Leadership

Where You Live Makes A Difference As A Leader

Where do you live these days?

  • Do you live in the past?
  • Do you live in the present?
  • Do you live in the future?

Where we live can make or break each one of us. Let’s take a look at these three neighborhoods and, for the record, I have lived in each one of these neighborhoods and I have found the “Present” neighborhood most favorable.


Living In The Past

When we live in the past we usually dwell on past success or failure. If we live with past success we can get stuck. "Remember how it used to be? Remember the good old days?" Living in past success is just as unhealthy as living in past failure. Someone once said

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Every Leader & Parent Needs This Tool In Their Belt

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I’m sure you have heard it said, “If the only tool you have in your belt is a hammer then everything you see is a nail.” I’m sure as leaders and as parents we have swung the hammer a few times.

Hypothetically speaking, if we could choose one tool to use most frequently when dealing with co-workers, bosses, team members and yes, even our children, what would it be?

Before you run a list or head over to the Home Depot let me offer a suggestion and a few reason why the Crescent Wrench is the best choice.


7 Reminders From The Crescent Wrench


1. It Tightens

“Keep your eyes open, hold tight to your convictions, give it all you've got, be resolute.” 1 Corinthians 16:13 MSG

The Nuts And Bolts
The Crescent Wrench reminds us

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Parents, Are We Full of It? I Hope So!

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I was in Starbucks the other day and when they called out my grade non-fat one pump vanilla latte I went a runnin' to get my beverage. However, in my "hurry" I not only knocked over my drink but another one as well.

I looked at the person with the saddest/maddest look on their face and asked, "What was it?" "It was a venti chai tea latte!" Now, here is the question. 

When I bumped my drink and knocked it over, what came out?
The answer, of course, is what it was full of at the time.

When I bumped and knocked the other drink over, What came out?
The answer, again, is what it
The answer, of course, is what each of us

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The One City Where Leaders Must Live: Authenti-City

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Our goal was to move to Autheni-City with the whole family. We had seen pictures of it and heard it was a great place to not only visit but to live. In fact, Mary and I had some friends move there a few years ago, and they say it’s the best!

We were living in Toxi-City at the time. We had lived there for a few years, but it was enough time to embrace our surroundings yet not too much for it to really feel like home. It felt like there was another place for us somewhere.

There was a lot of noise where we used to live—very industrial, very loud and very dirty. Mary was sick a few times with an upper respiratory infection and our kids were frequently sick. later we discovered I was the carrier! I wasn’t really watching

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When Leadership Ruins Your Family: How to Live and Lead Differently

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Today’s post is actually a podcast!

I sat down with one of today’s most influential church leaders, Carey Nieuwhof, to talk about our story, our leadership story. The link will take you directly to Carey’s site where you can download the podcast.

I hope our story is an encouragement to anyone who feels the effect of burnout, overwork, and life spin.

Get The Podcast Here

In the podcast I give 3 things you can do right now to help you current situation. They are talked about more in depth on the podcast but I have listed them here for you.

3 Things You Can Do Right Now
1. Start writing regularly in a journal.
2. Find a counselor.
3. Read a book with tips and tools for your situation.

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The Biggest Risk A Leader Can Take And Why It’s Worth It

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The biggest risk a leader can take is telling the story of who they are with their whole heart. Also known as vulnerability. When you reveal the junk in your life to others, there is a substantial risk involved.

  • Others may disconnect from you. That’s rejection.
  • Others may tell others about your situation. That’s painful.
  • Others may lecture you. That’s humiliating.

So why take the risk? Answer, So you can experience freedom!

I used several strategies when I didn’t want to open up and talk about the hidden hurts or hang-ups in my life and I got pretty good at it. The most basic and most used tactic was

5 Leadership Don’ts You Should Do

“Be proactive, get it done, just do it, move forward, vision cast, make progress and look ahead!” These words all resonate with a leader, don’t they? It’s that one foot in front of the other mindset that keeps leaders moving forward. However, should we ever take a moment to think about the don’ts? How about this, should we ever think about the don’ts that we should we be doing? Here is a list of 5 to think about.


1. Don’t Be Afraid of Bad News - Embrace It

Bad news can bring us down especially when the bad news is somewhat aimed in our our general direction. I like what the Bible says in Psalms 112:7, “Bad news won’t bother them; they have decided to trust the LORD.” Allow that difficult news to transform our leadership into something great. Embrace it.


2. Don’t Allow Others to Discourage You - Ignore It

If you call the shots you will most certainly receive some from time to time. Unfortunately the shots the leader receives are often