good2great

In November I visited London for the day, to meet with a guy from Kensington YFC (a.k.a. Oxygen).

It was a really great day, not only cos I got to go to london for the first time in ages, but also because I learned a lot from our meeting.

I won't go into huge detail here, but one key moment was a visit to the Tate Modern and a wander round the fairly recent installation by dominique gonzalez. It really helped me to think about using time and space creatively.

It's so easy to get bogged down by what's directly in front of you in the day to day work of a YFC centre, which is why I guess it's important for me to take reqular time to get further away and a totally different perspective on what's happeneing.

Anyway, more on that soon (hopefully).

During my time with YFC in North Staffs we experienced a whole load of "wilderness" time, especially around the transition from one director to another. It seemed to last forever, not really knowing what direction we were headed, but being aware that things were definately going through a change process but not knowing exactly what the change would be, or where it would take us as an organisation.

So starting in this new role at Cov YFC, I've always known there would be a wilderness time in the whole transition process, and although I decided to ask loads of "why" questions about the organisation whilst letting "business" happen as usual (as possible, anyway), I also decided that the "wilderness" needed to be as comfortable and SHORT as possible.

However, just over a month into the role, I'm starting to see similar patterns emerging as happened in North Staffs.

I know that I'm asking a lot of questions about the place, (yet it seems maybe not enough), but there seem to be a certain lack in people with answers. Don't get me wrong - the team, the exec, the people I've met around cov, they're all great, and I absolutely love the role (there really is so much potential and eagerness in people for God to do some cool things), so I guess it must come down to communication.

The team need to know what I'm here for (I think they do, but want to get out of this wilderness thing - or maybe just get used to things being "not the same") and more importantly, I probably need to find out exactly what the exec think I'm here for, cos if there are crossed wires on any of that core stuff, then problems may well be in the near future.

Anyway, hopefully a few meetings tomorrow will shed a bit more light on this whole area.

UNITY has to be the top priority - but unity requires a certain amount of shared sense of purpose.

More soon

Well, tomorrow sees the last of my journeys up to the north of England for the MLS gatherings. It will be a sad time, saying bye to some really good comrades and friends, but I guess it's really just another landmark along this long winding road towards leadership.

As part of the MLS course it's been suggested that I write a short letter summary of the key lessons I've learned throughout the last 12 months of the course. So here goes...

1. Leadership isn't about status.

            Being a good leader is about having the ability to inspire and motivate people, to spot and release potential in individuals and to do all that you can to ensure that your "workforce" are well supported and fully equipped to carry out the work that has been set for them to achieve for the greater good of an organisation. Jim Collins, in his book "Good to Great" refers to this as "the window and the mirror paradigm" - A good leader looks at himself when faced with failure, but looks to others to apportion credit for successes.

2. Leadership isn't primarily about quantifiable results.

Being a leader involves putting emphasis on "people" rather than "results". Results are obviously an important part of leadership, but long term results rely on the "health" of an organisation. Recruiting, Investing in and releasing "team" seems to be the key to the long term effectiveness of most leaders. "Every leadership decision you will ever face will be about people and relationships" - Roy Crowne (so it must be true!!)

3. Leadership isn't always about being at the front.

I loved the suggestion in the book "Lead like Jesus" that leadership requires work at both ends of the spectrum - spearheading vision and direction for an organisation, then empowering team to achieve that vision by getting "behind" them and supporting them in any way you can - giving them the authority to lead and make decisions.

I guess the biggest lesson I've learned on the MLS course though, is that there's no such thing as the "perfect leader". Leadership is a personal thing with no clearly defined goalposts or personal specification. And that leadership style will look different for everyone. Obviously there will be similarities in leadership styles, but I think the biggest danger is that as a leader one sees others who show some similar facets of leadership style and therefore tries to replicate everything that that leader does, rather than recognising that the similarity is only one small part of a possibly very different personal leadership portfolio.

