leadership | Craig T. Owens

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The Five Levels Of Leadership (book review)

March 27, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

I was introduced to the wisdom and leadership prowess of John C. Maxwell when I stepped into my first real leadership position. In some of the earliest Maxwell books I devoured, he talk briefly about the five levels of leadership. Now in The Five Levels Of Leadership Dr. Maxwell has given us the in-depth training to these invaluable lessons in growing as a leader.

Leadership is an upward climb. But it’s not just about gaining skills, adding accomplishments to a resume, or even getting a bigger office. True leadership is about investing in more people more deeply. That’s what this book helps leaders do.

People who are content with merely a title, or a new bullet point on their resume, will hate this book because right from the outset Dr. Maxwell bluntly points out the short-sightedness of that pursuit. Instead, the title is just the invitation to Level 1, and the start of a journey that focuses on doing the best good for the most people possible.

For those who have read other Maxwell leadership books, you will hear the echoes of those books woven through these pages. In reality, all of the leadership principles Maxwell has written about—from developing yourself, to building a team, to planning for the future, to communicating with greater clarity—are all built into Levels 1 through 5 of this book.

I appreciated the assessment at the beginning of the book to give me an idea of which Level was going to require my greatest attention. Likewise, the list of needed qualities at the end of each Level’s teaching gave me a handy “To Do” list for my leadership growth plans.

For anyone in any type of leadership position, this book deserves your full attention.

Check out a whole bunch of quotes I share from The Five Levels of Leadership.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: book review, John Maxwell, leadership. 2 Comments »

10 Quotes From “Habitudes”

March 26, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

Honestly, there were amazing things to digest each day that I read a new Habitude (you can read my full book review by clicking here), but here are 10 passages from this book that especially stood out to me.

Unless otherwise noted, all of these quotes are from the author, Dr. Tim Elmore.

“The best leaders almost without exception and at every level, are master users of stories and symbols.” —Tom Peters

“The goal of a leader is to focus, not expand. Growth is a product of focus. Clarify the vision. Focus your people, time, energy and resources. Remember this: just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Intensify, don’t diversify.”

“Leaders need people in their lives who don’t take from them, but who replenish them. If they don’t have this network of people in place, they will use their followers to meet this need. This almost always leads to unhealthy situations.”

“Without question, the greatest emotional need of people today is the need to be understood. And to understand we must listen. Leaders have to get this.”

“Bad listening habits:

Judgmental listening—jumping to conclusions about the speaker.
Selective listening—only hearing what you want to hear.
Impatient listening—finishing other people’s sentences.
Egocentric listening—thinking about what you will say as others are talking.
Patronizing listening—pretending to listen, but really off in your own world.
Stubborn listening—listening, but not open, because your mind is already made up.”

“Winning in this game [chess] is all a matter of understanding how to capitalize on the strengths of each piece and timing their moves just right.” —Bobby Fischer

“Great managing is not about control, but about connection and release. It’s not about your power but your empowerment of others.”

“Think about it: a mediocre leader believes values must be taught. An excellent leader believes that the best is already inside of people—they just need to find it. So, while a mediocre leader’s goal is to overcome weaknesses, the excellent leader’s goal is to identify strengths and focus on them.”

“Choir directors are a good picture of leadership and team building. They recruit, audition, assign parts, rehearse and direct music. But at the end of the performance, the applause goes to the choir.”

“Look at a man the way he is, and he only becomes worse. But look at a man as if he were what he could be, and he becomes what he should be.” —Goethe

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bobby Fischer, book review, Dr. Tim Elmore, Goethe, habitudes, leadership, listening, quotes, vision. Leave a Comment »

Habitudes (book review)

March 25, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

When you combine a memorable visual image with the challenge of a new leadership habit you create something powerful: a habitude. That’s exactly what Dr. Tim Elmore does in his series of exceptional books called Habitudes.

Our minds store information in picture format. For example, when you read “elephant,” you don’t think of the letters e-l-e-p-h-a-n-t, but you think of a huge, floppy-eared, tusk-bearing, mammal on the African savannah. So combining visual images (a right-brained exercise) with life-changing data (a left-brained activity) creates a concept that really sticks with us.

For each one of the 13 habitudes in this book, an image is first presented (for instance, a flood-ravaged home, with the brown swirling water flowing through the front door). Then add to this image some powerful insights from Dr. Elmore about a leader’s responsibility to keep everyone’s energies inside the banks for maximum effectiveness. If a leader doesn’t keep the river’s flow within the banks where it can do some good, the flood of misguided energies can lead to devastation.

Each habitude includes some workspace to help you work through the concepts presented with each image. The pictures create a great “hook” for the concepts to hang in your mind, and the follow-up exercises in each chapter help make the concepts applicable to your unique circumstances.

Each chapter is fairly short, but as the cliche goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” so expect each habitude to teach you a lot without using a lot of written words.

This is a great resource for anyone wanting to improve his or her leadership capabilities. But it would be especially useful for young leaders-in-training in a mentoring/protege role.

Check out some notable quotes from this book here.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: book review, Dr. Tim Elmore, leadership, mentoring, protege. Leave a Comment »

Leaking Influence

March 22, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

Jim Collins has great advice for leaders: When things are going well, look out the window (at your people); when things aren’t going well, look in the mirror (at yourself). This is as true for business CEOs as it is for pastors.

Pastor, you leak.

I leak.

We all leak.

It’s impossible to just maintain where we are. There needs to be a constant refreshing, a constant refilling. We need to keep learning, keep changing, keep renewing. If we don’t, well, this is how Oswald Chambers described it—

“If you are in a position of authority and people are not obeying you, the greatest heart-searching you can have is the realization that the blame does not lie with them, but with you; there is always leakage going on spiritually. Get right with God yourself, and every other one will get in touch with God through you.” (my emphasis)

Pastor, don’t wait: Look in the mirror today, get right with God, replenish what’s leaked out of you, and then watch to see how others in your congregation will begin to move toward God themselves.

Posted in Pastoring. Tags: influence, Jim Collins, leadership, Oswald Chambers, pastoring, pastors, quote, renew. Leave a Comment »

10 Quotes From “You Don’t Need A Title To Be A Leader”

March 19, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

Mark Sanborn has given us a wonderful book to help people be more well-rounded in their leadership, whether they have a title or not. You can read my full book review by clicking here. These are some of the quotes from this book that caught my eye.

“Leaders, untitled or otherwise, realize the extraordinary impact they can have on others and the world around them. They consciously choose to exercise their abilities, skills, and knowledge to help make a difference.”

“The reality is that we all work ‘backstage’ in our lives at times. Real leaders bring the same commitment to excellence to whatever they do, whether on the stage or behind it.”

“I began to see what happened to me as an opportunity rather than an obligation. And it made all the difference. Now when the phone rings, I respond to each call as an opportunity to serve, earn, learn, influence, network, encourage, or teach. The difference isn’t in the caller or the purpose for the call; the difference is in my response. … Genuine, authentic leadership infuses meaning into your life, because you know that your efforts count and that you are serving the needs of others as well as your own.”

“I think of the ‘self-mastery index’ as the ratio between promises made and promises kept—both to oneself and to others. If your mouth keeps making promises that you can’t keep, there is a great deal of room for improvement. Integrity, after all, is measured by the distance between your lips and your life. If you want to be a leader in your own life and in the lives of others, you’ve got to follow through on your own promises, whether you have a title or not.”

“You don’t necessarily have to be smarter or better educated to succeed. Your power lies in your ability to focus on doing what is important. If you focus on the right things, and work at them often, you will achieve exceptional results.”

“People do things for their own reasons, not for yours. To be an effective leader, you need to know how to motivate others.”

“One of the greatest compliments you can be paid as a leader is to have someone say that you helped them be better than they thought they could be.”

“People remember stories. Stories are the coat pegs of the mind. They are where people hang their ideas. Once they have a memorable story to help them remember, they can recall whatever important moral or point you have to make. … Telling an entertaining story is important, but being the story is better.”

“When something doesn’t happen, there is always an explanation. But never accept an explanation as an excuse. … Instead, use explanations to figure out what happened, then look for the lesson that will prevent that something from happening again.”

“Everyone makes a difference. The choice we all have is whether we want to make positive difference or a negative one.”

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: book review, education, leadership, Mark Sanborn, quotes, servant-leadership, stories. 1 Comment »

You Don’t Need A Title To Be A Leader (book review)

March 18, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

Far too many people confuse a title with “arriving” at a place of leadership. In Mark Sanborn’s book You Don’t Need A Title To Be A Leader, he not only shows the fallacy of this, but also shows that anyone, anywhere can lead, even if they are untitled.

Mark Sanborn is an excellent storyteller. He uses this skill to make his points about leading from any place in an organization, instead of writing a point-by-point academic outline of how to lead where you are. Mark uses stories from his own life, and from other friends and colleagues to show us that (as the subtitle of the book says) anyone, anywhere can make a positive difference.

Because this book contains several quotes and anecdotes, many left-brained folks will find it “fluffy.” But don’t be fooled by the power of a good story! Mark correctly shares how impacting telling stories is, but he says it’s even more effective to live your story. In other words, be the leadership story that others will follow. Leadership is not left-brained nor right-brained, but it is whole-brained, and this book will help awaken the creative side which far too many leaders leave dormant.

For anyone who wants to grow as a leader, this is a great book to add to your library.

I am a Random House book reviewer.

I have shared some quotes from this book here.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: book review, creativity, leadership, Mark Sanborn. Leave a Comment »

The Reagan Diaries (book review)

March 6, 2013 — Craig T. Owens

President Ronald Reagan was the first president I was old enough to vote for, so he’s always held a special place in my own personal history. After reading several books about President Reagan, I wanted to read something in his own words. I’m so glad I did! The Reagan Diaries is a forthright look at an amazing man.

If you have studied American history during the Reagan presidency—or maybe you lived through that era of our history—you will gain a greater appreciation for the tough decisions that were made during this time. Reagan came into office on a platform that brought a sense of encouragement to an American people who were feeling a bit beat up, and then he tirelessly worked to follow through on the promises he had made, despite a Congress that was initially very antagonistic toward his policies.

Several things really stood out in these diaries. First is Reagan’s reliance on God. Time and again he writes about the wisdom he found in the Scriptures, or the strength he received in prayer. His faith is inseparable from his success in the White House. His faith was one that came to the forefront especially in dark times. Laying in the emergency room after being shot by a would-be assassin, he wrote:

“I focused on that tiled ceiling and prayer. But I realized I couldn’t ask for God’s help while at the same time I felt hatred for the mixed up young man who had shot me. Isn’t that the meaning of the lost sheep? We are all God’s children & therefore equally beloved by Him. I began to pray for his soul and that he would find his way back to the fold. …Whatever happens now I owe my life to God and will try to serve Him in every way I can.”

Another thing that appears in page after page is his love for Nancy. He writes frequently about how lonely the White House seemed when she was gone, he counted down the days until they would be reunited, and he looked forward to the all-too-short times when they could vacation together or take a break on the weekend just to be alone. On the first wedding anniversary they celebrated in the White House, he wrote, “more happiness than any man could rightly deserve.” And back at George Washington Hospital after the assassination attempt he said,

“I opened my eyes to find Nancy there. I pray I’ll never face a day when she isn’t there. Of all the ways God has blessed me giving her to me is the greatest and beyond anything I can ever hope to deserve.”

Finally, I love Reagan’s “realness.” He never took himself too seriously. He remained accessible to as many people in the White House as he could, and spent a lot of time calling and mailing United States’ citizens he read about in the newspapers or saw on the news reports. He was also brutally honest about his own shortcomings. After one press conference he wrote, “I wasn’t very scintillating.”

