I know I have posted an extraordinary amount lately… but I couldn’t let this pass by. If you haven’t read the post called Effective not Efficient, I would strongly encourage you to read it first.

But, since most of you know me, It won’t surprise you that I read an article today about Apple and their philosophy on leadership and innovation. I felt like it hit exactly their focus and intentional decision to be effective and not efficient. They may have used different words, but take a look for yourself. This is powerful stuff and another way to encourage you to begin discussing how your team can be a vessel of change in people’s lives.

Tim Cook, the current COO of Apple, Inc stated this about the philosophies that govern their leadership team:

We believe in saying no to thousands of projects so that we can really focus on the few that are truly important and meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross-pollination of our groups, which allow us to innovate in a way that others cannot.

 

Amazing stuff… looking forward to your responses. 

-L.

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I don’t really want to put in any political bias into the blog but I thought this video was particularly interesting.

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I have been sharing over the last few months what I learned over my year long journey of being on Belmont University’s Orientation Council, the group of student chosen to lead the new student orientation program. It’s been nearly a year and a half now since I was accepted into the role, and nearly 6 months since the four of us (Ben - our fearless leader, Allison - the lovable nice one, Steff - the funny and consistent one, and myself) passed the reigns on to this years’ group of four. 

 

I say that because if you look back over the recent blog entries you will find that I have been reflecting and writing a lot about that journey… That “Vision” if you will…  for a new and possibly different kind of leadership for today’s leaders.

 

In the first installment I shared the importance of relationships, and my main argument was that they are the most important thing in the entire world. Without relationships we are absent from both this world and ourselves. We are absent from meaning, and absent from our purpose to live fully from our hearts.

Next, I talked about what it meant to have a nearly obsessive desire to be team oriented. This desire focuses on relational growth inside your team over choosing to meet every deadline and plan every event without flaws.

In the third blog entry I shared a little about putting yourself in a “strategic position” by placing yourself in the room to gain maximum interaction with others. Being simply accessable makes you a better leader. Front line generals gain more respect from their troops than those sitting in the back room strategizing new movements and tactics.

Most recently, I talked about creating environments as leaders that provide success for your team members by figuring out what it means to allow them to succeed in what it is that they do for you.

I encourage you to check those out if you haven’t already. My prayer is that God will utilize them in your organization for great forward progression and direction. 

 

 

 

Effective not Efficient 

 

Tonight, as I sit in my room reflecting on my journey, I have one thing that I cannot escape from my heart. What I have are heavy thoughts of a life altering change in direction for our team. A new way of thinking about our daily work, and consistent interaction with others. This concept changed the way we made decisions and altered our final outcome greatly.

We thought we would go on one last hike the day before we would lead 20 other students in a 4 week intense schedule of summer orientation. During this hike we took some time to reflect, and we simply asked the question, what are we going to be about as a team? 

 

and it all came down to this thought. will we choose to be about getting things done, checking off items on a to-do list, accomplishing our tasks, getting people to the right places and so on. Or will we be focused and driven to be about a change in people’s lives by helping them in any way we can along their journey. 

 

Do you see the implications of this concept? We were deciding whether we were going to be effective or efficient when it came to our leadership style. 

 

 

 

Think about that for a second…

 

Effective?

 

or

 

Efficient? 

 

 

 

And so we began to discuss and share. Opening up the floor to what both of these styles meant and this is a summary of what we came up with. 

 

Efficient people are focused on doing not being. They are good leaders because they know what needs to be done to get the job completed. They focus on very specific tasks, and perform them in a very short amount of time. They get the job done right, and on time. They focus on setting up environments and reacting to potential change. They fail in the realm of correcting change at the expense of other people nd other possible leadership opportunities. Effective leaders’ ultimate goal is to finish the job without bumps in the road. 

 

On the other hand, we found that effective people were ones who focus on the art of being not doing. They are the Great leaders. They were more focused on changing or impacting people’s lives and positioning themselves in places of humility. Not always taking credit, and willing to adapt based on the surrounding people, not events or issues. They are people who want to make sure others are taken care of, treated well, assisted and most importantly loved. Effective people want to be great in lending a hand in assisting other people along their journey. They choose purpose over planning and passion over persistence. 

 

 

This isn’t a very complex concept as you can see. However what makes it difficult is surrendering to the knowledge that it may take missing some details to impact people.

 

 

You see, for us… as a team… we were ultamatily asking the question, Do we want to make sure that every detail is taken care of, and when we walk away know that it was done perfectly without a hitch, or do we want to be able to walk away from a project or an event or a season of life and know that we changed someone’s life? We didn’t want to look back and say, “I wish I had seen that opportunity to make a difference with him/her when I was with them.” 

 

We realized that being effective meant saying no to a lot of things. Turing a a lot of things away. Possibly even passing up opportunities. But for us, we wanted to be effective. Because effective people focus on being and not on doing. 

 

 

Efficient people get things done. 

 

Effective people are present in times of need. 

 

 

 

 

I could spend hours on this subject, and maybe its more of an opportunity for you and I to grab a cup of coffee, because I feel like this could radically change the way you and maybe your team chooses to work with other people. 

 

So instead of example after example, I will simply leave you with this question to wrestle with: Are you and your team going to focus on being the organization who changes lives, or invest in tasks, events and details?

 

 

Only one of these items will last forever.
Only one will make a difference in eternity.
And only one will win the heart of our God. 

 

 

 

God Bless. more soon.

-L.

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i have had some time lately to be thinking about what it really means to start a new year. I mean so often in life we think we have a chance to “start over” or begin anew. But, really? does that really happen?

I mean its so rare these days to truly get a “fresh” start… some people may argue that college is a good place to have a new beginning or a place to redefine one’s self image, reputation, clout or appearance. maybe for some its when you get married… minus the person you are marrying, if you move across country and get a chance to be in a brand new place, maybe thats a way to refocus on who you want to be.

But so often, most of us don’t get the…. well… NEW.

 

 

We search high and low for those opportunities and we never get them. Well maybe it’s not about redefining, or redesigning, or starting over and beginning again. Maybe its not about being new. being fresh. being different. maybe its about being you! simply being what God has called each of us to be.

What I am saying is simply this… take this mask that you try and create over college or over moving across country, and remove it. Let people around you not only see the real you but know and experience the real you.

what i’m getting at is more important than making fun of a friend in an effort to be “funny”
what i’m getting at is more important than cheating at work in an effort to be “efficient”
what i’m getting at is more important than copying someone else in an effort to be “creative”
what i’m getting at is more importnat than dating anyone in the world in an effort to be “popular”

you see…

what I’m getting at … is the question, have you let yourself see the real you?

 
i mean the Real you?

so maybe in the new year there isn’t anything new. no new diets, no new resolutions, no new things, no new commitments that won’t last longer than a few days from now…

maybe this new year is about being who we already are and loving ourselves and others for it. How about we be different by NOT being new. that would be a pleasant change of thought.

-L

more soon.

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