Stephen R. Graves's Blog, page 7

5 Tests of a Leader

Some storms brew on the horizon. We can see them coming and we have time to maneuver. Other storms just drop out of the sky suddenly like a raging tornado, wreaking havoc on anything in its path. The storms of the heart are no different.

But make no mistake about it. So much of leadership rises and falls on our ability to pass these repeated tests of the soul. I wish they were just once in a lifetime, but they are daily and they last until our frail ending of life.

You might recall me making the case that all great leaders “manage me and manage others” in simultaneous concert. Great leaders direct energy toward their own development and growth, not just driving outcomes in others.

Here are a few common, but dangerous, storms that can wreak havoc in the heart of a leader. Every time we pass the test, our moral authority goes up. Every time we fail, our composite leader score is weakened.

Greed –The temptation to have and hold more and more stuff that I don’t really need.

Louisa May Alcott captured the dangers of greed well, writing, “It does seem that the more one gets the more one wants.”

If we have money, we want more of it. If we have authority at work, we want more of it. If we’ve been to 10 countries, we want to visit 20.

To weather this storm, we must open our hands and move to a posture of giving. We must remember that we are only stewards of our possessions, and we must release what we own and want and have. Instead of clutching more tightly to the stuff that is or could be ours, we must choose to do the opposite. In one word … we need to Give.  

Where can you give this week? What can you give away?

Lust –The temptation to wander with emotional and physical activity outside of my covenant with God and/or my spouse.

The young man Joseph, in the book of Genesis, was 30 and unmarried. He had a remarkable riches-to-rags-to-riches story and a lot of authority as chief of staff for a major figure in ancient Egypt. The only thing he didn’t have was a woman, and then his boss’s wife came calling. Joseph didn’t hesitate for an instant. He ran.

When fighting the squall of lust we must imitate Joseph’s decisiveness and hit the road. We will NEVER be successful coddling lust in our lap. Proverbs says it will burn us every time (Proverbs 6:27). Instead of thinking we can defeat lust or manage our level of involvement, we must choose to do the opposite. Avoid lingering in conversations or browsing the Internet. Invite trusted friends to ask tough questions in this area. In one word … we need to Flee.

Where do you need to flee today?

Revenge –The temptation to settle the score or balance the injustice done to me.

Are you very good at forgiving and moving on? I am usually pretty good unless it has to do with something that has happened to me or those I care for. Get the irony?

You’ve no doubt heard of Malala Yousafzai, the young woman who was shot in the head by the Taliban for her efforts to promote the rights of young girls to attend school. Following her miraculous recovery, she became a global icon for women’s rights and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. While she seems to inspire everywhere she goes, I was particularly struck by a quote from her regarding forgiveness. Speaking about the very people that tried to kill her, she said, “I do not want revenge on the Taliban, I want education for sons and daughters of the Taliban.” Not only did she not seek retribution, she hoped for good.

Revenge is the tornado that starts spinning in us when an injustice has been done to us and we can’t move on. We must learn to not retaliate, to not strike back. We must allow God the right of way to settle wrongs done to us. Instead of lashing out or scheming to get even, we must choose to do the opposite. In one word … we need to Forgive.

Who do you need to forgive this week?    

Independence –The temptation to fly solo. The feeling that no one can really identify with my world and that I am all by myself to sort out and navigate life.

In the early years of the Christian church, hundreds of devout believers flocked to the desert. In an attempt to lead a holy life, far from the temptations of the Roman world, they consciously separated themselves from that world. While this often led to sincere devotion and even spiritual insight, it also necessarily excluded community. Speaking to the latter concern, one of the early fathers of the Church, Basil of Caesarea, wrote, “When we live our lives in isolation, what we have is unavailable and what we lack is unprocurable.”

Put simply, we need community. We need it for our own good, and for the good of others.

We must fight unhealthy independence. There is a healthy independence and an unhealthy independence. Unhealthy independence thinks no one can possibly equal our pain, that I alone am the answer to all my dilemmas and if it is going to be … it’s up to me (always). In other words, I am alone with no equal, peer, or community.

To fight this hurricane we must risk leaning in toward others with transparency and vulnerability. Instead of pulling away, we must find a handful of individuals with whom we can be authentic and with whom we can reveal our hearts and minds. In one word … we need to Engage.  

Are you suffering from unhealthy independence?

Pride –The temptation to think that I am the sole source of success, significance, and security. It is the mindset that the world revolves around me.

Jerry Bridges, in his book Respectable Sins, says that it is “our pride of an independent spirit that makes us unteachable and unsubmissive.” Ouch. He hit storms #4 and #5 in less than one sentence.

To battle this storm, we must acknowledge that we are not the sole cause of our success, and we must learn to lift others up as a key part of our success. In short, we must give credit where credit is due. Instead of sliding into self-focus and arranging all of life around ourselves, we must choose the opposite. In one word … we need to share.

Where do you need to share credit?

I call these five items “storms” or “tests.”  Tim Keller calls them “Counterfeit Gods” and in his book of the same name, he adds the subtitle: “When the Empty Promises of Love, Money and Power Let You Down.”

