Change a needy child’s Christmas this year with Operation Christmas Child

operationchristmaschild.org.uk/shoeboxworld/ facebook.com/occuk Operation Christmas Child is the world’s largest children’s Christmas project, run by the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse. We have been sending gift-filled shoeboxes around the world since 1990, bringing joy into the lives of over 80 million underpriviledged children. You can create a shoebox online and help a child in the Lofa county, Liberia have a Christmas to remember

What advice do you have for me ?

Next week, I go back to work at Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelisitc Association, having spent the last 3 and a bit months on study leave completing my Masters.

So, what advice do you have me as I get ready for re-entry?

The best investment you can make as a leader

..is in other people, especially emerging leaders.

How many times have you seen an organisation swing from disaster to disaster as they seek to cope with the crisis of a key person leaving under difficult circumstances

Recently I have been on three months study leave, and it has been wonderful to see leaders in the organisation rising up to new levels of responsibility and competence as they have been allowed to stretch and be stretched in a supportive environment.

Paul – an older leader in his 70;s knew the secret of this and demonstrated it with Titus (probably in his early 30′s). We can learn some lessons from them.

The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished…. (Titus 1 v5)

First of all Paul took Titus with him on ministry to the Galatians (you can read about it in Galatians Ch2). This was doing life and ministry together, sharing values, striving for common goals, seeing how ministry is done, being in an apprentice. I need to learn better to take younger leaders with me on key ministry activities and expose them to the challenges and joys of ministry.

Secondly, Paul then threw Titus into a difficult situation with the Corinthians, one that he himself was having difficulty in handling. Paul was not afraid to expose Titus to difficulty and to support him in tackling difficult issues. I must not shelter younger leaders from difficulty that I am facing, but rather face it together and learn from it together.

Thirdly, Paul took Titus to Crete, sponsored him into a national ministry, and left him there to establish the Cretan Church as a leader in his own right. I need to learn to free emerging leaders and to sponsor them into their own ministries, giving them the approriate level of support and encouragement.

In Samaritan’s Purse recently we have started a development programme for our younger leaders. Paul shows us some of the things we will need to be active in doing if it is to be truly effective in raising up Bible Centred, godly leaders, who can be leaders, priests, prophets and servants to the next generation.

How have you gone about developing younger leaders? Who are you investing in? I need your help friends to develop better leaders who will go further and faster than I have. Please share your views.

Some final questions for you :

Do you know who the high potential young leaders are in your organization.?

How do we go about identifying them?

Once you have identified them how do you go about deliberately taking risks with them and allowing them to grow into future potential leaders? What about in small organisations where this means they may leave – how do you cope with that?

How can we select good leaders – tips from the Bible

Appoint leaders in every town according to my instructions. As you select them, ask, “Is this man well-thought-of? Is he committed to his wife? Are his children believers? Do they respect him and stay out of trouble?” It’s important that a church leader, responsible for the affairs in God’s house, be looked up to—not pushy, not short-tempered, not a drunk, not a bully, not money-hungry. He must welcome people, be helpful, wise, fair, reverent, have a good grip on himself, and have a good grip on the Message

Titus Ch 1 v5-9

 There is a crisis of character in Leadership today. We take some insights from Paul as he writes to Titus and gives him guidance about how to select leaders for the national Church in Crete.

Bobby Clinton lists effective Leadership selection in his top 7 attributes of Effective Leaders. “Effective leaders view leadership selection and development as a priority function” (Clinton : 7 Major Lessons about effective leaders #5).

But how do we select Leaders who have good Character – we usually put much more emphasis on competence – or the ability and experience to do the job.

Microsoft recently collaborated with the School District of Philidelphia to create the School of the Future. They wanted to hire the School Principle. Here they set out their ground-breaking approach.

“Too often, search processes involve a limited call for applicants, straightforward reviews of resumes, a handful of interviews, and then a leap-of-faith hiring decision. But this type of selec­tion process usually finds the leader it deserves. Avoiding such a pitfall and finding the right leader for the right organization requires employing a deliberate process. Successful leadership selection doesn’t happen by accident or through luck. Selecting leaders with the appropriate competencies and skills requires a strategic process informed by critical thinking”

They outlined 6 critical success factors: i) Critical thinking ii) Results iii) Customer Feedback iv) Teamwork v) Long-term approach vi) Passion for education.

