It’s time to launch out!

This week I have had such great conversations with people who are  coming to the realisation that the  Lord has a purpose for each and everyone of us.  It’s been a privilege to listen to them speak and hear the excitement in their  voices having made the decision to launch out into the deep.

This week I share with you a video by Dr. John Stanko who’s been teaching on purpose for over 20 years so i consider him an expert 🙂

I hope you enjoy his presentation, but more than that I hope it motivates you to launch out  – take that step of faith – take action,

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

How Character-based Leaders Speak Truth to Power

This week was interesting as 3 Corporate Leaders resigned from President Trumps Council over Charlottesville. They have been heralded as ‘heroes’. However I see it differently. To me this raises the question of ‘speaking truth to power”.

What is Speaking Truth to Power?

Only this week I was asked “what do you mean when you say speaking truth to power?” Let me give my definition:

Speaking truth to power as taking a stand against something you know or believe to be wrong by telling those in authority that it is wrong and calling them to account.

The CEO’s who resigned did not ‘speak truth to power’. By resigning they may have disassociated themselves with President Trumps comments, but that is not the same as ‘calling him on them’ and telling him why they think he needed to say more. Whatever side of the political line you are on Trump is the President and all President’s need strong advisors around them, those who are themselves leaders, and will tell them the truth. It’s especially true in Government because a National leader has the ability to impact so many people’s lives.

So was it heroic to resign? One of the CEO’s stated:

“I resigned to call attention to the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues…,”

This may be interpreted by some as heroic, taking a stand. I have a different view. These CEO’s were in positions of influence. Purposed leaders use their influence for the greater good. Remaining as an advisor but telling President Trump frankly their views may have caused him to reflect. At the least they would have shown him their line in the sand, and, gained his respect for having the guts to take a stand to his face. After all, one of the things we know about this US President is that he appreciates displays of strength.

What can we learn from this?

Count the cost

Becoming a leader is exciting. The possibility of more pay, more interesting work etc. However, how many of us think about that responsibility from the perspective of character. Speaking Truth to Power is a practice of character-based leaders. Those who are willing to use their influence to speak up for what is right on behalf of those who have no voice. There is much personal risk n speaking truth to power. You risk losing your job, your credibility and even friends. If you are are aspiring to become a leader these are some of the things you should think about.

Feel the fear and do it anyway

Being a leader means you often have to stand apart from the crowd. Given the consequences it’s a frightening thing. However, the lack of pace when you don’t speak up can be worse. One of my first decisions to ‘stand up’ was working as a tutor for a Private University’s in the U.K. I had to mark student papers and was told if I continued to provide extensive feedback my marking quota would not be met. To meet the quota meant giving little or no commentary. I spoke to the Director . I wasn’t confident and it was more of a plea than drawing a line in the sand. But the Director eventually changed the daily quota slightly. It wasn’t a magnificent effort and I was scared that I might not complete probation but I did it anyway.

Know you values

Speaking truth to power requires conviction. Conviction comes from knowing your values. If we are truly living our values they guide our actions. They also guide how we interact with others. We need to be clear about our boundaries and what is/is not acceptable behaviour. So what are your values, can you articulate them clearly. Do you strive to put them into practice daily?

I would love to hear your stories about where you have spoken truth to power, or if you are still struggling with it, your thoughts on how to overcome that fear.

One final thought

Clover, a friend and reader left a comment below  that was so important I had to add it!

A fourth element of how character-based leaders speak truth to power is to:

Speak the truth in Love

The essence of ‘speaking truth to power’ is to admonish someone. The dictionary definition of this is to warn or some say correct.  But it’s more than that it’s to speak to universal principles, in a world where relativism is the order of the day, and hold another accountable  because you want the best for them and others in the situation. So

Our heart motivation for speaking truth to power, is not simply correction or warning but love.

So we must check our heart motivation in speaking truth to power. If  it’s to be religious (just to be right), or to humiliate the person then we cannot expect them to receive it well, let alone change.  Even when we speak the truth in love they may still not receive it, nor change but we will find peace.  Another reason that we must check our heart motivation is because if it is love then the fear of ‘speaking truth to power’ decreases because “Perfect Love casts out fear”.

The Most Important Leadership Requirement

Last week I wrote about 3 requirements for great leadership,  Passion, Purpose and Principle.  I had quite a few questions from readers.  The most  frequently asked question was, which of the 3 requirements for Leadership, is most important. This week I try and answer that question.

Passion

Everyone wants to join a cause they are passionate about.  Yet in a world where few hold to their convictions, where mediocrity is acceptable and conformity (‘think like us or you will be ostracized) abounds is what we call “passion”, really passion?  I describe passion as a ‘ burning desire of the heart’.  The heart being your inner man, your core.  The Passion I’m talking about is not dependent on external circumstances or tied to the latest craze or cause. Its a desire that makes you excited, that drives you and that if not fulfilled leaves you wanting.

Last week I spoke about my passion for Public speaking.  It’s what I love to do and I feel as if I could burst when I’m in my flow.  My husband is passionate about movies, loves to watch them, critique them and ultimately this led to him writing a short movie script that was produced by a youth organisation.  Both of us do these things even without pay as it’s a burning desire.

Another way to think of it is the Biblical Term “Zeal”.  Zeal can be positive or negative. David was Zealous about the Lord.  So much so that he didn’t mind looking a fool, despite his wife’s contempt at his undignified dancing in Praise of his God.!You see passion costs us something.  It’s not always easy and often requires a leap of faith.

Passion is an important leadership requirement as it’s the fuel that drives us.  It gives us energy and helps us to accelerate.  However, just like fuel for a vehicle, without a vehicle the fuel is useless.  Passion needs purpose to realise that desire and so become fulfilled.  Passion also needs Principle to ensure we use our passion in a ‘worthy manner’.

The question remains –  is Passion the more important of the 3 Leadership requirements? Given that Passion needs both Purpose and Principle I would say No.

Purpose

Purpose gives us meaning and direction.  As I mentioned in my blog The Secret to Success having purpose in life is essential to our well-being.  We were designed to fulfill purpose .

If Passion needs the vehicle of Purpose to be fulfilled; Purpose needs passion or else it becomes ‘obligation’.  Full of should’s and ought’s.  Finding our purpose must be more than an obligation, or, performance.  Purpose should be freeing, obligation and performance are stifling.  If Purpose is approached as obligation we are likely to labour in the wrong vineyard. If approached as performance we are likely to suffer burn out and may not ‘fulfill our hearts desires’.

Before I had a sense of, or should I say accepted my purpose as a leader.  I spent much time trying to fit into a purpose I had created from something that I value.  I have a huge justice streak.  Two of my personal values speak to this:

• Insight; for me this means seeking to understand people’s passions, gifts and experiences and valuing and respecting their differences and treating them with fairness even if I do not hold the same values.
• Trust; that is demonstrating integrity (honesty) and intent (right/honurable motives).

Because I held these core values I believed my purpose was to fight for justice for others being a Barrister/Lawyer. For a while this kept me ‘stuck’ in a job I knew was not for me and burn out occurred. I also wasn’t being effective in helping others.

When we get a revelation of God’s Purpose for our lives, this changes everything.

Purpose not only gives us direction in life – it allows us to dream big. Free of should’s and ought’s.

So is Purpose the most important Leadership requirement?  Again I would say No as Purpose needs Passion and Principle.

Principle

Principle without passion can become legalism.  When we seek to fulfill the Great Co-Mission but have not tapped into our passion we may be zealous but become like the Apostle Paul.  Paul persecuted Christians sincerely believing he was doing the work of the Church.

We may have a passion and know our purpose but principle will ensure we fulfill our desires and goal in the right way.  Moreover, principles are essential to wisdom.  Wisdom has been said to be about knowing which principles to apply in a the right context.  If Passion is to be fulfilled and Purpose is to be executed then wisdom is essential for both.

So is Principle the most important Leadership requirement. Again I’d say No. but it could be considered the foundation.  In-fact perhaps another way to think of the 3 requirements is like this:

Each of the requirements are equally important, what is central, the most important is the Source from which our passion, purpose and principle flow.

Perhaps one of the sides of the triangle is more in focus for you right now.  I’d love to hear your views and experiences.  Feel free to leave a comment or email me on: felicia@purposed4leadership.com

3 Requirements for Great Leadership

Passion, Purpose and Principle

For the past 2 weeks we’ve been talking about purpose.  Great leadership requires more than purpose.  In this post I explore the 3 components required for great leadership.

Great leaders show up with Passion, Purpose and Principle.

We may not know our specific purpose, our mission, but we may have a passion that is evident.  What is that burning desire that you have or thing you love to do and would willingly do even if  you were not paid?  When we tap into our God-given passion it is a great motivator and can be one of the clues to discovering our specific purpose.

As for our purpose, without a purpose to give our life meaning we will drift and not achieve those works that the Lord “pre-destined” for us to do before we were born.  As a Purposed Leader you have an innate sense of wanting to achieve a goal or purpose bigger than yourself to the benefit of others.   Lastly, a leader who is principled displays a character consistent with fundamental truths.

