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Archives for August 2014

How Dictators Operate

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From Hans Finzel, in his excellent book The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make.

How dictators operate:

  1. They hoard decisions.
  2. They view truth and wisdom as primarily their domain.
  3. They restrict decisions to an elite group.
  4. They surprise their workers with edicts from above.

How facilitators lead:

  1. They delegate decisions.
  2. They involve others as much as possible.
  3. They view truth and wisdom as being distributed throughout the organization.
  4. They are developers.
  5. They see people as their greatest resources for ideas that will bring success.
  6. They give their people space to make decisions.
  7. They let those who are responsible decide how jobs will be done.

Why Autocratic Leadership So Often Goes Unnoticed

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We often think that the autocratic, top-down leader is a mean person with bad intent. Hence, when it seems that a leader is nice and genuinely wants the good of the people he is leading, we can easily fall into the notion that he must therefore be a servant leader.

But this is actually incorrect. It failures to recognize what autocratic leadership really is and, conversely, what servant leadership really is.

Being an autocratic leader is not first about being mean, and being a servant leader is not first about being nice.

Rather, the difference lies in the way you view the scope of your authority. 

The Heart of Servant Leadership: Recognizing Your Limited Authority

The essence of servant leadership is not being in charge but just being nice about it, but rather recognizing the limits of your authority and that people are capable of and deserving of being self-directed. The servant leader thus seeks to empower rather than control.

Autocratic leaders, on the other hand, think they have more authority than they really do. They don’t realize the limits of their authority. Further, they often think that as long as they seek to use their authority for good, that that is enough to make them a servant leader. But it is not, because to think you have more authority than you really do is, by definition, domineering — regardless of your intentions for how you will use that authority.

Here is an example from the world of government. Let’s say the US was a monarchy and we had a king. Now, let’s say the king decided that we could read certain books, but not others. Further, let’s say this king has good intentions in his decree. He sincerely believes that if people are able to read the books he has banned, it will harm them. He has issued his decree for the good of his people.

Is this monarch a servant leader, or a dictator?

He is a dictator, because he has exceeded the scope of his authority. It does not matter that his intentions are good; he is exerting authority in an area over which he does not have any. That makes him a dictator. He may be a benevolent dictator, but he is still a dictator.

From this we see that the essence of being a dictator lies not in your intentions, but in your whole approach to leadership — whether you accept the God-given limits on your power.

Though of course our nation has its problems, our democracy (republic) is a helpful example of institutionalized servant leadership. The president does not have unlimited authority over us; there are limits on his (or her!) power. Further, we believe that these limits aren’t simply chosen by convention, but arise from real natural rights that people have, and which not even government has the right to infringe.

The Corollary to Limited Authority: Respecting People’s Rights

This is the essence of servant leadership, and it applies to all areas of leadership, not just government — organizations, churches, non-profits, and everywhere else. The servant leader respects people’s rights. The servant leader recognizes that all humans are created in the image of God and thus have a certain right to self-direction over which the leader has no right to infringe. 

The essence of servant leadership is to realize that having true intentions for the good of those you lead means respecting that reality about people. In other words, truly seeking the good of the people you lead means that you don’t simply have a good end in mind, but also good means in your leadership. And good “means” in leadership means leading in a way that acknowledges and fully respects people’s independence and initiative. It means you seek to therefore lead chiefly through influence and principles, not control.

This brings us back to the benevolent dictator. Though he may have had good intentions, his approach is not even going to have good results. It won’t have good results because it goes against people’s God-given rights. By failing to respect their autonomy, it fails to respect their judgment. It will therefore fail to develop mature individuals. It will create a dependency on him as the leader, rather than growing up people into maturity — which is the true aim of leadership.

I hope to blog on the difference between autocratic leadership and servant leadership more in the coming weeks. But from this, note at least this key point: if we think the essence of servant leadership is simply that the leader has good intentions, we have misunderstood the real nature of servant leadership. That is why autocratic leadership often goes undetected — we too easily think it simply means having bad intentions in leadership (or being mean) and have failed to realize that at its root, autocratic leadership is about leading chiefly from authority rather than influence.

Don’t fall into the benevolent authoritarian view of leadership. Realize that truly seeking the good of those you lead means seeking to lead through empowering them, not controlling them.

