Category Archives: Leadership
An Annual Spiritual Health-Check (REVISITED)
July 11, 2016An Annual 15-Point Spiritual Health Check-up
Some people are pretty good about getting physical check-ups each year. Some might even get a routine physical exam yearly. Many people also go to church on a fairly consistent basis. However, how many of us truly take a spiritual inventory yearly or understand the value in doing so? Scripture is clear that physical training is of some value, but godliness with contentment is not only great gain, but it has value in this life and the life yet to come. That is the life found in eternity for those that believe by faith in Lord Jesus and have received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For those that know me well as the business/life coach, public speaker, entrepreneur and author focused on helping people take action on their dreams, they wouldn’t be surprised by my focus on answering a list of questions such as this. I am all about being challenged, lifelong learning, spiritual growth and empowering others as such through my life energy.
What did surprise me though were my answers after I reviewed them honestly and made a personal reconciliation of sorts. Some of the answers were very encouraging and affirming. Others were simply not. Several others were less than what I would honestly hope to put down.
Realizing the summation of my answers, I was challenged to focus on answering these questions more than once. I realized that taking inventory of my spiritual health on an annual basis was a wise thing to do. It is easy for anyone to give themselves more credit than due or to lie to themselves. It is easy to deceive yourself because you see the world through your eyes most of the time. The questions below remind me of the reality of what my personal relationship with God looks like, and how I truly am doing spiritually. It invites me to draw near to God, so He can draw near to me. It invites to me to seek to grow spiritually in the year ahead.
What are your answers today about these 15 questions (You owe it to yourself to be brutally honest):
- Am I closer to God than a year ago?
- Am I more rested in God’s oversight in my life?
- Do I sense a growing eternal perspective reminding me that this life is not all there is?
- Do I view my life as an investment that is accompanied by an eagerness to please God?
- Do I find hope and encouragement with God’s word? Is God speaking to me through His Word I read every day?
- Am I more of a taker or contributor? What’s the natural inclination of my life?
- Am I able to turn to God in times of pain and suffering?
- Does my worship go beyond singing songs at a weekend service?
- Have I learned to feed myself spiritually? I am responsible for my spiritual growth.
- Have I made progress over sinful habits or my greatest personal spiritual struggles?
- Have I embraced Grace abandoning any attempt to earn or deserve my salvation?
- Am I seeking changes in my life and am I and others seeing changes in my life? Changes like love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control?
- As I follow God with my life, am I becoming a different person?
- Am I truly following the leading of the Holy Spirit in my work, family and life in general?
- How am I doing right now spiritually, really?
Many people do New Year’s resolutions each year. I have even created a personal resolutions tool to help you on this site. Many people build annual goals or plans for their life. Are you willing to be bold enough to put a reminder on your calendar each year to go back through this spiritual health check-up process again? If you will join me in this effort, I believe we will both see God grow us, and change our lives forever. For a Christian who is seriously all-in and invested in growing closer to God during their lifetime, it is clear that our life is about becoming more like Jesus Christ through God changing us from the inside out.
Remember, you and I were never meant to experience spiritual health apart from the environment of the local church. Do you have a local church that you worship at regularly and are invested into? If not, I encourage you to visit some soon, and ask those you respect the most spiritually in your community where they attend. Perhaps you can join them for a visit this week? Perhaps you can share your answers to the above questions with them and ask them to pray for you as you walk forward over the upcoming year?
God bless,
Joe
Exit Planning – What does it look like in a Self-Managing Company?
February 2, 2016Let’s examine what your exit strategy might look like as you work toward building a self-managing company. Should you even have one?
Most entrepreneurs have this idea that they’ll work forever, or at least until the day before they die. Is that really a good idea?
For the purposes of this post I’d like to identify Three types of entrepreneurs. Survival, Achievement, and Lifestyle. As in any start-up there are sometimes months and even years of just getting by. Scraping for every last available dollar to keep the venture going. Building a clientele and a business is no task for the faint of heart. As opportunities for growth become more a way of life and the viability of the business is proven I’d shift status to that of an Achievement Entrepreneur. Profit is evident, debt is being eliminated (unless it’s productive debt), and a shift to more consecutive quarters of positive earnings provides a bit of a cushion for the cycles to come. Lastly, a Lifestyle Entrepreneur is able to choose exactly how he or she may want to balance their life between work, family, faith, social, physical, philanthropic and almost any other category of life you’d like to toss in to the mix. Call it a work/life balance.
Knowing and Understanding the Five Generations of American Workers
January 8, 2016The five living generations:
1. Traditionalists – 75 M – people born before 1946
2. Baby Boomers – 80 M – born between 1946- 1964
3. Gen-X’ers – 60 M – born between 1965- 1979
4. Millenials (Gen- Y’ers) – 82 M – born between – 1980-1985
5. Generation Z – 1996 – present
Traditionalists
The traditionalists are obviously the oldest segment of american society and one that was shaped by several major historical events/periods.
