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Called to Good Work, not Guess Work

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Ephesians 2:10

Jesus doesn’t just want to just work in you, he wants to work through you.

Jesus works in you so that he can work through you. But, if you live always doing what you want, Jesus will always just be working on you. A poorly treated car will spend more time in the shop than it does on the road. Jesus wants you on the road to go where he prepared for you to go and do what he prepared for you to do. But, if you are always trying to crank the car or take it where you want to, you’ll constantly end up with the mechanic and not on the mission.

Prepared for good works, not guess work.

I want you to know that God, through Jesus Christ, has actually prepared things for you to do. These things are called “good works,” not guess work. These are not good things that you choose or you guess, but works that are ordained by God himself. Too many Christians follow Jesus like it’s bunch of guess work. And when this is the case, then you simply are too far away from Jesus. Those that are close to Jesus don’t have to guess what he is doing or guess what he has prepared for them to do.

I do not want you to think of these good works like some huge, giant-slaying work like slaying Goliath. But rather, a series of good, simple steps that transpire every day of your life. This happens in your home, your office, your car, on your errands, with your spouse, with your kids and as you do life.

Don’t walk toward or away from Jesus, walk in Jesus.

When you guess for Jesus, your guess takes you away from him. Too many Christians are walking toward Jesus when they should be walking in Jesus. There is a supreme difference. Jesus wants to be with you. This is why he made you. Jesus loves companionship. He loves intimacy and fellowship. In fact, listen to these verses from the Gospel of Mark (3:13-15):

“And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.”

1. Jesus called you so he can be with you. 

This sounds kind of crazy, but it is absolutely true. Jesus calls you so that he can be with you. He loves you. And those he loves he wants to be with. Don’t you long to be with those you love when you are apart? Doesn’t your heart ache and yearn to be reconnected to those in who you are apart from? This is how it is with Jesus. God said that Jesus, the Messiah, would be called Immanuel, that means “God with us.” And when he is with us we don’t have to guess.

People Jesus doesn’t want to be with he doesn’t call. Those whom he calls, he keeps calling. You can’t un-call yourself from being called by Jesus. He calls whom he wills. He wills whom he calls. Your first concern before doing the will of Jesus is to ask yourself “Am I with Jesus?” You need to be with Jesus before you try to do things for Jesus. The greatest rest and the greatest delight your soul can ever truly experience is to be in Christ Jesus, that is to be with him. It is invisible, but it is real. When you are with Jesus your soul both soars and sinks.

Your part of being with Jesus is to (a) repent to him of your sins & keep yourself from sin, (b) spend time with him in prayer, (c) thank him & praise him with your lips, (d) read his word, the Bible, (e) spend time with his people, the Church and (f) meditate & memorize his word throughout your day.  Ask yourself if you are really doing these things. This is a list of relationship builders with Jesus.

2. There is no self-appointment in Christ’s Kingdom.

There are too many Christians today who have not learned to listen to Jesus. Instead, they are listening to themselves. When you listen to yourself you learn to appoint yourself–you guess. You learn to pick what you desire and do what you desire. You attach the idea that what you are doing is good and most often you miss Christ entirely. See, Jesus calls those whom he desires, so that they will do what he desires.

When you join the military you do not get to pick your rank. You simply enlist. You then immediately belong to the military. You are given a rank. You are given a position and it doesn’t matter what you desire. Your job is to do what you are told to do. There is no self-appointment in the army. You don’t join at 18 or 19 years old and say, “Well, I think I’d like to be a general. This being a private or a lieutenant is for the birds. I’m tired of being told what to do. I’m ready to tell someone else what to do.” You simply are trained to say “Yes sir.” This is because you don’t appoint yourself.

The reason so many Christians are disappointed is that they are living in self-appointment.

Disappointment has a way of discouraging you or frustrating you. Christians should not live in discouragement or frustration. Discouragement is fertile soil for doubt. Doubt never produces the will of God. So if you are living in doubt, you will not be living in a place of fruitfulness for Christ. Frustration is simply soft anger. We don’t want to admit that we are angry, but we say that we are frustrated when really we are angry. Anger always has to be placed somewhere. We get angry most often when we don’t get our own way. A great sign of spiritual immaturity is to get angry when you don’t get your way.

3. Jesus doesn’t send you to places he hasn’t prepared for you.

Not once in the Bible can I find an instance where Jesus sent someone he called to do something he hadn’t prepared them for or the place for them. Jesus has to not only prepare the person he has to prepare the place. Don’t hear Jesus’s call and then try to do the work in your strength. But, this is exactly what is seen over and over again in the life of God’s people.

Jesus doesn’t send you anywhere he doesn’t go before you.

This is a wonderful, soul-securing truth of Scripture. Jesus does work we never see to produce fruit we can see. But, the problem for so many Christians is they go to places that Jesus didn’t call them to do work he didn’t prepare for them. To make matters worse, many Christians also don’t stay long enough to produce all that Christ has prepared for them. Jesus doesn’t call you to places he isn’t already working in. You may feel alone. You may not see many or any friends. But the work Jesus prepared for you is not dependent on how you feel or what friends you make. Sometimes, Jesus just wants you to depend on him and be with him. You have to learn that He is enough.

We are the products of Jesus Christ not the projects of Jesus Christ.

Christians are not projects, we are products. A project is planned enterprise with an uncertain outcome. A product is something that is made for a definite purpose. You are not Jesus’s project, you are Jesus’s product. He has made you to be with him, to look like him and to bear fruit like him. You are made for a specific purpose to accomplish a definite outcome. This means you can try anything, but you can only truly succeed in what you were made for.

Jesus doesn’t do bad work. Bad work comes from guess work.

Jesus is doing great work in you to do good work through you. The best work you will ever do is the work that Jesus prepared for you to do. The worst work you will do for Christ is the work you guessed he wanted you to do and you guessed wrong. It will feel like a good thing, but it will leave you empty. Good works have a fulfillment that guess works never do.

Be more concerned about the input than the outcome. Be more concerned with what you are putting into your relationship with Jesus than what you are producing out of it. So much of what we produce, we didn’t actually produce. He did. And then we take credit for it. Learn to love being with Jesus, because he loves to be with you. Then as you walk in him, he works through you. Your best work will always be to do that which he prepared for you to do–and that’s no guess!

 

(c) Alex Vann, 2018

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What Kills Your Calling

There is an element that if allowed to be loose in your life or your organization will absolutely kill your calling.

Well, kill may be too strong of a word. But this element will absolutely destroy, distract and delay you from fulfilling and walking in your calling. It will decrease your effectiveness so severely that one day you will look back and say, “How’d I get here?” or “How did this happen?” This element is deceptive, familiar and diabolical. This element that will disrupt, destroy and distract you from your calling is simply pride.

Do not think that even the littlest bit of pride is good.

Can the littlest bit of poison kill you? Can the tiniest germ make you sick?

“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

(Romans 12:3)

1. Pride is actually an unguarded and self-guided life.

Pride pushes you to say yes and conditions you to want to hear yes from others. Does a little child need to hear yes every time? Of course not. Why? Children are inherently selfish. They have to learn to share and learn to not get their way. This tells them, you are not the center of the universe. You are an important piece with a valuable purpose, but the world does not revolve around you. So, it is immaturity where we always want to hear yes. Maturity, which is impossible without humility, is where we learn to listen and be told no. Hearing no is good. A calling tells you “no, that is not for you” and “No, stay out of that.” A calling not only guides your life but it guards your life. An unguarded life will soon be a destroyed life.

Pride works to kill your guard and kill your guide.

Pride pushes you away from a “safe life” into dangerous living. Christians today must understand that it is dangerous to live and operate independently of Jesus Christ.  To think “with sober judgment” means to think under self-control. Self-control is a life that is guarded. Humility makes a great guard. It is absolute arrogance to think that you can accomplish, keep or maintain anything apart from the grace and goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ. You can’t be led by Jesus and led by your pride at the same time. Pride is sin. Pride always leads you to disgrace, downfall and destruction.

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.” (Proverbs 11:2)

2. Calling guards your life

Humility is a great guard. It is only in humility that we learn to say no. No to ourselves, no to our pride and no to others that would exploit our pride. When you let go your humility, you down your guard. There is only pride or humility. One will be active in your life. Both cannot. You are always either one or the other. Have you ever issued a half-hearted apology? It means half-your heart wasn’t really apologetic. There is no half-humility. It is either total or lacking. A vacuum of humility is always filled instantly and immediately with pride.

Humble people keep their calling

It takes humility to keep you in your your calling. It takes wisdom to walk in your calling. If Jesus has called you, then he will also equip and resource you to excel, thrive and execute that calling. A calling is a serious thing to Jesus. And Christians must take their calling as serious as they take anything in their lives. There are far too many Christians who are living far too comfortably and far too casually in light of their calling. It is pride that causes us to focus on ourselves, our wants and our pursuits. It is pride that pushes us away from our calling. The only way to keep from killing your calling is to stay humble and walk humble.

Pride causes your self to swell up like a balloon. A swollen self is useless in Christ’s kingdom. Humility is like a gentle pin prick that lets the air out of the balloon. Have you ever had your pride checked? It’s often more like a kick than a prick, but a humility check knocks the air out of you. Why? because you are too full of yourself.

Called to Spiritual Success not Worldly Success

Christian, you must never think for one second of one minute of one hour of one day that you are capable of living your life apart from Jesus Christ and experience any modicum of true spiritual success. You must first learn to value spiritual success over worldly success. Pride always pushes you toward the pursuit of worldly success. Spiritual success can only ever be discovered as you stay humble, as you go lower. If you experience worldly success, push it away from your heart. Don’t listen to the praise of the world. Humble yourself and praise Jesus.

Jesus didn’t show you your need for salvation, deliver you and then cut you loose to live however you want. He did all of that and simultaneously has called you to live a holy life, an obedient life, a life in service to others for him and a life that has been given an invitation that gives your life the deepest, most truest meaning you could ever gain. Every Christian has a calling, but not every Christian will live, discover and fulfill their calling. You can know Jesus and miss your calling. Pride is the #1 culprit that will cause you to miss the fulfillment of your calling.

What is a calling?

A calling is an invitation or a summons that once received has to be entered into. You must think about a calling as an irrevocable invitation. A calling is not something that you give yourself, because an invitation is not something you give yourself. In order to be invited, it has to come from another.

A calling is an invitation and every Christian has been given an invitation from Jesus Christ, but not every Christian will open that invitation. When you open your invitation, you are opening your life to your calling. A calling is not always understood perfectly at first, but what is understood is who called you. This means, who sent you the invitation. Pride will keep you from your calling, because pride keeps you from opening your invitation. Or pride keeps you from going back to your invitation once opened.

Let’s say you receive an invitation in the mail. The hand-writing looks familiar. But, you are busy and distracted, so you forget to open it. Some time later you look at the invitation and finally decide to open it. You only pull the invitation out of the envelope a fraction and then decide you don’t really want to read all of it, because if you read it, you then become responsible. This is pride. Why is this pride? Because pride says, “I know best.”  Pride keeps you from being all that you can be, because only as you live out your calling can you ever truly be all that Christ has called you to be.

