Burgers, Shopping, Parades, and Freedom

It's Memorial Day Weekend as I write this.

So what do you do on Memorial Day?

If you're like many of us, your office is closed. That opens the door to a host of things you can choose from. There's shopping. The national chains will have some kind of sale to entice you to part with your hard earned money. You could get together with your friends and grill some burgers. If you splurge, cook some steaks. If you're a vegan, grilled squash, zucchini, and peppers can be quite tasty.

Or maybe you could just sit home and watch a TV show marathon. If you feel guilty enough, you could clean out the storage shed you haven't been inside for five years.

Perhaps you feel a bit patriotic. There's probably a parade or a fireworks show nearby that you could attend.

You're free to make any choice you want.

The question is what does it cost for you to have freedom of choice?

It's easy to think that freedom is an entitlement. It is after all, God's design for humanity. Jesus died so His people could have it. Because there are some in the world that don't want others to be free, some of us who do will have to risk our lives to protect our freedom. What is at stake? Injury, trauma, and death.

Freedom involves risk. You could be right or you could be wrong. You might be successful or you might fail. Freedom holds no guarantees. Neither does life apart from death. So you have a responsibility. Will you embrace the freedom that was purchased with the blood of brave, committed soldiers, or will you just sit by and sell your soul to something that promises security but robs you of freedom?

I think the soldiers would rather you be free.

But with freedom, you can make the choice you want.

Enjoy your burgers. And when you say grace, ask God to bless our armed forces.

The Power of Applause

I enjoy public speaking. Over the years I've gotten pretty good at it. To do that I've had to give a lot of talks. When I was a young man public speaking was a major obstacle for me to overcome. When my audience applauded, I felt a rush of power.

But in a few minutes the moment passed and I came back down to earth.

In Toastmasters, we regularly applaud when members speak. The purpose of the applause is immediate encouragement. It also provides fuel for more ambitious efforts.

You might think that is artificial. In the real world, it probably is. Consider this. Most people are more afraid of giving a speech than they are of dying. I'd say that applause is well earned, wouldn't you?

There are a few things to remember about applause.

First, it's great to get approval for a great presentation. It's natural to cheer when you hear your favorite band do a great show. Some of the most quiet people you know will turn into raving lunatics when their favorite football team is on TV. When you see someone doing something great, let them know it!

Second, applause is like a vapor. If you've watched someone smoke a long cigar, take a puff then blow the smoke out, what happens after a minute? The smoke is gone. Applause feels great while it lasts, but if you want more, you've got to earn it.

The third thing to remember about applause is that it should not be your ultimate goal to get it. Concentrate on doing a good job in whatever you do. Do your best and be assured, someone will notice. But if you do it for the acclaim, eventually you'll run out of steam when you don't get it all the time.

One more thing to think about is that you're probably not as good as you feel when the crowd is roaring. Have you ever watched the show One Hit Wonders? If you do something really great and especially hard to top, what do you do next? Many of these artists keep on creating art. You can't predict what will be a hit and what won't. Just be the best at what you are and you'll have your impact where it's needed most.

Let 'em In

You've heard the term “open door policy”. If you've wondered what that really means, read on.

Here's what it means in some organizations.

The person behind the door is a counselor. He'll hear your problem. He'll nod a few times while you spill your guts. Then he'll tell you to stop whining and get back to work.

Another open door means you can come in and gossip. Off the record, of course.

You can see the folly of these methods when used as a general rule.

Let's examine them, then look at a better way.

The first way can be appropriate in some situations. But if it's used constantly, the one who uses it is a tyrant, not a leader.

The gossip room is where relational knives get sharpened. It makes great drama on a soap opera, but in real life, it's more poisonous than the bite of a King Cobra.

Here's a better way.

The open door leader practices honesty. He doesn't hide anything; he's the same way in his office that he is on the workroom floor.

Here are three things an open door leader practices: leading, being a role model, and coaching.

By leading, you point others down the best path for them and the team. Each person is unique so be sure they are where they can be the most effective. Granted, this isn't a perfect world, but do the best you can with what you have. Think outside the traditional way and you can improve productivity and employee morale.

Leaders model good work habits. They get their hands dirty when the need arises. They follow the same standards they expect of others. They listen to concerns and work to find a suitable solution. They know the best ideas can come from anywhere. If they have a problem with someone, they approach him or her to solve it. If they share news with the team, it's something great one of them has done.

One of my favorite coaches is John Wooden. He didn't just develop good players; he invested in individuals. He taught them great values they could apply to their game and their personal lives. Coach Wooden would find each player's strength, then structure his environment so that he would succeed regularly.

People Developers succeed with open doors. Let your team in and inspire each person to discover his own greatness.

Fill the Tank

As leaders move up the ranks, they tend to disconnect from their followers.

When you have a lot of responsibility, it's easy to get lost in your tasks and forget that there are human beings working with you. Unless you're a one man office, you can't function without the help of others. And even if you're a one man office, you need people to make any money and stay in business.

It's important for leaders to be productive. It's essential to drive performance in such a way that activity leads to accomplishment. If you don't, you're wasting time and precious resources.

The question a leader must ask is “Are my people with me on this mission?”

In other words, have they bought the idea for themselves?

Leaders have to be great salespeople.

You might be saying, “Oh, great, that is one more thing I need to put on my plate.” Well, whether you know it or not, great leaders are adept at motivating their people. When you do that, then the results you get can exceed what you might expect.

So how do you put a fire in someone's belly?

There are several kinds of motivation.

First, there is fear motivation. This is when you threaten your team with “you'll do this or else.” This puts people on edge and can work for a while. Otherwise, it makes them tense and causes errors.

Next is carrot and stick motivation. It's when you dangle a carrot in front of a donkey, let him stretch to get a bite, then move it back so he'll have to work harder to get it. It's great as long as the donkey is hungry.

The third is seen in the fireplace. You have a fire going. But over time, it loses its power and starts to die down. If you want to keep it going, all you have to do is take out your poker and stir it up. You might add some more wood to keep it roaring. This works as long as there's a spark.

It's best if you can practice number three as much as possible.

Everyone wants to do good work. Just as all cars don't use the same fuel, your team members are unique.

If you can touch the spark in each person and stir that fire, you'll be a great leader.

Do It Anyway

This week has been nothing like I planned for.

I spent a lot of time working so far. No day has passed under the ten hour mark at work. Add to this the fact that I drive an hour each way. Then add the fact that I now must wake up a half hour earlier than I used to every day, the average time being 3 am.

You should really be glad I'm even doing this today.

But you surely did not come to hear me whine about how hard my life is. Your life is hard too. I'm sure you've all had busy weeks. But when I'm done you'll be glad that you listened.

Have you ever had a project to do, a speech to give, or an appointment to keep and you just didn't feel up to it for whatever reason? Say you forgot. Or there was preparation required and you didn't invest even a minute getting ready. It could be a meeting you've dreaded anyway and you'd rather have an enema than go.

Life can be hard sometimes.

Let me tell you something. You'll never be fully ready for anything. There's always more you could have done. This is especially clear after you're done. If you're a perfectionist, this fact drives you nuts. It's the main reason you never start anything of significance because you'll never do it perfect.

There will never be a day when all the lights will be green as you go to your destination. If you go through more than two, chances are the third will at least be yellow. There will probably be a stop sign along the way. You might hit a squirrel with your car. A bird might come and drop some pasty poop on your windshield. It could rain the day you leave your umbrella in the closet.

So you may as well not go anywhere, right?

If you're giving a speech and you're not fully prepared, go ahead and give it anyway. You'll have to be more creative. You'll have to tell more stories to fill the holes. But who knows? It might turn out to be the best speech you ever gave. Surely it will be the most natural.

Here's another observation about preparation. If you have to speak off the cuff, talk about something you've thought about for years. There is something under the sun you're interested in that others will find interesting as you talk with passion about it. Suppose you're into refinishing furniture. You could share some of your techniques for making an old piece come back to life. And since you know so much about it, you can tell the audience in terms that they can understand.

The second reason you should go ahead and give a speech that isn't perfect is because you're not perfect. Nobody is. We all goof up from time to time. But if we keep on going, chances are, no one will be the wiser. This can happen even if you've memorized your speech down to the last word. You may have planned every gesture, every eye movement, every pause. But for some unknown reason, you can suffer from an air bubble in your brain and lose your place.

That's another reason to just go natural and be yourself. In other words, decide what you want to say, but don't memorize it word for word.

We can see that even great products that hit the market aren't perfect either. I bought an iPad 2 a few months ago. I thought it was the coolest thing out there. And at the time it was the latest and newest.

It was, that is, until a few weeks later, when Apple came out with an even more dazzling iPad.

If you live on the cutting-edge of technology, you may have gone out and bought an iPad 3. Since mine is mainly just a way for me to carry around hundreds of books without the weight of the physical copies, I'm perfectly happy to keep using my “old” model.

