Jesus' Leadership #31 Educating the People Around Him

There are many ways to sum up the focus of Jesus' time on earth. One verse that can sum up His ministry is in Matthew 4:23, "[Jesus] went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people." He focuses on three things: teaching, preaching and healing. Since teaching is educating the mind and preaching is educating the heart, 2/3 or about 67% of Jesus' ministry was education.

If you read throughout the Scripture, you'll find that when Jesus healed people, nine times out of ten (9/10 or 90%) He educated and commanded them about an attitude change (another aspect of repentance) or a new way of behaving that was to go along with their physical healings. For example, in John 8:11, Jesus said, "Go and sin no more." Although the main point of this verse is to show His authority and lordship, it also gives us a clue that Jesus was very serious about educating the people. Sir Willian Ramsey boldly claimed: "Christianity is the religion of an educated mind."

As leaders, we must put high priority to educate those under our leadership such as employees, workers and followers. A person who becomes a leader today and stops learning tomorrow is uneducated the day after. Never stop growing and educating others so that they may grow better and effective. Organized monthly training, send people to beneficial seminars, and spent money on personal development for self and others under your leadership. Horace Mann speaks about the importance of education this way, "A human being is not, in any proper sense, a human being until he is educated." That's also true for leaders!

Jesus educated people, are you?

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THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

John C. Maxwell on Leadership #26 A Leader's Power Is the Ability to Empower Others

How do you spot a leader? According to Robert Townsend, they come in all sizes, ages, shapes, and conditions. Some are poor administrators, while some are not overly bright. There is a clue: since some people are mediocre, the true leader can be recognized because somehow his people consistently demonstrate superior performances.

A leader is great, not because of his or her power, but because of his or her ability to empower others. Success without a successor is a failure. A worker’s main responsibility is developing others to do the work. Loyalty to the leader reaches its highest peak when the follower has personally grown through the mentorship of the leader. Why? You win people’s hearts by helping them grow personally.

Years ago, one of the key players on my staff was Sheryl Fleisher. When she first joined the team, she was not a people person. Today she successfully develops others. There is a bond of loyalty that Sheryl has given to my leadership, and we both know the reason. My time invested with her brought a positive change. She will never forget what I have done for her. Interestingly, her time invested in the lives of others greatly helped me. I will never forget what she has done for me either.

The core of leaders who surround you should all be people you have personally touched or helped to develop in some way. When that happens, love and loyalty will be exhibited by those closest to you and by those who are touched by your key leaders.

Are people going to the next level because of your investment in them?

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

[Taken from Developing the Leader Within You (2012) by John C. Maxwell. Published by Thomas Nelson Inc.]

John C. Maxwell on Leadership #23 Practice Your Craft Today

William Osler, the physician who wrote The Principles and Practice of Medicine in 1892, once told a group of medical students:

“Banish the future. Live only for the hour and its allotted work. Think not the amount to be accomplished, the difficulties to be overcome, or the end to attained, but set earnestly at the little task at your elbow, letting that be sufficient for the day; for surely our plain duty is, as Carlyle says, ‘Not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.’”

The only way to improve is to practice your craft until you know it inside and out. At first, you do what you know to do. The more you practice your craft, the more you know. But as you do more, you will also discover more about what you ought to do differently. At that point you have a decision to make: Will you do what you have always done, or will you try to do more of what you think you should do? The only way you improve is to get out of your comfort zone and try new things.

People often ask me, “How can I grow my business?” or “How can I make my department better?” The answer is for you personally to grow. The only way to grow your organization is to grow the leaders who run it. By making yourself better, you make others better. Retired General Electric CEO Jack Welch said, “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” And the time to start is today.

Focus your energy on trying something within your strength zone but

outside of your comfort zone.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Self-Leadership #14 Build, Exhibit, and Breed Confidence

Confidence is the cornerstone of leadership. You can teach someone to be an effective problem-solver, be a better communicator, add more commitment, be passionate, and many other fundamentals of leadership. But, if a leader doesn't believe in himself or herself, true leadership will exist only in title and position. A leader that is technically qualified for the position but lack confidence will find it difficult to lead and inspired others. Francisco Dao once said, "Self-confidence is the fundamental basis from which leadership grows. Trying to teach leadership without first building confidence is like building a house on a foundation of sand. It may have a nice coat of paint, but it is ultimately shaky at best."

I once misunderstood the difference between displaying self-confidence and being aggressive in style of leadership. The truth is that they are far from the same. Those who are aggressive are better referred to as bullies, not leaders. Leaders who are with strong confidence do not have a need to be aggressive to get their goals accomplished. Being aggressive is actually a sign of lack of confidence. People like to work with leaders who are truly confident but avoid bullies. Why is this so? Because when a leader exhibits confidence, it makes it easier to trust that leader, and people want to work with leaders they trust.

