The Leadership Drop Podcast
This is a podcast for Pastors, leaders, and anyone who wants to grow to be all that God has called them to be.
The Leadership Drop Podcast
Unlocking Leadership Success: The Power of Mastering Transitions and Timing
Can understanding Biblical wisdom transform your leadership skills today? Find out as we embark on our summer series opener of the Leadership Drop Podcast. This episode zooms in on two pivotal strategies that can make or break your leadership journey: mastering transitions and seizing the perfect moment. Drawing inspiration from the biblical story of David in 1 Chronicles 12, we reveal how David’s triumphs were rooted in his knack for assembling a team of exceptional leaders—'pros, not Joes.' Learn why thought equity, rather than sheer effort, is your key to navigating transitions effectively and why consulting insightful advisors like the men of Issachar can steer you toward strategic success.
Timing is everything, and we dissect its crucial role in leadership further. Discover why building consensus and meticulously planning the release of information can ensure smooth transitions and positive acceptance of change. We share the importance of having a think tank of timing experts and independent thinkers who grasp the subtleties of communication. With over 40 years of experience under our belts, we'll share practical insights on how to manage information flow compassionately to avert misunderstandings and resistance. Tune in to understand why timing isn't just an element of leadership—it’s the linchpin that holds your strategy together.
Welcome to the Leadership Drop Podcast. In each episode, pastor Jackie, along with selected guests from time to time, aim to drop some leadership insights that are designed to help you thrive, whether you're leading a church, a business, a team, a family or simply yourself. So lean in, listen, laugh and learn as we drop some leadership truth, and watch out for that leadership mic drop moment. Let's go.
Speaker 2:Well, hello and welcome to this latest edition of the Leadership Drop podcast. We are filming this and recording this at the very beginning of June, so this is our summer series, and it's 113 degrees outside already here in Phoenix where we live. Hopefully it's cooler where you may be listening to this at this time. But over the summer we're going to drop a couple of podcasts that sort of are interrelated as it relates to leadership. We're going to talk about managing transitions and maximizing timing, and I think for a leader both of those, whether it's the people that you're leading or yourself you have to work very hard at managing transitions in the organization and every organization goes through series and seasons of transition and also maximizing the timing of those transitions. So let's start with timing, and we're going to use as a template an Old Testament passage of back in 1 Chronicles, chapter 12, when it talks about the men of Ishtar understood their times, and we're going to extrapolate on that a little bit. But let's talk about the importance of timing in our leadership. Whether you're leading a business, a school, a team or a church, a group of volunteers, wherever you might be leading timing and how information gets released to them and how decisions get made man. That is next level leadership. If you can get a PhD in timing as a leader, you can change almost anything and do it without a whole lot of difficulty. So let's dive in. In leadership, there's the importance, first of all, of surrounding yourself with the right people. Now that may not seem like a timing issue, but we're going to see later on developing in this idea that it is very much a timing issue. You have to surround yourself with the right people. Here's a key thought I want to lay in your heart One of the keys to David, and we're looking in 1 Chronicles 12 in the story of David's early days, even before he actually became king, but he's in the process of becoming. In the early days, his early success is that he surrounded himself with what we would call pros, not Joes, and I love this about David.
Speaker 2:The Bible says in 1 Chronicles 12 that the following were the men who came to David at Ziklag while he was still banned from the presence of Saul, son of Kish. They were among the warriors who helped him in battle. They were archers who could use either the right or left hand, both to sling stones and to shoot arrows. Did you get the picture. These guys were good at what they did. They are ambidextrous. They could pitch right-handed or left-handed, they could bat from the right hand or the left-hand side, they could sling stones and shoot arrows, whether it be with their left or right hand. Later it would say of them, in verse 8 of that same chapter some Gadites defected to David at his stronghold in the desert, and they were valiant warriors, trained for battle, expert with shield and spear. They were experts. Think about that. They were not just Joes, they were pros, they were experts at what they did. And then later the Bible says in verse 14 of chapter 12, these Gadites were army commanders. The least of them was a match for a hundred and the greatest of them for a thousand. So one guy could kill a hundred and man. That was the least of the group but the best of the group. One guy could kill a thousand guys. They were pros, not Joes.
Speaker 2:And so I want to ask you to ask yourself this question in whatever leadership matrix you find yourself in, who are you getting advice from? Who are you learning from? What are the competencies of those that are helping you? What are their competencies? Are you attracting leaders around you? It's clear early on in David's. He's not even fully the king, saul's still king. And it's clear early on David is attracting other leaders. Real leadership doesn't start until you start leading other leaders. Until you get to the level of leading leaders, you've not really become the kind of leader that you were designed to be. So great leaders they're just not, you know, thinking about this thing or that thing and the mundane things, but they've surrounded themselves and they're attracting to themselves other people that are next level leaders. So surround yourself with the right people. But here's another thing. This is going to where it moves toward timing a little bit. Make sure you're getting good advice. The Bible says in chapter 12, verse 32, I referenced it earlier, but it says in verse 32, from the Ischarites who understood the times and knew what Israel should do. So not only are you surrounding yourself with the right people pros, not Joes but are you getting advice from the right people?
