Monday, March 15, 2010

The Importance of Assembling the

Right Team

One of the greatest insights that I have ever read on this subject matter comes
from Jim Collins' book Good to Great. He (in my own words) basically said, befor
e you even think of deciding where it is that you want to go as an organisations
you need to
Get the right people on the bus (your leadership team)
The wrong people of the bus.
The right people in the right seats.
Your leadership team is key, I (me not Jim) almost want to say the key (other th
an obviously God.) Without the right leadership team in place you will only spin
your wheels in the mud. The organisation will never grow beyond its leadership
ability. If your leadership team is able to lead a 150 people and you have a chu
rch of 300, the church will eventually (and this can be a long and painful proce
ss) dwindle down to a 150. If your leadership team has the ability to lead a gro
up of 500 and you have a church of 300, they will take it to 500, it will only b
e a matter of time (again this will obviously only happen if God is in it.)
If you want to grow the church beyond 500, you will have to grow your own leader
ship capacity as well as the capacity of your team in order to do so or you will
have to get those that have the ability to lead a 1000 on the bus as soon as po
ssible.
Friday, March 26, 2010
First Break all the Rules
You have to make it rewarding, in every way, for people to keep doing what they
are doing. It is the Leaders job to build the kind of work environment that attr
acts, focuses, and keeps talented employees.
These twelve questions are the simplest and most accurate way to measure the str
ength of a workplace.
The 12 Questions
Do I know what is expected of me at work?
Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
In the last seven days, have I relieved recognition or praise for good work?
Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
At work, does my opinion seem to count?
Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel like my work is importan
t?
Are my co-workers committed o doing quality work?
Do I have a best friend at work?
In the last six months, have I talked wit someone about my progress?
At work, have I had opportunities to learn and grow?
If you can create the kind of environment where employees answer positively to a
ll twelve questions, then you will have built a great place to work.
Monday, April 5, 2010
I just finished reading Killing Cockroaches by Toney Morgan. Not the best book I v
e ever read but he made a brilliant point early on in the book. When you see a c

ockroach running into your home or office, your natural reaction is to jump up a
nd kill it. We tend to do the same in ministry work. As cockroaches (the urgent
matters) appear left, right and centre we tend to jump up and go after it in ful
l force, instead of remaining focused on the important.
What is the so-called important? Doing the things that God has uniquely gifted y
ou with, that would most influence the future of the church. This means that no
one else in the congregation has the gifting or capacity to serve in this specif
ic area but you. By this I am in no way implying that we shouldn t serve in mundan
e ways also (John 13:14). But I believe the bulk of our energy and efforts shoul
d be spent focusing on the things that will bring about the greatest return for
the church as a whole.
I have cockroaches coming at me from all sides on a daily basis and I have had t
o learn to allow others (with different gift-sets) to take care of them. Some pe
rsonal cockroaches would include: Administrative duties, the organization of eve
nts and running of Sunday services.
Being involved in and asked to give the go-ahead for decisions that plenty of ot
her people could have chaired
In relation to my unique gifts and responsibilities, I have found that my greate
st contribution to the church is in the form of the following areas:
1. To Study
My devotional time with God
Message preparation
Self-Leadership
Leadership
Church Development
2. To Teach & Train
On staff level
Small group leader level
Congregation level
Individual level (General coaching and helping people becoming Christians)
3. To Direct
Painting a picture of the future that I believe God is calling us to
Developing (along-side our leadership team) a strategy for achieving the end-goa
l
Aligning all ministry departments towards the end-goal
4. To Build Relationships
Staying connected with key people through the members of the congregation for ad
vice and to get a pulse on how things are going in the trenches.

