Leadership Lesson: Be More Interested Than ‘Awesome’.

I was eating lunch with a pastor recently when the conversation just began to turn weird.  It was slowly dawning on me that he had initiated lunch with me to tell me how awesome his church was.

Now, this is a wonderful, kingdom-focused organization.  And I’m all about learning from others and taking whatever help we can get to push the mission of our church and the BIG-C church forward.

And to be fair, it could have been that poor messaging on his part caused me to misunderstand his objective.

Even so, I walked away from that meeting more “turned off” to this organization than “turned on.”  

I think at a basic level, if you have to tell someone how awesome your organization is, it may be that you’re not quite as awesome as you think.  If you were REALLY that awesome, you wouldn’t have to tell anybody.

Even more than that, it matters how we present ourselves to EVERYONE, especially those we may be able to serve.

Here are two thoughts on how we present ourselves to potential recruits, clients, or proteges.

1. Be more interested in people’s problems (and potential ways you can help solve them) than in communicating how ‘awesome’ you are (or your organization is).

At the end of the day, people want to know how you can help THEM, not how lucky they are that they’ve happened upon a winner like YOU.  In most cases, the truly gifted will already recognize that you’ve got something to offer.

I’m not saying that there aren’t important moments to humbly educate someone on differences in quality or the robust procedures you use to solve problems.  

Tell me, bro!  But impress me with your level of intentionality, your thoroughness of process, and your quality of service.

Being interested in MY world will make me want to make room for YOU in it.

2. Be more interested in one or two unique challenges THEY are facing, as opposed to presenting YOURSELF as their perfect stepping stone.

When we focus on actually practically serving people with compassion and excellence, they become convinced THEMSELVES that we may be able to help in additional ways. 

Of course, this will take some listening.

• Where are they up against a wall?
• Where are they feeling pressure?
• Where can you dignify what they are already doing?

Forget being their savior for a minute and just find some way you can be helpful, warm, affirming, or bolstering.

I’ve found that people can sense when we have an agenda.

And perhaps the best antidote to this is to regularly pray that we actually WOULDN’T HAVE ONE, except for the desire to express the love of Jesus through being a help in some tangible way.

And maybe more ways later.

Leadership Lesson: Be More Interested Than ‘Awesome’.

Servant-King,

Help me to see past my own agendas and task lists to see the burdens and difficulties of others today.  I want to be as helpful to as many people as possible, and the only one I want to look awesome is You.  Would You change my heart and give me creative ideas on how I can boost others today? And would You help me to trust that You’ll give me the right amount of influence with the right people at the right time? 

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Posted on April 15, 2018