by Beav on September 2, 2010
(Disclaimer: I don’t have it all figured out, but these are fragmented pieces of my thought process.)
Recently, I’ve wondered how I will interact with my own children that will be different from the way I was raised. I never seemed to understand my parent’s reasoning. My mom’s excuse (I mean, reason) for anything I don’t agree with is simply “When you’re a mom, you’ll understand.” Which makes me think that when I have my children, I’ll have a lot to apologize for. Regardless, I hope I’ll take a different approach to motivating my kids. I still remember how my parents motivated my sister and I into action: by comparing us. “Look, you’re falling behind!” they’d exclaim when one of us would falter. I still wonder if that’s why one of my strengthfinders is “competition.”
I began to realize how clueless I was about how to be motivated when meeting with a friend in May. As we shared our stories and commiserated at how difficult adulthood could be, we happened onto a subject that I would struggle to answer for the rest of the summer:
“What is supposed to motivate us?”
We’re aware enough to recognize that being motivated by guilt or shame (such as the comparison method) wasn’t healthy. But, when guilt and shame is gone, what’s supposed to fill you with a desire to take action?
Years ago, as a student leader in Epic, I would have told the questioner to submit their doubts to God because of Christ’s sacrifice. But my post-college dive into adulthood was more of a bellyflop in that it was painful and ill-prepared. When I left college, the lines went from black and white to a blurred ocean of gray areas, and with that, the purpose behind being motivated wasn’t simply to be faithful, but really, what does faithfulness mean?
Recently, I felt a relief to hear that the answer to all my problems was“just give it to the Lord.” But I began wondering if all it took was daily submission, why I had been spending the last few years sorting out the junk of my emotions and trying to become more aware of myself. Yet, the last two years of having my emotions and experiences validated helped extract the motivation of shame that lay deep in my life. It was a wrestling match to decide which I should follow: blind obedience and submission or seeking to reconcile my emotions and experiences.
The clouds of confusion parted, just a little, when I read this passage in My Utmost for His Highest:
“The level of my growth in grace is revealed by the way I look at obedience…The Son was obedient as our Redeemer, because He was the Son, not in order to become God’s Son.” (My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers)
I began to understand, that motivation is a marriage of obedience and emotional awareness. If we look at submission in the right way, we can see that we submit without the threat of losing who we are if we fail to do so. It’s a combination of recognizing sin by knowing our own hearts. Once we do that, we’re free to be motivated by joy and real true love and not guilt or shame.
It’s not a fear of falling behind, but knowing that I am not unloved by God when I fail. To understand that we are free to be motivated by joy takes away the stigma of failure and the expectation of perfection.
What do you think about motivation being a marriage between obedience and emotional awareness?
What have you discovered on your journey to an authentic and free source of motivation for action in life?
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Eunice Lee is part-time staff with Campus Crusade’s Epic Movement and a graduate of George Mason University in 2008 with a degree in Psychology. She currently resides in Southern California. You can check out her blog at http://www.epicvision.wordpress.com or you can follow her on twitter @eunicejean.
by Beav on August 31, 2010
As you read this (if you read this), remember that I said overrated, not irrelevant! Clear roles and responsibilities are important on any team and in any organization. That being said, I still believe organizational charts are overrated.
Here’s why.
Org charts help solidify chain of command, hierarchy, and structures. Of course you need some of that for decision making and accountability, but org charts naturally set some other things in motion too.
When org charts are too central to the leadership psyche and ethos of an organization, the chain of command, the hierarchy, and the structures generate clear lines of demarcation of what people are responsible for and what they are not responsible for. But you’re probably thinking – but that’s a good thing, so what’s the problem?
Because what happens when most people have clear roles and responsibilities? That’s all we tend to (or have to) think about.
By their very nature, org charts create silos. Check out my brief review of Lencioni’s book on Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars here. The term speaks to the independent and isolated functioning of various roles and departments within an organization. Things become so black and white and so specialized that partnering becomes non-existent, tunnel vision ensues without the big picture, and a general CYA (Cover your bAckside) culture develops as it relates to things that are “bigger” than what falls into the job description and where people are at on the org chart. What I mean about CYA is that when something flames out or a problem or disaster takes place that isn’t in your neighborhood on the org chart or relate to your job description, you retreat into your own place in the organizational system for self-protection and avoid looking for how you might have contributed to the problem or what a solution might be.
One helpful point of clarification here is that org charts can cause greater dissonance and fragmentation the more key leaders make them central to leadership discussions and planning. The more hierarchy, chain of command, and getting people into the right “spots” is emphasized, the greater silo dynamics I think you can expect to see. In this way, I offer a warning that org charts are a trap for type A folks, people who are extremely high structure, and those who lean towards very black and white ways of thinking.
Lencioni does a great job illustrating some of these dynamics and one of his solutions is what he calls a “rallying cry” or thematic goal that unifies the key players and forces everyone to get their heads out of their own job descriptions and org chart box to attend to what is most important and of utmost priority from a leadership perspective for the whole. I’ll add my own language to this and say that the thematic goal is designed to focus leadership energy and attention into “the contextual leadership moment.”
By “the moment” I mean the unique opportunity in the near future (3 months? 6 months? 1 year?) to either provide compelling and timely leadership that will significantly advance your mission or run the risk of missing the moment and taking a giant step towards irrelevance. Lencioni’s “rallying cry” is meant to funnel leadership energy into that moment in a way that galvanizes the whole leadership team to focus on the moment in addition to their individual responsibilities. This focus generates a sense of corporate accountability and ownership and vision, guarding against the CYA stuff and tunnel vision.
