Mother

“When she speaks

there is so much permission in her love

and holy on her breath

you cannot help but sit like you are budding toward the sky,

you cannot help but believe you are every bit as necessary

as you were created to be."

- An excerpt from "She" by Danielle Bennett

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There is a woman in one of our leadership classes that I'm especially drawn to. She is a brilliant and successful leader who can take charge and "get things done." When she came to her first meeting several years ago, she had this authentic beauty about her, but it was buried under years of pain and heartache that gave rise to a defensive posture and unattainable perfectionism. The tenderness in her eyes didn't match the clinching of her jaws, but it was there.

Eventually, that heavy old armor she was wearing didn’t fit her tiny body anymore and was starting to get in the way. She started to take a hard look at how she was pushing people away at work and holding them to standards they could never meet, and realized she was constantly berating herself with the same scrutiny to be better, work harder, and maintain control. She knew something had to give. 

So, she began to let God "mother" her; to really take care of her. She went on a vacation for the first time in years. She attended a LifePlan where she was able to experience healing from past wounds. She started to accept the love and care from a boss that she was initially set against. She was taking her place as a daughter of Eve, whose name means "mother of all the living" or "source of life." She was able to offer life instead of protecting herself from it. As she learned to be gracious with herself, she was able to give that grace to others.

The shift in her that stuck with me was when I was sitting across the table from her at a Thai restaurant. She was a week away from having a performance review with her employee, and she was wanting some ideas on how to honor him. 

What?! HONOR him? Was this the same woman I had met several years ago? 

She wanted to help him see how he was succeeding in the role instead of focusing solely on his shortcomings. This was a very different use of her power. She had always been an incredible and intentional mother to her kids at home, but now it was spilling into her work. And it was beautiful. I told her she was "mothering" him in the best ways. She sat up a little straighter. She knew it was true, and we both knew it was good.

As a woman, the term "mother" can seem so limiting, and it's often a word that we leave at home with the kids. But it is so much more than birthing and raising little humans, although that is a very significant part of it. It is also about bringing life to the world with your words, your work, and your unique voice. It’s about calling someone up into their true identity with your very presence. It is fighting for the good in others and standing in the gap when discouragement and lies have overtaken them. It is offering the very life source of God, our Father and our Mother, to everyone around us...even our employees, bosses, and co-workers. 

And how did her review go with that young employee? It was glorious. There were tears. And they weren't the result of a good scolding from the boss lady, but from a woman who knows who she is as a fierce and loving mother and is helping others realize that they are "every bit as necessary as they were created to be."

Consider

• What do you normally think of when you think of the word “mother”? Does it have mostly positive or negative connotations for you? 

• Outside of your biological mother, who has “mothered” you in positive ways? How did that affect you? Have you told them so?

• If you are a woman in the workplace, how are you using your authority to offer life and dignity to those around you? Do you tend to diminish your strengths and the strengths of others or celebrate them?

Return

“Find like-hearted kings living in the same direction. Sign treaties. When they're at war, you’re at war.”    

Dan Allender

I was introducing a client (who has become a very good friend) to a ministry leader.  It was a beautiful collision of gifting and ability with hope and desire.  The three of us were powerfully aligned in many ways.

It is what I imagine a war council must feel like. 

Leaning in.  Map on table.  Our territory was a generation of young people being overwhelmed by a cultural post-Christian tide and some like-hearted kings shoring up their battle plans to re-take some ground.

You might think I am making a bigger deal of a simple breakfast conversation than the situation warrants, but I would argue against that idea. 

In the heavens a far greater battle is underway…the hearts of God’s most precious are at stake. 

We were simply agreeing with and joining the larger story of what is ongoing.

But the most interesting thing about the breakfast for me was something even more beautiful than all of that.  As I was introducing these strangers to one another, my eyes teared and throat tightened.  The one I barely know is a really good hearted man fighting for the hearts of young men and women on the most treacherous of battlefields, an American college campus.

The other is a leader of the most rare a variety…a person who truly walks with God.  That is a rare thing for anyone, but for a successful business leader to walk with God in all things is approaching the territory of endangered species.  Watching him over the last 7 or so years has been one of the most beautiful and disruptive things I have ever experienced.

I am a logician.  

A process oriented person.  

An A+B=C guy.

Watching someone faithfully move this way and that…outside the bounds of logic or conventional thought…is unnerving. 

And it is glorious. 

While some would say that he “marches to the beat of a different drummer," I would say that he simply doesn’t move outside the whisper of a still small voice.

He doesn’t merely line up his actions against a static set of do’s, don’ts, tips, and techniques; he tries to lay each step in the path of his Father’s command. 

Ask.  

Listen.  

Act.  

Repeat.

“We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

My life is more liberated because of his.  While he is a successful business man who produces fabulous returns on investments, the thing I realized during our breakfast is that this isn’t his true objective.  He is working toward a KROI, a return on investment for the Kingdom.  

I aspire to be that kind of like-hearted king.  I want to sign treaties with that kind of man and go to war.

• Who is counseling your biggest decisions?
• Are you marking each step the same way?
• What territory are you fighting for?
• Have you surrounded yourself with like-hearted kings and queens that are hastening you to war?

Problem 3

Part 3 of 3

We’ve aggregated a pretty expansive set of tools into our roadmap:

• Mined the best in class from the numerous coaching certifications we carry.   
• Read hundreds of the best books on organizational health, strategic planning, effective meetings, and operating with purpose.
• Worked with dozens of clients.
• Aggregated the best tools and processes from our partner’s former consulting practice.
• Combined all that with the imperative of purpose we bring to individuals in LifePlan retreats and to organizations in our Strategic Enterprise retreats.

The Roadmap we take every organization down, whether it is our team coaching, our executive board experience with one-on-one coaching, or through our free tools, is exactly the same.

• Identify a Team - Key representatives from every part of the organization.
• Get Healthy - Work with them to establish a healthy baseline for interaction.
• Establish or Enhance - Core Values and Purpose
• Craft a Vision - Draw a clear and concise picture of the future.
• Get Focused - What are the vital few things we must focus on to realize our vision.
• Develop a Strategic Plan - Goals, initiatives, and action steps with ownership and timelines.
• Meeting Governance - Establish a high execution model to meet, provide accountability, and accomplish tasks.
• Organizational Design - Create the ideal structure and team of the future to realize your vision… walk your team in that direction.
• Reset Goals & Initiatives - Craft an annual meeting structure where you reset quarterly and annually.

