Читать книгу Leadership GPS: Roadmap to Become a Leader for Life - Janice Witt Smith - Страница 3

Our leadership development journey does not occur in a vacuum. We are more than the work that we do – we impact and are impacted by others. There are some things you need to know and skills you want to develop as you embark upon this journey. Let’s walk one step at a time, making steady progress as we align ourselves with what Our Heavenly Father is doing as He further develops us as leaders for life.

If it truly takes the whole village to raise a child, it takes more than the village to facilitate the success of that “child” through a lifetime of experiences (both good and bad), and ensuring that the community continues to grow and thrive. We want to you to have good success as a result of reading and applying the scriptural and practical tools and techniques in this book – and then for you to help someone else have good success – and for that person to help someone else to have good success. Remember, every person is important, valuable, and special. Each of us must complete our assignment if we are to become the people leaders that God created us to be.

Therefore, welcome to your continuing investment in leading for life – whether as a formal leader in a corporate or nonprofit business or fraternal organization (e.g., sorority, fraternity, Links, etc), at your church, or in your family. You may be an informal leader, where no one has given you the “official” title as leader, but where you are influencing people left and right as a positive, effective role model. You may not see yourself as a leader today; however, we don’t know what tomorrow holds in your leadership future. This book provides you with some strategies that will

•Incorporate spiritual principles which allow you to leverage the whole person (mind, body, and spirit) as you grow and develop as a leader for life;"

•Help you to identify your areas of strength and development -- those things that are known to you and others that might be a blind spot."

•Enhance your professionalism and marketability AS A LEADER;

•Ground you in something (rather, SOMEONE) who is able to direct your paths and help you to have good success; and

•Provide some insights about others who have achieved success and cleared the pathway for you.

My personal style is to develop a plan for a journey, ensuring that I have gotten the money for the trip; checked the oil and tires on the car; made hotel reservations; had the oil changed; filled up the gas tank; gotten any available coupons; picked up breakfast (or lunch) for the trip; and packed and loaded the suitcases into the car. My husband, on the other hand, is more laissez-faire about such matters. He will wait until the same day of the trip to pack (sometimes to wash his clothes or to pick them up from the cleaners). He wants to pick up breakfast (or lunch) on the way. He might ask me if we have any money. He frequently wants to check the oil and tires and to figure out if we have gas. In other words, for him the journey unfolds on the way and he is having fun without planning or preparation. For me, the journey requires preparation; proper execution of “our” ensures that I will have fun. My daughter, Janelle, is more like me; my son, Justin, is more like my husband, Will. It made for interesting and often stressful family vacations. Janelle and I learned to plan activities that did not include Will and Justin and to encourage them to join in when they were flowing. In that sense, all of us won.

As with any journey, we need to locate our starting place. If we do not know where we are, we cannot adequately resource for our journey or identify the proper pathway that will take us safely and expeditiously to our end point.

To find out where we are going, we first have to figure out where we are. That sounds simple, but many of us are so busy “doing” that we have not figured out “who we are.” We have to locate WHO we are and WHOSE we are in order to understand and define where we are and to know where we are going.

Are you a leader if no one is following? This question is similar to an old adage that asks if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there, does it make a sound? Which came first, the chicken or the egg – the leader or the leadership experience? It’s hard to consider oneself a leader if you are truly “an Army of one.” John Maxwell says in his book “Leadership 101,” that “to be a leader, a person has to not only be out front, but also have people intentionally coming behind him, following his lead, and acting on his vision.” A single individual can be effective; however, the scripture says that one can put a thousand to flight, but two can put ten thousand (Deut. 32:3). How much more effective the ministry would be if the individual contributor becomes a leader that other people will follow as they follow Christ! That’s what this book is all about – getting each individual prepared to lead and honing our ability to follow. Our true leadership model is the Servant-Leadership model that Jesus provided us. My first book, Called to Lead, Anointed to Serve discusses servant leadership in detail. The most effective leaders will be those whose orientation is to serve others, to get the best from them, to ensure that the overall mission is successful, whether or not the individual leader gets the credit.

