Author: Chris Marshall

Where to Start…

One of the questions many of us ask when it comes to making changes to our leadership is, “Where is the best place to start?” I’m currently reading Craig Groeschel’s recent book Divine Direction: 7 Decisions That Will Change Your Life, and in it he recommends not attempting to change everything at once, but starting with one change that you will commit to living out daily. In one section he addresses the matter of personal disciplines and points out that too often we “commit” to changing half a dozen things at once. Then we get all fired up about that for a week or two (or less). Then we give up. Groeschel points out that over the years he has committed to making one change in this area of his life each year. He gives the example of committing to write one sentence in his journal each day.

One sentence. Anyone can write one sentence. Of course, one sentence will often lead to two, and then to a paragraph, and…. The key is to commit to writing the one sentence. If that were your only goal in personal development for a year, would you be able to accomplish it? Of course. Groeschel points out when we make such commitments it doesn’t seem like major change will take place, but the key is over time we will add many new disciplines. In five years, we’ll have five additional disciplines in our life, and ten in a decade.

Imagine having ten well-rooted disciplines for personal or leadership growth over the next decade! What would that do to your leadership or mine? While my personality tends toward committing to many new disciplines at once and then failing at most or all of them, the idea of only initiating one new discipline a year is both simple and easy, particularly when we start out with a small goal in the particular discipline.

I still find myself wanting to commitment two or four or ten “small” changes rather than one, but as I’ve been exercising this new plan am find the wisdom in Groeschel’s plan of one additional commitment made over a longer period of time, so it becomes ingrained as not only a habit, but a part of my daily life. I encourage you to choose one particular area of your life where you have been “intending” to make some change and “commit” to a change, a small change, in that area. Then do it and keep doing it daily until you have integrated that change into your daily life. Perhaps a year is the necessary amount of time. Then add another and another. Over the next decade you will become a much more effective leader. That’s my plan, and while I’d rather add ten new disciplines today, I know how that formula works in my life, and it’s time for me to succeed with one new discipline than fail at ten.

Here’s to leading better by committing to one new discipline–today!

Starting Again. Again.

I saw this title for today’s post on a church sign a couple of weeks ago and thought, “Wow! That’s a good one!” How many times in each of our lives do we have to start again–again? Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been restarting my intentional planning process using a lot of Michael Hyatt’s stuff, and as in the past am finding it extremely helpful when I use it. As I’ve noted, I’m not a planner by nature, so having a process that someone else developed that works for me has been hard to find. I’ve found Hyatt’s process the most flexible and adaptable, particularly his Living Forward book and plan, as well as Free to Focus.

What I haven’t found is the discipline to stick with it over the long haul. When I say “long haul” I mean over a period of months. Weeks are easy, but months have not been so easy. I know the reason is because I end up getting caught up in the individual “trees” and and can’t see the “forest.” Thus, I’ve been starting again. Again.

Have you ever found yourself in that place as a leader? You’ve started a fitness plan, or a new organizational plan, or a new method for marketing or ________? The great thing is it worked. It really worked. But then life happened and you skipped a day or two, or you found yourself back in old patterns, or some other plan or process had more bells or whistles and you decided to try it? Before you knew it you were back where you were and you didn’t know for sure how you even got there. In those moments, it’s easy to say, “I’m never going to get in shape,” or “I’m never going to get organized,” or “I can’t ______.” Occasionally those statements may be true, but more often it’s simply time to start again. Again.

I read somewhere that we’ve all been told it takes 21 days to start a new habit, and the reason we often find ourselves frustrated is that isn’t true. It take more like three months than three weeks to start a new habit. My experience is three months is closer to the time needed to start a new habit than three weeks, because I’ve made many changes to various areas of my life and leadership over the years that have lasted for three weeks. Perhaps it was the short-term success that lulled me into thinking I could relax a bit. Whatever the reason, had I kept to the process diligently for three months instead of three weeks, I may well have developed a new habit. This much I know: I’m going to start again, again when it comes to my overall life planning this week, and commit to following through, through the summer.

By then, I’ll know from my own personal experience whether it’s more a matter of the length of time committed to developing a new habit that ensures its success, or whether I need to begin again. Again. As leaders, we know we can’t get married to our methods, because methodologies do need to change over time, but sometimes a particular methodology needs to be given more of an opportunity to succeed than I give it. If that’s true for you, then maybe it’s time for us to start again, again in certain areas. Take some time right now to consider what it is that is most pressing in your life when it comes to the one action you can take that will leverage your leadership capacity or effectiveness in ways that nothing else will. For me it is planning not just my days, but my life goals, objectives and processes so I’ll be more effective over time. I usually get a lot done each day, but too often at the end of a day I wonder whether what I got done was even what needed to be done. (That’s a topic for a mother day!)