And these counterfeit gods will let you down. I’ve seen it in my own life and in the lives of friends, acquaintances, clients, and business associates. Over and over again, someone thinks he can handle the storm, but instead he gets pummeled.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

The five tests mentioned above all require the same winning strategy. Notice that success with any of these storms requires an atypical, anti-gravitational response.

When a whitewater rafter is caught in a suck hole on the backside of a rock, he must act counterintuitively. To survive he must remove his life vest and allow the rushing foaming water to thrust him to the river bottom. He must go against his natural inclinations. Only then can he get a firm footing to shoot through the death loop all the way to the surface. Any other move will render the swimmer dead.

Likewise, when you face a storm of the heart, you must do the opposite of what will almost certainly feel natural. When tempted with greed, we must give. When tempted with pride, we must share. And so on. Until our frail ending of life.

Feeling Confident AND Being Humble

Do the lyrics of the following song make you think of anyone in particular? “Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble/ When you’re perfect in every way./ I can’t wait to look in the mirror/ ’Cause I get better-looking each day.” 

Mac Davis wrote the original version of “It’s Hard to Be Humble” early one morning when he found himself all alone. As the headlining act for a popular nightclub, he got to sleep in one of the nicest suites in a top-flight hotel. He had written hit records for Elvis, hosted his own television show, topped the charts as a country singer, and earned top billing as a live performer. But there he was, alone in his fancy hotel suite with nothing to keep him company but his guitar and his sense of humor.  

Humility is no joke for those in your organization, though. If you go long enough without humility, life finds a way to deliver a big batch of it right to your doorstep. But if you wallow in it, you’ll never leave your front yard. So, one of the greatest challenges that leaders face is striking that balance between humility and confidence. 

Confidence

Let’s first talk confidence. A leader without it simply cannot be effective. When the leader lacks confidence, the followers become uncertain. Colin Powell once said, “The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or have concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.”

Action, after all, flows from self-assurance. There is nothing wrong with knowing what you are good at and unapologetically moving forward to make it happen. That is what leaders do, and it’s necessary to get things done. Without confidence, there’s too much second-guessing to keep things moving forward. Marshall Goldsmith says that self-confidence is, among other things, shown when a leader can “make peace with ambiguity.” 

And if you’ve ever led, you know that most decisions have a pretty high level of ambiguity.

What about you? How “confidently” would you agree with these statements?

I know my strengths and believe in my leadership abilities.I do not shy away from resolving conflict within my team.I rarely get intimidated by powerful people, complex situations, opposing opinions, criticism, etc.I am well suited for my job.When the game is on the line, I want the ball.

Being confident means accepting who you are and doing what you know needs to be done. It doesn’t mean omnicompetence, but it does mean having the boldness to move forward when you are strong enough to do so.

Humility

But if you’re feeling really good about yourself at this point, slow your roll. An overdose of self-confidence always ends up smelling rotten. You might not smell it, but others will. And they eventually react to it in some unpleasant ways. 

Malcolm Gladwell says that “overconfidence is more dangerous than incompetence.” When a leader’s ideas are taken as “can’t miss,” employees pick up on the fact that their voices don’t matter and the consequences for the organization can be catastrophic. When a leader sits across the table and has to listen to other people and argue for his ideas, better ideas emerge (and it’s very difficult to be overconfident).

Let me be clear: Humility doesn’t mean dismissing your strengths. It simply means that you realize you aren’t the sum total of the formula for success. Any true formula for success includes other people, favorable circumstances, and, usually, a pinch of luck. Humility is the genuine adoption of that mindset. 

Humility doesn’t mean self-flagellation. It means recognizing what you aren’t, accepting who others are, and showing a willingness to enlist their help. It means admitting your shortcomings and asking for the help of others whose strengths complement your weaknesses. 

With that in mind, humbly evaluate yourself along the lines of these statements:

I welcome and respond positively to new ideas from my team. I am hungry for and accept feedback. I show integrity and honesty in business and personal dealings. I often realize how much I don’t know and haven’t experienced.My success has as much to do with circumstances out of my control as it does with those I have orchestrated and achieved.

As C.S. Lewis said, “Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself. It’s thinking of yourself less.” But that’s the part confident leaders often struggle with.

Combining the Two

The Apostle Paul was a hard-driving leader who did not slow down to pander to anyone, yet he had the broader wisdom to admit the importance “[not to] think of [himself] more highly than [he] ought, but rather think of [himself] with sober judgment.” 

Sober judgment. That kind of balanced self-assessment is what it means to be confident and humble at the same time. In fact, you could make a case that true humility embodies honest confidence. To be truly humble is to understand the truth about yourself, the truth about others, and the truth about your situation. To accomplish this assumes that you approach each of these with a certain level of confidence.  

As you become a whole, effective leader, there is perhaps no greater combination that will affect those you seek to lead. An overconfident jerk of a leader will not engender trust in followers. But a leader who operates from a position of honest humility—in both work life and private life—is a leader that others want to follow. 

I love what Peter Drucker said about this: “No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it.  It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings.” The humble, confident leader is an effective leader.

In conclusion, realize the best leaders chase both qualities—feeling confident and being humble—in parallel. It is the beauty and genius of the both/and, instead of the either/or. As theologian Tryon Edwards said, “Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both.”

Over the decades, I have compiled a list of complementing capabilities required to lead in the modern world. Remember, you need a bit of both to be effective in leadership over the long term.

