“The presidency has made every man who occupied it, no matter how small, bigger than he was; and no matter how big, not big enough for its demands.”

Lyndon B. Johnson

Whatever your leadership role, there will always be an element of impossibility associated with it.  In the moments you feel strong, someone or something will remind you that you are not.  And in the moments when you are weak, you will summon your greatest strength.

Don’t let the role define you.  Just Lead!

Oh, Valentine’s Day you kinda STRESS ME OUT!

What can be an incubator of unmet expectations…

can also be a day to love extravagantly and unconditionally.

You choose!

Keep your head down and attack.

That’s a principal I employ when I’m facing the daunting task of running hills.  The theory is that we’re easily defeated by the looming mountain ahead of us but it becomes much more manageable if we just tackle it step by step.  Focusing on this concept is the only way that I can continuously conquer the rolling hills of Tennessee.

But I’ve realized this is far more than a running principle.  It applies to so much of our life and leadership.

God didn’t intend for us to focus on the mountains, the challenges looming in the distance.  He asked us to focus on his guidance for the next step.

When we focus on the mountain, we become victims of fear, doubts and insecurities.  We become overwhelmed by the belief that “I can’t do it”.  We stumble.  We falter and sometimes we stop.  We give up.

The truth is we can’t do it.  We can’t because the mountain is the wrong focus.  Our responsibility is the next step.

The step in front of is always smaller than mountain ahead of you.

With every step of willing obedience God provides the endurance for the rest of the journey.

Step by step our obedience sharpens our faith and the mountain shrinks before us.

When our faith collides with our obedience we realize that we can’t but God can.

What mountain are you focused on right now?

How could you change your focus to simply being obedient to a next step?

 

 

THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED:  Congrats to @thetrask4 who was the winner!

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On February 23rd, Nashville will be graced with a Girls of Grace event.

This event for Teen Girls is hosted by the Award-Winning Trio Point of Grace and features performances by for KING & COUNTRY, Group 1 Crew and Lindsay McCaul.

Renowned Guest Speakers Include Chris Wheeler, Annie Downs (one of my friends!!), Constance Rhodes, Amber Lehman and Trudy Cathy White

The conference is a powerfully impactful event for teen girls featuring live music, speakers and interactive sessions teaching them biblical principles and equipping them with the tools they need to find security in Christ.  The conference covers timely topics such as body image, good health, being content with oneself, relationships, good choices, social media, fashion and other teen-related topics.

If you’re a parent of a teen girl or a youth leader, be sure to check this out!

Tickets are on sale here.

I also have a huge giveaway for you!  The Girls of Grace team are giving away a huge gift package that includes the following:

• A pair of tickets to the event here in Nashville on Feb 23rd
• Point of Grace cookbook
• Point of Grace CD
• for King & Country CD (one of my favorite albums!)
• Group 1 Crew CD

I will pick a winner on Monday, February 11th.

To be entered to win, just leave a comment telling us what you think is the greatest challenge facing teen girls today.

Great movements occur when a leader gets discontent enough to make others uncomfortable.

We’ve seen them throughout history….

Joan of Arc

George Washington

Mahatma Gandhi

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mother Teresa

Winston Churchill

We’ve also seen them in our communities… church planters, community leaders, founders of non-profit organizations, moms who fight for health, eduction and safety.

Great leaders are comfortable making others uncomfortable for a vision of a greater good.   They understand that keeping others happy perpetuates the status quo.  And they’re willing to risk being liked for being extraordinary.

Where are you settling for status quo?

What movement has God inspired you to lead?

How do you keep an organization organized?

How do you keep it running efficiently and effectively without losing personality or heart?

This is the leadership tension of communication vs. bureaucracy.

I believe that fast-growing organizations feel this tension the most.  With rapid addition of staff and the ever-changing dynamics that accompany growth, leaders find themselves swimming in a sea of confusion.  Reporting lines need to be clarified.  Communication systems need to be over-hauled.  A sense of order needs to be established to keep the ship from sinking.

And that’s where the tension comes in.   Typically leaders either ignore the problem or they go to the other extreme and over-compensate.

Leaders who like the casual, laid back atmosphere of a small team will resist systems and structure for fear that it will make them too “corporate”.

Leaders who are terrified by the lack of order, will react by creating too may strict policies and tightly controlled systems.

When you’re struggling for a sense of order, it’s rarely solved by more bureaucracy.  To create more order, you have to create better systems for communication.

