Do you deal with an organization or service provider whose performance is lacking, but somehow you continue to accept their poor performance? If you honestly think about it, you’ll probably answer “yes.” But don’t fret too much because we all do it to some degree. But why do we put with mediocrity and worse?  What is the benefit from it?  What can we do about it?

Do smart people really allow themselves to be in a bad situation for prolonged periods of time?

How long did you let it go on?

Bad marriages, hostile workplaces, and even unsafe living conditions are just some of the things that we see and read about on a regular basis that show us that we put up with unsatisfactory conditions in our lives.  Most of us know people and deal with these levels or poor performance in our lives much of the time.  We can see that these low-level providers are unproductive at best and unhealthy at worst.  We often complain about them, much of the time.  But seldom do we work up the courage to alter them.  We do this because of something called “learned helplessness.”

Learned Helplessness

Based on a theory discovered by Martin Seligman, people who see themselves in situations where they have no control are reported to have higher stress levels and lower productivity.  It can be related to the workplace easily:

An uncontrollable situation can be harmful to a person even without it being physically painful or recognizable to them. Feeling helpless can do serious damage to motivation in any situation, even those filled with luxury and privilege. An example of this is the poor little rich boy whose daddy does everything for him.  As a kid he breaks a window with a ball, and daddy fixes it.  He gets regrettable grades in school but gets into college anyway because daddy gave a big donation. After graduation, he gets a job with a big salary and a corner office in daddy’s firm. He has learned that

Surprisingly, the poor little rich boy’s situation is similar to the unhappy worker suffering under a hypercritical boss.

While the worker is overloaded with criticism and the rich boy has an overabundance of goodies, both lack a sense of control. Neither feels they can influence what happens to them. Seligman emphasizes in his research on learned helplessness that it is not the quality of the situation that causes feelings of helplessness and depression. Even though we tend to think that the cause is punitive circumstances, situations filled with rewards can also lead to the same debilitating learned helplessness and depression when the person does not have to perform to get those rewards.

When we don’t feel like we have control, the workplace can be “toxic”.  Given the economic situation, there are many organizations, departments and teams where employees perceive a sense of learned helplessness.  True or not, it can be detrimental.  It can lead to simple forgetfulness, decease in attention to safety and outright aggression.

What can a leader do to impact organizational learned helplessness?

1) Determine what is vital to the organization’s success.

Identify the critical keys to the organization’s (company, group, team, etc.) success.  This is not a simple undertaking, but one that is necessary to long-term and sustainable success.  It is akin to Jack Welch’s belief that GE should be in the top 3 of every industry it played.  Or, it could be like Lexus’ “beat Benz”.  Many organizations try to be too many things to too many people.  They think by taking on more they can please many but end up disappointing instead.  Organizations should focus on what they do well (core competencies).  Find ways to expand them and do them even better.

2) Uncover the trends in your organization

Too often trends within the organization, including learned helplessness, are unknown at best and accepted at worst.  In order to shed light on the current situation it is vital that an engagement study is conducted.  The results of the study will uncover the nature of the organization and highlight issues/opportunities.  It will show where learned helplessness may lie within the organization and where things are exemplary.

3) Acknowledge what is so.

The road to recovery from any bad place starts with acknowledging where you are.  It is very important to not be overly harsh nor sugarcoat the situation.  If your team or organization seems to be in a pattern or viscous cycle of:

• Constant personal problems
• Failure to meet deadlines
• Chronic business partner or internal customer issues

Then it is time clearly state what the problem is and what it is costing you. Quantifying the cost is the first step to understanding what you are losing by keeping the status quo. The status quo in many cases is the enemy of altering the pattern of learned helplessness.  Even if the current situation is not desirable, the “devil that you know is better than the devil you don’t” to most people.

4) Align strategy/uncover culture

Next it is vital to begin the work of aligning strategy and culture throughout the organization.  This can be accomplished in a number of different ways but should not be taken lightly.  The first step is to educate and communicate to leaders.  Due to changing need of employees, having a powerful on-line tool is critical to making this a reality.  Of course, a comprehensive game plan- including communication, tools, etc. – is necessary.  The first six months is critical and can work to make the cultural/strategic alignment a reality.

5) Show managers /leaders there is another way

Probably one of the most important methods of breaking out of organizational learned helplessness is to educate leaders/managers about alternatives.  It is vital to have consistent and readily available training and tools to show managers how to do things differently. Making it easy to understand and implement is important.  Not that the change itself is going to be easy but the “how” must be easy to find and use.

6) Reward innovation and smart risk taking

There is a saying – “People do what they rewarded to do”.  That is true, but even more true is that people are compelled by what others rewarded for doing.  This is where the rubber hits the road.  True innovation should be rewarded.  People and teams that get results in different ways SHOULD BE REWARDED.  Unless it is either illegal or demeaning, innovation must be cultivated and encouraged actively.  This goes hand in hand with smart risk taking.  People should be rewarded for failure if they tried something that did not work and helped the organization learn.  Of course the risk cannot have sacrificed organizational reputation, clients or be unethical.  Outside of that, risks and the people that take them should be commended.  Taking smart risks and stretching to be innovative is a sure fire way to break the cycle of learned helplessness and make sure it doesn’t come back.

Can you break the cycle?

There a numerous instances of organizations breaking out of the malaise of learned helplessness.  Although not an exact science, the organizations that were able to get past LH used some combination of the six steps outlined.  Ford Motor Company is a perfect example of a company that has broken the cycle of learned helplessness.  Hundreds of teams have accomplished this feat within companies.  Go ahead give it a try, if couldn’t get any worse…

Is your organization suffering from Learned Helplessness?  What are you doing to determine if your organization’s state? Or are you just hoping that things will work themselves out?  If you are preparing, I would love to hear what you are doing or how!

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Anil Saxena is a Senior Consultant and Business Partner at the Coffman Organization.
He can be reached at anil_saxena@coffmanorganization.com

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I love this time of year more than any other.  The weather is crisp and requires warm sweaters that feel like an all-day hug.  Twinkling lights and decorations adorn our normal living spaces and bring added color and cheer to our surroundings.  And what I love most is that most people turn their attention to others.

The holidays remind us to give of what we have and to share with those less fortunate.  Food, clothing, warm coats and gifts are rounded up, as many groups organize drives to help meet these needs.  We begin thinking more about the people around us, and we wonder, “’what do they like?” or “what would bring them joy?”  We consider year-end giving and where it can have the greatest impact on people’s lives.  Our companies throw parties of appreciation and give bonuses for jobs well done.

And then comes the New Year….and often these people-focused behaviors come to pass, just as the former year is left behind.

I’d like to ask everyone to consider how would your world differ if you spent more time focused on others?  If your behavior was maintained throughout the year, how might others be impacted?

Who are the people you affect – at work, at home, in your community?  How do you build into them…or are your arms only open to receiving?  What can you offer them that they will value?

As you’re planning your goals for 2010, be sure to include time and energy for people.  I can assure you that you will reap great reward from your efforts.

Erin Schreyer is President of Sagestone Partners, LLC.  She is passionate about Leadership and building into people and companies to help them reach their greatest potential.  For more information, please visit www.sagestone-partners.com.

Making the bottom line your top priority may not be the best way to improve profitability. That’s the conclusion of recent research conducted by Mary Sully de Luque and Nathan T. Washburn of Thunderbird School of Global Management; David A. Waldman, of Arizona State University West; and Robert J. House, of the University of Pennsylvania, that underscores the risk of single-mindedly pursuing profit.

This finding is based on survey data gathered from 520 business organizations in 17 countries designed to test if a CEO’s primary focus on profit maximization resulted in employees developing negative feelings toward the organization. The result? Employees in these companies tend to perceive the CEO as autocratic and focused on the short term, and they report being somewhat less willing to sacrifice for the company. Corporate performance is poorer as a result. 

But when the CEO makes it a priority to balance the concerns of customers, employees, and the community while also taking environmental impact into account, employees perceive him or her as visionary and participatory. And they report being more willing to exert extra effort, and corporate results improve. 

These results aren’t surprising. When the definition of leadership focuses only on profit what tends to fall by the wayside is the condition of the human organization. Leaders wrongly believe that they can’t focus on both at the same time. 

Nothing could be further from the truth.  As this research points out, organizations perform best when they balance financial goals with respect, care, and fairness for the well-being of everyone involved. 

The Four Keys to Better Leadership 

In looking at all of the great organizations that The Ken Blanchard Companies has worked with over the years, we have found one thing that sets these organizations apart from average organizations. The defining characteristic is leaders who maintain an equal focus on both results and people. In these organizations, leaders measure their success with people (customers and employees) as much as they measure their financial performance. 

In these organizations, leaders do four things well. 

1. They set their sights on the right target and vision. Great organizations focus on three bottom lines instead of just one. In addition to financial success, leaders at great organizations know that measuring their success with people–both customers and employees–is just as important as measuring the success of their financial bottom line. In these organizations, developing loyal customers and engaged employees are considered equal to good financial performance. Leaders at these companies know that in order to succeed they must create a motivating environment for employees, which results in better customer service, which leads to higher profits. 
2. They treat their customers right. To keep your customers today, you can’t be content just to satisfy them. Instead, you have to create raving fans–customers who are so excited about the way you treat them that they want to tell everyone about you. Companies that create raving fans routinely do the unexpected on behalf of their customers, and then enjoy the growth generated by customers bragging about them to prospective clients. 
3. They treat their people right. Without committed and empowered employees, you can never provide good service. You can’t treat your people poorly and expect them to treat your customers well. Treating your people right begins with good performance planning that gets things going in the right direction by letting direct reports know what they will be held accountable for–goals–and what good behavior looks like–performance standards. It continues with managers who provide the right amount of direction and support that each individual employee needs in order to achieve those goals and performance standards. 
4. They turn the organizational chart upside down. The most effective leaders realize that leadership is not about them and that they are only as good as the people they lead. These leaders seek to be serving leaders instead of self-serving leaders. In this model, once a vision has been set, leaders move themselves to the bottom of the hierarchy, acting as a cheerleader, supporter, and encourager to the people who report to them. 

The way to maximize your results as a leader is to have high expectations for both results and relationships. If leaders take care of the people who take care of their customers, profits and financial strength will follow. The result is an organization where people and profits both grow and thrive.

Once upon a nightmare, in a distant place called CorporateLand, there was a bright and shiny new emperor who came into the land to rescue the people from their distress and bring forth prosperity to all.

He came in valiantly. He came with purpose. He came to usher in a new corporate tone to relieve the grieving from their oppression of economic cutback gloom. He came and made his debut to the gathered masses of corporate managers in an assembly of the hopefully thrashed in a New Meeting of CorporateLand enlightenment.

He was called by the assembled a name that inspired hope. He was called “The New Leader.”

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Day One

The New Leader’s aura sparkled with glistening assurance of steadfast optimism. His initial claims to the assembled stood for things that would raise everyone up as if they were all lowly boats resting in a mire at low tide. He had so much talent on his resume and so much promise portrayed in his introduction when he arrived on the scene that when he spoke everyone listened for clear signs of personal prosperity and freedom from the bondage that they had so long endured. Everyone was optimistic and heartened with the idea of newness, freshness and boldness that this new emperor would bring to them in their land of fear and economic dismay.

So, the New Leader came to the amassed. He stood before them and opened his heart to them. He revealed his love of God and Country and vowed to be an open book for all the land to see. His transparency and vulnerability were signs of true inner strength for all who could see and hear his clarion voice. All could sense his noble cause for a plan for prosperity and victory for his entire CorporateLand.

Day Two

But alas, it couldn’t last. The New Leader came in on a white horse; he seemed strident and true. But by the second scene, everything had changed. The brief introduction to the New Leader transitioned into a dreadful scene of hopelessness and fear in only the scantiest of time. In a flash, the mask had come off and the White Knight had jumped off of his whitewashed steed and shown that he had come from the dark side.

Hopes were dashed in a moment as the serpent appeared from behind his mask and the shine vanished from the exterior of the man at the helm. The “New Leader” was just a facade for opening day for a trickster who had other designs on the empire. The “New Leader” was just a pirate in disguise coming on board to pillage the bounty for himself and his crew.

Rather than a mantra of prosperity through collective effort and supportive cooperation from positive strategic actions, as intimated in the first address to the masses, a big switch to fear and intimidation came through in a secondary address. The “New Leader” communicated his new edict to carry out a stack-ranking performance policy, nicknamed “rank-and-yank,” to increase productivity. This is a system where every manger was now required to rank their employees based on performance metrics and fire the bottom 10 percent of their team members every year for poor performance. The thinking is that the ones who replace your bottom 10 percent are “bound to be better than their predecessors.”

No white knight. No more horse. Just a sharp ax.

In certain economic climates and under certain economic environments, the “rank-and-yank” system can provide improvements in short-term productivity yields. But in the medium term however, results from this kind of effort turn around and the insidious effects of a poisonous system begin to take hold on productivity numbers. Many feel that stank ranking is just a poor excuse for trying to disguise inept or poor management practices.

Think about this: If you were on a team where 10% of your team was going to be fired based on performance numbers, how motivated would you be to help other team members get better performance measurements relative to yours? Self-preservation dictates that sabotage, more than team-building, would be a more logical behavior for the average person.

Old Playbook

When the new boss comes in with an old playbook, few individual contributors or mangers can get excited about contributing to a team effort. Moreover, individual performance actually turns to isolated silos of self-preserving attitudes that foster fear and a scarcity mindset. Managers eventually create systems whereby they retain their favorites and create no-win scenarios for those who they eventually let go. Politics, envy, backstabbing, greed, selfishness, and coward-ness are all rewarded. Selflessness, helpfulness, sacrifice, forgiveness, mentoring, and nurturing environment are all punished. Short-sightedness wins over patient results.

Be a jerk, keep your job. Help someone else, lose your job. Isn’t this brilliant!

