Culture. It’s this word that I’ve been obsessed with since high school. In college I tried to figure out how it worked on one campus (with so many cultures coming together). Now at an organization I’m trying to figure out how to influence it.

It’s hard to describe, but you have it.

About a month ago I came across an opportunity  to be a part of a WCA LIFT course. Check out the link for more info, but essentially these courses are 7 week intensives for ministry leaders. Online classes for them to take while “in the trenches” doing work, learning, discussing with others who are doing the same or similar things, and then bringing it to your context.

So far from my experience, it works, and the content is rich.

I decided to take the Shaping Culture course and it has been extremely challenging and stretching for me. I’m currently in the middle of it and have a few more weeks yet. So, back to culture.

One thing that has stuck out to me more then anything over the past few weeks is that I’m responsible. I’m responsible for the culture. You are responsible for the culture where you work. And, it’s something that’s there now. It’s always there. It can be healthy, it can be sick, or somewhere in between.

Here are a couple things that might be helpful for you. 

I came across this quote last week.

Brand is simply a lagging indicator of the culture – @DHMovementCEO

Are you taking the time to look at your organizational/staff culture and not just your “brand” or perceived culture?

Are you doing anything to influence your organizational culture in a positive direction

Try to create some space in your schedule, step away for part of the day, bring your team, and evaluate. Ask good questions. Start the discussion.

Here are some discussion starters:

• What does your organization value?
• How does it add to or take away from the organizations mission?
• Is your staff healthy? Is there trust in your organization?
• Do you have honest, open relationships with people throughout the organization (think different levels in chain of command) to know what the culture feels like from the top to the bottom of your organization?

What’s your organization’s culture like?

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Here’s a secret to leading well. Ask really good questions. Yup. I talking about well thought out, daring, courageous, silly, gut feeling questions. The ones you want to ask but chicken away from.

As leaders we can have this special ability to assume things. I consider it a sixth sense that we don’t want. Assumptions are, well, they are assumptions. We can’t lead based off assumptions.

The other trait leaders tend to have (and I’m including myself in all of these) is to think that we are the best communicators when it comes to our expectations. I’ve come to learn that we aren’t. You know when you explain an idea to someone you lead and they kinda shake their head like they are getting it. 90% of the time they probably aren’t, not because they are stupid, mostly because we think they know everything that’s in our head.

What can help with these two problems? Asking the right questions. Here are three questions to start asking today.

1) Where Are They? – One of the first things as leaders we should be finding out is where our people are. I’m talking about going all Location Services on them. (lame attempt at an iPhone joke). With GPS accuracy we should be able to know where those we lead stand on different ideas, new policies, projects, etc. We need to be asking them what they think. We need to ask them how an idea makes them feel. Once you know where they are, then you can lead from there.

2) Who Are Your Experts? – Who ARE your experts? Maybe you hired them. Maybe you are in charge of them. If you did a good job and hired people smarter then you, then you should be asking them questions. It’s a simple idea but not necessarily the default of a leader. Don’t assume you have the best ideas. You don’t. Ask those around you who are smarter and have different view points. Diversity in feedback can be a very helpful thing. Go to your experts.

3) What Are The Facts? – As leaders we have to deal with problems. It’s easy for someone to come into our offices and start going off on a problem and then we get worked up about it too. “Let’s deal with this problem now!” (Probably the thought going through our mind) Here’s the thing, much like Ogres and Onions, problems have layers. What are the facts about the problem? Ask that question and diffuse a potential bomb very quickly.

What are the questions you ask? Which questions have been invaluable to you? Which ones are you afraid to ask?

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Interruptions can come in good forms or bad forms. This is something I’m recently learning. For example, the cute picture above is of our new dog Lola. She’s pretty much come in our house and stolen our hearts. But it’s a little bit of an interruption. In a good way.

As leaders we often find ourselves in routines that we build or structure to help us do well. Essentially they are positive habits. But even positive habits can get in the way of things. Here are a couple things that having Lola around over the past four days has done for me.

Slow down – When you have a puppy, life slows down for a little bit. While the puppy might be very active and playful, my life has to slow down to take care of her.

Unplug – When you have to keep your eyes on a puppy, that means you can’t be constantly plugged in and working. A new puppy needs good attention and training so it knows how to behave.

These are just two things I’ve quickly learned will change during the puppy stages. But most importantly I’ve been asking myself this question.

What is my attitude when encountering interruptions?

The reality is that they happen all the time. It might be something major like a puppy or having a baby, but it could be as simple as a flat tire or someone stopping by your office.

I think learning how to manage interruptions well is key to leadership. There are times when we will need to flow in and out of our “systems” we have in place to lead well. It’s key to learn how to adapt and reroute our energy to what we need to focus on. All while still leading well. Here’s the thing. I’m just learning this. I really don’t have it figured out.

How do you manage interruptions when they come? When something throws you off your rhythm, how do you just go with it? 

(Just as a side note: this isn’t a post about me complaining about our puppy. She’s great. It’s just a post about learning how to lead during change well!)

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a one day conference called the Elephant Room. I had my idea of what I thought it was going into the event, because of the promo’s, but it ended up being something really great. Essentially, two pastors go head to head on an issue in the church. It really is great conversation that’s done in a “grace & truth” kind of way. The issues talked about varied from Denominations, the Gospel, Ministry Burnout, Doctrine, Racial Diversity, Moral Failure, and Relationships with Other Pastors. It was a very good conference and I learned a lot.

