell you that they know where they are going, but they don't have a clue. They have a plan for their career, their family, their success. All the while, they are sheep without a shepherd. They feel how direction-less they are inside. They really don't know how to deal with their emptiness, their desire to belong to something significant. This is the harvest field.

For those "insiders" (so-to-speak) we know the harvest is plentiful. Workers are needed to work. But what exactly are they working? They are working the seed of good news, that we have a shepherd who gives life. That is what Jesus was doing just before this passage in Matthew. Raising the dead, stopping the flow of blood, restoring sight, freeing the demon-possessed. Jesus was showing his shepherd abilities. It is at this point that we see the call: Pray that workers are sent out!

My prayer is that I begin with the harvest before me. Students need the Shepherd...I will lead them to him.

Stepping Out in Faith

I am really nervous right now. This semester is a new one for me. We do not have an intern that I can turn to any time I need to. Before I could always count on Daniel. Now he is not here. We have an empty spot.

I have intentionally not filled the intern spot praying that the void will be filled by a student leadership team that will step up. Classes start tomorrow and we still have not hashed out our calendar. This goes against every atom in my body! I know we are going to have a big welcome back activity, but I don't know what it is going to be yet. A student has taken that on.

When I close my eyes I picture what walking by faith is all about. We don't fill up our calendar just to keep us busy...act like we are doing something. We walk by faith knowing that God will show us what we need to be doing. When the opportunity comes we pray we have our eyes open to see it and the courage to do it.

Walking by faith isn't easy. You approach the day you have with eager expectation to see what God brings you this day. You trust that words will be there. You trust that the Lord will guide you. Even a day before the students come back, I am forced to trust that God will provide. We need leaders. I don't see too many...yet...we walk out in faith. Guide our steps Lord.

Women in Ministry

I have mentioned Let's Start Talking on a few occasions now. I am finding out that women are my most enthusiastic students. They are the ones who take seriously the challenge involved with LST. They are the ones who seem halfway interested. They are the ones willing to go around the world to be used by God. Why is this?

When I get to thinking about this just in campus ministry, I see similar results. The women are more involved than the men. Women are more likely to talk to me after class about something that I mentioned than men. Women are more likely to think about how to coordinate events when I ask them to do that. [And they usually do a much better job at it than our guys!!]

I find this phenomenon interesting. This topic came up in a conversation I had recently and David mentioned that women are not given too many opportunities in ministry to make a big impact. As a result, they jump at the opportunity LST provides. I thought it was an interesting proposal, but a good one.

Looking realistically at our "student leadership" I see women AND men, but the women seem to step up more and more. I am looking to have a leadership team next semester when our intern leaves. We will see what happens.

God give me wisdom.

Ministry to My Family

Well, I mentioned that last night was a good reminder for me in regard to my marriage. Something happened in my mind last night for the first time. It wasn't the first time I thought about it, but it was the first time I actually pictured what it would look like. Let me explain.

I have said before that my family is my ministry. When I said this, my mind thought about spending time with them doing family things, being around the house, going out occasionally, and just being ourselves. That is what I "do" for this ministry.

Here is the shift that happened last night: if my family is my ministry, then I need to minister to my family. This may seem like a simple observation and obvious to some, but it is not so obvious when you are at home with your family. I thought that ministering to my family was just being myself. This is true because I always want to "be myself." But, I can't just let down my guard and say whatever thoughts come to my mind. I can't just vent my frustrations when they first come. I can't "go on pause," so to speak, when I am at home. I still need to be a minister.

At the Student Center, I would never think about venting to a student I am mentoring. If I did, I believe and pray that it would be done in a very pastoral and wise way. Why do I think that I can have this freedom at home? That is unfair to my bride and my little girl.

I need to work at home. I can't just go on pause and offer my raw self to my family thinking that this is ministry to my family. I must intentionally be the minister and leader of our family.

That is not to say I can't express emotions or be real with my family. No way! It is to say that I use pastoral care and ministry skills when I do so.

I pray that the Lord enable me to stay focused as I begin to intentionally minister to my family.