This is an excellent book to read for both a study in leadership, and as a companion to other U.S. history books of that period. At 700+ pages, it’s a hefty read, but well worth your time.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: American history, biography, book review, history, leadership, marriage, prayer, presidential history, Ronald Reagan, United States of America. Leave a Comment »

Watch Out For Pride

November 30, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

This post is especially for my fellow pastors, but it would be thoughtful reading for anyone in a leadership position.

Let me state it simply: Pastor, you need to watch out for pride.

Listen to the words of A.W. Tozer—

“A clergyman is a man, and often he has a proud little kingdom of his own, a kingdom of position and often of pride and sometimes with power.”

Pride is so insidious that it can creep into the hearts of leaders at anytime.

When things are going well. We think to ourselves, “Look what I’ve done” or we even spiritualize it a bit to say, “Look what God’s done through me.”
When things are going poorly. Pride causes us to look out the window at others, instead of looking in the mirror at ourselves.
When we’ve successfully handled a situation. We think, “Wow, I’ve really got it!”
When we’ve dropped the ball and we make excuses instead of asking for forgiveness.
And on and on it goes….

One of the things that has helped me immensely is the thoughts Kenneth Blanchard and Phil Hodges shared in their book Lead Like Jesus. They point out that every leader has an ego. The issue is what kind of ego is it?

It can be negative: E.G.O. = Edging God Out

It can be positive: E.G.O. = Exalting God Only

So what do we do to make sure we have the God-honoring E.G.O.?

Look in the mirror. James says the Bible is the perfect mirror. So how does your life line up with the Scripture? Don’t sugarcoat it … Don’t make excuses … Say the words “Look at me” or “Wow, I’ve got it” out loud. Do you find those in God’s Word? If not, root it out!
Get some tough guys around you. You need some loving people around you that aren’t the ones writing your press releases. You need people around you that can boldly say, “Ahem! You appear to be getting off track.”
Monitor your gut-level responses. If you feel defensive, or if you feel the need to justify or make excuses, watch out because that’s pride’s signature.
Stay on your knees. Not only in prayer, but in service too. It’s awfully hard to get full of yourself when you’re washing feet, or scrubbing toilets. If you ever think any job is beneath you, watch out because you may have been infected by pride.

“Depth under depth of self-love and self-admiration. Pride! It was through Pride that the devil became the devil; it is the complete anti-God state of mind. Pride is essentially competitive in a way the other vices are not. Pride is a spiritual cancer.” —C.S. Lewis

I have two companion chapters in my book Shepherd Leadership: The Metrics That Really Matter that dive deeper into this topic: “A confident leader’s attitude adjustment” and “A humble leader’s attitude adjustment.” I hope you will pick up a copy.

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Posted in Pastoring. Tags: A.W. Tozer, accountability, Bible, C.S. Lewis, excuses, forgiveness, Kenneth Blanchard, leadership, pastoring, prayer, pride, quotes. 2 Comments »

The Present Of Presence

November 2, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or Audible.

The words Paul writes to Timothy (his young protege) are the wise counsel of a seasoned veteran to a young pastor. These are words of wisdom that pastors should be especially attentive to, but they also apply to anyone who is in a position of leadership (like a parent, teacher, coach, or employer).

After challenging Timothy to set an example by his lifestyle, Paul adds these words—

Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy 4:15-16)

“So that everyone may see your progress.” Quite simply: you have to be present—you have to be around people so they can see what’s going on in your life. Your presence in their lives is your present to their lives!

I need to monitor what I’m doing and why I’m doing it; what I’m teaching and how I’m teaching; what I believe and why I believe it.

I need to have goals and benchmarks. I need to make my goals—and my successes and failures in hitting my goals—known to others.

I need to be in it for the long haul. It’s awfully difficult to be an example in the present if my eyes and thoughts are always on “the next thing” down the road.

Look at the blessings—the presents—of living this way: You will save both yourself and your hearers.