What do you use to provide you with guidance and direction about the pathway you are to take? We all have a type of internal global positioning system (GPS) which will give us driving directions to a destination that we have chosen. For believers, our true North (our compass) should always point to God, our Heavenly Father. Jesus promised us in John 14:27 that He would not leave us comfortless, that He would send a Comforter who knows the mind of God to provide us with direction, who would guide our footsteps. The Holy Spirit indwells believers and serves as our internal GPS. Let me explain to you what I think of when I think of a GPS, based on what we know and understand about technology in the natural.

Our physical GPS has to be synced up with the satellite which provides an aerial view, many miles away, of what is “reality” on earth. The signal bounces off of a number of satellites, depending on where we may be positioned at that time. As we move (travel), grow, and develop, we get plugged into different satellites. The data provided is only as good as the quality of the satellite, the lack of turbulence in the atmosphere, and the angle at which it is placed on the atmosphere. These satellites can provide intelligence for the military and may sometimes be “blocked” on purpose, through weather, through military and other types of aircraft. Sometimes our GPS equipment will tell us that we have a weak connection; perhaps the GPS cannot find the correct satellite; sometimes it cannot find the location to which we want to travel. Sometimes the location is too new to have been captured on any type of map, and the system does not have the sophistication or sensitivity to get us to that destination. We know that it is a real place and that we have important work to complete there. Unfortunately, our manmade GPS is not omnipotent, omniscient or omnipresent. But our God is all of those and more! He is the satellite that our inner GPS is searching for – He provides us with direction, guidance, instruction, grace, love, joy, peace, mercy, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and so much more. It doesn’t matter how advanced the GPS on the ground is – if you’re plugged into the wrong source – the wrong “satellite”, you will have directions to nowhere special, nothing significant; nothing lasting. We must always calibrate our natural GPS (what is innate, part of human nature) to the spiritual GPS, God’s Word.

We will use the GPS as a way of looking at our journey, both from spiritual and practical aspects. Let us begin our conversation about my perspective on how we can use our physical, electronic GPS. We’ll take a road trip later and talk about my spiritual GPS as well.

This physical GPS has the current time and driving time to whatever destination I inputted on it, along with a picture of a roadway and a road sign. Can you see that? Now look lower on the screen, there is an icon that says, “drive to. . .” If you click this icon, you will get another screen that identifies possibilities – places to which you could drive. For example, I have input where “home” is into my GPS; if you click this button, it will provide you with directions to get to my house, without having to identify the location further. If you have the specific street address, you have the option of entering the specific information – street number and name, city, state or zip code. You may even say it into the GPS microphone – you don’t have to take the time to type it. Then you would submit that information, and the GPS would process it. Perhaps you do not have the actual street address, but you do know the city and state to which you wish to go. You may either enter it and submit or say it. In either case, the GPS determines the best route to get there.

If you are not sure where you want to go, you also have the option of entering into the GPS the name of a business or type of business and clarify it with responses to some other questions. For example, perhaps you want to go to a favorite restaurant in another town and you don’t have the address. What are your options? You can enter the restaurant’s name and location, and it will find it for you. Or, you could enter the type of restaurant and have it find that restaurant in a number of different locations. In this way, you don’t have to know what city or state is your destination, only the name or type of business that you want to visit. You also have your choice of airports or can even choose the intersection of two streets.

There is an option which allows you to identify things by category – you may not know the name of the business, but you might input “restaurants,” and it will give you a list of restaurants by distance away from you, and you could choose your restaurant based on this computer-generated list. Are you getting the picture – there are a lot of options available to you – you have to choose the option that works best for you. Perhaps you have already travelled on this journey and know about particular places that you want to re-visit. There is an option on my GPS is labeled “my favorites.” This would identify places that you have identified as places you would like to visit again, places that are important or meaningful to you, or just places that you like. There is the opportunity for you to place a filter on your favorites to further categorize where you want to go. Another selection category is “recent places.” This particular option identifies for you where you have been before. It does not identify whether or not these were fun, meaningful or important places. Rather, you know where you have been or intended to go. You may select from these items where you would like to go again. My GPS has an additional option which allows you to select from your contact list. You can go to that option and select one of the people you have input and get directions to their location. However, if you don’t have an address entered, you get a prompt that states, “no address listed.”

