Tag: Culture

Responsibility

Leadership involves responsibility. Several have said, “The greater the responsibility, the fewer the rights.”

We live in a culture where taking responsibility is not a common practice. We could also say we live in a culture where the common practice is one of blaming others.

Quality leaders seek responsibility and take responsibility for their actions.

Leaders give credit to the team when there is victory, but take full responsibility when there is a defeat.

Rarely do we find such integrity and leadership. Yet, when we do, influence grows. The result? People follow!

Apathy

Sadly, words which often characterize much of a society or culture begin to characterize the church. Examining the world and culture we live in reveals the great problem of apathy.

Our leadership must find ways to prevent and overcome the characteristics of apathy in the church.

It means…

We must fan the flame of enthusiasm.
We must energize creativity.
We must strengthen the hands of others.
We must lift up hearts.

When leaders see the opportunity, prepare themselves to improve, persevere through challenges, they can overcome the impact of apathy.

Update Your Leadership

Owning a smart phone presents several challenges, especially when it comes to scheduled updates, which occur frequently. We learn several things: 

The speed of change. Technology is changing rapidly.

Public demands. Anytime a new tool is released, the public puts it to the test.

Competition. Everyone must bring their “A game” to succeed.

Spiritual leadership is called to lead people with this influence. Our culture is constantly changing, problems require attention…now, and Satan competes for the souls of humanity. The task before us is not easy.

Perhaps we need a leadership update. Stay tuned for more.

A Complete Summary

“The conclusion, when all has been heard: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.”

This is true for any generation, culture, and country.

What is the conclusion of the matter when it comes to our leadership?

Can we summarize the our purpose as leaders in terms that apply to everyone?

Do we point people to the One with answers for life?

What answer will we give concerning our leadership when called into account?

When we stand before the throne of Christ, let us make sure the conclusion of the matter is clear regarding our leadership.

Multiculturalism

To say we live in a multicultural society is a gross understatement. We cannot think about what we are going to do if it happens.

If we are not knowledgeable about or preparing to address it, we are way behind.

How we can best approach leading within a multicultural context?

1. Stop procrastinating and gain a better understanding of multiculturalism.

2. Get immersed in developing relationships across cultural boundaries.

3. Remember, we are participating in a small part of what God has done and continues to do.

Who knows but we are here for such a time as this. The subject is essential for the present and future understanding of leadership.

Sanity or Insanity

Perhaps you are familiar with the idea of insanity: “doing the same things in the same way and expecting different results.”

As amazing as it may sound, we often practice a level of insanity when approaching our leadership, we want to do the same things the way we have always done them, yet expect different results.

Our culture has changed. Demographics have changed. We have changed, whether we want to admit it or not.

What we need is a little sanity. By definition, the idea of sanity speaks of reasonable and rational behavior. Now there are two powerful words for leaders to learn.

Sanity or insanity: That is the question.

Culture

Culture was originally connected to cultivating, or gardening.

Among many technical definitions, basically, culture is the way things are done around here.

Our world is a multi-cultural place, even sporting cultures within cultures: work cultures, educational cultures, religious cultures, age and gender specific cultures, etc.

Leaders can work to understand the culture, but changing the culture is far from easy, if not impossible. The idea has been presented that leaders must create new cultures to draw people into a new way of thinking, believing, or behaving.

Jesus followed this approach to a first century culture, leaving us to consider how we will lead in a twenty-first century culture.

A Sense of Urgency

John Kotter’s book, Leading Change, describes eight steps to ultimately anchor change within organizational culture.

The first step is to “establish a sense of urgency.” Without it, the possibility of change diminishes.

Often times, awareness of a problem or crises does not go unnoticed, but an overwhelming problem of complacency prevents action producing correction.

The church faces a leadership crisis. We find that some deny the reality of the situation, while others tend to ignore it altogether.

Who will lead from the next generation? What plans are in place to train future leaders for the church?

Unless we realize the urgency of the situation, nothing changes and the result will leave the church without leaders.

Trustworthy Character

Our culture has a great propensity to act one way, yet at the core be something completely different.

We refer to this as hypocrisy. We need to understand, however, that our culture has worked on this long enough it is now accepted and normal.

Hypocrisy tends to destroy every opportunity to influence others.

The core of our leadership needs to be characterized by integrity, justice, and truth.

These three characteristics highlight a leader worthy of God’s trust and the trust of those who follow. The result points to powerful influence.

Cultural Leadership

Certainly, culture has an influence on leadership and leadership has an influence on culture.

From a spiritual point of view, leaders cannot allow the culture to dictate the direction of God’s people, but leaders must shape the culture.

How can leaders shape the culture today?

Leaders must understand culture.
Leaders must recognize needs within culture.
Leaders must provide an example for cultural context.
Leaders must lead into a different culture.

Just a step in the right direction will help shape the changes needed in culture to direct a greater focus toward Jesus.