“She was hired to manage the decline.” I heard those words over a year ago and they have haunted me ever since. I have lived a life where advance, growth, opportunity, were the words used to describe the next idea, product or ministry. I was hired once to turn a money-losing summer day camp around and within 2 summers we had tripled the enrollment and had enough profit to cause an internal fight on how to spend the excess cash. But I could never imagine being told to manage the decline. The more I learn about people, businesses and ministry, the more I run into people who are managing the inevitable death of their organizations, product lines or even entire industries the best they can. These are not lazy or bad people. While some are smart enough to know that the end is inevitable, they are either powerless to change…

I struggle with finding balance in my life. I’m driven, performance oriented and competitive. Those traits don’t mix well with balance, but I understand that without balance in my life, I tend to focus on the urgent and forget to take care of the important. I’ve heard someone say recently that balance is overrated. Throw caution to the wind and, as the romantics would say, “carpe diem.” But what a balanced life ultimate offers all of us is the ability to look soberly at our circumstance as well as to where we are headed. Balance tells us that we are working too hard, or neglecting loved ones, or that we are not spending enough time and resources to those who cannot help themselves. A balanced person looks at the dashboard of his  or her life where the physical, emotional, spiritual and relational  gauges tell a complete story. It’s easy for…

We can distill leadership in two of its basic foundations: positional and influential. Understanding them will dictate and help you successfully navigate through leadership waters.  You can be given the position but unless you also have the influence, you are not really a leader. Positional leadership is given, while influential is earned. While they are not mutually exclusive, some never make the connection. It took me a while before I got that lesson, but once I did, I understood the power of influence. Anyone can get a job managing a person, or a group of people. My first job as a manager was as a part-time music director at a church while going through graduate school. I had to lead a choir, which I was prepared to lead; however, the choir was not the problem, Rosie, the organist, was. I remember my first day on the job when one of…

“He’s so smart. I can’t understand half of he’s talking about.” I heard that said of a speaker not long ago. I couldn’t disagree more. Good communication takes into account your target audience and tries to create a bridge between the message and the audience it’s trying to reach. Great communicators do now show off how much they know about a subject to the point of overwhelming or confusing someone else. That’s the fodder of insecure, pseudo intellectuals who want to make sure you know they are smarter than you at any chance they get. One of the challenges I face as a consultant is to help my clients to communicate clearly and effectively. The longer we are a part of an organization, a movement, an industry, the more likely we are to create and adapt to our own language, ideas, and set of standards that often miss communicate our…

No summer wardrobe is fully complete without the perfect pair of sunglasses. Guys, the good news it that there are a lot of different styles that you could wear that are in vogue these days. There’s a resurgence for the third time of the RayBan’s Wayfarer as well as strong come back of the Aviator. But before you choose you frame, here’s a few things to consider: If you have a long face you should stay away from “droopy” frames and go with something of a more horizontal nature. While the Aviator might be making a come back, it might not be a come back for you. If you have a large head beware of frames that are too small for you. They will make your head look even bigger. If your face is round stay away from round frames. You’ll accentuate your “roundness” and will end up looking like…

There’s no easy way to say it. The traditional Ad Agency is not going to stay around for long. As the big guys scramble to survive and as the little guys close shop, marketing agencies find themselves in a major shift. Some believe it’s a difficult transition, if not an impossible one under the current way most of these shops are setup. In order to survive agencies must: Stop being dependent on the 15% media buying revenue and print markup.  The days of clients spending hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of dollars on traditional media are numbered. The new media mix is a lot more fluid and fragmented and requires more thinking than a media buyer can do in one afternoon. A direct mail campaign followed by radio and/or TV is no longer the answer for every problem. I’m not certain it’s the answer for any current dilemma. Make technology…

How do you prepare for your speaking engagements? Pastors have to prepare a message every week, sometimes two or even three messages in the course of a few days. The pressure is always on to deliver something that will challenge, motivate, inspire and ultimately cause people to move from complacency and the status quo into a deeper relationship with God.  While most pastors believe that God is the One who does the changing and convincing, they are also aware they’re called to be a spokesperson for things that are sacred and cannot abdicate their responsibility to prepare. Recently I interviewed Mike Slaughter, Sr. Pastor of Ginghamsburg Church, and he shared with me in the video below how he prepares the message that he delivers 5 times each weekend. How do you prepare for a message or presentation?

Self discipline pays dividends. In my life I have seen self discipline become the difference between getting an A or a C in school, between doing ok at work or getting promoted quickly,  between a mediocre business and a thriving one, between thinking about running a marathon and actually finishing one. Discipline is often the difference between success or failure. But if we are not careful, we can be disciplined and yet not see results. I don’t know about you, but I tend to play mind games with the things that require my full attention to get to the next level. I’m usually willing to be disciplined in the areas that come natural to me, like exercise, but I often have a tough time committing to pay the price and do what’s not an easy task for me, like having a consistent clean diet. In this case, however, the diet…

As I try to prepared for tomorrow’s rapture into heaven, I naturally thought of what I wanted to wear to heaven. That’s a big question. Think about it. So I did. But according to some, we would go naked. However, if they are wrong and we did indeed make the trip wearing whatever we had on at the time of the rapture, which I heard somewhere is around 5 p.m. tomorrow, that could be embarrassing.  Trying to understand and visualize such event, I googled the rapture so I could see what it would look like. Here’s what I found: I still haven’t answered the big question: What should I wear? If we go naked, then all bets are off, including our pants and our apparel doesn’t matter. Now if we go up clothed I’m going to wear white. Think about every movie scene shot in heaven you’ve seen. What are…

Stripes have been a staple in men’s wear for decades. We wear them in suits, shirts, pants, shorts and even undergarments. But not all stripes are created equal. You should know what type of stripe works best for you and why. I see a lot of guys wearing vertical stripes when they should be wearing horizontal. Yes, there is a difference. Here’s a simple guide for guys, it works for gals as well, on how to wear stripes: Horizontal: if you are thin, or tall and want to look wider, horizontal stripes are your friend. Slender, tall frames usually look their best with a wide horizontal stripped shirts. If you are heavy or have short legs, horizontal stripes usually make you look bigger and stubbier. Big or broad guys with short legs should stay away from them. Vertical: If you are short and/or heavy, vertical stripes are good for you.…