Skip to main content

What is your role?

This past week I was reminded that sometimes it's hard to define your role.  My oldest, Kate, had the grandmother of her boyfriend pass away.  I've always believed that funerals are about the families, not so much the deceased, so there is a certain amount of awkwardness when you're not family.  You care about the family, but you only met the grandma and grandpa a couple of times.  Your sadness is not for the deceased, but empathy for the family.  So what do you do?  What do they need?  Do they need a shoulder to cry on, a bottle of water, a distraction or some comic relief?  Don't be offended that comic relief came up, because sometimes you just need to be reminded that it'll be okay to smile and laugh again.  Even "Saturday Night Live" came back on the air after the tragedy of 9/11.  You need to listen.  You need to be responsive.  They need to know that you care.  Sound familiar?  These are leadership skills that are invaluable in all parts of your life.  Leadership is not limited to your work.  It comes through in all areas - family and friends included.  How do you see your role as a leader?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

It's about them

One of my leadership activities is being a business coach. I help others identify their goals and plan strategies to achieve their goals. Very often, the initial coaching goes something like this- "What are your goals?" "These are my goals." "What do you need to do to achieve these goals?" "I need to do a,b,c." "When do you want to have these goals achieved?" "By this date." And then off they go. OK- so there is more, but this boils it down to the essentials. Next coaching (after they have actually done some of the steps) sometimes goes like this- "No one will a or b." "What was their objection?" "I asked them to a or b for me, and they just said no." "What did you offer them?" "I offered them a or b and they said no." "What was in it for them?" "I didn't even get to tell them because they said no." "So why would they want a or b?...
Post a Comment
Read more

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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more