Different Verse of the Same Song!

I’m sure more than a few crusty old managers tuned me out completely when I tied the volunteer work my Granny did to leadership. They’re certainly entitled to their opinions, even when they’re wrong! That said, I know all too well how important it is for each of us to get results that show up on our bottom line when we’re responsible for running a business, or even a department within a business, so I can (kinda) understand the disconnect… But if we’re going to debunk the leadership myths that take a toll on organizations in every sector, I believe we have to have a clear understanding of some of the most common leadership issues; the ones that pop up just as much when the focus isn’t solely on profitability and productivity!

I mentioned before how Cindy and I are always intentional about emphasizing that having folks report to you doesn’t mean you’re a leader, and that not having direct reports doesn’t mean you can’t effectively lead the people you interact with each day. Along those same lines, we’re often asked how the productivity and profitability concepts that I hammer apply in the nonprofit world, public sector organizations, or in churches or civic organizations. Quite frankly, I don’t think there’s any real difference. I can think of very few scenarios with no stated goal for serving clients or providing services. Regardless of how it’s phrased in any given sector, that’s productivity. And with the exception of our federal government, I’m not aware of many situations where there’s no requirement to stick to a budget. While that may not always be a representation of true profitability, there’s still a need for being good stewards of the resources we’re responsible for. We’ll look at each of those in more detail soon…

Before that though, I’d like you to consider a conversation I had not long after meeting a friend of mine who has been a pastor for the bulk of his career. Since John Maxwell also started out in ministry, I nearly always assume everyone in that field is familiar with him. When I mentioned him to my new (at the time) friend, he shared that he didn’t really know that much about John’s work since so much of it was specific to the business community and how it just didn’t apply to his role with his church. Before you get mad at me for even appearing to be critical of my friend, hear me out because that’s most definitely not where I’m going with this! In fact, I heard another pastor ask John directly how any of his teaching on leadership could tie back to the work he was doing in his own church. John chuckled a bit before explaining that his biggest struggle for years had been translating the lessons he had learned as a pastor into something he could share widely with the business community, and that he could tie all of it back to the Bible.

Now back to that early conversation with my friend… He mentioned that, as a pastor, his responsibility was to build relationships with and to meet specific needs of the folks in his congregation, not to make sure they were following the rules or to dictate deadlines; to which I replied that the most effective leaders I’ve ever known have taken the same approach. In my experience, the business owners, executives, managers, and even front line supervisors who had earned the most influence, engagement, and discretionary effort from the teams reporting to them have also been the ones who had developed reputations for building relationships and meeting the needs of their teams! That’s certainly not to say that they didn’t deal with tough situations when necessary, that certainly comes with the territory, but the majority of the results their teams produced had nothing to do with a carrot or a stick. If you really think about it, what my friend was doing to earn influence with (and lead) the people in his church wasn’t all that different from what the best business leaders need to do as they run their organizations, a different verse of the same song if you will…

 Since eliminating some of the biggest misunderstandings around leadership can make such a difference in every sector, let’s look at some of the issues this can help avoid (next time)...