Links to Interesting Faith and Work Articles:

• What Experts Will Never Tell You about Your Myers-Briggs Personality Type. Paul Sohn shares some interesting facts for each 16 Myers-Briggs personality types. Some of these findings may surprise you.
• 5 Leadership Questions about Building a Great Organizational Culture. In this episode of the 5 leadership Questions podcast Eric Geiger, the Vice President of the Resources Division at LifeWay, helps leaders figure out how to build a healthy culture in their organizations.
• Good Work: The Gift of Work by Bill Heatley. Despite some criticisms, J.B. Wood writes “The Gift of Work is filled with some incredible nuggets of spiritual wisdom – the kind that hits you between the eyes — because it frames work as directly integrated with our relationship with God. Bill Heatley tells us what that is like, because he is living it. And that, frankly, is inspiring.”
• Two Very Different Callings. David Murray helpfully writes “There’s been a welcome resurgence of the Christian doctrine of vocation and calling over the past years, helping many Christians to see their work as an essential part of their service to and worship of God. But it’s vital that we don’t confuse it with the Christian doctrine of effectual calling. The difference? Vocational calling is God “calling” us into work that fits our gifts and talents. He is bringing out of us what is already there so that we find ourselves suited to certain kinds of work. Effectual calling is God calling us out of darkness and into light. He didn’t call out of us what was already there; by His call, He put something in us that was never there before. He didn’t match what we were with something that fitted us; He made us fit for something totally unlike us. He didn’t match our passions with opportunities; He gave us passions for what we previously hated.”
• 5 Ways to Spot Leaders with Character. I’ve been reading a lot about character recently. Here, Dan Rockwell shares 5 ways to spot leaders with character.
• Renew. In this “Minute with Maxwell”, John Maxwell discusses what it means to renew ourselves.
• What is Christian Ministry? C. Patton writes “What exactly do you have to do to qualify for Christian ministry? What exactly is full-time ministry? Is it something you must be called to do?”
• Three Reasons Leaders Must Constantly Say “No”. Eric Geiger writes “Steve Jobs famously said, “I’m as proud of what we don’t do as I am of what we do.” He was ruthlessly focused as a leader. Many of us have a difficult time saying “no,” but leaders must do so for at least three reasons.”
• The Power of Morning & Evening Routines. See this seven minute video from the Art of Manliness.
• 5 Wrong Ways to Respond to Criticism. Ron Edmondson writes “The way a leader responds to criticism says much about the maturity of the leader and the quality of his or her leadership.”
• How to Get People to Do What You Want. In this “Tuesday Tip” Dr. Alan Zimmerman writes “If you’re like most people, you want to know how you can get others to do what you want them to do.  That’s understandable, but it’s also a little short-sighted. If you’re a truly effective communicator, you ask a slightly different question.  You want to know how you can get others to do what you want them to do — BECAUSE THEY WANT TO DO IT.
• 5 Leadership Questions with Dave Ramsey. Dave Ramsey joins the 5 Leadership Questions podcast for a lively conversation about leadership. His insights about leadership transitions, running a family business, and organizational culture are practical and helpful.
• The Reality of Work-Life Balance. Ken Blanchard writes “Reaching balance in life is all about decreasing stress by focusing on things that create a sense of contentment. Several years ago my lovely wife, Margie, came up with PACT—an easy to remember model whose elements can help people relieve stress in their lives by achieving Perspective, Autonomy, Connectedness, and Tone.”
• 12 Killers of Good Leadership. Ron Edmondson writes “Any one of these can squelch good leadership. It’s like a wrecking ball of potential. If not addressed, they may even prove to be fatal.”
• Creating a Culture of Accountability. Mark Miller shares four specific things you can do to begin creating a culture of accountability in your organization.
• One Tool Every Leader Needs. Mark Miller writes “How do you keep score as a leader? What key metrics ultimately determine whether you are winning or not?” He believes that all leaders need a scorecard.
• Everybody Matters Podcast: Jacob Morgan. Jacob Morgan is the founder of the Future of Work Community and an author and speaker. On this episode of the Everybody Matters podcast, Jacob continues a discussion about leadership and management, and shares his thoughts about what the workplace of tomorrow will look like.

