CHRISTMAS

Dec

2020

Holiday Self-Leadership Part III

Originally this series was based on a series of videos I did last year. For this final blog in the series I’m making an adjustment.

I was at the Christmas celebration with my wife’s side of the family. After our celebration time we reflected on how Christmas can feel less special and meaningful. All our kids are old enough that the magical feeling has greatly decreased. After talking ideas came to mind of how to lead and make Christmas less about getting and more about something else.

Engage with Others

As I reflected the next morning, I realized family gatherings personally become less meaningful because I fail to engage those around me. This specific experience I managed to get myself lost after visiting someone in my wife’s small town and was late . . . but that is a story for another day. When I finally arrived, I was in my own world and was not engaging well with people around me. We all have stress, worries and life happening . . . especially this year, but maybe if we take the time to ask questions, listen, and engage with those around us we will experience the joy of relationships and connecting.

Serve Others

While processing this struggle of maintaining the joy of the holidays I realized I need to step up my leadership. What do I mean? I wonder what it could look like if I encouraged my family and led the way to adopt a family and provided for their Christmas. Shift our Christmas from giving gifts to one another to serving a family in need. For this to be part of our family I need to step up and lead by planning, preparing, and implementing. Maybe this idea would be good to implement both in your home and your organization.

Focus on the Real Meaning

This part may be different for you than for me. For me the meaning of Christmas is the love God showed the world by coming as a child to ultimately give us hope and save us. Now, that may not be the real meaning for you as you. Maybe the real reason is family, or you have a different faith so it is different for you. Regardless of faith, a shared meaning of the holidays is they are a time to focus on others and giving. To focus on the real meaning, intentionally lead ourselves and others in ways that connect with and serve them over serving ourselves.

I realize the end of the year is stressful even without the holidays. How can you shift your focus slightly so you can enjoy the holiday season more this year? Share with me. Enjoy your holiday season and lead well.

Dec

2019

The Greatest Leader?

He had a unique birth and was raised in a service-oriented career. There was nothing special about his life and how he was raised.

As a young man he humbly obeyed his parents. One day they could not find him because he was learning from the older people around him. Instead of being a typical modern twelve-year-old, he explained what he was doing and obeyed his parents.

You may think how a person with this upbringing could do anything significant. He spent the last three years of his life serving people. While he traveled the country, he shared principles that were universally true and showed love and compassion to all those he encountered. He even had an “executive team” of twelve.

These twelve ordinary individuals were constantly mentored so they also could become great leaders. Some of them were hated because of their professional careers and others were in common careers like fishing or carpentry: respectable, but nothing glamorous.

His influence grew and he became a problem.

Was he trying to start a rebellion or political revolution?

No.

He questioned the established leaders of the day especially those in faith circles and exposed their hypocrisy. He modeled a different way of leading to those who followed him.

One day before eating he knelt down and took off his outer garment. He proceeded to go around the room and wash the dirty covered feet of each member of his inner circle. This was a visual example of his leadership and the kind of leadership he expected of others. He served before seeking to be served.

This man’s life touched at least 10,000 others, but that number shrunk significantly as no one was around when it looked like the end for him. He was killed, and then he was buried, but something happened.

Those who were with him. Those closest to him. They followed his example. Eleven of these twelve men modeled the following traits.

Boldness

These men who walked with this man continued sharing his message even though for many of them it cost their lives. They shared in front of those who could and would ultimately take their lives.

Service

These men modeled the same type of service they experienced. They did not shy from helping those in need regardless of who it was.

Sacrifice

To share this message of hope and a greater purpose was not free of difficulty. Surely, they had to leave those they cared the most about. Some of them gave up lucrative careers in order to spread the message.

In case you didn’t figure it out, this leader was none other than the meaning behind the Christmas season. Jesus.

Wherever you land on who Jesus is/was is not the point of this blog. But, as his life demonstrated, when a leader models the way and lives the way it becomes contagious. Our example as leaders at work and home will do more to develop leaders around and among us than any words we say. What needs to improve and grow in your example as a leader? Need help thinking into it? Contact me for a complimentary thinking partner session. Lead well.

Dec

2017

What Can the Christmas Story Teach About Leadership?

Christmas is a holiday here in the states that I have mixed emotions about. On one level I love it especially because of the meaning behind it which we will explore a little more in a moment. I love the time with family and watching my children get excited. I enjoy the overall intended spirit of kindness, generosity and caring. In all honesty though I do get a bit cynical because of the consumerism that arises and the challenges that come with that aspect.

What does this holiday teach us about leadership? In this brief post I cannot go into all the great lessons we can learn, but I want to look at the Christmas story and highlight a few leadership lessons we can learn.

Whether you believe the Biblical account to be truth or a story we can all gain from what we see in the account of the birth of Jesus Christ. As I look at this account I see a courageous leader and a cowardly leader. Two men who do not know each other demonstrate the two extremes of courage.

Joseph. If you are not familiar with the story he is engaged to be married to Mary, but then finds out his wife is pregnant. As you can imagine this is quite disturbing to learn because it looks like he was with her before marriage which would bring extreme shame to him and his family. The reality was actually different than what people thought.

In the Bible in Matthew 1:18-21 it says Joseph wanted to do the right thing so he was thinking he would quietly divorce Mary, but God had a different idea. He said (this is my translation) “Um, Joe, no. This baby came from the Holy Spirit. You will have a son and name him Jesus.”

So what does this have to do with leadership? As a leader in an organization or your family you may have to make intuitive decisions. These are decisions based on a gut instinct which may have some factual information backing them, but also require courage. This was exactly what Joseph had to do. Joseph had to put his faith into action and courageously lead. Instead of leaving he had to have the courage to stay and love his new wife and raise this child.

King Herod. Now there was another man during this same time whose leadership influence was much broader than Joseph the carpenter. Herod was the Roman ruler over Judea at the time which we now know as a part of Israel. He learned a story that out of Bethlehem would come a ruler over the people of Israel. When the Magi informed him this king was about to be born his authority was threatened and he was afraid so he asked the Magi let him know of the child’s exact location when they returned.

Now the Magi had a sense of Herod’s intention to murder the child so they did not return. In Matthew 2:16 we learn that after he realized the Magi were not going to tell him he “was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under.” This response demonstrates the exact opposite of Joseph.

Herod heard something he did not want to hear and in his fear he acted cowardly instead of courageously. As a leader he could have said I will meet the family of this new “king” and develop a relationship and we can rule together. This response would take both courage and humility because when a new leader arises people want to protect their territory. But Herod tried to remove this threat through violent means.

I know it feels easier for me to protect my territory when my leadership is threatened and I am scared to enter into the unknown and trust like Joseph did. What kind of leader are you when you get news that you may not want to hear? Do you courageously, with faith, move in the direction you think you should go? Are you like Herod and stubbornly, with fear, resist this news and try to keep everything from changing by manipulating the situation? Sometimes you need someone to come alongside you to help you in the process . . . but I will talk about that next time. May you lead courageously at home and work this holiday season.