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South Africa Journal 8: Remembering to Close the Loop

September 3, 2010 in Canadian, Community, Disciplinie, Leadership, action, joy by Scott Cochrane | 1 comment

Think about the last time you led a ministry initiative in which you had to call in favours.

Perhaps you’re a youth leader who needed to round up extra drivers for that youth ministry outing, and you phoned all those parents to bring their mini-vans to run these kids across town.

Maybe you’re a senior pastor who needed to clear the church calendar for an important church-wide event, and you met with several key staff to get them to move or cancel their previously scheduled functions.

My question for you, and the one I’ve been challenged with today, is “How consistently do you remember to close the loop?”

South Africa Township

My journey through South Africa continued today with a stop at World Vision’s Umvoti Area Development Project office. Here our group of Canadian pastors met with the Umvoti World Vision staff, along with a group of local pastors.

As part of the meeting’s agenda we showed a video which we had shot in this region in April of 2009, and which we had shown at Canada’s Leadership Summit sites later that year. In filming the piece we had visited many area homes and interviewed many families and community leaders. In showing the video to some 7000 leaders at the Canadian Summit it had raised a great awareness of the needs in this region, along with an opportunity to respond through World Vision.

After showing this seven minute clip to these Umvoti leaders, one of the pastors rose from his chair and spoke words which I immediately processed as an important leadership principle.

“Thank you for showing us this video,” he said in his native Zulu through an interpreter. “Many times people visit us, and many times they take videos of us. Then they show their videos in other countries, but we don’t know what they have said about us. We don’t know what people are being made to think about us through their videos. But you have come back to us. You have shown us the video. This honours us. And we thank you.”

The eruption of applause confirmed that he was speaking on behalf of their entire community.

His comments reminded me that these people were not merely subjects in our video. They had given of themselves to make our project a success, and to show them the finished product was just the right thing to do.

Because when you call in favours, it’s incumbent upon the leader to close the loop. It’s just a part of leadership to go back to those you asked for help, and let them know how things turned out.

Tell the parents who drove the kids what happened as a result of getting all those kids to the event.

Tell the staff how in moving their ministry function to a different night your church-wide event had impacted the entire church.

I had to come half-way around the world to be reminded of this leadership principle. But it’s one I’ll be emphasizing with greater vigour upon my return to Canada.

How consistently do you remember to “close the loop”

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South Africa Journal 2: Never Mind My Luggage; Has Anyone Seen My Character?

August 26, 2010 in Disciplinie, Leadership, Tension, action, joy, missional by Scott Cochrane | 2 comments

There’s an expression that says, “Character is what you reveal when you think nobody is watching.”

Scott’s corollary to this is that “Character is particularly revealed when you are traveling.”

I have seen airport security lines, Customs and Immigration queues, and waits at baggage carousels reveal some of the most self-centred, boorish and obnoxious behavior known to human-kind.

And I’m not above finding the worst aspects of my own character bubble to the surface when I travel.

Today I’m en route from my home in Kelowna, BC, via London, England, to Johannesburg, South Africa. There I’ll be joined by four Canadian pastors and our hosts from World Vision. My friends at World Vision will be guiding us through the work they are doing in some of the most desperately needy regions of this beautiful country.

Total travel time will be over 30 hours, 21 hours in the air. That’s plenty of time for the basest parts of my character to emerge. I know myself well enough to envision my own impatience spilling out in the form of sarcasm, glaring looks, even an audible “This is ridiculous!” as an interminably slow line crawl along. I can even imagine myself muttering, “Don’t these people understand that I’m trying to get to a part of the world where I can be the hands and feet of Jesus?! Let’s MOVE IT people!”

May God grant me the grace to realize that perhaps those for whom He wants me to be his hands and feet are right here in this slow moving airport line. Perhaps the blessing I am to be is to the scowling agent at the counter; the one who has received nothing but abuse from unruly passengers all day.

Less than a century ago this journey would have taken 6 months to a year to complete. Now, I’ll be at my destination in mere hours. May I be less concerned that my luggage has survived intact, and more focused on seeing my character survive the journey.

In what circumstances do you find your character is put to the test?

How do you ensure your character passes these tests?

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A Leadership Lesson from Ice Cream Cake

July 16, 2010 in Disciplinie, Leadership, Leadership Summit, Temptation, Uncategorized, random by Scott Cochrane | 4 comments

I did something remarkably stupid the other day.

It was so ridiculous I can’t believe I not only did this, but also that I’m about to tell you about it.

