LEADERSHIP Series: Planning. Collaboration. Prosperity.

Leaders plan: one could probably posit that planning is elemental to leadership.

I like Philip Crosby’s definition (The Absolutes of Leadership):

“Leadership is deliberately causing people-driven actions in a planned fashion [emphasis mine] for the purpose of accomplishing the leader’s agenda….planned fashion means actually laying out a sequence of events that lets people know what is going to happen and what they are supposed to do.”

One way to “let people know” is to clearly express your vision – then share it; publish your mission (which includes your reason for existence - what you do, why you do it and for whom); and promote the values that give shape and meaning to the way you do it.

Leaders build all of this (and more) into planning – note: it is not The Plan – but planning – a dynamic, collaborative process that includes measuring the results, comparing them to the plan and evaluating the variance from the “plan.”

Good planning, in other words, takes hard, collaborative work. The focus is always on results. Shortcuts most often focus on a declaration of success or failure. Remember, you ALWAYS succeed…in producing a result. That success-failure-get-it-now attitude leads to disaster.

What kind of results are you producing? What do those results say about your planning, and work?

Proverbs 21:5 Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.


Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

LEADERSHIP SERIES: Leaders Solicit Advice

Outside advisers are becoming ubiquitous, and according to author, Dan Ciampa, in his book Taking Advice, although leaders sometimes have grown less satisfied with the advice they are receiving, they too often overlook help from colleagues, board members, subordinates, friends, and spouses. He points out that when leaders fail to solicit advice or obtain it [actually listen to the advice] the leader and his vision suffer.

So, one of attributes of leadership is the set of seeking and taking good advice. It was Ulrich, Zinger & Smallwood who pointed out that leadership is the product of attributes times results. Their research demonstrated that one side multiplies the other; they are not cumulative. Leaders must strive for excellence in both areas.

Listening leaders are the ones who have learned that the more they know, the more there is to know and they cannot know it all. They model that learning is life-long. Leaders learn to listen - not just hear - and they have honed the skill to listen with a set of expectations that listening and learning will help them produce meaningful results.

If your board is giving direction, are you listening? If your staff is disengaged and seemingly “not on the bus,” are you engaging them by seeking their advice on how, together, you can achieve expected results. If your spouse is making passing comments that your pursuit of business has had an impact on your pursuit of Godliness, do you listen?

Simply listening to advice and actually taking advice are two different activities.

In which activity are you engaged?


Proverbs12: 15 (MSG) Fools are headstrong and do what they like; wise people take advice.


Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

LEADERSHIP Series: Learn to Listen

Whether you are leading a small business, a large company, or a team, listening is a skill that has direct impact on your ability to be an influential leader. Listening, learned and applied, is priceless to the person to whom you are listening.

If listening simply means gathering and making sense out of information, and information drives effective communication, then we need to be intentional about developing effective listening skills.

Research indicates that fifty percent of our time is spent listening, but our real attention consumes only twenty five percent – the other half is spent thinking about what to say next. We lose our ability to listen at an alarming rate – in first grade, we heard 90% of instruction and by ninth grade that percentage plummeted to 25%.

In life and in business, the more effective your listening skills, the more you learn about what the prospective customer really needs; what the current customer considers as exquisite service; and what your staff thinks is needed build a team focused on growing revenue or profitability. As one writer states, “The time and money you save by listening effectively can make the difference between success and failure.”

Scripture tells us that developing a “the hearing ear,” or teachableness, results in happiness. Imagine that: a skill we can learn, if diligent, results in something just for us that make us appealing. Leaders who have developed that ear will attract followers not only because they are heard, but also because the leader, who is really listening, is not full of self and is…happy.

We all want to be heard. God does to: Are you listening?

Proverbs 5:1 (NIV) My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen well to my words of insight…


Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

LEADERSHIP Series: Listen UP

For some, it is the daily business issues often seem to be “not important enough" for prayer and searching and meditating on the His Word.

It is the "big" issues that drive people to seek God; but it is those small, daily issues that we think we can handle on our own, that begin our slide down the slippery slope of idolatry. “On our own” means we worship the creature (us) rather than the Creator.

Running a business, or being part of a team in a business, includes activities like: determining strategy; developing and implementing a sales plan; and, determining how best to use the human resources available. One might ask, “Where in Scripture will I learn about SWOT analysis, or territory management or Human Resource and Organization Development? You won’t. That’s not the issue.

His Word drives us to consider what are the essentials of life: it provides a foundation for our core values. It shapes our purpose. It gives us true meaning. From these platforms we can develop the strategy, plans and purposes to achieve business goals.

Tuning my ears to God's thoughts begins with my eyes focused on His word and my heart focused on Him in prayer. The result will be a life of significance that provides meaning to those seeking meaning.

How interesting: God listens to us when we listen to Him. Are you listening?

Proverbs 28:9 (MSG) God has no use for the prayers of the people who won't listen to him.

Copyright (c) 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell