Obsessing about Rob Ford
- At November 09, 2013
- By Nathan
- In Leadership
0
Being the same age as Rob Ford, I can’t remember a time when the mayor of Toronto received such extensive and relentlessly negative attention; it just seems to go on and on and on, making a person wonder if this media frenzy will ever end. Other Canadian mayors must be incredibly relieved that the cameras and microphones and editorials and columns and tomatoes are aimed consistently at Rob Ford and not them.
What do you think? What could possibly explain this narrow and nasty focus on one particular person and one specific politician? This obsessive behaviour isn’t normal, is it? Surely, it calls for an explanation. But what are the options?
Has this undesirable special treatment resulted because Rob Ford is obviously unfit to govern this metropolis? This is one possibility. But is this a fact that is plain for all to see? Most of the voters in the Etobicoke North ward and many of the 2.6 million people in Toronto wouldn’t agree. Mr. Ford has been on city council for over a decade and has been elected to office four times.
Well then, is this because Toronto – Canada’s largest city – has recently been recognized as the undisputed center of this nation and therefore worthy of undivided and even fanatical attention? Hardly. Maybe this description was true 20 years ago, but at the moment Ontario appears to be in an overall state of decline. Toronto is a big player, but comparatively not as big as it once was. Power and influence is shifting; but even if it wasn’t, who wants to hear about any particular mayor day after day after day? No thanks.
So how about this explanation: A significant and feisty group of left-leaning journalists really don’t care much for the political position represented by Rob Ford? Could it be as simple as that?
One thing for sure, I wouldn’t want a sophisticated and yet hostile media mob following me around 24 hours a day “reporting” on my every move. Would you? This type of harassment might drive a man to drink – or worse.
Right about the time that Rob Ford apologized for smoking crack cocaine during a drinking binge (sadly, this allegation is true) I finished reading a book by Eric Metaxas called Seven Men and the Secret of their Greatness. This New York Times best-selling author writes about George Washington, William Wilberforce, Eric Liddell, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Jackie Robinson, Pope John Paul II, and Charles W. Colson in order to inspire others to do great things.
The timing couldn’t have been better. For it soon became clear that each person in this book was not perfect. Far from it. But at the same time, each one used their power and talent and abilities to serve others in remarkable ways and accomplish great things. Chuck Colson, for example, went to prison because of Watergate and then devoted much of the rest of his life to serving prisoners.
Each man lived in turbulent times and faced very difficult situations. These men took a lot of abuse in the process of trying to accomplish something that would make a difference. How about that. Sounds familiar.
Who could possibly have a problem with trying to suppress the slave trade throughout the British Empire? Just about everyone – as William Wilberforce soon found out. What was so bad about a talented black man like Jackie Robinson playing baseball in the major leagues? Oh, everything. America and Britain are allies now, but in 1776 nobody was impressed with that George fellow over there in the colonies leading that revolution.
Talk really is cheap. It’s easy to say that Hitler needed to be stopped from a safe vantage point, and quite another to actually try to stop him. Back in 1988, I remember standing where Dietrich Bonhoeffer died. He was tortured and killed in Flossenburg just before the end of the Second World War. How tragic.
A few more questions: Do you have a hero? If you had to choose, would you pick an ordinary and flawed man like Rob Ford, who nevertheless tries to do his best to serve the people living in Toronto? Or would you aspire to become an elite and corrupt journalist who continuously abuses his power in order to drive this man from office?
Sometimes it’s difficult to see the forest for all the trees. Meanwhile, some people who can’t be voted out cause more problems than the ones who can.
© Career & Life Direction 2013. All rights reserved.
Empowering more people
- At April 30, 2013
- By Nathan
- In Leadership
0
Career & Life Direction welcomes Dr. Barry Slauenwhite as he reflects on personal initiatives which have helped Compassion Canada to grow and thrive.
I have been serving with Compassion Canada for almost 30 years. The first ten years was spent as VP of Marketing and Communications and the last 20 years as President & CEO. Over this timeframe I have seen a lot of changes…most of them ones I have initiated. Some out of necessity and some out of innovation. None without their fair share of stress and hard work.
When I was first appointed to the role of CEO I asked the board for one year of no growth so that I could concentrate on rebuilding the foundation of the organization. Although we had experienced modest growth over the previous ten years, it was obvious that the organizational structure would not sustain stronger growth and the potential was much greater than what we had realized. We had experienced consistent deficit budgets and struggled to meet our financial obligations. Although we were bringing in new donors we were not doing a good job of servicing and retaining them.
And now, 20 years later, Compassion Canada has grown by 900% and we are considered to be a leader in donor retention.
The first move I made was to build a new organizational culture. Staff morale was low as was productivity. I took the staff away on a two-day retreat and introduced my new philosophy of how we work together emphasizing the Fruit of the Spirit mixed with excellence in how we carry out our work. This one exercise proved to be a valuable investment in boosting staff morale and productivity.
The second step was to create a team style leadership. Our leadership tended to be more autocratic and staff felt their giftedness and skills were being undervalued. We emphasized collaboration, empowerment and joint decision-making. I formed an executive team that continues to be the backbone of how we run the organization. Work teams were created along with cross-functioning ministry teams to ensure communication was flowing to all levels of the ministry.
Engaging the staff and giving them a voice in decision-making produced almost immediate results. Morale dramatically improved and productivity soon followed. Then I turned my attention to more structural issues such as board governance.
The potential was much greater than we had realized
Compassion, like many NGOs, was heavily dependent on government funding. This created somewhat of a laissez-faire attitude towards fundraising. We had not developed a strong private donor network which positioned us to be quite vulnerable to government funding whims. Hence a significant portion of our funding and subsequent program activity followed the roller coaster agendas of the government foreign aid agenda. After coming to grips with the long-term implications of this funding model we developed a private donor strategy that replaced government funding and created a whole new network of donors that continues to be the backbone of our funding program.
Lastly, we created a national volunteer strategy to mobilize current and future donors to passionately promote the ministry cause. Initially just a handful of committed people, this network now numbers over 2,000 and has become a significant component of our marketing strategy and is responsible for a sizable portion of our overall revenues.
To help measure the effectiveness of my strategies, I engaged the services of the Best Christian Workplace. This tool gives me an accurate pulse of how the staff is doing and what areas I need to give attention to. It provides a mechanism for staff feedback and overall staff health. The data from this feedback helps me adjust my strategies in tweaking what is weak and building on what is strong.
Over these 20 years as CEO I have learned the value of surrounding myself with good people. People who are passionate for the cause, committed to Christ and His church and competent in their skill set. I have learned that character is more important than skill and that people thrive in an environment where they have a cause and are able to express themselves in responding to that cause.
Dr. Barry Slauenwhite has been serving with Compassion Canada since 1983. He is a leading voice in the Canadian Christian community, speaking on behalf of the poor. Barry and his wife, Sharon, live in London, Ontario, and have two adult daughters and two grandchildren.
Fly the plane
- At March 04, 2013
- By Nathan
- In Leadership
0
Handing out titles without clear job descriptions is one way to create tension and even serious problems in an organization. Making such descriptions endlessly complicated and never-ending is another. So whether you are leading an organization or part of the team, work towards a clear and concise understanding. Clarify expectations.
Aim for a brief, written job description that even I could understand. It is a bit embarrassing, but it took me two whole weeks to figure out how to answer a call on my new smartphone and another couple of weeks to sort out a few other basic functions. Assume that there are people like yours truly in close proximity to you. In other words, keep it simple.
It works best to let one person drive
The sad reality is that very little will likely be accomplished if the structure of your organization or team is not clear or not respected. And what does get accomplished will be accompanied by feelings of frustrating and futility. After awhile, nobody will want to be a part of what is going on; their heart won’t be in it even if their body is still there. This reaction makes sense. If you didn’t have an opportunity to make a valuable contribution, would you want to stick around? And really, how many people want to be micro-managed or made to feel as if they don’t really count? Nobody that I know.
At the same time, leaders may feel reluctant to delegate specific responsibilities if they feel that their prerogative to do so is not respected in the first place. This can be very frustrating. It may be that their own role is not clear enough, or that they feel overwhelmed by far too many responsibilities. There is no time to work on clarifying other job descriptions, hammering out a few details, if their own job description is as vast as the sea and as hazy as the sky.
Trying to work together without a realistic and agreed upon way of how you are going to work together creates a lose-lose situation. Nobody wins. Things tend to crash. Everyone gets frustrated and sad. Yes, very sad.
More to the point, what needs to be avoided is a situation where two people or groups are unknowingly focused on the same small task. For this scenario creates hard feelings and much unnecessary conflict. As if you didn’t already know that. As well, this unfortunate situation drains positive energy out of an organization; it happens all the time. And this is one way to lose your sense of vision and learn how to fixate on petty politics. This organizational faux pas makes for much wasted time and can create dangerous situations.
Years ago, I spent close to one year travelling and working on a team made up of seven young people. Far from being a negative experience, this adventure turned out to be one of the best years of my life. As part of our preparation in order to work together, we had over one month of intensive training. During that time, a clear form of government was established and a team leader was selected. At the same time, each person was assigned several roles and responsibilities that were absolutely necessary in terms of the effective functioning of the team.
There was no doubt about it: Each person was needed; everyone mattered. And we understood how we were going to work together. We knew who did what.
For example, one person on the team was responsible to ensure that we all took our malaria medication. This was a very important job. Since we were travelling in East Africa, malaria was a significant concern. The previous year, most of the team members had contracted this serious disease. But this tragic situation could have been prevented.
Now imagine what could have happened if no one had been clearly selected to take on this responsibility the following year? Or consider the consequences of having two people on the team who were adamantly convinced that this was their job.
It is worth it to take the time to clarify roles and responsibilities.
© Career & Life Direction 2013. All rights reserved.
Learning to lead
- At December 28, 2012
- By Nathan
- In Leadership
0
A leader with a credible plan inspires confidence. By way of contrast, a leadership team with a deeply flawed plan or no plan at all isn’t going to be leading for long.
Years ago, the Rhinoceros Party had a brilliant plan to build a ramp on the Rocky Mountains to reduce the consumption of gasoline and presumably save the environment. How would that work? Well, people living in western Canada would then be able to get in their cars and coast from coast to coast.
As I recall, another plank in their platform was to train millions of grasshoppers, a.k.a grainhoppers, to carry prairie grain to the coastal ports. This creative transportation system was devised to counter the excessive fees charged by powerful railroad barons.
Yes, this was all a big joke back then. And no, this comical political party didn’t get any votes. An illustration nonetheless that it is very difficult to lead without a plan that people feel inclined to follow.
Dealing with problems
Leading involves, among other things, taking significant action in an attempt to improve an undesirable situation. To point out the obvious, it is also usually assumed that the chosen action will be strategic and well thought out. Leaders are seldom called upon to wait around, staring out their office windows day after day, while naively hoping that everything will work out. But at the same time, a hasty and haphazard decision – a shot from the hip – is rarely well received or what is really required.
Leadership is not for the faint of heart. National problems, organizational issues, and personal roadblocks are often pressing and complex. In such a context, leading the way required a large amount of research, planning, praying, and an ability to weigh various options in a short period of time. More often than not, a cliff of some sort is visible on the horizon; the clock is loudly ticking; time is running out; difficult decisions must be made. And somebody has to make them.
As the old saying goes: “There are those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.”
Again, being a part of a leadership team requires hard work; it is not an easy task. People in leadership positions are often expected to act quickly and wisely in the best interests of others. If only the best decision was always immediately obvious! Inviting a variety of perspectives is often helpful. But based on my own experience, routinely criticizing what has been proposed is much easier than putting together a new proposal.
