Marc Estes

Over the past fifteen years I have had the privilege in working closely with Portland Bible College. Having the opportunity to be a part of shaping next generation leaders has been a real blessing. It has been amazing to see the lives of so many young people launched into ministry and to see the lives of thousands touched as a result of the efforts of PBC.

One of the comments I have heard while traveling all over the world is, “I would love to have the opportunity to take some quality Bible College classes, but my current life circumstances will not allow it.” Boy, do we have some good news for you!

For the first time in PBC’s history, online classes will be available starting this week.  You can now grow and learn anywhere. Each of the online classes is designed to replicate a vibrant classroom experience. All of the elements necessary for a truly life-changing theological education are present in the new online format and now available at your fingertips.

If you are serious about taking the next step in your biblical education, it is worth clicking on a few of the links below and checking it out! If you know of anyone in your church, pass it on; it is a recommendation worth making.

Over the past few years I have posted some resource tools that are designed to help you in becoming a more effective leader. These items have been very popular and I have received many encouraging emails as to how they have helped others. I thought it would be good to put the list in front of you and allow you to download as many FREE resources as you want.

Let me know which ones have been a blessing to you!

FREE Downloadable Leadership Notes

Connecting to Community – Web Verison

Building a Thriving Team Culture – Web Version

Building a Leadership Pipeline – Web Version

Keys to a successful Volunteer Ministry- Web Version

Destroying Disabling Delusions of Discipleship – Web Version

2007_multi_site_survey

Combatting Perspectives of the Church – web

FREE Evangelism Resources

Irresistible Christianity Handbook

The Road Ahead Follow Up Booklet

Sharing the Gospel in the 21st Century – web version

FREE Pastoral Resources

Counseling in the Local Church

Water Baptism Booklet

FREE Self Assessment Tests

Identifying Your Spiritual Gifts

Defining Your Passions

Clarifying Your Talents and Abilities

Learning About Your Personal Makeup

Discerning Your Spiritual Maturity

Making Sense of Your Life Experiences

Making Priority Adjustments

FREE Downloadable Charts

Leader Development Chart BLANK

Leader Development Chart EXAMPLE

Growth Strategies Chart

Small Group Personal Growth and Development Chart

FREE Downloadable Miscellaneous Leadership Documents

Leadership Recruitment Code of Ethics

ENGAGEMENT READINESS EVALUATION

This is one fact that is for sure; life is filled with challenges and problems.  We all have a desired outcome to each day in which we live, but often times there are ‘surprises’ that come our way that may detour our desired plans and goals. Much of the outcome of a potential problem lies in our ability to discern, assess and resolve the situation promptly.  A leader is not measure by the challenges they face, but their respsonse to them!

The Los Angeles Times ran a quote that stated, “If you can smile whenever something goes wrong, you are either a nitwit, or a repair man.” I prefer the second option.  Realizing the only problem you really have is the one you allow to be a problem due to the wrong response to the issue at hand. Problems are really opportunities in the making. If God is truly in control of all things, He must have caused or allowed the situation to evolve and has a purpose in it.  The list of reasons could be endless.

Here would be a few thoughts that might help you next time an ‘opportunity’ comes your way:

1.   Intuition: You must sense it before you actually see it – There are a variety of factors that will allow you to sense that a potential challenge is on the horizon.  Slow down long enough to recognize unusual changes unfolding right in front of you.

2.  Discernment:  Ask yourself some honest questions – Believing the best in every situation is a noble position to take, but it can also end up in disaster. Face the brutal facts, don’t ignore or minimize the challenge at hand. Look at it objectively and discern what is unfolding and where it might potentially end up. Look at your options.

3.  Investigate: Gather important information – You will never make an intelligent decision without intelligent information. Get the facts and write them down.

4.  Evaluate: List all of the potential outcomes and all the potential choices and solutions you might choose. Look to God’s Word for scriptures that apply to your situation.

5. Feedback: Present the options to those you respect – Get outside input; there is wisdom in a multitude of counsel.

6.  Process: Develop a written action plan – Sit down and take the time to list the process for change. Include the who, when, what and where to insure that you are making the changing in a strategic manner.

7. Lead: Activate the plan – Don’t be wishy-washy in implementing that which you know is best. Procrastination is the devil’s workshop.

The next time you are faced with a problem that has the potential of ruining you day, head it off at the pass!

