8 characteristics of a Linchpin or Hustler or whatever

July 7, 2010 in Leadership with 1 Comment

There’s a certain intangible I want to be true of myself and the people on my team. I can’t completely put my finger on it, but for now I call it the ability to be a hustler. Seth Godin calls them linchpins. Whatever the name is here are the characteristic’s I’m thinking about.

  • Sincere desire and motivation to move ahead on tough projects.
  • In all areas not content with the status quo.
  • Constantly evaluating things and dreaming about making them better. “What if…?”
  • Initiates change, relationships, projects, ideas, etc.
  • Works hard, but can rest well.
  • Doesn’t wait to be asked to do something. See’s the opportunity and acts on it…get’s things done.
  • Asks great questions  and constantly learning
  • Energized when discussing how to make vision succeed

Is there a better name for this intangible characteristic? One of the bigger questions in my mind right now is how can the leadership development in our organization foster this? Any thoughts?

P.S. Shana Brennan was my inspiration for this blog post. She demonstrates all of these characteristics to the max. I want to be like her when I grow up.

Apple customer service

June 18, 2010 in Technology with 0 Comments

Recently I had debilitating computer problems. Running the gauntlett of customer service was not something I was particularly excited about. Although computer problems are a pain in the patuki, Apple made it as easy as possible. Here’s the things I appreciated about the experience. (Keep in mind I paid for Apple Care last year so everything was free)

  • With their online site you can schedule your service call or have them call you immediately. Brilliant! No waiting on the phone for hours.
  • Everyone I talked to was an American. Not that I don’t value international service, but there was no communication barrier at all. Helpful when dealing with technical info.
  • Tracking me with a case number and generous note-taking they immediately scheduled a Genius bar appointment at the local Mac store and I didn’t have to explain myself again.
  • I don’t know what Apple’s hiring methods are, but they do a great job of hiring the right people for the job. Every customer service expert was a great communicator, friendly and incredibly knowledgeable.

Yep, something broke on my “infallible” Mac and even though it was a pain to be without my computer for a couple of days I was pleased with my Apple customer service.

What I learned about Apple was that customer service wasn’t an afterthought. They value the customer’s experience of their company enough to make the process great. Although Apple isn’t perfect I’m starting to understand people loyalty to their brand.

What does this teach us about people experience with our organization?

Two lists (Making Ideas Happen)

June 16, 2010 in Innovation, Uncategorized with 2 Comments

In life there are important things and there are urgent things.

I’ve heard that some people struggle with letting the urgent take over their lives.  I can’t believe you weak people struggle with that! If you were like me…a rock of intentionality and eye-of-the-tiger discipline, you would never deal with that.

One of the tips in Scott Belsky’s book Making Ideas Happen is to create two to-do lists. One for the urgent items and another for important ones.

Long-term goals and priorities deserve a list of their own and should not compete agains the urgent items that can easily consume your day. Once you have two lists, you can preserve different periods of time to focus on each.

For me it’s a matter of stewardship of my time.  I’m gonna try this tip and rearrange my process of planning and see how it goes. Let me know if it works for you.

Photo courtesy of Noca

Is a smartphone necessary?

June 7, 2010 in Technology with 1 Comment

With the release of the iPhone 4 today comes another round of “what’s next?” with smartphones. Basically they function as little mobile computers now and are becoming more and more integrated in how we function day to day.

So this got me thinking. My laptop is an integral part of my job. Without it I cannot complete work that is necessary. In fact it’s basically required to own one on staff with Campus Crusade. So when is my smartphone going to move into the same category? Maybe a better question is when should we move it into the same category?

Creativity + Organization = Impact

May 31, 2010 in Innovation with 0 Comments

100 x 0 = 0

50 x 2 = 100

If the impact of our ideas is, in fact largely determined by our ability to stay organized, then we would observe that those with tons of creativity but little to no organization yield, on average, nothing.

- Scott Belsky – Making Ideas Happen

How are your margins?

May 20, 2010 in Leadership, Uncategorized with 1 Comment

In the midst of moving to a new city, expanding our financial support team and getting ready to launch a new metro ministry, my margins have been thin lately.

Five years ago I would have struggled with the stress of this season of life, but right now I’m doing pretty good because of a few things I’ve learned along the way.

  1. It’s only a season. Things will either calm down naturally or I’ll start weeding some things out soon.
  2. Change and being uncomfortable has an incredible influence on my walk with God. Stepping into the unknown forces my dependence on the Lord. I’m so thankful for that.
  3. I don’t need to control everything. My significance is not found how well I have life under control or how many of our pictures we’ve actually hung on the walls of our new house.

Just some thoughts for you. I hope they’re encouraging wherever you’re at. How have you dealt with thin margins in your life?

Social Media Revolution 2

May 7, 2010 in Technology with 1 Comment

Socialnomics just updated their video that I’ve posted about a few times. It’s compelling.

I experienced the Social Media revolution yesterday when I tweeted about a bad experience with Belkin and Comcast products and BOTH companies contacted me via twitter to fix my problem. Good job listening by those major corporations!

Why technology in ministry?

April 29, 2010 in Technology with 1 Comment

Today I got a text from a fellow staff member asking for help on leading a discussion about why technology can benefit ministry. For this post I’ll focus in on why Social Media is important for ministry. Obviously this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Here’s what I’d do with 20 minutes in a staff meeting.

  • I would show this video on Social Media or this video about Return on Investment and discuss them.
  • I believe that we all have an innate desire to connect with others relationally. Social media is social! I would discuss how social media is a tool that spurs on the building of relationships if we’re intentional and not just using a bullhorn technique.
  • I would give specific examples of how you’ve seen value in social media. Perhaps you’ve connected with students about something you saw them post online or you can use my examples here and here.
  • I’d talk about how you can align your use of social media to your specific ministry goals. If your goal is to connect more people to your ministry or perhaps involving students in evangelism…it can be done online!
  • Lastly I’d talk about baby steps. You don’t have to do everything! I’d start with Facebook and figure out how to make a few minutes count each day.

That’s it…easy right? Not so fast… if you’ve got unlimited time I’d make you watch this.

What’s your best argument for using social media in ministry? How do you cast vision and align people to using it?

Idea of the week

April 24, 2010 in Innovation, Technology with 17 Comments

I have an idea.

If you are on staff with CCC, you might remember the 250 book from a while ago. It was a book that compiled 250 of the best outreach ideas from CCC campus ministries around the nation

I actually used it for inspiration a bunch of times….back in the day.

So here’s my idea. What if we had an online version? What if we had a way for staff in the campus ministry to upload their best evangelism outreach ideas on to one specific site. And let’s get crazy, what if we had the ability to leave comments and rate the ideas like we do on Amazon.com? Think about the engagement you could have. Think about the filtering of bad ideas you could have. You could have categories like 1-1 evangelism or large group outreach. I think it might just work.

As far as I know there is nothing like this. But how cool would it be if I could see what the Boston Metro team is doing, borrow an idea and and tweak it to fit my context. It could spur on new ideas in your context and move us forward quicker.

Sharing is good right?

Does this idea have value? Any problems with it? How could I make this happen?

Photo courtesy of Simon Gurr

Does “not for profit” mean you have an excuse?

April 20, 2010 in Innovation, Leadership with 4 Comments

Do we use our non-profit status to settle for less than excellence in what we do?

Last weekend I was sitting through ten hours of adoption class.  Saturday the instructor, bless her heart, was filling in for someone on vacation and winging it through a powerpoint presentation. It was rough. It was really rough. At one point while fiddling with the computer she made a joke under her breath about being a not-for-profit organization.

Everyone laughed. Including me.

But that got me thinking. The organization I work for is a non-profit organization. I don’t have all the resources I want. Like an old foundation on a house the disease of settling creeps in.

Business as usual creeps in. Settling for mediocre creeps in because we have an excuse.

I don’t want to lead or follow Christ with that perspective. I don’t want to settle.  I don’t want to use my position as full-time self-funded missionary as an excuse to settle for mediocre. I hope you don’t either.

What keeps you for settling for the status-quo?

Photo courtesy of Voxphoto

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