Leadership Nuggets

I'm a leadership/growth/spiritual formation junkie. I'll take a hit anytime someone will give it to me. I love the flow of constant challenge.

The body thrives on proper stressors and without stressors, it degenerates. So not having stress equals a weakened existence. There is a common refrain (that I've quoted from time to time) that talks about stress like it's akin to evil itself. That's because--I'm learning--we've never learned the proper rhythm between rest and work. We were made to work from rest, not rest from work.

Ran across these nuggets that I'm thinking through (added my own commentary):

• Working an obsolete process more efficiently only hastens your demise. So what's obsolete in my circle of influence?
• Am I accountable to do it your way, or am I accountable for results? Great question. 'Low Control, High accountability' structures make this possible. 'High control, Low accountability' structures don't (and make people frustrated). Carefully define the results together.
• The role of a parent is to make the child strong, not safe. That's pure gold. Especially in conservative Christian culture where the goal seems to be protecting our children for as long as possible from "the world."
• Values shared with your wife are what knit a couple together. This takes a lot of work. No shortcuts.
• A goal is not a plan, and without a plan, there is no accountability. Tell me about it.
• Set the treadmill on "high" and expect the people to run with it. True enough, but being a runner, I know that if you first don't have the capacity, that's a recipe for making people quit altogether. Maybe more leaders need to take up running so they don't go through people like butter! Maybe a better way to say that is "set the treadmill one notch higher than the person thinks they can run and expect them to run with it as a way of building their capacity."
• The goal is to have diesel engines interspersed throughout the train rather than one engine pulling the whole thing. Diesels have to be made first. If you ain't got no diesels, better get to work.
• Does the mission you're doing mandate putting up with all kinds of baloney? This is all about a Failure of Nerve. No nerve=lots of baloney, so unless you like baloney...