So while any consultant out there might mock my conclusions here regarding org charts, I find that a great many leaders gravitate towards safety in org charts and strategic plans while struggling mightily with identifying and leading key groups of leaders into “the moment.” I don’t think that’s hyperbole. I believe that – even if most don’t. I believe so much of successful leadership is about “the moment” – not about the fleeting moment day-to-day, but about the situational context that makes your leadership decisions and action more meaningful.
And don’t you think it would dramatically change your leadership culture if more leaders were starting to see and act in light of “the moment” rather than just according to their job descriptions or org chart box?
What do you think about my statement that “org charts are overrated?” Do you resonate with any of my thoughts here or do you have your own theory? What other ways do you try to solve the tunnel vision/silo problem?
I want to thank my team because they’ve helped me narrow some of my own thinking as we’ve been working through our own “thematic goal” for the coming 6-9 month season. Shifting from our responsibilities to “the moment” has been challenging, but I sense the more we are doing that as a team the more momentum and energy there is for this season of work together. But the consensus is that it’s initially very hard and different to go back and forth between specialized roles and then the larger whole of what we’re all a part of. I’m excited for the day where it becomes second nature to us and those we influence!
by Beav on August 30, 2010
I’m excited that there a couple of guest posts coming. I’ll be posting one in the next couple of days and then the second will be next week some time. But in the meantime…
I’ve been researching mariner and sailing lingo for a leadership development project I’ve been working on with my dad. Down the road, I’ll probably post some of the fruits of what we’re working on in a more final form, but over the next couple months I’ll be submitting many posts that flow from some of the concepts related to sailing the seas and the life of a mariner. If you’re into sailing or have historical knowledge of this field feel free to help refine the metaphors. Here’s the first of many posts to come…
One of the terms that I really found fascinating and helpful as it relates to leadership development is known as an “apparent wind.” Wikipedia breaks it down here,
“In sailing, the apparent wind is the actual flow of air acting upon a sail. It is the wind as it appears to the sailor on a moving vessel. It differs in speed and direction from the true wind that is experienced by a stationary observer. In nautical terminology, these properties of the apparent wind are normally expressed in knots and degrees.”
An “Apparent wind” is the combination of whatever true wind there is and the increased feeling of resistance from the forward motion of the vessel. The wind isn’t any stronger, but one feels more wind resistance because you’re going into the resistance.
As I see it, true wind is circumstantial and is what you experience even if you were standing still, or if your “ship” is anchored in harbor. The resistance and change that is going on in the culture and society or even in the immediate community might be experienced as “true wind” because it’s felt regardless of leadership action. You’re feeling a resistance, change, and wind that is not connected to anything that you are doing or that your organization or community is doing. Even if you aren’t attempting to lead anywhere, you’ll still feel some measure of resistance and the winds of change because there’s a bigger world that is constantly moving and changing.
With an apparent wind, the wind resistance feels more intense and there’s more pressure because you’re actually trying to go somewhere. You’re feeling all the resistance that a passive community and leadership culture might experience, plus whatever resistance is added just by the effort to be proactive and step out of the status quo. And we all know how much people like to move from the status quo to the unknown.
So leadership needs to be mindful of both the reality of true wind resistance as well as the resistance of an “apparent wind” to maintain hope and perspective and not be discouraged by the challenges that come with leading into the wind.
Leaders should remember that when they’re really leading – the wind isn’t any stronger, but the experience is. The experience is stronger and more difficult because you are attempting to actually do something as opposed to becoming a passive recipient of the effects of the true wind.
If you’re not experiencing an “apparent wind” then you’re probably not leading – the elements are acting upon you all the while you could be leading into the wind. A lot of things get set in motion when you decide to actually move, many of which are challenging and difficult. Leaders have a choice – stay in the harbor where it’s safer or hit the seas where you can live out what you were made for.
For more on this phrase: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_wind
What are the signs to you of an “apparent wind’ vs. the true wind around you? How do you tell the difference in your own context? How do you prepare to lead into increased resistance?
by Beav on August 29, 2010
I shared about the leadership coaching and learning group I’m starting up in November a couple weeks ago. Fun interacting with a few of you who have shown interest. I wanted to give one more window into some of what I’m envisioning and what it will look like by letting you know what books are going to be part of the process. (Read below for the vision and objectives and click the link for more specifics and email me at bvirtue@gmail.com if you have interest.)
So here are the books that most likely will be required during the course of the group in no particular order:
- A Failure of Nerve by Edwin Friedman and/or Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times by Peter Steinke
- Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon Mackenzie
- The Prophetic Imagination by Walter Brueggemann
- The Emotionally Health Church by Peter Scazzero
- In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen
- Making Room for Leadership by MaryKate Morse
- Strengthfinder 2.0 by Tom Rath (including online assessment if you haven’t taken it)
I’m still deliberating on a couple of these in light of a couple other resources, but this gives you an idea. There will be a few other much shorter things to read – articles and blog posts. We’ll keep it challenging, but won’t over do it as some of these books are quick and easy reads.
Keep me posted if you are interested. I won’t try to solidify things until early October so there’s plenty of time to think about it.
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Kingdom Learning Leadership Coaching Group
Purpose: To provided a guided leadership learning journey and experience in community centered around leadership formation in the context of teams and organizations for the purpose of building leadership capacity and wisdom.
Intended Outcomes:
- Develop a basic foundation and working knowledge of family/congregational systems theory as it relates to teams, congregations, or organizations.
- Develop a holistic paradigm of leadership formation that integrates spiritual maturity, emotional maturity, and identity.
- Develop a strong foundation and framework for empowering others and being a servant-leader in identity and practice.
Head to this link for more details and info.