As you consider areas where you may need to start again, again, remember that it’s okay to start again and again and again. At least it is when the action your restarting is the action that will leverage your leadership to the next letter. Taking the time to reflect on those areas is time well invested, because the unexamined life is not only not worth living. It is far less effective as well.

Here’s to leading better by starting again. Again. Today!

Getting Away…

Sorry about the no post on Wednesday and no heads up. Nancy and I took a few days away to reunite with our children and to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates play baseball in Bradenton, Florida. I needed to get away, not in the Southwest Airlines, did something stupid so I needed to get away kind of need. It was more the: I’ve been working hard, and life’s been challenging for a long time, needed to get away. I’m one of those folks who don’t tend to take time away often enough, and was reminded of that this week. In fact, by the second day I was thinking, “We ought to do this every year, and possibly for two weeks instead of one.

Bradenton in March certainly beats western Pennsylvania in March, but it’s much more than that. Being this far away from the epicenter of my daily life means I’ve been able to unplug and enjoy some re-creation. Yesterday, we all went on a Segway tour of Santa Maria Island, and it was FUN. We’ve laughed together so much this week, and one of the best parts of dinner together from when the girls were growing up took place each evening–Nancy laughing so hard she had dears streaming down her face. Back to the Segway tour, the view was amazing and the experience was so different from anything I normally do that it was a great deal of fun.

I’ve been “running” each morning we’ve been here, which is something I’ve been thinking about doing at home, but the weather here is so much more conducive to it at this time of year. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was actually able to run. I’ve spent the winter on my “Spintmaster,” which is an inexpensive combination of a treadmill and an elliptical machine. That’s helped me stay in shape, but I wasn’t sure whether the old body would take running for real. It has. The one aspect of running/ walking I’ve always enjoyed is it gives me truly uninterrupted time for thinking and praying. The second morning I ran over to the beach, and then ran along the beach, so the view was incredible. I’m always reminded of God when I see the vastness of the water stretching out in front of me. Even though the sun came up to the east of the water, because we’re on the west coast of Florida, it was still an amazing view.

What does all this have to do with leadership? More than you and I might think. We all “know” we need rest and time away in order to function at our best as leaders, but much of the leadership culture in America still tells us that rest and down time are luxuries the best leaders can’t afford. Each of us has to decide whether we believe that or whether we believe rest and restoration time are essential to long-term, sustained leadership. Maybe it’s because I’m nearing my 60th birthday, or maybe it’s because I’m getting wiser, but I’m siding with the group espousing the need for rest and restoration. While the break has only been four days so far, I feel ready to get back to leading at New Life, and am sure my leadership will be more effective.

So, what’s your position on rest and restoration? Do you get enough sleep each night? Do you take a “Sabbath” or a day of rest each week? Do you take regular times away form restoration and renewal? These are vital questions. The younger you are the more you need to ask these questions and determine what you’re going to do about your own need for rest, renewal and re-creation. Hindsight is 20-20, as they say, but I would have been much better served as a person, and the people I’ve led would have been much better served as a leader had I taken rest, renewal and restoration more seriously. I hope you’ll take some time today to consider how you’re doing in these areas, and if you’re operating at a deficit to make a plan to get away.

Here’s to leading better by taking time to get away–today (or very soon)!

Draining the Swamp…

Have you heard the old saying, “When you’re up to your neck in alligators, it’s hard to remember your purpose was to drain the swamp.”? As leaders we’re always at least up to our knees in alligators, so before we start each day, we better get out the drawings for the plan to drain the swamp. We can call it casting vision, or focusing on our mission, but whatever we call it knowing what we’re doing and why we’re doing it is crucial to accomplishing anything worthwhile over time. If we don’t remember we came to drain the swamp, we’ll eventually occupy all our time with fighting alligators.

Yes, we must fight the alligators, or at least redirect the alligators to a location where they won’t be able to destroy us before we get the swamp drained, but if all we do is fight alligators, we never drain the swamp and the alligators habitat remains conducive for their growth and multiplication. The challenge is a live alligator seems so much more urgent that a rising swamp–in the moment. We’ve all experienced the tyranny of the urgent. We know that many times we tackle the urgent whether it’s important or not, while leaving the important but not urgent matters of life undone. We all know the long-term impact of doing so, and yet the urgent is so…urgent.

