LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"It ain't about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward." Sylvester Stallone

A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

We just finished a month long look at The Five Dysfunctions of a Team that you can read on the blog. I hope that during these weeks, it's triggered some things in you and your leadership. Again, one of my all-time favorite books.

I'm going to make a slight turn here, well, maybe a radical turn.

In 1976 a movie came out that my dad took me to. It was Rocky.

I had never seen a movie like that before but I remember it like it was yesterday. The movie was dark, it was about boxing (which I know nothing about), but it was inspiring! So inspiring that the morning after seeing that film as a 12 year-old, I ate my 5 raw eggs and committed to doing one-handed pushups every day. Of course that lasted about 2 days, but the impact was real.

Before I go on, some of you might be wondering why my dad would take a 12-year old to see that movie? Well, my dad and I are both easily inspired by sports dramas, we love the fight for survival, and we love a story that seems impossible but always turns out in the end. We suckers for that emotional ride, and I was hooked.

Rocky was a story of determination and someone overcoming impossible obstacles.

The reason this has come to mind is because Sylvester Stallone just published an autobiography called The Steps. It's basically his story of growing up and it leads up to his writing and pitching his film, Rocky. I started reading the book last week, then I switched to the AUDIBLE version because I wanted to hear his voice tell his story.

It's a rough story, but I'm learning that what was shared on the screen in his film Rocky was based on the challenges and hardships he faced growing up and trying to make it in the film business.

I'm not eating raw eggs again, but I'd love to spend some time talking about how determination is so important to our leadership. Yes, there are some prompts from the Rocky story, but what engaging with this story does for me is simply to remind me of why determination is so important to my leadership, to anyones leadership!

Back in 2001, my dad and I wrote a little book called The ABC's of Global Leadership. It's a simple curriculum going through 26 Qualities of a Leader using the ABC's. We've shared it in the Leader Mundial Communities and it's been translated into 9 different languages.

When we wrote this, we chose DETERMINED as a quality that every leader needs to have and continue to develop. We wrote these words...

"When we're not determined, we wonder.

When we're not determined, we get distracted.

When we're not determined, we don't finish well.

When we're not determined, we tire easily.

When we're not determined, we can't see clearly.

When we're not determined, we forget."

I believe these words are still true for us all.

Can you remember a time that sheer determination helped you get through a difficult time or season? What was that like to go through?

LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"The ultimate dysfunction is inattention to results. Great teams put the success of the whole above individual recognition." Patrick Lencioni

A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

We're looking at the each of the dysfunctions that Lencioni describes in his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

We looked at TRUST the first week, then we looked at the FEAR OF CONFLICT then COMMITMENT. Last week we looked at ACCOUNTABILITY and today we'll finish be talking about RESULTS.

We've done a quick walk through The Five Dysfunctions of a Team from Patrick Lencioni and I hope this has pushed you to dig deeper into the book.

His approach to results really made sense to me but I wish I had learned that years earlier!

My first job as a Youth Pastor back in the 80's was at a large church in Los Angeles. I was 21 years old, I hadn't been trained in youth ministry, but somehow I landed this job and was in way over my head.

I was invited to attend the Deacon & Elder Meeting and was encouraged to simply observe and learn how church leadership functioned.

I remember at that first meeting, no one mentioned the youth ministry of the church. They talked about everything else, but nothing was said about the Youth Group. I then set out to make myself known to the leadership of the church.

I became louder, I wanted to share my opinions about everything, I felt that I needed to defend everything that I was doing, and I got more and more frustrated because no one seemed to care.

Finally one of the Deacons pulled me aside and asked me why I was so frustrated, and I shared that it felt that no one cared about the youth group. No one was asking me questions, no one seemed interested, and no one seemed to value what I was spending my time and energy doing.

He looked at me and said this: "Russ, we're not talking about it because it seems to be going really well. The Deacons and Elders are working on things that affect the whole church and they're not concerned about the Youth Ministry because they believe in you and trust you."

Again, had I understood Lencioni's definition of results at the time it would have helped me understand this.

I was focused on MY AREA, MY ISSUES, MY JOB. I didn't understand that I also had a role with the whole church. My role was to see the church impact peoples lives, and the Youth Ministry was just one small part of that.

I began to understand this, but I'm sure I kept rolling my eyes at the meetings, I kept trying to be seen and I was always promoting what I was doing, but over time I learned to let the results speak for themselves and it wasn't my job to prove my worth to everyone.

Later in life I became much less selfish and looked at the big picture, not just my part of that.

This is what Lencioni is talking about with RESULTS.

The reasons people don't embrace the shared goals and results they're all working for is because as leaders, we're trying to:

• Protect our Status. We want to look good and we want to be recognized for what we do.

• Promote our Area. We want to operate in our own silo, ensuring that our area is getting attention first, then we'll look at the bigger goals.

We spend so much time taking care of ourselves that we forget that we're a part of something much bigger.

Oh to go back in time, but I'm so thankful to that leader for speaking truth to me. What I wish he would of said is "Russ, it's not about you!" It took some more years for me to finally learn that.

Think of a time that you were focused on protecting yourself so much that you forgot about the larger vision, the bigger picture. How do you feel about that today?

LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"Failing to hold someone accountable is ultimately an act of selfishness." Patrick Lencioni

A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

We're looking at the each of the dysfunctions that Lencioni describes in his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

We looked at TRUST the first week, then we looked at the FEAR OF CONFLICT. Last week we talked about COMMITMENT. We're working through all five dysfunctions this month and identifying some areas we might need to pay special attention.

Today we're talking about ACCOUNTABILITY and we have one more dysfunction to look at next week.

I remember a lesson on accountability very clearly. I was a church custodian as a 14-year old and my father was the Pastor. I assumed the job would be fairly easy in that my dad was my boss, and it really didn't take much to clean the church.

I would clean every Saturday Morning, then I would show up early on Sunday to dust and make sure everything was good.

A few weeks into my working career my dad showed up early on Sunday and he walked around the church with me and identified some areas that I had failed to clean. I had missed some spots with the vacuum, I hadn't dusted the piano very well, and there was trash blown in from the street on the patio. These are all things he had asked me to do, but either I just didn't do them, or I didn't do them well.

Remember, I assumed the job would be easy and thought I could just get it done quickly. What I learned was that there were some really clear expectations of me in order to earn that 100 Sucre (yes, a fortune at that time in Ecuador) paycheck. Not only was I given the expectations, but I was held to that standard.

I'm not sure I was ever a great custodian (ask my mother about my bedroom), but I learned how to do what was expected of me. I learned a lesson in accountability and learned how to ensure that my Dad, the Pastor, wouldn't find my work unfinished or not done well.

Accountability is simply my willingness to accept responsibility to do what I say I'll do or what I agree to do.

In the case of my church job, accountability happened when my "boss" checked to see that I was doing what I had agreed to do to the standard that was expected.

When did the word ACCOUNTABILITY become a negative term? Why do we so often push against it?