FredMcKinnon.Com

Hey Everyone,

Back to the series on leadership nuggets … you can catch the background behind this series and the first “nugget” in this post, and the 2nd nugget is discussed (or shall I say, “being discussed”) here.

In the discussion on #2, “Vision Casting”, there was a great segue comment by Jordan of Worshiptrench.Com about momentum. He wrote:

Yes, whenever momentum/attendance drops I can ALWAYS track it to a lack of casting vision and purpose. I have found even doing a study of the content of a new song and tying it to a theological perspective on our or purpose tends to ignite their leadership of the song that weekend. Sure there are times we need to do a fellowship to lift moral, but if worship leaders think that will overcome a lack of vision they are nuts.

… great call, Jordan, because the 3rd “nugget” deals specifically with momentum.

3. Sustaining momentum.

David said something that I had to think twice about. He said “it’s fairly easy to get momentum going … it’s sustaining momentum that is difficult”. At first, this didn’t sound right to me. I think about “the snowball” and how it’s hard to get it rolled up, and pushed down the hill – but once it starts going downhill – lookout. But at the same time, I can see the wisdom in this.

So many times, “momentum” can happen for reasons outside of our control. Or, an outside event or set of circumstances happens that creates momentum … such as our moving into a brand new, 74,000 ft2 facility. If you could’ve seen our grand opening services last weekend – you would have seen incredible momentum. But 3 months from now – when the “wow” of this new facility is wearing off, and we’re back to the grind … it won’t be so easy to ride that wave. We have to be intentional in sustaining momentum. Don’t take momentum for granted, as if once started, she’ll always be there.

Well, that’s a wrap on this mini-series.
1. Listen
2. Vision Casting
3. Momentum

Would love to get your input!

For the Kingdom,
Fred

Hey Everyone -

Leadership is critical when we’re in positions of influence and ministry. Whether it’s my role as the Worship Director of St. Simons Community Church, my role as the owner of my own businesses, or my role as a Christ-follower in the marketplace and in the public arenas of life … leadership is important.

One of the things I love about working @ SSCC is being part of a large staff with some incredible leadership. Pastor David Yarborough is only a couple of years older than I am … but he’s got a lot more grey. (haha). Seriously, just about anytime you hear someone introducing him, they always say something like “this man is wise far beyond his years”. That’s so true.

Over the last few days I’ve had the privilege of walking through some church-related issues w/ him and I’ve been blessed to just sit back and listen to wisdom and be built up in leadership. I couldn’t help but jot down a few notes on a legal pad as we just talked.

Let’s introduce them in a 3-part blog series and discuss in the comments section.

On Leadership:

1. People need to be heard. Listen.

A good leader will listen to those he or she is leading. Personally, I think that’s one of the big differences between a leader and a dictator. Personally again … I can’t help but confess it’s one of my greatest weaknesses. If Joy (my wife) were an online/blogger/reader … she’d comment with a hearty “amen” there. But, I’m becoming better in this area. I’m trying to become more intentional about listening. The people may not be saying the right things … but they still need to be heard. They need to know that THEIR OPINION MATTERS.

I also think good leadership creates an environment where listening is possible, but also creates boundaries … there are times when we need to sit back and listen to those we are leading. Then, there are times when those who are being led need to just trust their leadership, yield when necessary, and hold their questions for the appropriate time. Giving people the opportunity to “be heard” shouldn’t be a free-for-all …. so, leaders should be intentional on setting aside quality time to “listen”. Maybe a lunch 1-on-1 … or maybe a smaller group “forum” from key people who are involved with the ministry or business area you are leading … or even a simple phone call.

Evaluate yourself. Are you listening to those you lead? When was the last time you were intentional about creating a dedicated time, forum, or appointment to just allow those you are leading to “be heard”?

Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3 … in the meantime, let’s discuss “Listening Leadership” now … add your comment below!

PS: as a blogger/leader, I want to “listen” to those of you who read this blog … so I have a specific question, and I’d love for you to include your answer in the comments of this blog. I’m releasing this “Part 1″ on Friday. How are your weekend reading patterns? Would you prefer to have Parts 2-3 starting on Monday of next week – or to go throughout the weekend? “I’m listening ….”

For the Kingdom,
Fred

Hey Everyone,

My co-worker and friend, Travis Paulding, has posted a great blog called “Pursuing Excellence – Where do you draw the line“? on his blog. Here’s a snippet:

“A big discussion arose today in the hall outside of my office with 6-7 coworkers today that lasted about 20 minutes. It was centered around whether we should have tryouts for a “team” that was reconfiguring as we head into our new facility. Do we do something as the Church like that, knowing that some people who try will probably not make the cut?…”

The questions that Travis presents in this blog are leadership hurdles and can be a real touchy subject … especially within local church and/or volunteer positions.

So, today – rather than posting a new content blog here – I think Travis has got something great going .. and I need all of you bloggers and readers to click over to TravisPaulding.Com and leave your feedback .. be sure to check the box to subscribe to comments via email so you can come back and continue in the discussions!

I left the first comment – so let’s get started. SEE YOU THERE!

Fred

Hey Everyone -

Continuing on our discussion of Leadership: Budgeting Time …
(review Part 1 and Part 2)

Jordan over @ WorshipTrench let me know pretty quickly that I’m getting the “contexts” idea at Vitalist all wrong. Apparently, my contexts were still too broad. I’ve not modified them yet and haven’t even touched it since our last post, so you can see how well I’m progressing in this whole GTD System (Get Things Done). I did pick up the “Getting Things Done” audiobook on iTunes by David Allen, so guru of GTD. If I can force myself to listen to his monotone voice I just may learn something.

Back to time tracking, though – in my quest to find something “web 2.0″ for time management and tracking (or to create a business that will build one) I got some great leads from a couple of programmers who spoke with. I thought about starting a powerful portal that will be GTD-friendly and will let you track and audit your time, but didn’t want to “reinvent the wheel”.

Ryan over at ArtofMission.Com offered some great insights. We both agreed that I may have a marketable business idea but I’m not sure I’m ready to jump into it. In the meantime, he recommended two sites that are available for time audits. Neither of these implement some of the additional GTD features and “communication features” (I won’t disclose what those are about just now!) that I’d like to see with an incredible “all-in-one” portal, but they seem promising.

Checkout:
Tick (www.tickspot.com)
Harvest (www.getharvest.com)

One thing is for sure … living life on the go, in a hurry, with more to do than time allows … that’s not the way to live. It’s not God’s way. I’m reading a great book called The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People by John Ortberg .. and one of those disciplines is slowing down … one of the quotes in the book is “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your day”. Another great quote is “Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day”.

How is your time management coming along?
Fred

Hey Everybody -

Welcome back to the On Leadership Series. This post is Part 2 of “Budgeting Time”.

Thanks for the many comments and conversation still happening over on Part 1. One resource my Mom (folks, it’s a blessing to have your parents read your blog and leave comments, let me tell ya!) pointed out in the comments is a book called “Ordering Your Private World” by Gordon MacDonald .. apparently, this is discussed there. It sounds like a great read, and since I’m visiting my parents this weekend so I can see family and do some deer hunting, I hope to at least digest those chapters while sitting up in a tree hunting!

(note: affiliate link)

One of the things we discussed back in Part 1 was a “Web 2.0″ way to budget your time. Sadly, I cannot find anything that would be of much use. What I’m looking for is a nice web-based interface where you can track your time throughout the day. For example, I’d like to be able to bookmark it, login, and add “7:oo – 8:00 AM: family time/breakfast/devotion” and color-code that to a given category (ie. Family). Then, from 8:00-9:00 AM I’d add (blog/writing) and color code that to the “BLOG” category, etc. I’m telling ya – if someone can code this, let’s go in together and make a portal … it would rock. For now, I’m auditing my time using the Google Notebook extension for Firefox. Then, I’ll manually add that into a spreadsheet to do the real time calculations … I’ll be auditing my time for the next few weeks to get a real picture of just what I do, what I don’t do, and what I should/shouldn’t do!

I accepted the invitation by Jordon Fowler @ Northwood Church in TX (WorshipTrench.Com) for a walk through of Vitalist – a GTD (Get Things Done) system he brags about. Thanks for the phone time, Jordan! I walked away with pretty much the same lackluster thoughts I’d had before .. that Vitalist is nothing more than a glorified “to-do” list which I could pretty much just keep doing in iCal. However, Jordon encouraged me that it’s better because of the ability to divide your tasks into “Contexts”. So, I’m going to try it for a few weeks and see how it works. Vitalist is free, so check it out. Just FYI, my contexts that I have established for the moment (still adding and modifying as I learn my schedule) are:

• Family
• Personal (devotion, exercise, etc)
• SSCC (church)
• Highest Praise (music production, podcasts, TheWorshipCommunity.Com)
• HPP Enterprises (my e-commerce/e-biz sites)
• HPP Publishing (the licensing/publishing arm of HPP)
• Home (To Do, etc)
• Music/Creative Time (recording, writing, composing music)

I’m sure these contexts will become more and more refined.

So, one of the important things I’m learning is that we should get our “To Do” list and separate it into Contexts. This way, we can not be so scattered and can focus on a given context for a while. Multi-tasking can come in handy when necessary, and you can even multi-task within the “to-do” of a given Context, but I can understand how we’d be more efficient if we stay within a given “context” for a while. In other old-fashioned, well known ways of putting it … “if you wear several hats, don’t wear them at once”.

Practical example: I dedicated 8:00-9:00 this morning for “blog time”. I finished my “Weekend Recap” post earlier, and started to move on to my next “Task”, but decided to honor this time commitment and to stay within “context” during this hour. As a result, I decided to write this post as a draft that I’ll release later today. Chances are, I’ll be in another “context” later today .. I’ll be wearing a different hat (the SSCC one most of the day, or the Music/CT one) and it would break my productive “stride” to attempt to write all of this. I can tell that it will be productive – I’m in “writing/blogging mode” and devoting this entire hour will be productive and beneficial.

So, start thinking about your various tasks, and what “hat you wear” to accomplish them. Let’s call those hats “contexts” for now … how about sharing your list of “contexts” or “hats”. Just don’t forget the “hat” that you take off in respect as you kneel and pray.

For the Kingdom,
Fred