I’m fortunate to have an amazing group of talented and committed people working at The A Group. It’s truly a dream team. And with each new hire, the stakes seem to be getting higher. I like that. Talent, attracts talent and elevates the game for everyone. I have written about the 3Cs we screen in hiring: competence, character and chemistry. But beyond that I’m always on the look out for qualities that will make a great addition to our team. Raw talent. Nothing is more exciting than to find someone who has a natural ability in their area of expertise. No matter their area of work inside our organization–designers, programmers, video producers, account managers, or sales–talented people are given the tools and the opportunity to do their best work. I’m convinced you can help a talented person grow and flourish, but without it, no amount of coaching and tools can…

Firing people is never easy. I remember having to fire an employee a few weeks into my very first job. I was 20; he was 42. It was the right thing to do even though I felt sick to my stomach before, during and after the ordeal. Since then I have had to fire friends, foes and everything in between. I have even dismissed volunteers (yes, and that’s a subject for another post). But as I have matured over the years, I have come to the realization that sometimes letting someone go from a position they are ill-suited for is the best thing not only for the organization but for that person as well. While firing an employee is always a complex and often difficult process, there are signs that should help you decide that it is time to pull the trigger. These are some of the indicators I look…

Every meeting has costs and benefits. Successful organizations realize that while meetings are important, they can also be a waste of time and with it, a waste of money. Sometimes a lot of money. Not long ago I found myself in an all-day meeting with a group of 10 senior staff members of a church. We were together for almost 8 hours. That was not necessary. The meeting should have lasted 3 hours, and they only needed 4 of the 10 people there. Then I did something I had never done before, even in all my years of ministry. I tried to figure out just how much that meeting had cost the church in salaries alone. By my estimates those 8 hours cost around $4,000, not including my fees as well as lunch. How would we conduct meetings if we had a “money clock” running with a total cost for…

If you’re a communicator, you cannot afford not to be engaged in social media. I know this sounds like a mandate, and it is. Even if only a part of your job is to communicate the vision, mission and direction of the organization you lead, you, more than anyone else in your organization, should lead the social media charge. I meet with leaders who refuse to embrace any social platforms. Their excuses are always the same: I don’t get it. I don’t have time. I’m a private person. I have nothing to say. Until recently I used to go down a list of why it didn’t take that much time and how to manage time. I patiently talked about how even a private person could have a dynamic online presence, and how even the most introvert of leaders has something to say to his or her organization as well as…

Good leaders are good communicators. There’s no way out of it. Happy talk is their way of casting vision but not accomplishing much.  One of the primary functions of a leader is to sell a vision, a destination, or a future to his or her followers. You can’t do that without good communication skills. But a good communicator is not necessarily a good leader. While your oratory skills might get you elected to a prestigious position, it will not keep you there long. I have been in so many meetings led by a good communicator who happens to be a poor leader. Most of goes on in these settings I call “happy talk”: the ability to talk about ideas, projects and initiatives that will never materialize. Chances are, next time the same people convene, some, if not all, of the same subject matter will come back up for discussion again.…

Churches stop growing or they plateau for several reasons, too many for one blog post. So I’m tackling them in a series of posts featuring growth barriers for churches I have encountered during years of strategic consulting. I’m calling these posts “Churches Won’t Grow When.”  While some of the issues that keep churches from growing can be classified as communication barriers, in my experience, the most debilitating ones are leadership and systematic mistakes that will derail growth or even kill a congregation. Interestingly, these apply to business and ministries as well. Your church will stop growing when its leader put his or her interests before what’s best for the congregation. I call it the superstar syndrome. I have seen this one play out time and time again. These are gifted communicators who are able to draw large crowds but can never get past making personal sacrifices for the sake of…

The man to my left leaned in and with intensity in his eyes asked the question: “I’m contemplating a strategic business partnership; I want to lead my business into outliving me.” Across the table from us sat a veteran CEO with years of experience in multi-billion dollar business. The answer surprised me, but, again, it should not have. The delivery was deliberate and the words were kind but firm: “Check your heart. What kind of person do you want to entrust your clients to?” For some, this is the kind of answer you expect when one searches for a mate at a dating site. I cannot get passed that statement because it resonated with me in everything I’ve learned about business. Yes, business. A flood of thoughts with tangled emotions attached to them are still swirling around my mind as I think about the times I “checked my heart” and…

It’s happening all over the place: leaders are hijacking critical projects from their internal teams and implementing a “bypass” play in order to get things done. While you might question the non-conventional leadership style, the wisdom or the potential fall-out inside the organization of such tactics, these leaders are more worried about missed opportunities, missed revenues or loss of ministry impact than trying to protect the organizational pride and inefficiency. Lately, much of my consulting has been with key leaders who find themselves in endless meetings, studies, and discussions of projects that have been stalled for months and even  years because of organizational inertia. As leaders they see the opportunity and want to seize the moment, but cannot make forward progress with their teams. Fear, incompetent, ignorance, philosophical differences, and so many other issues often play into this organizational paralysis that keeps a lot of good businesses and ministries from…

Leadership drives everything we do. Great leaders take us into the future with their ability to see what’s not yet reality and inspire and motivate us to get there.  As a consultant who has worked with hundreds of  business and church leaders, I have noticed that often great leaders have to retool their own leadership or management style in order to continue to grow their organization. This leadership retooling is both painful and necessary. These are leadership styles that if you don’t grow beyond them will stop your organization from getting to the next level: The Funnel. Everything needs to come through your desk. Nothing gets approved, financed or blessed unless you are involved. That’s a sure way to keep a good thing from growing. This usually happens because the leader doesn’t trust his or her team and feels that he’s the best person for the job– every job, that…

I just finished my long run, usually 10-12 miles, on a beautiful cool Fall morning in Nashville. And as I finished feeling great I said, “I’m a much better runner during my Fall runs because of the miserable sticky summer runs.” But as I considered the implications, I realized that’s not only applicable to my run, but also to the rest of my life. I can move faster in my business,  and in my relationships because of enduring and getting past troublesome spots, much like an endless run on a hot and humid southern morning. I can enjoy seasons of growth and harvest because of the lessons conditioning I learned through the rough days of just “plowing through” in life. In your business or personal life, what season are you in? How are you dealing with it?