Issue No. 80 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting looks at the Team Bucket and our spiritual heritage. St. Francis of Assisi wrote, “Preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary, use words." Be blessed with this special book this Easter week. Inspire your team members with the poignant commentaries from the early heroes of our faith. And this reminder: to review the 80 books I’ve recommended in back issues, visit the archives here. Plus, take a sneak peek at my emerging Management Buckets website.
The Unexamined Notion of Newness
New books are important, but the classics are imperative. As you mentor and encourage your team members, it might be time to remind them that long before Rick Warren, Beth Moore, Kay Arthur, Chuck Colson, Chuck Swindoll, Jim Dobson, and even D. L. Moody, the pioneers of the faith were building our theological foundations, brick by brick.
Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, editors of this remarkable book, begin, “We today suffer from the unexamined notion that the more recent something is, the better, the more true it must be. This book is our attempt to counter this present-day myopia. It brings together fifty-two carefully chosen selections from the great devotional classics.”
If your team members have never read (or even heard of) Jonathan Edwards, Frances de Sales, Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Soren Kierkegaard, Evelyn Underhill, or John Baillie—order the book. These fifty-two pillars span the centuries: Gregory of Nyssa (331), Francis of Assisi (1182), Catherine of Genoa (1447), John Bunyan (1628) and Watchman Nee (1903).
Click on this title to order from Amazon: Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups (2005 Revised Edition). If you’re in what John of the Cross (1542-1591) called the “dark night of the soul,” when you’ve lost all the pleasure you once experienced in your devotional life, you can feed on the riches of these classic writings from our brothers and sisters past. For more resources, visit the Renovare' website.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1. C.S. Lewis said, “It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.” Why might this be good counsel?
2. Many people talk about the need for a devotional life or a quiet time. But…really, what’s the point of it? Quote someone who’s been dead for at least 200 years.
Bucket #9 of 20: The Team Bucket - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit
Over a 20-week period, I’m featuring one of the 20 buckets (core competencies) from my forthcoming book, Mastering the Management Buckets (pre-order now for April delivery). Diane Passno, senior vice president at Focus on the Family, recommends the book and wrote: “…a wonderful book that is not only for those aspiring to leadership positions, but those who have been in the management ranks for years.” Here’s the core competency in Bucket #9: The Team Bucket:
“We believe that a balanced life honors God, each other, our families and our friends, so we leverage the unique set of talents and strengths given to each person by God. Thus we serve with more fulfillment and joy. We also leave work on time, physically and mentally.”
The Team Bucket encourages every person to identify their top five strengths from the best-selling book, StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath. (The book gives you a password for the online assessment.) Then implement these next steps:
1) List the top five strengths of yourself and your boss on your “Weekly Update to My Supervisor” form (it’s in my Buckets book). Imagine how this will revolutionize your weekly one-on-one meetings when both of you are leveraging your strengths instead of your weaknesses. Wow!
2) Recognize how intricately life balance and team member strengths are connected. When your people identify their top five talents and you all invest time in honing those into strengths, you’ll have a more joyful and more fulfilling workplace. You can then delegate more because you’re delegating to the strengths side.
3) Make sure you reward those on your team who are getting it right. Who receives the accolades and the recognition on your team—the workaholics or those with God-honoring balanced lives? Rath sites a Gallup study: “…people who do have the opportunity to focus on their strengths every day are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life in general.”
NEXT STEPS: I can help you integrate these leadership and management best practices into your unique setting and help you assess your competencies in the 20 management buckets. Visit my website at www.JohnPearsonAssociates.com and my book website at www.ManagementBuckets.com. To bring a one-day or two-day Management Buckets Workshop Experience to your organization or city, call our office at 949/500-0334. Ditto for the six-hour Nonprofit Board Governance Workshop for board members and senior leaders.
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