Day Three

As you might expect, the fear rolled down hill and the frightened first lieutenants began scheming to keep their jobs. On day three, an email went out from a direct report of the New Leader (with the New Leader CC’d on the e-mail) directing  the entire team to no longer use the “Out of Office” feature on their email while on vacation. After all, she wondered aloud, “What kind of message would that convey to our customers?” She added “We should all be available 24 x 7.”

As one might imagine, the shiny white night who had so much promise on day-one is now vilified by many in CorporateLand. He is now actually “downsizing” long-term employees and replacing them with lower cost newbies. He is also brining in his posse from OtherCorp to fill senior positions under his wing in CorporateLand. For everyone else, moral is spiraling down and people are planning their eventual mass exodus.

Ahhhhh… if this weren’t so predictable…

The once-promising boss who seem to have a heart-of-gold turned out to be nothing more than an average knucklehearted leader. Too bad. He could have instilled loyalty, enthusiasm, and dedication. Instead, he broke my achy breaky heart.

Have you ever had your heart broken by a leader who turned out to be just full of hot air. Or just full of himself? How did that turn out? What does it feel like to have your heart broken by a leader who lets you and your organization down after showing such promise? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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Tom Schulte is Executive Director of Linked 2 Leadership &
CEO of Recalibrate Professional Development in Atlanta, GA USA.
He can be reached at tomschulte@recalibratenow.com

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Many men (including myself) in our community have been disillusioned by poor masculine leadership…many of us are desiring to be better and more loving leaders…found this in Proverbs this morning…qualities that make a good Christian leader…Eugene Peterson notes that “transforming leadership is the kind where the first one transformed is the leader.”

Pr 16:10

A good leader motivates, doesn’t mislead, doesn’t exploit.

If you notice, the values that we are learning (embodying) in our community are helping us become better leaders. We should motivate others and not mislead or exploit them. Can you imagine this type of leadership in the workplace? Can you imagine a boss (or being the kind of boss) who motivates with truth and honesty and desires your ( employee’s) ultimate good? What ripple effect would that have on companies and careers?

What about at home? The best way I know to motivate my wife is to serve her. She especially loves acts of service. She loves when I help clean up the house, do the dishes or make sure the kids are bathed and put to bed. When I serve my wife this way she lights up like a star. When she gets “Mommy time” and is able to enjoy solitude and recharge her batteries-she comes home not feeling mislead and exploited but cherished.

With my brothers-it is the practice of continued honesty, taking my turn on the mat, bringing current sin to confession-this keeps me from misleading or exploiting my friends.

As a father, apologizing to my son and daughters when I sin against them, deposits in them a gift that Dad is leading and loving with authenticity and not rhetoric. Bottom line: leading with honest weakness and current struggle will ensure that I am not exploiting and misleading the people around me.

Is your organization poised to make money on the coming recovery?  Are you preparing now or planning to change when it happens?

Do you prepare when you know a change is coming?

Towards the end of November at my house we begin to winterize.  That is, we start to prepare for what we are anticipating will be cold, windy and snowy weather.  Although we can’t predict exactly when, we know that it is inevitable.  So that we can not only survive, but thrive in the coming change of season there are precautions we must take and stop gaps we can employ.  Shouldn’t companies winterize too?  We know that winter, just like the economic recovery, is coming.  Are we prepared?

Can’t you just wait until it gets cold to prepare for the winter?

Sure we can.  However, like the tale of the ant and the grasshopper waiting for the cold, or for economic change, can be disastrous.  The problem that many organizations and teams faced in the recent downturn was that they did not react until it was too late.  The economy hit all hard, but some were ready, like the ant, and weathered it well.

Unfortunately, we have become accustomed to knee-jerk and just-in-time reactions.  Thereby, allowing the desire to profit in the next quarter cloud the judgment to advance the organization for the long haul.  The same can be said for the team or department.  We must begin to anticipate the change that is inevitably coming through leadership and preparation.  Until we do, we tempt being like the grasshopper more often than we’d like.

How do you “winterize” your organization?

1. Find out what is really going on in the organization.

During an economic downturn, organizations often take drastic cost cutting measures.  Employees understand the reality of this.  That being said, it is important to understand the “state of your state”.  This is not just from P&L standpoint.  You have to be aware of trends within employee and customer ranks.  Invest in an engagement system to understand how well aligned and prepared for an uptick in business.  It is vital that you know the level of engagement to ensure flexibility and ability to act.

2. Prepare your managers

Managers are the front line of information and support for the organization.  Too many times, managers are left without tools or training to answer questions and hold discussions about changes to the organization.  They have the proximity and power to dispel rumors and create some momentum for the pending change. They don’t have the power to make the change by themselves.  Bu, it is critical to ensure they are developed and there is alignment between the organizational strategy and culture and the managerial ones.

3. Determine key roles and functions within the organization.

It sounds a little unkind, but there are some roles that are critical to the function of your team or organization.  There are some people and positions that have knowledge that would take a great deal of time to teach others or might hinder operations with access to.  Once you identify these people and positions, put plans in place to capture the critical knowledge, learn best practices and how to encourage them to grow with your organization.

4. Cross Train

Make sure that you are cross train knowledge within teams, departments, etc.  Once the critical positions and people have been identified, you can accurately partner folks based on their knowledge and need for growth.  Doing this can also be a method of recognition for both the person training and doing the training.  Mentoring can be a power method to continue to the good aspects of organizational culture.

5. Develop your current staff

Use the data from your engagement study you can uncover the development needs of your staff.  When combined with employee interviews, a baseline can be uncovered that will increase their productivity and abilities.  Development is inexpensive compared to losing customers or opportunities.

Does this really work?

Although all companies have been affected by the recent economic downturn, there are some that have fared relatively well.  Those that have, generally speaking, have focused on these five keys.  Apple, Wal-Mart, Toyota, and others have shown that by focusing on what they do well and preparing for change companies can survive almost anything the economy throws their way.

Do you know what your employees are really thinking?  What are you doing to prepare for the coming economic change? Or are you just hoping that things will work themselves out?  If you are preparing, I would love to hear what you are doing or how!

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Anil Saxena is a Senior Consultant and Business Partner at the Coffman Organization.
He can be reached at anil_saxena@coffmanorganization.com

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What it means to be “human” / Reflections on the film, 2012

The film 2012 offers some insightful dialogue and illustration on what it means to be a human being.  Moreover, my wife and I saw the film a few days ago and found it most entertaining, though the action sequences were often farfetched to the point of hysterics.  But again, there are some very insightful themes running through the film which I find that as a Christian, are especially relevant for my Christian brothers and sisters.

Note that while the film does not necessarily convey a Christian perspective towards history, I believe as I have inferred at the onset, that the film convey insights on how we ought to carry ourselves in moments of crises, let alone in the normal events of life for that matter. I thus hope that many Christians, as well as non-Christians, will watch this film in order to reflect on two themes I saw emerging through its plot, both of which I find highly relevant to the age we live in.

An apocalyptic parable on true humanity

Before I introduce these two themes, I should offer a few comments concerning the film’s apocalyptic genre and story line.  We can most benefit from the film by interpreting it as simply a parable— though a parable unfolding through a rather unimaginable and horrifying event concerning a cataclysmic reconfiguration of the earth’s crust, which results in the near extinction of human life.

To call the story a parable is to stress how the film depicts an imaginary event yet uses that event to convey, even if quite unintentionally, some very relevant lessons for real life.  When we do that, (and again, I am speaking here to my fellow Christians), then there is really no need to focus so much on dismissing the film’s value because of its apocalyptic premise derived from the Mayan Calendar, which presumably concludes that the world may end in the year 2012.

As a further qualification, it is also important to note that in the film, the world does not actually end.  The world does undergo a horrific cataclysm created by earth’s crust becoming for a moment in history, unstable.  This in turn results in a shifting of the continents and of the north and south poles, and further results in several cataclysmic and global-reaching tsunamis that reach all the way up to Mount Everest.  These tsunamis thus destroy most of the earth’s inhabitants, but in the end, a remnant of the human race survives.  Moreover, the floodwaters apparently recede, thus marking a new beginning in human history.  Hence, the story line roughly echoes the biblical story of Noah and the flood.

Now again, while this scenario may not wholly fall within the images of biblical apocalypticism, I do not find its portrayal of a cataclysmic upheaval capable of seriously threatening life on earth, as wholly impossible.  For I believe there is sufficient warrant to surmise that are a number of very possible scenarios also involving the most unmanageable, horrific and cataclysmic destruction which can very well erupt upon the earth and at any moment in human history.  We should also keep in mind that for most of history, the human race consisted of less than 200 million people around the globe.  Then during the Middle Ages, the Bubonic Plague had in fact wiped out millions of people in Europe and I believe in Northern and Central Asia.

With this mind, the film actually thus becomes deeply relevant to our postmodern age. This is because today we in fact do live in the face of very real and looming apocalyptic threats to our entire earthy existence.  This reality thus largely defines the setting that we commonly call the postmodern setting.  Postmodernity means to some extent that we have come to realise that there are definitive limitations to what extent modern science and human knowledge can insure our continued survival as a species upon the earth.  Modernity preached self-reliance and human ingenuity; it preached the message of self-interest at all costs.  However, if now live in an age marked by a deep sense of pessimism towards the future, our pessimism largely stems from realising that in ourselves, we can no longer be certain of anything concerning our future.

We should however also note that there is a more positive element to the postmodern situation.  This element is that we have come to recognise that the way forward may come, not from the things we have traditionally trusted in, but rather from the most unlikely places and people.  Hence, we should therefore be open to marginalised voices; voices that the majority or the most powerful, or most affluent, have too often marginalised for purposes beneficial to their own security.  So with reference to the film 2012, by the time the film ends, the future of humanity becomes located— in the continent of Africa.

As a Christian, I believe the Lord is coming to unite heaven and earth, which will bring about a full renewal of this world, resulting in its complete transformation into a new creation under His complete reign.  Yet I am aware that things can potentially become far worse for humanity before they get any better.  I have come to realise that if things do get far worse— and I believe they may well in fact eventually get far worse, even to the point of a global-reaching, cataclysmic and utterly complete ecological and financial breakdown, what we may find ourselves suffering under, are the consequences of our own human follies.

Yet in the event of such a possible scenario within human history, and within the possible history that all of us can very well enter into, I want to stress that we as Christians will be called upon to live a life that is counter to the ways of the world.  That will be a counter-culture way of life that is wholly expressed through an ethic fully manifesting the charity of Christ, hope is His soon coming, and certainty in the coming establishment of His kingdom upon the earth, which will culminate in the complete union of heaven and earth through the full coming of His kingdom; the kingdom of God.

The true nature of true humanity

Now I will introduce the two themes that I found so vividly illustrated in the film 2012, which together I believe reveal the true nature of true humanity.  This true nature of true humanity is therefore our true destiny and calling as human beings upon the face of the earth, both in this age and in the age to come.

The first theme we can discern in the film 2012 is this: The film provides us an epic yet also horrifyingly apocalyptic parable on, what it means to be a human being.  This theme first emerges early in the film when upon discovering the potentially impending doom facing humanity, two individuals reflect on how we might carry ourselves in a moment of life-threatening crisis.

More specifically, the film calls to imagine a moment of life-threatening crisis, where the crisis gives us a choice to act and can only act upon only one of two possible choices: the choice to save either our life— or the life of another human being.  Even more specifically, this is the moment of life-threatening crisis, when the crisis confronts a person with the choice to either save only one’s self or rather, to selflessly act without regard for ones own safety, if in doing so, one can possibly save a number of other human lives from certain doom.

In the moment of truth, how will we live?

As the movie 2012 moves towards its end, one of the two individuals, who at the beginning of the film engaged in the moral discussion that I just presented, comes face to face with a moment of truth.  It is a moment we all may at some point in the course of life encounter, where that moment asks us, “In this moment of truth, how will you live?”

What happens in the film is that a scenario develops which reminds me of that old humanistic “life boat” case study involving seven people lost at sea but with a lifeboat made for only five people.  The case study thus calls us to decide which five out of the seven people, should we allow into the lifeboat that is presumably capable of holding no more than five people.  The case study thus forces us to ask ourselves, which two people should we throw over board?  Since the boat has space for only five people, which two people should we together elect to leave behind? Who should live and who should die?

The “lifeboat” case study is one image that implicitly shapes the film’s story line, but so also does the biblical story of Noah’s arc and the flooding of the earth.  Therefore, as the movie reaches its climax, several mammoth “life-boats” are revealed, which had been built in preparation for the global flooding, each capable of saving perhaps hundreds of thousands of people from the floodwaters.  After the selected populations board the boats, there are however still thousands of others desperately seeking to board the ships.

But in midst of the ensuing tension, and hours before the tsunamis impact the ships, one of the chief architects of these mammoth lifeboats, fears that the ships cannot contain those remaining thousands waiting to board.  Therefore, in the moment of truth, this individual, fearful that the ships may not sustain everyone, seeks to close the gates from the masses still hoping to board the boats.

This individual reasons that only by closing the gates to the many still outside the boats, can the human race be preserved from compete destruction.  Note then that this individual has a grand vision, which he passionately believes in, and it is a vision for the preservation of the human race.  He then reasons that if preserving the human race involves making tough decisions as to who we should save and who we should not save, then let us made that decision, and let us limit the number of passengers into the lifeboats.

Yet then there is another man who also faces this moment of truth.  He is that man who earlier pondered, how shall we act in the true moment of truth?  How then shall we live?  How will we act in that moment where we might be called upon to selflessly act without regard for our own safety, if in doing so, we might possibly save the lives of countless other individuals besides our self?

That man speaks up and says, “What is the point of saving our self, if we think that in doing so we are preserving the human race, yet also in doing so, we are in fact acting less than human?”

That man then further argues, “What does it mean to be human?”  He continues by pleading what he believe is the nature of a true human society and culture.  He thus asks, “How can we even start a new society, a new culture, if our foundation consists of behaviours that are less than human?  How can we rebuild a truly human culture, if our founding actions involve no sense of costly yet selfless altruism, even to the extent of our laying down our lives for one another?”

That individual then concludes and challenges those already on the boat that we must take the risk of jeopardising all our lives, if in doing so— we might successfully save every other life from destruction.  Ultimately, we must do so for this reason: it is only in doing so, that we can live a life that is truly human.  If we cannot do so, we are in reality, living less than a human life.

True and false civility

Some years ago, the famous psychiatrist, Dr Scot Peck, wrote a book titled, A World Waiting to Be Born: The Search for Civility.  Peck begins his first chapter titled, “Something is Seriously Wrong,” by noting too many people, think of “civility” as simply being polite and observing proper etiquette.  Peck calls this assumption not only superficial but also horribly wrong.  For this reason Peck goes on to say that too often in our varied life settings, especially in the larger and formal organisation structures in which we work, we carry ourselves towards one another according to the secular techniques of manipulation and personal self interest.  As a result, Peck says, we fail to manifest “the glory of what it means to be human.”

Elsewhere in Peck’s book, he demonstrates how a common organisational culture that is trapped in this secular idea of polite civility, is illustrated when an organisation’s presumed identity is one of, “We’re the best in the business,” and its motto is thus “Quality at all costs.”

In contrast to this idea of civility as nothing more than politeness and following proper decorum, Peck therefore stresses that true “civility” refers to seeking the best interest of all people, regardless of the cost to one’s self.  Within this same discussion, Peck then draws attention to the biblical story of Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man, who was unwilling to part with his wealth.  Peck suggests that the story functions as a parable for all of us, and every time when we read the story or reflect on the story.

The point of the story about the rich young man who is unwilling to part with his wealth, is not that following Jesus means that Jesus wants you to necessarily let go of everything you possess and live in voluntary poverty in order that you may follow him.  Although, I would say for many of us, that may not be a bad idea!  But no.  The moral of the story is that Jesus oftentimes will come to us and ask us the question, “What are you really trusting in?  Where is your security, right now, in this moment?”

Jesus will ask us these questions because if our security is indeed in the things we possess, then how are we going to carry our self as a human being, when the moment of truth calls upon us to express our humanity?

Within this discussion, the mental psychiatrist Peck throws throw at us this observation: “Security can become an addiction, and there are many for whom enough is never enough.”  Peck goes on to say that his work in psychiatric care has convinced him that having wealth never fully satisfies the aching feeling of insecurity.  All their lives, the rich often find themselves caught up therefore, in an insatiable quest to heal this ache through the continued accumulation of wealth.

Peck notes that past statistics demonstrate that within the American setting, the wealthiest segments of the American population give away to charity a much smaller proportion of their income that do middle or working class people.  Hence, their proportional giving reveals “a telling commentary on the spiritual impoverishment of most who are financially rich.”  For similar reasons, another notable psychiatrist, Erich Fromm, realised from sheer experience in the profession of mental care, that, “The essential difference between the unhappy, neurotic type person and him of great joy is the difference between get and give.”

A truly human life therefore, is a life lived in utter selflessness towards other human beings.  A true human life is always lived in the presence of one another, and for the presence and existence of one another.  A true human life can only be lived in selfless action to one another.  This is the mark of true humanity.  Anything less, is less than human.  Anything less is to live not as a human being but to live like an animal.  This discussion thus clarifies what we should mean by the term secular humanism.

Real Christianity infers a true and biblical humanism. Christian humanism is a humanism that encourages and celebrates the true nature of true humanity.  It is founded upon a moral centre, because it is furthermore, founded upon a Person— who is the True Human.  Secular humanism however, is a humanism without the true moral centre, and thus no real moral centre.  It has no moral centre because it encourages and celebrates living only for one’s self without regard for others.  It encourages and celebrates living for one’s self especially when the well-being of your life is any way dependant upon the loss, deprivation or disregard for the best interest of another human being.

For the most part, the world we live in, in spite of its increasing nuance towards spirituality, operates by values reflecting not a true humanism but a secular humanism that really does enthrones “self” at the centre of all things.  That is why even Christian bookstores are filled with books with titles such as “How to Become a Better You,” or “How to Be all You are Meant to Be,” or, “How to Receive all You’re Supposed to Have!”  At the root of all these pseudo-Christian books is not the paradigm of true humanity but the subhuman paradigm of self-interest.  So deep is this false humanistic in the cultures that we live, that much of the current talk within Christian circles of becoming relevant to the day we live in, or of transforming the culture around us, is really quite ludicrous.

The forces that have constructed the macro economic systems of our world, the security systems and social systems we now live within through the processes of globalisation, have constructed these systems upon premises that seek the best interests of the few without concern for the many.  The proverbial lifeboat of the film 2012 is therefore indeed a proverbial analogy of our present world order.

Many of us are right now enjoying the privileges of life on a “boat,” to which untold millions are currently barred entry into, and thus face the prospect of becoming the first causalities of whatever repercussions may erupt upon the earth because of our follies.  Moreover, added to these follies is the folly resulting from keeping our eyes closed to the many.  We close our eyes to their existence, though one day we may painfully discover that all people are indeed interdependent.  When that day comes, we may then truly learn that “No man is an island,” for the same forces that have united much of the world together in economic affluence, has united that much of the world to frustrations of the greater numbers of people who lack access to our prosperity.

Self-denial, charity, sacrifice, and healing the world

This discussion illustrates how nothing less than a complete, radical and revolutionary subversion and undermining of the entire world order, can bring healing to the world.  If a Christian truly believes that he or she lives as salt and light in the world, then he or she must also see their role as a prophetic presence in the world.  This is a prophetic presence that consistently demonstrates values that are visibly counter to the values of the world, and at the same time positively point to a world that is waiting to be born.  The good news is that to fulfill this prophetic role in the world, one need only mature and thus behave as a human being— a true human being.

To fulfill this prophetic function of living a truly human life we must however confront a common though false presumption concerning the purpose of Christian life, and about the purpose of Jesus’ life, sufferings on the cross and resurrection from the dead.  This is the misunderstanding that the ultimate purpose of Jesus’ atonement, was to insure our eternal salvation and hence, that we get to go to heaven when we die.  Now to be sure, the securing of our eternal destiny is central to why Jesus came to live and die upon the earth.  It is central because it is we and not angels whom God has created as His image-bearers— It we whom He loves as His children, and it is we who are made to reflect His likeness.

But in itself, this assumption is only a half-truth, and in itself, it makes for a very “self-centred” gospel.  It is the message of a gospel that men have not centred in the glory of God but rather in the glory of man apart from God.  Rick Warren therefore had it right when he titled the first chapter of his book titled, The Purpose Driven Life; with the title, “It all Starts with God.”  In that chapter, he moreover and rightly began the first sentence by saying, “It is not about you.”  Warren’s proposition illustrates how the primary purpose of Jesus’ atonement was far bigger than the redemption of humankind.  For even greater than to secure the redemption of humanity, is the greater purpose for which Jesus died for.  That greater purpose was to secure the glory of God.

Within the greater purpose of securing the glory of God, is that Jesus dies to reconcile all things— all things both heaven and earth, to Himself.  Jesus suffered and rose again that He might restore all things back together under His rightful reign.  So the Scripture says, “For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”  To this end, the entire purpose of God is to restore our humanity, that we might live as true human beings.  Moreover, the healing of the world involves our becoming more human; thus our becoming more humane.  To this end, God is at work to restore our humanity.

If we want to therefore carry our self in the world as a true human being— if we want to carry our self in a manner that is truly civil, we will never do so by calling attention to what we possess.  We can only show our true humanity through denying our self; and hence, by how easy it is for us to give it all away.  It is for this reason that in his Institutes of Religion, John Calvin devotes Book III to the Christian Life, and in chapter four, he summarises all of Christian life by this one phrase:  “self denial.”

By using that one phrase, “self denial,” as the most succulent description of a truly Christian lifestyle, Calvin chose to stick within a long tradition and a principle within that tradition, which every other leader of the Protestant Reformation also affirmed.  That is a tradition that thus remained connected to the best of Roman Catholic spirituality as illustrated in earlier works such as The Imitation of Christ and The Rule of St Benedict.

The tradition of self denial, which is in fact the true call of Jesus and the only call He gives any of us, when He calls us to Himself, is a tradition that stresses a central image of true humanity, which goes all the way back to the why the Gospels are in the Bible.  It is a tradition that rightly recognises that the Gospels are not provided for our intellectual assent to Jesus’ historical life, but rather foremost to grant us the one true guide on how we should live as human beings.

The Gospels are written to show us how to live— to actually imitate the life of Jesus.  That is why Jesus says, “Deny your self, and follow me.”  Moreover, God has made to some extent, the healing of the world dependent on weather or not we choose to follow Jesus.  For only in following Him can we begin truly living like human beings.

Within this context, we should thus realise that self denial is not something based on ideas of having to live with a “poverty mindset” or deny the very real and material nature of God’s blessings.  But rather, self denial is simply based on a true knowledge and comprehension of what it means to truly live like a human being.  When that knowledge is received, self denial becomes an act of calling and joyful vocation.  We begin joyfully denying our self because we have come to know that only here are living according to our high calling as real people upon the earth.  But to do that, requires our reception of a special kind of joy, and it is a joy that is freely received from the One who is humanity par excellence.

Jesus is humanity par excellence

I submit to you that there was a man who was truly human and remains the True Human, and He is the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the one who laid down his life for His friends.  He is the one who put Himself in harm’s way and suffered harm’s way for the preservation of the entire human race.  He did so because in doing so, he truly behaved and acted as a true human.  He acted as true as a human life can ever be.

Christians rightly confess and know Jesus as the image of God.  Even more so, we have come to know He is God in the flesh.  In Him, we see God, and by his behaviour, we see and know the true personality of God.  Yet I will here also remind us that in Jesus we see true humanity.  In Him we see what human life is designed to be.

This confession that Jesus is not only truly God but truly human, is true because after His resurrection from the dead, Jesus did not stop being human.  After he rose from the dead, He remained human.  This is why He rose from the dead with an indestructible though fully physical and material body.  Even now at this moment, Jesus reigns in heaven through His very real and physically material body.  Moreover, there will come a day when He will appear and like Thomas, we will see the nail scars in His hands.

The entire weight of these reflections rest upon a cardinal doctrine, which if we in any way undermine, we therein commit heresy concerning the person of Jesus.  This doctrine we must confess in order to lift up the name of Jesus over all things, is that He is truly God and He is truly human.  As the ancient creeds effectively established the concluding synthesis of the biblical story of Jesus’ coming, death and resurrection, Jesus is and will always be truly God and truly human.  In Him we see two distinct natures, the divine and human, clearly distinguishable, yet wholly different; undivided, yet inseparable.  He is and will always be, truly God and truly Human.

If we are to therefore truly worship Him as God, and if we are to preach Him fully lifted up in all His saving glory, we must also confess Him and preach Him in all His true Humanity.  For in Him we therefore also see who were born to be, if we are ever to become truly human.  He dies to restore our humanity.  When He lives in us, He works in us to restore our humanity, by setting us on a path of human restoration.

In Jesus Christ we see not only the potential of true human life, but even more so, a vision for a true human society and human culture.  We therefore also see a vision for a new humanity upon the face of the earth.  That is why the Scripture says that Jesus is the beginning of a new humanity.  He is the First Man of a new humanity.  He is therefore the true paradigm for a true human life and human existence.

When we look at Jesus, we therefore see what were born to be.  We were born to be like Jesus.  This is God’s true purpose for all human life; to become like Jesus.  This is why the ancients said, “God became man, so that man might become something like God.”  This again is why if we want to know what God is like, we should look at Jesus, for He is not only the true man, but in Him, we see who God is.  For God is love, and love acts without regard for one’s self but wholly for the sake of those outside our self.  For this reason, God created humankind in His image that we might reflect the likeness of God in how we live.  This is our true human calling.

The process of becoming human is the process of becoming like Jesus.  So complete is the process that He works upon us both from the inside and from the outside.  There is no antithesis between the two processes.  On one hand, he works within us, transforming us from the inside out.  On the other hand, He works outside us, presenting Himself to us as our Teacher and ourselves to Him as disciples called to follow Him.  Through both ways, the goal is the same: that we might live as human beings.  When that happens, we realise that self-denial is indeed not a method towards Christ-likeness, but rather simply the fruit of becoming human, and thus, of becoming like Christ.

Servant-leadership and the vocation of true humanity

In bringing these reflections to a closure, I will now draw attention to the second theme I find so poignantly illustrated in the film 2012; this is theme of true leadership.  Moreover, this theme of true leadership is what Jesus argued as, servant-leadership.

In the movie 2012, one of the chief architects of those mammoth lifeboats was something of what we might call, a visionary leader.  He had a grand vision and it was a vision for the preservation of the human race.  To some extent, we may argue that this man possessed a noble vision.  He believed his vision was for the greater good of humanity.

This man was also a practical leader.  He was a pragmatic leader as well, because He well knew that to be most effective and efficient, he had to make practical choices that may involve refraining from higher moral ideals.  Hence, he chose not to jeopardise the lives of the few by opening the boat to the many.

This man therefore chose to insure the security of the boat and the few in the boat, by choosing not to risk the security of the boat by opening the boat to so many others hoping to step into the security of the boat.  So in all these presumptions, we have a picture of practical, pragmatic and sometimes of visionary leadership.  But in view of the true humanity of Jesus, this is a way of leadership that is nonetheless, subhuman.

Yet the other man, who I want to say was the true leader, argued that preservation of the human race is still not possible unless we seek to preserve the human race through and upon the high moral foundation of self-denial.  As earlier mentioned, this man who was the true leader, argued that a new world that is truly human cannot be rightly established unless such a world is founded upon actions involving genuine risks through the giving of our lives for one another.

This man who was the true leader, therefore sought to persuade those in the boat to risk their own secure future by taking the wild risk of opening the boat to all those outside the boat.  He called upon everyone in the boat to do so, even if in doing so, the boat might sink in the process of getting everyone into the boat.  He argued that failure to do that is to behave not as humans but as animals.  He therefore understood that true leadership is not about putting one’s personal interest before others, but about putting the interest of others before one’s own interest.  He understood that true leadership is always the laying down of our life for the common good.  He understood that true leadership is servant-leadership.

