Last week I had the opportunity to spend some time at a satellite site taking in the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit with some of the best Team Members in the world. So I thought I’d drop a couple posts here this week with some of my notes, observations, and takeaways from spending a few days of learning with the North Metro Staff. The next post I’ll drop I’ll throw out there is a “Next Steps” list of how to take all this information and actually do something with it.
#5 Leaders help the organization navigate the Land Between “here, and there”
When you’re in the desert between, “here and there,” not much grows, but it is fertile ground for the following and it is the job of the leader to lead through these things: 1) Complaining 2) Emotional Melt Down 3) God’s Provision 4) God’s Discipline 5) Transformational Growth
#6 Leaders must nurture an organizational structure that moves the organization towards its mission
In a Lattice Structure the following are true: 1) Structure doesn’t means roles 2) Decision Making shifts based on knowledge base 3) Leadership is defined by followship 4) People get believed in 5) Leadership is acknowledged not given
#7 Leaders must keep their teams motivated
A larger reward leads to a better work performance when it comes to repetitive technical job skills, i.e. building a car on an assembly line. However a larger reward leads to a poorer performance when it comes to cognitive skilled jobs. There are three basic motivators to leverage: #1 Biological (basic physical drives and needs) #2 Economic (rewards & punishment) #3 Artistic (passions & interest).
#8 Leaders must excite and energize the people
Nobody grew up as a kid dreaming of working for GE in an office, where motivation is limited to only money and recognition. But they did grow up dreaming of working for a non-profit with a sense of calling or conviction that serves as a built in motivator.
#9 The goal of the Leader is not to retain people
Confidants: Those who are for you regardless of what you are for / Constituents: Those who are not for you but you are for / Comrades: Those who are not for you or for what you are for, but are against what you are against
Other compact thoughts that have great implications:
• Trust evicts complaints
• Time does not heal all things
• Innovation comes out of environments of collaboration
• The workplace is often the most feedback deprived place on the planet
• The #1 motivator at work is that people feel as though they are making progress
• Non Profit DOES NOT equal non performance
• You must have candor in your organization, hallway whispers are deadly
• Builders can take nothing and make something
• Bankers can’t build it but operate it and make it functional
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