While systems for communication might include tools that enable the communication, the key is teaching your team to embrace the spirit of communication:

Who needs to know?

What do they need to know?

When do they need to know it?

These are the three questions that you need to teach your team to ask.  This must become your subconscious reaction to every action you and your team take.

Communication is the life-blood of an organization.  Poor communication results in mistrust and mistakes.  Great communication creates efficiency and healthy working relationships.

There is a phrase that says, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”  If that is true (and I believe that it is), I would submit that the follow up to that is, “Leadership rises or falls on communication.”

Creating more structure (bureaucracy) won’t fix your organizational problems, unless that structure is created to support your communication needs.

Where is your team struggling?

What steps could you take to improve communication within your team?

I can’t hardly believe it’s nearly time for Just Lead! to release!

Sherry and I have been working on this project for quite some time.  Along the way you begin to think that it’s just a dream, but the reality is starting to sink in.

Just Lead!: A No Whining, No Complaining, No Nonsense Practical Guide for Women Leaders in the Church releases March 5th and we’re hoping you’ll help us spread the word.

We would love for you to be a part of our blog tour.  If you would be willing to post a blog sometime between March 5th-20th, we would be so grateful!  Just send me a quick email at jenni (at) jennicatron (dot) tv and we’ll get you all the details.

Here are a few others ways that you can help:

1) Pray that this book will be a great resource for women leaders who need a bit of encouragement.

2) Help spread the word.  Blog, twitter, tell all your friends.

3) Consider hosting a small group to study the book together.  This is one of my favorite ways to learn and grow!

4) Pre-order it now on Amazon.  The hardcover is only $14.12 and the Kindle edition is $9.99.

Thank you for sharing this journey with us.  Can’t wait for you to read it!

I was recently watching an episode of the ABC sitcom, The Middle.  The Heck family, a middle class family of five are piled into the car after a long day of work and school.  Hungry and tired they are trying to decide where to go for dinner.  As expected each of three kids, all opinionated and strong-willed demand their choice of restaurant.  Tired and exhausted the parents throw their hands up in exasperation and they all wind up eating cereal at home.

It’s a picture of any one of our families on crazy and demanding day, but it’s also the picture of a great leadership lesson.

Both parents had the power to make the decision.  They had the influence, authority, responsibility and right to make a decision and settle the argument.  But rather than lead, both parents were overwhelmed by the demanding voices.

This is a common challenge for leaders.  Responsible for guiding a team of strong-willed, opinionated, bright, driven, passionate people we can often be overwhelmed by the drone of their demands.  We too look like the Hecks – tired, exasperated, spent.

In our exhaustion we forfeit our right to lead.

We settle for cereal and miss out in leading our teams to greater things.

Where is exhaustion hindering you from making decisions that will lead the team forward?

How can you pause to re-energize?

 

My dear friend Lindsey Nobles and an amazing team of bloggers are in Bangladesh right now with Food for the Hungry.   If you haven’t had a chance to check out the work that they are doing, you gotta take a few minutes…

Meet the team.

See all of their posts here.

 

They have just a few days left of their trip and I know that they could use your prayers and encouragement to finish well.  Pray for health, safety, strength, good rest, emotional endurance and perspective to help them process all that they have experienced.

 

Last week we started the discussion about the leadership tension of head vs. heart.  Most of us have a tendency to either lead more logically or lead more emotionally but I think our best leadership emerges when we learn to employ them both.

So what does that look like?

One particular story comes to mind…

Several years ago we were experiencing a pretty lean financial year at Cross Point.  I repeatedly was making tough decisions about what we could and couldn’t afford to do.  I felt like I was constantly telling our staff “no” to what would ordinarily be reasonable expenses.  They felt frustrated and defeated and I felt like the big mean boss.

In a moment of frustration one employee unloaded on me.  What I realized from this person’s exasperation was that they felt that I was making purely logical “head” decisions with no concern for the employees who were having to live out those decisions.  While it’s true that I may have not been fully aware of the impact of the limited budgets they were working with, I was actually making a “heart” decision in that I was watching every penny and managing things so intensely because I didn’t want any employee to be let go for budgetary reasons.  I was making a head and heart decision but I had failed to explain that to those who were impacted by it.

This is an example of how head and heart have to work together.  My mistake in this situation was failing to communicate effectively with my team so that they understood that I was leading from both.

Do you have a tendency to make heart decisions or head decisions? 

How could you more effectively use both?