When the pressure is on and people all around are looking for action, it may seem like any old course of action will do. Thus the ongoing temptation to appear to be taking appropriate action without doing much that is necessarily truly helpful in the long run.
Developing potential
But whether you are responsible to lead a nation, an organization, a family, or simple yourself, the challenge is the same. First of all, you must identify the most pressing problem you face and put together a plan to deal with it. Positive action is required where it matters the most; you can’t fix everything. Second, it is a good idea to make a point of not doing anything grandiose or downright ridiculous when it comes to finances.
Planning and policy perfection is impossible to obtain from everyone’s perspective. But ego-inflating, utopian, and crackpot ideas are a little more obvious: they can be spotted from a mountain top and even from outer space. With this in mind, it will come as no surprise to be reminded that many people, nations, and organizations urgently need to find a way to balance their budgets and begin to pay off their debt. This problem isn’t merely over in Europe or confined to Washington, D.C.
As millionaires rack up their millions, billionaires pay interest on billions, and trillionaires borrow yet another trillion, many ordinary and average individuals get themselves deeper and deeper into debt. One result of all of this collective digging is that at some point the hole will be so deep that it will be impossible to ever get out.
And what are we all going to do down there?
Financial mismanagement has a way of putting the brakes on a healthy human potential movement, bringing it to a screeching halt. Many institutions, individuals, and empires fail to become all that they were intended to be in part because of a lack of funds. But at the same time, seeking wise financial advice is one way to attempt to reverse this trend and begin to deal with the damage.
Learning to manage your own finances, putting together a solid financial plan, is a good way to prepare to develop your own potential and the potential of many other people.
© Career & Life Direction 2012. All rights reserved.
Sustaining your focus
- At December 02, 2012
- By Nathan
- In Leadership
0
Vision. An ability to intensely focus your attention is a desirable quality particularly for people who lead organizations. For then, important and specific tasks are routinely accomplished and in short order. Bursts and blasts of productive energy address objectives that fit together and plug into a larger plan.
Other people are sure to be pleased, especially when their company or church or ministry or country seems to be moving towards an appealing destination and accomplishing worthwhile goals.
Paying close attention to a compelling vision can have far-reaching consequences as the years go by. The results are usually positive in every way. Yes, everyone benefits. But how do you sustain your focus day after day, month after month, and year after year? What do you do if you feel like your sense of passion is beginning to fade?
Fireworks can’t go on forever
For better or worse, intense people stand out; they get noticed. An amateur video of some guy snoring on a couch will not be the one that goes viral.
Most people want to be around someone who is excited about where they are going and what they are doing. Dynamic and charismatic leaders who are able to cast a clear vision and then inspire others to make it happen will always be in demand.
There is, however, much more to life and leadership than waving the flag, rallying the troops, and leading the charge. Passion and emotion has its place. People with sanguine and choleric personalities also have a role to play. But an overly intense way of managing an organization, or for that matter dealing with daily life, is difficult to sustain for very long. True, some people seem to have an incredible amount of stamina and energy and drive. But even then, incredibly intense people eventually wear themselves out.
Years ago, I met a young man running down the side of a mountain while I was hiking up. Working at a ski hill in the summer, it was not common to meet very many people on the grassy slopes – let alone some crazy character running downhill at high speeds. Most people, of course, would usually ski in the winter where this man was running in the summer. And some of the trails were quite steep and even dangerous.
As I recall, his clothes were torn and he was bleeding as he stood their catching his breath. Said something about the thrill of it all, mentioned a broken bone or two from previous outings, and then he was off. I never heard if he made it all the way down in one piece.
Burning the candle at both ends soon makes for a very dark night. Even if your focus is on an activity that makes a lot more sense, a flash in the pan quickly fades. The fireworks can’t go on forever. Day after day, month after month, year after year, the incredible amount of energy that is exerted begins to take its toll.
