Learning Leadership

As Christians, we do not have the right to take our talents, abilities, experiences, opportunities, and education and run off in any direction we please. We lost that right at Calvary.

Until we discover God's purpose, there will always be a hole in our soul. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." Ephesians 2:10

Visions are born in the heart of a man or women who is consumed with the tension between what is and what could be.

Visions form in the hearts of those who are dissatisfied with the status quo.

A vision rarely requires immediate action. It always requires patience.

A God-ordained vision will eventually feel like a moral imperative.

Missing out on God's plan for our lives might be the greatest tragedy this side of eternity.

Vision is a clear mental picture of what could be, fueled by the conviction that is should be.

Just as you cannot rush the development of a child in the womb, so we cannot rush the development of a vision.

Opportunity apart from preparation results in missed opportunity.

Visions often die during stretches of inactivity. DO SOMETHING today to push the vision you believe in forward!

Pray for opportunity. Instead of praying for people to become men and women of character, pray for an opportunity to build character in their lives.

Prayer is critical to vision development. We see what we are looking for; we often miss what we don't expect to see.

If you are "seeking first" his kingdom where you are, then where you are is where God has you positioned.

Waiting time is not wasted time for anyone in whose heart God has placed a vision.

Sucess is remaining faithful to the process God has laid out for you.

The vision of an organization acts as its magnetic north.

What God originates, He orchestrates.

How is never a problem with God.

Good ideas are limited by our potential, connections, and resources. God ideas are limited only by God's potential and resources.

If we are not careful, we can HOW a persons vision to death.

God's work done God's way in God's time is always successful.

Faith is confidence that God is who he says he is and that he will do what he has promised.

God inspired visions ultimately lad back to God. Regardless of our role, we are never the focal point of a genuine God-ordained vision. He is.

Few things distort our perspective like public success.

How ironic that men and women who credit God with their call to ministry are often slow to give him credit for their success in ministry.

Success has a way of weaning us off our dependency on God.

If your vision is for a year, plant wheat.

If your vision is for ten years, plant a tree.

If your vision is for a lifetime, plant people.

Chinese Proverb

Walk before you talk; ivnvetigage before you initiate.

Compelling Vision Includes 4 Elements:

1) The Problem

2) The Solution

3) The reason something must be done.

4) The reason something must be done, now!

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of becoming. - Goethe

The most significant visions are not cast by great orators from large stages. They are cast at the bedsides of children.

———

To execute a vision, you will be called upon to give up actual good for the potential best.

The difference between those with a burden for inner-city kids and those who actually do something is not resources. It is a willingness to take risks and make sacrifices.

In a high stakes, emotionally charged environment, Nehemiah's immediate response was prayer.

Sanballat was not completely wrong in his assessment of the project or its workers. Of course it was impossible. Nehemiah believer God was with him. So he called the people to remember what God had done.

Nehemiah understood the delicate balance between walking by faith and leading strategically.

Don't confused your plans with God's vision.

I have never met anyone or heard of anyone who accomplished anything significant for the kingdom who didn't have to revise plans multiple times before the vision became reality.

Be stubborn to the vision, be flexible with the plan.

Vision thrive in an environment of unity; they die in an environment of division.

Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing. - Albert Schweitzer

Generally speaking, it is not men and women of position that birth to and deliver great visions.

All the ability, talent, and charisma in the world cannot take the place of moral authority.

Nehemiah did not consciously choose to forgo his rights as governor to gain influence with the people in Jerusalem. He did what he did in order to maintain a blameless walk before God.

As a leader, you must be willing to do the right thing even if it jeopardizes your vision. Do I obey God, or do I do what appears to best serve the completion of the vision?

Abandon the vision before you abandon your moral authority.

Spiritual maturity is measured by how readily we respond to the person of God rather than the promises of God. It involves coming to the place where who is asking is more important than what is being asked.

ideas come from God—but they won't keep. They have to be acted on. - Truett Cathy

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Quotes from Art of War by Sun Tzu

“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected .”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity”

― Sun Tzu, A Arte da Guerra

“The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory:

1 He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.

2 He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.

3 He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.

4 He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.

5 He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Move swift as the Wind and closely-formed as the Wood. Attack like the Fire and be still as the Mountain.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“When the enemy is relaxed, make them toil. When full, starve them. When settled, make them move.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard.

There are not more than five primary colors, yet in combination

they produce more hues than can ever been seen.

There are not more than five cardinal tastes, yet combinations of

them yield more flavors than can ever be tasted.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“who wishes to fight must first count the cost”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“One may know how to conquer without being able to do it. ”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Be extremely subtle even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Rouse him, and learn the principle of his activity or inactivity. Force him to reveal himself, so as to find out his vulnerable spots.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Thus the expert in battle moves the enemy, and is not moved by him.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“Anger may in time change to gladness; vexation may be succeeded by content.

But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being; nor can the dead ever be brought back to life.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Phone Convo with J. Lee Whittington 9.20.16

J. Lee Wittington

https://www.amazon.com/Biblical-Perspectives-Leadership-Organizations-Whittington/dp/1137478039

The conversation began with some academic advising…

• If you want to get published, you need to send your best paper to a friendly conference for review or critique.

• Southwestern Academy of Management Conference would be one such conference.

We shifted to J. Lee’s interaction with LifeChurch which he has been attending for a number of years and recently has become more intimately acquainted with their processes and structure.

• LifeChurch has a very high feedback culture

• In their hiring process, they will terminate a conversation or interview if at any point it seems like it is not going to work out.

• Once you are hired, getting fired is very difficult.

• One value is the teachable spirit, or humility at every level of the organization.

Finally, we shifted the conversation to a more general leadership subject matter.

• Do the thing that energize you and stop doing the things that don’t.

• Sometimes its easier to lead without formal authority.

• Recommends “Leadership on the Line” by Ronald Heifetz

• Choose the important over the urgent

• We need to be in the press box and connect the dots as well as being in the game. It’s a both/and in order to succeed.

• What are you learning J. Lee?

o The difference between Godly ambition and worldly ambition.

o Its all about motive

o What do a lot of things for God, killing ourselves for the Kingdom, but am I really doing what God wants me to do?

• What is something I should do?

o Pray about who God would send into my life to develop a relationship

o Pray through my calendar

o Don’t be a full time pastor and part time Christian

o Get in front of your calendar

o Let your calendar reflect your priorities