Passion

We often ignore our passion for fear that it doesn’t sound ‘worthy’ enough.

I have a passion for performing, in particular public speaking. As a child this was seen positively. It was not the case as an adult.  If I mentioned my passion it was as if I was saying “I’m self-absorbed, love to be in the limelight and I’m shallow”.  Yet, my passion for public speaking led me to choose a career as a Barrister, rather than initially  becoming a solicitor.  I also had a passion for justice but frankly my passion for public speaking was greater.  I love to communicate ideas and concepts to groups.  No surprise that I later became a facilitator.

A book that helped me to embrace my passion was Discovering Your God Given-Gifts.  The book includes a tool that assesses your motivational gifts consistent with Romans 12: 6-8 (NIV)

In their book the authors, Don and Katie Fortune look at the gifts in relation to the function in the body, using the analogy of the body.  My top 2 gifts are Teacher and Perceiver/Prophet – these are considered ‘speaking gifts’. That was so validating for me to learn that.

Our passions flow from our unique personality both are God’s gift to us and should be embraced

How we use our passion is what renders them worthy or unworthy.  Principle is what helps us use them in a worth manner.

Purpose

We have spoken about purpose in my last 2 posts.  We have a common purpose but discovering our  specific purpose, our mission is critical.  Having a sense of purpose is what keeps us focused – especially in the difficult times. More than just discovering our purpose we must put energy into executing it.

Principle

Today’s culture suggests that truth is relative; this was not always so.  I believe there are Universal Absolute Truths that do not change.  Jesus distilled these truths in his teachings into principles for us to live by.  There are many who say well you aren’t living by all the Bible. They will cite the Old Testament laws many of which we no-longer follow to the letter.  The challenge here is such critics lack a proper understanding of scripture and especially the context of the Old Testament laws and the concept of substance over form.  Thankfully, Jesus distilled the Old Testament laws into principles in the New Testament.  Such principles include:

• Caring for all people – treat your neighbour the way you want to be treated (Luke 6:31, Philip 2:3)
• Exercising personal discipline – being pro-active ( Proverbs 13:4, Heb 12:11)
• Focusing on what’s important and persevering (Phip 3:12-14, Col 1:11-12)

No matter the critics it is even more important in today’s ‘dog eat dog culture’ that we are ‘living testimonies’.  That our lives demonstrate the good news of the Kingdom and what Kingdom principles look like.  Having a purpose helps us do this.

I invite you this week to re-discover your passion and to evaluate what principles you are living by.

People of Purpose or ‘Just enough’?

 

Last week I wrote about our common Purpose “the Great Co-mission” and how each of us are to execute that purpose, in a unique way – our mission.  This week I want to talk about why, if we are people of purpose, do we settle for for  a life of  ‘just enough’.

Are you excited about your work?

We live in a time where the popularity of resources on purpose and passion is widespread.  Yet in my work  I see more people than ever who seem lost.   I know what that’s like.  There was a point in my life when the Career I had struggled so hard to achieve as a Barrister was no-longer making me excited to get out of bed in the morning.  It was a sharp contrast to my start. I remember my first hearing in the Crown Court. Hurrying into Court I was barely noticed as doors were swinging back in my face.  I got changed into my wig and gown (that’s the outfit Rumpole of the Bailey wore…a U.K. fictional Barrister).

I stepped out of the robing room and as I got to the door it was like the parting of the Red Sea.  When I came in I was invisible, now doors were being opening by themselves. People were literally parting to let me pass. I am 5ft 2 and I experienced what it must be like to have physical presence.  Presenting in Court was equally thrilling.  I felt like I’d arrived.  Finally, I  was going to achieve justice for vulnerable people. However, 18 months later I saw things differently.  Perhaps the profession was not about justice after-all.  It was a 4 year struggle for me to become a Barrister .  Here I was ‘all grown up’ and I didn’t know what I wanted to be.  All  I  knew was the Bar wasn’t it and to stay would be settling for ‘just enough’.

God is not a God of ‘just enough’

All to often we settle for just enough.  Perhaps we end up doing so because we studied the subject at college, have a family history, or feel compelled to enter the family business.  We can easily let the expectations of others be the driving force for our choices, rather than God’s destiny. If we continue in situations where we feel we are without purpose this is not energising.   It likely results in mediocrity and then we do ‘just enough’.  Nothing about our Lord is ‘just enough’:

• “He came to give us life and life more abundantly” (John 10:10)
• “No height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8: 39)
• “The earth and its fullness thereof belongs to God” (Psalm 24:1)

God is a God of Purpose and NOT a God of ‘just enough’.  So why do we settle?  It may be financial reasons, habit, or fear.  It’s a tough pill to swallow, but none of these reasons are good reasons. I know I’ve used some of them too.

