Social Media Leadership

One question today.

How are you using social media to lead?

Don’t think it’s important? Watch the short video below.

Again. How are you using social media to lead?

5 Leadership Principles

I was led to an article last week by Benjamin Lichtenwalner on the website CIO.com. The title said “5 Examples of Leadership Success in Troubled Times.” As I began reading the article, I began to see that not only were these examples of leadership but they were also examples of leadership principles. Through each example I began to see a defining principle come into focus.

You can read the post here and see if you came to the same conclusions I did.

I saw these 5 principles for leadership and began to figure out how I could implement them in my role at Teen Challenge of the Midlands. I would encourage you to do the same in your leadership positions. Here’s how it translates for me.

Respect / Listen / Focus / Transparency / Value

Respect
1. I believe that laying the groundwork for success at Teen Challenge begins with respecting everyone and realizing that some of the guys are just in different stops on their journey. Let people know upfront that respect is something given automatically. Everyone will respect each other and have consequences in place if that doesn’t happen.

Listen
2. It looks like the biggest principle here begins with the leader and that is to listen. I like having the policy of listening first, thinking, and then responding. Having a policy of “Listen First” I think is extremely important especially when dealing with issues around Teen Challenge, whether organizational or student related.

Focus
3. Focus is always important in the life of a leader. With Teen Challenge, the organization, it’s important to focus on the long-term and realize that what’s going on short-term isn’t how the organization is going to end up. With Teen Challenge student related issues, it’s important to realize that just because a student messes up doesn’t mean he can’t make it or overcome whatever the issue is.

Transparency
4. Transparency is one of the most overlooked areas of leadership. In order to get people to jump on board with your vision, you have to let them see everything and decide for themselves if they are going to give some or all of their life to it. This is being real with people. Authentic.

Value
5. You have to see the value in everyone. Many times I can remember seeing someone and not putting a lot of value in their use to the organization I was involved with only to find out they surpassed my expectations of value to the company. Everyone has value.

Let me know what you think!

Adam
10thStreetCoffee Director

This post was originally published on the LeadersHeart Network. Find out more about LeadersHeart here.

To find out more about 10thStreetCoffee go to the .com / .net / .org

God’s Purpose…for My Life?

I just read a good post by Steven Furtick from Elevation Church in North Carolina about purpose. What’s your purpose in life? Rick Warren did a fantastic job a few years ago helping people discover their purpose and why God has someone on this floating rock.

Steven’s take is that we don’t have a choice of what God’s purpose is for our life and makes good points to back it up. Here’s the link.

What do you think?

Until next time…

Motivate

There are many things that can motivate someone to do something. I think what makes the someone do the something is the intriguing part. Why does one man achieve great heights of his success ladder while another man wallows in his pit of despair? I think many things can temporarily motivate us. Money, love, self-interest, people, feelings are all things that can motivate someone.

Napoleon said, “There are two levers to set a man in motion, fear and self-interest.” Obviously he had a way of motivating men into action. My disagreement with Napoleon comes because I think there are more than two things that has and will motivate someone. My question today is what motivates you? More importantly, what should be motivating you that isn’t?

Do you have a sense that what you’re doing matters to God and to others? We will only find satisfaction and deeper motivation in what we’re doing when we feel that we are giving our lives to a cause that counts.

Until next time…

Finally, the new design!

Well, here it is. I promised a new design and I think it’s done! Let me know what you think!

New Design

I just want you to know that I’m thinking about changing the blog design. Kind of working it through. Trying to get the header just the way I like it. Photoshopping around a little. So don’t be surprised if you come here one day and nothing except the content looks the same, because it’s going to happen. I’m just not sure when. I’m going for a more professional look.

Until next time.

Twitter Updates

Hey everybody,

Have you enjoyed the Twitter updates over on the right side? Just wondering. It’s a lot easier than writing a post. But I haven’t given up on adamforney.com.

Twitter is just quicker and easier on my blackberry and iPhone.

Until next time.

LifeChurch.tv does it again! Facebook style!

LifeChurch.tv is now reaching into the world of Facebook with Facebook Church. It’s a great idea and even has a Facebook Church application. For those not familiar with Facebook, an application is an add-on you can put on your personal page. This should be very good and I’m interested to see how far it will go. Here’s where you can find more info.

Vision, Vision, and oh yeah, Vision

Here’s a good post from Todd Rhoades on some important factors in the church. He quotes Craig Groeschel from LifeChurch.tv saying Vision, Vision, Vision. He also asks some thought provoking questions that would be good to ask of your ministry.

What do you think?

Does Your Church “Get It”?

Does your church “get it”? What’s “get it” you may ask? Get it is understanding that what’s most important is reaching people and seeing their lives changed because of what they got. Seems easy enough doesn’t it? So what got me thinking about getting it? Todd Rhoades gave ten observations of great churches he’s visited over the past few months who “get it”. See what you think, and then ask the tough question, “Does my church get it?”

Here are the first 3 to get you started.
1. Each church has a pastor with a vision. And it’s not just that these pastors have a vision… it’s that they have a gift for communicating that vision to their staff and their entire church. While it might not be a surprise to anyone that churches that ‘get it’ have pastors who ‘get it’, it is a glaring similarity among these churches: their pastors are great leaders with a great vision.

2. Each church hires almost exclusively from within. Most every staff member of these churches was hired from within. When asked if this was intentional, most said that it was. Here’s the deal: most of these churches do a tremendous job of training leaders and empowering people in ministry. When that happens, the cream rises to the top, and that’s how they find their best staff people. Most do not have church staff experience, but rather bring their expertise from another area of business or commerce. And, I have to say, these are some sharp people.

3. Speaking of staff, the staff of these churches ‘get it’ too. The staff in these churches are very loyal to their church and to their leadership. These are people that have a long history with the church; and they are totally sold on the mission, vision and values of their church. They also view their job not only as to serve God, and the church; but also to come along side and support the vision and leadership of the senior pastor. These churches have very loyal staff.

Read the enitre article HERE. Thanks Todd for the article.

Until next time.