It caught my attention. A hat on a shelf in a gift shop. No, it was really the writing on the hat. A lot of people love to give advice. But, advice from a tree? Since when did trees start giving advice? What could I learn from a tree?
Of course, I learned in fourth-grade science that trees are a benefit to our world – shade, oxygen, filtering the air, preventing erosion, providing food, building materials, habitat for wildlife and so much more. Our environment would self-destruct without trees. But can I learn something from a tree? The hat said it all. Four simple things. The way I try to live my life. I think, the best way for everyone to live life. So, here’s some advice from a tree:
Go Out on a Limb – Someone told me early in my ministry calling, “Go out on a limb, because that’s where the fruit is.” Thirty-five years of risk-taking ministry has proven that advice given to a fledging pastor was a nugget of gold. Albert Einstein said, “A ship is always safe at the shore – but that is NOT what it is built for.” I learned from my limb-crawling father—no risk, no reward. As a grass-seed farmer, he taught me to plant the seed even with possibilities of too little rain, cold, heat, birds, insects, weeds or too much rain. Many things might destroy the crop, but there definitely was no harvest if you didn’t go out on a limb and plant the seed.
Stand Tall and Proud – My mother coached me early in life to stand up, pull my shoulders back, and walk with my head in the air. No place for sagging shoulders, head down, looking at the ground as if you had lost your last penny. However, standing tall and proud was very different than walking with your nose in the air. Confidence saturated with humility dissuades arrogance. My parents modeled it.
[Tweet “Confidence saturated with humility dissuades arrogance.“]
Remember Your Roots – The wisdom of age helps me to realize how significant my roots are. As I reflect on a history of great grandparents who were late 19th century immigrants from Europe to America and then early 20th century Far West pioneers to Oregon, I’m humbled. Moving my family to Florida 28 years ago with the modern conveniences of the 1980’s and even some financial backing to found a church isn’t all that impressive. So, I’m using my next four months of sabbatical to explore more of both those European and Oregon family roots.
Enjoy the View – Most every child loves to climb a tree for the challenge and the view. We love to drive to the highest point overlooking a city or a scenic countryside view. Climbing above our circumstances for a different vantagepoint gives a whole new perspective. Unfortunately, we often get caught up in the daily grind and life becomes mundane and joyless. Living life to the fullest includes purposefully slowing down to be grateful, reflecting on God’s grace, goodness and blessings. This intentionality will give you a different angle from which to view your life.
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So, I’ve learned from a lot of things in life. Now, I’ve learned from a tree. And, I will look at a tree each and every day through new eyes. How about you?
QUESTION: What additional advice do you think a tree might give if it could speak? I’d love to hear it in the comment section below. Thanks!
Napoleon wrote, “A leader is a dealer in hope.” I love that. The ability to create and stir up hope in others is one of the trademarks of great leadership. Hope is a core desire to see something come to completion and fulfillment.
In a business or an organization, it is the leader who must be able to influence others to see and pursue the preferred future. The success of an organization hinges on bringing hope to the entire team. People must at some point embrace the vision as their own. When this happens, hope has taken root.
I’m reflecting this week as the church I founded is opening up a park to bless our city. Five acres of the 14 acre church site will be solely focused on providing an environment for families to gather and build memories.
When the church was two years old, we began assembling three city blocks of 48 individually-owned properties. It took a few months short of ten years to get the 48th piece. Along the way, a few folks gave up and thought the church would continue to rent a school cafetorium and never get its own place. But most discovered hope. They held on to that hope for the entire ten-year process. I look back and find it quite amazing that I was able to lead several hundred people to hope in a vision that became a reality.
I recently read a blog on hope by Mark Miller, author of “The Heart of Leadership,” I recognize now how much I was a dealer in hope over those years. How do leaders create hope? Mark Miller correctly notes at least four essential elements required for hope to emerge…
CHARACTER – Leadership skills are never enough to cultivate followship. To become a leader people want to follow also requires leadership character. When you and I are deemed trustworthy, we have the opportunity to plant the seeds of hope. Until then, we have little chance of success.
CLARITY – Vague generalities have limited power to stir hope. For you and I to talk about a better day has limited appeal. However, when we talk specifically about a preferred future, we have a chance at generating hope. Over the 10 years of assembling the three blocks of properties, we kept publically coloring in the poster board map of the 48 pieces, one by one, block by block.
COMPETENCE – People may initially follow a leader who they perceive to have character and delivers a clear message. But, they won’t follow that leader for long if they sense a lack of competence. Without this confidence in a person’s competence, there can be no hope. People see leaders without competence as imposters – not dealers in hope.
CONSTANCY – I mean unchanging or unwavering. Mark Miller said it best, “Leaders understand more than most that progress is rarely a straight line and it is almost always opposed. When the path into the future becomes difficult, it’s easy for people to want to abandon the journey. It is often the leader’s unwavering and unchanging vision that will stem the tide of disbelief and skepticism. Leaders must stay on message regardless of challenges and setbacks or hope will be lost.” Yep! So very true!
Hope, and the ability to generate it, is a big part of what we do as leaders. But the truth is, at some point, we must deliver. Hope without progress is unsustainable. It actually fades rather quickly. I’m so grateful to have the privilege of being a dealer of hope. And even more, I’m thankful I’ve been able to raise up the next generation of young leaders who are outstanding hope dealers.
And, even more powerful, is the reality that leaders are more than dealers in hope; we create the future. That’s what ultimately keeps hope alive!
QUESTION: What additional elements do you think are required for hope to emerge? I’d love to hear it!
A line from the most quoted Psalm in the Bible reads, “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life…” (Ps. 23:6). The writer was totally confident that he was leaving a trail of goodness and loving kindness in his tracks. What kind of path will your life carve for those come behind you? Are you leaving behind blessing and benefit or cursing and carnage?
As a pastor, I’ve led hundreds of funerals over the last 35 years. I usually get a good read on the kind of trail people have left behind them. Often I’m inspired. Occasionally I’m saddened. I see the pain caused by careless living or the lack of intentionally blessing the generations that follow.
In Calvin Harper’s blog on Christian Grandparenting, he tells the story of James Boswell—the famous biographer of Samuel Johnson, an 18th century writer, poet and compiler of A Dictionary of the English Language. Boswell’s biography of Johnson became one of the most famous works of the day.
As a boy, Boswell tells of an experience when his father took him fishing. It was a day he reflected on with great fondness well into adulthood. One day that changed when, after his father’s death, James read his father’s diary. In it his father revealed his own view of that fishing day with his son: “Gone fishing today with my son; a day wasted.”
Harper concludes: “You can imagine the trail of negative emotions that must have followed James Boswell’s father for his son because of those few careless words. And if he dared to write them in his diary, one has to wonder what other messages he left in his wake.”
How do we make sure goodness and mercy is following our lives? We can learn from the Psalmist. Right before verse 6 quoted above, David wrote these words in verse 5: “You [God] prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You [God] anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
It seems obvious that God’s gracious and lavish grace was filling the heart of David to overflowing so that his life was a conduit of that grace to others. The goodness of God and the recognition of God’s mercy or loving kindness filled David’s emotional and spiritual reservoir. Out of the spillover, God’s grace trickled and even gushed over those who followed behind.
[Tweet “If our hearts are overflowing with purpose, meaning, grace and peace, there will be a stream of goodness and loving kindness following us all the days of our lives.”]
The people around us will be blessed or disheartened by the trail we leave. If our hearts are overflowing with purpose, meaning, grace and peace, there will be a stream of goodness and loving kindness following us all the days of our lives. What’s following you?
QUESTION: What are some additional ways you’ve learned to leave a trail of goodness and mercy behind you? Share it in the comments below.