Jesus is not only the True Man but he is the true leader of the human race.  Jesus said that the rulers of this age love to be lord over others, but that is not true leadership.  True leadership is serving others.  Serving always has its penultimate and highest expression in the laying down of our life for one another.  That is what Jesus taught and it is what he modeled— not only to secure our redemption into restored humanity, but to grant us an example of true humanity.  He did this in the expectation that we would actually emulate as an act of our will, having had our will empowered by the Spirit of Christ who lives within us.

Jesus did not just give His life for us, but He modeled to us what it means to be a true human and how to live like a true human being.  It is not enough to even say, “I’ll let Jesus live through me.”  It is important to know that Jesus lives in you and that is where it all begins.  Then when He begins to live in you, you will always face choices every day, where circumstance call upon you to behave like Jesus.  That comes through an act of your will and obedience to His Word.  You can choose to disobey the Lord, even as a Christian.  For this reason, many Christians know the Lord, but actually disobey Him.  Such Christians the Bible calls, fleshy Christians; Christian who remain like spiritual babies.  However, there are times when we all disobey the Lord.  So you must choose to follow Jesus, observe how He lives, and starting acting like Him.  If you do, He will guide your steps and place your feet into His footsteps.

I have digressed here, but I am talking about servant leadership.  True leadership begins with laying down our life for others.  Any aspiration that begins with the preservation of one’s self is not true leadership.  That is a kind of leadership founded something less than a truly human life.

Some months ago, I was engaged in a discussion with a group about the nature of leadership.  In that discussion, someone suggested that there are many kinds of leadership, one of which is the idea of servant leadership, and another is what we might call visionary leadership, and that they are not the same.

Let me point out that for a Christian, there is only one valid kind of leadership, and that is servant leadership.  Any other kind of leadership model or style that fails to recognize Jesus’ model of servant leadership as the foundation, is a subhuman form of leadership.  In a truly biblical worldview, Jesus’ pattern of servant leadership and the concept of visionary leadership are not antithetical styles, but they are the same.  Having a vision for a world founded upon true justice where God’s righteousness and peace prevails requires nothing less than a great people who have discovered their true vocation as servant leaders.

Sometimes in life, there is a moment of truth, which will call on us to choose either the way of self-preservation or the way of self denial.  In the moment of truth, how will we live?  How will we live in the moment of truth, when Jesus comes to us and says let it all go?  How will we live in the moment of truth, when Jesus says let it all go and follow me?  How will live in the moment of truth, when in that moment we are called upon to either act without regard for our own security or even safety , if in doing so, we might secure the life and posterity of other individuals besides our self?

But the truth is that in an infinite number of small and unknown ways, the moment virtually always comes to us every day of our life.  Abraham was able to offer up Issac on Mount Moriah because his whole life revealed a pattern of hearing and responding to God’s call every day of his life.  Every day God calls us and every day we are given a choice to either obey or disobey the Word of God.  Make no mistake about it:  the New Testament does not shrink from describing Christian life according to the language of obedience and disobedience.  “Today, if you Hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”  And a moment of truth will come when you are also called up to the top of Mount Moriah.  And there maybe even several times or more when He will call you up to the top of Mount Moriah, and offer your life a living sacrifice.

The healing of both our selves and those, whom we might need to lay down our life for, will come through the way of self-denial.  So part of the good news is that our own healing— the healing of our soul, is found through simply living like a true human being.  The healing of our soul and the healing of the world, is only found through losing our selves in the saving of those not on the boat, but who also long for a new world waiting to be born.

Jim Mask and I were standing at the end zone fence by the locker rooms as we watched our sons compete in a high school junior varsity football game.  Our team was playing against a team in a higher division and the scoreboard reflected the mismatch in size and speed.  However, we were proud of our kids who never gave up and continued to play hard until the final whistle.  After the game as the team was beginning to head our way to the locker room, Jim turned to me and summed up the game by saying, “Well brother, that’s what they call an old fashioned learning experience!”

Sometimes we need “learning experiences” to teach us lessons we don’t seem to get any other way.  This was true for Jesus’ apostles who had been walking with Jesus for three years hearing Jesus teach on the true nature of power and influence without really “getting it.”  Last week, I shared the story of James and John as they struggled with the concept of power in the coming kingdom.  Jesus tried to use their inappropriate request for premier seating assignments in the kingdom throne room and the resulting argument that ensued among the other apostles to teach them about his unique kind of leadership.  He contrasted the secular leadership model with which they were familiar to the Godly leadership model they would need to understand to be successful in their new kingdom roles.  Jesus told them to just look at his example since he came not to be served but to serve.  However, they just didn’t seem to get it.  Even at the Last Supper, after the triumphal entry into Jerusalem and right before events would spiral out of control (from the apostles’ point of view), the apostles still were jockeying for position as they vied with each other for power (Luke 22:24-30).  Jesus needed to teach them this lesson in way that would finally sink in.  The apostles needed a learning experience!

As described in John 13, the apostles and Jesus were all reclining at the Last Supper table, Jesus rose, discarded his outer garment, wrapped himself with a towel, took up a basin and proceeded to wash the feet of each disciple.  Foot washing was a duty reserved for servants and apparently no servants were available at this hastily prepared Passover meal.  With no one willing to provide this service, the diners all had feet soiled with road grime which was a major problem in a culture where folks reclined at a dinner table with heads positioned next to feet.  The apostles no doubt were appalled at the thought of their master stooping to the level of a foot washing servant.  Peter even expresses his dismay as he initially refuses to allow Jesus to wash his feet.  Jesus completes the service and resumes his place at the table ready to teach the lesson behind this learning experience.

Jesus said:

“Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”

I believe the apostles finally “got it” as this real-life lesson finally sunk in over the following weeks and months.  This “learning experience” along three years of teaching and other practical application lessons changed their lives and prepared these men for their new leadership roles in the kingdom of God.  Anyone who would be a leader in God’s kingdom must learn this lesson and have their life changed just like these apostles.  Just knowing about servant leadership does nothing.  Doing servant leadership leads to blessings!

I had to learn this lesson through a “learning experience” as well.  In August 1994, six years after starting a computer consulting services company with a couple of friends, I sat at a conference table with my business partners as they told me they thought it would be best for everyone if I left our company.  Under my leadership as President and CEO, we had grown the small company from three guys in a garage barely making a living to a company with offices in three Texas cities employing over 50 professionals with revenues in excess of four million dollars per year.  In spite of our success, things inside our leadership team were bad enough to bring us to this point where the other guys believed divorce was the only answer.  Although they were fair with me in buying out my ownership position and I was blessed to be able to use my personal network to immediately get work, I was in the middle of an unwanted and unpleasant learning experience.  My ego was damaged, my dreams shattered and my self-esteem took a big hit. 

Sometimes God’s learning experiences must tear us down before we can be built back up properly.  Over the following year, I meditated on these events, studied the Bible and read some encouraging books on Christian leadership as I tried to understand what had “happened to me” to cause my partners to reject my leadership.  One day I was reading this passage in John 13 and it hit me that it wasn’t that something happened to me rather this thing happened because of me!  I wasn’t a victim, I was the responsible party.  My leadership of the company was characterized by long hours, family sacrifice, self-centered ambition, self-glorification and destructive politics where I took advantage of others to improve my own situation.  When Jesus described the heathen style of leadership by saying, “the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them,” he was describing my leadership style.  When I read the John 13 story of Jesus’ foot washing, I did not recognize myself in Jesus’ example.  Although I had read that story a hundred times, the lesson had never “sunk in” until I went through this painful learning experience in 1994-1995.

Since then, I have been committed to studying the servant leadership model and doing my best with the help of God’s Spirit in my life to pattern myself after Jesus’ foot-washing example in all areas of my life.  My extended “learning experience” culminated with a “Followership” class Richard Beasley and I taught at McDermott Road in 2003.  During the preparation and presentation of this class, the last of the “tearing down” was done and the building up could proceed in all areas of my life.  I’m now committed to working hard but with appropriate balance, taking care of my family, having great ambitions for all those organizations and individuals in my life, seeking glory for others, eliminating destructive politics within organizations where I have a leadership role, encouraging and empowering others and in general seeking after other folks’ best interests.  The miracle I have found in the process is that by trying to put others first in my life, I have also seen my own best interests taken care of.  I am happier, more content and more successful now than at any point in my life.  I believe I am in a much better place in all areas of my life than I ever could have been had I stayed on the path I was traveling in 1994.  I certainly wouldn’t be even remotely qualified to be a shepherd in the Lord’s church without having first learned this servant leadership lesson.  Lord, thank you for your learning experiences!

This article completes the foundation building process for Intersections.  Here is the progression we have taken together to get to this point:

1. Love God and Jesus
2. Love and respect others seeking after their best interests
3. Seek God’s guidance and assistance through prayer
4. Be guided and empowered by God’s Spirit
5. Serve others and put others first especially when you are a leader

Next week, I will begin a series of practical articles on living out a genuine faith in real life based on the foundation built over these first eight Intersections articles.  If you have not read the articles prior to this one, I encourage you to review them before proceeding.

In the meantime, let me know your thoughts on this article and the rest of the foundation series.  I’m interested to know if there are any other learning experiences out there.  See my Tips from Mike page to see how to send me a private comment if you don’t want your comment to be made public.  Also, if I can be of service to you by praying for you, please let me know.  I promise that if you ask me to pray for you I will honor your request and include your need in my personal prayers.  I will be honored to serve you in that way.

By the way – Many of those freshman JV football players are now sophomores playing on the Varsity team including my son (Matt), Jim’s son (Tim) and Jason’s son (Austin).  This Saturday, they are playing for the State Championship in their TAPPS division.  Painful learning experiences can build champions in football as well as in life.  We are proud Dads!

Until next week,

Meet me at the intersection!

Guilt.

I suffer from the guilt of existence. I’d feel guilty if I had a child before some of my friends I know who have desired children for years. Especially since I also know they desire children so much more than me.

And the ability to stay home and live primarily off my husband’s income so I can devote my time and attention to my novel (which I have no idea whether it will be any good or be able to earn any money). I have so many friends and family members who do not have this opportunity. I feel bad. Something tells me I must work full-time like them to make life fair even though I don’t have to.

It’s not fair that people who want to live must die when there’s someone like me who thinks so little of herself that she would trade places with someone who was dying.

I wait every night, you know, to die.

I’ve given up on suicide because I’ve tried numerous times and I can’t succeed. People tell me it’s because God says it’s not my time to go.

So every night, I wait for God. I wait for Him to take me. I anticipate “my time to go.” That final breath, that final gasp of air that God won’t let me recover from. I wait for it nightly.

But then I wake up each morning, somewhat stupefied as to why I’m still alive. What’s God’ s purpose for me? Am I meant to accomplish something monumentally great or simply exist to bring a smile to my husband’s face each day for the next 60 years?

And what’s wrong with that? Why can’t I be content simply to exist only to make other people happy?

“I tend to be of the mindset that in order to be pleasing to God, I have to do something big, something that leaves an evident footprint in the world. I think deep down I know this isn’t a true philosophy, but when I just live everyday life, I feel useless.” –Sizzledowski, “Sometimes I talk to myself… a lot“

No, I’m not content because I’ve been taught that “bigger is better.” (Well, except when it comes to weight.)

Servant leadership.

My father used to work in the maintenance department of a large ad agency and sometimes he’d get whatever leftovers were no longer wanted. One time, the agency developed (or recycled, I’m not sure) a slogan and printed up more T-shirts than they could use so my dad brought a bunch of them home. The slogan has stayed with me to this day:

“Good enough is not enough.”

So I’ll always feel like a failure. Because once I achieve that one “great” thing, I’ll always be looking for the next great thing. It’s a vicious cycle–always looking to outdo myself. This was also part of Michael Jackson’s downfall. As a perfectionist, he was always trying to “top” himself. The “Thriller” album sold 26 million copies worldwide back in the 80s, immediately becoming the best-selling album of all time. In fact, it is STILL the best-selling album of all time with more than 100 million copies sold worldwide. (The next album that comes even close is AC/DC’s “Back in Black” with 49 million copies.)

“Good enough is not enough.”

Jackson wanted to continue to break records and continue to top the charts even after “Thriller” but was never able to relieve that kind of success again in his lifetime.

So where does it stop? A person can’t always be number one.

Jesus said the first shall be last and the last shall be first. (Mk. 10:31, Matt. 20:16) As a Christian, what does this mean to me?

It means the only way to truly lead is by serving. That is what Jesus did. And not to minimize my Lord in any way but that is also the example all the great human heroes followed: Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa. Not self-serving but serving others. Who will have had more of an impact 100 years from now: Madonna or Martin Luther King, Jr.? God bless Madonna if history textbooks mention her musical impact from the 1980s but MLK, Jr. has changed the lives of many people in this country. From the White House down to little ol’ me, he continues to have a lasting impact beyond his death. As a result of MLK, Jr.’s tireless work, I can write a blog post with fairly good grammar and spelling that reaches a multicultural audience because I had the opportunity to receive a stellar education from Kindergarten through college. (Let’s just conveniently ignore the fact that the last sentence was atrociously written, though.)

The world says to be number one and never settle for last place. My Lord says the first shall be last and the last shall be first. The world says take the lead; be a leader. Jesus says, “Follow me” (Matt 4:19); be a servant (Jn. 13:12-17).

With things like pride and self-sufficiency (really a subset of pride), being a true, consistent servant is difficult:

• Never seeking glory for yourself.
• Always doing things for the benefit of others.
• Constantly knowing your limitation so you can ask for help for the sake of others.

Not easy.

You may have heard the phrase “Sharpen the Saw” in Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He uses the example of a woodcutter who is constantly sawing wood day after day who progressively loses productivity as the blade of his saw becomes dull. The woodcutter’s solution to overcoming decreasing productivity while working to cut wood is to periodically sharpen his saw so that he can continue to be productive by using a sharp tool.

Times have changed!

If you have ever used a hand saw you might think a saw is a saw, it cuts through wood and you end up with two pieces of wood and a pile of sawdust in the end. Although this is true to a point, Stanley Tools makes a modern saw called the FatMax Saw with BladeArmor that has a special composite coating on the blade.

“Yeah, so, who cares, what’s the difference?”

Now if you were to take these two saws and try to cut through a 2×4 piece of wood, you would realize the difference in the traditional handsaw compared with the one with a special coating. The Stanley FatMax Saw without BladeArmor will cut through the wood and it will do a sufficient job. It might tweak here and there, and it might stick a bit from time to time, but in the end you have two pieces of wood and a pile of sawdust. Now using the saw with BladeArmor, you will still end up having the same results, two pieces of wood and a pile of sawdust, but you will have it in half the time. Why? Because the BladeArmor gives you:

50% less friction

2x rust protection

6x abrasion protection

You might spend a couple extra dollars, but in the end it is worth it because you created two pieces of wood and a pile of sawdust in half the time and you avoided the:

Extra friction of the saw cutting through the wood

Toll that rust can take on your saw

Abrasion caused by cutting through the wood

Now what if you could apply this concept to your day-to-day life. How would you like to go through life with your own armor which provides you:

50% less life friction?

2x protection against the corrosion caused by life?

6x less abrasion from others?

You would love it! So why not take the time to upgrade your saw?

Ask yourself these questions:

How sharp is your saw?

Does it cut smooth?

Does it cut straight?

Does it cut through wood like a hot knife through butter?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, then take a step back and look at where you can make improvement to your skills.

Upgrade Time

What needs to be done to improve your saw?

First, you need to take time for yourself.

It is all too easy in this industrious world we live into skip a meal, forget to exercise and not sleep as much as we should. All of these things are important to keeping you healthy, energetic and alert. According to MayoClinic.com improving these areas of your life can help you to:

• Enhance your mood
• Combat disease
• Manage weight
• Boost your energy level
• Promote better sleep
• Improve your memory
• Enrich your health

Second, spend time with your family, friends, and colleagues.

Studies have shown our social relationships can directly affect our mental and physical health. In order to keep up solid relationships, it is important to be:

• Approachable
• Genuine and honest to others
• A good listener
• Loyal and respectful of confidentiality when others confide in you
• Supportive of their situations and to add perspective to what they say
• Considerate of your relationships and giving of your time and self

Third, contrary to what you might think; YOU DON’T KNOW EVERYTHING!

Take some time to learn. By taking time to improve your mental skills whether it be through formal classes, reading, writing or even teaching others. It will help you to:

• Be more productive and efficient
• Ensue a competitive character giving you an advantage over others
• Enhance career opportunities
• Improve your skills by getting better at what you do
• Become a disciplined person

Lastly, take time to enjoy life!

When was the last time you jumped out of bed in the morning exhilarated for the day with a complete calm, not thinking about the issues affecting your life? When is the last time you dived into a pile of autumn leaves, without thinking how dirty you were going to get? When is the last time you jumped in a puddle, with no concern of getting wet?

“Childhood is that state which ends the moment a puddle is first viewed as an obstacle instead of an opportunity.” – Kathy Williams

It’s about:

• Finding peace in your life
• Taking the time to appreciate all your existence has to offer
• Enjoying those little circumstances you encounter each day which brighten your spirit.

There are a number of ways you can cultivate your spirituality:

• Go for a nature hike
• Listen to music
• Visit a local gallery to appreciate some art
• Volunteer in your community
• Pray or attend church

“Everyday is a new opportunity…so don’t waste it!”

Each day provides you a new opportunity to renew your being. Take time for yourself, be social, spend time learning and enhance your spirit.

What will you do to improve your saw? How can you reduce friction in your workplace. How can you equip team members to preserve what is working well? What can you add to your team members tool box to help them produce more with less effort? I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas!

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Jason Christensen is National Accounts Manager for The Stanley Works.
He can be reached at jasonchristensen_blog@yahoo.com

Image Sources: thisoldhouse.com, cadesign86.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

In America, we take a moment each year to celebrate all the things for which we are thankful. The L2L staff and bloggers are taking this time to celebrate our national holiday and spending the time with our family, friends, and loved one. We are even spending time with people who we normally don’t like too much, but that is part of the scene, too

We will be back soon. So, no matter where you are, take a moment or two and think about your life and everything in it. Then thank God for everything you have, for all of your experiences, and for the ability to serve others for our brief time on this planet.

Happy Thanksgiving and God Bless!

~Tom

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Tom Schulte | Executive Director | Linked 2 Leadership
Atlanta, GA USA

Image Source: hornblowerholidays.com

Transformation is a process; a metamorphosis by which an individual changes over a period of time by shedding the layers of the old for the promise of the new.   In the context of an organization where each employee has different talents, temperaments, experiences and motivations, transformation requires visionary leadership that seeks to first comprehend and then address the needs, motives, and values of employees.  Transformational leadership utilizes this intimate knowledge of followers to inspire and facilitate change, improvement, and ultimately motivate followers to work towards a collective and unifying vision.

Leadership that is transformational is a partnership between leader and follower that transcends the all too prevalent mindset that leadership is merely a method by which to reach identified goals by any means necessary. The transformational leader believes in the purpose of the mission and seeks to lead followers in adopting that same passion in what will become a shared vision. The transformational leader has a genuine concern for their followers that is largely void of narcissistic underpinnings as they understand their success is a product of collective effort.  The overarching importance of transformational precepts in leadership can be found in the fact that it is “grounded in the fulfillment of a moral purpose, in bringing values to life, and its achievement is measured, finally, by the same standards (Burns, 2003, p. 167).  Morality is a prerequisite of transformational leadership and while its presence will not always guarantee a favorable outcome, it absence will quite certainly guarantee the opposite. 

Unfortunately, transformational leadership has been largely absent in contemporary organizational culture as autocratic managers are still largely prevalent throughout the corporate landscape.  Leadership and hierarchal management structures are still widely considered to be synonymous when in reality, one’s position within the organizational chart is merely indicative of the title they hold and not the leadership they display. Palmer (2004) states that “our idea of leadership has been deformed by a myth that links leadership to hierarchy, as if leaders were needed only in systems that operate from the top down” (p. 76). Emanating from this philosophy is the false assumption that position alone guarantees followership and when the respected results do not come, failures are blamed on what they perceive to be the mediocrity of their followers rather than a dearth of leadership.

Transformation is important to leadership because it embraces creativity and provides a platform whereby “conventional restraints are loosened as new explanations are sought [and] the unthinkable becomes thinkable, perhaps even imperative” (Burns, 2003, p. 166).  This encouragement of creative problem solving is made possible through a healthy engagement between leader and follower; a relationship developed by a leader who inspires a shared vision by providing support and expressing confidence in the capabilities of their followers.

Organizational performance that exceeds expectations is the aim of all leadership methodologies but only transformational leadership effectively creates a synergy among the necessary elements to make that goal a reality.  It does so by elevating the leader and follower above their own self-interests to collectively perform on a higher plane. Impelled by strong ethical and moral principles, transformational leadership infuses the enthusiasm and optimism of the leader’s vision into the follower so that both will continue to develop and improve their performance.

REFERENCES

Burns, J. (2003).  Transforming leadership.  New York: Grove Press.

Palmer, P. (2004).  A hidden wholeness: the journey toward an undivided life.

SanFrancisco: Josey-Bass.

Be Honest

How many people woke up this morning and said to themselves, “I’m going to be completely non-productive today”? How many people went into work this morning committed to finding a way to make mistakes? The answer is nobody. Nobody goes into something hoping to fail. So, why do some people flourish while others struggle?

The answer is leadership. And people deserve good leadership.

Ivy League Stars Can Fall

Let me tell you about James. (I’m not using real names here.) James was a star student at a private prep school. He was awarded the highest honors that the school could give. He was captain of several athletic teams and received top honors there as well. After prep school he was accepted to an Ivy League college where he also excelled both academically and athletically. It seemed like James was destined for greatness no matter what he did.

At his first job out of college, James began working for Brad. Brad is a hands-off manager. In fact, his hands are so far off you might think that he is absent. James receives minimal guidance and direction. The only time Brad gets involved with his team is when his boss takes an interest in what is going on in the department. When James is given projects to work on, he does them and does them well. But, on any given workday are as likely to see him surfing the web as you are doing anything for work.

So what happened? How did this Ivy League star fall so far? The answer is leadership.

People genuinely want to do good work and to be recognized for it.

In exchange, they will work hard to do what it takes to get the job done, if only the person in charge can connect with them and will lead them. If someone isn’t doing well at work, 90% of the time it is because they aren’t sure what is expected of them or they don’t possess the competency to do the job at that point in time. In either case, it is the responsibility of the leader to address it by making sure the expectations are clear, the skills and experience of the individual align to the work at hand, and the desired outcome is reached. Ken Blanchard calls this situational leadership and does a good job of illustrating it in his One Minute Manager series of books. Specifically, in the book “Leadership and the One Minute Manger” Blanchard says,

“Everyone has peak performance potential – you just need to know where they are coming from and meet them there.”

So, did James suddenly tell himself that he was just going to coast in his career? Did his new job reveal that James is not capable of mastering the requirements of the job? Not likely.

Servant Leadership

What happened is that James came face-to-face with self-appointed authoritarian royalty. Leaders like Brad are more focused on fitting themselves with the crown of authority than they are working with their people to help them achieve great things. Sadly this is an all too common story. The most effective leaders are those who have realized that they will be far more successful if they find ways to help their people to be successful. This is called servant leadership.

Servant leaders find it hard to work with people while wearing the crown of authority because the crown tends to fall off when you bend down to help somebody.

In what ways are you a servant leader? How are you helping people achieve the performance potential of which they are capable?

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Dave Hasenbalg is Chief Operating Officer of Customized Solutions, LLC and does coaching and public speaking on Leadership and Operational Excellence.
He can be reached at dhasenbalg@customized-solutions.com

Image Source: farm2.static.flickr.com

What it means to be “human” / Reflections on the film, 2012

The film 2012 offers some insightful dialogue and illustration on what it means to be a human being.  Moreover, my wife and I saw the film a few days ago and found it most entertaining, though the action sequences were often farfetched to the point of hysterics.  But again, there are some very insightful themes running through the film which I find that as a Christian, are especially relevant for my Christian brothers and sisters.

Note that while the film does not necessarily convey a Christian perspective towards history, I believe as I have inferred at the onset, that the film convey insights on how we ought to carry ourselves in moments of crises, let alone in the normal events of life for that matter. I thus hope that many Christians, as well as non-Christians, will watch this film in order to reflect on two themes I saw emerging through its plot, both of which I find highly relevant to the age we live in.

An apocalyptic parable on true humanity

Before I introduce these two themes, I should offer a few comments concerning the film’s apocalyptic genre and story line.  We can most benefit from the film by interpreting it as simply a parable— though a parable unfolding through a rather unimaginable and horrifying event concerning a cataclysmic reconfiguration of the earth’s crust, which results in the near extinction of human life.

To call the story a parable is to stress how the film depicts an imaginary event yet uses that event to convey, even if quite unintentionally, some very relevant lessons for real life.  When we do that, (and again, I am speaking here to my fellow Christians), then there is really no need to focus so much on dismissing the film’s value because of its apocalyptic premise derived from the Mayan Calendar, which presumably concludes that the world may end in the year 2012.

As a further qualification, it is also important to note that in the film, the world does not actually end.  The world does undergo a horrific cataclysm created by earth’s crust becoming for a moment in history, unstable.  This in turn results in a shifting of the continents and of the north and south poles, and further results in several cataclysmic and global-reaching tsunamis that reach all the way up to Mount Everest.  These tsunamis thus destroy most of the earth’s inhabitants, but in the end, a remnant of the human race survives.  Moreover, the floodwaters apparently recede, thus marking a new beginning in human history.  Hence, the story line roughly echoes the biblical story of Noah and the flood.

Now again, while this scenario may not wholly fall within the images of biblical apocalypticism, I do not find its portrayal of a cataclysmic upheaval capable of seriously threatening life on earth, as wholly impossible.  For I believe there is sufficient warrant to surmise that are a number of very possible scenarios also involving the most unmanageable, horrific and cataclysmic destruction which can very well erupt upon the earth and at any moment in human history.  We should also keep in mind that for most of history, the human race consisted of less than 200 million people around the globe.  Then during the Middle Ages, the Bubonic Plague had in fact wiped out millions of people in Europe and I believe in Northern and Central Asia.

With this mind, the film actually thus becomes deeply relevant to our postmodern age. This is because today we in fact do live in the face of very real and looming apocalyptic threats to our entire earthy existence.  This reality thus largely defines the setting that we commonly call the postmodern setting.  Postmodernity means to some extent that we have come to realise that there are definitive limitations to what extent modern science and human knowledge can insure our continued survival as a species upon the earth.  Modernity preached self-reliance and human ingenuity; it preached the message of self-interest at all costs.  However, if now live in an age marked by a deep sense of pessimism towards the future, our pessimism largely stems from realising that in ourselves, we can no longer be certain of anything concerning our future.

We should however also note that there is a more positive element to the postmodern situation.  This element is that we have come to recognise that the way forward may come, not from the things we have traditionally trusted in, but rather from the most unlikely places and people.  Hence, we should therefore be open to marginalised voices; voices that the majority or the most powerful, or most affluent, have too often marginalised for purposes beneficial to their own security.  So with reference to the film 2012, by the time the film ends, the future of humanity becomes located— in the continent of Africa.

As a Christian, I believe the Lord is coming to unite heaven and earth, which will bring about a full renewal of this world, resulting in its complete transformation into a new creation under His complete reign.  Yet I am aware that things can potentially become far worse for humanity before they get any better.  I have come to realise that if things do get far worse— and I believe they may well in fact eventually get far worse, even to the point of a global-reaching, cataclysmic and utterly complete ecological and financial breakdown, what we may find ourselves suffering under, are the consequences of our own human follies.