Exhibiting confidence was only stage-setting, of course. The real confidence-builder was preparation. Alex Ferguson, in his book Leading, said that he prepared his players for every game, for every eventuality. Going into a football field, they believed that they would not encounter a situation that they weren't prepared to handle. Think of Julius Caesar's observation: "Without training, they lacked knowledge. Without knowledge, they lacked confidence. Without confidence, they lacked victory." Success, in turn, brought more confidence, which brought more success. You'll be surprised how much confidence a little success will bring!

Leaders who have self-confidence believe and trust in his or her team. When a leader believed in others, they came to believe in themselves. "Trust men and they will be true to you," reasoned Ralph Waldo Emerson, "treat them greatly and they will show themselves great." When a leader exhibits confidence, he can inspire others to be confident too – and convinced them that together they would succeed.

Here are three (3) things you can do to improve the confidence level in your team or organization:

#1 Exhibit Confidence: Confidence is catching, and so is a lack of confidence. If a leader being aggressive (or bullied), people will avoid him. But if a leader exudes confidence, his team will follow his lead.

#2 Success Breeds Confidence: A team that starts winning immediately increases its confidence and immediately increases its chance of winning again.

#3 Give People the Tools They Need: Training, training, training. Give people the skills and tools they need to succeed. Preparedness is the ultimate confidence builder.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Jesus' Leadership #23 Train Your Replacements

We Malaysians had witnessed the downfall of Najib Razak, former prime minister, who had lead Malaysia about 9 years, started well then end with a bad image. When his incompetence finally came collapsing down upon him and he was relieved of his office, there was quite a mess to clean up. The problem was, it wasn't just his incompetence that had to be corrected, he had multiplied himself by appointing ministers who were far less qualified, and hence less of a threat to him in every area (maybe except very few of good-but-suppressed leaders under him). Malaysia government under his leadership had a core incompetence that, like cancer, had infiltrated every department and nearly caused the demise of Malaysia had not newly appointed Prime Minister Tun Mahathir and his more incompetence team intervened. There is hope.

By contrast (though I feel it's a bit unfair), Jesus as the Servant Leader was eager and intent upon calling disciples He felt could replace Him after He returned back to the Father. Jesus promised: "I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father" (John 14:12, NLT). Jesus did not hoard or guard the power of His leadership. He kept teaching, sharing, and demonstrating it so His disciples would learn that they too had the power to do what He had done, “even greater.”

In order for Him to be so generous with His power, Jesus obviously had to have been extremely secure. He repeatedly affirmed and clearly understood His standing with God as the sole Son to the Father – the Son of God. He never doubted that! When it was all over, He would be sitting at the Head Table in His Kingdom. His task while on earth was – even by the work of the Holy Spirit today – to fill that Table and make sure others were sitting with Him. He knows who He is and was secure of His leadership. So, He never stops trained His disciples as His replacements. This is what secure leaders do!

Laurie Beth Jones told a story about Florence Littauer, author of Personality Plus, when she attended one of Florence's seminars and was surprised when she came on stage with about 26 other authors each of whom she had helped to write their own books. "She stood there with all those authors and said, ‘If you think I am proudest of my books, you are wrong. I am most proud of the people I have helped to become writers themselves.' She didn't define her success in terms of her products but in terms of the people she had trained." Had Florence been an insecure author, she might have tried to lessen the competition. But in fact, she was gladly training her replacements.

Jesus trained His replacements.

Have you start training and empower other leaders to replace you?

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

John C. Maxwell on Leadership #3 Those Closest to You Will Affect Your Success/Failure Level

In more than thirty years of leadership, I [John C. Maxwell] have learned that those closest to the leader will determine the success level of that leader. A negative reading of this statement is also true: Those closest to the leader will determine the level of failure for that leader. The positive or negative outcome in my leadership depends upon my ability to develop those closest to me.

Stop for a moment and think of the five or six people closest to you in your organization. Are you developing them? Do you have a game plan for them? Are they growing? Have they been able to lift your load?

In their first training session, I give new leaders this principle: As a potential leader, you are either an asset or a liability to the organization. I illustrate this truth by saying, “When there’s a problem, a ‘fire’ in the organization, you as a leader are often the first to arrive at the scene. You have in your hands two buckets. One contains water and the other contains gasoline. The ‘spark’ before you will either become a greater problem because you pour the gasoline on it, or it will be extinguished because you use the bucket of water.”

The question a leader needs to ask is, “Am I training them to use the gasoline or the water?”

[taken from Developing the Leaders Around You: How to Help Others to Reach Their Full Potential (1995) by John C. Maxwell. Published by Thomas Nelson]

Have you trained the people closest to you in your organization

to be water carriers?