And so, at the end of every day, I have to ask myself: Have I been killing cockro
aches or have I been fulfilling my God-given assignment?
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
The Vital Importance of Self-Leadership
1 Sam. 30:1-8
David is a young leader just learning how to lead his troops into battle. And Go
d is pouring his favour on David by allowing the largest part of the battle to t
urn out to David s advantage.
The men came home from another day of fighting only to find that, while they wer
e fighting on the one front, the enemy came from another front and took captive
their wives and children, moved them to another location, and burned all their b
elongings.
This was a terrible and testing day in the ministry for David. He was crushed. H
is family was taken to an unknown place and all of his belongings have been redu
ced to ashes.
What is worse is his soldiers are tired, weary and worried sick about their fami
lies. They are angry at God and fed up of David s leadership, saying things like th
is is all your fault and they even started talking about stoning him.
David looked at the leadership compass (if you may) and accesses who most needs
leadership in this particular moment. There is no one above him. Those below him
hate him. There are no colleagues on the side. His answer? None of the above.
He realizes in this critical moment that he must lead himself. His is going to h
ave to do something about his own condition. It wouldn t make sense to even attemp
t to lead the people around or below him. He is tired, he is confused, he is anx
ious and he is warned out.
So what does he do? The bible says he went off to find his strength in God .
With God s help, David could once again lead himself to a position of strength. On
ly then could he fire up the troops, only then could they muster the faith and c
ourage to pursue the enemy and bring back their wives and children for a time of
rejoicing.
But how important is self-leadership?
Let me ask this in another way. How effectively are you going to lead anybody if
your spirit is sagging, if your courage is wavering and your vision (or should
I say, your ability to see the future) is fuzzy?
Self-leadership is incredibly important. As leaders we should carefully calculat
e how much time and energy we invest in ourselves.
A couple of years ago author Daniel Goleman wrote a book called Emotional Intell
igence. Since releasing that book, Goleman has been spending most of his time an
alyzing leaders trying to figure out why only a few leaders reach their fullest
potential and why the rest plato and actually fail from reaching that potential.
Do you know what he concluded after studying this for a couple of years? The sin
gle greatest distinguishing factor between good leaders and great leaders has so
mething to do with self-leadership, with emotional self-control.
It comes down to questions like these:

What is the leader s ability to

Navigate through the highs and lows of leadership?
Overcome personal discouragement?
Maintain sober mindedness in a crisis?
Keep ego at bay at all times?
Stay focused on life s mission?
Exceptional leaders reach their fullest potential because of exceptional self-le
adership.
How much time are you putting into developing yourself?
As you read the first couple of chapters of the book of Mark, you will notice ho
w incredibly busy Jesus was with the ministry. He was training the twelve, teach
ing the people, and healing people with all kinds of diseases and sicknesses.
But in the midst of all the chaos and activity, you constantly see him taking ti
me out for prayer, fasting, solitude and reflection.
He spent 40 days in the desert to just square himself off.
You see him doing great and awesome things and then you see him up on the mounta
inside again - always making sure that he is in a good position to lead himself.
Jesus was able to establish an incredible rhythm.
From a personal perspective it almost seems like he was practicing the art of se
lf-leadership.
He often withdrew for times of prayer, fasting and reflection, and he reminded h
imself of who he was. How much his father loved him and what his marching orders
were. And how important it was for him to fulfill his redemptive mission and no
t get distracted.
It is my opinion that even Jesus had to regularly invest time in keeping his cal
ling clear and preventing discouragement from creeping in.
Self-leadership is a tough job. So tough that most leaders avoid spending time i
n developing themselves! And rather defer their energy and efforts by trying to
control the behaviours of other people.
Controlling our own attitudes and behaviours are simply too demanding.
So why don t we just make it easier by trying to control the behavior, attitude an
d actions of those below us? Because when we do, we don t have to look at ourselve
s and our own struggles, temptations, flaws and issues.
But there is a price tag to this decision. Because when you avoid the discipline
of self-leadership, you do so to your own detriment.
The question is not whether you will pay the price, but much rather, when you wi
ll pay the price and how much it will cost you.
Some years ago a top Christian leader disqualified himself from ministry and her

e is how a published article described his demise:

Reverent so and so sank like a rock, beat up, burned out, angry and depressed. N
o good to himself and no good to the people he loved.
When the pastor finally wrote about what happened to him, he himself explained i
t this way:
Eventually I couldn t sleep at night. Another wave of broken lives would come to sh
ore at our church and I found that I did not have enough compassion for them any
more. And inside I was angry. Angry, angry, angry!! Many people still wondered w
hat happened to me. They think I had a crisis of faith. The fact is I simply col
lapsed on the inside.
In context of what we are talking about right now, he failed the self-leadership
test.
He should have taken time out. He should have regrouped. He should have gone to
the mountain. He should have recalibrated. Maybe he needed a sabbatical or a spi
ritual retreat even. He lost his emotional self control and wrecked his life bec
ause of it. We all know that his situation is not unique and it can just as easi
ly happen to us.
Everything comes down to self-leadership.
We need to continually ask ourselves these kind of questions:
1. Is my calling sure?
Each of has a calling and we need to live it out. No one can figure out or sort
out my calling on my behalf. It s got to be me. It is absolutely critical for the
leader to know their calling from God. What is it that God wants me to do? Why h
as he placed me on earth?
2. Is my vision clear?
And is it crystal clear? How can I lead people into the future if my picture of
the future is cloudy or fuzzy? I ve got to know where I am going. And it is my res
ponsibility to keep my vision clear? Mine alone.
3. Is my passion burning hot?
And is it burning so hot that it ignites people around me? This too is my respon
sibility.
I need to figure out what pours fresh fuel on my passion-fire.
On a personal level, this keeps my passion burning hot: Listening to sermons of
various speakers, spending time with those who are ahead of me in the faith, att
ending conferences, reading books on leadership or people s journey with God, and
mentoring others and helping people become Christians. What is it that keeps you
r passion burning hot? I urge you to find out what it is and then pursue it at a
ll cost.
4. Is my character fully submitted to Christ?
Is my pride subdued? Is it? Is my own ego messing with my ministry decisions? Ar
e my fears at bay? Or do I let my worries and anxieties creep into the leadershi
p picture? Is my psychological baggage effecting current ministry decisions? Are
my ears open to the whispering of the Holy Spirit? Do I live in a way that affo

rds God the opportunity to prompt me? Is my pace sustainable? Am I moving too sl
ow or am I moving at all? Is my heart for God increasing or decreasing?
In conclusion, we simply have to invest a huge portion of our time and energy fo
cusing on self-leadership. And we also have to be ruthlessly honest with ourselv
es as we reflect on these questions.
Why is this so important? Because, when you have squared yourself with God, when
you are a man or woman after God s own heart, when your vision is clear and your
passion is burning hot, when your character is strong, when your baggage of the
past isn t affecting your decisions, and when you are listening to the promptings
of the Holy Spirit then satan should watch out!! Because you will be a force to b
e reckoned with.
Remember, the best gift you can give your family, your bible talk, and your chur
ch, is a healthy, fully energized, fully engaged, surrendered self.
* Taken from a lesson by Bill Hybels (with some adjustments).
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Jack Welch's 6 Rules
1. Control your destiny, or someone else will.
You have to be intentional about where you are going as an organisation. If you
don t set the direction and chart the course, nature (usually mediocrity) will tak
e over.
2. Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it were.
Where are things at in your organisations? Not what was it like or what do you h
ope it to be, but what is the reality and what are you going to do about it?
3. Be candid with everyone.
Call a spade a spade. Don t tap dance around issues. Say it as it is. (This does n
ot mean be harsh or nasty, just candid.)
4. Don t manage, lead.
Don t keep the boat afloat, chart the course.
5. Change before you have to.
Don t play catch up, always be a step ahead of the game.
6. If you don t have a competitive advantage, don t compete.
Focus on what you are good at and can continue to be good at.
Crucibles of Leadership
What exactly is a crucible? In medieval times it was the vessel in which alchemis
ts attempted to turn base metals into gold. In a leadership context, then, we ca
n think of a crucible as a transformative experience from which a person extract
s his or her "gold
a new or altered sense of identity.
** Quoted from "Crucibles Of Leadership .
Personally I felt this book should have been an article and not a book, but it c

ertainly had a few great points worth sharing:

We need to learn from all our crucible leadership experiences.
What do I learn about myself, my way of leading, my character, my strengths and
my weaknesses?
While experience matters, what matters more is what we make of experience.
The ability to find meaning and strength in adversity distinguishes leaders from
non-leaders. When terrible things happen, the less able people feel singled out
, powerless, and even victimised. But leaders find purpose and resolve.
It is the leader's job to reshape and reframe tension, finding an angle or a len
s through which the current reality can be reshaped into a healthier and more pr
oductive outcome.
Practice can Trump talent.
Although some form of talent is required in order to lead, it is practice that u
ltimately wins the day. We cannot just shoot from the hip - we have to practice
to lead well. And we have to be very intentional about this. Too often we depend
on natural talent only instead of developing the talent we have been given.
Talent plays a role, undoubtedly, but it is a supporting role. No amount of nati
ve talent can prepare a leader for the infinite variety of circumstances he will
face or the challenges he must surmount. No gene for resilience ensures that ge
ms of wisdom will suddenly appear at the turmoil of a crucible.
Talent is rarely enough to explain who becomes an imminent performer. Chess mast
ers, for instance, differ from beginners not because they are blessed with super
ior memory or because of the way their brains are wired, but because they have w
hat researchers described as "a rich store of familiar moves . In other words, the
y have played more matches and therefore have literally seen more patterns and t
he strategies associated with them.
Both helplessness and resilience can be learned.
Some great quotes:
"Success is how high you bounce when you hit the bottom."
~ General George S Patton.
"The fight is won or lost far away from the witnesses, behind the lines, in the
gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights."
~ Muhammad Ali
The man who carries a cat by the tail learns something that can be learned in no
other way."
~ Mark Twain
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Book Review: Death by Meeting - Patrick Lencioni
The book is written in the story of a fable and gives some great examples of how
to bring energy, creativity, drama and effectiveness to your meetings.

Reading it was sobering and eye opening. I find meetings that I chair very benef
icial because it is an easy way for me to gather information and get up to speed
with everything happening around the organization, but what about those that at
tend the meetings? Are my meetings conducted in such a way as to engage everyone
in it? Do I lead it in a way that people look forward to it?
According to Lencioni (and I am convinced of his case) meetings can be conducted
in a dynamic, passionate and focused way that can bring about synergy, creativi
ty and collaborative action plans. He also gives some great ideas as to how to s
et it into motion. It is certainly an easy and worthwhile read.
Six silence and violence behaviors to look for in yourself and others
Withdrawing
Avoiding
Masking
Controlling
Labeling
Attacking
Easy to see in others, not always to easy to see in ourselves. How do you do on
these ones and in what way? I tend to be guilty of 4, 5 & 6.
It's Your Ship
It's Your Ship by Micael Abrashoff is one of the best books - on getting people
engaged and taking ownerships at work
that I have ever read. Michael Abrashoff i
s an absolute master at this.
He would constantly tell his crew, this is your ship and you are responsible for
it. By helping them taking ownership of their ship they went from being the worst
to the best ship in the US Navy in about 2 years time.
He did so by
Listening aggressively. (Every leader needs big ears.)
Opening himself up for criticism.
Being there for the crew.
Seeing the ship from their perspective.
Expressing to each crew member how important they are.
Helping people realize their full potential.
Motivating them too work with passion, enthusiasm and energy.
Making it rewarding for them to express themselves and their ideas.
Training them to think and make their own judgments.
Training each crew member to master their job.
Empowering them to fix the ship themselves.
Constantly asking the crew, Is there a better way to do what you do?
Making every encounter with every person on the ship the most important thin
g at that moment.
Looking for results and not salutes.
Communicating purpose and meaning.
What are some things that you have found to be helpful in helping people to be e
ngaged and taking ownership on all fronts?
The Art of the Start - Guy Kawasaki
Lessons learned from The Art of the Start:
Doing, not learning to do, is the essence of entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneur is not a job title. It is the state of mind of people who want to alt
er the future.
The hardest thing about getting started is getting started.
You should always be selling

not strategizing about selling.

Key principles of getting going:

Think big.
Find a few soul mates.
Polarize people. When you create a product or service that some people love,
don t be surprised when others hate you. Your goal is to catalyze passion
pro or
anti. Don t be offended if people take issue with what you ve done; the only result
that should offend (and scare) you is lack of interest.
Design different.
Ferdinand Porsche said, In the beginning I looked around and, not finding the aut
omobile of my dreams, decided to build it myself."
Define your business model.
Tips to help you develop your business model:
Be specific. The more precisely you can describe your customer, the better.
Most successful companies started off targeting specific markets and grew to gre
at size by addressing other segments. Few started off with grandiose goals and a
chieved them.
Keep it simple.
Copy somebody. Try to relate your business model to one that s already success
ful and understood. You have plenty of other battles to fight.
Niche thyself.
When selling ask yourself, did it catch attention, hold my interest, pierce my a
rmor? Did I talk English and make a point?
Apply the opposite Test: Do you describe your offering in a way that is opposite
to that of your competition? If you do, then you re saying something different. I
f you don t, then your descriptions are impotent.
How can you tell if an entrepreneur is pitching? His lips are moving.
Ship, fix. Ship, fix. Ship, fix, instead of fix, fix, fix, ship.
Recommendations for the art of execution:
Set and Communicate goals.
Measure progress.
Establish a single point of accountability. If it takes more than ten second
s to figure out who is responsible for achieving a goal, something is wrong. Goo
d people accept accountability. Great people ask for it.
Reward the achievers.
Establish a culture of execution. Execution is not a one-time event. Nor is
it a process where you check off goals as if your sixth-grade teacher were looki

ng over your shoulder. Rather, execution is a culture that produces a set of org
anization wide habits.
Reward those whose perspective, ability, and judgment are radically different fr
om yours. It requires uncommon humility, tolerance, and wisdom.
"The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers."
ph Nader

Ral

A players hire A players; B players hire C players; and C players hire D players
. It doesn t take long to get to Z players.
If there is one thing a CEO must do, it s hire a management team that is better th
an he is.
It s not enough that candidates are good and different; they must also believe tha
t your organization can change the world. They must be infected with enthusiasm
for what you do.
High achievers tend to have major weaknesses. People without major weaknesses te
nd to be mediocre.
The best brand never start with the intent of building a great brand. They focus
on building a great- and profitable
product or service and an organization that
can sustain it. Scott Bedbury
The key elements of contagiousness:
Cool. Cool is beautiful. Cool is hip. Cool is idiosyncratic. And cool is con
tagious.
Effective. You can t brand something that doesn t work.
Distinctive. A contagious product is easy to notice and advertises itself. I
t leaves no doubt that it is different from the competition. Does anyone confuse
a Hummer with other vehicles?
Disruptive. Contagious products are disruptive. They either upset the status
quo or make them go into denial. But they do not leave people unaffected.
Emotive. A contagious product or service exceeds expectations, and by exceed
ing expectations, it makes you joyful.
Deep. A contagious product or service
you discover it is capable of.

has legs.

The more you use it, the more

Indulgent. Purchasing a contagious product or service makes you feel as if y

ou ve indulged yourself. It enables you to escape the mundane. The tag line for Mi
ele, for example, is Anything else is a compromise.
Supported.
An innovation, to be effective, has to be simple and it has to be focused. It sh
ould do only one thing, otherwise, it confuses. If it is not simple, it won t work
. Peter Drucker
Everyone should carefully observe which way his heart draws him, and then choose
that way with his strength.
Hasidic saying
I have never thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my hear
t must come out; that is the reason why I compose.
Ludwig van Beethoven

Drive a stake in the heart of the status quo.

It s alright to aim high if you have plenty of ammunition.

Hawley R. Everhart

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.

Jack Welch's 4 E's of Leadership
Energy - Individuals with energy love to "go, go, go." These people possess boun
dless energy and get up every day ready to attack the job at hand. High energy p
eople move at 95 miles-per-hour in a 55 mile-per-hour world.
Energizers - know how to spark others to perform. They outline a vision and get
people to carry it out. Energizers know how to get people excited about a cause
or a crusade. They are selfless in giving others the credit when things go right
, but quick to accept responsibility when things go awry.
Edge - Those with edge are competitive types. They know how to make the really d
ifficult decisions, such as hiring, firing and promoting, never allowing the deg
ree of difficulty to stand in their way.
Execute - The key to the entire model. Without measurable results, the other "E'
s" are of little use. Executers recognize that activity and productivity are not
the same and are capable of converting energy and edge into action and results.
Extreme Dreams Depend on Teams - Pat Williams
A person is a person through other persons. A person with Ubuntu is open availabl
e to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able
and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that
he or she belongs in a greater whole. - Desmond Tutu
That is the essence of what it means to be a team: I can't be alI I can be unles
s you are all you can be.
Aim high and dream big dreams but know that you can t achieve them by yourself. Dr
eam builders are team builders. Extreme dreams really do depend on teams. You ha
ve to assemble the right teams in order to turn your dreams into reality.
If you could get all the people in an organisation to run in the same direction,
you could dominate the industry - in any market, against any competition, at an
y time.
When people come together and set aside their individual needs for the good of t
he whole, they are able to accomplish what seemed to be impossible on paper.
Nothing happens unless first a dream.

- Carl Sandburg

Key players with outstanding character and a good attitude always lift the perfo
rmance of the whole team.
It takes five guys on the basketball court to put points on the scoreboard, but
it takes an entire community to lift those five guys.
Big, bold, and extreme dreams capture the imagination and fire the enthusiasm. W
hen people believe they are involved in something big, they are willing to sacri
fice to make it happen.

Fun fuels great teams. When team players enjoy their work, they don't see it as
work, they see it as fun.
Always reward team attitude and team effort.
Principles
Top Talent builds extreme dreams
Great Leaders build extreme dreams
Commitment builds extreme dreams
Passion builds extreme dreams
Thinking Teams builds extreme dreams
Empowered Individuals build extreme dreams
Respect and Trust build extreme dreams
TOP TALENT BUILDS EXTREME DREAMS
TALENT, TALENT, TALENT! Without great talent, you cannot rise above mediocrity.
Never go into the game unless you have better players than your opponent has.
You have to have talent in order to compete
Every player has to be custom fitted to the role.
To assemble a winning team, you have to choose your players well. You might need
to stick with the decision you re about to make for a long time to come, so make
sure it is a decision you can live with. Don't let people or circumstances stamp
ede you into a disastrous long-term choice in shaping your team.
Having the wrong person in a slot is worse than having no person in that slot. T
he wrong person will throw your team out of balance, make it dysfunctional, and
destroy team chemistry. In such cases, the best way to add to your team is by su
btraction.
You need to help everyone on your team in developing ownership of the decided ou
tcome.
Don't use your 10 best players, use your best 10 players.
When a coach is seen as a role-player in the game, you can literally see a wave
of enthusiasm and energy rubble through the team. Sometimes that is the mystical
moment when the games momentum shifts.
GREAT LEADRES BUILD EXTREME DREAMS
When you are a leader of a team, you never know what new problems will land on y
our plate each day. All you know is that you d better be ready to solve them.
What constitutes great leaders?
They are visionary.
Have great communication skills.
Great people skills.
Strong character.
Competence (they are able to play the game, able to compete.)
Boldness (they must be decisive and daring.)
Servanthood. (It is not about being the boss, it is about being a servant.)
You can serve the team by helping them grow and win as individuals.) But the end
-goal should be their growth, not the win.