It might not surprise you that some companies we talk to simply want a strategic plan.  They feel like that is the ultimate solution to all their problems.  We couldn’t disagree more.  That, in a vacuum, will not solve your problems.  In our extensive experience and research, if you don’t walk through the essential steps necessary to get to this kind of strategic plan, the plan won’t be…

• Owned
• Embraced
• Accomplished

Let’s be honest, you and your team are already really busy.  But if you don’t regularly gather together with the essential few employees.  If you don’t work with them to get clear on who you are and what you believe.  If they don’t participate in crafting a more inspired future.  If you don’t jointly commit to the essential few things that must happen to get you there.  If there isn’t meeting governance that drives accountability and establishes regular resets…

NOTHING WILL CHANGE

What we all need is not a plan, but a new way to live.  A systematic and planned approach that takes us from where we are to the place we’ve always desired to be.  That will comfortably take us from chaos and overwhelm to clarity, margin, and freedom.

• Are you really ready to change things?
• Have you given up on believing they can?
• Let us know, we feel called to help.  We’ll help you determine which path is best for you.

Problem 2

Part 2 of 3

This is another variation on the Problem I talked about in the last post. 

Since calling or gifting is…

• Something given to you 
• Entrusted by another
• For the sake of everyone

…doing it vocationally is sort of challenging.  Some people can’t afford a private coach or to have a team of coaches come work with their teams.

(And, BTW, based on what we’ve experienced, I am pretty convinced that most companies can’t afford to not hire a coach or a coaching team, but I will spare you what already sounds like a shameless sales pitch.)

As we prayed through how we are to offer proper stewardship over all these processes, exercises, and tools that lead organizations down a transformation journey, we were left with a very clear conclusion, we are supposed to make it available to everyone.

We defined 3 different paths that lead to the same destination:

• Coaching for Your Team - Hire us to work with you and your team directly.
• Get a Coach - Meet with me or another coach and gather around a table with other leaders.
• Do It Yourself - We’re building a free online database of all the tools, processes, and exercises we use to take a team on a complete transformational journey.

This resolve gets tested sometimes.  There was a business leader that contacted me earlier this year.  He needed some strategic help with his team.  He needed a clear plan.  He is a high integrity guy who runs a great business.  They are one of those best places to work companies.  And they have grown as a result and he needs help in order to continue to scale the business in a healthy way.  (The best companies become the greatest ones because they keep striving for even greater success.)

Frankly, we were pretty excited that we would get to work with them.  A few nights ago, however, he wrote to say that he had hired an employee who just happened to have a lot of strategic planning experience in his past.

I responded quickly…

“Congratulations!  Sounds like a great hire.  Let us
know if we can do anything to help.”

I wrestled with how to make that sincere.  I am not trying to keep a foot in the door.  I am sincerely interested in helping them and others find the success they desire.  I am going to point him toward our free resources online, but I felt like I needed to share even more.  In our next post, Problem 3, I’ll share the intended path I believe a company must walk down in order to realize true transformation.

• Do you dislike the place you are at with your business?  Are you motivated to do something about it?  Are you coachable?  Are you wanting someone to come work with you and your team?  (Coaching for Your Team)
• Are you the kind of leader that just wants someone to walk alongside you to provide support, accountability, and encouragement on getting the right things done?  (Coaching for You)
• Are you the kind of rare individual who can read new ideas, communicate them well, and get them implemented fully within your team?  (Do It Yourself)

Appropriate

ap·pro·pri·ate verb /əˈprōprēˌāt/

devote to a special purpose.

I was obnoxious, impertinent, and confident.  I didn’t think I knew more than everyone else, I knew I did.  Some of my teachers, especially the math ones, couldn’t stand me.  I knew better and more efficient ways to get to the answers than the painfully tedious ways they were walking the class through.

Why couldn’t everyone else just see it my way.

As an orphan without much fathering, I was figuring it all out on my own.  I made most of my own decisions and lived in a world where whatever I thought was right, pretty much was.  This forced me to grow up a lot faster than I should have and often had my adolescence and inappropriate freedom leading me in all the wrong directions (I’ll spare you all the sordid details).

Understanding my own identity as a man and understanding all the gaps in my masculine journey to adulthood was a necessary, but very challenging journey.  There was a natural progression of things I needed to learn, know, and understand, that I had largely missed in my matriculation from boy to man.  It is the same for nearly every honest man or woman I have ever come across.

The revelation of all of this, had me doubling back to fill in gaps in my developmental journey.  It also had me aggressively seeking out the wisdom of old age.  It was in this season that I began to see myself as an “Inverse Abraham,” a son of many fathers.  I needed and cried out for maturity, wisdom, and mentoring.

God rescued me.

I had mentors and older men in seemingly every corner of my life that selflessly spoke into, challenged, and encouraged me.  It even affected my work as an investment manager.  My standard opening line with new investment coverage was:

"I am just smart enough to know there are a lot of people smarter than me."

I had a lot to learn.

I valued the wisdom of age.

I was open to hearing what they had to say.

I would apply what they taught me.

A little secret:  All of us older guys have energy for younger guys who are sincerely interested in doing the hard work of growing, refining, and transforming.  

And I was.

It was a sweet season of growing as a man, father, and in my leadership in every arena.  I went from passive-aggressively resolved to what others described as clear, confident, and formidable.  Others also described my clarity and conviction as “disruptive.”  With a heart also in some stage of transformation, some even described it as “disruptive for good.”

I am far more gray than I was in that season, but I still seek out the wisdom of age.  I desire to sit at the feet of sages and mighty men of wisdom.  I have even been so overwhelmed with a sense of honor at the man sitting before me that I have fought the urge to take off my shoes and kneel before them as they share truth, wisdom, and experience.

These ideas play out powerfully in our work.  Our Transformation Roadmap for companies has us:

• Organizing a healthy leadership team
• Cultivating real core values and purpose
• Crafting a vision (those values and purpose powerfully lived out 2-3 years in the future)
• Creating a solid strategic plan to realize that future
• Building the organizational structure of the future it will take to fulfill that plan

That often means that leaders (and typically older ones) need to transition into different roles.  Our new mantra for transitioning experienced leadership is to…

Honor and Appropriate

Honor, honor, honor, all that they have contributed to the success of the organization to this point.  Appropriate that experience, wisdom, and knowledge in a way that honors them and brings the greatest benefit to the organization and the future.  Based on my story and experience, that is a huge win-win… for everybody.

• Do you have sages in your life?
• Do you regularly carve out the time to learn the things that only the experience of others can teach?
• If you are a sage with more to offer than you’ve maybe realized, who is currently in your orbit that you can invest in?

Hyperlocal

hyper-local [hahy-per-loh-kuh l] 
Information oriented around a well-defined community with its primary focus directed toward the concerns of the population in that community.

It is one of those terms you typically hear associated with hipster restaurants and grocery stores, but is now starting to gain some broader appeal.  During the recent Olympics, Subway got into the act by positioning the concept around all their stores.  In a new commercial called “The appetite for better is everywhere”, they state that:

“Every day we are finding new ways to serve fresh, locally
sourced produce and food free of artificial preservatives
wherever possible.”

Notice that they don’t say they only serve “fresh” and “local” and completely avoid “artificial preservatives”.  They are merely trying to do better, but those kinds of concepts are so powerfully received that there is benefit in merely associating with them.

Recently, we were working with a media group that consisted of a few radio stations in rural west and east Texas.  The challenges around radio station viability are pretty obvious.  We’re a huge Spotify family and according to statistics, so is pretty much everybody else.

Why listen to a radio station when every song ever recorded
is immediately accessible at any moment from the device in my pocket?

In addition to helping the media group build a team, define a future, and create a plan to help them get there, we got a real education on the incredible value of rural radio.  What we learned was…

1. The FCC, who regulates radio stations, was created…

"for the purpose of the national defense" and "for the purpose
of promoting safety of life and property through the use of
wire and radio communications.”

2. The largest radio station in this group was established in the barn of the original owner 34 years ago for the express purpose of alerting his fellow unaware farmers/ranchers about tornados and other weather hazards in the area.

3. These local stations consider themselves part of the public trust and the most trusted source to inform, communicate, celebrate, protect and partner with their local communities.  They have gotten calls attributing their weather bulletins to saving people’s lives!

4. And then there’s the music.  They have call-in shows where local residents (many who have little or very poor wifi access and telephone coverage) call in to have their most precious memories visited through the songs they attach them to.  They play memorable country music.

As we walked through their storied history, capturing the powerful values and purpose they represent, casting a transcendent vision (what those things look like lived out in the future), hope and excitement began to rise.  The answer was not to shrink from the inevitability of digital media and hunker down in a bracing for impact.  The answer was to…

…become more powerfully who they already
are at their core.

The treasure in the field is always buried just below the surface.  It is worth everything and one of the great privileges of our work is that we get to remove some of that thin topsoil, unearth the treasure, and celebrate what we find with the teams we work with.

More than any trendy restaurant could ever hope to epitomize, these folks are about…

“Information oriented around a defined community”

“where the primary focus is directed toward the concerns of the population in that community”

They’re making t-shirts with the call letters of the stations on the front and that phonetic spelling and definition of “hyperlocal” on the back.  They are honoring me with the first one.  They found the treasure buried in the field and they are ready to share it with everybody.  How great is that.

• Do you know what your treasure buried in the field is?
• Do you have a defined leadership team?
• Do you have a well defined and powerful future clearly in front of you?
• Have you created a plan to get your team there?

Coach

“Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? 

Or am I trying to please people?”

- Paul to the Church in Galatia

He was sort of unnerving, but in a way that made me totally comfortable.  Even in this first meeting, he seemed to know more about me (or at least more of the things that really mattered) than I knew about myself.  He didn’t seem to need anything from me or particularly care what I thought about him.  That was the unnerving part.  

The fact that he cared so deeply about the deepest things about me was incredibly disruptive, but intriguing at the same time.  It was as if I had stumbled into a conversation I had been desperate to have, but didn’t know I needed.  The fact that I was 23 years into a successful banking career didn’t seem to faze him.  He knew I was born to be a professional coach and referred to me that way in our very first meeting.

“You are a coach, so let’s talk coach to coach.”

There was a certainty about who he was that made his certainty about who I would become, surprisingly acceptable.  Even though I knew that following his line of thinking would be wildly disruptive and likely dismantle everything I had assembled around myself… all of the things to keep life manageable and safe.  What I didn’t know was that the walled city of my life was actually keeping me from living the abundant life I was desiring.

Coming to the conclusion that I wanted to do what he did came quickly.

Going through a Lifeplan retreat with him made it incontrovertible.

But if you had told me that in 6 short years later I would be working with dozens of individuals and businesses of every size doing exactly that, I would never have believed it was possible.  

I realized, almost immediately, that the biggest changes required of me would not be vocational, but would be in terms of my confidence and identity.

I wrongly assumed his financial independence was the source of his audacity.

His guileless ability to not care what I thought and say exactly what he was thinking, as it turned out, came from something far deeper and more valuable.  His conviction and almost unnerving sense of identity came from his Creator.  He believed that everyone was created for a particular purpose and that their lives, the lives of others around them, and the Kingdom at large, were better served by them finding and living into that identity.

I know now that what made him such an effective coach was his clarity, conviction, and his faith.  None of that has anything to do with money or power.  I knew that if I was going to be an effective coach, I needed to find the same.  The non-negotiables for my coaching and our entire coaching practice were inspired by what we saw in him.

Our “hills to die on” - the things that everything else rests on in terms of our client engagements are:

• We ask the questions that no one else will ask. 
• Say the things that no one else dare say.  
• Always propose the right thing for the client, regardless of the implications.
• Provide value at every engagement.
• Do everything in our power to make sure the client realizes the desired outcome.

We are honored to operate out of the DNA of this founder.  We’re ensuring that none of those essential ingredients are lost by putting the right guiding principles in place to make sure that we don’t.  Just like we do with our clients.

• What are the hills that you will die on?
• What are the essential ingredients that define your organization at the highest level?
• Have you captured them, celebrated them, and institutionalized them in a way that will ensure they continue?

Gestures

“I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”

- Mark Twain

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My friend Jeff played piano with Tim McGraw for almost two decades.  When he started to look into recording on his own, he met with some industry types to talk about getting singed to a record deal.  They told him they had to figure out his potential commercial viability by calculating the strength of his following as an artist.  

Believe it or not Facebook follows, Twitter traffic, number of likes, fan emails to his artist website, etc. all had a numerical value.  But the thing that was worth the most… many, many order of magnitude beyond all the rest… was hand written (snail mail) letters from fans.

Someone taking the time to bypass all the convenience and impersonality of the much easier technological methods of communication, reflected a depth of feeling and interest that dwarfed the others.  

I am not surprised.  Are you?

I ignore a heap of e-mails on a daily basis, but don’t think I’ve ever left a handwritten letter unopened.

I heard Frank Blake, former Chairman/CEO of Home Depot talk about some of the tools he implemented as part of his successful run.  One particular thing he mentioned was that he wrote an average of 100 handwritten notes to employees every week of his 8 year term.

100 handwritten notes a week!!!!

I can’t imagine doing that. When I was leaving a 15 year career with a bank I was very fond of, a friend challenged me to finds ways to honor those I respected that I was leaving behind.  By the time I was done, I had interoffice’d 47 handwritten notes to other leaders at the bank.  The process took on a life of its own and it was incredibly gratifying to do, but it took an inordinate amount of time.

Frank said he wasn’t sure if the letter writing thing was really making a difference until he started to see them framed all over the place and saw the ripple effect of many of his mid-level managers continuing the practice through their staff members as well.

But the day that he decided he would never stop writing was when he was visiting one of the stores in Atlanta.  An employee approached him and asked him to rewrite the note he had sent to her.  He said that he would, but wanted to know why.  She said that all her co-workers told her that her note couldn’t be real… there was no way the chairman of a company with hundreds of thousands of employees would write personal notes.  Surely it had been done by machine.

But when she dunked the note in water to see if it were real, the ink ran and she had her answer.  She wanted another one so that she could frame it and save it forever.  He realized that team members are so jaded about even the sincerest of gestures of management, that he had to continue to fight to change their perceptions in this very small way.

Consider

• How do you honor your team members as a regular practice?

• Do you do it in ways that they actually receive it as sincere?

• How would the sincerity of a handwritten note be consistent with the way you treat them on a day-to-day basis?

• Got any stationary? Maybe you need to get some writing going.

Fundamental

"He's not throwing behind-the-back passes, he's not doing tomahawk jams, he's not doing anything that's very flashy. He's just a very unassuming guy who goes about his job, and the next thing you know he's got 23 points and 20 rebounds."          -Byron Scott

Most eulogies focus on the individual.  But for the truly great ones, they focus on something far more profound and enduring.  When really significant people move on, all the acknowledgement of their greatest tends to focus on the impact they had on others.

When it is all about you, it is all about you.  

Whether you are a father/mother, a pro athlete, or a businessman, your life will ultimately be measured by the impact you had on others.

When one of my spiritual fathers, Dallas Willard, died, I was astounded by how many people seemed to know him.  It felt like hundreds of eulogies were written online about the impact this man had on each of them.  Only the most selfless and simple a life, could have that deep an impact on so many.  Despite his profound writing, teaching, and speaking, Dallas lived a powerfully simple life full of margin and room… to invest in and change the lives of many.  He lived a Kingdom life where he reserved all his attention for the most precious of God’s creation… you and I.

Living in San Antonio, we have had a front row seat on a selfless life expression of another sort.  In an industry where arrogance, flash, and self-aggrandizement seems to be the barometer for success, Tim Duncan chose a different path.  His recent retirement prompted dozens of tributes including videos.

While they all mention his personal accomplishments:

• 2 Time NBA Most Valuable Player
• 15 Years all NBA Team
• 15 Years all NBA Defensive Team
• 13 Years NBA All-Star
• 14th in all time scoring
• 6th in all time rebounding
• 5th in all time blocks

Most of the tributes focus on his selfless play, his unassuming manner, and how much better he made everyone around him.  They obviously point to the five NBA championships during his career, but the more astounding statistics are around the sustained excellence of the team through his career.

• The year before he was drafted, they won 24% of their games
• During his 19 seasons, they won 72% of their games
• They made the playoffs all 19 years
• They won over 60% of their games in every season
• They had a winning road record in all 19 seasons

Those are the numbers that make the experts really shake their heads.

He took less money, fended off lucrative offers from other teams, played a diminishing role, and modeled what being a team player, and focused on the success of everyone.  His greatest honors are a result of how he honored all others above himself.

In Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team, the ultimate destination is found in shared results.  We coach our clients toward the rarely obtained organizational health because it is the greatest determinant of long term success.  It means they must establishe trust, engage in healthy conflict, find new levels of commitment, and institute accountability structures… so that the team can focus on, celebrate, and enjoy sustained success through shared results.

It is as rare in pro sports as it is in corporate America, but I can point to Tim Duncan’s career and a growing list of companies I know that are finding the same.

It’s all about the fundamentals.

• Are you a selfless leader?
• Is your entire focus on making other’s better?
• Does your life look more like serving others or being served?
• Are you ready to start the journey toward to organizational health that will ultimately be measured in your team’s success?

Smile

smile

/smīl/

verb

1. form one's features into a pleased, kind, or amused expression, typically with the corners of the mouth turned up and the front teeth exposed.

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I stopped at a convenience store just down the street from the golf course where I would be speaking at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon.  I was a little behind schedule, but needed to stop for some aspirin due to a piercing headache.  I never expected I would find a line six people deep at this time of day.

I’ve been working on being more patient with some success, but given the circumstances there was a good chance I wasn’t going to pass this test.  There was a young girl checking people out and another employee standing beside her watching and giving her instructions.

Why don’t they open another register?

Why doesn’t he grab the reins for a minute until they get caught up?

Before I had a chance to get too frustrated, he turned to the line and addressed everyone:

“Hey, can you believe this is her first day?  She is doing an incredible

job handling all the new things she is learning, don’t you think?”

He was grinning from ear-to-ear and his sincere delight in her almost required that you join him in celebrating her.  Almost on cue, everyone in line, including me, told her that the wait was no problem and that she was doing a great job.

Not only had he diffused the situation, but also honored her in the process and completely changed my mood.

How did he do that?

There are any number of other things he could have done that would have expedited the line and gotten us all out of there a few seconds quicker, but he chose a different way.  He not only encouraged her, but invited all of us to do the same.  As a result of that smile and those thoughtful words, he triggered all manner of good things in each of us.  

Showing others kindness:

1. Causes increased levels of dopamine in the brain that makes us feel better.
2. Produces the hormone oxytocin which causes the release of nitric oxide in your blood vessels which reduces blood pressure.
3. Reduces levels of free radicals and inflammation in the cardiovascular system and thus slows aging at its source.

And if that weren’t enough, he also invited us to join him in fulfilling the role that God placed each of us here for; making Him better known by the way we care for others.

It is unlikely he was thinking of any of that.  As a great leader he simply cared about how all of this would make her feel… the lasting impact of this incident.  The fear and concern on her face replaced by a big smile told him that he had hit his mark.

Consider

• How would you have responded to that situation as a leader?
• Is there someone you need to honor and encourage where you are currently doing otherwise?
• How can you encourage this in your organization’s culture?

Tendency

I chased a girl into the Speech and Theater program when I was in high school.  I was walking away from a drug culture, the train had already left the station for any sports involvement, and I was looking for a place to belong.  I was painfully shy and lacked any sense of identity.  Speech helped me gain confidence, taught me to better frame up my thoughts, gave me a place to belong, and got me closer to the aforementioned girl.