Wow, I feel like we just went through the GPS technology maze! It’s good to get out of that loop. Let’s apply the natural aspects of the GPS described above and apply it spiritually. Our true GPS (the Holy Spirit) provides you with the route, but He does not start your vehicle, accelerate for you, depress the brakes, or turn the steering wheel. You have to be sufficiently connected to the Holy Spirit that when He says move, you move. When He says accelerate, you move faster. When He says, “Slow down,” you do so immediately. We are to allow the Holy Spirit to carve out the path for us – we move when He says move, and we stop moving when He says to stop. When there is the need for a lane change, He tells us that as well, when we are spiritually attuned to His leading.

My physical GPS also beeps when there is a camera at an intersection to warn me not to try to run through the light. Sometimes it beeps too late, and I am caught on camera or I do not understand what the beep means.

That is not true with my spiritual GPS. The warning is never too late – my ears may not be attuned to Him, but the warning is always timely. My spiritual GPS, the Holy Spirit, warns me of both seen and unseen dangers as well. Our spiritual eyes and ears have to be attuned to what the Holy Spirit is telling us. We need to know how to manage our direct reports; how to organize and direct our work; in what ways to respond to our bosses; nuances in meeting the needs of internal and external customers and the like.

Summary of the GPS available to us:

Characteristics of Physical GPS	Characteristics of Spiritual GPS
Satellite Dependent	Holy Spirit Dependent
Out of Range	Never beyond reach of Holy Spirit
Generic	Calibrated for individual
Final Destination Unknown	Final Destination Predetermined
Can mute voice instructions as desire	Voice speaks even when you don’t want to listen
Can turn off and reach destination	Cannot successfully reach destination without
Unexpected Detours May Occur which takes GPS time to redirect	All things work together for good – God knows our end from the beginning
Planning with incomplete information	Purpose and obedience are keys
Batteries can wear down or you can get out of range	Continuous signaling and no geographical limitations on range
Weather affects quality of output	Sovereign, Omnipotent God in charge
Re-routing required	Feedback provided
Unexpected detours, lane changes, Construction, locations	No surprises for Omniscient God
Gives time estimate to destination	God’s timeline is different than man’s

The world economy has been shaken to its core by a series of financial services mis-steps, natural disasters, poor decision making, and out-of-control spending patterns. Many people have looked to the stock market and to their own skills and abilities and financial resources as a type of protection against the fluctuations and challenges in the economy. One bad day on the stock market can erase years of prudent saving and planning. Scam artists promising huge returns on investments have further complicated the financial picture. As the job market has been more and more challenged, individuals are finding themselves without the retirement security that they had spent years building as long-term organizational members. Old strategies are not paying off in the same way. Business leaders, legislators, and CEOs alike are asking themselves and others what to do next. The only answer is found in allowing God’s plan to unfold and to ask Him for guidance and direction. Regardless of how smart we may believe we are, we do not have full knowledge about the present and cannot predict the future. Only God can safely and successfully help us navigate in this chaotic and ever-changing environment. Where is YOUR security? Do you need to have a paradigm shift? How is what you’re doing now working for you?

When we think about navigating through life, we are confronted with finding our way through lane changes, detours, different exits, missing signposts, and under and through construction zones. . .you get the picture! You must listen to the voice of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, speaks inwardly, to your spirit, through God’s Word. As you traverse along the pathway set for you by God, you will need to pay much closer attention than you have ever paid before. There are people who started off on this journey with you who are no longer passengers in the vehicle in which you are now traveling. Your new or continuing assignment has been specifically designed for the plan and purpose for which God uniquely created you. You may intersect with a number of other pathways, but it is your most sacred responsibility to ensure that you stay on your pathway, in your lane, totally attentive to the voice of the Lord.

In my first book, “Called to Lead, Anointed to Serve,” I used examples from the life of my then one-year-old grandson, Joshua, called “Joshua Moments.” The response to that was so positive, that I decided that in this book, I would use examples from my granddaughter, Gabrielle, called “Gabrielle’s Gems.” The Gems are key lessons that I have learned through observation, experience, interaction, and study which I would like to share about and with Gabrielle and you. Of course, stories of my Joshua may also find themselves within these pages. The following is an excellent example of what I am talking about. Think about it based on what is part of your regular, everyday world. Then think about it in terms of what an underlying greater spiritual significance could be.

