It’s January 2, 2013. In case you blinked, the new year is underway. And that’s good news! It’s good news for any of us who were all-t0-ready to say goodbye to 2012. It’s good news for any of us who mades some mistakes that we’d like to take back this past year. It’s good news for any leader who felt like their leadership or team stagnated or digressed rather than moved forward. It’s a new year. That’s good news.

Now what any of us must realize is that 2013 will look exactly like 2012 if we let it. It simply being a new year doesn’t necessarily change anything. We have to understand that a new opportunity is in front of us. And this new opportunity could be a great thing…if we’ll let it.

You see you and I really can’t do anything to Un-Do last year. I can’t erase the mistakes that I made as a husband, as a father, as a pastor, as a friend. And you can’t either. But we CAN seize the opportunity to Re-Do things. Because you and I will be faced with some of the same conversations, same decisions, same situations again. And when those moments come, we have to seize the opportunity to Re-Do.

So this year, as it gets started, remember there is good news: It’s a new year. And then choose to Re-Do some things in a new way. It could be the best leadership move you make.

Leadership is influence…right? So do you have a leaf-raking strategy that makes you influential.

Growing up, I can remember many Autumn seasons spent with rake in hand. The leaves which laid lifeless on the lawn needed to be lifted. After all, the remains of green grass underneath begged to show forth.

While I didn’t particularly care for the leaf-raking, I loved seeing the difference it made. I loved uncovering what was underneath. Given a few hours of hand-blistering motion, a new landscape emerged as I left my influential mark.

I remember what it was like to initially begin raking. I’d begin in one spot and ferociously pull leaves in one direction into a pile. As I began, the task was quite easy, but before I knew it, I had assembled a fairly significant-sized pile. What once was easy to move all of a sudden seemed much heavier. The leaves didn’t quite move as easily. While the pile continued to grow, it took longer and longer to move it’s entirety.

So after a while I remember doing what any person would do…I’d go and start another pile. I’d start over with a few leaves that I could move rapidly revealing the green beneath in a much faster fashion…and so on until all of the grass was uncovered.

As odd as it may sound, becoming influential is a lot like raking leaves. Some of us want to focus all of our energy and attention on one big pile of “leaves” thinking it will rapidly expand and accelerate our influence. If I can just change this one BIG thing (a project, a strategy, a division, etc.) then I’ll be viewed as influential.

But often times, before our one BIG pile is moved, we become discouraged. It doesn’t appear that we’re making significant impact. In essence, it’s taking longer to uncover the beautiful green landscape underneath.

So what should we do?

I’d suggest giving the “big pile of leaves” a break for a moment. What if we started raking some small piles? What if we were content to target a few small piles?  Perhaps we’d see those small piles move easier and faster. Perhaps we’d actually uncover more green grass. Perhaps we’d be encouraged and gain the influence we may need to actually move the big pile at whatever we decide (or our team needs us) to come back to it.

So today, perhaps try giving the big pile of leaves a break. Rake some small piles. And watch your influence grow.

A few weeks ago, my friend Adam and I had the privilege of grabbing lunch with Dan Rockwell, known to the Twitterverse as @Leadershipfreak. I had seen Dan’s tweets pop up in my feed from time to time but I first heard him as he shared on the EntreLeadership podcast. As we sat down to lunch over a couple of plates of General Tso’s chicken, we began to talk, share, and most importantly, ask questions.

We talked about life, about working at a church, about our dreams, about our passions. We talked specifically about transitions and how to up your leadership game. It was truly a challenging and encouraging conversation. There were so many things I wrote down in my journal as we ate and shared that day, but it was really one question that Dan asked me towards the end of our meal that sent my mind racing for the next few weeks. Dan simply asked:

What’s the main difference between 23-year-old Paul and 30-year-old Paul?

The question came as a result of me sharing some of the things I had hoped I would’ve accomplished but haven’t yet. I had shared some of my inward longings from 7 years ago and noted some of the ways I’ve changed as an individual and even as a leader.

I wrestled with a response to Dan’s question. I remember trying to spit out some initial answer but not really coming up with anything concrete so ultimately it left me in silence. I thought about that question for the next week or two and I finally came to an answer.

I think one of the biggest differences between 23-year-old Paul and 30-year-old Paul is that 30-year-old Paul has had seven more years to come up with excuses. I’m recognizing that as time passes by and I see more and more opportunities but fail to seize them, I actually only end up contributing to my future success as an expert excuse-maker.

For me, 23-year-old Paul had experienced less of life. He didn’t have the same career, the same family, or the same financial commitments 7 years ago, he didn’t have the same excuses. In fact, he had few at all.

What I’ve come to think about most over the past several weeks is how drastically different your life can be if you’re primary default becomes excuse-making. I don’t think my primary default is…but I am honest enough to say that there sure seem to be more excuses today than there were 7 years ago.

And here’s the danger: When we make excuses we fail to accept responsibility for how things are or could be. When excuses are offered, dreams never become reality. And I’m just not okay with that. I’m not okay with my dreams, my wife’s dreams, or my daughter’s dreams never coming true simply because I settled for an excuse.

And I hope as a leader, you’re not cool with that either. Leave the excuses behind.

Dan…thanks for that lunch…and for asking me that question.

Last week, as I was making the daily journey between home and work, I turned on the EntreLeadership Podcast and listened to Dave Ramsey share about how the “Golden Rule” applies to business which was followed by a Chris LoCurto interview with retired Chairman of Tractor Supply Company, Joe Scarlett. Would strongly encourage you to check it out. During the talk, Joe said something that my mind has been chewing on for the past few days:

The enthusiasm of your guest will never exceed the enthusiasm of your team.

Read that sentence one more time. Now read it one more time again…and let it sink in.

As a leader, have you ever wondered why all your hard work didn’t pay off into a great user experience for your guest? Have you ever demanded your team to be excited about something that you, yourself weren’t pumped up about? It comes back to this simple principle – you can’t expect (or demand – may sound funny but some places definitely try to demand) your guest to be enthusiastic about something that your team isn’t passionate about. And to make it more personal, you can’t expect your team members to be pumped up and waving flags around about something you could care less about.

So as I started thinking about this thought, I immediately asked myself, “At what level is my team setting the bar for our guests?” But almost before I could even formulate an answer my mind shifted to a deeper question, a more personal question: “At what level am I setting the bar for my team?”

As a leader, the evaluation has to start with yourself and really, you have to lead your team to the same point that you’re hoping they’ll lead others.

As you visit places each day, whether it’s a restaurant, a clothing store, a car dealership, a bank, a grocery store, or even a church, it’s clear who is enthusiastic about their guest…and consequently it’s clear who isn’t as well.

So which do you (and your business or team) hope to be?

Over the past 6 months, I’ve had the opportunity to chat with a few personal friends who own businesses, talk to executive staff at a few different ministries, watch how things are communicated at my own workplace, and even evaluate how I lead at work or in my home…and I’ve come away with this conclusion:

Visioning people is serious work. It’s hard work. It’s vital work.

Whether it’s your team members, key stakeholders, volunteers, even your family – as a leader, you can’t afford to mishandle this important responsibility. To anyone who leads in any way (in your company, in your community, even in your home) this is not a surprise.

Visioning people is challenging for a number of reasons:

• Not everyone can always see what you can see
• Not everyone carries the same burden you carry
• Most people like to hold on to what’s familiar
• There are numerous obstacles to communicating with clarity
• Vision leaks

But as I’ve listened to several leaders, friends, and even parents cast vision or provide a challenge for those whom they lead, I’ve started to notice a progression that involves 3 critical elements:

Retell
You have to take people back before you can take them forward. There’s a good chance that you have new team members or stakeholders who haven’t journeyed with you as long. They don’t know the whole story! So you have to retell the story of what has brought you to this point, this decision, this new dream. Help them value and honor the past because it is what has laid the path for the future.

Remind
As you’re retelling the story, make sure you remind your team or stakeholders of your core values. Remind them of crucial points where you made significant decisions. Remind them of the places where you drew a line in the sand. Remind them of what you’re committed to doing because you believe it makes things better. In essence, you’re reminding them of who you (your company, your family, etc) are and that you’ve been in this position before…and you survived.

Reveal
Once you’ve laid the groundwork and have ensured that you’ve brought your audience along with you (whether they’re a seasoned, tenured member or a new hire) and have reminded of why you do what you do, then reveal where you’re going. Help them see why this next step seems to make sense. Don’t try to reveal before you’ve retold and reminded…they won’t be ready for it or perhaps the new dream will be met with unjust opposition.  Help them understand why their HERE is unacceptable and how you plan to help them move to THERE (wherever that might be).

Thoughts? Suggestions? What are some practices or principles you implement when casting vision?

If you missed Day 2 at The Global Leadership Summit (or just couldn’t take notes quickly enough) here is a brief summary of what was shared. Again, for full notes that were live-blogged check out Justin Wise’s Blog or check out the Twitter hashtag #wcagls.

Patrick Lencioni
Patrick is founder and President of The Table Group and a best selling author. His recent book is called The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else and he shared thoughts centered around the focus of organization health.

Power Statements:

• Quoted Samuel Johnson to start: “People need to be reminded more than instructed.”
• Organizational health is the single greatest competitive advantage in business.
• 2 Requirements for Success: You must be Smart and you must be Healthy.
• If we want to change our organizations these days, we have to make them healthier.
• Four Disciplines to mastering Organizational Health: Build a Cohesive Team, Create Clarity, Over-communicate Clarity, Reinforce Clarity.
• When you know why you exist, it should inform the decisions that you make.
• We must avoid confusing CORE values with things like ASPIRATIONAL values (things we wished we had but we don’t.
• A core value is something you’re willing to get punished for…to violate it is to ask you to sell your soul.
• Trying to be all things to all people is actually being nothing to no one.

William Ury
William Ury is the Co-Founder and Senior Fellow of Harvard University’s Program on Negotation and talked to us about conflict resolution and negotiation in an interview with Jim Mellado.

Power Statements:

• Think about the 10 most important decisions you made this last year…how many of them did you make by yourself? You probably made them with someone else – so negotiation is central.
• The goal of negotiation isn’t the elimination of conflict.
• We have to deal with conflict in an honest way as opposed to a destructive way.
• We (myself) are the biggest barriers to us achieving success in negotiation because it’s a human reaction to act without thinking.
• When angry you will make the best speech you will ever regret.
• You have success in negotiating when you possess the ability to go to the “Balcony” (The balcony is a place of clarity and perspective).
• One of the greatest powers we have in negotiation is the power we possess not to react.

Pranitha Timothy
Pranitha is a slave rescuer. She’s the Director of Aftercare with the International Justice Mission and works in India. Early in life she was mute and God healed her by giving her voice back and she lets that voice be used to help others.

Power Statements:

• The pain I experience constantly reminds me that I need God and that his grace is sufficient for me.
• God gave me this voice, feeble and yet powerful in HIS hands.
• But the greatest miracle I’ve experienced is that God changed me, he changed my life.
• We are called to Serve. My life belongs to God. God is good.
• I am no hero, I am simply called to serve by God who is already at work.
• Being humble doesn’t mean that God will not ask us to do things with great strength.
• I have learned the radical truth that God is good and I must trust him even when I see the scars of pain that we inflict upon one another.

Mario Vega
Mario is the Senior Pastor at Misión Cristiana Elim in El Salvador, a church with 73,000 attendees. Mario talked to us about the importance of integrity and character.

Power Statements:

• There are defining moments in the life of a man that reveal their true character.
• The moral failure of a leader will challenge the integrity of many others as well.
• As a leader, we’re not only responsible for our own actions, but also for those of whom we influence.
• Leaders are defined by the ongoing decisions that they make.
• There are certain decisions that you can’t delegate to any other person, they are your tough decisions to make.
• Never give yourself permission to avoid doing what is right.
• Every right decision that a leader makes will strengthen his influence.
• You will never regret doing what is right and operating with integrity.

John Ortberg
John is Senior Pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church and an author. His newest book is called Who Is This Man?: The Unpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus. He brought our attention back to a man who’s leadership influence literally changed the world: Jesus.

Power Statements:

• Too often we argue Christianity when we should be marveling Jesus.
• Jesus’ influence endures regardless of those who try to impose it and in spite of those who claim to promote it.
• Jesus gave the world it’s most influential movement.
• Jesus gave dignity to the marginalized. When Jesus said to care for widows, he began to change the view of the status of women in the world.
• The Jesus movement revolutionized the arts, changed political theory, and changed how we think about human rights and dignity.
• We must marvel at this man because his work is not done yet.

Geoffrey Canada
Geoffrey Canada is the the President and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone and shared in an interview with Nancy Beach how his program not only changes individuals but entire communities.

Power Statements:

• Some kids grow up in places where despair rules and because of this we’re losing millions of our young people.
• You can have a great school in a neighborhood that’s dying and maybe one or two youth will succeed, but what we’ve decided is in order to help the youth, you actually have to change the neighborhood by providing hope and strategy for change.
• If you raise a child there is never a time where you don’t have the opportunity to be a great parent.
• I’ve changed in the fact that now I feel a strong sense of urgency to make a difference.
• We can’t allow another generation to be on a pipeline from cradle to prison.
• I am now ore impatient with failure.
• During the darkest times, I have fundamentally believed that we are but a moment and a party towards victory.

Bill Hybels
Bill closed out The Global Leadership Summit by bringing our attention back to the local church. He has been saying for many years that the local church is the hope of the world.

Power Statements:

• Everyone wins when leader gets better.
• Throughout his life, he’s felt differently about the local church: From hopeless, to hopeful.
• It’s one thing to see a vision and another thing to be seized by one.
• The message of Jesus Christ is the only thing that can radically and permanently change the composition of the human heart.
• My new question: Will the local church, the hope of the world, be able to sustain itself until the end of time?
• Empires, dynasties, and worldwide companies have passed away…what gives me confidence that the church will survive?
• What gives me confidence is the person who is building, maintaining, and sustaining the church – Jesus (Matthew 16:18)

The Global Leadership Summit concluded with a challenge to pray this morning prayer for the next 30 days:

Make sure you check out notes from Day 1 or even notes from Day 1 and Day 2 of last year’s Global Leadership Summit. Again, if you’d like to have a copy of my full notes, just send me a message.

The Global Leadership Summit has become an annual staple of leadership challenge for me and it’s an event I’d greatly encourage you to attend next year. Over 160,000 leaders join worldwide for the 2-day simulcasted leadership event. I’m attending the event from Lives Changed by Christ Church in Central PA.

From Day 1, here is a quick overview of each speaker, their challenge, and a few statements that were meaningful to me. For greater context to each talk, I recommend you check out Justin Wise’s Blog and the Twitter hashtag #wcagls.

Bill Hybels
Bill is the Founder and Senior Pastor at Willow Creek Community Church. He also founded The Global Leadership Summit which now is shown in 85 countries. He challenged us with a parable of The Sower and The Seed from Luke 8 and brought to our attention the fact that if we expect more trees (fruit, life change, etc.) then as leaders, we have to constantly be sowing more and more seed. Near the end of Bill’s talk he focused on Succession Planning and talked about how he wants to finish the next 5-10 years at Willow. What grabbed my attention most wasn’t so much the content of what he was saying, but the fact that he WAS saying it. All leaders know there comes an end and they work tirelessly to move their teams to that point. It was refreshing to hear a great leader like Bill naming his reality and sharing in such a vulnerable way.

Power Statements:

• The parable suggests a 75% seed-rejection scenario so if we expect more trees, we can’t complain about how few trees we see, we must sow more seed.
• Leader: your entire organization takes its seed sowing cues from you and entropy cannot occur on your watch.
• Leaders must become incessant tinker-ers…always wanting things to become better.
• Many leaders incorrectly assume their most valuable asset is time, but it’s actually their energy and ability to energize others.
• YOU are the most difficult person you will ever lead.
• If you really care about the people you lead, you have to humble yourself and learn from anyone who can help you get better.

Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is a professor of Political Science at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and she is the former Secretary of State of the United States of America. She helped us see the difference between freedom and democracy and the responsibility that each of us have a citizens and followers of Christ to make sure that each and every human life is valued.

