Loyalty

Loyalty...such a menial trait in today's world.  It seems as if loyalty is a passing theme.  Nobody ever wants to be loyal past their own selfish desires.  We no longer care about the big picture nor do we care about sticking around and helping the "big picture" come to pass.  We are only as loyal as our own comfort levels allow us to be.  We have reached a point where it doesn't matter what the goal is or how far we've gotten toward the goal, if our feelings or pride is hurt, or we feel like the side we're on stopped being the right side we will up and quit and move on. 

In the book of Revelation Jesus says "I would that you were hot or cold, but since you are lukewarm I will spew you out of my mouth."  This hot or cold that he wants you to be is loyal to something beyond your comfort level.  But nowadays we are lukewarm.  We try not to commit to anything just in case it's the wrong choice.  We decide to quit at the slightest sign of trouble or struggle.  This is hurting us in the long run though.  There are so many blogs and articles saying it's alright to quit.  We are destroying our future due to our inability to stay "in it" for the long run. 

I notice this trend in all areas of life.  Leaders are only good as long as they're pleasing the people.  Once that goes out the window then we throw leaders under the bus.  We as a people have made it to where leaders must be loyal to us instead of us being loyal to them.  We place unreachable standards on them and crucify them when they don't live up to them.  We need to stop this or else how will we teach our children about loyalty.  How can we train our kids to stay committed to something bigger than themselves if we are unwilling to.  We show our kids that it's alright to place great burdens on leaders and if they can't maintain their composure then we can bring them down.

I read in a book, I think it was called the mind of the samurai, that water chooses a path and sticks to it.  When we choose to follow someone or choose to join an organization, or choose to get married, we need to learn how to stay committed to our choices through the good and the bad.  Our loyalty should not only be to the people we decide to follow or commit to, but our loyalty should be to our commitment also.  If you can't be loyal to your commitments or your word then can you even call yourself loyal, and if not loyal trustworthy?

In Leadership: Driven

Driven: Propelled or Motivated by something.

Apostle Ronald D. Howell Sr. is one of the most driven men I have ever known.  He is the senior shepherd for the church that i attend, Life Changers International New Horizon.  Here is a man that s  not only spiritually fit, he preaches well over 250 sermons a year, he's also physically fit; he can get up and run 3 miles in the morning, then come to the gym in the afternoon and lead us through a grueling weight lifting routine where a majority of the weight we're lifting is over 200lbs, and while we are resting he'll be doing another exercise.  Nothing about this man is normal.  He does all this and is over 50 years of age.  Apostle Howell has taught us that if we are comfortable than we're not operating out of faith, and his whole life is representative of this.  None of the 60+ leaders that he is over can say that they have surpassed him, no matter how hard we work, how far we go, he's always in the front leading the way. 

This is what a leader should be, someone whose followers cannot pass.  Once you are passed by the people that you're leading then you are no longer a leader.  In this I don't mean that you have to be the smartest or the most technical, but you have to be someone that is constantly leading from the front.  Someone whose followers know that when they look back they won't see you bringing in the rear.

Apostle Howell is somebody that is driven by a purpose and refuses to quit.  His whole life is  an example of Philippians 3:12-14 when the Apostle Paul said "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.  Brethren I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

As a driven leader this must be your attitude, even if you're not a christian you should still have a focus that you're driven towards.  The people that we lead must see that we are constantly moving toward a goal, they must see that our life is constantly pressing to the next level of accomplishment.  We can never appear to be complacent as leaders.

In Leadership: Consider the Cost

Luke 14: 28-30 "²⁸For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?  ²⁹Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, ³⁰Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish."
 
As leaders we must consider the cost of what it is we're doing.  We have people's lives in our hands.  It may not seem that drastic on a day to day basis but we are responsible for the livelihood of everybody that is subordinate to us.  We are responsible sometimes for their pay, education, training, discipline, advancement, and even whether or not they keep a job.  We cannot take this responsibility lightly. 
 
While I was task lead on one of the jobs I've had, I was responsible for making sure people's time-cards were signed.  If I didn't sign their time-cards then they wouldn't get paid on time.  Instead they would have to jump through hoops in order to get the pay they knew was coming to them.  Before becoming task lead I didn't know what I was getting myself into, but I used it as a  learning experience.  One of the main lessons that I learned was that I needed more experience.  This was something new for me.  I was a leader in the military, but while in the military I wasn't a single point of failure.  There were always people that I could seek advice from on any problem that came up.  However it wasn't like this for me once I was out of the military.  People would come to me for answers that I would have to get from corporate, the problem with this was they were in a different country and didn't always get back to me in a timely manner.  However not getting an answer from corporate wasn't going to be an acceptable answer for the people that I work with.  As I said this was a learning experience.
 
We never fully know what we're getting ourselves into, but we must learn to be more aware of the costs involved.  As leaders you can't just jump into something blind because people will follow you into whatever disaster comes up due to your lack of planning.  In Matthew 15:14 it says "Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."  No matter what our career is, if we as leaders are poor at planning then we are leading our people into disaster.  History is filled with examples of people dying as a result of poor planning on the part of leadership.
 
We cannot allow our subordinates to become victims of our laziness to plan.  If you want to be an example of what a leader should be or be somebody that people are willing to follow, then always have a plan.  As the saying goes, "He who fails to plan, plans to fail."  Without a plan you will fail, it's just a matter of time.

In Followership: Don’t get brought down by backstabbers

If you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing and you’re loyal to the organization then backstabbers can’t hurt you too much.  There are always going to be people that are opposed to you or what you’re trying to do.  They may not realize that that’s what they’re doing.    Sometimes people will set you up for failure by mentioning something you may have said to the wrong person.  Not all backstabbing is intentional, but it happens all the same.  The thing about working with people in an organization that you’re not in charge of is you will most likely end up being competition instead of a fellow laborer in the mission at hand.  We all, at one point or another, look at our coworkers or peers in whatever organization that we’re in as competition.  This is natural.  So we all, at one point or another, do something that can be perceived as throwing somebody under the bus or backstabbing, even if we were just trying to cover up something that we may have said or done.

We cannot let this type of stuff get us down, for the simple fact that most of the time it’s unintentional, and even when it is intentional, what can you really do about it.  We should be focused on how we carry ourselves around our peers and what we say so that when there is a misunderstanding or something is said about us to our boss that it isn’t true.  For example one time at work somebody told my boss that I was lazy because I didn’t do something that wasn’t in my job description nor was it something that I had training on.  I was upset at first but when it was brought to my attention, I was able to pass along the truth of the matter.  I didn’t go start an argument, and I didn’t let it bother me to the point that it would create any tension in the workplace.  I just let it go.  These things happen; we cannot let them affect our performance or attitude at work.  We need to just let it go, learn from it but let it go.

 I say let it go because these situations will occur more frequently throughout our career than we would like.  We can’t get upset and allow ourselves to be stressed every time it happens.  Instead we should use it as a learning experience.  We learn by knowing who not to talk to about certain things, who to speak with on a strictly professional basis, who to stay away from…etc.  Every time I feel betrayed by somebody I have to take a step back and replay the whole situation.  Usually it’s innocent.  Most people don’t realize what they’ve said could bring negative consequences to somebody else, or we don’t say “please don’t repeat this but” things just have a way of getting away from us.  As I said, we’ve done it to others just as they’ve done it to us.  We shouldn’t feel betrayed.  A part of being a follower is maintaining a certain level of discipline no matter what comes our way.  We are not the organization, but a part of the organization, we are not in charge but subordinate to somebody else.  So for us to cause tension or make a scene because we feel betrayed is disrespecting the organization and the people that are leading us. 

In the Bible God says that what you do to the least of these you do to me, and what you don’t do to the least of these you don’t do to me.  It’s the same in an organization, if somebody lies on you then they’re lying on the organization, but if they are pointing out a flaw then that’s a flaw in the organization.  We cannot carry ourselves as an individual when involved in something bigger than ourselves.  We must see the bigger picture always.  If somebody went behind our back and it was true then that is good for the collective.  I know this is easier said than done, and I probably wouldn’t want to look at it this way if I was the person going through this.  But it is a lesson that we must learn.  We were hired to do a specific role in an organization with a certain vision.  If we can’t live up to the role or if it comes out that we’re not living up to the role then the part that we play is in jeopardy of failing, which completely contradicts the purpose of us being there.  This must be exposed, so that the problem can be fixed.  We can’t take it personally. 

The only thing we can do to combat this is to be blameless.  As I said we must do what we know to do so that if somebody stabs us in the back we are doing what we’re supposed to be doing and it shows.  We as followers need to always have proof that we’re doing our job to the standard that was established prior to us showing up, or even at a higher standard than was established.  We must make ourselves a valuable part of our organization so that if somebody says something bad about us, it’ll be looked at by our leaders as a misunderstanding instead of a fact.  We need to remove any future doubt by our present work. 