The Five Components of Effective Delegation

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My article for Catalyst on The Five Components of Effective Delegation is now up at their site. Here’s the start:

WITH SO MANY THINGS ON OUR TO-DO LISTS AND SO MANY NEW THINGS COMING AT US EVERY DAY, HOW DO WE STAY ABOVE WATER AS LEADERS?

One common answer is delegation. That’s good advice, but it’s often incomplete. The problem is that we often aren’t taught how to delegate effectively. As a result, when we finally overcome the mistake of not delegating at all, we easily end up making the other mistake of delegating in the wrong way. Unfortunately, this mistake can be even worse! Bad delegation results in frustration, confusion, and discouragement for the people we delegate to.

So how do we delegate in a way that works? That is, what does real delegation actually look like, and how do we do it?

Read the whole thing.

Apple's Marketing Philosophy

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This is the marketing philosophy that Steve Jobs learned from Mike Markkula in the early days of Apple, as summarized in Isaacson’s biography Steve Jobs. It clearly continued to guide Jobs’ thinking through his entire career and very much goes to the core of what sets Apple apart.

First of all, though, a point on business in general: “You should never start a company with the goal of getting rich. Your goal should be making something you believe in and making a company that will last.”

That is foundational to the next three points, because if you are only doing your business to make money, then it will be impossible to have the genuine passion for meeting customer needs that is essential for creating a long-lasting, effective company that people actually like. The foundation of effective marketing is one thing: to care.

Now, the three points on marketing.

  1. Empathy. Have an intimate connection with the feelings of the customer. “We will truly understand their needs better than any other company.”
  2. Focus. “In order to do a good job of those things that we decide to do, we must eliminate all of the unimportant opportunities.”
  3. Impute. “People form an opinion about a company or product based on the signals that it conveys.” Thus, “if we present [our products] in a slipshod manner, they will be perceived as slipshod; if we present them in a creative, professional manner, we will impute the desired qualities.” Hence, even the experience of opening the box is intended to “set the tone for how you perceive the product.”

Does the Gospel Change the Way We Work?

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My interview on What’s Best Next with Stephen McGarvey, editorial director of Salem Web Network, has been posted over at Crosswalk.com.

Stephen asked great questions and the interview was a lot of fun! We talk about how this book is different from other productivity books on the market, why we need to start with God in our definition of productivity, the place of generosity in our productivity, and much more.

Martin Luther King on the Importance of Being Unconventional

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The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority. ― Martin Luther King Jr.

Here’s another way to say it: God doesn’t call us to defend the status quo. He calls us to defend and pursue what is right. Sometimes, that’s the way things are currently done. But many times it isn’t.

We need to be able to identify the difference, and have the courage to create change where it is needed.

Speaking at Catalyst Labs October 1st

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Come to Catalyst Atlanta this October 1 – 3!

Catalyst is the best leadership conference for young leaders who love the church. If you’ve never been to Catalyst before, it’s unlike any conference you’ve ever been to. It’s exciting, innovative, and yet grounded in excellent content and substance. Here’s a short description:

Catalyst unifies change makers — equipping you with impactful content and experiences that transform thinking, provoke action and cultivate community. We’re challenging leaders who love the Church to break the bounds of an ordinary existence and find the courage to embrace and radiate bold change.

Main speakers this year include Andy Stanley, Matt Chandler, Craig Groeschel, Tim Keller, John Perkins, and more.

If you come on October 1st, the day before the main conference starts, you can attend Catalyst Labs. I’ll be doing a lab session and would  love to see you. The title of my session is: All the Good You Can: How the Gospel Changes the Way You Lead, Get Things Done, and Change the World.

I believe it is possible to change the world, and that God in fact calls us to do so. It isn’t just an inspirational idea or a dream of people who like to think in big terms without doing the hard work to create that change. But we do need to understand changing the world in a God-centered way, and we need to understand how this affects the way we lead and the way we get things done. God has a particular way in which he wants us to change the world. We need to know what that is and how it affects everything we do. So that’s what I’ll be talking about in my session.

You can learn more about Catalyst Atlanta at the website, and register here. It would be great to see you there!

(And here’s a great, quick video on the vision for the conference: