Month: December 2018

Ep 038: Christine Caine with Jeff Lockyer

Posted on December 3, 2018 by - Leading Yourself, Podcasts, Resilience

The Global Leadership Summit Podcast

Get free, instant access to GLS Podcast Episode Show Notes. Leverage episode summaries, key takeaways, reflection questions, resources mentioned, related links and applicable downloads, including Show Notes PDF and Episode Audio File (MP3).

DOWNLOADS:

Download Show Notes (PDF)

Download Audio (MP3)

 

SUMMARY:

How do you lead when you experience seasons of unexpected disappointment, betrayal and loss? In this episode, activist and author Christine Caine talks with Jeff Lockyer about her book Unexpected and the journey that prompted it. She shares how giving up the façade of control brought her closer to God and why she didn’t quit. She also explores the practical steps leaders should take to bring about the calm resolve needed to move forward and lead from a healthier place.

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

  • Christine wrote Unexpected when she faced three unexpected events in her own life: 1) a cancer diagnosis, 2) her mother’s death and 3) betrayal by a friend.
  • In times of change and chaos, leaders need to lean on God who is always faithful.
  • What is unexpected to us is not unexpected to God.
  • If He called you to it, He will sustain you through it.
  • If we can learn lessons from the storms and not get derailed by them, we’ll come out the other side even stronger.
  • When leaders waiver, followers waiver.
  • Leaders can confuse leadership with control. Your confidence needs to be anchored in the bedrock of Jesus.
  • The job of a leader is to absorb chaos so that others can thrive.
  • In the anti-trafficking world, the situation is volatile and conditions change every day. There are certain things you can control, but at the end of the day, your confidence needs to be grounded in Christ.
  • You can’t lead from an ivory tower.
  • Our battle is not against flesh and blood. You can contend with a lot of unexpected things when in your prayer closet.
  • The antidote to control is trusting God.
  • Disappointment is a form of the unexpected that is uniquely difficult for leaders.
  • People are the greatest blessing and also the greatest disappointment.
  • Your resilience is going to take you further in your leadership than your gift ever will.
  • You’ve got to keep dealing with your inner wounds.
  • Surround yourself with great people who can speak into your life.
  • To navigate the unexpected, you need people who think differently from you.
  • Do whatever it takes to keep chaos out of your heart so that the peace of God is what actually resides there.
  • God knew the times we would be living in, and he positioned us in time to be Christ-like leaders for our generation.

 

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

  1. Christine Caine said that leaders must be prepared for the unexpected to lead others through it. Do you pro-actively consider unexpected problems that could face your organization? If not, identify three potential problems and develop a plan to lead through them.
  2. According to Caine, resilience is a make-or-break skill to lead through the unexpected. The qualities that build resilience include patience, determination, flexibility, gratitude and self-awareness. What can you do during “expected times” to build on those qualities in yourself and in your team for “unexpected times?”
  3. Think about your inner circle. Who are they? Do they bring enough strength, diversity and capacity to help you process things that you can’t?

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Wheaton College

Pa Tong, Thailand

Ukraine

Thyroid Cancer

Wall Street

I Corinthians 15:58

Exodus 18

Moses

Jethro

Ephesians 6:10-20

Prayer Closet

Caleb

Joshua

Mount Hebron

Navy Seals

“Hell Week” for Navy Seals

Netflix

Proverbs 4:23

RELATED LINKS:

Christine Caine

Nick Caine

A21

Propel Women

Jeff Lockyer

Southridge Church

The Global Leadership Summit

Considering a Merger? Three Cultural Alignments You Must Get Right

Posted on December 3, 2018 by - Articles, Culture, Leading Organizations, Vision

Shot of a group of businesspeople sitting together in a meeting

One of the greatest tests a leader will ever face is when the team’s culture is suddenly, sometimes violently, shaken up.

You might call these “cultural tremors” and they can strike when the tectonic plates of the team’s culture are shifted. When that happens, the leader must quickly exercise the ability to read the changing situation and respond to this new reality.

Everyone on the team must agree on where the team is headed and what everyone is working towards.

David Livermore, best-selling author and social scientist in global leadership, calls this cultural intelligence.

At the 2018 Global Leadership Summit, Livermore defined cultural intelligence as, “The capability to work effectively in culturally diverse situations.”

And you don’t need to visit a foreign country to encounter a culturally diverse situation. Your team culture can undergo a sudden shift anytime you hire new staff, when you bring on temporary help, or when you reassign roles and responsibilities. Or, as I discovered years ago, you can face the potential for seismic cultural tremors when you merge two teams together.

Several years ago, the Willow Creek Association established a Canadian organization, which soon found an ally in another organization called The Leadership Centre. I was on the staff of The Leadership Centre. So closely aligned were our respective ministries that the two boards soon realized it would make sense to merge into a single entity.

The potential for cultural tremors to begin rumbling was very real.

According to a KPMG study, 83 percent of mergers fail, and yet this merger in Canada became wildly successful. Why? Ultimately, the success of this merger—bringing together two completely separate teams and organizations—was because of heightened cultural intelligence.

Specifically, those leading the merger process avoided the pitfall of cultural tremors by paying close attention to 3 vital cultural alignments. And when you begin to sense cultural tremors rumbling on your own team, you need to pay attention to these same alignments:

1. Team goals must be crystal clear and fully aligned

Everyone on the team must agree on where the team is headed and what everyone is working towards.

2. Team strategies must be consistent

If one part of the organization is pulling left while another part is pulling right, the team won’t get anywhere.

Nothing will create cracks in team unity faster than misalignment on team values.

3. Team values must be shared and embraced

Nothing will create cracks in team unity faster than misalignment on team values.

Because those leading our merger process took such care to ensure alignment on goals, strategies and values, the cultural tremors of the merger were avoided, and the combined organization thrived.

You could be facing your own cultural tremors at any moment. Anytime a new team member is added or whenever two teams are brought together to work on a joint project, the potential is there for at least a cultural tremor.

So, learn to keep your leadership finger on the pulse of these three alignments. Otherwise those cultural tremors could turn into a full-blown cultural earthquake.

Be a Part of Positive Change

Posted on December 3, 2018 by - Africa, Because of the GLS, Business, Government, Stories, The Global Leadership Summit

During this Christmas season, I can’t help but reflect on so many of the stories I’ve heard about people like you whose lives have been changed as we come together at the Summit.

I’m inspired by leaders who step out courageously to lead change they never dreamed was possible.

My friend Betty Byanyima from Uganda shares more about what happened when she took a risk to bring the Summit to government leaders in tourism:

Stories like these would not be possible without your belief in what can happen when a leader is equipped and encouraged to influence positive change not only in their community, but their country at large.

Looking forward to the future of this ministry, our vision is to one day reach more than 1,000,000 people like Betty.

Looking forward to the future of this ministry, our vision is to one day reach more than 1,000,000 people like Betty. Imagine what might happen when more Christian leaders commit to stewarding positive transformation in their country!

Would you prayerfully consider your year-end donation to the Global Leadership Development Fund?

As we step forward into 2019, your gift this year-end will encourage people like Betty to take courageous steps to bring change to their country.

Let’s be a formidable force for good and a beacon of light in our world.

Thank you for inspiring a vision of hope on leaders around the world. Together, we are helping Christians grow their leadership to maximize Kingdom impact. Learn more at theglsn.org/give.