Being results-driven AND people-focusedDoing Friday’s payroll AND inventing the futureHaving heart AND using your headThinking corporately AND working functionallyLeading others AND managing yourselfFeeling confident AND being humbleEmbracing team AND performing alone

I will be releasing short articles on a few of these over the next months. Keep an eye out for them.

Making the Ethical Choice in a Gray World

Some people see everything in black and white, right and wrong, good and evil. Others see an ocean of gray with nothing really ever firmly planted on one side or the other. I actually believe the better idea is something in the middle of both polar positions.

To be honest, life might be easier if Scripture contained a clear answer for every possible ethical dilemma. But that’s simply not the case. In fact, the Bible doesn’t even give a definitive answer to every ethical question that is discussed within its pages. So, how is the conscientious follower of Christ supposed to make the right choices when traveling through those tricky gray areas of life?

Or what’s George Bailey to do in this moment of It’s a Wonderful Life?

First of all, everyone is held to the same standard of ethics when it comes to Biblical commands. For example, “Thou shalt not steal” doesn’t apply just to the cashier at the local convenience store. It applies to everyone—rich or poor, young or old. Beyond the obvious Biblical mandates, however, there lies a world of preference, option, and opinion in which what is right for one person may not be OK for another.

What is needed, then, is a filter to help make ethical choices regarding issues that are not directly addressed by a specific Scripture.  We can’t simply look to the law either because sometimes the law says what is allowed but not what you should always do. As former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said, “Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.”

So what filter should we use? You could use an ethical decision tree, like the one shown here.

I always enjoy the challenge of a good HBR article. But I also appreciate the truth embedded in the Scriptures when applied to any situation. My personal filter for navigating the daily ethical landscape comes from two New Testament passages: Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 10:23-33, both of which deal specifically with whether a believer should eat meat offered to idols. Although that’s not a pressing concern in today’s marketplace, the principles that guided the Apostle Paul’s discussion on the issue also can be applied to gray areas of today.

These questions—drawn directly from these two passages—can be used as an acid test to help determine the correct response to an ethical dilemma. If the answer to any of these questions is no, then we shouldn’t do it.

Is it permissible? (If there is a clear Biblical command against it, then it is not permissible.)Will it lead to peace and mutual improvement?Is it beneficial, profitable or constructive?Does it have the good of others at heart?Will it cause another believer to stumble?Does it bring honor to God’s name and reputation?

A “no” to any of these questions should mean a “no” to the decision, and in that way, these questions serve as an anchoring of sorts.

The trick, though, is not just doing this once but over and over again building up our ethical muscle memory. Ethical behavior is not a last-minute decision. As Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do.” Making ethical choices on small matters makes it easier to identify the right choice (and to make the right choice) on the bigger matters. And usually, our ethical edge is dulled and blunted with the daily small choices not the battering ram of a single huge decision.

This principle is experienced every day when I face stealing money from my employer through false expense reports, flirting with a co-worker, paying sub-par wages or shading the truth to get a deal done. In other words, if personal convictions aren’t established before we get to an ethical intersection, it’s naïve if not downright absurd to think we’re going to make the ethical choice.

Instead, get in good habits, particularly in surrounding yourself with the right friends whose support makes it much easier to stay true to convictions. As Donald Miller writes, you become like your friends, so choose friends who will strengthen your ethical resolve. The biggest test of a person’s convictions often comes when he is detached from a comfortable Christ-centered subculture, but the knowledge that Christ-centered people are still out there often tethers us to the ethical north pole.

Our ethical edge must stay sharp. Our heart for the true, the good and the beautiful must stay stoked. Ethical intersections come at us each day. The consequence is not just doing the right thing at the right time, but it is, in a way, sharing a gospel picture of our Creator to the curious world.

British New Testament scholar N.T. Wright said it this way, “Christian ethics is not a matter of discovering what’s going on in the world and getting in tune with it. It isn’t a matter of doing things to earn God’s favor. It is not about trying to obey dusty rulebooks from long ago or far away. It is about practicing, in the present, the tunes we shall sing in God’s new world.”

Delivering Friday’s Payroll AND Inventing the Future

There are two key parallel undertakings to every organization’s viability: Creating future opportunity and delivering on yesterday’s promises. One focuses forward; the other keeps a watch backwards. One is about the windshield; the other is about the rearview mirror. 

Most people’s tendency is to be either a visionary or a deliverer. You probably know which one you are. But successful leaders must develop competence in both inventing the future of tomorrow and delivering on the Friday’s payroll of yesterday within their companies for them to stay viable. 

Tomorrow (Inventing the Future)

Tomorrow is a blank piece of paper. Do nothing and that’s what it remains: blank. It has to be written. You have to create your opportunities. You have to constantly reinvent the future, for yourself and for your organization. 

William Pollard, the long-time CEO of ServiceMaster said, “The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow.” Evolve or die. It’s that simple. 

Once upon a time, the products and services that came from innovative ideas became ingrained in societies for centuries with only modest modifications made over time. There weren’t many ways to improve a plow until you could hook it to a tractor instead of animals. In today’s business arena, however, success is like bread. It has a short shelf life, so you’d better be making the next new batch, now. And next year’s version better be “new and improved”… or maybe even totally remade.  

