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Leaders my leaders, what about you?! Are you willing to put in the hard work of truly leading yourself rather than being led by the shifting winds of circumstances? Do you care enough about your team to legitimately do right by them, rather than exploiting them for your personal gain? Will you become a vigilant keeper of your organization’s mission and culture, rather than leaving it haphazardly to chance? Will you become a leader among leaders in your generation, and share your gifts with the community? Answer the call and make the decision to take the journey to awesomeness today. There’s no time to lose!

Thank you for joining me on this journey all the way through to the end of this series. I hope you’ve enjoyed it. 🙂  Here’s a summary chart to remind you of what we’ve covered together:

Leadership of the Self: Personal Maturity, Integrated Wholeness, Sustainable Pace

Leadership of the Team: Interpersonal Excellence, Strategically Developing Others, The Art Of Consequences

Leadership of the Organization: Daily Deliverables, Mission Evolution, Cultural Flame

Leadership of the Community: Collaborative Advancement, Life-Altering Experiences, Powerful Legacy

From my heart to yours, forever and always, Namaste!

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You will leave a legacy whether you want to or not. You have control over whether it is positive or negative. How do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be known as someone who wasted their life and held other people back? Or do you want to be known as someone who took really good care of their family and community? How do you want the world to be significantly different because you lived? Do you want only a string of broken dreams and selfish accomplishments left in your wake, or do you want to have living memorials walking around who credit you with helping them turn their life around? It is entirely up to you.

Life is a precious God-given gift. It can be over in an instant. We need to be wise stewards of the time that we are granted. Make each day count. Make contributions that will long outlive your personal presence on this planet. Make decisions that in the final analysis, left your very best on the field of life. The rest of us are counting on you!

Until next time, I’ll be praying for you to give serious thought to the legacy that you are already leaving, and the adjustments you might need to make before your time is through.

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As a general rule, leaders make more money than a lot of other folks do. This incredible blessing is not to be taken lightly, or hoarded for strictly selfish pursuits. Leaders have the ability to provide major blessings that profoundly alter the course of someone’s future. At least once in your life, do something amazing for someone. Really, truly, over the top awesome. The kind of thing that catapults them towards their dreams in a quantum leap they could never accomplish on their own. Do this without fanfare and with no expectation of anything in return for yourself. Do it because you can, and because it changes the course of history for at least two people: the recipient, and yourself. You will not be unchanged by this process.

Here are some examples. Start an emergency fund at your vet’s office for families who can’t pay for necessary medical care for their beloved pets. Create a new scholarship at a school, even if it is small at first. Start a new sports program that give people who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to participate, the experience of team play. Pay for music, art, sports, or other types of lessons / programs for a kid growing up in tough circumstances. Send a kid to summer camp in their area of interest. Finance a local church’s mission trip. Pay off a single mom’s car. Mentor or tutor someone. Volunteer to lead a major community initiative such as reducing homelessness. Offer strategic planning services to a non-profit at no charge. The opportunities are endless. Ask only one thing of the recipient, whether you choose to reveal who you are or not. Ask them to become everything they are meant to be so they can do something really cool for someone else someday. This isn’t just throwing a pebble into the pond, it’s heaving a boulder into it. That positive ripple effect will be massive and far reaching.

Until next time, I’ll be praying for you as you hone in on specific people that you can bless in ways they’d never expect. Go be the reason someone’s faith is restored.

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One of the easiest ways to get involved in giving back to the community is to participate in collaborative advancement. This can be as simple as giving $5/month to a worthy organization who is doing work in your area of interest. Express who you are through the causes you support. There is an incredibly diverse array of wonderful groups out there that are in need of help, and every little bit matters. When you partner with causes that you are passionate about, you reap the benefits of forming relationships with really cool people that you might not have ever met otherwise. Those relationships can grow into something meaningful that changes your life. It’s a true win-win.