As you might imagine, as a thick-tongued boy lacking confidence, they kept chiding me to speak louder and enunciate.  It wasn’t until I felt like I was almost screaming and articulating every syllable as an individual word, that they felt like I was actually speaking in an appropriate manner.  Sometimes when you are not used to speaking up or having anyone care about what you have to say, you have to exaggerate in the other direction.  You have to do what feels like shouting, just to be heard.

I call that “fighting your tendency.”  It is a concept that seems to show up in conversations all the time.  It is the simple idea that you have go against the grain of your default behavior to get decidedly different results.

• If you tend to not speak up, you may have to talk in a way that feels excessive to you.
• If you tend to say too much like me, censor yourself to the point of almost feeling like you’re not saying anything.
• If you tend to micromanage, do what feels like completely taking your hands off the reins.
• If you tend to abdicate authority, do the opposite.
• If your spouse feels unloved, despite the fact that you think you’ve made it abundantly clear, make it unmistakably clear.

Fight the tendency to respond and behave the way you always have.  

For me, learning to ask questions instead of incessantly blabbering unwanted or unrequested answers, has changed the quality of almost every conversation.  I am trying to STOP dominating every conversation.  In fact, the 300 or so episodes of this very blog have allowed me a platform to share some of the deep thoughts and stirrings of my heart instead of trying to cram all of them into every conversation.

I am fighting my tendency by trying to be slower to speak and quicker to listen.

And it isn’t that our tendency isn’t often offered out of the best of intentions.  When my wife read a female companion version to the book “Wild at Heart” that had changed my life and been the focus of my ministry, I went to work:

• I signed her and a friend up for a retreat in Colorado based on the book without asking her (it was the middle of winter and she was in her third trimester with our fourth child).
• I ordered her 10 copies of the book.
• I help draft a list of the ladies she might invite to a study.
• I created the invitation that I thought she could send to all of them.

Yeah, it’s funny now, but I think I crushed her desire to actually pursue other women.  She didn’t actually start engaging women with this message in earnest for several years after that.  My heart was good, but my actions were bad.

All my best intentions, wrapped in my legalistic desire to control everything, ruined (temporarily) an opportunity for my wife to share her heart and inspiration about a life-changing message with others.  When it comes to many things, I have had to learn to sit back and keep my opinions and micro-managing to myself.  

Because my tendency is to take over, even when I think I am only encouraging, it can feel like micro-managing to others.  Going against my natural tendency, has brought some necessary balance to things.  Or at least I think so.  Maybe you should ask my wife.

What are your tendencies?

What are you offering too much of that you need to restrain?

Where are you offering too little that you need to step it up?

If you have the courage, ask your spouse or team members where they would like you to step it up and where they would like you to back off.  Ask them what tendencies you have that they would prefer that you fight!

Thinning

“Thinning the heard” is an expression used in ranching circles.  (Animal rights activist might want to skip the rest of this paragraph.) It typically refers to the practice of reducing the size of a herd of large farm animals by removing the genetically weaker ones.  It also can mean to hunt or kill off animals as a means of population control.

A quick Google search reveals that the expression is also used in a variety of contemporaneous, and sometimes offensive, ways.  It is referenced in reducing an iTunes playlist, narrowing the field of availability in a bar, and noting the fact that some of those people refusing to wear motorcycle helmets may not live to tell all their tales.

We’ve also have started using it in an organizational context.  Leaders of organizations are often daunted by the task of getting all the right people on the bus.  They can’t even begin to think about getting all of them in the right seats.  

• There are too many that don’t seem to be the right people.
• There are too many that don’t seem to be actively engaged.
• There is too much other work to do rather than focus on getting the right folks.
• It is too uncomfortable for them to remove the wrong folks.

Guess what?  You will never achieve the success you desire until you deal with this issue.  We coach the companies we work with to adopt two simple rules in dealing with substandard work or behavior.  We gained conviction about these practices when we learned that a church in Chicago utilizes them:

• Under-Performance - Get an understanding of how their performance needs to change.  Schedule a 90 day review.  Commit to whatever resources, training, etc. is required to get them there.
• Bad Attitude - Agree to what “right” looks like and set a 30-day review date.  Commit to do whatever you can do to help aid in the transition, but mutually agree that attitude is a choice.

If at the end of the 30 or 90 day periods, the behavior/performance hasn’t changed or isn't dramatically trending in the right direction, the employee is released to find a better fit for their skill set or a more suitable environment to allow for a better attitude.  Harsh?  Remember, we learned these practices from a church.  Their philosophy is that their stewardship responsibility is to maintain a high performing and positively engaged team.  We want everyone to work somewhere where their skills, efforts, and attitude can thrive.

We’ve observed something else in the teams we work with.  Once they get really clear on their desired culture (Values, Purpose and Vision), the herd starts to thin itself.  The inconsistency with the now clearly defined culture makes it difficult to remain on the team.  Also, the rest of the team buying into and operating under the powerfully embodied culture won’t allow others who don’t fit, to remain.

Without the owner having to be the bad guy, the herd gets thinned.

Not only does a clearly defined culture provide direction, elicit excitement, and cultivate engagement, it also helps ensure you have the right people on the bus.

Is it time to thin the herd?

Do you have the policies and practices in place to make that happen?

Is your culture and future clearly defined enough that the team will help thin the herd for you?

How much longer will you suffer the cost of low engagement by having the wrong team members?

Horizon

30,000 Foot View: A broad or general look at a problem, project, or subject as opposed to focusing on the details.

In the movie “Seabiscuit”, based on the extraordinary book by Laura Hillenbrand, they take us back to Depression-era America and the earliest days in the life of this amazing horse.  Seabiscuit was abused and wild, but naturally one of the fastest horses in the world when he was rescued by a similarly banged up owner, trainer, and jockey.  

Watching him launch out for the first time under stopwatch, moving aggressively in one direction and then the other, the owner noted how fast he was.  The trainer grinned and replied,

“Yeah, in every direction.”

That is what we find with most companies and leaders we encounter. People are working really hard… in every direction.  When we talk about taking a step back or ascending over the clouds of the day-to-day, climbing to the proverbial 30,000 foot view to get a larger or longer term perspective, we are often met with incredulous responses:

• Our industry is changing too rapidly.
• I have no idea what is going to happen in 3 years.
• I am too lost in the weeds to think beyond the day-to-day.
• Vision is a worthless exercise.

Let’s be honest, you and your team are already working really hard.

• But what are you working on?
• To what end are you working toward?
• Are you dictating your future or allowing the vagaries of the marketplace and industry to decide it for you?

The most powerful thing about a clear vision is how precisely it illuminates the things you must do today in order to achieve that powerful future.  It inspires and elicits excitement while breeding the elusive employee engagement we are all seeking.