- The roaring 20’s
- Great Depression
- World War II
Traditionalists are generally marked by an unflinching work ethic, a sense of patriotism/nationalism, respect for authority and hierarchy, fiscal conservatism, and an allegiance to and a trust in institutions.
What’s in Your Top Box?
November 11, 2015It’s a question I heard recently from Bill Hybels at the 2015 Global Leadership Summit. Bob Buford was asked the same question from a high powered strategic planner he hired as he was considering how to move from success to significance in the second half of his life.
I’ve asked that question of myself more than once during my 35 year career as a business owner, employee and leader.
It’s a question that each one of us needs to ask ourselves. Whether in our business, our home, our ministry, or in any role where people look to us to bring a sense of purpose to our mission.
A simple parallel may be considered as you envision an old, deeply rooted tree. The root system represents our core values, beliefs and mission. Who we are and why we exist. The trunk, our operating principles. How we do things. The branches represent the culture or behaviors that exist in our organization. The fruit – The Results. Those results ultimately reflect back to the roots; our mission and the WHY behind doing what we do.
Besides coaching and consulting with CEO’s and business owners I’ve had the privilege of owning and leading a small business that provides our guests with some of the best food you can pack in a glass jar. Now in our 19th year in operation and located in the village of Intercourse, Pennsylvania, Intercourse Canning Company (ICC) offers a seemingly countless variety of canned edibles. You’ll find pickled vegetables, jams, jellies, relishes, salsas, sauces, fruits, dressings and more on our shelves. You name it. That’s the real “fruit” of the labor of many hard working folks and originating with our Creator. The ‘what’ and ‘how’ are obvious. The WHY? Not so much. You might say, “To feed people.” I say it’s more than that. It’s to care for those, while on vacation, who are looking for a place to enjoy themselves and disconnect from the pressures of life. Yes, they purchase a specially crafted and unique food but really it’s about the experience they have when they walk through our front doors. To graze on incredible samples of a variety of goodies; to see how canning was done the old fashioned way and learn how it all started. Our team members are charged with the mission to make the experience a special and memorable one. That’s the “Why.” To create a moment that they’ll talk about and enjoy for quite some time and when chowing down on the “fruit of our labor” they smile about the respite from life during their visit.
August Devotional
September 1, 2015This weekend the group of teenagers and adults that I serve with in our Children’s ministry at church reflected on how we can better reach and influence the children we interact with on Sunday. We had discussion and really reflected together on how we can best do this. As I was sitting in the discussion group the thought came to mind that these principles are not just for dealing with children but really everyone in our lives. This simple truth or lesson is something we should take into all relationships and not just in our closest ones. It’s a truth we likely all know and have heard before. But I know it’s one we all struggle with from time to time and can grow in. I can go as far to admit that this truth encouraged me this weekend.
There have been some people in my life as well as a few clients I’m sure that have exhausted me lately and I know it has shown in my actions, words, and in my thoughts. This fresh perspective gave me a renewed thought process in terms of how I treat people. What would happen if we treated every co-worker, client, business or person like they were made in the image of God? It should make a difference in everything we do. See Leviticus 19:18. Think about it. If we treated everyone (not just the titles mentioned above) like they had the potential to believe, to love, to be kind, to trust, to be trusted, to have value, to improve, to be successful… Then it should change how we treat and relate to them. It shouldn’t matter if they believe what we believe, whether they go to church or not, or even if they are Christians.
A Case for Freedom
July 13, 2015True freedom was personified by Jesus, who became truth, which was designed to set us free. This brand of freedom has no political affiliation or agenda as it spoke of the position of the heart and of relationship with God. But the object for limited government was defined not by the 2nd Adam per se, but for the first Adam in the Garden of Eden.
CREATION
The first governing principles the world has ever seen were applied to the first man the world has ever seen, the crowning achievement of a literal, seven-day saga that saw the earth and everything that comprised it birthed from a ‘formless void.’ Adam’s directives were simple: (although there is an alternative account of creation within Genesis, the same action occurs)
1. Work – “till and keep the garden” and “fill the earth and subdue it”
2. Be fruitful and multiply
3. Name every living creature
4. Do not eat from the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’
Divinely decreed to follow four statutes by the Governor… Sure, things are a bit more complex today. To begin with, there are more than two people in the world! But have we deviated from the simplest, purest template for limited government ordained by God, or are we headed west away from the eastern gardens of Eden? The model for freedom was inherent to man’s origin, and God saw and recognized that it was “good.” So how is it that men and women acting in the ‘better interests’ of other men and women are exercising dominion over other people instead of over the earth, its creatures, and its vegetation? Pilate felt that he was entitled to such authority when discussing the essence of truth with Jesus before he was taken away to be crucified, but his assumption was corrected when Jesus spoke: “You would have no such authority over me unless given from above…” (John 19:11)