The Top 10 Leadership Qualities

I really enjoyed this article written by David Hakala for HR World. Some qualities were obvious while others exposed some of my flaws. Below is a summary of the article. If you want to read the entire article, click here.

Leadership can be defined as one's ability to get others to willingly follow. Leaders can be found and nurtured if you look for the following character traits.

Vision - A leader with vision has a clear, vivid picture of where to go. A good leader must have the discipline to work toward his or her vision single-mindedly, as well as to direct his or her actions and those of the team toward the goal. Action is the mark of a leader.

Integrity - Honest dealings, predictable reactions, well-controlled emotions, and an absence of tantrums and harsh outbursts are all signs of integrity. A leader who is centered in integrity will be more approachable by followers.

Dedication - By setting an excellent example, leaders can show followers that there are no nine-to-five jobs on the team, only opportunities to achieve something great.

Magnanimity - Magnanimity means giving credit where it is due. To spread the fame and take the blame is a hallmark of effective leadership.

Humility - A humble leader is not self-effacing but rather tries to elevate everyone.

Openness - Openness means being able to listen to new ideas, even if they do not conform to the usual way of thinking.
Creativity is the ability to think differently, to get outside of the box that constrains solutions. The most important question that a leader can ask is, “What if … ?”

Fairness - Fairness means dealing with others consistently and justly.

Assertiveness - Assertiveness is not the same as aggressiveness. Rather, it is the ability to clearly state what one expects so that there will be no misunderstandings.

How to Change the Name of Your Church?

When a church is launched, there are many choices that have to be made just to get the ball rolling? One of those things is the church name. It’s difficult to fully understand what your church personality will be when you have no members yet. Picking a name can sometimes be like picking it out of a hat. Our church started with a generic name that we later found out that 5 other churches had in our community. That makes it very difficult to explain to people in your community which one of the 5 churches you attend. We also didn’t feel it was very reflective of the church. With this in mind, we announced last month that we will be changing our name from Olathe Life Fellowship to Mercy Church. Here are some things to consider when changing the name of your church:

1. Get your people used to the idea that change within our culture and within organizations is inevitable. Read “Who Moved My Cheese” by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard.
2. Get your people anticipating some exciting news.
3. Only include key decision makers in your name ideas. Voting always alienates someone.
4. Pick a cool name that fits your church.
5. Give your church a transition period for everyone to get used to the name. We will have a 4 month transition.
6. Make sure the logo is cool. See my previous post on this.
7. Ask other churches how they changed their name. Here's a blog post from Gary Lamb when they changed the name of their church.
8. Just do it.

What Do You Want Your Life to Be Known For?

A friend and I are leading a small group at our church on the book Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. This is the 3rd time I have read the book, but I am always reminded of something I'm still not doing. So many things to learn, so little time. The question "What is your purpose in life?" seemed like an important question to answer but I had never put it into words. One rainy morning last weekend, the words came to me while playing with my 6 month-old. I want to simply be a steward of God's wisdom. I am fine with that being the only thing on my tombstone. I'm ok with not impacting India like Mother Theresa. I'm ok with not being an evangelist like Billy Graham. Have you put your life's purpose into words? What do you want your life to be known for?

Making Church Conferences Worth the Time and Money

Have you ever had a church staff member go to a conference and wonder what value the church got out of it? I’m sure it was an energizing and motivating experience with great content, but when you look at the time away from church, the $300 registration fee, the $300 airline ticket, the $400 in hotel and food, it’s easy to start questioning if this is the best use of money and time. You might also feel that way when you attend a conference. Conferences can be pivotal moments in someone’s life and in your church’s effectiveness. Here are some ways to harness the ideas and experience of a conference that will make it worth the time and money:

1. Before someone attends a conference, schedule a meeting with them to discuss what they hope to learn. Have each person email you their notes from this discussion.
2. Immediately after a conference, schedule a meeting with everyone that went to discuss together what they learned. Ask probing questions.
3. Schedule a meeting individually with the attendees. Ask them what they are going to apply to their life and their ministry.
4. Work with them to turn those things into SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Resources Needed, Time Bound)
5. Meet regularly with each person to track their progress.

Here are 2 conferences that will be worth your time:
Willowcreek Leadership Summit
Catalyst Conference

Lessons for Life's Adventure

Last weekend I took my 7 year old son on a camping excursion we call "Man Camp." It's a great time to spend quality time with him. He thoroughly enjoyed hiking, carving with his pocket knife, cooking hot dogs and discovering new things. As part of my desire to strategically mentor him into a young man, I gave him a journal with personal letters to him from his grandfathers and great-grandfathers. All are Christians. What a legacy! Since we hiked 3 miles along the Lewis and Clark trail, I wrote a summary of their adventure and what we can learn from it:

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Many years ago, Meriwether Lewis was given a challenge by Thomas Jefferson, the President of the United States. The challenge was to explore the unknown land west of the Mississippi River. They did not know what undiscovered treasures or dangers he would find. Meriwether Lewis knew he needed help for such a journey, so he asked his friend William Clark to join him. Lewis and Clark also knew that they needed some experts and advisors on their trip in order to make it to their destination. They hired boating experts, language experts, trail experts, hunting experts and knowledgeable advisors that had been on previous explorations.

Lewis and Clark led this team on their famous journey from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean with only boats and horses into uncharted territory. Even though they were uncertain what they would find, they had courage and experienced many wonderful adventures. They discovered beautiful mountains and rivers. They saw plants and animals they had never seen before. They also met a lot of interesting Native Americans who helped them during their journey. The explorers had some bad times, too. Grizzly Bears chased them and snakes almost bit them. They were often tired and hungry. No matter how bad their troubles were, however, they never gave up.

We can learn many things from Lewis and Clark. Here are some things I learned.

Challenge
Just like President Jefferson challenged Meriwether Lewis, we need people in our lives to challenge us. What challenges have people given you?

Friends
Meriwether Lewis knew he needed help on his journey in order to make it to his destination. We also need friends in our lives to help us on our journeys. Friends will significantly impact our lives and potentially determine if we make it to our destination. Who are your friends that help you in life and not hinder you?

Advisors
Since their is no way we can know everything, we need advisors to help us. Lewis and Clark realized the importance of advisors which is why they brought along many experts on their expedition. Getting to know new people and reading will help us find advisors for our life. Advisors help us make smart decisions to determine the direction we should go. This is important in our life because today's direction will determine tomorrow's destination. Who are your advisors?

Never Give Up
Even though challenges can be difficult, never give up. When you give up, you miss out on discovering the treasure at the end of every challenge. It might only take one more try to achieve your goal. Lewis and Clark never gave up even when they felt like it. What are times when you wanted to give up but you didn't?

Leadership
Leadership is guiding others towards a common goal. Leadership takes courage to do what is right and passionately committing yourself to the goal. Lewis and Clark led their team into the unknown. Due to their leadership, no one on their team gave up until they reached their destination and accomplished their goal. What are some adventures you would like to lead people on?

Writer's Block is a Lack of Learning

As you may have realized, I have not posted for awhile. I could tell you that I've had a busy summer...which is true. But that's not the entire truth. It's mostly due to the fact that I have not read much this summer. If I wanted to sound spiritual, I could say that I was fasting from books, but that's not really true (and would actually be kind of stupid).

The truth is I just was not engaged in any learning experiences (until the Willowcreek Leadership Summit last week). Having no new ideas is just due to not stretching yourself. Having no new ideas is not having relationships that are stretching you. Having no new ideas being too comfortable in your routine. One new idea could change your church. One new idea could inspire a book. One new idea could transform someone's life. Here are some suggestions that could inspire new ideas in your life:

1. Read a book that you might disagree with.
2. Drive a completely different way to work.
3. Ask someone with a different viewpoint from you what they believe.

How Do You Become a Great Leader?

My son, Kaden, and I have been in Tae Kwon Do for over a year now. We just received our brown belt today. It's been a positive journey for us. It is a great opportunity for Kaden and I to spend quality time together while staying fit and learning martial arts. Not only have we been learning martial arts, but the instructor reinforces character and leadership principles. Here are some questions from Kaden's Brown Belt curriculum:

1. What is a leader? Someone who guides others towards a goal.

2. How do you become a great leader? Put others first, respect others, and have courage for what is right.

3. What does courage mean? To not give up even if something is difficult or uncomfortable.

I love the simplicity and profoundness of the answers. I've struggled with putting others first as my leadership influence has increased at work and church. It's easy for leadership confidence to turn into condescending leadership.

"The Best Advice I Ever Got"

Learning something from people I respect has impacted my life significantly. In the May 12, 2008 issue of Fortune Magazine, 19 accomplished people tell us the best advice they ever got. Think of ways you can apply this to your church and your personal life.

Indra Nooyi (Chairman and CEO of Pepsico) – “Whatever anybody says or does, assume positive intent. You will be amazed at how your whole approach to a person or problem becomes very different.”

Michael Bloomberg (Mayor of New York City and Founder of Bloomberg) – “The worst advice that people can take is to react before they’ve had a chance to think. I think we all say things and wish we hadn’t said them.”

Sam Palmisano (Chairman and CEO of IBM) – I’ve noticed that some of the most effective leaders don’t make themselves the center of attention. They are respectful. They listen. This is an appealing personal quality, but it’s also an effective leadership attribute. Their selflessness makes the people around them comfortable. People open up, speak up, and contribute. They give those leaders their very best.”