Conversely,  you may be in a job or situation you love – that’s great. Are you ‘showing up’ as a person of purpose? Are you frightened to step up to the leadership calling God has for you in the sphere of influence in which he’s placed you.  Either way, there is no good reason for settling.  Remember the story of the talents.  The servant who buried the talent in the ground and gave it back to the Master ‘as is’ when he returned. No multiplication – no transformation.  I encourage you not to bury the talents God has given you in the ground.  He gave them to you to execute your purpose.

Take a time out

If this sounds like you, whatever the reason you have settled for just enough press pause. I encourage you to ask God and to trust Him. As we take that leap of faith we discover a life we never thought possible on the other side. A life of energy and meaning not ‘just enough’. After-all, what do we have to lose we serve a God who knows the beginning from the end.  Nothing will catch him off guard, He’s got us.

The bigger fear is that if we don’t step out how, will this broken creation hear of and experience Jesus.

Take time this weekend to ask yourself:

• Do I have a sense of purpose and how am I executing on that? If I don’t what am I doing about it?
• Is my job or career fulfilling? Am I executing my purpose in my work?
• How am I ‘showing up’ in the sphere of influence God has placed me in?

The Secret to Success

Purpose – the Secret to great sleep!

Ever read about the habits of successful leaders?  One of the habits is making health a priority – nutrition, exercise and sleep

I’ve been struggling with my sleep for ages. I have a tracker and one of the things it tracks is my REM and Deep Sleep combined. I’ve been aiming for the recommended Deep Sleep 20% and REM sleep 25% so combined total of 45%.
I tried lots of different things to improve the quality of my sleep, including taking Melatonin, which had short-term impact. But in the last 2 weeks I have noticed a significant shift in my sleep pattern averaging combined REM and Deep Sleep of 43.6% up from an average of 32.1%.

So, what happened?
Well I made a decision to put ‘action to my faith’.  I developed a schedule to enable me to:

stop pondering life purpose and put energy to executing it!

That happened 2 weeks ago and then I woke up this morning to this Inc article:  which notes that researchers at Northwestern University found that “having a purpose in life specifically results in fewer sleep disturbances and improved sleep quality and over a long period of time”.

What if I don’t know my Purpose?

If I don’t know your purpose you need to find it – but how?

Often we make the search for meaning in our lives complicated. When I work with corporations to execute strategy- things are easier with those who have a clear strategy – clarity comes from alignment to their Mission (the reason they exist), their Vision (the impact they dream of making), and their core values. Without too much explanation I can tell you that a Corporation’s Mission IS NOT to make money…although too many think it is. If you want to understand a little more on this, my Blog ‘The Power of Why’

So where do we start?   Start with what you know!   If you have a faith you know you were “created”.  The book, ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ – Rick Warren  sets out 5 purposes, including being planned for God’s pleasure. I like to think of these multiple purposes as being part of the ‘fullness of our purpose’.

So we know we are planned for God’s pleasure.  We also know we were pre-destined  and that God’s thoughts towards us are “good and not of evil to give us a future and a hope We were no accident, we were planned for by God and He has a purpose for us:

It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone –Ephes 11-12 (Msg)

So what is the overall purpose God is working out? Well we may not know the full extent of this but what we do know is – He intends to reconcile everything to Himself through Christ. Regarding mankind this is to be achieved through the Great Commission “Go make disciples of all nations…”   I love the word “commission” I think of it as two words Co and Mission, that is co-labouring with Christ to execute the Mission . This is a great starting point as it shows we all have, like a Corporation, One Mission.

Executing our Mission

When I think about the ‘fullness of our purpose’ a key part of that is answering the question – how will I execute the Mission?  Just as in a Corporation every individual has a unique part to play in executing the mission so to with us.

Dr. John Stanko is an expert on ‘Purpose’ and helped me on my Purpose journey, which started back in 2000.  His book ‘Life’s a Gold-mine- can you dig it’ really does have nuggets of Gold. Key principles I learned from Dr. Stanko was that finding the unique part of your purpose,  is a journey of discovery.  We must keep asking and seeking the Lord and know he will answer and we will find it. I also learned to be aware of where I ‘sensed God’s pleasure’, that is those things that you do naturally, easily and know it can make a difference.

As you come with me on this journey as one who is Purposed4Leadership take some time to think about your unique Passions, Experiences and Gifts and ask the Lord how you can execute the great Co-Mission.

Have a Great weekend