We spent the day with a subset of an incredibly high integrity leadership team in Del Rio, TX.  

• We wanted to get out of the weeds.  
• We needed to get our heads above the clouds.  
• We needed to see even beyond our very clear 3 year vision that we are executing toward.  
• We needed to see generationally beyond the leadership of the founder/owners.

The team was privileged with an incredible line of sight.  From the hunting lodge where we were working, we could see for miles.  From the high walls of canyons nearby, cut by moving water over thousands of years, it felt like we could almost touch the U.S./Mexican border 30 miles away.  Our host said that the Sierra Madre range, another 50 miles further, could be seen on a very clear day.  It was the perfect site for this type of conversation.

The most humbling thing about this team is that they haven’t just operated with the kind of mature leadership that determines a 3 year destination and works toward that future.  They weren’t just focusing on the generational impact of change related to transitioning owner/founders.  Their line of sight extended clear into eternity.

Their success isn’t just marked in revenue, profitability, or even in number of locations or people employed, their ultimate benchmark is changed lives.  And they’re not just focused on changing the lives of the clients they care for, but also their client’s extended families and all the team members they employ that serve them.  We spoke of generative governance (life-giving leadership) and what needed to change to realize that more fully.  We spoke of nobility, stewardship, and a God-sized understanding of who they desire to become.

They are not a publicly traded company, but if they were, I’d already be placing my bets.  This is going to be an extraordinary story to watch unfold.  I am humbled to be holding a ringside seat.

Where are you going?

Have you identified a clear spot on the horizon you want to reach?

Are you starting to make the changes you need to get there?

Do your team members know the roles they are to play and how they fit into that future?

Play

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“To discern what is truly essential we need space to think, time to look and listen, permission to play, wisdom to sleep, and the discipline to apply highly selective criteria to the choices we make.” - Greg Mckeown

The book “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” in not a minimalist manifesto, in fact, it is about the pursuit of a more abundant life where you provide the maximum contribution.  It flies in the face of our western cultural sensibilities that says the only path to “more” is through doing “more.”  It also flies in the face, interestingly enough, in the way we often measure ministry success.

Ironically, it is all very consistent with the life of Jesus.  He repeatedly walked past the urging of the disciples to address the incredible ministry “opportunities” in front of him.  As God incarnate, how could He walk past obvious need?  The only thing He knew for certain, was that He was to be about His Father’s business.  He accomplished far more, by doing less of precisely the right things He was created to do.

Something deep within in myself wants to yell, “Amen!”.
But another part of me isn’t so comfortable with that.

McKeown advocates more space, sleep, and play.  He has loads of data to back up all the benefits of each, but let’s look at just one of those that seems the most antithetical to accomplishing much with our lives… "play."  He says this about play:

“Play is anything you do for the simple joy of doing it rather than as a means to an end.  It can lead to brain elasticity, adaptability, and creative breakthroughs.  Play engages our mind and fuels exploration because it broadens the range of options available to us and boosts the executive function of the brain and its planning, prioritizing, and deciding; play is also a powerful antidote to stress.”

We were in an all day meeting with a group of successful businessmen.  One of them is extraordinarily accomplished:

• Elder/leader of a large home church aggregation.
• Runs a successful business building a third location.
• Is on the board of a faith based school he help found.
• Has coached the school's basketball team to several state titles.
• Actively involved in the lives of his 11 children, various son/daughter-in-laws, and numerous grandchildren’s lives.
• Avid hunter.

I asked him what sort of role “play” has had in his life.  I assumed, given his age and his incredible level of accomplishment, that this might be one of those things that didn’t seem to fit into his schedule.  But he said,

“We play a lot.”

And then he said something that we’ll never forget (as he often does), “The greatest determinant in how much we play is trust.”  

• If we don’t have the faith required to trust that everything is going to be okay…
• If we don’t honestly believe that nothing escapes His hand…
• If we don’t know that He has overcome this world…
• If we don’t believe that He hasn’t given us more than we can handle…
• If we don’t know that we aren’t the master of our own fates…
• If we don’t believe that anything can happen outside of our efforts…

…permissioning yourself to play is unlikely.  The essential and necessary ingredient to partaking in this most essential of things in order to make your highest contribution… is faith.  My inability to play and simply do nothing with some of my time (which McKeown has proven has incredible essential value), is correlated to my lack of faith and trust.

Are you finding time to play in your busy schedule?

Why aren’t you, given the apparent value and essential nature of playing?

How is your lack of faith or the inability to trust the reason you can’t?

Simple

I went to a non-fiction writing conference a couple of years ago.  I was surrounded with legit writers much more accomplished than this unpublished storyteller.  They took us through a series of writing prompts with the objective of getting us to declutter and simplify our thoughts.  We were shown a simple photo of a weathered house in the middle of an endless field of grass and asked to describe what we saw.

The process was to have us increasingly simplify our descriptions, each time working with less words to accomplish the task.  I was undaunted by the shrinking word count and just started using bigger and more elaborate words (one of the byproducts of reading a lot to escape my troubled reality as a kid).  At one point the leader of the conference got so exasperated with me, that he blurted out:

“Just say the damn thing!!”

That phrase comes to mind often.  The pervasive sentiment of our culture leaves most of us wanting to be heard more than understood.  Our state of overwhelm has us moving from simplicity to complexity.  Doing or saying a whole lot more to actually accomplish or communicate less.  Ironically, it seems to be almost the opposite route that Jesus took.  If simplicity is the way of our Father, it is likely that our enemy has a hand in all this complexity.

There are all these passages in the Bible where it clearly seems that Jesus was trying to confuse the religious intelligentsia with his simplicity.  He actually said He spoke in parables (simple stories) so that they wouldn’t understand.  As a recovering legalist, I think I understand that.  Intellectualizing what is meant to be so simple is all about the wrong things.  For me it was based on insecurity, control, and the desire to make more of me and not more of Him.  That mindset trends toward exclusion instead of inclusion.

Whether it is with an individual or an organization, the clear path to not accomplishing anything is to focus on too many things.  In our experience (and I read a study once that backed this up) of working with teams:

• If you have one goal, you’ll get it done.
• If you have two to three, you’ll get 1-2 done.
• If you have more than three, you’ll likely accomplish none of them.

It is really simple, but it isn’t easy.  Almost everything in our culture, experience, and even our barometer for success tells us that…

Doing a whole lot of stuff leads to accomplishing much.

We’re swimming against that tide.  Our process of working with a team is to move toward simplicity.

1. Craft a clear picture of the future anchored in Purpose and Values.
2. Extract a simple set of goals with action steps to get you there.
3. Train a leadership team to work together to execute the plan.