Yet in the event of such a possible scenario within human history, and within the possible history that all of us can very well enter into, I want to stress that we as Christians will be called upon to live a life that is counter to the ways of the world.  That will be a counter-culture way of life that is wholly expressed through an ethic fully manifesting the charity of Christ, hope is His soon coming, and certainty in the coming establishment of His kingdom upon the earth, which will culminate in the complete union of heaven and earth through the full coming of His kingdom; the kingdom of God.

The true nature of true humanity

Now I will introduce the two themes that I found so vividly illustrated in the film 2012, which together I believe reveal the true nature of true humanity.  This true nature of true humanity is therefore our true destiny and calling as human beings upon the face of the earth, both in this age and in the age to come.

The first theme we can discern in the film 2012 is this: The film provides us an epic yet also horrifyingly apocalyptic parable on, what it means to be a human being.  This theme first emerges early in the film when upon discovering the potentially impending doom facing humanity, two individuals reflect on how we might carry ourselves in a moment of life-threatening crisis.

More specifically, the film calls to imagine a moment of life-threatening crisis, where the crisis gives us a choice to act and can only act upon only one of two possible choices: the choice to save either our life— or the life of another human being.  Even more specifically, this is the moment of life-threatening crisis, when the crisis confronts a person with the choice to either save only one’s self or rather, to selflessly act without regard for ones own safety, if in doing so, one can possibly save a number of other human lives from certain doom.

In the moment of truth, how will we live?

As the movie 2012 moves towards its end, one of the two individuals, who at the beginning of the film engaged in the moral discussion that I just presented, comes face to face with a moment of truth.  It is a moment we all may at some point in the course of life encounter, where that moment asks us, “In this moment of truth, how will you live?”

What happens in the film is that a scenario develops which reminds me of that old humanistic “life boat” case study involving seven people lost at sea but with a lifeboat made for only five people.  The case study thus calls us to decide which five out of the seven people, should we allow into the lifeboat that is presumably capable of holding no more than five people.  The case study thus forces us to ask ourselves, which two people should we throw over board?  Since the boat has space for only five people, which two people should we together elect to leave behind? Who should live and who should die?

The “lifeboat” case study is one image that implicitly shapes the film’s story line, but so also does the biblical story of Noah’s arc and the flooding of the earth.  Therefore, as the movie reaches its climax, several mammoth “life-boats” are revealed, which had been built in preparation for the global flooding, each capable of saving perhaps hundreds of thousands of people from the floodwaters.  After the selected populations board the boats, there are however still thousands of others desperately seeking to board the ships.

But in midst of the ensuing tension, and hours before the tsunamis impact the ships, one of the chief architects of these mammoth lifeboats, fears that the ships cannot contain those remaining thousands waiting to board.  Therefore, in the moment of truth, this individual, fearful that the ships may not sustain everyone, seeks to close the gates from the masses still hoping to board the boats.

This individual reasons that only by closing the gates to the many still outside the boats, can the human race be preserved from compete destruction.  Note then that this individual has a grand vision, which he passionately believes in, and it is a vision for the preservation of the human race.  He then reasons that if preserving the human race involves making tough decisions as to who we should save and who we should not save, then let us made that decision, and let us limit the number of passengers into the lifeboats.

Yet then there is another man who also faces this moment of truth.  He is that man who earlier pondered, how shall we act in the true moment of truth?  How then shall we live?  How will we act in that moment where we might be called upon to selflessly act without regard for our own safety, if in doing so, we might possibly save the lives of countless other individuals besides our self?

That man speaks up and says, “What is the point of saving our self, if we think that in doing so we are preserving the human race, yet also in doing so, we are in fact acting less than human?”

That man then further argues, “What does it mean to be human?”  He continues by pleading what he believe is the nature of a true human society and culture.  He thus asks, “How can we even start a new society, a new culture, if our foundation consists of behaviours that are less than human?  How can we rebuild a truly human culture, if our founding actions involve no sense of costly yet selfless altruism, even to the extent of our laying down our lives for one another?”

That individual then concludes and challenges those already on the boat that we must take the risk of jeopardising all our lives, if in doing so— we might successfully save every other life from destruction.  Ultimately, we must do so for this reason: it is only in doing so, that we can live a life that is truly human.  If we cannot do so, we are in reality, living less than a human life.

True and false civility

Some years ago, the famous psychiatrist, Dr Scot Peck, wrote a book titled, A World Waiting to Be Born: The Search for Civility.  Peck begins his first chapter titled, “Something is Seriously Wrong,” by noting too many people, think of “civility” as simply being polite and observing proper etiquette.  Peck calls this assumption not only superficial but also horribly wrong.  For this reason Peck goes on to say that too often in our varied life settings, especially in the larger and formal organisation structures in which we work, we carry ourselves towards one another according to the secular techniques of manipulation and personal self interest.  As a result, Peck says, we fail to manifest “the glory of what it means to be human.”

Elsewhere in Peck’s book, he demonstrates how a common organisational culture that is trapped in this secular idea of polite civility, is illustrated when an organisation’s presumed identity is one of, “We’re the best in the business,” and its motto is thus “Quality at all costs.”

In contrast to this idea of civility as nothing more than politeness and following proper decorum, Peck therefore stresses that true “civility” refers to seeking the best interest of all people, regardless of the cost to one’s self.  Within this same discussion, Peck then draws attention to the biblical story of Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man, who was unwilling to part with his wealth.  Peck suggests that the story functions as a parable for all of us, and every time when we read the story or reflect on the story.

The point of the story about the rich young man who is unwilling to part with his wealth, is not that following Jesus means that Jesus wants you to necessarily let go of everything you possess and live in voluntary poverty in order that you may follow him.  Although, I would say for many of us, that may not be a bad idea!  But no.  The moral of the story is that Jesus oftentimes will come to us and ask us the question, “What are you really trusting in?  Where is your security, right now, in this moment?”

Jesus will ask us these questions because if our security is indeed in the things we possess, then how are we going to carry our self as a human being, when the moment of truth calls upon us to express our humanity?

Within this discussion, the mental psychiatrist Peck throws throw at us this observation: “Security can become an addiction, and there are many for whom enough is never enough.”  Peck goes on to say that his work in psychiatric care has convinced him that having wealth never fully satisfies the aching feeling of insecurity.  All their lives, the rich often find themselves caught up therefore, in an insatiable quest to heal this ache through the continued accumulation of wealth.

Peck notes that past statistics demonstrate that within the American setting, the wealthiest segments of the American population give away to charity a much smaller proportion of their income that do middle or working class people.  Hence, their proportional giving reveals “a telling commentary on the spiritual impoverishment of most who are financially rich.”  For similar reasons, another notable psychiatrist, Erich Fromm, realised from sheer experience in the profession of mental care, that, “The essential difference between the unhappy, neurotic type person and him of great joy is the difference between get and give.”

A truly human life therefore, is a life lived in utter selflessness towards other human beings.  A true human life is always lived in the presence of one another, and for the presence and existence of one another.  A true human life can only be lived in selfless action to one another.  This is the mark of true humanity.  Anything less, is less than human.  Anything less is to live not as a human being but to live like an animal.  This discussion thus clarifies what we should mean by the term secular humanism.

Real Christianity infers a true and biblical humanism. Christian humanism is a humanism that encourages and celebrates the true nature of true humanity.  It is founded upon a moral centre, because it is furthermore, founded upon a Person— who is the True Human.  Secular humanism however, is a humanism without the true moral centre, and thus no real moral centre.  It has no moral centre because it encourages and celebrates living only for one’s self without regard for others.  It encourages and celebrates living for one’s self especially when the well-being of your life is any way dependant upon the loss, deprivation or disregard for the best interest of another human being.

For the most part, the world we live in, in spite of its increasing nuance towards spirituality, operates by values reflecting not a true humanism but a secular humanism that really does enthrones “self” at the centre of all things.  That is why even Christian bookstores are filled with books with titles such as “How to Become a Better You,” or “How to Be all You are Meant to Be,” or, “How to Receive all You’re Supposed to Have!”  At the root of all these pseudo-Christian books is not the paradigm of true humanity but the subhuman paradigm of self-interest.  So deep is this false humanistic in the cultures that we live, that much of the current talk within Christian circles of becoming relevant to the day we live in, or of transforming the culture around us, is really quite ludicrous.

The forces that have constructed the macro economic systems of our world, the security systems and social systems we now live within through the processes of globalisation, have constructed these systems upon premises that seek the best interests of the few without concern for the many.  The proverbial lifeboat of the film 2012 is therefore indeed a proverbial analogy of our present world order.

Many of us are right now enjoying the privileges of life on a “boat,” to which untold millions are currently barred entry into, and thus face the prospect of becoming the first causalities of whatever repercussions may erupt upon the earth because of our follies.  Moreover, added to these follies is the folly resulting from keeping our eyes closed to the many.  We close our eyes to their existence, though one day we may painfully discover that all people are indeed interdependent.  When that day comes, we may then truly learn that “No man is an island,” for the same forces that have united much of the world together in economic affluence, has united that much of the world to frustrations of the greater numbers of people who lack access to our prosperity.

Self-denial, charity, sacrifice, and healing the world

This discussion illustrates how nothing less than a complete, radical and revolutionary subversion and undermining of the entire world order, can bring healing to the world.  If a Christian truly believes that he or she lives as salt and light in the world, then he or she must also see their role as a prophetic presence in the world.  This is a prophetic presence that consistently demonstrates values that are visibly counter to the values of the world, and at the same time positively point to a world that is waiting to be born.  The good news is that to fulfill this prophetic role in the world, one need only mature and thus behave as a human being— a true human being.

To fulfill this prophetic function of living a truly human life we must however confront a common though false presumption concerning the purpose of Christian life, and about the purpose of Jesus’ life, sufferings on the cross and resurrection from the dead.  This is the misunderstanding that the ultimate purpose of Jesus’ atonement, was to insure our eternal salvation and hence, that we get to go to heaven when we die.  Now to be sure, the securing of our eternal destiny is central to why Jesus came to live and die upon the earth.  It is central because it is we and not angels whom God has created as His image-bearers— It we whom He loves as His children, and it is we who are made to reflect His likeness.

But in itself, this assumption is only a half-truth, and in itself, it makes for a very “self-centred” gospel.  It is the message of a gospel that men have not centred in the glory of God but rather in the glory of man apart from God.  Rick Warren therefore had it right when he titled the first chapter of his book titled, The Purpose Driven Life; with the title, “It all Starts with God.”  In that chapter, he moreover and rightly began the first sentence by saying, “It is not about you.”  Warren’s proposition illustrates how the primary purpose of Jesus’ atonement was far bigger than the redemption of humankind.  For even greater than to secure the redemption of humanity, is the greater purpose for which Jesus died for.  That greater purpose was to secure the glory of God.

Within the greater purpose of securing the glory of God, is that Jesus dies to reconcile all things— all things both heaven and earth, to Himself.  Jesus suffered and rose again that He might restore all things back together under His rightful reign.  So the Scripture says, “For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”  To this end, the entire purpose of God is to restore our humanity, that we might live as true human beings.  Moreover, the healing of the world involves our becoming more human; thus our becoming more humane.  To this end, God is at work to restore our humanity.

If we want to therefore carry our self in the world as a true human being— if we want to carry our self in a manner that is truly civil, we will never do so by calling attention to what we possess.  We can only show our true humanity through denying our self; and hence, by how easy it is for us to give it all away.  It is for this reason that in his Institutes of Religion, John Calvin devotes Book III to the Christian Life, and in chapter four, he summarises all of Christian life by this one phrase:  “self denial.”

By using that one phrase, “self denial,” as the most succulent description of a truly Christian lifestyle, Calvin chose to stick within a long tradition and a principle within that tradition, which every other leader of the Protestant Reformation also affirmed.  That is a tradition that thus remained connected to the best of Roman Catholic spirituality as illustrated in earlier works such as The Imitation of Christ and The Rule of St Benedict.

The tradition of self denial, which is in fact the true call of Jesus and the only call He gives any of us, when He calls us to Himself, is a tradition that stresses a central image of true humanity, which goes all the way back to the why the Gospels are in the Bible.  It is a tradition that rightly recognises that the Gospels are not provided for our intellectual assent to Jesus’ historical life, but rather foremost to grant us the one true guide on how we should live as human beings.

The Gospels are written to show us how to live— to actually imitate the life of Jesus.  That is why Jesus says, “Deny your self, and follow me.”  Moreover, God has made to some extent, the healing of the world dependent on weather or not we choose to follow Jesus.  For only in following Him can we begin truly living like human beings.

Within this context, we should thus realise that self denial is not something based on ideas of having to live with a “poverty mindset” or deny the very real and material nature of God’s blessings.  But rather, self denial is simply based on a true knowledge and comprehension of what it means to truly live like a human being.  When that knowledge is received, self denial becomes an act of calling and joyful vocation.  We begin joyfully denying our self because we have come to know that only here are living according to our high calling as real people upon the earth.  But to do that, requires our reception of a special kind of joy, and it is a joy that is freely received from the One who is humanity par excellence.

Jesus is humanity par excellence

I submit to you that there was a man who was truly human and remains the True Human, and He is the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the one who laid down his life for His friends.  He is the one who put Himself in harm’s way and suffered harm’s way for the preservation of the entire human race.  He did so because in doing so, he truly behaved and acted as a true human.  He acted as true as a human life can ever be.

Christians rightly confess and know Jesus as the image of God.  Even more so, we have come to know He is God in the flesh.  In Him, we see God, and by his behaviour, we see and know the true personality of God.  Yet I will here also remind us that in Jesus we see true humanity.  In Him we see what human life is designed to be.

This confession that Jesus is not only truly God but truly human, is true because after His resurrection from the dead, Jesus did not stop being human.  After he rose from the dead, He remained human.  This is why He rose from the dead with an indestructible though fully physical and material body.  Even now at this moment, Jesus reigns in heaven through His very real and physically material body.  Moreover, there will come a day when He will appear and like Thomas, we will see the nail scars in His hands.

The entire weight of these reflections rest upon a cardinal doctrine, which if we in any way undermine, we therein commit heresy concerning the person of Jesus.  This doctrine we must confess in order to lift up the name of Jesus over all things, is that He is truly God and He is truly human.  As the ancient creeds effectively established the concluding synthesis of the biblical story of Jesus’ coming, death and resurrection, Jesus is and will always be truly God and truly human.  In Him we see two distinct natures, the divine and human, clearly distinguishable, yet wholly different; undivided, yet inseparable.  He is and will always be, truly God and truly Human.

If we are to therefore truly worship Him as God, and if we are to preach Him fully lifted up in all His saving glory, we must also confess Him and preach Him in all His true Humanity.  For in Him we therefore also see who were born to be, if we are ever to become truly human.  He dies to restore our humanity.  When He lives in us, He works in us to restore our humanity, by setting us on a path of human restoration.

In Jesus Christ we see not only the potential of true human life, but even more so, a vision for a true human society and human culture.  We therefore also see a vision for a new humanity upon the face of the earth.  That is why the Scripture says that Jesus is the beginning of a new humanity.  He is the First Man of a new humanity.  He is therefore the true paradigm for a true human life and human existence.

When we look at Jesus, we therefore see what were born to be.  We were born to be like Jesus.  This is God’s true purpose for all human life; to become like Jesus.  This is why the ancients said, “God became man, so that man might become something like God.”  This again is why if we want to know what God is like, we should look at Jesus, for He is not only the true man, but in Him, we see who God is.  For God is love, and love acts without regard for one’s self but wholly for the sake of those outside our self.  For this reason, God created humankind in His image that we might reflect the likeness of God in how we live.  This is our true human calling.

The process of becoming human is the process of becoming like Jesus.  So complete is the process that He works upon us both from the inside and from the outside.  There is no antithesis between the two processes.  On one hand, he works within us, transforming us from the inside out.  On the other hand, He works outside us, presenting Himself to us as our Teacher and ourselves to Him as disciples called to follow Him.  Through both ways, the goal is the same: that we might live as human beings.  When that happens, we realise that self-denial is indeed not a method towards Christ-likeness, but rather simply the fruit of becoming human, and thus, of becoming like Christ.

Servant-leadership and the vocation of true humanity

In bringing these reflections to a closure, I will now draw attention to the second theme I find so poignantly illustrated in the film 2012; this is theme of true leadership.  Moreover, this theme of true leadership is what Jesus argued as, servant-leadership.

In the movie 2012, one of the chief architects of those mammoth lifeboats was something of what we might call, a visionary leader.  He had a grand vision and it was a vision for the preservation of the human race.  To some extent, we may argue that this man possessed a noble vision.  He believed his vision was for the greater good of humanity.

This man was also a practical leader.  He was a pragmatic leader as well, because He well knew that to be most effective and efficient, he had to make practical choices that may involve refraining from higher moral ideals.  Hence, he chose not to jeopardise the lives of the few by opening the boat to the many.

This man therefore chose to insure the security of the boat and the few in the boat, by choosing not to risk the security of the boat by opening the boat to so many others hoping to step into the security of the boat.  So in all these presumptions, we have a picture of practical, pragmatic and sometimes of visionary leadership.  But in view of the true humanity of Jesus, this is a way of leadership that is nonetheless, subhuman.

Yet the other man, who I want to say was the true leader, argued that preservation of the human race is still not possible unless we seek to preserve the human race through and upon the high moral foundation of self-denial.  As earlier mentioned, this man who was the true leader, argued that a new world that is truly human cannot be rightly established unless such a world is founded upon actions involving genuine risks through the giving of our lives for one another.

This man who was the true leader, therefore sought to persuade those in the boat to risk their own secure future by taking the wild risk of opening the boat to all those outside the boat.  He called upon everyone in the boat to do so, even if in doing so, the boat might sink in the process of getting everyone into the boat.  He argued that failure to do that is to behave not as humans but as animals.  He therefore understood that true leadership is not about putting one’s personal interest before others, but about putting the interest of others before one’s own interest.  He understood that true leadership is always the laying down of our life for the common good.  He understood that true leadership is servant-leadership.

Jesus is not only the True Man but he is the true leader of the human race.  Jesus said that the rulers of this age love to be lord over others, but that is not true leadership.  True leadership is serving others.  Serving always has its penultimate and highest expression in the laying down of our life for one another.  That is what Jesus taught and it is what he modeled— not only to secure our redemption into restored humanity, but to grant us an example of true humanity.  He did this in the expectation that we would actually emulate as an act of our will, having had our will empowered by the Spirit of Christ who lives within us.

Jesus did not just give His life for us, but He modeled to us what it means to be a true human and how to live like a true human being.  It is not enough to even say, “I’ll let Jesus live through me.”  It is important to know that Jesus lives in you and that is where it all begins.  Then when He begins to live in you, you will always face choices every day, where circumstance call upon you to behave like Jesus.  That comes through an act of your will and obedience to His Word.  You can choose to disobey the Lord, even as a Christian.  For this reason, many Christians know the Lord, but actually disobey Him.  Such Christians the Bible calls, fleshy Christians; Christian who remain like spiritual babies.  However, there are times when we all disobey the Lord.  So you must choose to follow Jesus, observe how He lives, and starting acting like Him.  If you do, He will guide your steps and place your feet into His footsteps.

I have digressed here, but I am talking about servant leadership.  True leadership begins with laying down our life for others.  Any aspiration that begins with the preservation of one’s self is not true leadership.  That is a kind of leadership founded something less than a truly human life.

Some months ago, I was engaged in a discussion with a group about the nature of leadership.  In that discussion, someone suggested that there are many kinds of leadership, one of which is the idea of servant leadership, and another is what we might call visionary leadership, and that they are not the same.

Let me point out that for a Christian, there is only one valid kind of leadership, and that is servant leadership.  Any other kind of leadership model or style that fails to recognize Jesus’ model of servant leadership as the foundation, is a subhuman form of leadership.  In a truly biblical worldview, Jesus’ pattern of servant leadership and the concept of visionary leadership are not antithetical styles, but they are the same.  Having a vision for a world founded upon true justice where God’s righteousness and peace prevails requires nothing less than a great people who have discovered their true vocation as servant leaders.

Sometimes in life, there is a moment of truth, which will call on us to choose either the way of self-preservation or the way of self denial.  In the moment of truth, how will we live?  How will we live in the moment of truth, when Jesus comes to us and says let it all go?  How will we live in the moment of truth, when Jesus says let it all go and follow me?  How will live in the moment of truth, when in that moment we are called upon to either act without regard for our own security or even safety , if in doing so, we might secure the life and posterity of other individuals besides our self?

But the truth is that in an infinite number of small and unknown ways, the moment virtually always comes to us every day of our life.  Abraham was able to offer up Issac on Mount Moriah because his whole life revealed a pattern of hearing and responding to God’s call every day of his life.  Every day God calls us and every day we are given a choice to either obey or disobey the Word of God.  Make no mistake about it:  the New Testament does not shrink from describing Christian life according to the language of obedience and disobedience.  “Today, if you Hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”  And a moment of truth will come when you are also called up to the top of Mount Moriah.  And there maybe even several times or more when He will call you up to the top of Mount Moriah, and offer your life a living sacrifice.

The healing of both our selves and those, whom we might need to lay down our life for, will come through the way of self-denial.  So part of the good news is that our own healing— the healing of our soul, is found through simply living like a true human being.  The healing of our soul and the healing of the world, is only found through losing our selves in the saving of those not on the boat, but who also long for a new world waiting to be born.

Be Honest

How many people woke up this morning and said to themselves, “I’m going to be completely non-productive today.”? How many people went into work this morning committed to finding a way to make mistakes? The answer is nobody. Nobody goes into something hoping to fail. So, why do some people flourish while others struggle? The answer is leadership. And people deserve good leadership.

Ivy League Stars Can Fall

Let me tell you about James. (I’m not using real names here.) James was a star student at a private prep school. He was awarded the highest honors that the school could give. He was captain of several athletic teams and received top honors there as well. After prep school he was accepted to an Ivy League college where he also excelled both academically and athletically. It seemed like James was destined for greatness no matter what he did. At his first job out of college, James began working for Brad. Brad is a hands-off manager. In fact, his hands are so far off you might think that he is absent. James receives minimal guidance and direction. The only time Brad gets involved with his team is when his boss takes an interest in what is going on in the department. When James is given projects to work on, he does them and does them well. But, on any given workday are as likely to see him surfing the web as you are doing anything for work. So what happened? How did this Ivy League star fall so far? The answer is leadership.

People genuinely want to do good work and to be recognized for it.

In exchange, they will work hard to do what it takes to get the job done, if only the person in charge can connect with them and will lead them. If someone isn’t doing well at work, 90% of the time it is because they aren’t sure what is expected of them or they don’t possess the competency to do the job at that point in time. In either case, it is the responsibility of the leader to address it by making sure the expectations are clear, the skills and experience of the individual align to the work at hand, and the desired outcome is reached. Ken Blanchard calls this situational leadership and does a good job of illustrating it in his One Minute Manager Series of books. Specifically, in “Leadership and the One Minute Manger” Blanchard says,

“Everyone has peak performance potential – you just need to know where they are coming from and meet them there.”

So, did James suddenly tell himself that he was just going to coast in his career? Did his new job reveal that James is not capable of mastering the requirements of the job? Not likely.

Servant Leadership

What happened is that James came face-to-face with self-appointed authoritarian royalty. Leaders like Brad are more focused on fitting themselves with the crown of authority than they are working with their people to help them achieve great things. Sadly this is an all too common story. The most effective leaders are those who have realized that they will be far more successful if they find ways to help their people to be successful. This is called servant leadership.

Servant leaders find it hard to work with people while wearing the crown of authority because the crown tends to fall off when you bend down to help somebody.

In what ways are you a servant leader? How are you helping people achieve the performance potential of which they are capable?

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This post, as well as others from Dave, can also be found at http://linked2leadership.com/author/dhasenbalg/

Dave Hasenbalg is Chief Operating Officer of Customized Solutions, LLC and does coaching and public speaking on Leadership and Operational Excellence.
He can be reached at dhasenbalg@customized-solutions.com

Last week a fellow sales rep was complaining about another job of hers had been screwed up in production and wouldn’t deliver on time.  She may lose this client because this is not the first time there have been errors with their account.  I listened and expressed the appropriate amount of concern.  All sales people understand that quality control is one of the most frustrating parts of our job – we literally have no control over the quality of the product that is produced.  Or do we?  

I am not knocking my production staff.  I would NEVER do that.  The guys that I work with are AMAZINGLY meticulous, thoughtful, and detail oriented.  But no matter what industry you are in or how talented your team is, there is a margin of error.  This article will tell you how to make as sure that those errors happen with OTHER people’s jobs, not yours.

So how do you effectively  implement a quality-control program when you actually have nothing to do with the production process?  You become a part of the production process.  Duh.

Now before you get all “but it’s not my job” on me, you need to stop your whining.  If you want to get results you need to change your perspective.

So here is my 5-Step “Oops!” Factor Reduction Process:

• Never Eat Alone:  Nothing helps you develop a strong relationship with your production team like regularly breaking bread with them.  I recommend spending at least 2 lunches per month with them if not more.  This will help you learn more about them as well as make you available if they have questions about a job of yours they are working on.
• The “Good Morning” Factor: This one is super simple but I can’t tell you how many people have told me that they appreciate it.  Say “good morning” to people and mean it.
• Roll Up Dem Sleeves: It’s common sense to walk around the production area to check in on your jobs at least once a day.  But it is NOT common sense to ask if you can help.  Instead of nagging and rolling your eyes about a missed deadline, ask if there is anything you can do.  If they ask you to do something, DO IT and SMILE.  Remember that they wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t needed.  Be available to pick up, deliver, and in general be of service for your jobs.  If your support team sees that you are engaged on the same level they are, they will care more about your jobs and you will be one of the first to know if there is an issue.
• Over-Appreciate Overtime: If you know the production guys are working over a weekend or is being burdened with a lot of overtime- you know they are stressed.  Do something to show you care.  Show up unexpectedly (when you are supposed to be off) bearing beer or some baked goodness.  Walk around with the case/plate and tell them how much you appreciate their hard work.  Even if they came in to complete someone elses’ job – you are showing them you notice the extra effor they are putting in to make the whole shop thrive. 
• Ask For Input: These individuals are most-often experts in their fields.  Our Bindery Manager has been in the industry for 37 years.  That is longer than I have been alive!  When you ask for their opinion on the best way to produce something, you are simultaneously showing them how valuable their endless knowledge is and giving your client the benefit of the years of experience these people have.  I know that my production team has saved my booty MANY times with issues I never even knew existed simply because I asked a question.

Look – I know you can’t get involved in every step of the production process or it will inhibit your sales.  So don’t get involved in every step.  Just get a little bit involved.  A lot of the stuff I have done has been on my free time - deliveries after hours, taking cards home and collating them while I watch TV, and coming in on Saturday to bring my favorite guys a few ice-cold beers as they are finishing up an arduous extra shift.

Maybe this process won’t help you at all, but I will tell you from experience that the jobs I sell are consistently delivered ahead of time and with the highest quality.  I genuinely care about the people who help make me look good to my clients, and in turn they care about the jobs that they produce on my behalf.

THANKS GUYS!!

Niccolo Machiavelli

I don’t know how many of you are viewers of reality TV shows such as Survivor or The Apprentice, but I think shows such as these are fascinating glimpses into the way we view power and influence.  Most of these “reality” shows showcase a group of people who are competing against one another to achieve a position of prominence such as a choice job in Donald Trump’s organization (The Apprentice), the Sole Survivor (Survivor) or a fiancé (The Bachelor/The Bachelorette).  In these contests, strategies that include shrewdness, deception, manipulation, disloyalty and generally any means that justifies the end result of winning the contest are rewarded and encouraged by the rules of the game.  Niccolo Machiavelli (pictured above), the 16^th century author of The Prince, the primer on the formation and use of political power would be very proud!

A couple of weeks ago, in my article The Good Stuff, I wrote about a powerful man who approached Jesus looking for affirmation and asking what things he should be doing to inherit eternal life.  Jesus, recognizing the man’s problem, told him to sell all his possessions, give the proceeds to the poor and needy and then follow Jesus as the apostles had been doing for three years.  The man left grieving because he was very wealthy and he was holding on tight to his possessions.  After this exchange, Jesus turned to his apostles and told them it was very tough for a rich man to gain eternal life.  This astonished the apostles because they had a very traditional secular perspective on wealth, power and influence.  Jesus challenged them in this passage with radical thinking that still challenges us today.

From their traditional perspective, presuming wealth to automatically indicate God’s blessing and preference, the apostles asked Jesus if a rich man was to have difficulty being saved then what person in the world could be saved.  Furthermore, they wondered what their reward would be from following Jesus.  Jesus reassured his apostles that they would have positions of great responsibility in his coming kingdom where they would occupy thrones and be judges.  Somewhat cryptically, Jesus ended this discussion with the comment that “many who are first will be last, and last first” and then proceeded to tell them a parable of laborers in a vineyard who start working at different times during the day but all receive the same wage.  Jesus even reminds the apostles specifically that the trip they are taking to Jerusalem will end with his persecution and death followed after three days by his triumphant resurrection from the grave. 

From this discussion, the one take-away the apostles seemed to focus on was the promise of positions of responsibility in the coming kingdom.  This promise probably caused much discussion among the apostles concerning the nature of these positions of power and apparently some of the apostles even discussed this with family members.  Their misconceptions about almost everything including the nature of the Christ, the nature and timing of the kingdom and most importantly the nature of true power and influence led to the following interesting bit of drama.

James and John, the famous brothers nicknamed “Sons of Thunder” (presumably for their brash attitudes and hair-trigger tempers) apparently work with their mother to conceive one of the most audacious power trips of all time.  Mom comes up to Jesus with her two sons and bows before Jesus with the following request from her sons.  “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.”  Jesus asks the men if they are able to travel the same path that he will travel (remember, Jesus had just reminded them of his persecution and death) and they both assure him without knowing what they are saying that they are able to bear up under the same treatment Jesus will suffer.  Jesus acknowledges James and John will travel a similar path as Jesus.  Indeed James becomes the first apostolic martyr and John, although long-lived, suffers persecution and exile for his faith.  Jesus then lets the apostles and their mom down by telling them the seating arrangement in the kingdom is not his decision to make.  God will choose the throne assignments.  However, the request does predictably cause a stir among the other ten apostles who do not seem to appreciate James’ and John’s power grab and they jump on the two brothers for their audacity.  I wonder if they were also just a little upset that James and John had beat them to the punch with the request since they all were probably thinking the same thing.  Jesus called an impromptu team meeting and delivered a radical lesson that had a huge impact on my life once I understood it.

Jesus told his apostles their thinking was all wrong concerning power and influence.  Their thinking was influenced by secular power models – and who can blame them?  Our thinking is also heavily influenced by secular power models.  We owe more of our thinking on power and influence to the thoughts of philosophers such as Machiavelli than to the thoughts of God and Jesus Christ.  Jesus told them, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” 

Put yourself in the apostles’ shoes and try to reconcile this teaching with the promise of thrones and authority he had just given them.  It just didn’t seem to fit together in their minds shaped by centuries of kingdoms and empires with their despotic and evil kings and emperors.  What they needed was a practical demonstration of exactly what this teaching looks and feels like.  I think we need the same thing to really understand this teaching!  Next week, I will complete this article with the practical application lesson that Jesus gave his apostles teaching them just what he meant when he said, “even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve.”  As always, Jesus not only talked the talk, he walked the walk.

This week, let’s all think about this radical statement Jesus makes about power and influence when he said, “But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave.”  We are all in positions of leadership, power and influence in certain areas of our life.  What is Jesus telling us in this statement about how we lead, influence and exercise power?  I know I will be meditating on his words as I get Part 2 ready for posting next Monday.  I’ll also tell you how finally learning this lesson changed my life.

In the meantime, let me know what this passage means to you and your thoughts on this servant leadership concept Jesus taught.  Also, if I can be of service to you by praying for you, please let me know.  My Tips from Mike page has instructions on how to send me a private comment that will not be published to the public.  I promise that if you ask me to pray for you I will honor your request and include your need in my personal prayers.  I will be honored to serve you in that way.

Until next week,

Meet me at the intersection!

“Dr. Kent Keith, author of The Case for Servant Leadership and the current CEO of the Greenleaf Center…” identified one of seven key practices of servant leaders: self-awareness.

via Servant leadership – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A servant leader must be grounded in his/her awareness of their individuality apart from others.  An insecure person cannot be a good servant leader because insecurity results in the leader thinking of him/herself rather than others.  ”What are others thinking of me?”   “Will this decision benefit me?”  The servant leader considers how his/her decision impacts and benefits others apart from his/her needs.

You heard me right, IT’S SELFISH TO HELP OTHERS!

“Sure others gain from your help, but ultimately why are you helping others?”

It makes YOU feel good inside and really isn’t that what is all about; making YOU feel good? There are many theories out there about altruism, even seemingly selfless acts always have hidden motives whether you are aware of them or not. Ultimately it comes down to this, in some form or fashion you reap a reward for being kind to others.

It may be that:

• It makes you feel good inside
• It benefits your family
• You feel guilt if you chose not help someone
• You get an ego boost from the experience
• Relieving yourself from the burden of societies pressure
• A reward in heaven

No matter the case, the reasoning is the same…SELFISHNESS!

But “resultant selfishness” grown from seeds inspired from helping others is okay.

“Leaders help others all the time, so is leadership selfish?”

ABSOLUTELY! What better feeling than to work hard, guide your team, achieve high success and see your vision come to fruition. Doesn’t that make you feel good? Teachers, some of the greatest leaders in society, do this every day. Ask any teacher why they chose that particular profession and you will find an overwhelming response. They teach because:

• It is rewarding
• There is a certain prestige and power associated with the position
• It is an opportunity to mold the future
• They get to ignite the fire and see the “aha!” moment as students overcome challenges
• They get to see successes and what students become in life knowing they had affect on that student
• There is a great feeling of accomplishment in teaching the unteachable
• They get to share their love of learning with others
• It allows them the opportunity to serve others and give back to the community
• They get to spread their passion and virtues

“Now you know; does it make your quest as a leader any less meaningful?”

NO WAY! So what if it makes you feel good. Why shouldn’t you enjoy the experience of leading a team, helping others to accomplish a common goal. As you guide others you are shaping them for them for a better future. Everything you do influences them in one way or another. You have taken them in as an acorn, watched them sprout, growing into a seedling, eventually into a sapling and one day–a massive oak standing strong against the elements. You did that! With your optimism you helped them get where they are at and to where they are going.

Maybe it is selfish, but it sure does feel good!

Are you selfish? Does it stem from a primary interest in personal reward, or does it come as a result of helping others first? How are you looking to serve others and show up as a giver in your leadership role? Please tell me how. I would love to hear your story.

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Jason Christensen is National Accounts Manager for The Stanley Works.
He can be reached at jasonchristensen_blog@yahoo.com

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I just finished reading a Stanford Graduate School of Business case study entitled “The The Men’s Wearhouse: Success in a Declining Industry” by Jeffrey Pfeffer (Case: HR-5, July 1997-Rev’d 11/08/04).

The case study was a somewhat detailed description of some of the factors that the author and The Men’s Wearhouse CEO and managers thought were critical to their success. At the time this case was written, the men’s clothing industry was fiercely competitive with many companies exiting due to financial strains. However, The Men’s Wearhouse continued to grow. The case study tried to answer the question of what made this company so successful in a difficult competitive environment and what ensured that this high level of success would continue.

There were many factors to their growth and success in that time period as highlighted in the case study, but the key ones in my opinion and the ones they did differently than their competitors were the following:

• Commitment to the employee
• Commitment to servant leadership

Commitment to the employee

Founder and CEO George Zimmer saw the “untapped human potential” of his employees as the key asset rather than property, plant, and equipment.
Accroding to Zimmer, the company’s five stakeholder groups are (in order):

1. Employees
2. Customers
3. Vendors
4. Communities
5. Shareholder

Zimmer states that the best way to maximize shareholder value is to put shareholders at the bottom of this hierarchy. He’s only interested in long-term shareholder growth as opposed to short-term, quick growth. He believes that (as we learned in class) that if you take care of your employees first, they will in turn take care of your customers, who will then in turn take care of your top-line growth.

I think this is a wise strategy for any company in any industry (as long as it is not only given lip-service but actually put in place in the form of systems). The Men’s Wearhouse took care of their employees by implementing management systems such as fair compensation and staffing, promotion and career development, good hiring and firing policies, performance appraisals, and good communication with employees at all levels.

This isn’t the first formal hierarchy that I’ve seen with the shareholders placed last in importance. Johnson and Johnson’s corporate creed also places the shareholder last because they too believe that if you take care of all the other stakeholder groups first, the value will trickle down to the shareholders. As stated in the case study, in contrast to The Men’s Wearhouse, most retailers don’t consider the employee first of all.

Commitment to Servant Leadership

The Men’s Wearhouse has been called a “high touch” organization. Training and mentorship (“touch”) are highly valued and emphasized in the company. In fact, Zimmer believes that mentoring their employees is the company’s key to success. At The Men’s Wearhouse you can even get fired if you are an exceptional producer and performer but weren’t doing a good job in mentoring others or weren’t a team player.

Servant Leadership in The Men’s Wearhouse case meant that you put your organization’s goal and success at the same level as your personal success. They wanted all managers to train lower level employees and mentor them personally. Even Zimmer and his executive managers would visit stores for personal training and mentoring.

The Men’s Wearhouse created a culture by putting in place a system where sales people (wardrobe consultants) weren’t out for their own personal sales growth, but always looked to see how they can improve others in their store so that all the employees in the store realized their maximum potential.

“Thank you all for coming today. It really is a delight to see you again and be together here in this warm, safe space we create for each other.

“Let me share with you the agenda for our morning so you know where we’re going and how we’re getting there.  We’ll have a centering and quieting exercise, time to become still and reflective.  Then we’ll go around the room and (re)introduce ourselves.  After that, I’ll share a thoughts to frame up a structure for the rest of our dialogue.  Because we value our time, we will put a time out on that dialogue no later than 8:25 AM knowing that it can be continued online and elsewhere.  We’ll do a quick closing exercise before we adjourn.

“Let’s start by centering ourselves in this room.  We’ll take two minutes for contemplative silence.  You may like to uncross your legs, feet flat on the floor, hands relaxed in your lap, eyes closed easily.  Jaw soft, mind quiet, smooth like the surface of a lake; the only ripples the thoughts as the pass by.  When you next hear my voice, you’ll begin to come back into this place.

“Begin to bring your awareness back into this place, this space.  Take a deeper breath now.  {Inhale……..} {Exhale………..} And another.  {Inhale…….} {Exhale……………..}

“You might like to read along quietly to yourself as I read this poem aloud.

[David Whyte -- Sweet Darkness]

“Thank you for that.

“We have several newcomers here today. We’ll not be spending time on the background of this group as today is a day for looking forward; writing the next chapter of our stories; and living into the new world we’re making. Every one of us is being the change.

“My intent for us today is to facilitate and experience generative dialogue. Brain science confirms what we already know about this meeting of the minds that we call generative dialogue. When we come together in our humanness, in this only moment, and allow one another to be, just to be, checking our status at the door, parking our to do lists, our spin and our tedious little worries. When we experience each other as genuine and authentic. When we are together this way, it changes our neurochemistry. It releases endorphins just like a good workout. And, we can’t put our finger on exactly where IT happened but we leave in a better mood, we get lifted, buoyed.

“Today, let’s write the next chapter of our story together.

“We have a world of opportunity before us and the sky is the limit. But, boundless possibility can be tyrannical and overwhelming. May I set a structure to frame our dialogue today?

“Thank you.

“[highlight what we're gonna do before we do it: look at this handout, and then, and then, and then. I'd like to look at the handout titled "Context of Engagement". [page 17 of this slideshow posted by Bob Stilger of Berkana & AoH. Also in the packet will be Chick Deegan's previous handout with Peter Block's "Questions for Transforming Community".] If we could go around the room and each read one cause vs effect. I’ll start us off.

“Thank you.

Okay — giving up for now. Taking a breather. Getting wound in the words. Exhale…………………………………………………….

How do you measure success in your business? What kind of measurement tools are you using? Do you use Biblical Principles?

Today being #OtherEsteem Wednesday on Twitter, I wanted to take a peek at Monica’s site, The OtherEsteem Blog (named after Monica Diaz’s book, OtherEsteem).  Her delightful post, The Biggest Challenge, reminds us how our experiences may differ widely from the experiences of another with similar circumstance.  As such, we are urged to take great care so as to understand another’s point of reference if we are to encourage and edify.  Monica’s post immediately reminded me of a Sioux prayer that captures the pure essence of what it is like to value others, to hold them in high esteem:

“As quietly as little rabbit’s feet, the morning glory sun arrives to greet the Red Man as he worships in his way. For this he asks the Spirit every day: Before I judge my friend, O let me wear His moccasins for two long weeks, and share the path that he would take in wearing them. Then, I shall understand and not condemn.”

Mother Teresa, speaking of the Peace necessary for us to be One, essentially taught the same lesson: “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”  Herein, for me, is the essence of OtherEsteem—we belong to one another.  We are family and we share Love just as assuredly as we share the Breath of Life.  I, for one, thank my lucky stars we belong to one another, and that we share the path set before us with others who understand—or, who want to understand.

Every Leader, especially everyServant Leader, should read Monica’s post!  Thank you for an uplifting, inspirational post dear friend.  Hugs!