Speaker 2:The men of Ischar get this key thought they didn't provide elbow grease, they provided thought, equity and man. How important that is. It is important to have volunteers around you that can help with the elbow grease. I would argue that the Gadites and others of the tribes like them. They were the fighting men. They provided the elbow grease. And when it went through the list in chapter 12, numbering each of the tribes, their numbers were up into the thousands upon thousands, but when it numbers the number of the Isharites, it's 200.
Speaker 2:Here's what I'm saying. David had a lot of people who could fight, but he needed some people who could think. And man, as a leader, not only do you have to surround yourselves with people who can fight, you need to surround yourself with people who can think. Thought equity is a high value for leaders of leaders, because leaders of leaders aren't just thinking about how to stack chairs, they're thinking about how to fill chairs. There's a big difference in someone who can rearrange chairs in your worship center and those that can work to fill those chairs with volunteers and newcomers and guests. That's the difference, isn't it, between leading doers. That's one level of leadership, but then, when you graduate up to the next level, now you're leading leaders. You're not just leading doers, you're not leading people to stack chairs, you're now leading leaders. You're leading people who can fill those chairs. So the men of Ishkar formed what I would call this first Old Testament think tank, and that's who David surrounded himself when he needed good advice. Now, here's three things about advice and timing that we see from these men and I want you to look for in your advisory council that you draw in and bring in around yourself.
Speaker 2:Number one in ministry and in business, and in sports and in education, you need people who will understand the times. This is the space in our organization where we ask elders and senior staff members to live in. This speaks to understanding the culture, understanding the organization. This, at this point, is very data-driven and we have a saying around here. We've said for a long time and I believe it to be true that facts are our friends and feelings are our enemies. Let me just say this I can't emphasize this enough to be true that facts are our friends and feelings are our enemies. Let me just say this I can't emphasize this enough but people that function primarily on feelings alone should not be given large swaths of space in upper-level leadership. People that function on feelings primarily should not be given large swaths of space in upper-level leadership, whether it's your school, whether it's your business, whether you're running a Costco or a CVC pharmacy or a local high school. If you want a funny feeling, eat bad meatloaf is what we say around here.
Speaker 2:But if you want to be real, leaders have to live with the facts. And way back television Sergeant Friday used to say just the facts, ma'am, and at some level leaders live in the area of the facts. Now that does not mean that leaders don't function also with intuition, but it does mean this If you're going to be an effective leader, that intuition must be informed by reality and by existing relationships. It can't happen in the vacuum of that. Happening in the vacuum of that is reading a tarot card. Happening in the vacuum of that is reading a tarot card. Happening in the vacuum of that is reading your daily horoscope. But leaders with intuition which I firmly believe that's a primary gifting of leaders is they're intuitive by nature, but their intuition must always be informed by facts and reality and relationships.
Speaker 2:Here's a key thought you might write down somewhere is that everything moves at the speed of relationships. If I'm going to know something about someone, I have to know that someone, and so everything will move at the speed of those relationships, either existing or forming relationships. So the first thing you need in a think tank is you need people who will understand the times. The second thing you need in your think tank is you need people who will understand when it is time. That's not the same Understanding the times. A lot of people understand what's going on around us. I mean, you go on social media and you have all sorts of opinions of what's happening in our world politically, what's happening in our world socioeconomically, what's happening in our world globally. People understand the times, but it's a big difference of those that understand what's going on around them and then know when to act upon it. You need in your think tank people who will understand when it is time. Here's a key thought.
Speaker 2:It is possible to do the right thing at the wrong time. Can anybody agree with that? You've done the right thing, but it was just the wrong season or the wrong time. Timing is everything for the effective leader. There's an old saying that says, with God, time means nothing, but timing is everything, and I think that's true. Let me give you a personal illustration. I think we're far enough away from this story so that it is safe to share, but when I first came here as the pastor of this church, it was called Palm Vista Baptist Church way back in the day, and that was 11 plus years ago.
Speaker 2:And when I came here, we inherited a sort of I think it'd be an understatement to say that it was an awkward relationship with the elementary school and the preschool that occupied space on our campus. We did a deal about alignment some time ago in one of these podcasts. It was not correctly aligned. The party line was that the church was the authority over the school and the preschool. The reality was far from that. I would go to school board meetings and they would sit in a semicircle and they would invite me to sit outside the circle. So yeah, that's a visual of what was actually reality.
Speaker 2:And so we had long conversations during our church staff meeting of how to fix the relationship with the school. We knew it needed to be aligned. We valued what they were doing. We wanted them on our campus but we wanted them to be an extension of our ministry, not a contradiction to our ministries. And so I would go home after staff meetings many, many times in those early days and staff meetings would start at nine. They would end at four or five o'clock in the afternoon and all of the oxygen in the room would be taken out of the room by the discussion about the school. How can we fix it? How can we get the leaders in line? How can we align it with the ministries, how can it be more of an extension of our church?
