Issue No. 155 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting delivers biblical solutions for addressing the issues that keep you and your team members up at night (fear, worry, anxiety, etc.) Max Lucado delivers the perfect book for your worry worts and those who pretend not to worry. And this reminder, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.
8 Worry-Stoppers
“Worry is the darkroom where negatives become glossy prints,” writes Master Wordsmith Max Lucado. His latest book is Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear. Recently, I wrote about Google’s Eric Schmidt who uncovered a “culture of fear” when he was assigned the turn-around task at Novell in 1997. It’s one thing to label the problem—it’s another thing to fix it. Lucado does both by creatively attacking 14 fears— and offering up biblical solutions with his trademark stories and masterful writing.
Chapter 4, “Fear of Running Out,” arrested my attention because he had a writing deadline by 5 p.m. that day and so did I. He reminded me, “Fret won’t fill a bird’s belly with food or a flower’s petal with color.”
When Jesus’ disciples had a catering problem with just five loaves and two fish (seven items) Max asks, “How do you suppose Jesus felt about the basket inventory? Any chance he might have wanted them to include the rest of the possibilities? Involve all the options? Do you think he was hoping someone might count to eight?”
Eight? “We have five loaves, two fish, and…Jesus!” That’s a spectacular reminder for all of us number-crunchers and strategic planners. Count to eight!
So Lucado gives us another eight:
1) Pray, first.
2) Easy, now. Slow down.
3) Act on it.
4) Compile a worry list.
5) Evaluate your worry categories.
6) Focus on today.
7) Unleash a worry army.
8) Let God be enough.
He expands on each best practice with minimal words, but poignant promises. Then, Classic Max, he points out that the acronym for the eight worry-stoppers is P.E.A.C.E.F.U.L. He blessed me and he’ll bless you. There is more good fear-fighting stuff in the other 13 chapters. It’s the perfect book to delegate to a team member. “Pick a chapter and give us a five-minute reminder on how to imagine a life without fear.”
To order this book from Amazon, click on this title: Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear, by Max Lucado.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) What keeps you up at night?
2) Make a list of your Top-10 worries. Jesus said in Matthew 6:32-33 (NLT), “Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”
Weekly Pulse-Checker - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit
One of the big ideas in the Meetings Bucket, Chapter 20, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is to be intentional with one-on-one meetings with your direct reports each week. In reality, it won’t be every week because of vacations, days off, travel, etc. But, at a minimum, meet twice a month.
CEOs, senior leaders and managers who consistently meet with their direct reports and use a tool such as the “Weekly Update to My Supervisor” form, affirm that the time and energy invested pays rich dividends. Here are just a few of the powerful things that happen when you meet weekly with your direct reports:
• Team members are affirmed regularly.
• Direct reports more consistently leverage their strengths, their social styles and their spiritual gifts.
• Standards of performance are clear and goals are achieved on time and under budget.
• Staff conflict, gossip and misinformation challenges are dramatically reduced because truth-telling is a practiced core value.
• Bottlenecks and missed deadlines are eliminated.
• Recommendations are more thoughtful and intentional.
• Communication is enhanced as you use your direct report’s preferred communication style.
• The pulse (morale, passion and energy) of your team is checked weekly.
• Affirmed and productive team members mean less staff turnover.
• And . . . team members often give you affirmation!
On the Buckets website, you can download a template for the “Weekly Update to My Supervisor” form, plus a commentary on how to use the form.
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