3. Calling guides your life

Living in your invitation to follow Jesus keeps you from straying off course and staying on course. Every life, every family and every organization has a course. There is a humble track and a proud track. Lives, families and organizations that live on a proud track are headed for a humbling. This is why the mighty fall, they get on the wrong track. A Christian can live successfully on no other track than the one Christ has called them to. Pride pulls you of track. You must look back and see where you got on, where you were called. You must never forget who called you. You must never forget to whom you were called. You are never called by yourself to your self. If you are truly called, then you are called by Christ to others. He gives the assignment. He lays the track. Pride will cause you to get off track. The only way to get back on track is to look back to where Jesus called you and then humble yourself to go back there.

Once on track you can’t give it back. Kill your pride before it kills your calling.

 

(c) Alex Vann, 2018

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Calling Gives You Confidence

As a Christian, your calling comes from Jesus Christ. And your confidence comes from your calling.

Peter was called to follow Jesus Christ. A calling is not always clear or understood at first. A calling requires a response to Jesus by faith. But, a calling from Jesus requires humility, yet releases confidence into your life. It is a great juxtaposition that a Christian can simultaneously be both humble and confident. It is only through knowing Jesus Christ and holding to his word in your calling that you can live and exude this humble confidence. We are humble with our own ability, but confident in Christ’s ability.

Jesus had an interesting way of calling Peter. To call someone you have to get their attention. You never grow more confident if you are living in distraction. Peter was distracted. Jesus got his attention…

“And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.” (Luke 5:4-7)

In Luke 5, Jesus met Peter on the shore. He was putting his nets away. Peter was tired from a long night of fruitless fishing and empty toil. But, Jesus got in his boat. I believe he got in his boat because he already knew him. Jesus already knew Peter because he had already called him once before. This happened in John 1:40-42, where Peter’s brother Andrew heard Jesus and went and got his brother, Peter, and brought him to Jesus. However, it is my conclusion that Peter after meeting Jesus did not immediately follow his call, but at some point went back to fishing, went back to his old life.

Peter’s inability to grasp his calling revealed is insecurity and independence from Christ.

See we lose our confidence when we lose sight of Jesus and when we lose sight of our calling. Remember, later Peter would walk on water. There are only two men to ever walk on water: Jesus & Peter. Jesus was the sinless, perfect Son of God and well, Peter was very much sinful, but called by the Son of God. But, he wasn’t there yet.

When you fail to grasp your calling, you fail to grasp confidence.

Confidence is security of purpose and position. When you know that you are where you are supposed to be with Jesus, your confidence remains. When you are not where you are supposed to be, whether you are drifting or you are running from God, then it is impossible to be confident in Christ. Sin erodes your confidence. Because sin is an act of rebellion. When you sin, it creates a temporary disconnect with God, not from God to you, but from you to God. God doesn’t disconnect from us. But, we can disconnect from him.

When you disconnect from God, you disconnect your confidence.

Peter went back to his old habits. Old habits never inspire confidence, they inspire comfort. We will accept the wrong things in our lives because they are familiar and comfortable. Jesus made Peter uncomfortable. A calling will make you uncomfortable, because if you are going to live in your calling you are going to have to live and exercise faith. Not faith in your own ability, but faith in Jesus Christ and his ability. Jesus told Peter to take his boat back out in the water. Jesus was no fisherman. Peter surrendered to Jesus and obeyed.

You can’t follow Jesus without surrender.

Peter had to surrender what he thought, what he wanted and what he believed. He had to allow Jesus the first place in his heart, in his mind and in his strength. You can’t follow Jesus without loving Jesus. Otherwise, all you are doing is following his principals not his person. Confidence comes into a relationship through love. Jesus loved Peter, but Peter didn’t love Jesus enough yet, because he wasn’t broken enough yet. But, when the thing that Peter trusted in, his nets, began to break, Peter’s heart broke and look at his response (Luke 5:8-9):

“But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken.”

Going deep with Jesus strengthens both your humility and your confidence.

Peter obeyed Jesus and rowed back out into the deep water. Peter had been sitting in the shallows. And this, Christian, is a major problem with Christianity in America today: we are too shallow. We have too many shallow services, shallow songs and shallow disciples. We have too many preachers preaching a shallow faith, a shallow following and a shallow Jesus. Jesus is more than a self-help guru or a good guide. Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, King of kings and Lord of lords. And to more fully know Jesus, you have to go deep with him. You can’t sit in the shallows of your faith, of your Bible or of your calling and expect to have any sort of confidence. We are like grown ups playing in a kiddie pool. Grown ups need to be jumping of the diving board and swimming in the deep end of the pool.

Shallow Christians have shaky confidence.

Humility comes as you learn to listen to Jesus. Reading your Bible and learning to trust God’s word as supremely and absolutely authoritative solidifies your calling and strengthens your confidence. When you learn to dive deep, the pressure is intense and the risk is great. When you come back up, you are humbled by the experience. But, you are also more confidence because you learned more about Christ and more about yourself.

Faith tested is confidence.

Peter throws his nets back in to the deep. He had just enough faith to do it. But, all he need was a little faith. A little faith placed in the right direction will return to you great confidence.  See Peter’s little bit of faith returned to him nets that were full and breaking packed with fish. Peter didn’t have faith in his own ability, he had faith in the word of Jesus Christ. When your faith is tested and you cling to your calling in Christ, you will come through stronger, more humble and more confident that Jesus Christ is always able to do what he says he will do.

“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” (Hebrews 11:1, NLT)

Christians do not gain confidence from the world or from their own ability. They can assurance and confidence as they walk humbly with Jesus Christ in greater understanding of their personal calling to follow him all the days of their lives. They must hold fast to the word of God which as been kept and recorded for us as Holy Scriptures in the pages of the Bible.

Confidence is gained as calling is maintained.

 

(c) Alex Vann, 2018

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Stop Wasting Your Time Trying to Develop Leaders

Character development is more important than leadership development.

We live in a world full of leaders who are empty of character. We’ve got more leaders, more leadership positions, more leadership titles and more frustration because we actually have less leadership. Virtue is dead. Character is on oxygen. Ethics have been removed.

If you want to make a difference in your organization, in your community, in your home and among your followers, then focus on developing character in those around you. But, your the character you are seeking to build better first be evident in you. Integrity is on life-support in our world today.

Work harder to build great people than you do great leaders.

There’s all this pressure in our world and nearly every organization (including the Church) today to build great leaders. It’s not healthy. Don’t be a leadership development organization. This is silly. How many leaders can you actually have? Everyone. No, everyone is not a leader and can’t be a leader. The sooner you make this clear in your organization, the more focused your organization can be. It’s too easy for organizations, teams and groups to have “leader fever.” Leader fever is an ailment that plagues organizations that try to create and turn everyone into a leader.

Let me speak directly to Christians for a moment:

Did Jesus ever say to make leaders?

No (emphatically). He said that the Church is “to make disciples.” A disciple is a learner, a student and a follower. We are not to make leaders. So when we try to make leaders, we are making a mistake. You can no more make a leader than a leopard can change its spots. You can no more make a leader than dirt can turn into water. Church leaders, your job is to make followers of Jesus Christ, not leaders for your organization, ministry teams and committees. Stop thinking about the Body of Christ like a Fortune 500 company. It’s not. True leadership is organic (more on that later)–organic being natural, innate or born.

Don’t do death by leadership development. I see more wasted money, more wasted time and more wasted energy trying to develop people who aren’t leaders into great leaders. I’ve seen more frustration, more pressure and fewer leaders developed. I’ve seen leader after leader kill themselves, blow up their organization because of some new book they’ve read, some podcast they heard, or some seminar they paid out the whazoo to get a golden nugget. So they go back and change everything and all they create is more frustration, more pressure, not more leaders.

Wake up and eat this nugget: leaders are born not made.  We used to believe that until we turned into a world where everyone is supposed to be a winner. Go back to your childhood. Leaders were always born–born in a moment and born for a moment. You can’t teach charisma. You can’t coach drive. You can’t make some be self-disciplined. Transcendent leaders have one foot in this world and one foot somewhere else. They are driven by a force no one around them can see and have an energy that no one around them can manufacture. But, they have a character that can be emulated. A natural born leader has a spark, or fire that no one put there and that no can put out. Everyone else who is not born a leader is trying to find that spark, trying to find that fire. Leaders have it. It’s in their eyes. It’s in their soul. Everyone else is trying to find “their passion.”

If you can’t develop leaders that’s your fault. So, stop trying and just work on building really great people. Somewhere this vision of the “super” leadership developer organization sprang into our world as someone who we must become. We’ve been sold to invest more resources to get better leaders. I tell you, invest in more relationships and you’ll get better people. Then, the leaders will come. Great leaders don’t like working with bad people. Stop trying to find great leaders and just work on building great people into a great team.

You need leaders. Every organization needs leaders. But before you need leaders you need great people. Stop hiring for leadership and start hiring those who will let you speak into their lives while they work really hard for you and demonstrate loyalty. Better a lot loyal with a little quirk then a not loyal with no quirks!

Leaders Have Vision

I find that many “leaders” today lack real vision that inspires those in their organization to stay. People stay for vision. Why? Because people have always and will always follow a leader with a compelling vision. People stay when they are energized and inspired. If you can’t sit down and speak to someone’s heart and paint a picture of where you are going, then you lack the ability to inspire others. You don’t have to be the most gregarious, but you better be the most grounded.

Grounded People: Foundations & Facelifts

Grounded people have great character. Grounded people build foundations, not give facelifts. I find that modern leadership development is focused on giving facelifts, not giving foundations. Foundations get ignored. Facelifts get attention. Work harder to build foundations in your life and the lives of those around you. Don’t give them a facelift. A facelift is a temporary stretching to cover a wrinkle a blemish or a defect. Character development is foundation building. Leadership development has become like a facelift.

The greatest leader ever, Jesus, spent no time in leadership development, and all his time in character development of those following. He picked twelve. Of the twelve, he had three: Peter, James and John.  And of the three, there was one. Peter.  In fact, the one time we read about when his followers jockeyed for a leadership position, he smacked them down for focusing on the wrong path. There was never anyone more grounded than Jesus. He spent three and a half years developing the character of those who would carry his message far beyond his feet.

To the Aspiring Leader

Let’s say that you’ve read this far and are an aspiring leader. Here’s my word for you: Stop trying so hard to be a great leader and work even harder to have great character. Be the most “beyond reproach” individual that you know. Be the most humble. Be the most energetic. Be the most encouraging. Take the most initiative. Be the most responsible person you know. Stay longer, work harder and give more than anyone else you know. Stop worrying about being recognized. Great leaders know where their great followers are and are not. God knows where you are. Rest in the fact that the Almighty knows exactly where you are and learn to be content, yet hungry. Learn to be humble, yet confident. And learn to have character not be a character.

(c) Alex Vann, 2018

 

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Redwall Leadership Thought of the Week: Busyness

Redwall Leadership Thought of the Week:

Busyness Brings Emptiness

“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.”

~Socrates

Busyness is a lively, yet largely meaningless activity. It is easy for a leader to get busy and stay busy. Because, if you are like me, you would rather be busy than bored. If you don’t protect your time, then no one in your organization will. Now, protecting your time does not mean you are unavailable or unengaged. Protecting your time means that your preserve your time for the functions and facilitation that are the greatest investment of your time. The larger your team, your organization or your endeavor, the greater need to protect and preserve your time you will have. The larger the organization, the more demands on your time.

It’s absolute arrogance to try to be everything for everybody, just as much as it is complete arrogance to be be nothing to nobody.

Busyness often happens because you don’t let others help you. It’s easy in leadership to suspect the motives of others. Discernment is certainly important. However, there comes a time where you must ask for help and receive help that is offered. I struggled with this for years for two reasons: (1) I thought if it was done right, I should do it myself (arrogance) and (2) I thought it made me look weak to ask or receive the help of others (insecurity). Arrogance and insecurity are two sides of the same coin of pride. It was through humility I became less busy, because I became willing to ask others to help me do what they could do better than me.

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Barrenness is what happens to your soul when you get busy if you are not careful. A barren place is an empty place. There are a ton of leaders who are crazy busy, yet completely barren. I don’t call this “me time” I call this boundaries. Your time has limits. You have limits. You can’t do everything. You can’t serve everyone all the time. The greater the scale and scope of your leadership responsibility, the bolder the lines of your boundaries must be. This does not mean you disappear from the scene, vacate your responsibilities or leave your followers wondering where you are and what your doing.

“A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” Proverbs 25:28

Busyness often reflects not only poor boundaries, but the absence of them. Everything of value must be protected. This includes your time. Your time is only as valuable as you make it. Don’t over value your time, like “my time.” It has more to do with your calling. Jesus was the greatest leader to ever walk the earth and he had crystal clear boundaries, yet he spent a tremendous amount of his time with others. But, he didn’t let the work drive him, he drove the work.

How did he do this?

A clear calling makes a simple life.  A simple life is a less busy life.  Jesus’s  calling was clear.  He knew when to say yes and when to say no. He knew when to dive in and when to walk away. A clear calling gives you clear boundaries. The clearer my calling becomes, the more focused I can be. I am called to be a husband. I am called to be a father. These are more valuable and give more meaning to my soul than any amount of business success or recognition I can ever receive. The right relationships help restore the emptiness of your soul. The right relationships always have the right boundaries and they are simple.

 

(c) Alex Vann, 2018

 

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Redwall Leadership Thought of the Week

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Redwall Leadership
Thought of the Week: 
Lead with joy. 
“When joy is a habit, love is a reflex.”
-Bob Goff
Leaders must demonstrate a love for their teams and their people above a love for their position, their recognition or their results. Leaders must lead with joy. Joy is a contagious energy that warms the hearts and souls of those around you. It is a well of happiness that refreshes the lives of those around you. Make joy your habit. In order to do this you must get over yourself.
A bad attitude blesses no one. A bad attitude tells everyone two things: stay out of my way and I’m miserable. It’s unacceptable for a leader to live with a bad attitude. A bitter spirit is a poison pill. If you want to bless those who labor with you and for you, greet them with joy. Joy is infectious energy that lifts the hearts and minds of those working with you to another level.
Work takes us down. Joy lifts us up. Love keeps us up. A joy-filled work environment has to be created. Joy exercises the demons of bitterness, jealousy and bad attitudes. Joy and disgruntlement have a hard time existing in the same space. When people are lifted by your joy, they feel loved. Love creates life and loyalty. Joy lifts an atmosphere, love changes it.
A leader’s responsibility is not to increase the misery, but to decrease the pressure by bringing the joy. 
(C) Alex Vann, 2018
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Podcast – Unlocking Millennial Myths

The truth is between technology, helicopter parents and a lack of perseverance Millennials are being told some myths that are affecting the way they work, the way they think about work and how they see their lives. And sadly, it’s not helping. It’s time to unlock these myths with a good, healthy dose of the truth.

Seven Myths Millennials are being told and sold today:

1 – The Myth: Development is someone else’s responsibility. The Truth: Development is your responsibility. Most development takes a while. Most Millennials don’t want to wait. There is an impatience problem with many millennials today. If development isn’t your responsibility, then you are waiting for someone else to carry you.

2- The Myth: If you want something, ask and it should be given to you. The Truth: If you want something, go work for it. Figure out where your organization is going and get ahead of it. Think of a boat. Paddle out in front of where you see things going. Don’t just say “Hey, someone needs to help me, someone needs to give to me, someone needs to do this for me.” Start by Going to work for it. Take initiative in the right direction. This is called alignment.

3 – The Myth: Showing up is work. The Truth: Work requires more than just showing up. Showing up doesn’t mean you added any value. Putting the work in is where the value comes from. You may not get recognized for the work that you do. Great results are undeniable. Keep working, keep getting results. It’s impossible over time to neglect great results.

Many Millennials think they are doing the right thing. Are you sure? You may just be doing your own thing! Do what is required of you. Sometimes that’s hard, takes a long time and is uncomfortable.

4- The Myth: We learn well in comfort. The Truth: Comfort is a terrible teacher. The most valuable lessons we have learned have often come from the most pain. Comfort is a terrible teacher. We live in a culture that wants to celebrate comfort. Celebrating comfort is a form of selfishness.

5- The Myth: The easy way is the best way. The truth: The best way is almost never the easy way. Life isn’t easy. If you believe that life is easy, then you’ve believed a lie. Life is full of challenges and uncertainty. If you aren’t careful you will plot a “risk-free” and “safe” life. I don’t propose being reckless in regards to risk, but you will have to make some strategic bets and take chances. Things that are easy to acquire have little value. Life is difficult. If you have an easy job, with an easy boss and easy assignments you will rarely get anywhere. Getting somewhere worthwhile requires great effort. Read the biographies of those people who accomplished really great stuff: they all underwent some really hard things.

6 – The Myth: You define yourself. The Truth: What you pursue defines you. What you give your time, energy and resources to is what people will remember you by. Most often what you will eventually find is that you are at the center of what you are seeking. When you define yourself, you are simply revealing that you are pursing yourself. What you find with really selfless people is that the pursuit is not about themselves. It’s something outside of them. The position never fulfills you, the pursuit does, if it is the right pursuit. You must pursue something greater than you. Pursue something that can truly make a difference in life.

Jesus told his followers to “Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and (then) all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). He was saying, “Get over yourself, get outside your self and pursue something greater than you.” I’ll give you the target. I’ll show you the way. But, you must do the work. You must be in hot pursuit.

7- The Myth: Information equates to learning. The Truth: It’s only learning if you apply the information correctly. More information does not equate to learning. It just means you are becoming full of information. Lots of information without application just confuses.  I see too many Millennials who want to poll a bunch of people and collect a bunch of information, yet still make the same mistakes over and over again. This tells me that they have actually learned nothing, because they haven’t applied the information in a way that demonstrates wisdom.

This world is full of complexity, uncertainty and challenges. You need truth in order to navigate the most successful and productive path in this world.

“You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free“

Jesus

 

(c) Alex Vann, 2018

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Don’t be an Impressive Leader, Be Inspiring

The most effective leaders are the most inspiring ones.

The world we live in today is uninspiring. It’s depressing, dark and filled with uncertainty.

It seems that more people are depressed than ever before. Simultaneously, more leaders are trying to impress others and be impressive like never before. I’ve seen more leaders in tight shirts, plucked eyebrows and unbreathable jeans than at any point in human history. I’ve seen cooler clothes, hipper furniture and cutting-edge ambiance.  But, are we really impressed? Are our organizations, our teams and our people actually better for how impressive we appear? No, they aren’t. And if we live to impress or be impressive we will lead and live uninspired lives among uninspired people.

I have found and seen that historically the most effective leaders, the ones that get the most done, don’t do it for themselves, but they actually inspire others to be better, get stronger and go longer. If you want to see growth in your life, development in the lives of those emerging around you or a fresh wind blow through the lives of those in your organization, get outside yourself and learn to be a leader that inspires the best in others. Don’t worry about being fresh, cool or hip. Inspiration is fresh air. We have too many organizations, teams and people sucking stale air in new suits.

We get our English word  for inspiration from from the Latin word that means “breathe into.”  Therefore, literally, when you inspire another you are breathing new life into their lives. People need this–desperately need this. The world is cruel, unforgiving and deflating. An inspiring leader inflates or brings fresh air the lives of those around him or her gasping for life, for hope and for a future.

Impressive leaders have more fans than they do actual followers. To lead is to inspire others. And we live in a largely uninspiring world. We talk about dreams, but most of our dreams die. We talk about hopes, but half the people we know are borderline depressed. We talk about success, but wallow in defeat. We are impressed but empty.

An inspiring leader has the ability to elevate the way that you see yourself. An impressive leader has the ability to elevate the way you see them.

An inspiring leader directs their energy and focus on making those around them better and brighter. This kind of leader is more called than driven. There is a depth to their life that comes from the heart. Not only are they passionate about what they are doing, but they are even more passionate about why they are doing it and who they are doing it for.

Inspiring leaders have a selflessness that is refreshing in the midst of a self-centered atmosphere. In a cold, selfish world, a leader who inspires others warms them up by their selfless demonstrations of care and concern. This doesn’t mean they stay or shy away from the truth, but rather they have skill to lay truth as new life and energy into the lives of those around them. If you really want to make a difference, serve selfless those around you.

Inspiration is about energy. There are many people who work really hard who are unmotivated and  drained. An inspiring leader has the ability to transfer energy into their followers lives or spark dormant energy that already exists. I find that most people aren’t as drained as they think. They are simply just living uninspired lives, seeing little value in their work and little lasting result from their efforts. They think they are drained. They don’t know how to endure, how to suffer and how to work for the win.

“Care is like oxygen. When you don’t feel cared for it’s like lacking oxygen. A leader who cares for their followers blows fresh air into their lives.”

An inspiring leader creates value by caring for the heart. If you really want to win with others and win others, you have to win their heart. And there is absolutely only one way to win a heart: care for it. It’s safe to safe that in the climate of our homes, business and organizations, most people just don’t feel truly cared for. Not feeling cared for and cared about is like lacking oxygen. Each breath, each step is more laborious because you lack the molecules that sustain the drain on your energy. Inspiration is oxygen. When you come alongside of and care for and care about others, you pump fresh air into their lungs. And when the lungs get air, they can pump oxygen to all parts of a flagging and sagging body.

Be a leader who loves. Love is the greatest motivator and indicator of care on earth. Nothing, absolutely nothing beats love. True love is both sacrificial and selfless. Leaders who aren’t sacrificial, sacrifice their followers in pursuit of impressing others. Leaders who aren’t selfless demand to be served by those who are under their authority. Love never demands. And a demanding leader may get results, but they are always at the cost of draining the lives of their people and driving them away. An caring leader gains ground in the heart, which is the most important ground for a leader to gain.

Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Jesus was the greatest inspirational leader to ever live. He loved others, cared for them and laid his life down as an act of ultimate service. We need more leaders that are willing to lower themselves, lower their opinions of themselves and learn to serve their people. A leader who serves his followers is a leader who cares about his followers.

Inspired people are loyal people. When you are inspired, you work harder, stay longer and give more. Loved people are the best kind of loyal. There are different kinds of loyalty. Loyalty is like a bond. Money can bond people. Opportunity can bond people. And even fear can bond people. These three types of bonds are actually very weak because they are easily replaced by a more favorable offer. Love is the most unbeatable and unbreakable bond. Why? Because great love once received is not given away or broken easily.

Inspiring leaders create the strongest bonds among their followers,  constituents and partners because they demonstrate consistent, selfless and sacrificial love.