You are not a leader if success is all about you and your performance and your c
ontributions. Leadership is not about raising your hand, being called upon, or d
elivering the right answers. Becoming a leader changes everything. When you beco
me a leader, success is all about growing others. It is about making (growing) y
our people to be smarter, bigger and bolder. Nothing you do as an individual mat
ters anymore, except if you nurture and support your team and help its members i
ncrease their self-confidence.
When placed in command, take charge.

- General H Norman Schwarkopf

The leader is a problem solver, salesman, teacher, organiser, change agent, cris
is manager, and more.
How do you become competent in all these areas? There is only one way: through e
xperience. A team will follow a leader with a strong track record, because compe
tence inspires confidence. Teams want to be led by proven winners.
Decision is a sharp knife that cuts clean and straight; indecision, a dull one th
at hacks and tears and leaves ragged edges behind it. - Gordon Graham
'Courage is fear that has said its prayers. - Dorothy Bernard
Courage is not a feeling. It is a decision, the decision to do the right thing i
n spite of our fears.
Bold leaders don't wait for events and circumstances to turn in their favour. Th
ey take the initiative and control the future. They continually locate it, see w
hat's on the horizon, and seize the moment before it arrives.
COMMITMENT BUILDS EXTREME DREAMS
If you aren't going all the way, why go at all?

- Joe Namath

Great teams are committed teams. Players must be committed to one another, to th
e coach, and to the extreme dream.
If you put on the uniform but you're not committed to the common dream, then you
are an imposter. If you're not 100% committed to your team, then please do ever
yone a favour and walk away.
We don't take applications, only commitments.
rd recruiting advertisement.
Half-hearted commitment
n.

- United States Marine Corps billboa

will cure your dream faster than any obstacle or oppositio

One person with the commitment is worth more than 100 people who only have an int
erest. - Mary Cowley
Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. It is th
e only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead
PASSION BUILDS EXTREME DREAMS
Winning is the ultimate prize, and it takes hard work to achieve it. It is hard
to win without having a passion for the game.
You have to get everyone on your team in

THE ZONE!

Passion shows.
An army is a team. Thus, it lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This indiv
idual heroic stuff is pure foolish. Every single man in this army plays a vital
role. Don't ever let up. Don't ever think that your job is unimportant. Every ma
n has a job to do and you must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great cha
in. Every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important in th
e vast scheme of this war. - Gen George S Patton (shortly before D-Day.)
THINKING TEAMS BUILD EXTREME DREAMS
The most difficult thing to teach players is how to get away from being themselv
es and get with the program. You need four or five guys who force others to comp
ly.
Ubuntu = I am because we are.
The concept of Ubuntu emphasises humility and unselfishness, encouragement and e
mpowerment of others, a sense of connectedness with the team, and a recognition
that the individual succeed only when the whole team succeeds. To practice ubunt
u is to think team at all times. Ubuntu enables a team of diverse personalities
and diversified skills to unite around a common goal and shared values.
Exercising your ego in public is definitely not the way to build an effective or
ganisation. - Sam Walton
None of us is as smart as all of us.
I can learn more about people by playing a three-on-three game with them for 20
minutes than I can by talking with them for a week.
You can't have teamwork without unconditional love.
EMPOWERED INDIVIDUALS BUILD EXTREME DREAMS
Bosses like to maintain command and control. But leaders love to see their players
take control of the situation.
Real genius does not lie in personal achievement, but in unleashing the talents
of others.
How to Empower Others:
Tell your people you believe in them.
When your people talk, listen.
Build your people up, don't tear them down.
When tempted to tear someone down, bite your tongue.
Always be truthful.
Say thank you.
Don't dispense empty praise
Remember that everybody needs encouragement from time to time.
RESPECT & TRUST BUILDS EXTREME DREAMS
STRONG CHARACTER BUILDS EXTREME DREAMS
Whatever the character traits required for a team to excel, the team leader shoul
d be the best example of those traits. - Anthony J. Le Storti
A strong work ethic is contagious. One hard working team member can elevate the

work ethic of an entire team.

