G.K. Chesterton penned these words over a century ago. If they were true then, imagine how much more so they are now: “These are the days when the Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own.”
“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” —Steve Jobs
Epaphras literally put his life on the line to tell others about Jesus (Colossians 1:7; Philemon 23) and then tenaciously wrestled in prayer for the saints he led to the Lord (Colossians 4:12). That is a life worth emulating!
Sarah Young uses passages of Scripture and writes in the first-person voice as though Jesus Himself was speaking to us. “When you bring Me prayer requests, lay out your concerns before Me. Speak to Me candidly; pour out your heart. Then thank Me for the answers that I have set into motion long before you can discern results. When your requests come to mind again, continue to thank Me for the answers that are on the way. If you keep on stating your concerns to Me, you will live in a state of tension. When you thank Me for how I am answering your prayers, your mind-set becomes much more positive. Thankful prayers keep your focus on My Presence and My promises.”
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“Kids these days just don’t understand!”
That’s probably a phrase you’ve heard more than a few times from members of generations your elder, and there is some truth to it! Each generation has very diverse experiences which make them unique from the groups before and after them. In today’s episode, Greg and I want to encourage you to understand and embrace generational differences to make your team stronger.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
One of the most important boundaries that shepherd leaders need to establish—especially when contending with biting sheep—is the protection of their family. Check out this clip from The Craig and Greg Show.
You can watch the full episode in which Greg and I talk about some of the principles in When Sheep Biteby clicking here.
Please pick up a copy of When Sheep Bite for yourself by clicking here.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
In the wise words of John C. Maxwell, “He who thinketh he leadeth and hath no one following him is only taking a walk.” As always Maxwell is right on the money. And the first step to getting others to follow you is trust. If you want to lead your team into uncharted territory they have to first trust that you’re not going to lead them off a cliff! In today’s episode Greg and I cover why trust is so vital and offer suggestions on how to build and maintain trust.
[0:42] People only listen to leaders that they can trust.
[2:03] Trust is an emotional glue between a leader and the team.
[3:03] Trust has to be built over time.
[6:07] Sometimes our teammates will test our trustworthiness.
[6:57] How leaders build trust.
[10:22] Phrases leaders should never use!
[12:07] Be careful of becoming defensive if someone questions your trustworthiness.
[13:26] Some people are unaware that they are not trustworthy.
[13:59] In building trust, be sure to extend grace to others.
[15:10] An external coach can help you spot the areas where you may be undermining your own foundation of trust.
[16:28] Trust builds culture and culture builds trust.
[18:04] Trusting cultures foster greater creativity and camaraderie.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
Everyone knows that we all make mistakes. Good leaders know more than this: They know that it is their responsibility to help those around them recover from those mistakes.
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I am so excited to announce that my co-host Greg has written a new book called Sales Armageddon. As anyone in the profession knows, sales can be a battlefield. Through fables and insightful teaching Greg’s book will equip you with new strategies you can implement right away to keep yourself and your team in the fight.
[0:30] Greg’s new book is out.
[1:40] The book contains a business fable based on real people.
[3:39] Salespeople can learn from this book how to work well and grow because of others.
[5:52] This is a very entertaining book that helps us learn.
[7:16] All salespeople need o learn to work with their peers.
[8:40] Sales Armageddon is not just a soft story but it shares the science of sales as well.
[9:35] Here is a teaser of a key chapter on developing a robust sales pipeline.
[12:46] This book has both the emotion and the hard skills of excelling in sales.
[14:47] Greg says that each chapter is going to remind you of someone you’ve worked with before, or it may even remind you or yourself!
[16:37] This is not a “heavy” read, but this is something that you are going to be able to immediately apply to your sales work.
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
How do leaders make sure that obstacles to their personal or organizational growth don’t become permanent?
This clip is from a lengthy conversation Greg and I had about leaders being like gardeners. You can check it out here. The main point is this: The seeds have what they need to grow, so the gardener-leader simply has to remove the obstacles to growth.
You may also want to check out a couple of related posts:
Leaders must resist trying to rush in “to save the day.” We need to let our teammates learn how to rescue themselves through a time of productive struggle. Check out the full conversation Greg and I had in our episode “The struggle is real (but necessary).”