Power Statements:

• Freedom is not the same thing as democracy. Democracy is the institutionalization of those freedoms. It understands that freedoms come with responsibility.
• Mature democracy requires and understanding that democracy cannot mean the tyranny of the majority. It requires an understanding that the strong cannot exploit the weak.
• With democracy there are no kings and queens. Every life is worthy and capable of greatness. Thus, we have an obligation to make sure that the opportunity is there.
• Leadership is helping others recognize their own potential and leadership qualities.
• The most important characteristic in a leader is irrepressible optimism.
• Out of struggle often comes victory. We forget it is a privilege to struggle.
• Never accept the world as it is. Work for the world that can be.

Jim Collins
Jim Collins is a nationally acclaimed business thinker and author. He is a former faculty member at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He’s written books such as Good to Great, Built to Last, Why the Mighty Fall, and Great by Choice. Jim is constantly asking, “Why do some enterprises thrive in uncertainty and others do not?” So he challenged us with a few principles that can lead to greatness.

Power Statements:

• The X-factor of great leadership is humility combined with will.
• There has to become a healthy relationship of fantastic discipline, empirical creativity, and productive paranoia.
• The signature of mediocrity is not unwillingness to change, but is chronic inconsistency. Have a 20-mile march strategy.
• As a leader don’t waste your time firing un-callibrated cannonballs, but fire a few bullets first – test things.
• It is a skill to marry creativity and discipline in such a way that discipline amplifies your creativity instead of destroying it.
• The greatest danger is not failure. The greatest danger is to not know why you were successful in the first place.
• The great challenge for leaders is to accept that greatness is not primarily a function of circumstance but it’s a matter of conscious choice and discipline.
• Your organization is not truly great if it cannot be great without you.

Mark Kielburger
Mark Kielburger is the Co-Founder of Free The Children which is the world’s largest network of children helping children through education. He is also the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Me to We, a social enterprise providing better choices for a better world including international volunteer trips, leadership training programs, and a socially conscious clothing line that address issues of positive social change. One of the biggest things he challenged us on during his interview was to challenge a child now with the question, “What do you want your legacy to be?”

Power Statements:

• As a youth I was asked, “What type of legacy do you want to leave?” and it changed my life.
• People are uniquely made to helps solve a particular issue.
• Gift + Issue = Better World (the way you’re designed can meet a need which leads to a better world)
• Action solidifies understanding. You can’t say you know something yet not live it out.
• Mother Theresa challenged him: “Remember: you can do no great things but you can do small things with great love.”
• We are the generation that we’ve been waiting for so invest in them now and challenge them with legacy.

Sheryl WuDunn
Sheryl is the author of the award-winning book Half The Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide and talked to us about the need for gender equality.

Power Statements:

• This issue of the century is gender equality.
• Women and girls aren’t the problem, they’re part of the solution.
• Two worldwide issues that face women are sex trafficking and maternal mortality.
• One of the ways to be happy is to contribute to a cause that is greater than yourself.
• You and I have won the lottery in life. The question is, how are we going to discharge that fortune.
• With great fortune comes great responsibility.

Craig Groeschel
Craig is the Founder and Senior Pastor of LifeChurch.tv, a multi-site church that holds 76 weekly worship experiences ministering to over 40,000 people. He’s also a popular author of books such as Weird, It, and Soul Detox. Craig spoke to us about that challenge of bridging the generational gap and suggested giving honor as a great way for both the older and younger generation to succeed.

Power Statements:
To the Older Generation:

• Don’t fear the younger generation, believe in them because they need you.
• God values maturity so if you’re not dead then you’re not done. God still needs to use you.
• Some of your best days are before you as you take your years of maturity and invest them into someone younger.
• Don’t just delegate tasks to the the next generation. If you do, you’ll just create followers who will do what their told. Delegate authority instead so that you can create leaders.
• With the younger generation authenticity trumps cool every single time.

To the Younger Generation:

• You need those who have gone before you more than you can imagine.
• Because you feel entitle you typically overestimate what you can do in the short run but you’ll almost always underestimate what you can do over a lifetime of faithfulness.
• You have to give honor.
• Honor builds up. Dishonor tears down. Honor believes the best. Dishonor believes the worst. Honor values others. Dishonor devalues them.
• Respect is earned but honor is given. So if you ever want to lead over someone, make sure you serve under with integrity.
• You don’t want a job, you want a calling. You don’t want to make money, you want to make a difference.

Stay tuned for notes from Day 2! If interested in having all of my notes, send me a message and I’ll send them to you!