I had just completed a 10k run along Okanagan Lake, and returned home feeling great. I went to the freezer to get ice to put in a glass of water and was confronted with a left-over ice cream birthday cake from Dairy Queen.

I ate it. I ate it ALL.

I sat down on my deck, admiring the view of where I had just run, and ate a thick slice of ice cream cake.

As I wiped the last bit of chocolate icing from my chin, it was only then that I paused to consider the absurdity of the situation. Here I had done something reasonably healthy in completing a good run, and had basically nullified its effectiveness by wolfing down a million calories and a boat-load of fat from this ice cream cake.

Now, at the risk of hammering an illustration pretty hard, I think we sometimes do this in our leadership. I’ll call this the Ice Cream Cake Syndrome.

I’ve noticed, for example, that a lot of people attend The Leadership Summit every year, get all fired up about their leadership, but immediately afterwards put their conference binders on the shelf, never to refer to them again. They then plow back in to the grind of daily life.

It’s kinda like eating ice cream cake after a run. By not paying attention to ongoing leadership development, it nullifies a lot of the benefit of the Summit experience itself.

At a recent gathering of our Summit host pastors from across Canada we asked them how they place the Summit in the context of an ongoing leadership development plan. Check out their answers in this 2 minute video and see if it sparks some ideas for you.

What is your plan for ongoing leadership development?

Let me know how you develop your own ongoing leadership development plan and I’ll share these with other leaders. And let’s commit to avoiding the Ice Cream Cake Syndrome!

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Why My Best Day is the Day I Plan Nothing

July 6, 2010 in Development, Disciplinie, Leadership, action by Scott Cochrane | No comments

If you were to look at my Outlook Calendar, two things would stand out.

First of all, from Monday to Thursday you’d find that I schedule everything. Everything! I work ruthlessly to align my daily calendar with my highest priorities, and I’ve learned that for me, if I don’t pro-actively drop my ‘big rocks’ into my calendar well in advance, then a whole bunch of lesser priorities will simply work their way into my day.

But then you’d notice that Fridays are very different. This has been an experiment I’ve been working on for about a year, and so far I really like the results.

My Fridays are basically wide open. I book nothing and accept no appointments, meetings, phone calls, etc.

My goal is to spend no less than 20% of my work week on long-term vision and strategy. And I’ve found that if I don’t carve out this time on Friday my attention will naturally gravitate towards operational issues. Without my Friday strategy I might start the week hoping that I’ll find time to focus on the long term, but inevitably the weekend will roll around and I’ll look back and find that the tyranny of the urgent had overtaken me yet again.

So now I come into the office on Friday fired up about a full day devoted to a time window of about 18 to 36 months out. This can include:

  • Relationship building
  • Research
  • Strategy work
  • Personal development

What it excludes is any activity whose results would be found within the current year. Such work is operational, and I’ve given myself four days a week to play in that sandbox.

In your leadership world, and with your particular wiring, you may find a different way to accomplish this. But the discipline of long term thinking is very important, however you make it work.

How do you maintain a balance between operational priorities and long-term thinking?

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Leading Through Meetings

June 29, 2010 in Community, Development, Leadership, action by Scott Cochrane | 1 comment

As a leader do you find meetings to be an interruption in your day, or as an opportunity to exercise your leadership?

In a recent coaching session with a group of pastors near Victoria, BC, Bill Hybels said, “You’d be amazed how much of my leadership I do in meetings.”

Well, this week I found myself in a leadership laboratory, where I put Hybels’ principle to the test.

It fell on me to chair our church’s semi-annual members meeting. As chairman of the meeting it wasn’t my place to overtly direct the congregation one way or the other. In our context the chair’s job is to facilitate the members’ decision-making process.

Having watched masterful leaders handle this job with excellence, there were 3 “Leading through Meetings” principles I attempted to exercise:

1. Setting a congenial tone of openness.

The leader must establish from the outset that this is a safe place to contribute opinions and ideas.

2. Keeping the main thing the main thing.

The leader must communicate the critical items to be accomplished and ensure that “lesser” items do not hijack the proceedings.

3. Getting the ball over the goal line.

A leader’s intuition must tell him when to wrap up discussion and to move to a decision; too soon and it can appear manipulative; too late and the discussion runs the danger of losing focus and momentum.

In the end, the meeting was a success, great decisions were reached on key items, and there was a positive sense of accomplishment among the members.