In Leadership: Followership

We live in a time where although people are starting to touch on followership more and more, they are still primarily focusing on leadership.  There are more books on how to be a great leader then there are on how to support a great leader, or even worse, a bad leader.  These are principles that need to be taught in more forums across the business spectrum.  In the military we got taught a great deal about being a good leader and nothing really about being a follower.  We did get taught about following orders to a certain degree, but they weren’t teaching seminars on it.  We don’t really realize how to be a follower until we become a leader.  But by then it’s all about our ideas and us trying to figure out ways to move our organization forward.  We get taught what to do if we run into a troubled subordinate, but not what to do if we run into a horrible boss.  This is damaging to so many people’s careers.  There are people who have gotten kicked out of the military and fired from jobs because they were never taught how to follow somebody that they didn’t see eye to eye with.  So instead of being able to cope with the situation with a level head they rebel.  This is the generation that we live in.  We get told to shut up and color, or just do the work, but not how to do it with the stress of dealing with an idiot.  But it’s so important for us to learn how to follow that it should be taught as thoroughly as leadership is.  This is actually something that should be taught in high school, or throughout Jr. High School, before people reach the work force.   If you don’t learn how to be a follower until you show up for your first job then it’s going to be a rough road ahead, which is something many of us find out the hard way.

We do get taught some forms of followership from a very young age though.  We get taught how to follow rules by our parents, we get taught about not showing up late, and how to turn in assignments on time in school.  We learn how to respect authority all though life from our parents to teachers and people in uniform, and yet we still never fully grasp the concept of being a follower.  As we grow up we also get taught to be our own person, to be a leader and not a follower, to set the example, that we can be whatever it is we want to be as long as we set our minds to it.  But we can only be by learning how, and only learn how by following.  We need to stop telling our kids to not be followers, that puts a stigma on submitting to authority figures and our future bosses.  Instead we need to tell them to not follow people that are going nowhere, or people that are getting into trouble.  We need to tell them that we must be mentored in order to accomplish our goals, and that without being mentored, or following we will never be what we want to be because people won’t waste their time on somebody that they can’t train. 

Being a follower isn’t negative when it’s done in the proper setting, in this post I’m not talking about followers of criminal organizations, or followers of people whose life is on a self destructive road to oblivion.   Instead I’m talking about being a follower in an organization that will lead you on the road to success or self improvement or community involvement.  In this case being a follower is positive.  It causes you to be recognized as a team player, a person who can receive instruction and get the job done, somebody who is not afraid of correction because they know the end result is the building up of the organization.   When we are able to follow we are showing that we know we don’t know everything but we are willing to learn.

As a follower we must be ready, willing and able to always have the back of the person or people leading us.  No matter what our feelings are towards these people.  We cannot let personal feelings get in the way of doing the job that’s laid before us.  We do not come on board with an opinion.  If we have a negative opinion about our leaders to the point that we can’t do a good job or refuse to do the job then we need to move out of the way so somebody else can do the job.  We have to know that we are serving something bigger then ourselves and the overall accomplishment of whatever task we were given is what’s important.  Too many times we as followers try to put ourselves above the person or people leading us.  But the problem is we’re not the leader so we are only working against ourselves when we do this.

When we are being led, we need to know that if we come up with an idea that the idea should be in line with the vision of the organization and be prepared to either have in depth details on our idea or do the idea to have something that worked so we can present it.  We also cannot be hurt if our ideas are rejected, because the completion of the mission or the furtherance of the vision is what’s important not our ideas. 

Followers must be able to build a rapport with the leader or leaders.  It is the job of the person following to make sure that the people or person in charge is comfortable with you, not the other way around.  When we are in a subordinate role it is our responsibility to prove our trustworthiness.  If you can’t trust your leadership then you’re in the wrong organization.  If your leadership can’t trust you then it’s your problem to solve.  We must be a person that when the people that we follow think of us they think of somebody that is willing to get the job done at all costs.  Not somebody that will try to get away with murder.

As followers we must be able to work well with others.  It doesn’t matter what somebody has done to us, or who we don’t like, for the sake of the corporate body that we’re apart of we must get along.  When we show up we need to put aside all differences of opinion and work to achieve one common goal.  If you are unwilling to do this then the people you work for might be unwilling to trust you or unwilling to keep you employed.  We must remember our feelings are not what’s important. 

We must learn to follow with a form of dignity and selflessness that will show others that we are here to do what’s required of us, not here to cause a problem for those around us or above us. 

Feelings

I've talked about feelings in previous posts and a little bit in my book.  This is my pet peeve, people that are led by their feelings.  We all do it from time to time, but some people do it a little more than they should.  Feelings have no place on the job or in any environment where people come together to achieve a common goal.  By feelings I'm talking about negative feelings.  I'm not talking about compassion, or love, or anything of that nature, I'm talking about hate, envy, anger, depression...etc.  Feelings that can disrupt forward progress.  We as leaders cannot let feelings dictate the way we operate.  Not only can this lead to an ethical dilemma but it can severly hinder the momentum of the mission at hand. 