It just ended this week. March Madness spilled over into April. It was a sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat end to college basketball season. While UConn defeated Kentucky in the final, the NCAA tournament was full of sub texts and life lessons. One of the reasons sports captures our imagination is that it showcases our hopes, dreams and aspirations. Even if we aren’t suited up and out on the floor, at some level, we all want to win.
The harsh reality is that leaders don’t always win. In the NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball tournament, there were a lot of busted brackets. Little known teams upset the “big dogs” of college basketball. Number one seeds were beaten by number 15 seed teams. It happens nearly every year.
In the first round of this year’s tournament, Duke University played Mercer University. It was a proverbial David and Goliath match-up. And like life, you should be careful about betting on the underdog. Mercer pulled off a monster upset by beating powerhouse Duke 78-71. Upsets happen. Quite regularly. But what happened after the game is the real story.
After meeting with his own team, Coach Mike Krzyzewski, the winningest coach in college basketball history, went to visit the other team. I know. It seems odd. Of course, it’s normal to do the obligatory handshake with the opposing coach. But Coach K wanted to personally congratulate the Mercer players for one of this season’s biggest upsets, and arguably the biggest in Mercer history.
That story makes for some great life lessons about what to do when you lose. Here are three suggestions.
Accept Responsibility – Regardless of the refs, player injuries or any other factors, the best leaders own the outcome. It’s their team. They are responsible. Win or lose. Mark Miller does a masterful job with this topic when he writes about accepting responsibility as a character issue in his book, The Heart of Leadership.
Be Gracious – None of us like to lose. It is painful. Arrogance walks away with head bowed. Humility congratulates the winners. Leaders need to model the same grace in defeat we should demonstrate in victory. [Tweet “What we do when we lose says more about our leadership character than what we do when we win.”]
Learn From Defeat – Zig Ziglar always said, “If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost.” [Tweet “Every loss has a potential to improve our game.”] If we refuse to learn from our defeats, we have wasted our pain. When I really think about it, I’ve probably learned more through failure than I have through successes. Leaders are learners. We can learn both in winning and losing.
The Duke Blue Devils lost the game – but Coach Krzyzewski proved once again, he’s definitely a winner and a leader!
QUESTION: What additional things have you learned about making the most out of losing? I’d love to learn from you in the comment section below.
Your personality may attract a following, but it won’t have any long-term impact. For long-term impact, you need something more than lots of charisma and a good public image. You need character. Effective leadership is an inside-out job.
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If you are one person when the spotlights are on you and someone different when the lights go down, you will never leave a legacy of influence. Lack of consistency and integrity will eventually undermine the public persona. Talent, education, experience and all of the rest of your resume is important but in the end, it is our character that makes or breaks us. Nothing is quite as important to success as developing our character.
Michael Hyatt’s recent writing confirmed my experience. He says character is shaped by three forces. If we want to develop our character, we need to give attention to each of them.
The Input We Consume. What are you reading, watching and listening to? Is it uplifting you and growing you? Watching endless hours of television, viewing pornography, or mindlessly ingesting the worst of popular culture, erodes character. It is crucial to be attentive to the input we consume. It affects us in deep and profound ways.
The Relationships We Pursue. Jim Rohn claims that “you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” If this is true—and I’m convinced it is—we have to be more intentional about the people we choose to associate with. If you want to lose weight, hang with people who make good choices about diet and exercise. If you want a better marriage, socialize with people who have healthy ones. And of course, dissociate from people who reinforce your worst traits. “Bad company corrupts good character” according to the Bible (see 1 Corinthians 15:33).
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The Habits We Acquire. I’m simply talking about the consistent ways we think, speak, and act in different situations. They are largely unconscious, which is what gives them their power—both positively and negatively. Good habits lead to good outcomes. Bad habits lead to poor outcomes.
If we develop the habit of praising our spouse in public, we get more of what we affirm. If we develop the habit of positive thinking, it can help us cope with challenges and difficulty. If we make healthy food choices, it can increase our energy, improve our productivity, and extend our lives. That’s why we have to be intentional about building good habits and breaking ourselves of bad ones.
Nothing should be of higher importance for developing effectiveness as leaders than the cultivation of our own character. Why? Because ultimately we will reproduce who we are—for good or for bad.
QUESTION: Are there any additional points you would add that you have found to shape character? Please share it below in the comment section.
“The best is yet to come.” That’s the tagline my friend Suzanne Leonard uses with every email and Facebook post. In fact, she usually precedes this tagline with “take a deep breath.” The other day I read an article published by Fortune magazine, “The World’s 50 Greatest Leaders.” At the #1 spot was Pope Francis. As a spiritual leader myself, that made me smile. But something else grabbed my attention even more.
What I noticed most as I read down through the list of these top 50 world leaders was their age. Most were over 50. Many were in their 60’s and 70’s. Only a handful were below 50 with a sprinkling in their 40’s and 30’s. And then there was the one standout, Malala Yousafzai, a 16 year old in Swat, Pakistan. She is a courageous advocate for educational rights for women—standing up to the Taliban.
Reading through this list of top world leaders made me think about what my cousin from Montana sent me on my birthday last December when I turned 60. Dean is three months older than I and this is what he wrote: “We had a fellow at church give a 2 day seminar on jobs (learning to love your work). It is a statistical fact that a man’s most productive decade is his 60’s, followed by the 50’s and lastly the 70’s. So we still have 20 good years ahead of us.”
I meet so many men and women in their 60’s who assume they are “over the hill,” “rounding the curve,” or “winding down.” What if our go to phrase became “the best is yet to come?” So much of life is about our attitude and outlook. Attitude determines altitude. If you believe everything in the past was “the good old days,” then you are staring in your rearview mirror. What are you anticipating? You usually find what you are looking for.
One of my mentors, Tony Hostetler, shared with me the week before he died that the last 25 years of his career as a pastor had been the most fruitful time of his life. He wasn’t discounting the impact he had made during the first 35 years of his ministry. He was just gratefully reflecting on the exponential fruit he saw from age 63 to age 88. Serving along side of Tony over the final 25 years of his life has given me confidence that the best is yet to come.
So, I have a few suggestions of possible next steps toward increasing the possibility that the best is yet to come:
- Make sure you understand your purpose and calling.
- Live in the sweet spot where your 3 critical C’s (core, capacity and context) intersect.
- Have a clear mission statement.
- Assemble a personal board of directors to give you feedback and hold you accountable.
- Spend time engaging with the many resources that are readily available to assist you discovering how to leverage your first half successes for second half significance.
And, above everything else, make sure your attitude is adjusted to actually anticipate that the best is yet to come.
QUESTION: What helps you stay focused on future positive possibilities? Please share it in the comment section below.
There are several sobering parts to every funeral or memorial service I’ve done over the years. I speak about the fact that we all die. It’s one appointment we won’t miss. I also talk about the fact that life is short at it’s longest. It always seems too short. The dash between our date of birth and death is awfully short.
That little dash between the beginning and ending dates of life represents an entire life. Whether it is three decades or nearly a century, that dash is diminutive. It goes by fast. It’s over before you know it. That small dash is what we do with our lives. It will one day be our legacy
I follow Mark Merrill of Family Minute. He recently gave a new slant on this thought of living life in the dash when he wrote about having spoken at a National Football League event using the word DASH as an acrostic. It fit perfectly the tone of what I try to communicate as I seek to inspire others to transformissional living. Here are the four words he used.
D – Determination. Are you living your life with determination? You will be an influence on a lot of people whether you want to be or not. The question is, are you living your life with a positive influence or a negative influence?
A – Awareness. Are you living your life with awareness? Be aware that everything you do and say has implications beyond what you can see with your own eyes. Be aware that you are living in the dash and one day it will be set in stone. What will others say about how you lived your life?