Today’s post was specifically inspired during the ministry burnout discussion with Wayne Codeiro and James MacDonald. I don’t necessarily want to talk about burnout (that can be an issue for a later post), what I really want to talk about was a key way to lead.

During the discussion one of the other pastors submitted the idea that we spend less time on “leadership development” and more time on “leader development.” Instead of taking all your energy and pouring it into others, which is important to do, make sure you save some energy for yourself. Most importantly, the development of your leadership skills, vision, etc.

Many times as leaders we live off the thrill of “leading”, being in charge can get us amped up. Being able to move people from one success, or failure, to another success is life giving. But it is such a bad motivation for leading. The alternative to this, that one of the pastors pitched, is that we should lead from a brokenness.

As soon as I heard that I thought about The Broken Leader. What is the broken leader? What does it look like? What am I broken for? In our areas we lead, we need to be leading from a brokenness.

What does that mean?

I take it this way: the core of my job centers around 20somethings, and helping them to connect to one another and to God. To lead in this area well, I really need to be broken, have a heart for, these 20somethings. Otherwise what I’m doing could be somewhat heartless.

I don’t think this brokenness is something your force or fake. I think it can be something that is grown, fueled by experience.

The question is very challenging to me. What am I broken for?

What are you broken for? Are you leading out of that brokenness? Have you ever seen anyone else lead from a brokenness? I’d love to hear your thoughts below.

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Last week I wrote a review of my goals from 2011. This week will be a bit of a look ahead. Why do I do this? Mostly to put it out in the open for accountability and for encouragement. One of the things I’ve learned over the past few years is that we aren’t made to do things alone. It’s ok to have personal goals, but who’s going to keep you accountable?

Here’s what I’m thinking goal wise for 2012.

2012 will be a year of tough decisions, finishing through the breakthrough year of 2011. I will have the opportunity to follow up and really live out some of the things I worked on. 2012 will really show if I laid the foundation for those goals well.

My three focus areas for 2012.

1) Priorities – One of the biggest things I need to work on is my priorities. I have them, they are just in the wrong order. I think they are in the right order but they aren’t. I can tell by the way I live my life and the decisions I make. It’s very frustrating. It’s humbling. I need to work on them. I think this would be my ideal order of priorities.

• Relationship with God.
• Relationship with my wife.
• Relationships with others.
• Relationship to myself . (Health, eating, physical fitness, continued learning)
• Relationship with Employer (Excellence @ work)

2) Intentional Investment – I’m going to be looking for 2-3 men that I can be investing into. One hopefully from a work standpoint and 1 or 2 from just a general life standpoint. Most importantly, I’m looking for people who I can learn from as well. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time but have never had the guts to do it. I’ve come to realize that I don’t have to have it all figured out to help and invest in others.

3) Discipline of Prayer – I want to build into my life the discipline of connecting with God often. It’s vital to a relationship with God. It’s a big part of the Christian faith. I don’t do it. I flat out just ignore communicating with God. It’s easy to do because I think I’m in control and God isn’t the most fore front and center thing in my mind. I’m really wanting to work on connecting with Him more.

Some thought filters for 2012.

• Take risks.
• Think different.
• Others focused.

That sums up the direction for my 2012. We’ll see how I do. Feel free to ask me at anytime how I’m doing with these things. I’m not doing this to show off or brag. I really want to work on these areas and it takes the work of everyone to do that.

What are some goals/themes/focus areas for you this coming year? 

Listen to a great podcast on goals and goal setting here.

When you find yourself in a position of leadership it can be somewhat overwhelming. You may have been working hard to get there or it may have just come upon you. Either way, you have a decision to make. How will you lead?

If this is something that you have worked hard for then you might have the tendency to lead with more of a deserving, demanding, “I’ve worked hard for this” type of leadership. We have all had those types of leaders. The kind that let us know they deserve to be in the spot they are in and because of that we (their underling) are now subject to all the grueling punishment they had to go through.

Guess what? It doesn’t have to be this way.

The Serving Leader does not lead this way. It’s a practice and a mindset, but it’s one of the most rewarding ways to lead. It takes a paradigm shift in the way you view the organizational chart. Because you are on top does’t mean that your employees work for you, it means you work for them. Any bad decision, poor judgement, misuse of resources can effect each and every one of your employees. It effects their families and their future. You see, when we are leading we are (should be) doing it through a lens of serving others.

So what are a few practical ways to do this?

1) Take Time – Spend time with those you lead. You can’t lead from a distance. When you are a leader it’s easy to think you are alone, and sometimes you will feel that way because of decisions you need to make. But, it doesn’t mean you separate yourself from those you lead. What would it look like for you to stop by an employee’s office and instead of adding another thing to their plate, let them know how much they mean to the organization.

2) Pitch In – I used to think that once I got to a certain point in the organization I wouldn’t have to do things I didn’t like to do anymore. It is possible to do that, but it’s not worth it. I’m blown away when I have leaders who help out with things that are my responsibility, and are things that are annoying to do. The serving leader is not afraid to pitch in and help when employees are overwhelmed or being stretched by the organization. Even when it’s not on their job description.

3) Follow Through – Probably one of the biggest things and the one that would make the most sense. Follow Through. Nothing says you don’t value an employee more than not following through on something for them. Maybe they need more hours, maybe they need less. Maybe they need some more training or for you to deal with that one organizational problem that’s above them to fix. Serving those you lead means following through and letting those you lead know that you are for them.

Have you ever experienced a Serving Leader?

Challenge for this week: Look for opportunities to do one of these three things for those you lead. It will be one of the best Christmas gifts they could get!