Wildfoote: A Leadership Journey

Changing The World

Recently on his blog, Tim Sanders mentioned Nick Morgan’s book, Give Your Speech, Change The World.  It caught my attention, so I decided to pick up the book.  I am glad I did.

Much of leadership is communication…anywhere from small group presentations to speaking to large gatherings.  And each opens up the opportunity to influence and bring impact….to change the world.

Nick has much wisdom and experience in this arena.  His challenge to listen to the audience when one is giving a speech, was both intriguing and made a lot of sense.  So often speakers are focused one way and concentrating hard to on what they are saying.  Bringing the audience into the experience creates a greater chance that the speech will actually cause them to take action.

There are many more challenging tidbits and practical ideas throughout the book.  If you are in a place of leadership, developing and honing your communication skills is a must.

The Daily 7 (er...6)

When it comes to leading, one of the biggest challenges that I have faced is leading myself.  And the question remains, how can we lead others if we cannot lead ourselves?

With that in mind, I have used the beginning of 2009 as a catalyst for committing to lead myself in a few key areas (please…not resolutions).  The idea came to me to call them my Daily 7 but only came up with 6 key commitments…so maybe I will need to change the name. 

Actually the commitments are tied to larger goals that I have set out for 2009, such as reading through the Bible, reading 25 books, losing 25 pounds, etc.  So here they are:

1.    Read a section of Scripture
2.    Additional reading – minimum of 30 minutes
3.    Exercise minimum of 30 minutes
4.    Encourage or thank someone
5.    Pray for Liz and the kids
6.    Blog something I am learning, thinking about or experiencing
7.    ?

2009 is 5 days old and I have done well in some and struggling in others.  I am committed to not allow them to be a chain but rather a springboard that allows me to continue to grow as a leader.  Feel free to ask me how I am doing.

Creating an Experience

Okay...for those of you that know me well, I can see your eyes rolling now.  But I just have to say that I am really being impacted by the book, The Starbucks Experience.  Anybody who is trying to impact a customer and create a positive experience should read the book.

And at the risk of being misunderstood or labeled too corporate, I think there is much church leaders and small group leaders could learn from what Starbucks is doing.

The section on their mantra of "Connect", "Discover", and "Respond" in my estimation, is worth the price of the book.  I highly recommend giving this book a read!!