Innovation applies to products and services, but also to business models, leadership styles, and strategy. Gone also are the days that you know who your competition is and what their next likely move is going to be. You must be forging new moves on key insights of innovation and creativity. You need a strategy that is agile and adaptable.  

Many naturally gifted leaders are strong on consistent administration and operational maintenance, but you can probably bet your pet pooch that their vision of the future is cloudy. These leaders may say, “My job is about completing tasks and fulfilling our promises to everyone.”

What about you? Does thinking forward energize you? Do you have a vision for what you want your group to be in 2030? Do your ideas for improvement generate enthusiasm?

No matter your answers to these questions, though, inventing the future can be a learned skill. First, create the time to innovate. 3M is famous for innovation. This was not by accident. Many years ago, they created a 15 percent rule, which gives employees 15 percent of their work time to brainstorm about new ideas (where do you think the Post-It Note came from?). Google allows its employees time for innovation, a practice that gave birth to Gmail and Google Earth. 

Set some time in your schedule for innovation. Book a training event or conference for the sole purpose of sharpening your mind in your job. Get time with naturally gifted innovators. Read tips on how to innovate. Identify obstacles and spend time with a whiteboard dreaming of ways to use them to your advantage.

You cannot afford not to know how to invent your future. You know that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and somehow expecting a different outcome or result. That’s why it is important to be inventing the future of what could be. It’s bringing the fresh air of new thinking, new models, new partnerships, new structures, new norms, etc., to your life and work.

Today (Paying Friday’s Payroll)

On the other hand, thinking up something new is a no brainer for many; the hard part is paying for what’s already on order — it’s making Friday’s payroll.  

Friday’s payroll represents all the things you have to do today that fulfill past commitments. It is the running list that captures all the obligations, agreements, and pledges you have made that require resources today to fulfill them. In its most elementary example, it is a worker and boss agreeing on Monday morning to work all week. If the worker works all week along certain guidelines, the boss will pay him on that Friday for that week’s work. The boss has to make sure he has the resources to fulfill his Friday payroll promise. 

And by the way, most of the things on our daily to-do list are in this category.  

How are you at delivering on yesterday’s promises? Do you often finish a week with several undone items? Do those around you feel like they have to cover for you after you make promises for the future? Or, are your projects on time and on budget? Are you good at improving efficiency? Are you the consistent logjam to stuff getting finished?

Being a visionary by itself won’t secure your future. Visionaries have to follow through. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Those who succeed are those who know how to take an idea, pull others into the process, and actually make it happen.

For many of us, this is a discipline. Those of us with our heads in the clouds have to schedule a regular descent to earth where we get dirty doing what it takes to make the future happen. The future happens today. If active implementation is not part of your today, then tomorrow never arrives. The report has to be filed, the order has to be filled, the phone call has to be returned, the action items from the meeting have to be acted upon.

If you don’t develop the discipline of follow-through, the people who are working with you or under you get frustrated and burn out. They quit because they get tired of picking up your dropped balls. They will stop trusting you. They will stop following you. Ideas bank on the credibility of delivery. To the degree that you are known for making things happen, no matter how big or how small, your ideas will find a greater listening. 

So, get out the bills, see what promises you owe and start writing checks. “Well done,” as Ben Franklin said, “is better than well said.”

In conclusion, realize the best leaders chase both ideas in parallel. They become consciously competent in both ‘Inventing the future’ and ‘paying Fridays’ payroll.’ It is the beauty and genius of the both/and instead of the either/or. As theologian Tyron Edwards said, “Between two evils, choose neither; between two goods, choose both.”

Over the decades I have compiled a list of complimenting capabilities required to lead in the modern world. Remember, you need a bit of both to be effective for a long time in leadership.

Being Results Driven AND People FocusedDoing Friday’s Payroll AND Inventing the FutureHaving Heart AND Using Your HeadThinking Corporately AND Working FunctionallyLeading Others AND Managing YourselfFeeling Confident AND Being HumbleEmbracing Team AND Performing Alone

I will be releasing a short article/blog on a few of these over the next few months. Keep an eye out for them.

Organizing for Growth and Control? Think again.

As an old cowboy once said, “You can’t ride two horses at the same time.”

Sometimes we just have to choose between options and live with the outcome. This reality is very true when it comes to setting the organizing principle for any enterprise. You can’t be headed north and south at the same time. And you can’t be organized for growth and control at the same time. Holding on to both means losing both.

I first heard this idea a couple of decades ago from a mentor who was leading his Fortune 100 team through an explosive growth period. He and his company were on the early track of forging and executing high-level massive global partnerships managing billions of dollars of business each year.

His biggest challenge? Helping the “old timers” loosen their grip on the hyper-control, highly-linear culture that had made them famous. These “old timers” loved the results of growth but were uncomfortable with the looser, more agile approach to partnering. Time and again, my mentor had to preach that you can’t have both and you have to choose—control or growth.

I recently heard this same idea (again) from a colleague in New York who was quoting a pastor friend. In an instant, all the memories of my early mentor flooded my mind. There it was again: you can’t have both. You can’t design for growth and control at the same time with the same energy. 

I say it all the time and really believe it, “Every organization is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” So make the decision of how you want to design–growth or control.