Over the past few years of working with 20somethings, I’ve realized that there are four words that have the potential to change the world. At the very least, they are words that have the potential to change someone’s personal world. They’re words that I know changed my world:

I Believe In You.

I believe in you…probably one of the most powerful statements anyone could make. When those four words are used it unlocks undiscovered potential. They seemingly give desired permission. They allow someone to do and think things about themselves that weren’t previously possible or believable. And if I’ve learned one thing, it’s that sometimes the thing we need most in life is someone who will believe greater things about us and want greater things for us than perhaps we can even believe about or want for ourselves.

So as you lead today, whether in your home or in your workplace or in your community, I encourage you to wisely look for opportunities to share those four words. Don’t just use them flippantly, but where you see untapped potential, where you see trustworthy competency, where you see faithful character, use them…and watch those four words change the world.

So last Tuesday I didn’t post…I was too busy holding this little lady…

Waverly was born last Monday and after all the medical fanfare was over, we found ourselves in a quiet room Tuesday morning staring at our daughter…one of my favorite moments ever.

As I spent the next few days at the hospital, my mind raced with thoughts of what this new addition to our family means: we are now a family of four, my wife and I now have to play man-to-man instead of zone defense, she has a wonderful big sister, she’ll bring us so much joy, and on and on my thoughts raced. And amidst the hundreds of thoughts that filtered through my mind, this one stuck out:

This is a new opportunity to lead…she is a part of my legacy.

That thought both energized me and freaked me completely out all at the same time. You see, it really is people that are our legacy. It doesn’t matter how much money we make, how padded our accounts are, how quicky we rose to the top, how big a name we made for ourself, what we drive, how many square feet we can afford, how many branches or divisions we manage, or even how many wins we have (we who live in Pennsylvania or are Penn State fans witnessed yesterday how quickly wins can be taken away). The people we invest in become our greatest legacy.

And for my daughter, I’m the only person in this world that is privileged with the title of Waverly’s Dad. On one hand, I’m super pumped. This is my daughter, she is a part of me. I’ll be the one who gets to help her learn how to walk and ride a bike. We’ll share incredible conversations as we take strolls and paint fingernails (hers, not mine). And for those opportunities to lead and shape a life I am thrilled. But quickly on the other side of the coin I know the mistakes I’ve made as person, as a father, as a husband, as a pastor. I know me at my worst. I know what it feels like to win and I know what it feels like to lose…but neither of those things are my legacy.

My new daughter is part of my legacy and so I have to seize this new opportunity to lead. I have to take each day, one day at a time, and do the best I can to lead myself and my daughter well. Because to me, she is what truly matters. She will become of the greatest parts of any legacy that outlives me…and so will any of the people involved in your life. So seize the opportunities in front of you today and lead well. Don’t merely count wins and losses. Count the people.

A few months ago, on a Friday morning, I found myself staring at some ridiculously tall weeds. We had just launched LCBC‘s York Campus and we were lacking sufficient grass-growth coverage for our land conservation approval letter so we couldn’t mow yet. But that didn’t stop the weeds from sprouting…it just made them even more noticeable, especially after a nice rainfall.

For a few summers growing up, in between basketball and soccer season, I worked doing landscaping. One summer I worked for a prestigious community called Glenmoor in Canton, Ohio. It was no joke – I remember one guy nearly getting fired for scalping the lawn when his mowing deck dropped off the curb. Placing irrigation systems, mowing, mulching, and regretfully weeding were all part of the job. Seriously, I hated weeding…and even more, I hated rainy days, because nothing was worse than having to weed for 8 straight hours.

But I learned that weeding is necessary. Not only does it provide a much more appealing aesthetic view, but it can also be helpful to the life of the other vegetation. If not dealt with properly, weeds have the potential to choke the life out of the surrounding plant life as they steal soil moisture, nutrients, and sunlight. You have to get rid of them if you want the right things to grow.

Leaders, you have to do the same thing. You have to be a professional landscaper, weeding out conversations, strategies, wasteful spending, and even employees that might not allow the right things to live within your organization. You can’t allow the wrong things to choke the life out of you or the great, motivated, productive people that you have around you. So today, do some weeding where it’s needed. It will probably be hard work, but in the end, it just may lead to growth.