Simple?  Yes.  

Easy?  Not so much.

To help companies do this sometimes feel like wrestling a bear, but the rewards for them are worth every grapple and hold.  A client recently told us…

“I never could have believed that we would be solving the issues we are. I can’t believe we have gotten so far so fast. We’ve accomplished more in 6 months than we have in the last 25 years.”

• Does your leadership trend toward simplicity or complexity?
• Are you working too hard to accomplish so little?
• Are you ready to start swimming against that tide?

Drag

With a family of eight, we’ve had to learn to be efficient.  For instance, we rarely go to restaurants.  When we do venture out for special occasions, our “go to” spot is Chuy’s.  The waiter hands out menus and I immediately collect them back.  I order eight waters, two pounds of fajitas, and lots of napkins.

Traveling is similar.  We typically drive and if it is an extended one, like the 900 miles to Colorado, we strategically plot the day.  We pack meals, drinks, and snacks in both cars.  We only stop to refuel and restroom and make sure that everyone takes advantage of both opportunities at each stop.  Since we started Jeeping, we’ve added a necessity to each pit stop; cleaning bugs off the windshield.

I knew that part of the reason the mileage wasn’t great was due to the lack of aerodynamics of the Jeep, but I didn’t realize that the flat, almost vertical windshield was much of the culprit.  Not only do I have to de-bug the glass at every pit stop, I’ve already replaced the windshield once and need to do it again.  It is apparently a rock and debris magnet as well as a frequent landing pad for bugs.

At one of our monthly meetings last month with leaders of organizations, we were talking about employee engagement. 

“Employee engagement is the above and beyond effort people could give if they wanted to.”

It seems that most companies in America have a similar drag coefficient problem.  According to a recent survey:

• 30% of employees are actively engaged
• 52% are disengaged
• 18% are actively disengaged

If you put it into rowing parlance (as this great video resource does), out of every ten employees at the average company, 3 are rowing forward aggressively, 5 are along for the ride, and 2 are actually trying to sink the boat!

Before you summarily reject that idea, take a hard look at your team.  I bet some thoughtful consideration and the discernment of the Spirit will help that dragging 20% come to mind almost immediately.  

Part of the way our enemy dulls us (just read "Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis if that comment doesn't make sense to you) is to convince us that things aren’t as bad as they really are.  Some of those folks that you think are just kind of going through the motions are actually paddling against the flow of where you are trying to take your organization.  I bet if you ask your leadership team, they could drop the team into those three categories pretty easily.

Those that are actively engaged (30%) need to be honored, celebrated, and rewarded.  Those along for the ride (52%) need a plan to help them get more actively engaged.  Those actively rowing against you (18%) need to find someone else’s boat to sink.  Things are difficult enough without hauling dead weight around!

Like removing the dead bugs from a windshield, you and your team will not be able to see and realize the future in front of you until those that are clouding the picture are removed.

• Watch the engagement video above.
• Pray and discern which team members are in each category.
• Invite your company leadership into the conversation and craft a plan to engage the disengaged, and remove the actively disengaged that are producing all that drag!

Process

“We must never put our dreams of success as God’s purpose for us.  The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident.  What we call the process, God calls the end.  His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now.  It is the process, not the end, which is glorifying to God.”

Oswald Chambers

Who wouldn’t be anxious?  After twenty years of launching and then fathering a not-for-profit to significant maturity and impact, it was time to find a replacement.  It takes incredible maturity and humility to step aside from all that you’ve created… to believe that ultimate success and long term viability of the enterprise requires another at the helm.  Many founders or entrepreneurs never find the temerity of spirit to reach this point.  Of the few that do, most find it difficult to actually let go.

I asked this "Moses" what it felt like to think that someone else might take them into the promised land.  He rejected that idea.  Rather than remain in the wilderness, this leader plans to accompany them on the rest of the journey (just with someone else taking the lead).  He is graciously moving into a different role that will help ensure the success of his replacement.  He is stepping aside to let other leaders rise.  He is ready to walk this ancient, but rarely taken trail.

A few months ago, we gathered with their leadership team over coffee.  We were at a new Starbucks that hadn’t been adopted by too many “regulars” yet.  It was quiet and we sat in bar stools at a taller table that seemed to match the gravity of the situation.

Were we really ready to do this?

How would the current founder really handle this?

How do we make sure we hire the right person?

Does that person actually exist?

The air was pregnant with those questions, stories of disastrous hires, and concerns about everyone’s anxiousness to find the right person.  After all that fog had lifted a bit, a process began to emerge.  With slate wiped clean, we wove our hopes, ideas, experience, and best practices, into an articulated process we believed was God-breathed specifically for this task.

And then we all held our breath.

There were a lot of steps.  It would take time.  Would we run off good candidates through the articulated process?  

They ultimately worked from 22 candidates:

• They looked at relevant experience
• Scanned for requisite skills
• Checked references
• Cast vision to see if it was caught and embraced
• Looked for a coherent heart for their work
• Had them spend time around the mission
• Spent time around the team
• Had staff interviews
• Had board interviews
• Met their spouse

Each step of the way, the funnel narrowed and candidates withdrew or were eliminated.  The process did its job and the incontrovertible choice emerged.

But, success wasn’t ultimately claimed when the new hire was made.  Success was determined when we committed to the process.

“His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now.  It is the
process, not the end, which is glorifying to God.”

• Do you need to make a crucial hire?
• Have been burdened and discouraged by bad hiring decisions in the past?
• Do the work.  Seek wisdom, power, and guidance from beyond you.  Craft a process.  Trust that process.  Walk the ancient trail.

Archetype

ar·che·type (ˈärkəˌtīp/) noun

1. a very typical example of a certain person or thing."the book is a perfect archetype of the genre”
2. an original that has been imitated."the archetype of faith is Abraham"

When you hear the name of certain people…

• Einstein
• Robin Hood
• Bono
• Moses

…a series of ideas or concepts come to mind.  

You will often hear an archetype listed after an expression like, “He’s a real…”.  The uttering of a simple name can communicate a volume of information.  In the faith-based communities that I run in, biblical archetypes are often used.  For instance, I would say that my journey has transitioned from being a Paul to an Abraham to a David.  

Let’s look at each one of those in terms of a leadership profile:

• Paul - A legalist’s legalist.  He was all about whatever he was all about.  The same zealousness he persecuted Christians with, he applied to the way he proselytized the faith.  He is a get it done guy.  He could be clumsy with his conviction and intentionality and his “disruptive for good” posture often antagonized others and made enemies.  Boy can I relate to this guy in the first 15-20 years of my faith journey.
• Abraham - A patriarch of the faith and an iconic father figure.  A mentor, developer, and sage to those around him and under him.  As an unfathered son, I often referred to myself as an “inverse Abraham,” a son of many fathers.  The last 10-15 years of my faith journey has been a season of being powerfully fathered translating into becoming a mentor, father, and coach to many.
• David - Unfettered and free.  King.  Passionate leader.  A man who walked with such honesty, integrity, and proximity to his Father that he often found himself praising Him and cursing Him in the same verse.  Thanking Him for His presence and alternatively wondering aloud where the heck He is, has been part of the regular rhythm of my last few years. 

Intending transformation for leaders and the organizations (businesses, not-for-profits, family systems) they lead has been the most invigorating, fulfilling, but often frustrating thing I have ever done.  At times it is effortless and fully embodying God’s intention, impact, and favor.  Other times it seems that everyone, everything, and even the forces of hell are set against us.

They are.

As much as the deliverable of our faith was always intended to be restoration and transformation, the history of many of our organizations, the culture of our families, and even the experience of our faith journey, has been about everything but that.  That is no accident.  Everything the Father desires is specifically opposed.  And everything the Father ultimately intends, is ultimately opposed.

Bringing real honest-to-goodness change (transformation) to lives and organizations has been the most challenging and rewarding thing I have ever attempted.  And you will often find me both signing the praises and shaking my fist at the heavens.

But why would you spend your time, money, or
energy, doing anything else?

• Which archetype do my most identify with in this season of your life and career?
• Which one do you need a little more of?
• Are you tired of going through the motions and ready for the real work of being about real transformation?

Unicorns

One of my partners likes to talk about the “shapes emerging from the fog.”  It is the expression he uses to describe how the real issue eventually emerges when you investigate and approach something thoughtfully from enough angles.  More often than not, the issue you think you need to solve is really obscuring the underlying true one.  If you don’t solve the right problem, you don’t find the right solution.

I was meeting with a client yesterday.  He said something I feel like I hear almost every day as a business coach.  The guy he has in the key position is not quite the guy he and the company wish he were.  He said that the right guy in that seat would solve a myriad of problems.  And then he said something more honest than I’ve heard almost any organizational leader say:

Me:   “So what is it exactly that you are looking for?”

Him:  “A unicorn… something that doesn’t actually exist.”

The realization that he had been waiting in frustration for something that didn’t really exist, opened up a whole new arena of possibilities:

• While he isn’t the mythical creature that can solve all of his problems, he can solve a few… really well.
• He could quit hoping that he would become something he couldn’t and start investing in him to becoming the best he could be while having the greatest impact to the team.
• He is hiring to complement the leader in the key position.  Essentially, he is beginning to create the unicorn in aggregate.

The reality is that no matter how long you wait on the edge of the fog for the mythical character to emerge, they never will.

There are no unicorns.

But for this young leader, what is emerging from the fog is something far grander than a unicorn.  There is now a growing team of leaders rising from the fog that are capable of accomplishing more in the aggregate than he ever dreamed the unicorn could.

The revolving door of a small business is a troubling sign.  It might be evidence of:

• Being quick to hire
• Unrealistic expectations
• Not setting a team member up for success
• A lack of training
• Not surrounding them with the right team

It also may reveal that they are looking for unicorns.

I often get the sense, talking to some business leaders;  that they believe there is someone just beyond the horizon that can do the jobs of everyone on the team better than the folks they currently have. That there is a magic pill, program, person, or thing, that will magically solve all their problems and make their dreams come true.  That unicorns exist.

Like in most things, the answers are already there.  They lie inside.  The key to coaching and great leadership, is crafting together the solutions that are already there… and help them emerge from the fog.

• Are you frustrated with many of the people that work for you?
• Do you often think there are better people who could fill all the key roles in your organization?
• How are you looking past the solutions right in front of you to the unicorns that don’t exist?

Outsource

“When internal leaders outsourced the work, they made the mistake of outsourcing the leadership of the work as well.”

— Harvard Business Review

I have seen lots of lists of the things that a company should never outsource. The three that seem to show up the most often are:

• Creating culture
• Crafting vision
• Providing leadership

With the right people in the room and an articulated process led by trained facilitators, the essential boundaries of core values and mission statement can be drawn out from a leadership team to help define their culture. Mission statements and core values become the litmus test for hiring, firing, rewarding, and virtually every decision a company makes.

An inspired vision can be cast that both inspires and motivates a team to reach for more. This is not something an outsider can craft and design, but merely cultivate from the team.  A well defined vision (a clear picture of the future) provides the destination from where you can craft powerful strategic initiatives and action steps to make sure it is realized.  With our clients, we commit to work for as long as it takes to get them in a strong rhythm for execution of those plans and any other issues that incidentally occur.

But we’ve had to face a sobering reality.

• We can walk a company toward crazy clarity, but we can’t make them live there.

• We can define the clear boundaries of values and mission, but we can’t control their decision-making.

• We can define a process for articulating strategic initiatives and action steps. We can even offer to help assist the team in creating them, but we can’t actually write them.

• We can establish a meeting rhythm and even attend the meetings (which we do), but we can’t force them to meet.

At the end of the day, company leadership is going to make sure all this happens or not. It doesn’t matter how powerful, comprehensive, or well-defined the processes are, success will still be contingent on the endorsement and support of your leadership. That cannot be outsourced.

We’re humbled and overwhelmed by the success we’ve seen our clients find. To see a company move from...

Owner to team led
Lack of clarity to clear vision
Uncertainty to defined and articulated culture
“Tyranny of the urgent” to execution on key strategic initiatives
From discouragement to hope

...has been incredibly rewarding.

But we’re a coaching organization, not a consulting one. We don’t roll in with large teams in suits, with six and seven figure price tags. We provide the coaching and establish the tools for your ongoing success.

Our coaching imperative means that...

• We don’t catch fish for you, but teach you to fish.
• We work to develop independence, not dependence.
• Breed an ownership mindset among the entire leadership team.

But we can’t fulfill the role of leadership for someone else’s company. Only you can do that. Thankfully, except for the very rarest of exceptions, we get the appropriate support and endorsement from leadership, the team takes their appointed seats around the conference table, a regular meeting rhythm is developed, the strategic plans get executed, and they find a newly inspired future.

• Is your conference table full of leaders, life, and execution? (or is it as empty as the one pictured above)

• What would it look like if you offered the essential leadership to ensure success? 

Are you ready to...

• Establish a leadership team?

• Create a defining culture and craft an inspired vision?

• Determine strategic initiatives, action steps, and a meeting rhythm to make sure they are accomplished?