Too many times I've seen forward progress halted because of the way somebody was feeling.  I've had to pull subordinates aside and let them know the world doesn't stop because they're angry or sad.  Life goes on regardless of how we feel.  This is why we cannot let how we feel enter into the work place.  When you do it will change the way people feel about you and even worse about your organisation.  It's bad enough when people within your organisation knows that you're unstable but when people outside your organization sees it they might not see you but who you work for.  Then that will inadvertantly change the overall view that people have about your organisation.  This is why it's also imperative that as leaders we don't let those working for us and our peers operate like this.  We must nip this in the bud.  We can't baby people or let people bring their personal issues to work.  If we do we'll allow a precedent that will be hard to break. 

If people know that you're not led by your feelings and they know that you don't except it in the work place it will slow down this way of thinking and acting.  People act the way they're allowed to act.  If somebody knows that all it takes to get attention or get sent home early is to have a breakdown and start crying then they'll do it.  But if people know that this type of behavior will not be tolerated then they will think twice before falling victim to their emotions.  Because at the end of the day it's either allow our emotions to drive us or accomplish what needs to be done.

In Leadership: Be Consistent

  One of the most important things for not only a leader but a decent human being to be is consistent. People need to know that they don't have to walk on eggshells around you just in case you're having a bad day. Consistent doesn't necessarily mean that you're a kind hearted person that always has something nice to say to everybody you see. Consistent can also mean you're a distant person that's always about business and wants things done by the book. Somebody that might fire somebody for coming in 5 minutes late. Consistency is people can trust you to be who you are no matter what.

     I prefer to work with consistent people instead of erratic people.  The main reason is I have to know where I stand with you.  I personally need to know if I can trust you to uphold the standards to the degree that you're going to hold me accountable, or you're going to be scamming every chance you get so I know not to trust you when it comes to work or anything else for that matter.

     I remember I once worked in an office that never held people accountable for anything, or so I thought.  People came and went as they pleased, you could come in 1-2 hours late without an excuse if you wanted to.  You could take 2 and 3 hour lunches and you could leave an hour early just about daily, and nobody would ever say anything to you about it.  During my time in this office we were tasked to have everybody take a test, and we were the office conducting the test.  I don't remember knowing the deadline, but while the testing phase was going on I had taken a week off so I could go visit my daughter.  When I came back I found out that I had missed my deadline and all of my certifications were lost.  I was pretty upset since this was the office that decided to take people's certifications, and nobody outside the office would know one way or the other, and it was an open book test.  But this was the thing they wanted to hold me accountable for and they made an example of me.  All for a test that like I said was open book and only about 20 questions.

     I understand that in the above example it would have been unethical for me to expect my office to show me any favoritism in how to discipline me for missing the deadline.  I should have been treated exactly how anybody else would've been treated had they missed the deadline for taking the test also.  The thing that upset me the most was I don't remember seeing anybody ever get in trouble for anything in this office, there was a real informal atmosphere where people just came and went as it pleased them, and then this happened.  Now if this office was known for it's strict adherence to the standards then that would've been my mindset and I would've acted more carefully with missed deadlines.

     This was my example because it also shows how not to be as a leader.  When leading people we must always have established standards in place and stick to them no matter what.  If we are inconsistent as leaders then when it comes time to discipline people they might not even know why it's happening or resent you for making it happen.  Being a leader is hard enough with having to deal with the different personalities and attitudes that people bring with them to work on a daily basis but, inconsistency in our own personalities will make it more difficult for us to be taken seriously as a leader.

     Another reason being consistent is imperative as a leader is if you are consistently you, then eventually the bad parts of your personality will come out, and when they do people will notice them and eventually say something to you about it and you can work on it.  If you're inconsistent you might not ever show your bad side and you won't be corrected on it.  I used to have a really bad habit of using unprofessional language all the time.  To the point that I didn't even know what was coming out of my mouth.  Until people started telling me about it.  All the time it'd be, Patrick you need to watch your mouth, this is a professional setting we're not supposed to use that kind of language.  Even when I got married my wife used to get on me about it.  After awhile I really started to feel bad because I just couldn't help it.  Then one day people noticed I wasn't cussing anymore.  They were as shocked as I was.  Now I don't use that kind of language.

     I try to be me no matter where I'm at, whether it's church, work or home.  This way if there's something that needs to be worked on I'll be told about it at church, work and home and I'll work on it at church, work and home.  Being consistent isn't just being the same only at work or church, but being consistent in all aspects of your life to everybody you know.  I know this can be hard, but if you want to gain respect as a leader it's a must.