Don’t be an impressive leader. Why? People are too easily impressed. Life is hard and any accomplishment or measure of success can quickly and easily impresses others. Think of social media. It’s a web of false pretenses and filters we design to impress others with our own version of what we want our reality to be. If we see a celebrity or famous person, we try to get a picture with them and post it. Why? To impress others. We go somewhere others don’t have access to, we post it. We see something rare or unique, we post it. We change things up and do the “humble brag,” we post it. Why? Mostly to impress others.

True inspiration affects the heart, which is the seat of the soul, the very essence of who someone is. When others are impressed their minds and emotions are affected. It’s easy to give a better argument or flatter someone to make them feel better. When the heart is moved, the feet are sure to follow.

Do you want better followers?

Move their hearts and their hands and feet are yours.

Inspiring leaders capture and win the hearts of those around them by both strategic and spontaneous acts of kindness,  expressions of encouragement and measures of appreciation.

Conversely, impressive leaders tend to bask in the glow of recognition and the admiration of those around them. They tend to celebrate results more than relationships. They tend to recognize performance over people. Impressive leaders create a culture built on performance  and pressure. Performance in pressure in and out themselves are not negative things but they are unsustainable elements over a long period time. They have a diminishing returns. However, inspiration is not only sustainable,  it’s transformational. If you want to see the lives of those around you change for the better, inspire them.

Inspiring leaders point to people, a lot. And inspiring leader redirects the attention to those they are serving. Attention is a form of energy. And inspiring leader redirects that attention/energy onto it into the lives of those around them. They easily recognize other and give credit. An Impressive leader enjoys the attention  and like a vacuum drawls the energy into them selves. This has the unintentional effect of draining or neutralizing the energy in their followers. Energy is so important in organization between a leader in between followers because energy is what facilitates momentum. And momentum is what moves a people, an organization, a relationship, fulfills dreams and reaches goals.

Leadership is about people. Life is filled with them. The best, most effective leaders have learned that inspiring their people is far greater than impressing them. Don’t waste your time leading to impress others. Rather, invest your time serving to inspire others–it has the power to make a life, change a life and fill a life.

Don’t be impressive, be inspiring. The world needs it. Your world and your people need it.

 

(c) Alex Vann, 2018

 

 

 

 

 

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5 Things I’m Teaching My Kids for Success

Don’t count on your kids being successful, unless you are training them both to earn it and then learn how to handle it once they have it.  Failure is a given, success is optional.

But, before you despair there are a few things you can do to sharpen your kids for success. I’m a father of four, been married almost 20 years and lead an organization of almost 150, but I don’t take for granted that my children will just “turn out alright.” I don’t want my kids as  “alright” adults. I want my kids to be outstanding adults. We have too much mediocrity.

These 5 things I’m sowing into my kids lives to help foster outstanding adults. See, I don’t measure success by culture’s standards. I’m their father. I’m measure their success by my standards. That’s why God gave them to me and not someone else. These standards are steeped in the successful historic tradition of bygone generations and the unbending principals found in the timeless truths of the Bible.

1- Work Hard. I actually make my kids do work they don’t enjoy. Don’t mishear me, I never use work as punishment. A child must learn to view work as necessary, not as a nuisance. Sadly, today many children and now young adults see work as a nuisance. There will never be true success without hard work.

Work has to come before rest, before pleasure and before comfort.  Work ethic is learned when children are young and developing. If kids don’t learn to work when they are young (outside the military or Jesus), they most likely will never learn it. Before we have fun, we work. Before we quit, we finish. Assign your kids “necessary work” that fits their frame.

A word about teaching little boys to work. Boys on average have more energy in their bodies. They need to be put to work, especially outside. It’s wired in little boys to conquer, to explore and to push the limits. Nature is hard to conquer. Nature will sap your physical strength faster  than anything manmade or mechanical. So, if you have a little bundle of energy get them outside in the sun, in the heat with a shovel or picking up sticks.

My father used to take us boys and make us fill up holes in the yard, work outside and pick up sticks. I felt like these were the most pointless and sweat-induced jobs, but as an adult I remember these painful, tiring tasks because this hard work at an early age taught me the thing that all kids and adult need for success: discipline.

Work teaches your child a healthy measure of adversity, which they will encounter in buckets full later in life. A principal in hard work is endurance. Endurance is strength over time. Anyone can be strong for a second, but what your child will need is strength for a season.

One of my favorite verses is Proverbs 24:10 “If you faint in the day of adversity your strength is small (weak).”

 

2- Consider others. We are rapidly becoming the most self-centered society the world has ever seen. You have to get your kids to think about others. To consider something is to put it under review. You have to teach your children to think about others and be ready to help, serve or support as is necessary.

Success is rarely achieved alone. And it’s definitley never held alone. We as humans are designed to live in community. A community is the sum of your relationships. When you spend all day as a child on a smart phone, a tablet or a gaming console system, you are training your child to bend toward isolation and separation from others. Make your kids put their digital devices down and away.

Make your kids serve others. When you teach your kids to serve others it teaches them to think about others, not just themselves. This can happen a multitude of ways: at dinner make someone’s chore be to clear their siblings or parents dishes,  clean one another’s room periodically, or any number of things to train your child to think about others.

A Bible verse I used to hear my mother remind my siblings and me was John 13:35 “By this will all men know you are my disciples if you have love one for another.”

3- Trust God. This means not only acknowledging that there is a God, but that He is involved in your life. The biggest way you teach your kids to trust God is to involve God in your discussions about your decisions in front of your children.

Trusting God means you recognize you need God’s help in your life and you request it. Be careful about driving your kids to independence. Your children are designed to be independent of your financial support and shelter in their adulthood, not childhood. But, until you die, your children should always be dependent upon your influence and counsel in their lives, just as they should be upon God for his influence and counsel in their lives. Your children may not always be under your roof, your rules and your resources, but they are never outside your reproof. 

Trusting God means learning to listen to God. Make your children listen to you. If they don’t listen, then there must be consequences. Because, later in life when they don’t listen to God or their employer or the police there most certainly will be consequences and consequences much more significant than what they receive as a child.

The best way to learn to trust God is to take him at his word. His word is what he has already said.  And what God says doesn’t change. This is why he is absolutely trustworthy. What God has said he has recorded for us in the Bible. Reading your Bible trains your kids to trust God, because they know what God has said and where to look for what he has said.

Teach your kids Proverbs 3:4-5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.” 

4- Stay humble. Humility is an exercise in letting others go first. Teach your kids to give their best but not to demand the best. The world demands the best, but gives the worst. A humble person knows that the best is always yet to come.

When life doesn’t go your way, stay humble. Humility doesn’t burn bridges or express every opinion. You don’t need a position to lead, you simple need humility. There will be times that your child fails or gets rejected. A proud person walks away and is worse because of it. A humble person gets back up and faces the failure, the rejection.

“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6

5- Forgiveness. Everyone can take offense and give offense. Everyone can defend themselves and be defensive. But, not everyone will forgive others and even themselves.

Make your child forgive one another.  When they are little make them apologize and make them say, “I forgive you.” And then make sure they can operate in a place of forgiveness.

Even more important is that as your kids get older, at the appropriate time (not 10 years later) apologize and your kids for forgiveness when you mess up. Kids know their parents aren’t perfect. They also know when their parents are holding a grudge of unforgivenss against them. A child’s heart grows best and healthy in an environment of love and forgiveness.

We need forgiveness, because we are a bunch of flawed people living among flawed people. Forgiveness is not a release from failure, but a release from the penalty and punishment of failure. Often, we say we forgive, but we want to keep punishing the other person. There is a difference between consequences and punishments. Consequences are changes as a result of a failure that may or may not have a definite term limit. Punishment is retribution or restitution for failure, but it has a definite term limit.

Another verse I can distinctly hear my mother singing to me, “Be ye kind, tender-hearted, forgiving one another just as God in Christ Jesus forgave you” Ephesians 4:32.  (I had to add the “ye” because that’s how she’d sing it).

Parents we have work to do. These principles are just as much for we, parents, as they are for our kids. These truths if laid down in the lives of your children will steer your children toward success and away from a life of depravity and failure. There can be no true, lasting success without the blessing and favor of Almighty God. These thoughts and these verses are designed to draw your trust and your child’s heart to a place of surrender and submission to the Maker and Creator of your child’s life.

“It’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.“

Fredrick Douglass

 

(c) Alex Vann, 2018

 

 

 

 

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Podcast – The Millennial Mentor (Episode 1) – Other than My Title, Why Would Anyone Follow Me?

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You are not a leader unless you have followers. Everyone can exercise personal self-leadership, but not everyone will be a leader that connects and collects with followers. You will not collect followers until you connect with people. Even those with a title or a position, may not have real people follow them in real time.

To be a leader that others follow you must…

1- Demonstrate a care for others that is greater than yourself. Care is three parts: (1) concern, (2) love, and (3) loyalty. A leader who doesn’t show concern is demonstrating a selfishness. People love a selfless leader. A leader must show unconditional love. A heart connection is the deepest connection. Leaders must learn to love their people more than their position. Finally, a leader must demonstrate absolute loyalty to loyal people. A lack of loyalty from a leader to his/her people is an automatic eject button.

2- Hold yourself to high personal standards, but be ready to give grace. Followers need consistency in conduct. Leaders must have impeccable integrity and set themselves up as the example. Followers don’t want to follow leaders who get a position and them reward themselves with perks and allowances. Followers love leaders who hold themselves above personal privilege and perks. This also speaks to holding others accountable. A leader must hold a consistent firm line with everyone, but they must consider each one as an individual. Leaders make allowances for your people, not for your self. Be ready to give grace instead of giving grief. Leaders who start with grace are leaders that others want to follow. There are no perfect leaders and no perfect followers, so a leader should be ready to give lots of grace.

3- Set a positive tone with a positive attitude.  The leader is the the thermostat, not the thermometer. The thermostat sets the temperature, the thermometer reads it. Don’t do negativity. Don’t be naive, but start from a positive place and build on that. People follow positive people. Like attracts like. If you have a team or organization full of negative people, then your leaders are probably negative and the same if you have a team full of positive people. Drive negativity and bad attitudes out of your organization. Negativity is like mold. You can’t find it, but it stinks up the room. Positivity is like sunshine. It warms and welcomes.

4- Be the first to take responsibility. Don’t shift blame, pass blame or start with blame. Be ready to admit as the leader that you are ultimately responsible and it starts and ends with you. People want to follow a leader who will step up and take responsibility, even when it probably really isn’t their fault. People love a leader for that kind of a behavior.

5- Know where you are going and clearly communicate direction. People need a vision. They need to know where they are going. People would rather go the wrong way with a good leader, than to go the right way alone. This is why leadership is so important. It is up to the leader to not only provide the direction or vision, but to make sure the information is communicated clearly and timely. Followers like to be “in the know.” Most people if they are loyal can handle more sensitive information. Leaders must practice more sensitivity than secrecy.

 

 

Questions for teams to consider:

1 – Rate your organization 1-10 on how much you think people feel cared for. How can you demonstrate greater care for those in your organization? What will it take to get that number higher?

2- What is grace? What positive effect can it have on those in your organization? How do you hold high standards, yet give grace to others?

3- Rate your personal leadership on “positivity” and “energy” on a scale from 1-10? positivity:_____ energy: _____ : What will it take from you to get those scores higher? What prevents you?

4- How does blame make a team more ineffective and less productive?

5-What is the vision of your organization today? Compare your answer with others on your team. How clear is the vision and direction? Why is it clear or unclear?

 

 

(c) Alex Vann, 2018