I have had an ongoing series of posts and videos called “Is that in the Bible?” Many times we discover that a phrase we think is biblical isn’t found in the Scripture or it is being used out of context. John Stonestreet addresses this same concern. He writes, “Selective proof-texting points to how widespread and deep biblical illiteracy is. In addition to an ignorance of the actual content of the Bible, there is ignorance about what the Bible even is, and how Christians throughout the ages have used it. It’s bad when this ignorance shows up in politics. It’s sad when it shows up in our churches and Christian subcultures.”
“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths.” —Arnold Schwarzenegger
Marcus Buckingham shared something fascinating: “I studied 3000 Disney housekeepers. Eight of them told me what they loved about their work. One vacuums herself out of every room to make perfect carpet lines. Another lies on every bed to test the ceiling fan because dust falling means guests think the room is dirty. A third arranges kids’ toys in elaborate scenes—Mickey with the TV remote, Minnie with french fries. All breaking Disney’s rules. All excellent for completely different reasons. Stop building competency models for leaders. The best leaders are super different from each other. Average is homogenous. Excellence is idiosyncratic.”
Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.
The multitude of books written about business and leadership is nearly incalculable. If you began reading now and did nothing else you could spend the rest of your life reading business books and still have many unread at the end of your life. Yet the wealth of knowledge contained within these books still pales in comparison to the insights provided to us by THE book—the Bible. In today’s episode Greg and I are happy to announce we are working on a new project called Business By The Book, which combines biblical insights with real-world applications.
[0:00] Introduction
[0:40] Greg and I are working on a project that we are so excited to be doing!
[1:50] We cover all the “boxes” on a corporate flowchart with this project. We start with the CEO box.
[3:56] We have been working as leadership coaches before there even was such a term.
[5:34] I will be writing from the Bible side and Greg will be writing from the business side in all of these books.
[8:21] If you are the point leader in your organization, you need to go first in reading this book and getting copies for others.
[9:10] We need your help for future books in this series.
On our 100th episode, Greg and I talk about how important it is for leaders to let people learn through their struggle, so we need to reject the temptation to jump in to help them too soon. Check out the full conversation The Struggle is Real (but Necessary).
John Piper was asked how to identify false teachers or prophets, and he gives four biblical tests to determine this. But I also appreciate this admonition: “Don’t set the bar so low that you only stop listening to people if they can be properly called false teachers. Lots of people are teachers who are simply misguided and unhelpful in many ways but might not come under the ban of being called a false teacher. Set your standards high. Listen to people who are truly God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated, Spirit-dependent, who bear the marks in their lives of authenticity.”
In imploring Christians to not shrink back from difficult trials but to rise and conquer in the strength of the Spirit, Greg Morse makes this observation: “When the risen Christ walked among His early churches (as He walks among them still), His eye was very keen to observe and His heart very ready to address a particular kind of person in every assembly: ‘the one who conquers’ (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). To each of the seven churches, He summons and strengthens the one who would overcome, prevail, hold fast, keep strong, stand firm, and move forward—the victors in Christ amid a larger group in the church who only profess to know Him.”
Two separate geological studies found a period in history where rock formations were impacted by massive amounts of water. ICR adds, “Because conventional geologists deny the historical accuracy of Genesis, they operate at a loss. They see evidence of massive erosion and tremendous water flow at the end of the Tejas Megasequence and just prior to the Ice Age but are hampered by their uniformitarian thinking to explain it. But the Bible gives us answers. Genesis describes a global flood that peaked on Day 150. The sedimentary rocks across all of the continents confirm this peak occurred at the end of the Zuni Megasequence (at the K-Pg). And the rocks confirm that the Tejas Megasequence records the subsequent receding phase.”
There was a Man who
dwelt in the east centuries ago,
And now I cannot look at a
sheep or a sparrow,
A lily or a cornfield,
a raven or a sunset,
A vineyard or a mountain,
without thinking of Him. —G.K. Chesterton
Clinton Manley addresses the place of physical exercise in the life of a Christian. Before sharing three astute observations about this interaction, he notes, “Body or soul is a false dichotomy. As Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians 9:24–27, physical fitness and spiritual fitness don’t have to be either-or; they’re best as both-and. The body and soul have an inseparably reflexive relationship: the body affects the soul, and the soul affects the body. God created us to glorify Him by enjoying Him, and the body is the soul’s training partner in the pursuit of spiritual pleasures.”
“Who will trust me with a spiritual body if I cannot control even an earthly body?”—C.S. Lewis
Greg and I shared some insights for leaders interacting with people from different generations. Check out this clip about Gen Y.
Craig T. Owens 