Is it possible to sustain a clear sense of vision and focus and direction over a lifetime? It all depends on what you mean by that. Although it is probably not realistic to expect that you will always be on a positive emotional high. Feelings do not always flow freely. Occasionally, maybe even quite often, it will be necessary to educate your emotions.
How does that work? Take a few hours, or even a few moments, to meditate or reflect on that this world would be like if nobody ever did anything that you do. What would life be like, for example, if nobody ever took the time to write any helpful or encouraging words? That is what I am attempted to do at the moment. Would it really matter if nobody ever did?
Yes, I can see clearly that it would. This exercise has already produced a response deep in my soul. And I have been encouraged to carry on and finally finish this post.
Be enthusiastic. Work and even run towards your goals. But don’t forget to pace yourself and renew your vision along the way.
© Career & Life Direction 2012. All rights reserved.
Dream big. Act small.
- At December 31, 2011
- By Nathan
- In Leadership
0
Having a sense of direction, knowing the next small step in the larger plan, can be very beneficial to individuals and organizations. This way, important projects can be more easily identified and accomplished in a specific period of time.
I once applied to work for a Christian-based organization in Canada that had a related problem. Numerous leadership teams had produced impressive mission-statements, but very little was ever accomplished. Or so I was told.
The plan may have looked good on paper, as they (whoever “they” are) say, and these men and women may have even had the best of intentions. But, for whatever reason, they struggled to practically guide a group of people towards a specific destination. They appeared to know where they wanted to go, but just couldn’t seem to get there.
That is sad, even tragic, because as this story repeats itself over and over around the world it means that millions of people are likely failing to fulfill their full God-given potential.
Organizations and individuals can become stuck, and this post is one small attempt to help you or your organization get out of the muck, as it were, and finally move ahead. But please, if you sense that this describes your situation, spend as little time and energy as you can in a state of mournful self-condemnation. No, you are not a complete failure, or a sorry excuse for a human being. Turn those messages off. Stop. Think. Learn. Adjust. And then, move ahead.
If you are looking for an easy way to remember the point of this discussion may I suggest the following four small words:
Dream big. Act small.
Complicated, varied, and shall be we say “highfalutin” management-type lingo can be part of the problem. I am not sure if I could tell you the difference between a vision-statement and a mission-statement, a strategy and an objective, a stage or a phase, if my life depended on it. I have been in boardrooms and participated in futile attempt to separate and define these various words. It is like nailing jello to a wall, as the infamous “they” people say.
Begin, rather, with the simple image of a funnel. Whatever language you choose to use, start big – at the wide end of the funnel – and slowly work your way down to the specific and small actions that can be taken. How big? I have read a lot of job descriptions, hundreds of them, produced by reputable organizations in many parts of the world. To be honest, it sometimes sounds like these groups are mainly concerned about their own survival. May I say, straightaway, that organizational or personal survival is not a large enough goal, or an appropriate place to begin. Yes, paying the bills is important. But you don’t exist primarily to pay bills.
What happens next, is often where more confusion takes place. For if the big beginning is big enough, it will feel overwhelming and nobody will know what to do next. Almost a century ago, Henry Ford decided that he wanted to build a car that ordinary Americans could afford. Where do you start? You start by putting a plan together that, if followed, will at least potentially transform the “big dream” into practical reality.
But there is so much that I cannot control, you say. True enough. And there always will be. In case you are wondering, I am not suggesting that planning is somehow a substitute for prayer or that it will guarantee success. But, at the same time, there is very often something small and tangible that you or your organization could be doing that you are just not in a position to see right now. Taking the time to put together a detailed and practical plan can help you perceive the possibilities.
If you do not have a grand vision or goal or dream, start with that. If you do not have a credible plan, take the time to produce one. If you are not intentionally following your plan, start today.
Dream big. Act small.
Might make a good resolution for the new year.
*Here are a few related discussion questions
© Career & Life Direction 2011. All rights reserved.