If a monthly commitment does not appeal to you, there are plenty of other project based opportunities to contribute to. Whether it’s home repairs for those in need, short mission trips, or volunteering at a fundraiser, you can make a brief commitment of time that makes a big difference to those you help. If projects don’t appeal to you either, then there is always disaster relief. Between mother nature and tragedies caused by people, there are a lot of hurting folks out there that need our help. A lot of us giving a little time or money can go a long ways towards overcoming life-altering events. If all you ever give in your entire life is disaster relief, you’ve still made a big impact.

Until next time, I’ll be praying for you to contemplate what strategic partnerships you can sign up for that will change their world – and yours – for the better.

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As a leader, you will have far more visibility in the community than other people. Learn how to accept this. People will always be watching you, looking up to you, and observing how you handle things. Make sure that there is congruence between your personal and professional worlds. Don’t be the manipulative jerk who manufactures a shiny public image, while abusing their family behind closed doors. Be a real grown up. The importance of being a healthy, whole, integrated, functional person cannot be overstated. You haven’t arrived when you become a leader. Your work is just beginning. A lot more responsibility rests on your shoulders now, and it’s up to you to get it right. The trust that’s been placed in you is sacred, so honor it as such. Have a steady baseline of behavior that people can count on whether you are at work, at home, or out in the community. No hidden addictions, no scams, no scandals. That’s the only way you’ll earn the longitudinal respect you need to operate effectively and make the greatest possible contribution. The more you attain self-mastery and wisdom, the more you will create an excellent, authentic reputation. Cherish and protect it once it’s built. It is in fact that valuable.

Until next time, I’ll be praying for you to root out any blemishes in your character like dandelions in a summer lawn.

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Leaders hold an incredibly powerful role in society. They are highly influential in the lives of many people. They are well positioned to protect and advance the common good. Their skills allow them to make a significant contribution beyond their official leadership role, whether it is in sports, business, politics, religion or any other area. Communities need good leaders at the table making decisions for their future. Churches need good leaders to assist the pastors with creating a strong and sustainable strategic plan. Youth and adult sports programs are in need of good leaders to coach and manage them. Politicians need good leaders to help organize and educate them on the myriad of issues they need to contend with. No matter what your area of interest in life, there is a need for your leadership skills. There are a lot of great organizations out there that can’t afford consultants or highly experienced leaders. They are getting by on volunteers who care deeply but may lack the specialized skills to help bring their vision into reality. You can help them take it to the next level and make a profound difference in their ability to accomplish the mission. Volunteering your time and talent, and leveraging your connections, can play a vital role in the viability of an organization that is helping meet critical community needs. This can be one of the most rewarding things you do. You don’t check your leadership skills at the door when you leave work at the end of the day. Leadership isn’t just what you do, it’s who you are. You can be an answer to someone’s prayer by partnering with them, if even for a brief time.

Until next time, I’ll be praying for the organization that needs you to show up in your life.

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Once you’ve established a healthy culture, guard it like a sentry at the gate. Do not allow poison in any form to ever flow through the system. If you detect it, eliminate it. You are not doing anyone any good if you are not holding people accountable in this critical area. The culture is for the benefit of all, from the janitor to the CEO, to the stakeholders and the customers. A healthy culture requires active tending. Do not allow dysfunctional undercurrents to develop in your organization, they quickly turn to poison that contaminates everything it comes into contact with.

If you truly want to be an awesome leader, this is where the journey is won or lost for you. You either create a healthy culture and enjoy tremendous success, or you cause or allow a toxic culture and suffer through squalid conditions. It doesn’t matter how bold your vision, how sound your values, how inspiring your mission, or how elegant your strategic plan. If you don’t get the culture piece of the equation right, you have failed.

Next time, we’ll begin taking a look at the role leaders play in the community outside their organization. Until then, keep being awesome!

