Tag: Character

A river will curve with twists and turns in its path to the ocean seemingly without reason. Unlike a river, an organization should plan its curves and turns. Organizational theory tells you that the time for transition (or curving) is … always. Because if you wait until it starts to happen, you are too late. By the time you go through the transition, the organization might not recover from the decline. That is a problem. The challenge is to figure out what the next curve should be, and then the next, and that becomes successive generations of ideas or products or paradigms or forms of organizations.

The predominant image of leaders in Jesus’ time – not very different from our own time – was that they were egocentric, oppressive, and...

Ever feel like your life is a constant battle? Want three keys to turning those battles into minor skirmishes? These battles are where the enemy seeks to render us ineffective in our work for our Lord. Scott reminds us that God is the owner of all aspects of a true leader’s life and calling. Releasing the ownership of these aspects to God’s capable hands gives the leader a great freedom from slavery to the responsibilities. This way of leadership is a journey of disciplined practice that leads to selflessness and being more Christ-like.

We all need to cry out for God to transform our hearts and give us hearts like His, hearts of genuine love for others and deep respect for each individual as a unique creation of God. Servant-leaders acknowledge daily that their hearts need God’s transformative power.

In the desert with little water and scarce food, it is a struggle to survive, and that can lead to discouragement. God never wanted life for Jewish leaders to be such a struggle when they came back from Babylon, but they were measuring their problems against their own puny strength rather than measuring them against our mighty God. They forgot God is much bigger than any struggle we face.

I had seven years to confirm that she was valuable as she mostly ignored me. Well ignored may be too strong: the thesaurus says disregarded, overlooked, or bypassed would be equally descriptive. Just pick one. The point is I finally caught her, and the compliment of my life was that she traded all her other options (and they were numerous) for me.

I had an eight-year head start since I was counting the quality of our marriage from the first day we met, which she didn’t even remember. Apparently, buried somewhere in my psyche, was the expectation that she hadn’t caught up yet. No wonder the poor woman couldn’t get a break.

Trading is an age-old system. But shouldn’t you make sure whatever you are trading is at least as valuable as what you give up?

Bernard Baily said, “When science discovers the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to find they are not it.” Leaders can lose sight of how much others contribute to the whole scheme of things tending to allow pride to lead. Dionna highlights the necessity of keeping self in perspective through humbleness. She reminds us that everyone needs a dose of meekness to keep the balance in our lives.

Sweet apple blossoms in due time bear succulent fruit, just as sage advice from experienced leaders and emerging leaders bears much fruit in due time when taken to heart and applied. Time does not automatically develop leaders but leader development always takes time. There are no short cuts. Here, Malcolm has gathered some of the wisest and best advice from participants in LDC 2013.