Gabrielle’s Gem – Gabrielle loves to run around the house. She does not have any destination in mind. She loves the force and fury of running and laughing at full speed ahead. She has learned to slide before she hits the wall. Sometimes she will throw herself onto the couch. The thrill of speed, under her own power, and the feel of the breeze as she flies by is still almost magical for her. This child, whom the doctors felt would not have all of her limbs at birth, has proven that prayer works and that God is the final authority. As we believed for her to be born whole, nothing broken and nothing missing, we have to believe that God directs her path. He has great plans for her and for you. We cannot go by what we see and know. We have to rely on the Holy Spirit to direct us. Gabrielle knows that we will protect her from the wall and the dangers in the room. Often, Joshua runs interference for her and catches her before she can harm herself.

Isn’t this true for us as well? Sometimes we drive aimlessly around, going up and down the pathway of life with no real destination in mind. Our physical GPS also calculates speed, distance, and time to the destination; the direction in which driving, tells us that it is acquiring satellites. It shows the road we are on and gives us the grid for intersecting roads and identifies key landmarks (blue for water, universal sign of medical facility. When it is ready for us to begin, it says, “Ready to navigate.” It shows our “vehicle” and the direction it is facing, along with intersecting roads and highways and detours. Our spiritual GPS has that kind of information for us as well, although He may not reveal all of that data on a single screen. We sometimes will know the overall destination, but we may not always understand how the route we are on will get us there. We have to trust God to know what is best for us, even when the pathway seems circuitous, full of detours, and less linear than what is easy and/or comfortable for us. Do you trust God in spite of what you see? Remember the price He paid for the ransom to restore us to Him – the precious blood of Jesus the Anointed One. God has also promised to perfect that which concerneth you (SCRIPTURE).

Address does not compute . . . No signal . . . Searching loop . . . No such address

As you’re further preparing for this journey, there are a few additional details that I must provide for you. The first is, as God said to Joshua, “Be strong and very courageous.” For those of you who might not be as familiar with Joshua as others, I am preparing a brief information rest stop for you to have everyone on one accord. Because we all learn differently, I am providing you with several different tools, models, mnemonics, and/or tactics to emphasize key concepts. Find the ones that work for you. We have analogy of GPS; metaphor of our body as vehicles; leading for life principles; DELTA and ADEPT mnemonics, Joshua Moments, Gabrielle’s Gems, icons, Biblical scriptures and examples, and practical examples. Read all of it – your level of absorption will be deeper with things that speak to your leadership learning style, but you will also begin to absorb the remainder if you “eat the elephant one bite at a time.”

Let’s start with the DELTA mnemonic – D E L T A:

D iscover; E ngage; L isten; T ry; and A rise

D – Discover (Self Assessment, God’s Plan)

•Determine who you are in Christ

•Discover your strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities (Your personal SWOT analysis) – in what areas is the enemy routinely defeating you or you him?

•Delve into God’s Word – ask God to examine you -- (Ps. 139-23-24)

•Develop an attitude that you want it to be God’s will, God’s way

E – Engage (Intimate, Fully Satisfying Relationship with God)

•Embrace God’s plan for your life (Believe God)

•Examine your calling, purpose, anointing and vision

•Excitedly, enthusiastically seek God’s face and power

•Expect -- His Word is His will, and He will reveal it to you as you diligently seek Him through prayer, fasting and study

L – Listen (Let him who has an ear hear – let the Holy Spirit teach you)

•Lean not on your own understanding

•Let the Spirit lead you

•Let go and let go and let go and LET GOD!

•Love God and what God loves and values

T – Try God (Work the Word so that the Word Works in Your Life)

•Take God’s yoke upon you and learn of Him

•Take authority over what the enemy has taken

•True repentance

•Thanksgiving – Be anxious for nothing, but by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make your requests known unto God

•Testimony – Yokes are destroyed by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony. To have a testimony, you have to pass the test.

A – Arise, shine, for your light has come (Is. 60:1)

•Abide in His Word

•Act, Attain, Achieve, Accomplish

•Acknowledge, Affirm

•Anointing