Know when not to work

Excuse or reason?

This past weekend, I listened to Sue Rusch, who is a Strategic Consultant, Speaker, & Business Coach (and also very tall). Of all the wonderful information she gave (and there was a lot), the one quote that really struck home for me was, "We can look at family as an excuse , or a reason ." Ouch! It's so easy to avoid the work that I know I need to do, by saying "my family time is more important". But what am I calling "family time"? Sitting in a dance studio during lessons? Watching tv while the rest of my family watches another tv? Sitting on a field watching soccer practice? Dinner together (but barely half the family is there)? Choose what is important. And be there. Remember the reasons that you chose leadership. And if your leadership is important, schedule your activities. And be there . No excuses. Thanks to everyone who is regularly (or even occasionally) reading this blog. I've been cover...

Clean House

While flipping through some late night television, I came across "Clean House: Search for the Messiest House in the Country 4". Now, without getting into a rant about how people could let their house get so full of "stuff" (let alone letting it be broadcast to the world), I want to touch on one of their underlying issues. The dad traveled a lot with his job, and every time he came back, he brought his family gifts to show them that he loved them and thought of them often when he was away. These gifts were contributing to a huge clutter problem and many gifts had never even been opened. The family was disconnected, because the wife and children really just wanted to spend time with the dad, who had to keep working more to buy more gifts... do you see the problem? This whole situation took me back to a book I read many years ago, "The 5 Love Languages" by Dr. Gary Chapman. According to Chapman, the 5 are: Acts of Service, Words of Affirmation, Quality ...

People test

"If you do not pass the people test, nothing else matters. Promotion without connectivity is destructive. I often share with church leaders that most of the churches in the United States should not promote themselves. Why? Simple. If your current membership is not actively inviting people or visitors are not staying, there are reasons why. If you do an advertising campaign, you are asking people to come in your doors only to realize why no one wants to invite anyone to your church. They never come back and leave to tell all their friends what they did not like about your church. This is not good marketing. The heart of marketing is people. Don’t start with mailers. Start with people. Ask yourself, “What am I doing this week to learn how to reach people more effectively? It's time to evaluate. Are we creating an atmosphere that fosters growth or are we ministering unto ourselves?" http://www.beyondrelevance.com/index.cfm/PageID/913/blog_year/2010/blog_month/2/index.html...

Leadership Lessons

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