Bottom line? I think Hybels is right. Meetings should not be viewed as obstacles in our way, but as critical opportunities to exercise our leadership.

How do you leverage your leadership in meetings?

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The Power of Trusting Your Pilot

March 26, 2010 in Canadian, Disciplinie, Leadership, Tension, Uncategorized, action, joy by Scott Cochrane | No comments

airplaneMy role with The Leadership Centre Willow Creek Canada requires a fair amount of travel, and it was on one such trip several years ago that God drove home an important leadership lesson that has never left me.

I needed to fly from Kelowna to Regina, and I found out a couple of weeks in advance that instead of Air Canada or Westjet I’d be flown there in a small, private propeller airplane.

I was not happy about this trip. In fact, I was scared silly. This was a small plane; it was like a Volkswagen Beetle with wings. And just the thought of flying in this tiny plane over the Rocky Mountains filled me with dread.

I talked to one fellow who had flown on this plane before. He told me that one of the biggest differences I’d find flying in this plane versus a commercial aircraft is that, when you fly on Air Canada or Westjet over the Rockies, you’ll look down and say, “Oh look…there’s a river…there’s a lake…” But when you fly in this little plane you’ll look down and say, “Oh look, there’s a squirrel”…

But then an interesting thing happened. About a week before I was to leave, I met the plane’s owner who was also the pilot. His name was John, and I discovered that the more I talked with John, and the more I found out about his experience as a pilot, I found that my anxiety about the trip was slipping away.

You see, not only did I now know the pilot, but more importantly I had confidence in the one who was literally in control of my life. And I discovered what a profound difference it makes when the pilot is not some anonymous person who happens to wear a white shirt with wings on the collar, but instead is someone you know, someone you have personally found to be trustworthy.

That experience has helped me enormously when I’m facing a daunting leadership decision or challenge. Because it reminds me that in Christ we have the most trustworthy of “pilots” who is right there with us.

Leaders face decisions and challenges that can easily cause us to feel overwhelmed. But remembering to have confidence that Christ is in control, it changes everything.

How does the reality of Jesus’ trustworthiness impact your leadership?

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Learning to Weather the Storms of Ministry Criticism

March 23, 2010 in Community, Disciplinie, Leadership, Leadership Summit, action, joy by Scott Cochrane | No comments

This week we posted the 2010 Global Leadership Summit faculty lineup via a Webcast. This, to me, is one of the strongest lineups ever assembled for the Summit.

Every year we receive feedback from many church leaders who love the lineup, and we receive some feedback critical of some speaker selections.

The question our staff was asking me this week was “how will we respond to criticism and complaint?”

“It all depends on the tone,” I replied. From the tone of the criticism you can usually tell if the person genuinely seeks to contribute toward a Kingdom “win” or if they’re simply advancing a personal agenda (or indeed a vendetta!).

The biblical example I use as my filter is found in Acts 18, where Priscilla and Aquila listened to Apollos’ slightly off-base teaching. Verse 26 says that, “When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.”

Here are the ingredients of Kingdom-minded criticism:

  • Really LISTENING. Priscilla and Aquila heard Apollos. There’s no evidence that that they did anything beyond sitting quietly and respectfully paid attention to what Apollos was saying.
  • Genuine CARE. They invited him to their home. There was no public embarrassment. The setting was private. It was respectful.
  • Thoughtful COACHING. They explained to him. They didn’t blog “10 Things We Hate about Apollos” or “3 Signs of Heresy in Apollos’ Teachings.”

To those who simply post shrill blogs, which serve only to tear down rather than build up, I pay no attention whatsoever.

But when the criticisms come, and they will, I will spend time in dialogue with anyone who approaches us in the spirit of Priscilla and Aquila. Even if we remain in disagreement, a Kingdom-minded discussion is always welcomed and worthwhile.

How do you handle criticism in ministry?
How do you promote constructive criticism in ministry?

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Canada’s Secret Olympic Formula

March 4, 2010 in Canadian, Development, Leadership, joy by Scott Cochrane | No comments

Like almost every other Canadian, I find myself scrambling to share my post-Olympic reflections. Everyone, it seems, resonated with a different element of the Canadian Olympic experience, whether it be the exuberance of the downtown crowds, the compelling stories of perseverance or the new-found confidence Canadians seemed to develop in themselves through this experience.

But for me my single overwhelming takeaway can be boiled down to a simple yet profound formula.

“5” multiplied by “X” equals “26”.

Let me unpack this.