Thomas S. Murphy (Former CEO of Captial Cities/ABC) – “Benjamin Selekman [Harvard Business School Professor] told me ‘Don’t spend your time on things you can’t control. Instead, spend your time thinking about what you can.’”

Craig Newmark (Founder of Craigslist) – “Aside from my technical knowledge, my sense of humor was my saving grace.”

Peter G. Peterson (Co-founder of Blackstone Group) – “Focus on those things you do better than others.”

What was the best advice that you ever got? It would be great if you could post that in the comments section.

A Built to Last Marriage

After reading “Good to Great” by Jim Collins, I was amazed how long it takes to build a great company. Kroger, one of the companies that analyzed in the book, was around 100 years old. It often took at least 5 to 10 years of doing the right things in companies before the results were realized. Greatness takes time. Greatness takes patience.

The same principle also applies to marriage. A marriage grows greater by doing rights things over a long period of time. Karol and I are celebrating our 10th Anniversary on Friday. Ten years sounds like a long time but it has gone too quickly. We truly enjoy ourselves and our relationship (plus we’re madly in love with each other). A great marriage is enjoyable. A terrible marriage is miserable. Making improvements in your relationship and investing towards a better marriage over 10 years pays dividends.

Here are some recent purchases I made to make my wife’s life easier and more enjoyable:

A 2004 Honda Odyssey minivan with easy entry for 3 kids: $12,000

Playground which provides endless hours of entertainment for the kids: $1,600

Gym membership for Karol and kids to have fun during the day: $130 per month


Blackberry phone with Bluetooth for hands-free talking when you’re herding 3 kids: $80


A happy wife: priceless.

Door-to-Door Evangelism Exposed

Do you think that Christians can be hypocritical in their evangelism methods? If you do not understand what I’m getting at, here’s a true story to help explain. As you know, I work for a Fortune 500 company that sells and services products for businesses. I noticed we lost a product opportunity at a large church in the Kansas City area. The explanation intrigued me so I asked the sales rep what the story was. He half-smiled with a touch of disgust as he recounted the experience with this church. This is what I found out:

Our customer contact at the church is frequently involved in door-to-door evangelism. On one occasion, he knocked on the door of one of our team members at work. This ended in our team member asking the church staff member to leave - followed by a cuss word. When that church was experiencing some problems with the product they bought from us, we called in a specialist to fix the problem. This is when two worlds collide. The specialist was the cussing neighbor. The customer contact was the door-to-door evangelist. The customer contact at the church became very difficult to work with and ended up asking us to never come back. He paid tens of thousands of dollars to end the church’s contract with us.

Is door-to-door evangelism a one way street? Do you think this made a positive impression of Christians on my team members? When the church staff member became difficult to deal with, did that just reaffirm the others feelings about church people? If the church staff member would have joked with the specialist about their previous encounter at his doorstep, would that have disarmed any hard feelings and opened him up a little more to the gospel? What would you do in that situation?

The Hidden Struggle of Young Leaders

As a young leader in the business world and the church, I can get frustrated easily. I see things that are broken and I rush to fix them. When I see too many broken things, I want to give up. This is a common. Many people struggle with this feeling and some people give up. Why does this happen?

As I was listening to an interview with Dave Ramsey on the Catalyst podcast, he answered this question for me. God has probably been trying to tell me this for years though! Here’s a paraphrase of what Dave said:

“Young leaders don’t lack energy, talent, motivation, focus or skills. The number 1 thing they lack is patience. They lack the mentality that ‘this too shall pass.’ This will work itself out. We don’t have to fix everything right now. We will get to our goals, but not immediately. I would tell them it took us 15 years to get where we are now so we won’t fix all our problems overnight. We’ve seen a lot of team members come and go. Young leaders would come to me all frazzled that a key member of their team just quit and they didn’t know how their team would survive. I would tell them to give it a couple weeks and it would work itself out. Churches will also deal with drama around church members and volunteers. It will work itself out. Have patience.”

The hidden struggle of young leaders is patience. That was eye opening to me. I don’t have patience. I want everything to be amazing today. I want a 20% pay increase every year. I want our church to experience the same growth pattern as Rob Bell’s church. However, what I need to do is slow down and experience God’s patience in my life.

Good to Great companies were not built in a day or a year or a decade. The “get-rich-quick” mentality glamorized by dot com, network marketing and real estate are just bubbles and eventually crater. God has seen it all and he is not shaken. “There is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) Click here for some other bible verses on patience. How have you learned to have patience in leadership?

The Right Way to Get Engaged

How many of you experienced mind mush when you got engaged? I know I did. I barely got the blanket down on the ground for our picnic before I dropped to a knee and blurted out "will you marry me?" It was a wonderful experience none the less and I will cherish that moment more each day.

Last night my sister, Angelee, said "yes" to the man of her dreams. She barely remembers what Jon was asking before she said "yes, yes, yes." The world was spinning. She had found her "forever" friend.

Jon is one of the most sincere and caring guys I have met. He did not take this lightly. He carefully sought God's wisdom in choosing the right mate for many years. He diligently planned and prepared for this life event. He rehearsed his speeches over and over again to avoid any communication blunders. In the end, everything went flawlessly.

This morning I received a phone call from Angelee at 6:30am her time. She hadn't slept all night. She was excited. Yesterday was the day she said "yes" to the life-altering question. How could she sleep? What an exciting time in their life! I'm so proud of them and I'm honored to have this man in the family. Jongelee, as they are affectionately known as by their friends, couldn't be a better match. I hope they cherish this moment forever.

The Answer is in the Question

"It is much harder to ask the right question than it is to find the right answer to the wrong question." - E.E. Morison of MIT

What things are making you pull your hair out? Are you asking the wrong question?

My One Year Anniversery

As of today, I have been blogging for 1 year. Yes, I’m still in diapers…figuratively. It’s been a great experience so far. It takes a small amount of time to post once a week and it validates all of the day dreaming I do. If my wife catches me in a blank stare, I can say that I’m just thinking about my next blog post. Here are some interesting facts about my blog over the past year.

My top 3 most popular posts are:
o Dave's Secrets for Great Team-Based Leadership
o From Apathetic Bystanders to Passionate Participants
o Garmin nuvifone vs. Apple iPhone

• I’ve had a total of 1,576 clicks to my blog in the past year
• I’ve written 62 posts
• Average viewing visit is 1 minute and 36 seconds (so short posts are good).
• Half of my visitors find my blog through a Google search.
• One third of my visitors directly type in www.innovationatchurch.com.
• The www.timmygibson.com blog is the number 1 referrer of people to my site.
• Most people read my blog in English. Some read my blog in French and Spanish.

My top 2 posts with the highest number of comments are:
o Do You Have a Cool Church Website?
o Mapping the Future of Conferences

Here is a list of the cities where people are reading my blog:

Atlanta Belle Plaine Bellevue Bloomington Boston Calgary Clarksville Clearwater Dagenham Dayton Denver Detroit Durban Erie Everett Harlan Hephzibah Hickory Houston Indianapolis Kansas City Kissimmee Knapp Los Angeles Madison Nashville New Orleans New York Northgate O Fallon Oakville Olathe Olympia Overland Park Palm Dale Paris Phoenix Pomona Riyadh Salem Schaumburg Scituate Three Rivers Tinley Park Vinton Virginia Beach Waco Warren Washington West Point

It’s fun to look back over previous posts and read my thoughts on various topics. (It’s easier than remembering all of my thoughts and ideas.) Don’t forget you can add your thoughts, ideas and questions in the comments. It’s enjoyable for me to get feedback and other people might benefit from your note on the topic. Cheers!

Willowcreek Stops Mid-week Service

Willowcreek Community Church is known for their “seeker-sensitive” approach to church services and evangelism. In recent years, Willowcreek felt it was time to take a hard look at this strategy. They surveyed over 57,000 church goers in 200 churches by asking them questions on their satisfaction with church. Most people responded that they are leaving the church because they’re not challenged enough. Wow! I thought they were leaving because they didn't like the Folgers coffee.

Greg Hawkins, who has spearheaded this massive research effort called REVEAL, is working to turn this “seeker-sensitive” ship in a new direction. This is not a small change. This is a major shift. This is like going from hymns to contemporary songs in a worship service. Click here to read the article in Christianity Today. (Tony Morgan also posted some thoughts on the REVEAL study here.) Here are some points from the article that I am still pondering:

• Their “strategy to reach seekers is now about focusing on the mature believers.”
• “Anonymity is not the driving value for seeker services anymore.”
• It was previously assumed that seekers didn’t want large doses of the Bible or deep worship music. This is not correct anymore.
• Willowcreek has loaded their services with worship music, prayer, Scripture readings, and more challenging teaching from the Bible.
• Willowcreek is ending their mid-week service in June and adding bible and theological classes in it’s place.
• Willowcreek has revamped everything from their services to their seeker strategy.
• Greg states “It would be malpractice for us to not do something with what we’re learning.”

In the larger REVEAL survey taken by 200 churches, people were asked what they want most from their church. The top three responses were:
1. Help me understand the Bible in greater depth
2. Help me develop a closer personal relationship with Christ
3. Challenge me to grow and take the next step in my faith

Think of this in terms of school. How do you teach 1st graders and high school students in the same classroom for only 1 hour per week? I don’t have the answer to this. What are your thoughts?