In short, the MLS course has challenged me to not put this whole area of leadership in a specific "box", but to constantly challenge my ideas (and those of others) about leadership style and effectiveness. I've also had a complete 180 degree experience regarding the "leaders are readers" debate. I always thought that if that we're true I would never be a great leader, but I now agree 100% and am really excited to get into any book I can find on the whole area of leadership. And finally, I've realised the importance of not just looking at leaders in awe, but grabbing every opportunity to talk with them, ask good (and hard) questions, and be prepared to have a mashed brain for days afterwards.

I'm really excited about my future in leadership, finally accepting that maybe God HAS placed a leadership calling on my life and slowly developing the confidence to get out there and lead!! I can honestly say that this course will go down as one of the key defining moments in my ministry. 

Thanks to everyone for their input throughout the year. I've really appreciated having people around me to bounce ideas off and challenge my concepts on this whole area of leadership. It's been an amazing ride.

And that's just the beginning...

Our team training at NSYFC today was led by Roy Crowne who'd come up to stoke to speak about "passion" (the attidtude/emotion, not the film or youth worship event).

Now, discover your strengths is a book that I was given when I applied for the directors role @ NSYFC.

I was asked to complete the "strengths finder" online test to find out what my major areas of strength were, and I have to say it was quite acurate. I obviously read the sections of the book about the strengths that it claimed that i possessed, but since then it has sat on my bookshelf gathering dust.

Now, whilst at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit in October, Markus Buckingham (the author) did a session based on the findings of this book, and it really got me excited, so I've decided to dust down my copy and read it as my next book assignment. Should be interesting.

I'm also hoping to revisit the whole online test thing, as I reckon that the strengths I thought I had 3 years ago are probably quite different to the ones I have now. Anyway, I hope I haven't given too much away about the book in this entry, cos I'm really quite excited to see how my reading goes, and whether I come across anything I didn't expect.

Keep watching.

It appears that whilst attempting to lead like Jesus, I accidentally forgot to publish the review of the book of the same name.

So how did this happen? Well, I finished it on Tuesday, literally minutes before going to collect a friend from the station, and somehow managed to save the review as a draft rather than as a published item.

I've now corrected this error, and the full book review can be found, two entries down from this one.

Oooops!!

(moral to this story: look in the mirror when apportioning blame, but look at your watch if you're supposed to be collecting someone from the train station!!)

Every time I head up to the North East for an MLS gathering, I know that I'm going to come back buzzing from the great teaching we all receive. And this week was no exception. Having read books like Good to Great, it's really amazing to hear leaders speak of their experience of the practical workings-out of some of the concepts I've been reading about - especially the whole area of getting the right people onto into your team, and (just as importantly) getting the wrong people out, and without breaking employment law.

With regard to my leadership development, I'm becoming increasingly aware that Leadership (and especially equiping, inspiring and releasing TEAM) is a real passion I have, and yet the one thing that I done far less of since joining NSYFC . So now I'm quite keen to sit down and talk through this exact issue with Liz (my boss) and see where we go next.

I think for me though, the key "nugget" from the MLS sessions this week was a small comment about investing in things outside of work that will keep you feeling alive and invigorated.

There's an amazing quote from a guy called Dallas Willard which is so useful. He says:

"It is the clear mandate of every Christ follower to carve out for themselves a fully satisfying life under the rule of God, or else sin will ruin you."

I'm very aware that over the last few years I've invested loads of time in learning LOTS of new skills, and taken on various new interests, and figured it was because I loved "learning" suff, and although that is true, maybe I need to find the one thing that I can really invest in, not as a "skill" but as an "escape" for refreshment. I have a tendency to (when I can afford to) buy lots of small things to keep me interested (& interesting), but maybe working through this whole area, I may actually find the one thing that I can invest in more long term.

This year so far really has been a time of re-discovering who I am - with a view to, at some point, working out "what I should DO". I've always tried to tackle those 2 questions the other way round, and worked out my identity from the my work role. It's a flippin scarey way to do things this way, but it's sooo the right way to start looking at stuff.

As usual, watch this space...