Effective Leaders Light the Way

LEADERSHIP Series: Lighting the Path – Leading the Way.

Proverbs 4: 18-19 (NIV) The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.

* (AMP) [Verse 18 only] But the path of the [uncompromisingly] just and righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines more and more (brighter and clearer) until [it reaches its full strength and glory in] the perfect day [to be prepared].
* John 8:12 (NIV) When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
* Matthew 5:14 (NIV) "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
* Ephesians 1:4 (NIV) For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
* Hebrews 12:14 (NIV) Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord
* 1 Peter 1:15-16 (NIV) But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

Uncompromising values. That's the path we want all our leaders to walk - whether a business team leader, CEO, politician, parent, friend or spouse. Yes, we want that for "them;" but it is also each of us. We are all called to be "lights." Impossible on our own power and we must take the right path.

1. How are you intentional about being a receptacle for God’s light?
2. What do you do to “light the path?
3. Do you think your life is “like the light of dawn, that shines more and more?” Why or why not? What needs to be changed or enhanced?

I am struck by the analogy given to help paint the picture for us. From the beauty of dawn's early light to the searing light of the midday sun, the message is simply that when walking this path, changes are to take place in those that walk it. In fact, we have a religious term for this walk - sanctification. The doctrine states that our growth along this path is continual and will be completed when we pass from this life into the next.

1. What step do you experience in your growth walk?
2. Give an example of what has been conquered, by God’s grace, and what you are working on.
3. How can you become “more attractive” to the world around you?

Our spiritual transformation differs in kind and quality from any man-made light source. In this journey, we are to become ever brighter - not like a battery that overtime looses its power; our light is to get stronger and stronger, brighter and brighter. Obviously not a man-made journey - ours is powered by a source outside of us and is greater than we.

Light is attractive: people love to look at city lights seen from a high place. We will drive or walk to see a sunset. Some of us want to be awake early not to miss a sunrise. Just as Jesus was light, so we are called to be lights - our lives (our everyday living) so bright and beautiful that the world is attracted to our light.


Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Fraud Management

FRAUD in Down Economy

Often the small business owner, who knows the category, but not bookkeeping, turns that over to someone with complete trust, never auditing transactions. For example:

o Is the Bookkeeper responsible for payroll? With one or two employees, that is often not an issue – but with more it can be. Make sure that anytime an employee leaves your payroll, that the account is closed. Keeping a payroll account open, just a week longer, and changing the direct deposit account (to another account) is often a simple way to defraud the employer. Get to know your payroll records – intimately.

o Does the bookkeeper have a personal credit card with the same bank as the company credit card? This simple and often innocent coincidence makes it easy for a desperate person (with access, like the bookkeeper) to use funds from the business account to pay the personal account, especially if the owner never really looks closely at the bank transactions. Doctoring those reports can be easily done without any oversight.

o Do you use a signature stamp for business checks? That bad habit sure makes it easier to use a company check to pay a personal bill. You may need to change behavior by destroying a signature stamp, personally sign all checks with invoices attached, and have the bank send all statements to the home address first. Read them, looking for transactions that seem extraordinary, strange, or just “different.”

o Does a trusted employee make bank deposits for you? Are they “running out of time” each day to make a deposit and combine deposits? Might be signs of a problem. Skimming here is easier, especially if there is no internal system for matching register tape receipts with cash. This must be a daily exercise, even when you are not working that day.

If you discover fraud, quietly get a team of people quickly assembled that can help – often the employee is ashamed (the desperate one) and a deal for payback can be worked out to avoid prosecution; however, that option must probably always be on the table.

Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Leaderships Lessons Derived From Studying The Ant

LEADERSHIP Series: Lesson from the Ant

• Proverbs 6:6-11 (MSG) You lazy fool, look at an ant. Watch it closely; let it teach you a thing or two. Nobody has to tell it what to do. All summer it stores up food; at harvest it stockpiles provisions. So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing? How long before you get out of bed? A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there, sit back, take it easy--do you know what comes next? Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life, poverty your permanent houseguest!
• 6:6 (AMP) Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise!—

• Job 12:7a, 9, 10 (NIV) "But ask the animals, and they will teach you…which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this [allowed calamity to befall Job]? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.
• Proverbs 30:25 (NASB) The ants are not a strong people, but they prepare their food in the summer;

The ants referred to in the Proverbs passage were one of the 100 species known in Biblical times – that one being the Harvester ants known for carrying seeds from a grain field, seed, by seed, to their own, secretive storehouses. (Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary,1986 Thomas Nelson Publishers.)

Here is a collection of 16 ant “behaviors” that mirror human behavior. Observe and be wise.

Armed Forces: During attack, they will raise up an army of specialized soldier ants
Career Training: Ants learn particular jobs, especially worker ants, then, on some schedule, change & learn new careers
Childcare: Ants feed their young and provide intensive nursery care
Civic Duties: During catastrophes, respond with massive group projects
Controlling Climate: Ant nests maintain a strict 77o F. for developing ants
Communications: Ants have a complex tactile, chemical communication system
Cultivation: They forage, but also grow underground gardens for food
Earth Movers: Ants move at least as much soil as earthworms – consider the size difference and then be astounded!
Education: Ants may be the only group of animals besides us in which interactive teaching behavior has been observed during their life: they teach younger ants the tricks of the trade.
Engineering: Incredible ability to tunnel from two directions and meet exactly midway
Flood Control: When building nests, incorporate water traps to keep out rain
Limited Free Will: It seems that ant inter-relationships more symbiotic than coercive
Livestock Farming: Ants will herd aphids down to their nest at night, "milk" them for nectar-like food, and when it warms during the day, herd the aphids back up to plants
Planning: Ants store food in the warm summer to feed a colony all of winter
Security: Ants maintain a security system, warding off other ants, insects, and animals
Social Planning: Colonies maintain ratio of worker ants, soldier ants, and ants tasked with reproducing

Sources include:
http://biology.arizona.edu/sciconn/lessons2/shindelman/background.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant#cite_note-72


© Copyright 2009 P. Griffith Lindell

Leaders Must Learn to Relax

LEADERSHIP Series: Leadership without Anxiety

Proverbs 1: 33 MSG "First pay attention to me, and then relax. Now you can take it easy--you're in good hands

* Isaiah 32:17 (NIV) The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.