No doubt when the iPad 2 came out, Apple had already planned the iPad 3. Every year cars get updated. Nothing is as good as it could be. But that is no reason not to do something. It's like Seth Godin says. All artists ship. That means they produce something. Something imperfect, flawed, but original and beautiful. Each work is like a step on a ladder. You have to take the steps to get to the top of the ladder. If you want to make a better speech, make some average ones first.

The third reason you should go ahead and do it anyway is if you show up you'll have integrity. Integrity is the mark of a great leader. People like people they can count on. When you call the repairman, you want him to show up, don't you? When you plan to meet a friend for lunch, you'll be upset if she doesn't show up. When you send money by Western Union, you'd lose faith in them if they just put it in their pockets.

Integrity is essential to greatness in any endeavor.

If you want to grow and get better, go ahead and do it anyway when you feel least prepared. Go ahead and do it anyway even if it isn't as good as it could be. Go ahead and show up when you say you will even if you don't feel like it. You'll build courage. You'll earn trust. You'll be respected.

And yes, you'll get better. So go ahead and do it anyway. You'll be glad you did.

Leading Others to Live Well

Good leaders equip their people to be great at their jobs. Great leaders go beyond the workplace and mentor individuals so they can live well.

That sounds great, doesn't it? It shows that as a leader you really care if you go to the trouble to do this. But how do you pull it off?

First, you have to have their permission to do it. This means you will have invested in getting to know them, their strengths, and where they desire to excel.

Second, you have to be willing to be critical, but not like you might think.

When a people developer looks for weaknesses, he isn't just doing to be petty. He's not just doing it to fix problems, although he does want them fixed. He's more observant than that; he digs deeper. He looks for blind spots in that person's thinking. He finds out who that person is following who might lead him astray. If there are problems at home, he knows that these can adversely affect his performance at work and takes the risk to step in and help.

This kind of examination is risky. It can breed resentment and charges of prying from anyone who is made to feel they are in the cross-hairs of your personal gun scope. You have to be careful. You absolutely must have earned a person's trust to do this at all. Once you approach them with what you've found, there's no turning back. The ground must be prepared before you have any hope of succeeding at helping someone this way.

But if you do succeed, it can be the most rewarding experience you'll ever experience.

Thirdly, there are some practical ways you can encourage someone to excel at what he's good at. You can introduce him to books that will sharpen his sword. You can send him to a seminar that will give him new information that will hone his edge. You can give him projects that will allow his light to shine and make your organization extraordinary.

Once you done all these things, you have to be willing to follow up. This will make you a mentor. Take this role seriously. You'll be a personal coach, a sounding board, and a cheerleader to that person for as long as you're interested in his success.

It's a great way to invest in someone's greatness.  

Behind Nature

Have you ever strolled through the woods on a clear, sunny day in spring, seen the splendor of the blooms, heard the chorus of birds and thought to yourself that all this glory could not have happened by chance?

It's proof that there is an intelligent Designer.

You might well agree that nature itself reveals the existence of God. Romans 1 testifies to this. In fact, we're wired to know that God exists (Romans 2:15) since His law is written on our hearts. Where did you think guilt comes from? When we do wrong, that inner law brings guilt. What we do when that happens reveals our true allegiance.

While nature reveals the existence of God, it doesn't tell us what to do with Him.

From verse 18 of Romans 1 to the end of the chapter, we see that when we choose to sin, we bury the truth inside. The difference in knowing there is a God and having a relationship with Him is infinite. We sin because of blindness when we don't know God. If we do know Him, we sin because we forget we know Him. The core reason we sin is that in that moment, we believe we know best.

There's a laundry list of trouble we get into when God leaves us to ourselves. We know unbelievers sin by choice. But can Christians? Oh, yes. Christians are in process. Paul speaks to that struggle later in Romans. The difference for the follower of God is that while his sins may get him into trouble, God will not let him stay in that state forever.

Homosexuality is given a paragraph in Romans 1. You may struggle with that or you may not. The next paragraph has enough bad behaviors listed that the rest of us are without hope short of Jesus. Have you ever been jealous of someone? Have you ever embellished the truth to protect yourself? Have you ever been so mad at someone you wished they were as good as dead? If you've drawn a breath of air, you've done at least one of these. Chances are, you've encouraged others to do the same by your words or deeds.

In other words, you are guilty.

Knowing God then is the only way to escape what you deserve. Have you met Him? If you know Him, have you talked with Him lately? Go ahead. It'll do you a lifetime of good.