Tweet There is one quick way to spur organizational change. I have practiced this one for years and it almost always triggers change. It has worked in business, government and…
Read More
I’ve been having a problem with my youngest son lately. He isn’t reading all the emails he should be reading. In fact, we almost missed paying some fees he had due for college, which could have made him miss some deadlines for school. You see, Nate’s a busy college student. He’s consumed with school work, church activities, and a host of social activities. If you want to lose his attention quickly…send him a really long email.
I can’t complain, because he’s wired like me. He is always busy doing something, hates unproductive time, and some emails, if they tend to ramble, simply don’t capture his attention. I realize it’s ultimately our problem, not the sender, but it almost seems a waste of time to process an email that could have been written with the same information in a much shorter form. Just being honest…I don’t read all the long emails I need to read. Sometimes I miss details, because the email was too long to process.
That’s my honesty….I’m working on it…but lately it seems I’m getting a ton of chapter length emails and it prompted me to think through this issue. If you want me to read your email…and people wired like me, here are some suggestions. In fact, if you simply want to make sure your emails are read, regardless of who you email, consider these thoughts.
Here are 7 ways to ensure your email gets read:
When budgets are stretched, development often is pushed to the back burner or cut altogether from the budget. This is dangerous for a team that wishes to remain healthy and continue growing. If a team is not learning and improving, it will soon struggle to maintain any level of success. It’s important to find ways to develop even during times with stressed budgets.
Here are 10 inexpensive, or less expensive, ways to offer development to a team:
Tweet There are some key components if you wish to lead genuine organizational change. In my observation, many leaders want change and know they need to lead it, but they…
Tweet There is a trick to adding new structure to a growing organization. Frankly, I think there is value in unstructured growth. We shouldn’t be afraid of growth we cannot…
In addition to the normal celebration of Jesus’ resurrection, I love the energy that Easter brings to a church. That energy, if channeled correctly, can fuel a church beyond one day per year. The problem I see with many churches, however, is that they stop the work put into the Easter services a few days too early.
Tweet Change is difficult – almost always. Sometimes change is harder than other times. It’s then when leadership is tested most, tensions mount and people are more likely to object….
Even so, in my position, I often have to say “No”. I have to consider the amount of money and energy expended as it relates to the entire church organization. Honestly, there are times I feel like the dream killer more than I get to be the dream enhancer, because I often have to be the “No” voice, but the fact is, as with any organization, we operate with limited resources and sometimes saying no is the right decision at the time. In these times, I have to walk the delicate balance between saying yes and saying no.
Tweet Being in a leadership position is no guarantee we are leading. Holding the title of leader isn’t an indication one actually leads. I have a whole chapter on this topic…
Tweet There are life cycles of every organization. Over time an organization will likely have many separate cycles. But I have also observed another dynamic within life cycles. In each…