Growth

If you want growth, you need to bake it into your design model. One common element some companies utilize is more decentralized operations and, in particular, decision making. This is essentially the idea contained in the 2008 classic The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Ron Beckstrom.

Brafman and Beckstrom look at organizations as diverse as the Apache Nation and Craigslist to make their point that decentralized organizations have tremendous potential for growth. By depending on peer relationships to govern, these organizations dramatically increase the speed of new ideas and growth. Craigslist, for example, only has around 50 employees (in comparison, Facebook has around 58,000) but manages more than 50 billion pageviews per month.

It’s easier said than done though. How do you structure for growth? Here are five tips:

Know where to place your best bets. In other words, you need to know what you growth drivers are. Luck is not a growth driver. And you must fuel the growth drivers with adequate resources. No fire burns long without oxygen and some kind of fuel.Set a growth climate and culture. Talk growth. Set goals. Monitor and measure growth. Reward growth.Give employees more authority. In everything from customer service to budget creation, but especially in innovation, give employees more authority than you’re immediately comfortable with. This Forbes article on Chick-Fil-A is a few years old, but two principles still stand out: 1) how quickly the fast food giant was growing; and 2) how often the VP mentions the authority that individual operators have.Encourage meaningful crosstalk. You want your employees talking with each other. When you get a question, help them think about other employees who could help them answer that question. Encourage them to share cell phone numbers. I know this can slide into non-efficiency and must be balanced. But meaningful and healthy crosstalk is essential to spur and sustain growth.Urge the executive team to do lots of vision casting and road clearing. If they are doing that job they won’t have much time to police the day-to-day operations (the habit of many leaders), which will give those managers more freedom to innovate).

Control

The starfish idea sounds cool and fun, but it’s not always best. And frankly, it doesn’t always work. Companies organized for control are efficient, less volatile and have less short-term risk. Also, they are usually easier to partner with and safer investments.

All organizations eventually have a season of maturity (if they stick around long enough). Their growth slows and they swing back to a control model for a season. They’re the local pizza place that never compromises on its recipe, or the bank that doesn’t grow quickly but is the most financially sound one around.

How do they do it? Here are a few tips:

Use this time to shore up your people and processes. There is usually some wear and tear that happens during all growth spurts. So patch the holes. Mend the nets. And again, those are for both people and processes.Double down on your culture aspirations. Often, leaders and organizations go the opposite direction. People only buy into control long-term when they believe in the people exerting that control.Hold quality above everything else. Everything depends on a consistent experience for customers; so do intensive quality control, random product checks, etc.Make sure you have the right people and an aligned strategic horizon to fit this stage.Relax and enjoy this period. It might not be the “organizational empty nest” season but it certainly does not carry the weight and chaos of the early stages of explosive growth. And that is OK. I couldn’t disagree more with the old adage that if you are not growing you are dying.

Decide!

At the end of the day, you simply have to choose. Like my friend in a canoe who was fast approaching a downed tree that had created a fork in the river. “It’s better to be wrong than to be indecisive,” he said later.

You’ve got to structure for one or the other. You cannot organize for growth and at the same time organize for control. And always remember, usually your choice is just for a season.

Labor, Knowledge, Risk: The Three-Pronged Path to Wealth

Sometimes, I teach my clients things. Other times, they teach me things.

Rob is a friend of mine. He’s been a client before, but he’s also been a business partner and just a good buddy throughout many years. Oh, and by the way, he has scaled a remarkable national company.

We were chatting one day about successful investors and opportunities, and he made the point that there are three primary ways to build wealth. All three are independent and can produce wealth on their own. However, the ideal scenario is that the three build on each other. And when you have all three, it’s tough to fail.

Labor. Knowledge. Risk.

I took notes and added a few things, but essentially, here is what Rob shared with me.

Labor

It’s pretty straightforward: an exchange of your time and muscle for money. The Starbucks barista does this, and so does the plumber, the police officer, the basketball coach, and the highly paid surgeon. The more time you put in working, the more money you make.

That’s not to say that all labor pays the same amount—a heart surgeon, for example, makes more than a junior high basketball coach—but there’s a universal model in play. Regardless of the field: The more labor, the more money.

Peter Drucker said, “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” A desire to make money is only a good intention until it produces labor.

Even if your labor earns you minimum wage, you’re earning something. Begin to save it up and continue to move forward to…

Knowledge

It’s not simply about working longer and harder than someone else. It’s about learning to do the work better and smarter. Warren Buffett said, “The more you learn, the more you earn.” Or put another way, work smarter, not harder.

Accumulating knowledge might mean an advanced degree. It might mean an internship. It might mean continuing your education by attending a seminar, reading a book, or listening to a podcast. It’s probably about making some time for deep work.

But it also might be much more fluid than that. Are you learning and improving things in your labor? Rob would tell you that he learned how to create and maintain a rental house portfolio. He would tell you he made mistakes early in his career. He would explain how he did things differently in year ten of his company than he did in year five. He learned from his mistakes and his successes.

Knowledge at work is taking the intelligence connected to any business or idea and leveraging it for the desired outcomes. It is not just mailing it in or mindlessly going through the motions until quitting time. (Oh, and don’t forget that you can be an executive or high-salary performer still just mailing it in without integrating knowledge into your labor.)

What are you learning? What are the two biggest lessons you’ve learned in the last year of your business? How are you putting them into practice?

Risk

This category is where we start to talk about a disproportionate possible return on investment.

I’ve written about risk before because just about every conversation I have with senior leaders involves their comfort with risk. When you build a strategy, risk is involved. When you hire a candidate, risk is involved. When you commit finances to a project or launch or define an offering, risk is involved. When you say yes, there is risk; when you say no, there is risk.

I’m not talking about gambling, here, but rather thoughtful risks—extremely thoughtful risks, along the lines discussed here.

Risks like to hide in the edges of our minds—either foolishly ignored or carrying disproportionate anxiety. Instead, call out the risks and face them head-on. What choices will you have to make to grow your financial wealth? What are the quantifiable gains and losses on the table when you make those choices, and what is the likelihood of each?

You then have to make the decision. Different people have different comfort levels when it comes to risk, and that’s fine. But make no mistake: Growing your wealth will take a certain level of risk.

Putting it together

The goal is to figure out how to play in all three—labor, knowledge, and risk—at the same time. You work hard at something for a while and learn the whole time you’re doing it. Then, as you get more informed, you take a few chances.

But the good news is that anybody could employ these three elements to some degree. At least, that’s what Rob told me.

More Significant Than What You Do? Who You Work For.

God created us to work. We cannot just go through the motions of work—we must bring our heads and our hearts to work every day. I explore this idea in the excerpt below, from my book The Gospel Goes to Work.

“The gospel is like a caged lion. It does not need to be defended, it simply needs to be let out of its cage.”  —Charles Spurgeon

WHO YOU WORK for is more significant than what you do or where you work. That’s a radical statement, I know. But I mean something perhaps different than what you are thinking at first glance. I am actually just paraphrasing what the apostle Paul says to workers in the first century, and I believe it applies to every worker doing any kind of work today—“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

Any worker doing any kind of work in any kind of setting can be a gospel carrier when you realize that you are really working for Christ. Not for your earthly boss. Not for yourself and your family. Not for your colleagues or your customers. Not for the bonus. But instead, ultimately, for Jesus Himself.

I recently listened as a friend pondered the question—what exactly makes any work gospel-minded work? Is it the product being sold? Is it that the overt gospel is shared and people come to marked faith at work? Is it a certain culture of values and beliefs encasing the organization? If you give someone a glass of water but don’t share the gospel is there any gospel activity taking place? We will get to all those but any work becomes gospel work when any worker “is working as unto Jesus.”

A gospel-centered life is a way, not a destination or particular address. And gospel-minded work starts with my mindset, my motivation, and my allegiance. Every Christian’s job description bears an appendix-staking claim by the gospel of Jesus.

It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

That perspective changes our sense of purpose in our work life. It changes our motivation for working. It changes our attitude toward our job, both when things are going well and when they aren’t. It changes our hopes and dreams about work. It reshapes and redeems what we hope to accomplish.

God intended our lives to be lives of work. Learn more about the relationship of the gospel and work by ordering your copy of The Gospel Goes to Work here.

A Parable of Expectations

Picture this: A man—we’ll call him Derek—comes home from work and sets his keys and phone on the counter, changes into shorts and a t-shirt, and walks outside to get the mail, as is his routine.

Derek walks down the narrow concrete walkway through the yard, and as he approaches the mailbox, he sees a $20 bill on the ground.

Surprised, he looks around, wondering if someone walking by had dropped it, so he could go return it to them. But no one is there.

“It’s my yard, so I guess I can keep it,” Derek reasons. “If someone comes back for it, I’ll return it. But there’s no use in letting it blow off in the wind.”

He picks up the bill and puts it in his pocket, grabs the mail, and heads back into the house pleasantly surprised.

The next day, Derek returns home again after work, drops off his things, changes, and heads back outside to get the mail. He is nearly to the mailbox when he notices another $20 bill on the ground.

“That’s weird,” he thinks. He looks around, and again, no one appears to be in the area. “I guess I’ll hang onto this one, too,” he reasons. He heads back into the house pleasantly surprised.

At the end of day three, when Derek returns from work, he once again follows his routine. As he walks to the mailbox, he thinks, “That was pretty crazy that there was a $20 bill for two straight days.”

And bam! There it was in the grass by the mailbox: another $20 bill—the third day in a row.

Stunned by the coincidence, but quite encouraged by the new influx of cash, Derek grabs the bill and heads back into the house.

Day four: Derek pulls into the driveway looking toward the mailbox to see if a new bill is there. And wouldn’t you know it, there it is. He gets out of his car and grabs the bill and the mail as he throws a half-glance down the street on his way back into the house.

On day five, Derek forgets the mail altogether. He grabs the bill off the ground and sticks it in his pocket. He doesn’t bother checking to see if anyone is around.

On day six, Derek races into the neighborhood only to be confused and disappointed. There’s no $20 bill to be found.

“Where’s my $20 bill?” He paces through the yard and walks with purpose up and down the street wondering if the money blew away. Down the street, he spies a couple of kids riding their bikes.

“Punks,” he mumbles. “They stole my money.”

What’s wrong with Derek? The $20 wasn’t even his to begin with, and after five days, he’s cursing random kids for stealing his money.