I have learned that people are the way they are because they want to be that way
. We rationalise and give all kinds of reasons that it s not true, but bottom line
: You are choosing to be who you are.
Super C Leadership

A couple of years ago a read a great book - Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels
-that had a section in it that really influenced my thinking on what it takes t
o lead. The author referred to three C s (Character, Competence and Chemistry) bei
ng the ingredients for someone he would look to hire on his team.
As a leadership team we discussed this concept at length for months and eventual
ly landed on a descriptive term for the three C s that we called a Super-C leader.
A SUPER-C leader is someone who (though not perfect) exemplifies the three C s.
1. CHARACTER
The Web dictionary define character as the inherent compound of attributes that d
etermines a person s moral and ethical actions and reactions.
In short, it is who you are when no one is looking. It is who you are before God
and for God. It is things like resilience, discipline, passion, determination,
grace, compassion, kindness and a desire to learn and grow.
You are going to find it very hard to lead others if you are not able to lead yo
urself.
2. COMPETENCE
The ability to get the job while leaving wake of relationships of people who lov
ed the journey. It doesn t help to get the job done, but hurt people in the proces
s and it also doesn t help to be everybody s friend but not achieving anything. The
competent leader is able to balance the two.
3. CHEMISTRY
Relational savvy. It is difficult to go along if you can t get along. The person m
ust have the ability to relate with and connect with people.
I have recently heard some share an exercise to determine whether you have chemi
stry with someone or not. Let say you are in your office fully engaged with and
important assignment and someone pops their head into the door to ask you a ques
tion. If you see them as an interruption you most probably don t have chemistry wi
th them. If their face is an welcome sight you most probably have chemistry with
them.
So there you go, a SUPER-C leader has character, competence and chemistry. The p
urpose of this blog is to help you grow in these three areas.
Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love and Leadership
A brief synopsis of the book

Humilitas is basically Latin for humility and that is what this book is all abou
t, humility.
The author starts of with a thesis of what he believes humility is and why it is
important to be humble. He defines humility as the noble choice to forgo your st
atus, deploy resources or use influence for the good of others before yourself Th

e humble person is marked by a willingness to hold power in service of others.

He explains why we should pursue humility.
1. It is common sense
What we don t know and can t do far exceeds what we do know and can do. A little humi
lity, then, is hardly rocket science. It is common sense.
2. It is beautiful
He gives a couple of examples of people we admire because of their humility.
3. It generates abilities
Perhaps the most obvious outcome of being humble is that you will learn, grow and
thrive in a way that proud have no hope of doing.
4. It lifts those around you.
He gives some examples of humble heroes.
5. It creates harmony.
It doesn t mean that you compromise on convictions. Humility applied to convictions
doesn t mean believing things any less, it means treating those who hold contrary
beliefs with respect and friendship.
6. You simply cannot lead without it.
You can t persuade people if you can t connect with them and you are going to find i
t hard to connect with people without some humility.
He gives a very thorough and interesting explanation as to why the ancient world
didn t like humility and then moves on to explain how Jesus redefined greatness f
or all man kind.
He closes the book with 7 steps that would help you to become more humble.
1.
Recognize that you are not humble.
2.
Start loving humility because we are shaped by what we love.
3.
Reflect on the lives of the humble.
4.
Visualize yourself being humble before you move into the tempting situations
.
5.
Act humbly. You need to exercise the humility muscle because actions influ
ence thoughts.
6.
Invite criticism. Constantly ask others for input.
7.
Forget about being humble. (Don t try to appear to be humble.)