However, Microsoft, even in their innovative approach, do not try and deal with Character, rather focusing on Competence.

So let’s look at the advice that Paul gives to Titus.

In Titus Ch 1 v 5-9, Paul is emphasizing the integrity of a leader. Leaders must be winning at home as well as away!

Notice that Paul emphasizes Character first. (v6-8), then competence (v9). A leader must have integrity of character first and foremost.

Paul is reminding us that Character cannot be taught easily in a leadership position. It is formed on your knees over a 20 to 30 year period, it is who you are, it is the result of the Spiritual Disciplines that have formed the way you act, and who you are behind closed doors.

Many failures of Christian Leadership are when Character does not keep up with Leadership position (or to put it another way your backstage persona is out of step with your on stage persona – or to put it another way you are acting)

Here Paul emphasizes what a leader must not be:-

• not overbearing
• not quick-tempered
• not given to drunkenness
• not violent
• not pursuing dishonest gain

And he emphasizes what they must be:-

• blameless
• faithful
• whose children believe
• hospitable
• loves what is good
• self-controlled
• upright
• holy
• disciplined

 Paul here is arguing for a different way. It’s a way that is mirrored elsewhere in Scripture, for example in Saul’s choosing of David. He got right to the heart of things!

 How can we put this into practise?

Over the years we have tried to bring these principles to bear in our leadership selection. Here are five things we always do

• Our application forms cover basic technical competences, yes, but they also ask for details of people’s walk with God and their Christian discipleship. Paul would argue that it is this section that should get looked at first.
• I will always ask at an interview what someone has learnt recently in their walk with God. I am looking here for evidence of a vibrant, active discipleship that is fresh and dynamic and where you pick up evidence of a heart surrendered to God.
• I will also always ask a candidate what values their closest friends would say shape their charachter. There is something about asking from a friends perspective that makes people be more searching and deliberate in their answers.
• References also pick up Character traits and evidence of Character over a long period of time. These are not open ended References, but have specific targeted questions on character.
• We also try and ensure that there are more informal times in the interview process, usually over a meal, where again we are looking at Character and how people interact with others in an informal setting.

I’d be really interested in hearing what other ways people have sought to address the character issue in recruitment. Please let me know.

Leadership lessons from the Bible

The Bible is a great source of leadership lessons. In it we see leaders fail, succeed, collapse, finish well, fail the integrity test and lead their people to great triumphs. We see them mentor others, transition in leadership, raise up new generations of leaders and sometimes, just like us, they completely blow it !

These historical mentors can be a great source of wisdom for us. Over the next few weeks I hope to recount some of the lessons I have been learning from leaders in the Old and New Testaments, and we are going to start with Titus over the next few posts. Why not subscribe to the blog so that you get the new posts e-mailed to you automatically ?

Titus was a young man, when Paul as a much older and more experience leader took him under his wing. We know that Paul took him on his Second missionary journey, travelled with him to Crete on ministry and sent him alone to tackle the difficult problems Paul was having with the Corinthians.

There is no doubt that Paul was mentoring Titus, and here are some of the ways in which Paul did this.

1. He took Titus with him on his missionary journey. (Galatians ” v1-3). There is no substitute for taking younger leaders along with you as you minister and carry out activities. In this way they are not only learning from you, but you are exposing them to new situations that in the future they will need to face themselves. Paul did this deliberately with Titus and Timothy over many years.

2. He sent him as an emissary on his behalf to the troubled Corinthian Church (2 Corinthians. 7:6-7; 8:6, 16). This was a stretching assignment for Titus, one that was not all that comfortable, as Paul’s relationship with the Corinthians was not at its healthiest and there were many troubles between them. However, Paul is content to send Titus into the trouble. He doesn’t shelter him from difficulty or think of this task as too difficult for him. Titus seems to have really grown and been encouraged by the experience (2 Cor 7) as are the Corinthians, and Paul now calls Titus a partner and a co-worker. I think we shelter younger leaders from too much on occassian, robbing them of experiences to grow.

3. He appoints Titus to lead the Cretian Church (Titus Ch 1,2,3) Finally Paul releases Titus to lead the Cretian Church – another difficult task. But by now Paul has found Titus faithful, and transitioned him from being a co-worker, to undertaking difficult assignments to releasing him into full ministry.