So, I ask again, what’s wrong with Derek? The same thing that’s wrong with many of us: He’s become a slave to unruly, unhealthy expectations.

Don’t get me wrong, expectations have a good side.

Expectations can be incredibly motivating. They keep us from getting lazy by giving us targets to shoot for and even exceed. Roy H. Williams, a well-known marketing consultant, wrote, “The first step in exceeding your customer’s expectations is to know those expectations.”

Research shows that when we believe something is possible, we are more motivated to work to bring it about. We expect something of ourselves and are challenged not to let ourselves down.

But expectations also have a bad side, as we see from Derek’s story. His expectations became a feeling of entitlement. All of a sudden, the surprise $20 gift became “my deserved $20.” Think about how damaging this thinking is in other areas of life.

If you expect the promotion, the high-performing children, the traffic-free commute, and don’t get those things, you are annoyed at best and, at worst, place blame onto anything (or anyone) else.

I call these kinds of expectations unruly expectations. When we begin to build unruly expectations about ourselves, those around us, or our circumstances, we are bound for bitterness and judgment. Author Anne Lamott puts it this way, “An expectation is a resentment under construction.”

That’s exactly the thing about unruly expectations. We become so focused on what we should have that we neglect gratitude for and cultivation of what we do have.

You sometimes hear the phrase “manage expectations.” It’s high time you managed your own. I’m not saying “don’t dream,” or “be a pessimist,” or even “be a realist”; what I’m saying is that you must strive to live one day at a time—with gratitude.

One of the first leaders of the early Christian Church admonished people,

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! . . . Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13-15)

That’s not suggesting a flippant “whatever happens, happens.” That is the recognition that you do not have total control. And upon acknowledging that, you are freed from being controlled by your own expectations.

After all, Derek ended the week $100 richer but became poorer. Unruly expectations stole his joy.

6 Timeless Virtues for Life and Work

I’m not a soldier. No, Colonel Jessup, I’ve never picked up a weapon and stood a post. I’ve never fought in a great battle, never landed in hostile territory, and have never really worn a military uniform of any kind.

I am also not an especially gifted athlete. I crank out a few miles every week on my bike but that has rarely caused anyone to confuse me for an Ironman or an Olympic medalist.

I’ve also never harvested a crop for money. Sure, we’ve grown a few tomatoes in the backyard but none of my friends call me a farmer.

But if I had lived in the days of the Bible there is a good chance I would have been connected in some way to one of these three vocations (soldier, athlete, farmer).  The farmer and soldier were common “career tracks,” and athletes were just as prominent as they are today.  The apostle Paul uses these three to outline a set of universal virtues people of faith should strive for in their work, regardless of their age, title, or industry.

Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Soldiers don’t get tied up in the affairs of civilian life, for then they cannot please the officer who enlisted them. And athletes cannot win the prize unless they follow the rules.  And hardworking farmers should be the first to enjoy the fruit of their labor. (2 Timothy 2:3-6 NLT)

Each job carried, and in fact still carries, a dual set of virtues worth pursuing.

The Soldier – endurance and focus.
The Athlete – discipline and ambition.
The Farmer – hard work and patience.

The Soldier – Endurance and Focus
Being a soldier during wartime is no picnic. It wasn’t when Paul wrote to Timothy, and even today it’s far from a day at the spa. The elements of war are unforgiving, unpredictable, and uncomfortable. Much is demanded and little is given in return. To exist and succeed in this type of environment, the soldier must be able to consistently endure hardship without complaint and always remain focused on his task.

Once a battle begins, the soldier is in it until his job is done. He can’t take a break because he is hungry or tired. There’s no time off. No sick days. He can’t let his mind wander, and he can’t be distracted by the chaos around him.

The Athlete – Discipline and Ambition
Truly great athletes aren’t just talented. Talent is actually pretty easy to find. Plenty of players have it, and plenty have squandered it. The difference between the great ones and the ones on the ‘Biggest Wastes of Talent’ list is that the great ones pair their talent with a combo of inner drive and outer discipline. Put another way, they don’t just have the potential to be great. They want to be great, and they are willing to put in the work and make the sacrifices to get there.

In athletics and in work, success starts with the “want,” or what we might call ambition. Now we all know there is an unhealthy, all-consuming, win-at-all-costs version of ambition, but there is also an admirable type that separates humans.

It isn’t enough, though, to just want to be better. We actually have to take the steps to be better. We have to be disciplined.

Ultimately, discipline in any area is really just a series of choices. For athletes, it’s about saying no to the burger and yes to the grilled salmon. No to a late night out; yes to the early morning film session. For the rest of us, the choices may not be so cut and dried, but discipline is still about consistently making the small right decisions that make up a life or career of right choices.

The Farmer – Hard Work and Patience
There is a simple formula that every farmer relies on every year—hard work and patience. An impatient farmer is an irregularity, and a lazy farmer is a contradiction in terms. Successful farming simply takes hard work and patience; there is no way around it.

While most occupations in today’s marketplace may not demand hard work and patience in the same degree as farming in the first century, I don’t know of any job that doesn’t require some measure of these virtues.