How do we keep draining the swamp the focus of our pursuit with everything life throws at us? I already mentioned it in passing: we start the day by looking at the plans and strategy for draining the swamp. Last week, I started again, again, at making certain I start my day with planning with looking at the plans and strategy for draining the swamp. I still faced some alligators, but when I did, I realized the ones I needed to let swim by and the ones that were getting in the way of draining the swamp. I also passed a couple of them on to others–I delegated. Again, we know what we need to do, at least if we’re leaders we know what we need to do. We need to remind ourselves to keep doing it. So often even when we know that failing to plan is planning to fail, we keep looking for some silver bullet that will kill the alligators and help drain the swamp with one shot.

There is no silver bullet.

Now that we have that out of the way, we can get back to the seemingly mundane task of looking at the plans for draining the swamp, and the reasons the swamp needs draining in the first place. After all, even draining the swamp may not be the most important task we face, so we better make sure it is. After all, having an effective plan to accomplish something we ought not to be pursuing in the first place isn’t helpful either. As I sat down to review my plans for draining the swamp last week, I realized that part of the process must be maintaining some daily practices I had been letting slide: prayer, exercise, studying Spanish, and journaling to name a few. Your daily practices may be different, but when I include those four into my morning routine I find that my head clears and I am able to attend to the day’s work much more effectively.

After that I need to look at the plans and select a few key actions that are going to contribute to it, not just a handful of items I can put on my to do list, and feel good about when I check them off as being done. While, I may have a few items I must do today either personally or in my work, those are not the key action items that will move me toward draining the swamp. As I work on the few key items and check them off, I know my plan is moving closer to being accomplished. As I say, we all know this, but taking the time to put it in print has been helpful to me. I hope it is also helpful to you.

Have you looked at the plans yet today? Have you established those few items that will make the biggest difference to accomplishing it? Have you determined which alligators you’re going to fight today, and which ones you’re either going to let lie, or pass on to someone else? How we answer these questions will determine whether the end of the day will find us closer to a drained swamp, or just tired.

Here’s to leading better by taking the time to look at the plans–today!

The Big Impact of Little Commitments

I’m in the middle of reading Craig Groeschel’s new book Divine Direction. While I generally wait until I’ve completed a book for writing a post related to it I found one of his illustrations so compelling I thought I would share it today. Here it is: Little acts of discipline make big impacts over time. Groeschel points out that he hates flossing. Nevertheless, he flosses every night. Why? Because that simple, little commitment impacts many others. While he does a bit of exaggerating to make his point, Groescehl lists a string of impacts related to either flossing or not flossing.

He points out that when he flosses before bed it helps him commit to other small, yet important actions, such as getting enough sleep, reading his Bible and praying, and working out regularly. These habits work together to help provide an overall sense of well-being that make him more effective at work, which means he comes home on time in the evening, which means his wife loves him, and that’s why they have six children. You see the exaggeration, and yet his point is important. Flossing is not a fun activity for many of us, but a commitment to do it daily helps to reinforce the truth of the importance of small commitments done over time impacting larger commitments.

I found it hilarious, when Groeschel offered the string of events that came out of his deciding not to floss. After not flossing, he didn’t slip well, which meant he was too tired to get up to read his Bible or work out, which meant he decided to eat junk food through the day, because he wasn’t in good shape anyway. That all let to his not being able to focus at work, so he had to work late. That meant he decided to take a back road which was shorter and speed, in order to get home sooner. On the way a policeman waiting on the road saw the act of speeding and chased Groeschel, who decided to attempt to outrun the officer. This led to a roadblock of four police cars at his house. When he stopped at it the officers arrested him, booked him, took a mug shot of him that was posted all over social media and his life was ruined. Wow! That’s obviously an exaggeration to prove a point but what a point it proves.

The daily habits we develop over time, the small daily habits we develop over time, do contribute to the effectiveness of our leadership over time. If we don’t invest time and commitment to the small matters of life, we often don’t invest the time and commitment needed to succeed in the big ones. Groeschel points out that often when we become aware that we aren’t being effective we commit to several or a half dozen or even ten new habits that will overhaul our effectiveness. He suggest developing one new discipline each year, a small one and only one. He points out that in five years that would be five small habits over a decade ten and over a lifetime enough habits to transform us into the small percentage of folks who actually accomplish the small and big goals of our lives.

