Leadership Gold.Prayer at 60

John Maxwell gave this prayer at the age of 60 after playing many plays on the business field and the non profit field:

"Lord, as i grow older, i think i want to be know as...

Thoughtful, rather than gifted,
Loving, verses quick or bright,
Gentle, over being powerful,
A listener, more than a great communicator,
Available, rather than a hard worker,
Sacrificial, instead of successful,
Reliable, not famous,
Content, more than driven,
Self-Controlled, rather than exiting,
Generous, instead of rich, and
Compassionate, more than competent.

Life wont let you progress without a price."

What a prayer. How many of these are you the rather than the first? Pick three. For me - Thoughtful-Self-controlled and Generous are my three that i would like to be better known for at 60.

We have reached our final session on Friday. I wonder if any of you have learned anything over the past several weeks.

• Have you changed anything?
  
• Have you grown?


• Have you journaled?
  

Will you remember anything after 48 hours of your final session other than that you were there. Studies suggest that you WONT! unless you write 2 or three things down that your really want to take away from these 26 lessons.

Here's one of mine:

1. Lesson 9-To see how the leader is doing, look at the people.

I would rather be Favre or Manning than TO-Doing my best to help my teammates rather than tear them down. Always taking responsiblity for my actions as well taking accountabity and ownership for my team's actions regardless of who's at fault.

Did you learn? See you Friday.

leadership Gold.L17-19

Are you a connector? Chances are your wife, sister or female significant other is better at it, or is she? How do guys connect verses women? Blog back.

Leadership Lesson 19 requires that we be Connectors not just climbers. Trouble is most of our training has been to climb, to win, to defeat everyone around us. Then and only then do we succeed.

Is this true? What does the bible say?

Maxwell says that connectors focus on relationships but climbers focus on position. What are you focused on? How about your family? Are you relying on your position as Dad - husband verses the relationship with your wife and kids?

Let me take you back to James 1: "Consider it pure joy my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,3 becuause you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and ocmplete, not lacking anything."

Consider it pure joy.... Are you kidding? Pure joy when we face trials? That is a tough task. What is pure joy for you? Winning? Be honest, do you have true joy when you end up connecting with someone or when you beat someone? God's word never said it would be easy but it will be rewarding.

I challenge you all to research and journal this idea of connecting with others and really think to what true joy is and should be to you.

Ledership Gold L5-9

So, who would you rather be? Brett Favre, Peyton Manning or T.O.?

Lesson 5-10:

5: never work a day in your life

6: the best leaders are listeners

7: get in your zone and stay there

8: first, define reality

9: to see how the leader is doing, look at the people

10: dont send your ducks to eagle school

Bottom line - are you generally lifting others up or tearing them down. Are the problems mostly someone elses fault or are you taking responsibility as a good quarterback like farve and manning verses the t.o. approach. Nothing against t.o. - he's a great ball player but as far as leading your family, your friends and your professional collegues we should take heart to be more like a Manning leader.

Did you journal today? Why not? Chickens!

See you Friday.

Leadership Gold L.3-4

Lesson 3: Defining Moments define your leadership.

What have been your defining moments? Are you in one now? What are you doing about it?

DID ANYONE JOURNAL THIS WEEK?

Have you learned anything this week that demands that you pause and redirect, try it again or simply just be thankful for the lesson?

Lesson 4: When you get kicked in the rear, you know you're out front.

Its amazing how much we all - be honest - we all dislike advice and criticism. We love giving it but taking it is another story. Chances are, you give more than you actually receive. This is one issue where giving isn't necessarily better than receiving. One of my favorite quotes of all time by Ken Blanchard: "Some people are like sea gulls. When something goes wrong, they fly in, make a lot of noise and crap all over everything."

Are you a sea gull?

Leadership Gold.L1-2

We are off and running with our new series. WOW. What a powerful group of ideas this is going to be. 26 of the best of the best lessons you could probably get anywhere.

We also have some amazing companies in our group from the entrepreneur to Pfizer, KB Home, Architects and more. This is brewing up to be one heck of a conversation. So, here we go:

John's Recommendation reminder: Don't just sit through these meetings. Highlight and put a letter beside each one as either:
a. Lesson that you want to learn-apply to your life.
c. Lesson that you need to change-ones that you have been applying wrong.
t. Lesson that you want to pass on to someone else.

Modeling is the best leadership trait - by example!

Lesson 1: If its lonely at the top, you're not doing something right.
Lonliness is not a position issue; its a personality issue.
Read Phillipians 2

Lesson 2: The toughest person to lead is always yourself.
only a leader who has followed well knows how to lead others well.

See you all on Friday. Bring a friend-no charge.

Overtime 1.3

Book 1, chapters 1-3 are history.

What have you learned?

1. the iceberg teaches us that we need to lead ourselves before we lead others.

2. the starving baker teaches us we need to feed ourselves before others

3. the golden Buddha teaches us we must read ourselves before others.

Last week, we discussed our own personal God given strengths and abilities. Many fantastic stories were shared such as Rob's call to raise his boys with Jesus, Jeff's (the coach) call to start a new business, David's call to restart life, Ron's passion for ministry and listening to others, Dennis' ability to pull on others and recruit on God's behalf.

What ever your story is, it is, just that: Your own very personal story. I don't know why we spend so much time comparing ourselves to others when God has made us all so unique and special in our own way. It has something to do with competition i would imagine.

So, our journey continues. This week: Chapter 4. Come prepared to discuss the thermostat vs the thermometer. Be sure to read Luke 6:46-49.

Overtime

The name change. Happy hour was a little too much for the staff, so we are changing our small group name to Overtime. This is the third tier in the blg pyramid above programing and entry points.

Our mission: To gain closer personal relationships with God and each other. Our new study is "Habitudes". Check out: http://www.habitudes.org/

This 4 book series will take us through a journey of leadership and connecting with others in a style that you have not likely seen before. Join us every Friday from 6:30 to 7:30 at the main building of Cornerstone.

To the group---Starting this FRIDAY, March 20th, all discussions about blg-connect and blg-simulcast will be between 6am and 6:30 am. We will promptly beging our Habitudes series this week at 6:30. I will have 5 copies if you need to purchase a copy of the books.

Also, please reach out to any colegues that you feel will benefit from this series.

Happy Hour

We are off to a great start.
Summary of our last few meeitngs:

We will be a stand alone ministry going forward as it is just too difficult to fit under mens only. Too many women are seeking our programs as well. We will structure ourselves along the same pyimaid growth diagram as other ministries.