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As a leader, the culture starts with you. Leaders set the tone. It is your job to maintain standards. A team is only as strong as its weakest leader. If you are a leader of other leaders, you’ll be responsible for the impact they have on their teams and the organization. There is nothing more important in your relationship with your other leaders than holding them accountable for being healthy, mature, functional human beings. If they are not, they will damage the team, violate organizational values, and drag down the mission. In the worst case scenarios, they will mire your organization in controversy and scandal. Ultimately, they may cause the organization to go under because of negative press or massive public backlash.

None of the worst scandals in recent memory happened in a flash. They grew over time, with little misdeeds being justified and ignored. That didn’t help the offenders. It emboldened them. They took more chances and made even worse choices, feeling more and more entitled as they went unchallenged. Until finally one day, they crossed the line and there was no turning back. When their day of reckoning came, they took down a lot of people with them. If you are aware of violations at your workplace, it is absolutely imperative that you take action to put a stop to them before they spiral out of control. Don’t think it can’t happen to you, or that you know the offender better than that. Not using the full power of your intellect to think through the situation is an invitation to be exploited by the very people you think you are protecting. Any friendship or other tie you may have with someone who is poisoning the system is not worth the risk of you bearing the consequences of their misdeeds. Is your family’s well-being really worth covering up for someone who doesn’t actually have any loyalty to you? The stakes are far too high to blindly trust or be too weak to correct the situation.

Until next time, I’ll be praying for you to seriously consider whether or not the misdeeds you are hearing about just might be true, and if so, that you have the strength to deal with them.

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Dysfunctional cultures have one hallmark feature: there is some kind of poison running through the system. That poison may be one person who is allowed to disrupt the work environment without consequences. The poison may be a good old boys or good old girls club that squelches other people’s opportunities for success.The poison may be one really bad leader who has a stranglehold on the power in the organizations. The poison may be immature behavior or shirking of duties that goes unchecked. The poison may be skimming money off of company accounts. The poison may be ripping off the public, or defrauding the stakeholders. The poison may be abuse of those you are charged with looking after. The poison may be an addiction that compromises personal judgment and interferes with the functioning of the organization. The poison may be outright corruption.

Whatever form the poison takes, it will contaminate the culture and nothing good will survive in that toxic soil. A toxic culture will damage people in their heart, mind, and spirit. It will corrode their careers and seep into their personal lives. It will claim marriages as its victims, and spill over into child and animal abuse. It will compromise community and diminish dreams that would have otherwise come true. It will steal hope one piece at a time until someone takes their own life. Do you really want to be responsible for those kinds of outcomes? Because if you are causing or allowing poison to flow through your workplace, you will be.

Until next time, I’ll be praying for your gut level assessment of the poisons flowing up and down your hallways.

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The single biggest aspect of your organization that will make or break its success is the culture. Healthy cultures facilitate people thriving and organizational objectives being met. Dysfunctional cultures erode people’s well-being and stop goals from being accomplished. Healthy cultures breathe life into the team and the mission. Dysfunctional cultures offer only destruction and decay. You need to create a healthy culture and protect it with vigilance. Even if your larger organization does not offer the best culture to work in, make sure your own team has the benefit of a healthy culture within the larger group.

What is a healthy culture? One in which the mission is the focus, the values are for the benefit of all, the vision advances the common good, and the work environment is safe – including emotionally safe – for everyone. Everyone means everyone. A healthy culture allows each person to be who they are, while still treating other people respectfully. It establishes ground rules for behavior and then holds people accountable to them. It establishes expectations for productivity and then holds people accountable to those too. It establishes what the organization believes in and the role it is working to fulfill in society, and then holds people accountable to those ideals. It is an organization in which true teamwork takes place, and each person contributes to the mission and the environment in positive, value added ways. It is a place with an energy of vitality and growth. It is a place where people are emotionally and physically safe. In today’s environment of workplace violence, the importance of establishing and maintaining safety for your team cannot be overstated.

Until next time, I’ll be praying for you as you ponder the health of your culture, and how you can personally improve it.