As I read Groeschel’s words I was convicted of how many times I have failed in the small disciplines, which have contributed to a lack of effectiveness in many other matters. So, last night I flossed my teeth…

Here’s to leading better by taking the time to act on one, small commitment–today!

Life’s Constant…

It’s been said life’s only constant is change. For leaders that statement is always true. Whether the changes are personal, or in the marketplace, or among the personnel with whom we work, changes are the constant. How do we lead most effectively in the midst of change? The short answer is we do the best we can to anticipate the big ones, and make the most of the every day blips on the radar screen so we can ride the tide of change rather than being drowned by it. Here at New Life we’ve been experiencing  nearly exponential change over the past several years. With the rapid growth of the church has come constant change. I mentioned to a staff member today that having tripled in size in just a few years has made it more than three times the challenge to lead. He looked at me and agreed immediately.

How have the changes you’ve experienced impacted your leadership? What have you changed in order to address the changes around you? I’ve found it necessary to lead from “farther away.” In other words, I used to lead people directly. I was engaged in youth ministry. I made many pastoral calls. Now, we have a youth ministry and a care ministry. I get to watch others lead, and even our youth pastor is often leading from a distance, as he and others on his team have equipped others to lead the small groups and do the hands on ministry. That means I’m two or three people away from the young person who is receiving ministry. At times I really miss the “good old days.” Then I remember how few people we were impacting in those days, and that having the opportunity to serve so many more people in Jesus’ name is a great blessing. It’s a massive change, but the change is for the better.

As leaders, we need to know when change is good for the organization and when it isn’t. After all, not all change is because we are moving forward, or growing healthier. We need to see when what looks like growth may be disease. After all, cancer grows rapidly in many cases, and brings change to a person’s body, but seldom is that change good for the body. Leading change can be like herding cats, but it can also be exhilarating. Many times which it is depends on the attitude we take toward it. Once we’ve identified that change is either positive or benign, we can flow with it and make choices that will keep us moving in the right direction. When we recognize the change as harmful, we must act quickly, because just as a rising tide lifts all the ships, it can also flood all the ports.

Leading is always a risky matter, and seldom one in which we have absolute clarity. The rate of change has accelerated throughout my lifetime to such a degree that the concept of ten year planning, or even five year planning is hard to imagine. We set a course and sail in the direction we see as being true, then we adjust as the various aspects of change come at us. I’m not saying truth changes, although many would say precisely that. I’m saying the truth stands as the foundation in a constantly shifting world, and out of that truth we make constant adjustments, not to the truth, but the circumstances we face. As I’ve often heard it said, “Our message doesn’t change, but our methods must change constantly. Otherwise, we find ourselves leading from truths that are still true, but take us where we want to go.

The key is always to remember what our “product” is and then change the preparation, production and delivery methods to address the changes around us. Our approach is so important when it comes to leadership, because if we are unwilling to change our approach, then we will miss the opportunity to lead. After all, if no one hears us because of how we speak, or no one follows us, because of the way we lead, then we have ceased being leaders. At the end of the day, one size never fits all when it comes to leadership. What methods have you been using that don’t seem to be getting results any longer? Where do you need to change to address the change all around you? What truth anchors you amidst the storms of change? These are the questions we must not only ask, but answer all the time if we are to meet the changes around us and continue to lead through them.

Here’s to leading better, by adjusting to change–today!

Failing to Plan…

As either Ben Franklin, or Robert Schuller or someone has said, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Over the weekend, I sat down for my weekly review and I realized that while 2017 is off to one of the best starts ever when it comes to what I’m accomplishing that matters as a leader, my biggest weakness is still planning. I have been through most of Michael Hyatt’s material, which I recommend fully, and yet the challenge for me is still to take the time each day to plan my work and work my plan. My morning routine has become established in nearly every area, but the area of planning the day. I start with prayer, Bible reading and exercise. Then when I ought to move to planning, something happens: my thought is what happens is I decide I “know” what I’m going to do today so I don’t need to plan.

The truth is I do know what I’m going to do most days, and yet knowing what I’m going to do and setting forth a plan to do it can be the difference between the knowing and the doing for me. When I have my planner in front of me and I set for the three things I’m going to do in a given day, the likelihood I will accomplish those three tasks is much higher, but there’s something even more important that I miss when I don’t get out the planner: I connect those three tasks to the goals on which they’re based. The reason you and I need to plan daily is to ensure what we do ties in to our over all goals for the day, week, month and year.