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Let Your Temple be Clean (Fitness and Glooming)

“Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19, NLT)

“Though 1 Corinthian 6:19 here refers mainly to treat our body as sacred unto the Lord and thus by the Spirit’s power avoid sexual immorality, it is also applicable to point out that we need to take care of our physical body care-full-ly” (Richard Angelus)

Until 20^th century the normal demands of everyday living in Malaysia provided most people with adequate physical exercise (my grandma said). Many walked miles to work and used a variety of muscles doing jobs which today require little more effort than the pressing of a button or two. When I was in primary school I and my friends used to walked miles to school and back (Before I owned a bicycle!). Some of you may have experienced this before. Not to over-simplify to say that today we ride in cushioned comfort from one place to another and, in between, let machines do most of our work.

Friends, mind, emotions and spirit function best in healthy body. Since normal living today often fails to keep us physically fit, as responsible stewards for our God-given body we deliberately need to build some kind of exercise into our personal schedule.

Apostle Paul wrote, “…for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come”(1 Timothy 4:8, ESV) Now, if physical exercise was of “some value” in Paul’s time, how much more so today! While our spiritual health is not to be measured in terms of physical health, every one of us who takes the gift of our physical body seriously will organize ourselves some regular exercise. With exception of those whose daily-working nature is mostly physical, we the modern men and women have no excuse!

It goes without saying that smoking (unless you’re in a cold country), excessive alcohol intake, and drug-taking (not for medicine purposes) have absolutely NO place in the life of the people of God. They offer no benefits whatever and are proven dangers to good health. We dare not pollute the temple of the Holy Spirit with such activities. Have a regular exercise – walking, jogging, cycling, playing games etc. – and for your own sake and people around you – clean your room (office and home), brush your teeth, cut your hair smart, cut your nails and take bath regularly!

Friends, proper attention to personal hygiene and good grooming will add the finishing touches of proper self-respect to our God-given body. God desires us to be healthy in spirit, soul and body; “Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again” (1 Thessalonians 5:23, NLT).

Above all, no doubt, godliness is much better than physical training and caring. “Godliness is of value in every way”. Good physical healthy man is not necessary a godly man, but a godly man by all mean want to maintain his physical health because in doing so he can be more productive and better able to exercise his inner godliness outwardly. We must take care of our physical being – is it God-given gift. Do not forsake it!

Friends, God may (by His divine goodness) allow sickness to fall upon us or tragedy happened that may cause us handicap to accomplish His eternal purposes in our life (for purposes we sometime don’t understand) now or in the future, but that is not a valid excuse for us to neglect our body. While we are still able, as humanly as possible – let your Temple be clean.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

A Young Man urging Parents to Discipline their Children

“Don’t fail to discipline your children; they won’t die if you spank them.
Physical discipline may well save them from death” (Proverbs 23:13NLT)

“Don’t be afraid to correct your young ones; a spanking won’t kill them.
A good spanking, in fact, might save them from something worse than death”
(The Message)

When I was young and dangerous and rebellious my mom always disciplines me. She would punish me for anything I did wrong and when I rebel against her commands. My dad would handle hard cases (which were very seldom) but my mom would normally discipline me and my brother for every obvious sin that we had committed. It was hard to be the bad guy – because we normally cry once we were screwed! Come to think about it, I thank God for her rod of discipline. For if that was absent during my childhood life, I would never be who I am today.

Today, I astonish whenever I see parents did not discipline their children for misbehaves. Shout without action. Patience without correction. Love without discipline.  No wonder children nowadays are spoiled, rebellious as they grow up and disrespect their own parents. I don’t need to be a parent to know the basic need to discipline a child – the Bible is full of God’s commands to do so.

Harold J. Sala writes in his book Raising Godly Kids, “Does the Bible differentiate between discipline and punishment? Yes, clearly it does. The word paideias, usually translated ‘to discipline’ in the New Testament, is much different from the word mastigoi, which means ‘to strike, hit or wound’. Mastigoi was used of Jesus Christ when He was scourged by the Roman soldiers. Paideias, which was also translated ‘to instruct or give guidance to’, was used of a father’s guidance of his son, or even an instructor’s correction of a student”.

I urge parents to discipline (paideias) their children not to punish (mastigoi) them. Child’s needs correction not closed-eyes treatment. It’s not because they had done wrong – though they are – but because there are certain things shouldn’t be allowed because the Word of God said so. Anger generates punishment but love, if you love your children, generates discipline. By doing this, parents remain in control.  And children, nowadays need parents who are in control of the family. Discipline is both necessary and effective – parents should know that! [P.s: They are many way to discipline a child aside from physical discipline.]

In the Bible, God disciplines those whom He loves. Hebrew 12:10-11 says, “God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way”. In the same way, the godly parents are to discipline their children with love just like our Father in Heaven.

“Those who spare the rod of discipline hate their children.

Those who love their children care enough to discipline them”

(Proverbs 13:24NLT).

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.