By now, we've not only brushed up on the fundamental practices of leadership, we've identified leaders as anyone with influence or decision-making responsibilities. Leadership does not rest on the size or function of an organization. It rests squarely on the shoulders of anyone whose life and choices have baring on others.
We've talked about the need to affirm people we influence, and to acknowledge sometimes difficult realities of our organization and to take responsibility. Then last week, we further talked about how important it is for the leader to believe in the preferred future or unique niche of the organization, to be prayerful if you are a person of faith, and to be real about where the responsibility lies in meeting goals and that preferred future. We cannot pray for God to make things happen and be idle about the work it will take to get there.
Letter C is where we can lose the leaders who resist administrative tasks. Leaders are not always good managers. They have different personalities, different gifts, things that make them tick. Leaders are forward focused. Managers are present tense. Leaders tend to think meta, big picture. Managers are required to think micro, details. The most effective leaders long-term are either both or they hire what they're not. All because the next fundamentals of leadership require management and details.
Calendar
We are not victims of our calendar. We are the orchestraters of them and the product of them. Live by your schedule - its ultimate result is who you will become. What do you want to be? Put it on your calendar. Want to be a better money manager? Put a weekly appointment on your calendar to review your budget and spending. Do you want to be healthier? Put your workout times on your calendar. In your organization, do you want a team atmosphere? Schedule productive team meetings. Do you want better skilled workers? Schedule training. Do you want peaceful home? Block out days on the calendar to shut the doors and lock the gates and learn how to live together. You will come to love it. Leaders, your personal calendar reflects what you will become, and your organization's calendar will reflect how healthy your team atmosphere and your public reputation will eventually be. Put it on your calendar and (here's the tricky part) LIVE BY YOUR CALENDAR. Your calendar is only as effective as your commitment to live by it will be.
Chart
While your calendar is the present revealing the future, how you chart your progress is the past revealing the present. Relentlessly track results. Measuring yesterday's effectiveness of your programs, your time, your resources will clarify what needs to be addressed today before you give them one more minute or even one more penny. Make notes. Keep track. Then ruthlessly evaluate the validity of your activities. Stop doing what isn't working. Pour resources into what is working. Give more time to the areas of your life or organization or family that are fruitful and life-affirming. But you'll have a hard time determining what those things are if you are unaware of the money it's costing you or the time it's draining from you. Keep track. Review it. Course correct.
I find these fundamentals challenging. It's easy to daydream about a life I want. It's admirable to set goals and to continue to unify a team around them. But mapping out the baby steps that will lead to a better life or healthier organization is in the details - the details of what will I will give my time and money to, the details of what very valid activities get a "no" or "not yet" not because they're not worthy of doing but because they don't fit the picture of the future God called me to. Calendaring and charting my life is not just determining what I will do, but also what I will not do.
Many of us talk a lot about how busy we are and always with a tone of exasperation. But I would challenge us all in this - we are not the victims of our calendars. They are not forced upon us (even by a tribe of little people whom you are parenting.) You are not a victim of your calendar or schedule. You are its architect, and by it you design a life you love or simply get through. Design a life you love.