Empowering Christian Leadership

What does being a leader mean to you?  I think of Christ washing the disciples feet and am reminded that it’s therefore sometimes about doing the dull jobs with a willing spirit….as for the Lord.  How does that work when we don’t feel our gifts are being so well used?  I wonder what Jesus thought as he washed his disciples feet.  I imagine that he was fully present and fully committed in love to the task before him and to showing His disciples how he wanted them to serve one another.

If those we lead were asked the effect we had on them, I wonder what they would say?    In a Bill Johnson DVD today, I was reminded that we are to elevate others’ and cultivate a culture of honour.  Let’s highlight people’s strengths and allow them to live in freedom, fully using their own creativity and resourcefulness.   Please feel free to share any relevant thoughts and stories here for other readers to share.

So how can you be blessed this year?

What sort of 2010 do you want?

If you could sum it up in a 2 – 3 words what would that be for you today?  One of mine would be ‘FRUITFUL’.  Reading Psalm 1 today, I was struck by the picture of the tree, planted by streams of water that bears fruit IN SEASON.  Fruit trees bear the appropriate fruit when the time is right.  In the meantime, they take the necessary nutrients from the soil and take the water through the roots etc to enable the fruit to come.

Am I alone in wanting CONSTANT FRUIT? This passage reminds me that there is a season for all activity under heaven.  It also reminds me that being BLESSED is linked with meditating on God’s word day and night.  I wonder how we judge whether or not we are blessed?  Have we taken on board God’s  connection between HIS blessing and OUR MEDITATION on his word day and night.

If we were to do a stock-take of what occupies our mind throughout the day, I wonder how many topics come up: work, kids, books, trains, travel, fashion, shopping, planning, being spontaneous, our feelings, thoughts, holidays etc.  How much of each day do we consciously choose to read and then think about and dwell on God’s word.

I want a blessed 2010?  Do you?  What changes are you prepared to put in place to ensure that that is what you get?

Know your vision and your values

‘Personal Leadership is the process of keeping your vision and values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with them.@ Stephen Covey

Sometimes we are aware of our vision.  We are often aware of our values when something or someone clashes with them.  Stephen Covey sugests that we need to both have a vision and know our values as a starting point.  When these are clear, we can align our life so that vision, value and lifestyle lines up.  This is not for the faint-hearted.  I believe that this is an ongoing process and one worth repeating and allowing others (the right – others ) in on as we all have much to gain from a willingness to learn from others.

Undertaking values research has given me a framework for exploring my own values.  And I agree that values without a vision goes nowhere.  Vision without values could lack integrity.  And aligning vision, values and life sounds like a good recipe for fulfillment.  Any examples you’d like to share?  Comments and feedback welcome.

 

Business Leaders – what sort of management style do you value?

 How about upside-down management?

Check out  the BBC’s report on Timsoms keys for some food for thought.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lvlv3

Leadership quote of the day

‘Leadership is a combination of strategy and character. If you must be without one, be without the strategy’ Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf

I invite comments on the above quote to inspire others.

What would you do and be if you knew you couldn’t fail?

This is an interesting coaching question that can unlock us from what holds us back.  I was reminded in a sermon today that ‘the gates of Hades cannot prevail against Christ’s plans to build HIS church’…. so if  that’s what we living for we CAN NOT fail.  Of course, we will not meet the requirements we may set ourselves and we may at times feel like we’ve failed….and perhaps we have.  However, let’s brush ourselves down and remember that we’re about winning.  Christ already has.  And if we are in Him, that we’re winners too.    Christ hasn’t finished with us yet and will continue to mould us into his likeness, to renew us, forgive us and build us.

So what would you do  (or be) if you knew you couldn’t fail?

Saturn’s latest rings makes the headlines

Having decided to use Saturn and its rings as part of my coaching model, astronomers have detected  a new ring that would look twice as large as the moon and fit a billion earths into it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8296066.stm

A great metaphor for Empowered Connections Leadership Coaching!

How many of us have strengths, talents and gifts that our  ‘invisible to the naked eye’  and yet are very present – just needing ‘special instruments to be able to see it’

Coaching with an experienced, insightful coach can highlight the ‘new ring’ for leaders and those they lead.  Empowered Connections also offers key instruments and strategies  for identifying your strengths, your thinking preferences and exploring your values, which go hand in hand with your vision.

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8296066.stm

Encouragement when the going gets tough…..

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
(from Christian Leadership World)

Surely times of challenge and controversy will come.  Are these not opportunities for us to choose WHO to be and HOW to react.  We may wish the circumstances were different and may have no control over them.  We do have control over our responses and attitudes.  We can choose growth.

He makes me lie down in green pastures……

I wonder how many of us know the experience of being made to lie down in green pastures.  What do green pastures represent for you?  For me they represent vibrancy, growth, relaxation, what is natural…. Today,when considering that I wanted God’s leading in certain activities to know whether they were in His plan, I was reminded that God is so much more than a ‘job-giver’. Yes, He is interested in what I do.  And He’s my shepherd.  His agenda is so much bigger than simply ‘dishing out the task list’.  I encourage you to lie down in green pastures…let God nourish your inner you.  He has a habit of ‘making us lie down in green pastures’ anyway, so we may as well cooperate, don’t you think?

Intrigued by the header image?

Why Saturn’s rings as a header? Just as the rings are held in place by  gravitational forces, so we can be grounded as we position ourselves to be receiving from God and giving to others ‘from the overflow’.  We are ‘in Christ’ and told to ‘remain in Him’.  Let’s share ideas of how we position ourselves to receive from God so that we are giving ‘from the overflow’.