* Luke 8:15 (NIV) But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

* Phil 4:6-7 (NLT) Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Do a Goggle search on "relax" and your eyes will be opened to all the possibilities for learning how to relax. There's music. Quieting videos. Unique DVDs. Special cassettes. Spectacular CDs. You name it. Someone will sell you something to help you relax. Amazing the number of Internet sites devoted to just the concept of relaxing.

Chapter one of Proverbs says there is a simple method that will provide what you need to learn to relax.
1. Why is it to “buy stuff” to relax instead of following the advice of Proverbs 1:33?



Practice righteousness. This is something that you plant, nurture, grow and it produces fruit. And how is this done? Wisdom says (that is who is speaking in verse 33) listen to her. And this hearing demands of us the discipline to read and meditate on the words of Wisdom. Practicing righteousness is not a mystery - it is a discipline of being absorbed with God - hearing the Word, retaining it and preserving. The result. Living a relaxed life.

2. What gets in the way of the discipline of mediating on Wisdom? What needs to change? How does one go about making this kind of change? How does the Luke passage shape your thoughts?



"First pay attention to me..."

3. Just how do we listen to God?



The key as I see it is to (as Paul says) "live in Christ Jesus."

4. How does the Philippian passage help? What other verses in Paul’s writing come to mind? Why is Paul a good model for “relaxing?”



Copyright © 2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Leaders Learn to Pray and Plan….and Pray

LEADERSHIP Series: Planning

Proverbs 16:9 (NLT) We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.

Jeremiah 10:23 (NIV) I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.

May I suggest the 5 Ps of planning:

1. Prayerfully develop the Plan.

2. Practice – try the plan in a small way: look for patterns, changes that need to be made and pray.

3. Ponder. Think about what happened: record it! Write what occurred.
Did the plan anticipate correctly the response?
What changes in behaviors are required to make the plan successful?
Then adjust the plan as needed based on the analysis.

4. Perform – now, roll out the adjusted plan.

4.1 When you do, record the results again; next,
4.2 Analyze them against the plan; then,

5. Evaluate the results and,
5.1 Pray for insight asking, What is God saying and what am I to learn?

Then - repeat the process

1. Discuss where in the planning process you find problems.
   
2. What needs to change?
   
3. How will go about changing?

Seek Counsel From the Right Counselors

LEADERSHIP Series: Get Advice. Godly Advice.

Proverbs 15:22 (AMP) Where there is no counsel, purposes are frustrated, but with many counselors they are accomplished.

Counsel. Purposes. Frustrated. Counselors. Accomplished. Five key words whose rich meaning is lost without a little digging.

“Counsel” is not the word chose for what you and I might call casual advice. “Deliberation” might be a better word; but also, hidden in the word chosen is the idea of secret, intimate – a close group – the root of the word chosen has the concept of foundation.

“Purposes” includes intricate plans and has built into its root the concept of weaving and the mental effort use of the word is the idea of complex plans that must work together toward a single purpose.

“Frustrated” in some translations renders as “disappointed” has its root in the description of a bullock either breaking out of the pack in wild strength or the fact it has a split hoof. The use of this word conveys more than simple plans gone awry: it includes a violent breaking away from original purpose that the plans are of absolutely no effect – made void; divided in such a way that there is a clean break from the original plan

“Counselors” refers to a group that is known for its advice. Interestingly, a different word in derivation and use from the word “counsel,” this word implies people who are used to the process of deliberation and then giving advice. It is this word, and its derivatives, that is most often used to describe “seers” or people who seek guidance from a “higher power” before rendering advice.

“Accomplished” or “established” or “to be set up and running.” Succeed – would be a good way of describing the result.

1. What insights emerge because of the word study?
2. How does the story of Rehoboam in I Kings 12 help shape the meaning of this verse?
3. Jeremiah 32:17 – 23 records a prayer of Jeremiah – what does it recognize about Divine Counsel and how is that meaningful to you today?

Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell

Leaders Learn to Stop Gossip Quickly

LEADERSHIP Series: Leader’s Immediate Stop Busybodies and Gossips

Leviticus 19:16 - "Do not go about spreading slander among your people.

Proverbs 11:13 (NLT) A gossip goes around revealing secrets, but those who are trustworthy can keep a confidence.

(AMP) He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy and faithful in spirit keeps the matter hidden.

Matthew 12:36-37 (NIV) But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."

Psalms 39:1 I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth as long as the wicked are in my presence.


Alan Redpath has developed the following acrostic to help manage gossip saying, “If what I am about to say does not pass those tests, I will keep my mouth shut!” Think!

T - Is it true?
H - Is it helpful?
I - Is it inspiring?
N - Is it necessary?
K - Is it kind?

James Fowler has developed an interesting outline about the subject, including the various Hebrew and Greek words generally translated “gossip.” It is worth the time to review if this is a problem in your network, church or your own life.

1. Discuss Redpath’s list: How do you make it real?

2. Read Fowler’s list and discuss how it applies to your work environment. To your church life. To your personal life.


Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell