The Problem with Defining Leadership
The Problem with Defining Leadership Defining leadership is difficult. It's kind of like defining love, friendship, or goodness. And similarly, there are almost as many definitions as there are people you may ask. One major problem with defining leadership is the term can refer to a position or a person. The function of a person in charge of a group or company is typically called the leader. However, leadership also refers to the way in which a person oversees others. This second use of the word is what we're attempting to define. I've recently spent some time thinking through the ...
3 Reasons Church Leaders Don’t Start Great Volunteer Teams
Church Leaders and Volunteer Teams Great church leaders don’t always lead great volunteer teams. In fact, some hardly oversee any volunteer teams at all. These leaders may lead a team of temporary paid workers, or work nonstop making sure nothing falls through the cracks. I believe there are three main reasons church leaders don’t start and sustain great volunteer teams. Understanding these reasons can help unlock an army of volunteer talent your church may be missing. 3 Reasons Church Leaders Don’t Start Great Volunteer Teams 1. They don’t know how Has anyone ever taught you how to recruit, train, and ...
Leadership is Helpfulness
In the end, everyone's simply looking for a way to sweeten their deal. This is what our trainer at Bartell & Bartell shared while teaching us about personality assessment. He meant that if most people were honest, they're just looking for a way to make things a little better for themselves. It was in this context that he explained Servant Leadership. A lot has been written about servant leadership recently. It was actually popularized as a leadership style in 1970 by Robert Greenleaf with his book, Servant Leadership. The idea, shown in the picture below, is to invert the traditional leadership ...
3 Complications with Looking for Church Volunteer Leadership
Where are the Leaders? Churches, like most organizations, are always looking for leaders. I recently read an interesting article meant to help church leaders determine whether congregants are leaders or simply doers. Although I agree developing leaders is one of the greatest challenges any organization faces, I disagree with placing people in these two categories. In fact, I believe attempting to distinguish between those worthy to be called leader from those who merely do can actually hurt leadership development in your church or organization. Part of the problem is we set the concept of leader on a high throne and then ...
3 Essential Leader Types for a Great Team
It Takes a Team There’s something about leadership teams. Whether in cartoons, sports, or in real life, we somehow instinctively get that we need the various gifts and strengths of others to succeed as a leader. It may be easy to understand this need as an essential concept, but it’s a lot harder to think through in real life. In real life we get annoyed that more people don’t think like we do. In real life we are naturally attracted to those who get what needs to be done organizationally in the same way we do. In real life we ...
Why Can’t Everyone Lead Like You
Law of the Hammer Have you ever noticed how easy it is to view your leadership style as superior to others? If you lead with your gut and make quick decisions, it’s difficult when others take their time. But, on the other hand if you lean towards facts and figures, it’s frustrating when those around you want to move quickly before having all the pertinent information. We sometimes struggle with those with a different leadership style than our own. There’s a good reason for this. In the 1960’s, famed Psychologist Abraham Maslov saw a pattern of behavior in humans he ...
360 Degree Parenting Leadership Feedback
Greater personal insight leads to better leaders. The better we understand and develop our strengths, while facing and working on our weaknesses, the stronger leader we’ll become. We understand this at work, so many jobs offer a 360 degree feedback loop where peers and subordinates have a chance to rate a co-worker in certain categories. This type of task gives great feedback and insight to any employee. If it works at work, then why not use a 360 degree feedback loop at home with our family to help us become better leaders as parents to our children? So, I made ...
What is Thorne Inc.?….from my weird family to yours: part 2
What is Thorne Inc.? Thorne Inc. is an imaginary company based around the everyday happenings of my family. As I write about leading my family, it gives me a place to apply leadership principles I'm learning in my leadership master's degree and also an outlet for humor. You can read more why I created Thorne Inc. and catch the first few humorous posts in Thorne Inc. HERE. I'll share posts related to Thorne Inc. every once in a while here on my blog. I primarily post about Thorne Inc. on the Thorne Inc. Facebook page. If you'd like to keep up to ...
Making Decisions that Won’t Make Your Kids Crazy
How does your family make decisions? I'm talking about things like: what kids should wear to school, eat for breakfast, haircut to get, sport to play, what the family will eat for dinner, do on the weekend, and do with their free time? Families make a lot of decisions. One study on leadership determined there are 4 main decision making styles. When managing people or leading a team, it's important to determine the appropriate decision-making style that will bring about the most success for the team and development of the individuals on the team. But, these 4 leadership styles don't have to stay ...
Every Family Needs a Vision
Every great company begins with a vision. A vision is an inspiring but simple word picture of a future you hope to create. I love how John Maxwell explained, “Vision is everything for a leader. It paints the target. It sparks and fuels the fire within, and draws him forward…Show me a leader without vision, and I’ll show you someone who isn’t going anywhere” (1999, p. 150). Pastor Bill Hybels said it this way, “Vision is at the very core of leadership. Vision is the fuel that leaders run on…It’s the fire that ignites the passion of followers” (2002, p. ...