Speaker 2:And many times my wife, who is the most patient, godly loving person on the planet the proof is, she's been married to me for 40 years she would say well, why don't you just fire all the people at the school and why don't you change everything right now? And I agreed that what she was saying was correct. But God had given me enough intuition as a leader to realize that I could have done the wrong thing, the right thing, excuse me at the wrong time. And so I said man, honey, I think you have a good perspective on that, I just don't think it's the right time. And so I took time with that, and it took about two years of laying the groundwork for that change. I took a full year of rewriting the bylaws and constitution of our church, meeting with a study committee in my office for a full year, every Sunday night of that year, almost every Sunday night. Clearly, we didn't meet 52 Sunday nights, but almost every Sunday night for a full year, studying and then presenting to our church what it would look like moving forward, and when we did, the vote was unanimous and the transition was. I can't say it was painless, but it was a lot less painless than it would have been two years earlier.
Speaker 2:So here's what I'm saying for you as a leader. You may know there's some things that need to happen in your organization and it may be crystal clear that this thing needs to change, but it might not be right now. It might behoove you to build up consensus, to lay out a more thoughtful framework, to bring people into the discussion before you make the final decision. Just take your time. Time is on your side sometimes as a leader, and so, as a leader, you need a think tank that understands the times but also knows when it is time. And then the final thing I would say to you about timing is that you need a think tank that understands the sensitivity of properly time releasing information, and I can't overstate this enough 40 plus years of doing the thing that I've been doing, and done it better at some points in time than other points in time, but I can tell you that over 40 years this is the big lesson I've learned you have to be a specialist at time-releasing information.
Speaker 2:How many of you have ever had somebody come up to you as a leader and say to you, almost upset, maybe they were upset. Well, I don't understand this. This is the first I've ever heard of this and I always think I don't say, but I don't always think, well, I can't tell you something before I tell you. There's always going to be a first time that people hear something. I get that, but you need to be careful that the first time that they hear it is from the right source. The first time they hear it. If it's a particular level of leadership, they need to make sure they hear it from the senior leader level of leadership. They need to make sure they hear it from the senior leader, because if that doesn't happen, then it could perish. It could excuse me, it could blow up everything that you're trying to do in terms of creating positive change. It's a saying it's not new to me, but you'll recognize it. But it is true that loose lips sink ships me, but you'll recognize it. But it is true that loose lips sink ships.
Speaker 2:If changes are not laid out sequentially, released in the right order, it can cause big problems. If it's not the change think about this it's not the change that many people will be adverse to. It's the way the change is communicated. That is many times the problem, and if it's communicated sequentially and it's communicated compassionately and with a spirit of vision and optimism, people will come around and people will get excited about it. But if it's undercut by information getting released to some people before it should be released to others, then that can cause trouble.
Speaker 2:When you know a thing and then you tell a thing, let me say this when you know a thing and then you tell a thing before the proper time, in the long run you don't come across looking like you're in the know a thing and then you tell a thing before the proper time, in the long run you don't come across looking like you're in the know, but just that you're out of order. And so it's very important to stay concentric and centered in this timing of releasing information, and I've learned this from some of the best leaders around me. They are geniuses at leaking information at just the right time. And so remember, with God, time means nothing, but timing is everything, and with a leader sometimes that's true as well. With you as a leader, it may not be the time, but it could be the timing and it could be that the people aren't a adverse to the thing that you're trying to change. They were just upset with how they came to know about it, and so I just want to encourage you to think about, as a leader, the importance of timing, the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people.
Speaker 2:Timing Pros, not Joes. I have people around me. Some of them are sitting in the room today. They're making us look and sound better than we should ever be because they're pros at what they do, and you need to surround yourself with that. But you also need to surround yourself with people that can give good advice. You need to surround yourself with people that aren't just elbow grease but they're thought equity. They're thinkers. People that not just fight but think, because it's different in leading people to stack chairs and leading people to fill chairs, leading people to do inventory, and people that will make sure inventory gets moved at your business. People that can order the jerseys and people that can develop players inside those jerseys. You see the difference One is leading doers, the other is leading leaders. So, as you look for a think tank and all of us need to surround ourselves with those kind of people look for people to understand the times.
Speaker 2:I have said recently that I believe the next generation of leaders will be independent thinkers. They'll be people to understand the times. I have said recently that I believe the next generation of leaders will be independent thinkers. They'll be people that understand the times. They're just not going to blindly accept what someone tells them on a Twitter feed or a news broadcast or even from a pulpit. They're going to be independent thinkers. They understand the times and then they know when it is time when it is time, and then they work creatively and systematically in releasing that timing of the information, being time sensitive, releasing information so that people, when they receive it, are ready to follow the direction that God has given you. Hey, I hope this has been helpful and I hope that you'll like and that you'll reply and do all the silly thing that you're supposed to do to podcast. But I hope this has been helpful until next time, and the next time we're going to talk about not just managing time but also managing transitions in our organizations and in our own personal lives. Until next time.