When Ben or Robert or whoever it was said, “Failing to plan is planning to fail,” the idea my have simply been to have a to do list for the day in order to accomplish more work, but it likely meant much more. Not only do we need a plan for the day, but a plan for the week, month, year and for our lives. That’s what moves us beyond time management to life management. That’s where failing to plan is truly planning to fail. I will certainly accomplish something today, whether I take the plan or not, but will I accomplish the few things that will leverage my leadership to the highest degree possible? That’s the question each of us as leaders need to ask ourselves before we plunge into a day without an effective plan. Yes, we are all “busy,” but busy with what?

As I’ve written so often here, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” We may live unexamined lives in many different ways. One of them is to go through a “full” day knocking items off our to do list, which may be a real or imagined list, and then discovering after weeks, or months of such activity, we have done a lot, but our leadership isn’t more effective and our organization isn’t farther along the path of becoming what it was created to be and do. Activity is no assurance of productivity. That’s why we need a plan for the day, week, month, year and for our lives. I’m writing this as much to remind myself as to remind you.

Here’s to leading better by taking the time to have a plan not only for today but for our lives–today!

What I Would Tell My Twenty Year Old Self – Part 3

In concluding our three part series on What I Would Tell My Twenty Year Old Self when it comes to leadership, I would tell myself, “Wherever you are, be all there!” I don’t remember who made this point to me a number of years ago, but it’s one I wish I had learned in my twenties. The point is if I am with my wife, I need to be with my wife. In that moment, I can’t be attending to something from work, or thinking about a personal development plan, or anything and do justice to that moment. With the advent of instant access social media, this idea of being all there is even more challenging, and perhaps even more necessary.

How many times have you attended a meeting and as someone is giving their presentation, a person or two, or even you are looking at the portable device on your lap for some information, or at a text? It’s impossible to fully attend what someone is saying or demonstrating while dividing our attention with a mobile device. While the human mind is amazing and can process information 2-3 times faster than another human can speak, thus always allowing for extra thinking while we are listening to someone also, if we are all there, we are using that extra time to formulate thoughts about the comments of the person, whether agreement or challenge or whatever. The truth is a timely placed question or challenge of a fact, offered appropriately, after someone has presented information honors them by showing we were fully in that moment with them.

Great leaders are the best multi-tackers, they are the best at affirming the value of those around the whether co-workers, fellow managers or leaders, family members or whomever. Giving our full attention to someone is one of the single, best ways to show them honor and that we value them. When we are all there with the a person in whatever situation it may be, it permits us to gain the best information, which every leader needs to make decisions; to give the highest value to the other, which every leader needs in order to develop the strongest relationships with them; and to make the best use of time, because we don’t have to go back and fill in blanks from the aspects of the conversation we missed because we weren’t fully attending to it.

While it may seem a minor matter to “be all there,” I have found it to be one of the most helpful aspects of any day in which I succeed in doing it. By being all there, wherever “there” may be, I enjoy those moments most, lead most effectively, and ultimately gain the most value from the time. One final thought: if you cannot “be all there” in a given situation, is it a place you ought to be in that moment? In other words, if you are distracted while being in a meeting, if something is so urgent or important in that moment that you are “somewhere else,” perhaps you need to be in that other place. What I’m saying is sometimes when we practice the habit of being all there over time, it helps us to set our priorities. If the person texting us is truly more important to our leadership in that moment than the meeting we’re sitting through, then we need to leave the meeting and get in front of that other person. Otherwise, we need to put away the electronic device and be all there, wherever there may be.

Here’s to leading better by being all there–today!

What I Would Tell My Twenty Year Old Self – Part 2

In continuing this week’s focus on what I would tell my twenty year old self about leadership, if I had the opportunity to go back and do it all again, today’s point is: Whatever You Are–Be All In! As a follower of Jesus, I’m reminded that in the Book of Revelation, Jesus told a church located in the city of Laodicea He preferred they would be either hot or cold, but because they were lukewarm and neither hot nor cold He was going to spit them out of His mouth. What a clear reminder Jesus offered: Go all in or be all out, but don’t go halfway.

I’m reminded of the saying I learned from many years of working with folks in recovery from alcohol and other drug addiction: Half measures availed nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon. Halfway doesn’t get us there. Half in doesn’t move us to action. We must make a full commitment as leaders in order to be taken seriously and in order to move others to action. I’m not talking about passion alone, but I am talking about passion. Our hearts have to be motivated if our heads and bodies are to follow. That’s true of others’ heads and bodies as well.

Last night I had the opportunity to speak at the leadership academy of a larger church in the area. Over the past couple weeks, as I thought and prayed about what to say in a two hour talk, which would likely be a once in a lifetime opportunity, what would be the most helpful thing I could say? I made three points and the first one was be all in. I realized with the opportunity to speak to younger leaders, the question of what I would tell my twenty year old self was extremely relevant. They were for the most part twenty and thirty year olds. Therefore, my opportunity was to help them include intentionality in their leadership that I had sometimes missed. Being all in with what we are is so important.

What I missed when I was going through my twenties was a 100% all in commitment to being a pastor. I came to the ministry grudgingly. I didn’t want to be a pastor, but God called me to it. I said, “Yes,” to the call after five years of seeking to avoid it during my late teens and early twenties. Instead of embracing the vocation fully, I sort of half raised my hand in saying, “Yes.” I went to seminary, and did better than average, but not my best. I worked in a couple of churches as a student pastor and exceeded the churches’ expectations, but not my own. I was always wondering whether there was another opportunity, a better opportunity.

I realize you may not be a pastor, but if you’re a leader you can certainly identify with the idea of being all in or not in what you are, and I make a point of saying what you are rather than just what you do, because while leadership is something we do, being a leader is what we are. You may be a CEO or a teacher, or a parent, and those are all tasks we do, but they are something we are, before they are something we do, at least they ought to be if we’re all in. If I had it all to do over again, if I could go back to my twenties and relive that decade, I would be all in. What a difference it would have made if I had woken up daily and taken discipline seriously every day (see yesterday’s post), and jumped into being a pastor with both feet rather than wondering whether I ought to have been a lawyer or a chiropractor or a doctor or a… so many other possibilities.

I’m not saying that in the best of scenarios we don’t at times think about the grass being greener on the other side of the fence. I’m saying if we invest our lives leading on the side of the fence we find ourselves, we will be so much more productive, effective and at the end of the day so much happier. I’ve always experienced happiness as a by-product rather than a destination. I find myself being happy when I’m all in with just about anything. Whether it’s my work, or a relationship, or even watching a television program investing myself fully makes the experience more enjoyable and I feel happier as a result.

So what about you? Are you all in right now in whatever area or areas you lead? Do you wake up fully invested in whatever it is you are called or have chosen to be? What single step would it take for you to be more fully invested, to be all in? These are vital questions, because while we don’t get to be our twenty year old self again, unless you happen to be in your twenties right now, we can be the best self we are right now, by being all in. If we can’t be all in then we ought to get out and jump into something else. I know that’s a post for another day, but the one action that has made the biggest difference in my being all in was to take a great step of faith (which some would call a great step of stupid) and leave a comfortable position with an assured future to step out in total uncertainty to follow what I was sure God was calling me to do, and to do it at the age of 41 when I had the responsibility of a wife and young family in addition to myself.

Being all in isn’t always a safe situation, but it provides motivation, clarity and a call to action that being lukewarm will never provide. If your leadership is in a rut, perhaps it’s time to ask yourself some of the tough questions in the previous paragraph and get back to being all in.

Here’s to leading better by being all in–today!

What I Would Tell My Twenty Year Old Self – Part 1

In their podcast on leadership titled 5 Leadership Questions Barnabas Piper and Todd Adkins interviewed leaders across the spectrum of life and asked them five different questions listeners would find helpful. One of those questions was usually: What would you tell your twenty year old self? Being that I will be turning 60 in June, the Lord willing, I have been asking myself that question often. This week I’m going to address three responses to the question. Here’s the first and most important: I would tell my twenty year old self to take discipline seriously daily.

Taking discipline seriously daily includes making discipline a central reality in one’s daily life. I have always taken discipline seriously, at least since I started playing organized sports. In order to become good at anything requires discipline. While dictionary definitions of discipline include punishment, instruction, a field of study, training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character, control gained by enforcing behavior or order, self-control and more, a simple and helpful definition of discipline as I’m using it here is any practice, repeated consistently, which brings mastery in an area of life. I learned discipline in organized sports because I wanted to be able to catch a fly ball, make a foul shot, carry a football without fumbling and so on. I practiced the same action over and over and over again in each sport so it would become “natural.” Isn’t that an interesting idea: practicing something that is unnatural at first so that over time it becomes natural?