4. He mentors Titus from afar by letter (Titus Ch 1,2,3), giving instruction, advice, support and a desire that they meet again.

Who are you mentoring. Which younger leaders are you taking with you on ministry tasks ? Which are you sending on difficult assignments ? Who are you releasing into ministry ? And who have you lost contact with who you need to continue mentoring from afar ?

Next time, we’ll look at the leadership lessons that Titus learns himself through Paul’s teaching to him in his letter.

10 questions to see how you are doing with life-long learning

“let the wise listen and add to their learning,  and let the discerning get guidance”

Proverbs Ch1 v5

I’m keen in my leadership style to try and adopt a learning posture – an attitude to learning that recognises that I can never know everything, often get it wrong, and many times fail to see things from other people’s perspectives.

So why is it that we often don’t learn until the lesson is staring us straight in the face and has become so big that it is a huge crisis. (ask David Cameron about that one at the moment, or ask any of our political leaders caught up on the Banking collapse or the MP expenses scandal !)

Maybe, it is because we become so set on our own path, with our own big ideas and our own way of doing things that it takes a huge jugernaught to shift our perspectives and help us to think in a different way.

We become set in our own ways, we plateau in learning and keep repeating the same habits, walking the same well trodden route and listening to the same voices.

Now of course, familiarity can be good and provides security and well-being, but it can also breed contempt.

One of my mentors once said to me “Simon, you may act differently if only you knew one more fact about that person or situation you are talking about. Are you asking the right questions so that you can see things from their viewpoint”. It made me stop and think.

Today I deliberately walked the opposite way to normal around my normal exercise route. It’s amazing how different things look coming at it from a different perspective – and that is what having a learning posture/attitue is all about.

So here are 10 questions that help me, and hopefully help you just do a rain-check on how you are doing with adopting a learning posture at the moment.

Which of these have you done over the past month ?

1. Read a book where you strongly disagreed with the author

2. Dialogued with a person who you knew in advance you would disagree with about the subject you were talking about

3. Gone somewhere for a meal, a drink or to hang out where you have never been before

4. Got to know in depth someone who is not in your close circle of friends

5. Eaten a food that you had never tried before

6. Driven/walked/cycled a different route than normal to a familiar location

Over the past year, have you

7. Been to a holiday destination you had never been to before

8. Visited a Church or worship service that you had never been to before

9.Changed your course of action because you listened to someone you disagreed with

10, Changed your course of action because of a Scripture you read

How did you do with the questions? Maybe you have other questions you ask yourself to help you keep on track in this area – I would love to hear about them. Please post a comment below and we can start a dialogue

Weaknesses, what do you mean weaknesses ?

The BBC this week ran a really interesting article examining how well CEO’s know themselves and questioning why they are the most unlikely people to confess to their own weaknesses. The journalist had questioned 60 CEO’s over the past year and a half, asking them what their weaknesses were. Her results showed a remarkable lack of self awareness !

Over the years I’ve found Johari’s Window to be a great tool in helping me uncover my blindspots – of which I have many. My family are an even better tool though, as are really close friends at home and in business. You can rely on them to tell it how it is – and as a result my sense of humour and ability to laugh at myself has dramtically improved.

Vulnerability in Leadership is so important, and that is something I have had to learn the hard way. As we open ourselves up to others we give them permission to fail, like we do, and to pick themselves up and learn in a constructive and positive way. Others have called this creating an “environment of grace” in which others can prosper and grow and develop. This is tough, and goes against most of what culture will tell us, and against many role models that are out there in industry and in the Church !

Paul knew that as a leader he was not perfect yet ! As he says in Philippians Ch 3

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

As Chuck Swindoll says “How refreshing! Here is this brilliant, competent, gifted, strong leader who freely declares, “I don’t have everything wired”.

As Leaders we need to be willing to have a teachable spirit, to let others point out blind spots without becoming defensive, to rarely be the expert with all the answers, to admit our own personal learning needs and failures and to share openly that we are apprentices, learning as we go. Only as we do that will we become role models who others can follow realistically and openly, and only then can we become the people God wants us to be.

That requires courage and guts, andI have lots yet to learn about that.