S – Service. Are you living your life in service to God and to others? Winston Churchill said it well, “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.” What do you want to be remembered for, your greed or your generosity? Do you want to be remembered as a taker or a giver? A servant’s heart will long be remembered by the generations behind you.
H – Humility. Are you living your life with humility? In the best-selling business book, Good to Great, author Jim Collins found that all truly great leaders have two things in common. First, they have extreme personal humility. Second, they have an intense professional will to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Make sure you understand that humility doesn’t mean that we think less of ourselves, it just means that we think about ourselves less. To be the finest leader, we think more of our spouse, our children, our co-workers, our friends and our customers.
When you live your dash with determination, awareness, service and humility, you will have maximum impact on the lives of others around you. Then you will leave a legacy worth remembering for generations to come and their lives will be changed forever. And ironically, your life will be changed forever as well.
QUESTION: What other insight about living your dash have I missed? I’d love for you to share it below. Thanks!
I hadn’t thought of it that way before. Until the other day. I read a report of Halftime founder Bob Buford speaking about “seeing the fruit of my life grow on others’ trees.” Then it dawned on me. That’s the goal. Especially in the third third of your life. It makes total sense.
In fact, I’m realizing at this stage of my life, one of the most rewarding parts of having invested the last decade or two in leadership development, I actually get to see the fruit of my life growing on the trees of other younger leaders. In a way, it is more satisfying than seeing fruit grow on your own tree.
As a dad committed to my family as top importance for nearly four decades, I see the very same thing. My three adult children and their spouses, now in their thirties, are demonstrating the fruit of my life on their trees. Furthermore, my wife and I get to see our primary parenting values and principles now being reproduced in the lives of our four beautiful grandchildren.
The sowing and reaping principle is a metaphor for many aspects of life. It is spoken of frequently in the Bible. This principle has significant spiritual implications. It’s also true of character, finances, attitude, behavior and leadership development. We reap what we sow. Seeds planted, watered, nurtured and tended to actually bear fruit. There is a harvest. Positive. Or, not so positive.
If you are going to out live your life and leave a legacy that lasts far beyond your funeral service and the final goodbyes, you need to sow and water seeds in others now that will grow and produce fruit long after your tombstone is tarnished and moss-covered. If your entire life is only focused on the fruit growing on your own tree, then the obvious will happen. When your tree dies, your fruit dies.
So, what are you doing to make sure you have fruit that grows on someone else’s tree? It must be intentional if you expect a great harvest. What step will you take today to either cultivate, plant, water or tend your future crop?
QUESTION: What are some other ways you’ve seen your fruit grow on another person’s tree? I’d love to hear it in the comment section below.
When I look back a few decades and what I felt I had to offer at age 15, it feels much like the young boy’s lunch that Jesus used. Do you know that story? When Jesus asked his closest associates to feed a crowd of thousands, the disciples said all they had was a young boy’s lunch of five loves of bread and two fish. Yet Jesus took that small offering from the boy and not only fed 5,000 men and even more women and children, but the disciples then collected enough food left over to fill twelve baskets. (See John 6:1-13).
From my view, I don’t feel that gifted. There are leaders much more relational, compassionate, better communicators, more visionary and more accomplished than myself. If I look at others and let that determine what I do, I’ll miss what God wants to do through me, and therefore miss the blessings God wants to send my way. God doesn’t hold any of us accountable for what He’s not given us, but He does with what He has given us.
As a high school sophomore, a visit to the principal’s office wasn’t considered a good thing. But he paged me. I went. Principal Glen Roth told me he saw potential in me. He wondered if I had ever thought about becoming a pastor. I had not. I was planning to follow the family tradition of being an Oregon grass-seed farmer. But something changed from that day forward.
God was asking for my tiny lunch. It wasn’t much at all. But from that day forward, I began to listen for and I heard a call to pastoral ministry. I really didn’t think I had much to offer. It was a tiny lunch of just a few loaves and a couple fish, but I was willing to offer it to the Master.
It was another decade long while I discerned the call and made the educational preparations, but at age 25, I started living out that call. Now, 35 years later I’m watching the multiplication of my tiny lunch unfold before my eyes. Thousands of hungry folks are being fed the Bread of Life (John 6:48-51). Homes are being healed. A city is being transformed.
The little bit that I offered up and invested into others over the years is feeding and changing more lives than I could have imagined as a teenager. I’ve learned to never underestimate what God can do with the tiny crumbs we offer him. He will take it and multiply it for exponential impact. To God be all thanks and glory!
What is God asking you to offer to Him today? Is there something in your time, talent or treasure that He wants you to give so He can change the world around you? What’s keeping you from giving Him your lunch? And by the way, thanks Glen for sharing your “tiny lunch” with me 45 years ago!
QUESTION: What stories of multiplication do you have to share with others? We would love to hear it in the comment section.
Who is on your board of directors? Do you even have one? Those questions aren’t just for CEO’s of an organization or a business. They are for all you. Anyone. You may be a leader or not. Do you have a personal board of directors? If not, why not?
About five years ago, I first heard the term Personal of Board of Directors from my friend Lloyd Reeb. When Lloyd mentioned this new concept to me, he spoke of learning it from a favorite author of mine, Jim Collins. Jim suggested about 15 years ago that every good decision maker needs a personal board of directors who embody the core values and ideals the decision maker aspires to achieve. I’m all in on this one.
For about 18 years now, I’ve met with my personal board of directors every Monday for lunch. Unless I’m out of town, this board meeting is at the top of my priority list, no matter how packed my schedule. While we didn’t start meeting for this expressed purpose, over nearly two decades my board members have given me honest and candid feedback. They have asked tough questions. Without passing judgment, they have fostered personal reflection, self-assessment and growth in my life. I hear a lot of distant voices who think they’re called by God to tell me what I should or shouldn’t do, but I don’t give them any weight. They really don’t know me, and they don’t have a history with me. They may have great intentions, but they haven’t earned the right to speak into my life that way.
While my five board members are all in the same business that I am, they are not just an informal board of business advisors. They are guys who I deeply respect and would not want to let down. They are like tribal elders to me. I turn to them for guidance during life transitions, difficult choices, family crisis and ethical dilemmas. They help me to see my strengths and my weaknesses. They have invested in my life for nearly two decades. They’ve earned the right to speak truth into my life. If one of these board members tells me something, it’s almost the same as my wife telling me something. Honestly, my success is connected to their counsel, prayer and advice.
Do you have a personal board of directors? Do you have peers who will stimulate self-renewal and help you to preserve your core values? Do you have key confidants in your life who won’t just support the status quo but will ask you the tough questions? Do you have folks who will help you stay focused on your mission in life when there are competing options and opportunities?
Jim Collins suggests gathering up to seven personal board members. I have five and that works for me. Even two or three is better than none. Start somewhere. They don’t all need to meet with you together at the same time. Sometimes I call or meet with just one of the five regarding a specific challenge I’m facing. Sometimes I just hold an imaginary board meeting, envisioning what each board member might say about a given situation.
Although some personal board members will likely be close associates, they need not all be. You just need to have a deep respect for the person and their values, and that they have the insight, experience and thoughtfulness needed to see things you might be missing. They should be nonjudgmental and compassionate but unafraid to ask pointed and challenging questions.
If you don’t have a personal board or it needs to be expanded, start by making a list of the people who might help you to become the person you want to be. Pray for discernment. And then start asking. Be open and clear about what you are looking for in the relationship. Define how often you envision meeting or talking by phone so the commitment is clear. If someone declines, don’t give up. Ask someone else. Ask for a year’s commitment with the option for both of you to renew or decline.
So here is one for your “to do” list—take at least one step today so that next year this time you will have your own personal board of directors in place and effectively functioning.
QUESTION: What would you add to this topic? I’d love to hear it below.