In leadership discipline is essential. So many thoughts, actions and habits of a leader start out being unnatural, but must become natural if a leader is to become great. For example, every leader must learn to care more about the mission or vision of the organization than about people’s opinions. This is not natural, particularly if we happen to be extroverts who want to have lots of friends. Yet, if we don’t learn to be guided by the mission of the organization, if we don’t discipline ourselves to that end, we will find ourselves drifting away from what is necessary to what is popular.

The key point I would make to my twenty year old self is discipline isn’t a habit to be picked up when it’s comfortable, or when there’s time, or if it fits into the newest season of my life with ease. Discipline must be practiced daily. I have never had trouble with discipline in any area of my life for a moment, or a week, or even for weeks. I have always taken discipline seriously, because I have recognized without discipline I will never make the unnatural natural in my life. Where I have fallen down over and over again when it comes to discipline is the daily aspect. All too often my pattern has been to achieve “mastery” in an area of life and then to assume that because it has become natural discipline is no longer necessary or at the very least I can slack off on my discipline in this area.

If we go back to the sports analogy, I mastered catching a baseball quite early. By the time I was eight years old, I could go to the practice of my brother, Tom’s team–he was fourteen years older than I and played on an adult team– go to the outfield and shag fly balls during batting practice with extreme skill for an eight year old. While many of Tom’s teammates would at first shout, “Get that little kid off the field.” Within a few minutes they would see that not only would I not get hurt by getting hit by a batted ball, I would catch anything that was hit near me. I was quite good for my age.

Quite good for my age. That’s a dangerous place to be for any of us, especially if we’re leaders. We can rely on our natural abilities, or our developed abilities instead of continuing to discipline ourselves and continuing to grow in our abilities. I was so good at the age of eight, I decided I was going to be the left fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates when I was an adult. It was a lofty aspiration. I don’t know whether it was something that could ever have become a reality. I do know this: I didn’t take discipline seriously daily in a way that would have given me the best opportunity to find out. While I would play baseball “often” during the summer months, I didn’t practice daily. I liked water skiing, and swimming, and exploring in the forest behind my house, and you get the idea. Every day was an adventure and every day was fun growing up in the little town of Gipsy, PA, but every day was not disciplined.

If you’re thinking, “Of course every day was not disciplined,” you’re missing the point: In order to excel over time in any area of life, we must discipline ourselves daily. I found out at the age of seventeen I couldn’t hit a ninety mile per hour fastball, and my hopes of playing left field for the Pirates were dashed. I didn’t go to a batting cage and practice daily to see whether I had the skill to hit a ninety mile per hour fastball over time. I faced one pitcher who threw the ball ninety miles per hour, failed miserably, and assumed there must be other ways to fulfill my dreams. That assumption has proven correct, but time and time again, I have failed to exercise the daily discipline that would have seen me become more effective in whatever area expertise I chose.

What area is your chosen area of expertise? As a leader what are the disciplines you must have in order to make unnatural aspects of your life natural, and equally as important to make the areas where you have always been a natural or have practiced to the point that something has become natural better? There was once a commercial emphasis the importance of diligent practice, and I have forgotten the originator of the commercial but the point has stay with me. The commercial showed an NFL receiver practicing a single pattern over and over again. At the end the narrator said, “The difference between an amateur and a professional is the amateur practices until he gets it right. The professional practices until he can’t get it wrong. That’s taken discipline seriously daily.

When you and I will do that in the key areas of our leadership, our leadership will be as effective as it can be. Then we keep practicing an it gets better! I would tell my twenty year old self to determine what is essential in my life and to practice those essentials daily, to tailor my schedule to those matters, to put them in the schedule first so the non-essentials couldn’t take up so much time. I’m not crying over spilled milk. I’m reminding myself that with whatever time I have left, and it could be much time or little, the practice of taking discipline seriously daily will allow me to continue to become a more effective leader. I’m also encouraging those of you who are in your twenties, thirties and beyond to take discipline seriously daily now, because as you do, you will become the best leader you can be over time. Your leadership will grow more and more effective. Your value will increase to yourself, to others around you and to your organization. It’s a simple matter, so simple, but not so easy to do.

Here’s to leading better by taking discipline seriously daily–starting today!