Barnabas File

In one of my seminary classes, I ask students to write a final paper describing what they have to offer as a missional leader--one who leads a church or organization to embrace the missio Dei --mission of God.   On several occasions, students have cited the quality of resilience. Resilience is defined in the dictionary as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.”  Much like grit and mindset, this has become a topic of research in positive psychology where it is seen as the  ability to cope with a crisis or to return to pre-crisis status quickly. In most cases, those students who cite resilience as a personal characteristic have identified it as a result of life experience--failure in a project or program, loss of a job, rejection by a significant other, or death of an important person in their lives. This is not a theoretical attribute but one that they have practiced and recognized in themselves. What are some things that ca...

Work is more complicated than it used to be.     Most jobs require not simply a person who will be a “cog in the machine” but a motivated contributor.     Especially with younger generations, motivation comes not just from a paycheck, but in the ability to learn, grow, and contribute.     This requires managers who will adopt a different supervision style. In a recent article , Gallup provided a strong argument for managers adopting a coach approach to supervision.  Coaching requires a more personal, interactive style, but the writer states, “ When managers provide meaningful feedback to employees, those employees are 3.5x more likely to be engaged. ” Although becoming a coaching leader requires significant training, here are some ways that a manager can become a coach. First, recognize the uniqueness of the person you supervise.  Every individual has different experiences, skill sets, and abilities.  Their uniqu...

Growth is a necessary part of the life of a leader.  If one fails to grow, he or she will not last long in a leadership role.  Two of the speakers at the Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit today addressed individual growth from very different perspectives.  Shelia Heen addressed the importance of feedback—accepting it rather then giving it.  Heen has spent two decades at the Harvard Negotiation Project and now works with executive teams through her firm, Triad Consulting Group. In her most recent book, Thanks for the Feedback (co-authored with Doug Stone), she helps readers to understand how to receive feedback and use it for personal growth and development. In a very dynamic presentation, she pointed out that we “ swim in an ocean of feedback” but that doesn’t mean that we know what to do with it.  Heen suggested three levels of feedback         Appreciation keeps us motivated.       ...