Stop for a minute, enjoy this beautiful music and reflect for a minute upon our Lord and Savior – Jesus Christ.
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Good morning! Still no snow up here in SW Michigan and in fact we have even had a few sunny days which is a great blessing.
Blah-Blah-Blah! How many presentations have you heard, meetings you have attended, 
or memos (emails) you have read where at the end you go “What?”. In this highly verbal world we live in it seems we believe the more words we use and the “fancier” the words the better. However, we often leave our listeners (readers) saying “What?”
We seem to forget that the goal was communication which demands clarity – instead we often cause confusion. So what do we do?
Drive towards clarity! Learn to speak, write, draw, and so on in ways that engage your audience, not what makes you feel good or smart.
Dan Roam has several books out that are a great help – his latest one is Blah Blah Blah in which he introduces his Blah Blahometer – a great way to evaluate the clarity of your message. I would recommend checking out his site as well as his book.
Remember – the goal is to communicate with great clarity and it is not to try to impress them with your vocabulary or extensive knowledge of corporate-speak / ministry-speak.
Hope you have a great weekend!
BG
Pastor Dave Kraft, author of Leaders Who Last, is my coach which I count as a choice
blessing. His post on Monday is a good one entitled BIBLICAL LEADERS CONSISTENTLY SAY FIVE THINGS.
The five things are:
- Forgive me.
- You’re right
- You’re wrong.
- Jesus loves you.
- Me too.
Check out his full post by clicking here – you will be blessed and challenged!
BG
What is your perspective on decision-making? For most of us, it is tends to be the impact on our short-term future. What if there is another way of viewing our decision making?
What if we view our decisions through the lens of legacy? Or what will our decisions look like when years after we have made them (or not made a decision) and we look back on them? What will the legacy of those decisions be? What will have been the long-term impact or implications f our decisions?
In an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review blog ART MARKMAN talks about a different view of decision making. For those further down the road in life, their regrets tended to be on the decisions they did not make – the opportunities they missed due to fear. What decisions are you not making due to fear that you will regret later in life?
Think about it – what do you want your legacy to be? What decisions do you need to be making today that will create that legacy?
BG
What will be your legacy as a Father?
Will your family remember how many hours you put in at the office, church, etc. or will they remember how you invested in their lives teaching them about Jesus and modeling His ways?
Keep your priorities right and make a difference for eternity!
Have a blessed Fathers’ Day!
BG
I liked this Facebook post from Tim Stevens and he has it on his blog – Leading Smart as well.
“”We were extremely good at some things, we were very good at many things, but we were not good at everything. One of the principal arts of leadership is to make such distinctions…’ (Dee Hock, founder of VISA, in One From Many)
- Do you know what you are good at?
- Do you know what your church or organization is good at?
- Do you know your weaknesses?
- How do you keep your team focused on its’ strengths and not sidetracked by its’ weaknesses?”
Some good questions – do you know the answers for your organization?
By the way – check out Tim’s blog Leading Smart – some great stuff there!
Interesting article by Chris Brogan about how our successes usually are the result of several “little victories”. It is incredible how often consistency in little things, produce results in the “big things”. Somewhat of a parallel to an idea in Chip & Dan Heath’s book, Switch – “Big problems are rarely solved with commensurately big solutions. Instead, they are most often solved by a sequence of small solutions, sometimes over weeks, sometimes over decades.” Following is an excerpt from his blog post. Click here to read the entire post.
“Everything we do to be successful comes from little victories. When someone takes notice of our success, it looks like something big. It feels like one big moment. But always, and I mean always, it comes from a series of little victories. Look at the successes you’ve had. Did they all come at once? Or did you build up from nowhere to somewhere to somewhere better to a quick fallback to a new success, and then pow? Right.
Start With Little Flags and Bigger Flags
One way to start achieving your own victories is to know what you’re aiming to accomplish. For instance, if you hate your job, plant a positive flag in the ground that says, “I’m going to change roles/careers.” That’ll be your bigger flag. If you want to get really specific, you should consider adding things like dates to your flags. (Otherwise, they’re more like dreams.)
Then, plant some smaller flags. For instance, having some extra money stashed away so you can cover your transition for a few months might be a good way to accomplish your bigger flag goal. So, how will you get that money?
Praise Each Little Victory. Then Move on.
Never Justify
Your Flags, Not Everyone’s Flags
Praise Others Often
Success Accepts Temporary Setbacks and Failures
Our efforts to achieve success hinge on little victories“
Has this been true in your life?
BG