The “5” represents the total medal “haul” Canadian athletes achieved the last time Canada hosted the winter games, back in 1988 in Calgary. The “26”, of course, is this year’s medal count.

“X” is whatever happened in the intervening 22 years to produce this five-fold increase in results.

Let’s be clear. Canada didn’t drift into that increase. Canada was not “lucky” this time out. Something very deliberate took place to see us go from 0 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze in 1988 to 14 gold, 7 silver and 5 bronze in 2010.

In a word, it was leadership.

It took leadership to declare that 5 medals was unacceptable.

It took leadership to set a goal to see an increase in medals.

It took leadership to put together a plan to achieve those results, then to cast the vision, secure the funds and ensure execution.

Can you imagine what would happen if we saw that level of leadership multiply over and over in Canadian churches?

With the power of the Holy Spirit infusing fired-up, well trained and equipped Christian leaders, the results would far surpass just a few Olympic medals. The results would be a Church against which the gates of hell could not prevail.

What is your leadership development plan, and what results do you hope to achieve?

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A Dream for Year-Round Leadership Development

February 15, 2010 in Development, Disciplinie, Leadership, Leadership Summit by LeadersVillageDZ | 2 comments

I’ve just emerged from our annual Willow Creek Association International Council meetings in Frankfurt, Germany, where we poured enormous energy into looking at how to extend the impact of our annual leadership conference, The Leadership Summit.

These three days have left me with an even greater sense of resolve as to my core beliefs about The Summit:

  1. I believe this is the best leadership conference available for church leaders. Period.
  2. I believe that churches that bring teams of leaders to this annual event are poised to make significant Kingdom advances.
  3. I believe that unless The Leadership Summit is embedded in a broader leadership development strategy, its full potential impact will not be achieved in the life of the leader, nor the life of the church he or she leads.

Year after year I see church vans and buses pull up to the doors of our Summit sites across Canada, with teams of 5, 10, 20 or more pouring out, ready to have their leadership tanks filled yet again. And as they drive away a couple of days later I think to myself, “I hope you have next steps mapped out for your leadership development.”

And that brings me to the next leg of my journey. I’m in Toronto’s Pearson International Airport now, having just flown in from Frankfurt, and I’m ready to board my connecting flight to Atlanta, Georgia. There I’ll be meeting with leaders from ministries committed to ongoing leadership training. My goal is to partner with as many as 4 or 5 leadership development organizations; to help us lay down “training tracks” for leaders to run on after the Summit.

Imagine if the impact of The Summit could be maximized by leading directly into a leadership development training program for you and your church! That’s the dream. And I trust that this coming week we’ll be closer to making that dream a reality.

Time to board my flight. Please pray for God’s leading and wisdom!

How intentional are you about mapping out your leadership development strategy? What development opportunities have been most helpful for you?

Share your thoughts by adding a comment!

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The Daily Practice that Fuels My Day

January 13, 2010 in Disciplinie, Leadership by LeadersVillageDZ | 2 comments

The mechanic who handed me back the keys to my truck the other day gave me much more than a smooth running vehicle. He also gave me a powerful reminder of something I sometimes take for granted.

It’s the power of not only keeping a spiritual journal, but of revisiting it…often.

My friend the mechanic said, “Scott, years ago you mentioned how you not only keep a spiritual journal, but that you re-read previous entries. I’ve started doing this, and the difference it has made in my life is incredible.”

This exchange reminded me again just how powerful this practice has been in my own life. The practice is really very simple. I take time most (not all) mornings to jot down my reflections as to what God is doing in my life. Sometimes I write out my prayers, and other times I’ll just vent on paper.

I started this in the mid-‘90s, and have kept it going almost every day ever since.

But the power, I discovered, was when I got in the habit of re-reading entries from the past. The rhythm I’ve gotten into is to read what I journaled on this day ten, five, one year previous. What this has done for me is to:

  1. Remind me of God’s faithfulness: There’s nothing like being reminded about something you were praying about in the past, and then remembering how God answered that prayer.
  2. Give me boldness in my prayer life: Anytime I see God’s faithfulness in print (in my own handwriting) it tends to “up the voltage” in how I pray today.
  3. Start my day with a renewed sense of gratitude: When you have a daily dose of remembering God’s goodness it changes your outlook.

If you’re looking for renewed spiritual vitality in 2010, give it a try… and stick with it. I’m confident you’ll find the results worth the brief investment of time.

What spiritual practices have been most powerful in your life?