Developing healthy teams requires more strategy than just sharing a common vision. Although vision is important, if a team does not have the respect of it’s leader, the reality of vision fulfillment is greatly diminished. You will find that those who desire to follow you the most are those that respect you the most. Respect is not given, it is earned.

Respect is defined simply as, “The state of being regarded with honor or esteem. Respect is an unassuming resounding force, the stuff that equity and justice are made of.” It means being treated with consideration and esteem and to be willing to treat people similarly. It means to have a regard for other peoples’ feelings, listening to people and hearing them, i.e. giving them one’s full attention. Even more importantly, respect means treating one with dignity. Respect is the opposite of humiliation and contempt. So where the latter can be a cause of conflict, the former and its opposite can help transform it.

There are five “C’s” that you will find that will be necessary in order to develop a team culture where people will respect you as their leader. Try applying these simple, yet crucial principles to your leadership style and watch the respect level rise in your team.

1. Be Consistent – Say what you mean, do what you say, and always be true to your word. Be prompt, professional, and proficient in everything you do.  Model the attributes you desire others to live and remain consistent in your vision, values and philosophy.

 

2. Be Caring – Take the time to find out what is going on in the life of your team members. When you find out that someone is hurting help them. If they are discouraged, lift them up. If they are tired, give them a break. If they make a mistake, send them some grace.

 

3. Be Clear – Learn to be honest even if it hurts. Don’t hold back a concern or frustration and share it with everyone but the person that needs to hear it most. Build a reputation that is honest, up front, real, caring and to the point. Once you share a concern, help them with the solution. Their success is your success.

 

4. Be Courageous – Always be a few steps ahead of your team. Be willing to go where you ask others to go. Stand for your morals and values even if it costs you something… even if it costs you much. Don’t be a reed in the wind, or be double-minded. Have some back bone and stand strong.

 

5. Be Courteous – Model what a polite leader looks like. Give people the respect they deserve. Allow people to share their thoughts even if they don’t seem important to you. Give people your undivided attention. Walk down the hallway and give them the time instead of sending them a text or email if it is a big issue.

 

Respect will be your great ally or a lack of it, will be  your worst nightmare. Maybe today you could take a few steps down the ladder and climb off the platform and give people a little more respect. You never know, you just might benefit from it!

Most of us work in a fairly fast paced, complex world. It seems that there is always another mountain to take, river to cross, giant to kill, and responsibility to fulfill. As we power through our long list of ‘to do’ items and file last weeks project action plans, it is important to stop and celebrate the wins with those who work with you and for you. There is one thing for sure, we don’t celebrate our accomplishments enough!

If you are going to celebrate what you have accomplished there might be a few things you might considering doing:

1. Take the time to reflect – At the end of every week, or the end of every project, stop and ponder what you have just done. Look at where you have been and where you have now arrived and appreciate the accomplishments you have made.

 

2. Make the Win Definable – Develop a one-liner, or something that is easy for every one on the team to grasp.  We understand this in the world of sports; a goal is a win in soccer, a touchdown is a win in football and a strike is a win in bowling (did I just use bowling as an illustration? Wow!) When everyone understood what a win looks like and then you accomplish it as a team, everyone can see that the team won. Define it!

 

3. Make everyone a part of the Win- Tennis and Golf are lonely sports. They may be fun to watch, but nothing like when a team wins the world series and dog-pile in the middle of the field. Spectators make the best critics. If you really want to create some momentum with those you serve, let them own the win as well.

 

4. Look for ways to win regularly- The greatest factor to momentum is being acknowledged and appreciated regularly. One win a year is not enough. Look for ways to celebrate weekly accomplishments by sending out an email, twitter or Facebook comment. Talk about people in your weekly staff meeting. Look for ways to win regularly.

 

5. Don’t beat anyone up when you lose – Losing is a part of the game, and when we do, we learn from the disappointment and ultimately look at the loss as win as well. Babe Ruth was one of the greatest striker-outers of all time, yet he is known for getting up to the plate, pointing towards the fence and scoring the win. Next time you don’t quite reach the goal, gather those around you, share what you learned through the loss, point at the fence, and hit it out of the park!

 

Take a second and ask yourself a question, “What motivates more, results or recognition?” Most of us know the right answer, but when we truly assess our motives, do they align with a pursuit of results or recognition? Unfortunately, we live in a world that promotes position and title as the goal of utmost importance. What title is on our business card, or on the front of our office door, seems to be of great importance to many. Yet position, is only a means to the end; production. Not the other way around.

We have a saying on out team, “You can get a whole lot more done if it doesn’t matter who gets the credit.” I am reminded of a profound statement made about Jesus. The Apostle Paul that he made himself of, “NO REPUTATION.” If there was ever a person that deserved to be recognized and honored it was Jesus! However, Jesus knew the key to living a fulfilled life; push aside the position and just focus on production.

The amazing part of this simple, yet profound equation is that those that are producers are honored with position.  The leaders that I have truly grown to respect are the ones that wanted to be treated like everyone else. There is no expectation of being served, as they are bent on serving others. This is truly the type of leader I aspire to be! How about you?

Maybe its time that we stop worrying about climbing the ladder to gain some attention and get in the ditch and start making a difference.

It is quite obvious that people will follow your example more than your directives. If you have ever had the joy of raising kids, they will become what you are, not what you say, no matter how much you attempt to direct their lives in a path different than yours. The same applies to leadership. People become a byproduct of their environment, and environment is created by leaders.

I once read a statement by a medical missionary, Albert Schweitzer, who stated, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others… it is the only thing!” If you want to create a certain type of atmosphere in your organization, it first must be evident in you. How you live, will be how they live. How you encourage others, will be how they encourage others. On the contrary, how you criticize and put down others will unfortunately be the model that many will follow. Lee Iacocca said, “The speed of the boss is the speed of the team.”

You might want to take a personal inventory of your own life and ask yourself a brutal question, and then respond to the brutal facts. “If my organization was filled with leaders just like me, what kind of organization would we have?” If you have set some goals for your team, make sure you are living them first. If you are challenging them in the time management, make sure that you are living it first. If you are encouraging your team to step up the prayer life, increase your prayer time first. Your confession will have little impartation without possession first.  Just remember modeling leadership is the only true method of developing leaders.

If you have been involved in leadership for any length of time, you know that ‘who’ you have involved on your team is as important as ‘what’ the team is created to accomplish.  You can have a great vision, but the wrong people will greatly hinder your ability to fulfill it. You can have an abundance of resources, but a lack of the right personnel can squander these resources in a hurry derailing the team from fulfilling it’s intended purpose. 

Yesterday, I picked up Jim Collins’ new book, “How the Mighty Fall”  (see below) and once I began reading, I just couldn’t put it down. I read it from cover to cover. You may recall, his last book,  “Good to Great” was a best seller that focused on how good companies could implement key principles that would move them toward becoming a great company (I highly recommend this book for every leader).  His new book took the opposite approach and dealt with how great companies made critical mistakes that ended in their demise.  It is surprising just how clear these mistake are in principle, but how many leaders fall trap to them in every day life.  One of these key areas was  having the wrong people on the team.  Here are some keen insights from his book that should be considered as you develop your teams: 

1. The Right People Fit with the Company’s Core Values – Great companies build almost cult-like cultures, where those who do not share the institution’s values find themselves surrounded by antibodies and ejected like a virus. People often ask, “How do we get people to share our core values?” The answer: you don’t. You hire people who already have a predisposition to your core values and hang on to them.

 

2. Right People Don’t Need to be Tightly Managed – The moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you might have made a hiring mistake. If you have the right people, you don’t need to spend a lot of time “motivating” or “managing” them. They’ll be productively neurotic, self-motivated and self-disciplined, compulsively driven to do the best they can because it’s simply part of their DNA.

 

3. The Right People Understand that they do not have “Jobs”; they have Responsibilities – They grasp the difference between their task list and their true responsibilities. The right people can complete the statement, “I am the one person ultimately responsible for…”

 

4. The Right People Fulfill their Commitments – In a culture of discipline, people view commitments as sacred – they do what they say, without complaint. Equally,  this means that they take great care in saying what they will do, careful to never overcommit or to promise what they cannot deliver.
5. The Right People are Passionate about the Company and its Work – Nothing great happens without passion, and the right people display remarkable intensity.

 

6. The Right People Display “Window and Mirror” Maturity – When things go well, the right people point out the window, giving credit to factors other than themselves; they shine a light on other people who contributed to the success and take a little credit themselves. Yet when things go awry, they do not blame circumstances or other people for setbacks and failures; they point in the mirror and say, “I’m responsible.”

 

One of my greatest downfalls is food. I love to eat and appreciate the time and energy put into a quality meal. My mother would be a great cook and has mastered the art of food preparation to the point that whenever I am near her house I gain five pounds just thinking about the meal in which I am about to devour. One of her all time classics is her Lasagna. Now, I don’t get the opportunity to eat if very often, nor does she cook it that much, simply because the “Seven Layer Million Calorie Health Free Delicacy” requires CPR instructions upon the completion of even the smallest of portions. Yet this handcrafted, eloquently assembled masterpiece has created quite a reputation as the best Lasagna this side of Italy.

Just as a quality dish of Lasagna requires quality layers of certain ingredients to get the right end product, so does the life of the leader. There are a variety of layers that are necessary in order to produce the proper balance to a quality leader. I came across the following seven statements in my files the other day, which were penned by none other than John Maxwell. Take a look at these seven components and take a moment to reflect on your own life:

1. CHARACTER – WHO YOU ARE: True leadership always begins with the inner you. People will always see the depth of your character more than your gifting.
2. RELATIONSHIP – WHO YOU KNOW: Leaders should know that association plays a key role in personal development. Be careful who you hang around you just might become like them.
3. KNOWLEDGE – WHAT YOU KNOW: You will never make intelligent decisions without having intelligent knowledge and information.  Knowledge won’t make someone a leader, but it is very difficult to lead without having knowledge.
4. INTUITION – WHAT YOU FEEL: Leadership is more than a set of hard fact rules and principles. It demands the ability to implement these principles in the right timing, manner and process. Intuition is the leaders compass that looks beyond what they can see.
5. EXPERIENCE – WHERE YOU HAVE BEEN: Experience is what forges education into real life realities giving you context and wisdom for future similar situations. Experience also develops credibility for you amongst those you are leading.
6. PAST SUCCESS – WHAT YOU HAVE DONE: There is nothing that speaks louder to those around you than a lengthy track record of solid, right decisions. People will listen to what you have to say in the future based upon the way that your lead today.
7. ABILITY – WHAT YOU CAN DO: When it all comes down to it, people will follow you as far as your capable to lead them. They may have the ability to go further, but if you aren’t out in front, they will find someone else to follow.

Each one of these areas are within your hands to develop. It does take time and discipline, but it is worth the effort! Just like Momma Jo’s Lasagna, what you put into the dish, will determine the response of those who are partaking of it.

Many today have the special ability to lead. It is clear that this is an attribute, given by God, to fulfill specific purposes. Yet having a gift or natural talent isn’t enough to become a great leader. You may get by for a season on natural talent or charisma, but sooner or later you will hit the lid and be incapable of moving forward… unless you add the component of daily disciplines to your life.

I heard a quote many years ago and is used widely in leadership circles, “A champion is built in a day, but built daily.”  This one simple statement has profound ramifications to it, if you read it, digest it, meditate on, and then apply it to your life.  It is the thousand little things that you do in a day that defines and develops you, not the one big thing. I do understand that there are defining moments that sear a person’s reputation or fate, but in most every case, it was a multitude of little decisions that got them to the one pinnacle decision; good or bad.

I am a big fan of contact sports. I know many would debate whether a Christian should support a bunch of guys being aggressive and hitting each other, but I am a guy. That is what guys do. Over the years the sport of boxing and MMA have greatly increased in competition. The guys who are champions are ones of impeccable discipline. Their daily routines are rigid, lengthy and well planned.  It is how they live out their daily disciplines that will determine the results of their reputation and legacy under the lights.

President Theodore Roosevelt was a man of discipline. He was also quite tenacious.  History records him as the, “Ablest man to sit in the White House since Lincoln; the most vigorous since Jackson; the most bookish since John Quincy Adams.” He also loved to watch and participate in the sport of boxing.  He made this famous statement that is still used today:

“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strive valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worth cause; who, at best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”

When you look at your life and your leadership responsibilities, do you find yourself doing what needs to be done in order to get by?  Are you satisfied with the way thing are, not dreaming about the ways things could, or should be? Maintaining is a dangerous place to be. Although it may feel good for a season, it is always the first stage of stagnation and decline. May I encourage you today to take some time and assess your current responsibilities? Make a list of the areas that you oversee and answer some tough questions honestly:

1. What areas of responsibilities have been entrusted to my care?
2. What is the desired goals of each of these responsibilities?
3. Where do I fall short in obtaining these goals, both personally and with the team in which I lead?
4. Why have these short comings become a reality?
5. What do I need to do to change in order to be best positioned to succeed?
6. How do I implement the changes?
7. When will I start?

Remember, you define your future and legacy by the actions of today. Tomorrow will be too late to make yesterday changes. Why not start today?