If you’re on my payroll, I expect you to have already learned to work hard. I’m happy to provide on-the-job skills training, but working hard is one skill that you better already have down. Why? Because without a solid work ethic, the rest doesn’t really matter. Talent, intelligence, and creativity are only as valuable as the effort you are willing to exert.

What about patience? Even though it may seem like technology is quickly negating the need for patience, there are still many things that you just can’t speed up. If baking cookies takes 30 minutes…it takes 30 minutes. You can turn up the heat hoping to shorten the time, but we all know the outcome of that. You can stubbornly say I only have seven minutes, and then I am going to pull them out of the stove and eat them. Go for it. But many things just take time. And anything that requires time requires patience.

Timeless Truths
For me, one of the most compelling aspects of the Bible has always been its timelessness. By this I mean how God crafted messages that spoke truth into the lives of first-century Jewish converts under Roman rule, and yet those same messages still speak truth into my life today.

Most of you, like me, aren’t a farmer, soldier, or athlete, and you certainly aren’t a first-century farmer, soldier, or athlete. Regardless, I hope you will take five minutes and wash these six virtues through your life and work.

The 5 Directions of Management

For many people, Michael Scott is the archetype of management. Maybe a bit lovable but definitely unqualified. Lacking in self-awareness, often disconnected and sometimes even dictatorial.

We know Michael Scott isn’t real, and yet we can imagine that there are a whole lot of managers like him. After all, they are the ones in charge, like it or not.

Whether management is a role to which you aspire, a part of your current job description, or a group of individuals that you loathe, there is a clear distinction in most minds between “the managers” and “the managed.” There is a clear, one-way direction. Top to Bottom. Superiors to subordinates.

In reality, though, management is a much more complex and pervasive aspect of our work lives. It is not simply a station or function for those lucky few to reach their career milestones, but rather an exercise in five directions at any one time:

Up – Managing superiors, investors, board of directorsDown – Managing any individuals who work under your stewardship, including traditional W2 employees, contract labor, and volunteersOut – Managing customers, suppliers, competitorsAcross – Managing peers and partnersWithin – Managing self

What is implied with each direction?

Up
This may seem a bit counterintuitive. After all, aren’t these people supposed to be managing you? In reality, however, this is one of the most important and difficult directions of management.

How are you managing the expectations of those above you? If their goals and visions are not realistic, you and your team won’t succeed.How do you manage the pipeline of information between you and your boss? Do they see everything, or just the vital elements? What about bad news? Are they reactionary or rational? Do they need context or just the bullet points?How do you manage conflict between you and those leading you?What if your boss is not that helpful?

Down
Despite the fact that this direction of management gets the lion’s share of our focus, it remains a constant struggle for many.

Am I doing everything I can to place those under my leadership in a position to succeed?Am I clear, inspirational, and fair?Am I delegating well? Or, am I just dumping work that I don’t want?Am I being a good steward of their time, resources, and effort?

Peter Drucker said, “So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.” Don’t do that. Strive to be a great manager.

Out
While individuals outside of your organization are clearly not directly under your guidance, these are still some of the most crucial relationships to be managed.

How are you managing the expectations of customers? Do you know how and when to push back against unreasonable requests?Are your relationships with your suppliers strong? Poor management here can have a domino effect that will eventually reach your customer.What about competitors? Is there a relationship that encourages healthy competition, or one that breeds underhanded, cutthroat tactics?

Across  
Again, these individuals are not directly under your leadership, and likely have an organizational position similar to your own. This is often the most challenging direction of management for high performers in particular. They are fine with their boss and their subordinates. But their peers? That is another issue.

Are you working with these individuals to build the overall organizational value?Have you helped create a culture that encourages generosity and discourages overly individualistic attitudes? (In a 2013 book,  Give and Take , Wharton professor Adam Grant proposes that generosity within the workplace is an important factor in both personal and organizational success.)Are you a good teammate?

Within
This refers to self-management, which is often the most neglected direction of ambitious leaders. As more and more items clamor for our attention, it becomes easier and easier to allow our own life to get out of balance and eventually become something we hardly recognize. We often find ourselves leading everyone and managing everything but ourselves. Because of this, I’ve used a simple tool for years to help me keep myself on track. I explore this tool in greater detail in my book Managing Me, but it is essentially a series of six gauges. In my experience, if I maintain health in each of these areas, I will also maintain overall health.

Establishing Strategic Clarity—a life that takes care of what really mattersMaking Your Contribution to the World—a life that is engaged in meaningful, productive, and fulfilling workKeeping Life in Balance—a life that successfully juggles the multiple opportunities and responsibilities of your personal and professional worldsNurturing Quality Relationships—a life that is blessed with a handful of heart-level connections that can last a lifetimePursuing Spiritual Vitality—a life that is infused with a relationship with GodStewarding Your Finances—a life that makes wise use of money—for yourself and for others

Multi-Directional Management
Sustained success in any arena hinges on our ability to effectively manage relationships and variables in multiple directions. Like a quarterback who manages not only his own knowledge of the playbook, but also the relationships with his teammates, the media, his coaches, and even the fan base, all leaders must be multi-directional leaders. As our careers progress and demands in each direction become more pronounced, this becomes increasingly true. We must be proficient at facing all five directions.

A talented five-direction manager will always have inner fulfillment, always have people wanting to work with you, and always find work.