If you are in leadership in any way, then you have dealt with complexity. Whether it is personnel issues, financial situations, competitive decisions, or moral choices, leadership can be complex at times. This is even more true when there is growth happening. It is during these times that as a leader, you need clarity.
Andy Stanley is a name that is fairly well known in Christian leadership circles. He is senior pastor of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, GA. He has authored a number of books, is a sought-after speaker, and leads thousands of others through his church and ministry organizations. With all of this, he attributes much of his leadership success to the clarity he gets from a simple 3×5 index card on which he wrote three questions many years ago.
In my last post, I told you about an experience I had at an out of town meeting. I also told you that there would likely be more learning to come out of that incident. Well, I was right. In fact, it was at church that I was hit in the face with what I think was the root of my woes – envy.
It is not often that I break a post into two parts. Occasionally, I will do a series of multiple posts, but even then each one is usually self-contained for the most part. However, my last post was not that way. It was clearly only part one of a two part story about doubt and frustration. If you have not read the last post, you must first go and do it now (click here). Trust me, it is necessary if you want to understand this post.
I have a confession to make. Most of you reading this have never met me, but I will tell you that I am highly competitive and hate to lose. I strive to win and succeed at everything I do. Obviously, I am not always good enough to do so! Even worse, I am able to quickly lose my footing and fall into a pit of despair if I see myself losing. Doubt and frustration can set in quickly if I am not careful.
Do you recognize the name Samuel Pierpont Langley? I am sure some of you do, but most people have never heard his name mentioned. Yet, if you lived at the beginning of the 20th century, his name would have been one you would quickly identify. Unfortunately for Langley, it was his “Why?” that is most likely responsible for his anonymity. The ideas in this post come largely from a TED talk by Simon Sinek in 2009.
I had dinner with a friend of mine recently and the story he shared with me was eye-opening! In fact, if you have ever experienced a drop in sales, reduced margins, increased turnover, and general frustration among the employees in your business, then his story could have an impact on you as well! It is a story of lost and restored vision.
Intuitively, we all know that our behaviors as leaders can have significant impact on those we work with every day as well as the results we desire for our business. These behaviors can drive forward, or significantly limit, our efforts. However, I am betting that the behaviors that first come to your mind as I start into this subject are most likely behaviors that we have all learned about in Business 101. Instead, I want to talk about a behavior that gets less attention – that of unbelief.
Have you ever done anything you are ashamed of? Are there stories from your past that you would not want as headlines in the news? If we are honest, I would bet that the vast majority (if not all) of you would have to say “Yes” to these questions. In light of that, let me ask another question. Are you ashamed of Jesus?
I hope I got your attention with that headline. I intended to! I did it because too often we are lulled to sleep by the world around us. When this happens, we need a wake-up call. We need to shake the cobwebs out of our head and begin thinking clearly again. In this case, I want to do it by telling you that I am glad they killed Jesus!