Faith and Work Quotes:

• When everything bothers you, it’s about you. Dan Rockwell
  

  Dan Rockwell

• Leadership is a combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without strategy. General Norman Schwarzkopf
• We often judge ourselves by our intentions but others by their actions. Andy Andrews
• Accountability goes wrong when it focuses on preventing failure rather than creating success. Dan Rockwell
• Dependence on God as a leader is a requirement, responsibility and obligation, not just a perk or program of the Christian life. Brad Lomenick
• Leaders are never satisfied and they’re never finished. Mark Miller
• Success is not counted by how high you have climbed but by how many people you brought with you. Coach K
• You handle things. You work with people. John Wooden
• Mediocrity arrives when difficult conversations are avoided. Dan Rockwell

 Book Clubs – Won’t you read along with us?

The Conviction to Lead Book Club

The Conviction to Lead: 25 Principles for Leadership That Matters by Albert Mohler

We’re reading this excellent book on leadership principles from a renowned agent of change, Albert Mohler. It is one of the best that I’ve read on leadership and is broken down into 25 relatively short chapters. Won’t you read along with us? This week we look at

Chapter 24 – The Leader and Death

• Christians understand death to be the result of human sin and the final enemy that is defeated by Christ. But as long as this age continues, death comes to us all.
• We lead with the knowledge that our time is limited, and that someone else will inevitably take over for us.
• Leadership, in other words, is perishable.
• There is no place as humbling as a cemetery—and there is no place more likely to remind the leader of the limits of one’s leadership.
• A legacy is what is left in the wake of a great leader. The leader is gone from the scene, but his influence remains essential to the direction and culture of the work he led. Once again, conviction is central.
• What matters is that the convictions survive.
• Remember that leadership is conviction transformed into united action. If the convictions are right, the right actions will follow.
• The leader who aims at a legacy aims to perpetuate conviction. If the conviction is truly perpetuated, all the rest will follow. If the convictions are not perpetuated, none of the rest really matters.
• In truth, there are no indispensable people, only indispensable convictions. The convictions came before us and will last when we are gone. Truth endures when nothing else can. This is the only real assurance that we have.
• If we are faithful stewards of the leadership entrusted to us, we will see ourselves as setting the stage for greater things to come.
• There are several strategic moves a leader can make that will greatly assist in perpetuating conviction. The first is to drive conviction into the genetic identity of the organization.
• Second, hire on the basis of conviction.
• Third, promote on the basis of conviction.
• Fourth, let convictional strength be the deciding factor in building your leadership team.
• Fifth, document and communicate conviction everywhere you can. The key issue at this point is the perpetuation of conviction so that the truths you have given your life to serve stay at the heart of the organization, church, or institution.

Next week we’ll finish our review of this book.

 The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business by Patrick Lencioni. Jossey-Bass. 240 pages. 2012

Patrick Lencioni is one of my favorite business authors. His books The Advantage and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team are among my favorites. I recently started reading and discussing The Advantage with two colleagues at work. I’m sharing key learnings from the book here.

Some good resources around organizational health can be found here: http://www.tablegroup.com/oh.  This week we look at

Behavior 3: Achieving Commitment

• The reason that conflict is so important is that a team cannot achieve commitment without it.
• When leadership teams wait for consensus before taking action, they usually end up with decisions that are made too late and are mildly disagreeable to everyone. This is a recipe for mediocrity and frustration.
• It’s only when colleagues speak up and put their opinions on the table, without holding back, that the leader can confidently fulfill one of his most important responsibilities: breaking ties.
• But when there has been no conflict, when different opinions have not been aired and debated, it becomes virtually impossible for team members to commit to a decision, at least not actively.
• Most leaders have learned the art of passive agreement: going to a meeting, smiling and nodding their heads when a decision is made that they don’t agree with. They then go back to their offices and do as little as possible to support that idea.
• The only way to prevent passive sabotage is for leaders to demand conflict from their team members and to let them know that they are going to be held accountable for doing whatever the team ultimately decides.
• At the end of every meeting, cohesive teams must take a few minutes to ensure that everyone sitting at the table is walking away with the same understanding about what has been agreed to and what they are committed to do.