Bear with me through a little Bible pilgrimage to illustrate a point about grace.
As an avid user of social media in my work, people seem to enjoy sending me negative articles on the rise of social networking and its negative impact on our culture.
Most businesses are being forced to think through and add a social media policy to their human resource policies. The rise of Facebook, Twitter and other social networking choices means the workplace is being impacted greatly by social media. Individuals represent their organization even during their personal time and that needs to be considered in employee management.
For most of us though, we need better customer service than this. We must train our employees and volunteers to represent the organization well by putting on a smile, leaving personal problems at home, and being ready to assist our customers or clients with a welcoming attitude.
Leaders should not use individuality as an excuse for inadequacy. Excellence should be a standard for all leaders. There are key leadership principles, especially Biblical principles that no leader can ignore, but the goal should never be to carbon copy another’s leadership style. Just as every individual is unique in his or her personality, every leader will have uniqueness in his or her leadership style. Great leaders figure out the style that works best for them to produce the greatest results.
One common misunderstanding is that those who teach principles are perfect at implementing those same principles in their life. Hopefully before someone agrees to teach on a subject they have a certain “expertise” in the area he or she teaches, whether by education or experience, but it is probably false to believe he or she is perfect in every area they claim expertise.
Tweet One of the greatest challenges I feel the pressure of regularly is putting the big picture vision I own in my head into an easy to understand, explainable format…
We often try to complicate the call. Sometimes we spend more time and energy trying to figure out the where and how of ministry and less time and energy on our primary calling. Obviously the where and how are important, but it seems to me that if we will concentrate on following God’s heart and investing in others that the where and how will be easier to discern.
Anyone who knows me very well knows that I am a networker and a wisdom-seeker. Since I was in high school I have tried to surround myself with people heading in the direction I want to go who know more about a subject than I do and I am never afraid to ask for help.
Recently while I was in Lithuania I spoke with some people who want the country to return to Communism, because, as they put it, they feel they are “missing hope” in a capitalistic society. Under Communism, even though most had very little and the same people told story after story of doing without and wanting for more, they at least knew what to expect. That was their definition of hope. I understand that capitalism allows a large amount of uncertainty and risk. There are few guarantees, but that is what makes it capitalistic, the ability for individuals to make a difference for themselves through hard work, risk and speculation.