Greenelines
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Stand Strong Against the Pull of Greener Pastures
Wherever you are, be there. It seems like my smartphone wants me to be somewhere I’m not. Messages to look at here or there are endless. Advertising messages offer us the opportunity to go anywhere except where we are. Interruptive messages compete for our attention. The powerful magnet draws us with a not-so-subtle appeal: “Wouldn’t you rather be …
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Spirit-Led Leaders Operate a Power Plant
Bill Gates said, “As we look into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” Leaders help their team see what needs to be done, think through it and then do it. Empowered workers feel they have permission to make decisions and effect change in their area of responsibility. Empowered people don’t mind being …
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Conditional Love
Conditions are good for legal contracts, but not for leadership. Perhaps we’ve all felt that we’ve had to earn love from someone in our lives. I remember my mom told me once after I had sung in the All-State choir in high school, “Now, I sure hope you will stop trying to win your dad’s …
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Blunder Up
Although God never makes mistakes, the rest of us can and do. Many of us frequently admit, “We all make mistakes.” And we say, “To err is human” and “If you’re not making mistakes, then you aren’t doing anything.” Leaders will usually fall into one of two camps when it comes to their culture of …
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Leaders Respond to Crisis With Calm
Be thankful for the opportunity to live an examined life. Everything matters. Transparent leaders are often challenged with just how much to reveal to their teams on a personal level. Do we let it all hang out in a corporate setting, as Paul did? Our teams expect us to share all the good, bad and …
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Faith Moves Our Feet
I recently read a devotion from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. He said: “But God will not give us good habits or character, and He will not force us to walk correctly before Him. … To take the initiative is to make a beginning—to instruct yourself in the way you must go.” The …
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Take a Knee Before You Go
I once read a quote that said, “We can’t do more than pray before we have prayed, but we can do more than pray after we have prayed.” Prayer is the weapon of choice for effective leaders. Prayer must precede the steps of a leader. But after prayer, action becomes our mandate. Prayer is necessary …
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The Danger of Masks
Insecurity is born in fear and develops into doublemindedness. Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson wrote a book in 1886 titled The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Today the fictional characters are often used to describe a leader who acts one way one day then behaves differently the next. Oddly, the leader is …
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When High Goes Low
Jesus was the greatest leader who ever walked the earth, and His disciples became great leaders by following His example. The disciples learned Jesus’ language as they walked with Him and talked with Him. They gleaned from His words of comfort and His words of rebuke. They learned by watching as much as by listening. …
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Stand Firm in Peace
Love-driven leaders are lovers of peace. The Bible tells us to be at peace with all people, as much as it depends on us (Rom. 12:18). It’s not always easy to walk in peace when you work in a pressure cooker of deadlines—and we know the enemy wants to steal our peace at every turn. …
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Too Busy to Die to Self
I believe the closer I get to God, the better I will lead. It’s easier to “die to self” when I remain near the cross. When I drift into being busy and “getting stuff done,” I begin to lose the heart of a servant. Before long I’m singing a new song: “It’s all about me; …
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Feedback Is Food That Strengthens
The famed management consultant Peter Drucker wrote in Drucker on Asia that the most important thing we can know about ourselves is our personal strengths. Drucker believed that the Jesuits, a Catholic order founded by St. Ignatius Loyola, and the Calvinists, a Protestant Reform movement founded by John Calvin—both started in the mid-16th century—developed a …
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Leaders Remain in Him
Scroll down in any leadership blog, and you will read about seven principles, four mandates, three proverbs, 12 characteristics or any number of “leaders do this” lessons. I choose to offer one primary principle of leadership that Jesus taught: “Remain in Me, as I also remain in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by …
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Do Your Words Give Life?
A leader may claim to lead with the mind of Christ, but a carnally minded leader isn’t difficult to discern. Carnal leaders will get angry over relatively minor issues. Their opinions are the only opinions that matter. They do not seek to understand others’ views. This leader is driven by internal fears and therefore needs …
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Some Trust in Chariots
How much of what is done today within your organization is motivated by love? Who will pray the leader’s prayer? Who will invite the Holy Spirit to lead the way and the day? Revivalist A.W. Tozer wrote, “If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on …
