Teamwork

Leading Your Organization Through Conflict

by Andy Wood on November 18, 2011

in Five LV Laws, Insight, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Increase, Protecting Your Investment

The call or opportunity to lead is a call or opportunity for conflict.  I doubt if I’m the first to tell you that, but if so, well, sorry.  That’s certainly true on an interpersonal or team level.   It’s also true organization-wide.  Whether you’re leading a church or a business, a nonprofit or an institution, a state or a nation, the bigger they are, the harder they brawl.  Or squall.

If your goal is to avoid conflict at all costs, let somebody else take the leadership roles, because what you’re saying is that you don’t want to influence anybody.

Assuming you’re still reading, let’s assume that the idea of conflict hasn’t scared you off – at least not yet.  I have good news.  Some of the greatest demonstrations of leadership in history took place when someone rose to face the challenge of seemingly impossible conflicts.  So if your organization is facing competing values and visions, wise leadership can help make it stronger and more successful than ever.  If it’s true that conflict is the moment of truth in any relationship (and I think it is), then the way you lead your organization to face those conflicts sets the course of the organization, sometimes for years.

It’s important to remember that the people in your organization have brains, hearts, and feelings, just as you do.  Resistance to your or the organization’s direction is a way of saying you haven’t communicated the vision clearly.  Or maybe you haven’t anticipated their objections or their priorities.  Maybe you have yet to earn the trust of the people.  Or maybe they are insecure in the roles in which you are asking them to perform.

Here are five ways to work with – not against – the members of your organization to turn conflicts into jumping off points. [click to continue…]

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The Grand Celebration That Wasn’t

by Andy Wood on July 6, 2011

in Allocating Your Resources, Consumers, Leadership, Life Currency, LV Alter-egos, LV Cycle, LV Stories, Pleasers, Spoofs

A Fable about leadership, teamwork, unity, and of course, honey…

It was a lovely morning in the Hundred Acre Wood, where Christopher Robin’s friends lived and played.  The bees were abuzz making their honey (and You-Know-Who knew just who it was for).

Kanga had already gotten an early start on motherly things, while Roo was playing close by.

Piglet was pacing about his tidy home saying “Oh Dear, Dear, Dear” because he knew something Important was about to happen, but he couldn’t quite remember what it was.

Rabbit was tending his garden, nervously glancing around for signs that he soon may be bounced by Tigger.

Eeyore was a bit confused as he chomped on a thistle because he couldn’t think of anything to be gloomy about.

Owl was remembering the time to no one in particular that his great uncle Waldo on his mother’s side did something famous because it happened on a lovely day such as today.

And Winnie the Pooh?  Being a Bear of Very Little Brain, he was sitting at the Thotful Spot, thinking.  And wishing for just a bit of honey, because as everyone knows, bears think better when their tumblies aren’t so rumbly.  And there’s nothing like honey to take the rumbly out of the tumbly.

This was no ordinary day after all.  This was the day of the Grand Celebration.  They weren’t quite sure what they were celebrating, but everyone had agreed that today would be a fine day to celebrate it. [click to continue…]

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Building and Leading a Steadfast Team

by Andy Wood on May 6, 2011

in Enlarging Your Capacity, Leadership, Life Currency, LV Alter-egos, LV Cycle, Pleasers

Does your team have what it takes to go the distance?

Something happens when people get together to forge a team.  Unfortunately, that “something” isn’t always what you’re looking for.  See if you recognize any of these teams from your experience:

Team Fritter. Talk about potential.  It seems as though whenever they’re on the ropes, somehow the miraculous happens and they live to see another day. On the other hand, every time it seems they have the chance for that big breakthrough they flounder.  Never fully realizing their potential, they choke every time they get ahead.

Team Glitter. This bunch has success written all over it.  Smart, good-looking, and well-liked, things came fast and easy for Team Glitter.  Too fast.  And too easy.  Before you know it, what appears to shimmer is anything but gold.  And the team comes caving in under the load of its own scandal(s), greed, and dishonesty.

Team Bitter.  Another story of lost potential, this team doesn’t have an integrity problem.  It has an anger problem.  A big anger problem.  Sucked in by jealousy and dispirited by feelings of rejection or failure, this team sabotages its own enormous potential by holding onto the bitterness, anger, or mistrust. [click to continue…]

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Playing Hurt

by Andy Wood on November 1, 2010

in Ability, Enlarging Your Capacity, Life Currency, LV Cycle

Saw a strange thing the other day.  We’d driven to Abilene to watch the Hardin-Simmons Cowboys defend the Wilford Moore trophy against local rival McMurray for the 20th straight year.  Division III football at its finest.

HSU had already knocked out the starting quarterback.  Number 2 wasn’t faring much better.  Scrambling around in the backfield, he was nailed at midfield for about a 12-yard loss.

McMurray lined up for the next play.  Shotgun formation. All of a sudden, the quarterback called timeout, turned toward the sideline, and ripped his helmet off.  Next thing I know, he’s on his knees, then hands-and-knees, and he wasn’t praying.

Hmmm.  Maybe he was. [click to continue…]

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Team Ginger Ale

by Andy Wood on October 13, 2010

in Esteem, Life Currency, LV Cycle, LV Stories, Protecting Your Investment

Last night the Texas Rangers won their first-ever postseason series.  

And they celebrated with ginger ale. 

Why? 

Because Josh Hamilton, the Rangers’ star outfielder, graciously refuses to go anywhere near alcohol. 

When the Rangers clinched their division in Oakland back in September, as beer and champagne flowed in the visitors’ locker room, Josh changed in a side office and left the clubhouse to go speak to a church group in Oakland about his life and testimony. 

But last night, after winning the division series – something the Texas Rangers (and former Washington Senators) had never done – the team made sure it would be a team celebration. [click to continue…]

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Faith for God-sized Problems

by Andy Wood on July 28, 2010

in Ability, Enlarging Your Capacity, Life Currency, LV Cycle

In the previous post, we looked at some of the kinds of problems that go past hangnails and headaches.  Drawing from the experience of Jehoshaphat, Judah’s godly king, we explored some parallels of our own:

  • Unprovoked hostility
  • Overwhelming odds
  • Unresolved fear
  • Unfulfilled promises (of God)
  • Absolute weakness
  • Unclear direction

There are plenty of others, of course.  But that’s a healthy list to remind us that faith doesn’t mean you never have problems. Believing God doesn’t mean you’re never afraid, or that you never face impossible situations.  And in spite of the way some “believers” act, faith doesn’t mean you have all the answers.  In one of my favorite verses in the Bible, this godly man says to God, “We don’t know what to do.  But our eyes are on you.”

So when your back is to the wall and the Ammonites are coming, when you’re way past anxious and have no answers or direction, how does faith respond?  Let me suggest five ways: [click to continue…]

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So Change It! Eight Steps to Making a Difference, Beginning Where You Are

by Andy Wood on February 5, 2010

in Enlarging Your Capacity, Executing Your Plan, Exploring the Possibilities, Five LV Laws, Leadership, Life Currency, LV Cycle, Principle of Increase, Principle of Legacy

I want to take you to a place where, frankly, we aren’t invited.  For just a minute, let’s be one of “those” people we often gripe about – those rubberneckers on the highway, who seem fascinated with somebody else’s messes.  

In this case, we’re creeping up to a closed bedroom door, where on the other side, we can hear muffled sobs. 

A man’s sobs.

A few days ago, somebody from home had rocked his world.  The news was bad, and every ounce of optimism he once had was crushed.

You should have been here yesterday.  He was really blubbering then.  And he will be again tomorrow.  Fasting, too.  And praying.  Lots of praying. 

But as he cries and prays and cries and fasts and cries some more, something happens.  [click to continue…]

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Could You Follow a Governor Like That?

by Andy Wood on September 3, 2008

in Executing Your Plan, LV Cycle

Stage 1:  Allocate your resources.
Stage 2:  Explore the possibilities.
Stage 3:  Follow your passion.

Stage 4: Execute Your Plan

“Okay, people, settle down.  This meeting will now come to order!  You guys in the back, keep a lookout for tax collectors and terrorists.

“We’ve called you out today because we have a new arrival in town.  This young man says he’s come from Persia, from the King’s palace.  Says he’s one of us, but has an important message.  Sir, you have the floor.”

“New governor, you say?  I never knew we had an old one.  No disrespect, sir, but you look a bit young to be a governor.  How much government experience do you have?”

“Okay, so let me get this straight.  You’ve never held public office.  You’ve never been a governor, mayor, or even a public defender.  You’ve never commanded an army or even seen a fight.  Your one job has been to serve up wine to the king.”

“Well, okay, I’m impressed.  It seems as if the Lord’s been opening up some pretty impressive doors.  But again, with all due respect, sir, this dump ain’t Persia.  Heck, we’re not even a city.  And I appreciate the fact that you’ve been doing some crying and praying for us.  But you’re not the first guy to try to rebuild this wall.  We’ve been trying this for 40 years.  So why don’t you scurry on off back to your cushy job?  I’m sure the king’s a bit thirsty by now.”

“Wow.  You’re serious about this, aren’t you?  I’ve never seen anybody stand up to the entrenched politicians like that.

“You really believe, don’t you?  I’ve never seen anybody with that kind of confidence in God, except ole’ Ezra, the priest.

“You’re going to actually do this, aren’t you?  I’ve never seen anybody hold a weapon in one hand, and a building block in another.

“Governor, could you hand me one of those bricks?  I’m in.” [click to continue…]

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Together Has Power

by Andy Wood on July 9, 2008

in Enlarging Your Capacity, Leadership, Life Currency, LV Cycle

Lone RangerIt’s not enough to be a team player.  To get things done, to be a leader, you’ll have to be a team builder.  Together has great power, and an isolated Christian has a fool for a companion.

A Stanford Business School study bears that out.  Researchers examined the qualities that companies look for in promoting young managers toward senior executive positions. The study concluded that one of the most important qualities required for great success in leadership is the ability to put together a team and function as a good team player. Since all work is ultimately done by teams, and the managers’ output is the output of the team, the ability to select team members, set objectives, delegate responsibility and get the job done, was central to success in management.

That’s bad news for all the Lone Ranger types.  But hey, even he had Tonto!

Together has power in four dimensions:

1.  Synergy.
Synergy is the concept that one plus one equals three.  You can do the work of one, and so can I.  But together, we can do the work of many times more.  That flies in the face of conventional wisdom.  Maybe you can do it better by yourself in the immediate circumstances, but in the long run, it’s always more productive to go together.

You’re probably not going to hear this at church Sunday, so let me go ahead and tell you now:  [click to continue…]

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Tom Brady’s Search

by Andy Wood on January 29, 2008

in Principle of Eternity

BradyThis Sunday Tom Brady will lead the New England Patriots toward the pinnacle of NFL success – a fourth Super Bowl win, riding the wave of an unprecedented undefeated season. He is one of the most adored and admired players in football history. On top of that, he has been heralded as America’s Most Eligible Bachelor by “Entertianment Tonight” and a host of others who know this kind of thing.

And he’s anything but satisfied.

In a December 2007 interview on “60 Minutes”, Brady got honest and vulnerable. Take a look. If you are a Christian, your temptation will be to preach to Tom Brady. Before you give in to that urge, I suggest you let Tom Brady preach to you.

  [click to continue…]

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