Confused or suspicious of personality questionnaires. This simple overview will help you make sense of them.

As Christian leaders, at some time we will have been in a team where two people never seem to understand one another, perhaps leading to sharp disagreements that affect the atmosphere of the meeting and often the effectiveness of how the whole team relates to one another. They might share the same beliefs and chat together over coffee after church. However, when they are trying to achieve something together in ministry, the team cannot get on with serving others until someone gives way.

These sort of issues within teams, even Christian teams, aren’t really due to the differences that exist between people but the rigidity with which they hold on to those differences. Each has their own way of thinking and working. More than that, they are unable to understand the other’s perspective and are unwilling to change their behaviour to help solve their differences : “I need to understand the detail and until you’re able to give it me I’m not prepared to make a decision about this”

Christian Leaders should be Aware of Difference

Increasing self-awareness of all the team members, their awareness of how each other “works” and the elements of their personality that drive their behaviour, can dramatically improve compatibility between them.  Dramatic improvements in how the team relates together and fulfils their responsibilities take place when individuals understand that there are different ways to think about and approach an issue. Often individuals assume that everyone else in the team does, or should, think the way they do. The understanding of difference is essential to solving your people puzzles and the use of questionnaires to raise awareness and provide a language to discuss issues that arise is a huge bonus.

Using questionnaires to increase self-awareness and create an understanding of personality differences can help team members understand what is happening. Armed with this knowledge, and a little guidance, they can adjust how they work together.

Understanding that Mark is a person who needs detailed information to make a decision means that George can now understand that he is not just being “plain awkward” but that Mark just needs more information than George does. Understanding this need, both of them can work with the situation to get the best out of each other by discussing the level and type of information that is needed. Perhaps Mark felt George was being rash in his decision making as he might have felt he wasn’t aware of all the facts?

These questionnaires provide insight and information so that you can tackle your people puzzles in the same way you would tackle theological or financial problems. Labelled “psychometrics”, they are designed to measure various aspects of a person’s skills, abilities and personality, giving you additional information to incorporate into other insights that have been built up as you relate to people.

Do You Run a Mile From Psychometric Assessments?

So many people run a mile when psychometric tests are mentioned. Maybe they think it’s all hocus pocus or perhaps they are concerned that to rely on their results takes away from spiritual discernment and the guidance of the Holy Spirit in decision making or perhaps they simply are not sure how the results will be used. There are some simple principles to help with these concerns.

Well Scrutinized

Generally these tests are not hocus pocus. The good instruments have been used for a long time, have a large body of data behind them, have been used in Christian contexts and have been rigorously scrutinized for years. The set for which the British Psychological Society provides training is a good guide as to their credibility.  For example Myers- Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is used on many Christian training courses to raise individual self awareness e.g. CWR’s Understanding Yourself, Understanding Others. Claybury use it as part of ministerial training workshops to help ministers understand how their personality impacts their approach to leading others.

Confidentiality

With any such test, confidentiality is essential, particularly in small church communities where it is difficult to keep any information confidential. If they are to be kept in personal records then the individual concerned should be made aware and Data Protection Regulations must be complied with. If the outcomes are shared in a team setting then the team must agree to maintain confidentiality.

Guidance Only

Psychometrics tests should only be used to inform and guide decisions and be an additional source of information in discerning what God is saying to us. Decisions that affect people’s lives should never be made on the strength of psychometrics alone and should always be surrounded by prayer. The reports from psychometrics can be very powerful and provide excellent input to help individuals work out how to develop themselves and to personalize their learning. Claybury use various personality trait questionnaires in supporting various Christian organisations. They are used to assess potential recruits and help them explore elements of their personality during interviews e.g. If the results suggest an introverted personality type is applying for a youth worker role, the interviewer might want to ask for examples and an explanation of how the individual builds new relationships.

Appropriate Use

Such tests are best only used with a trained and qualified practitioner. This goes a long way to ensuring that they are not abused and it enables the individual to receive appropriate tailored feedback and guidance. Look for a British Psychological Society Level B qualification (or your national equivalent). This last point is why it’s best to avoid the “Do It Yourself” on-line tests to be found on the internet. Many of these tests do not have a large body of data behind them nor have they been rigorously scrutinized. That means that you need someone to help sift out the ones that are hocus pocus and some guidance on how best to use them. You will also need help to understand exactly what the results mean for you, without that you could end up following an inappropriate course of action.

Our experience is that the danger is in the misuse of these questionnaires rather than the nature of the  questionnaires themselves e.g. Organisations who have excluded individuals from certain roles based on the results of a questionnaire or where the results of reports have been shared in a team context in isolation from any  other information and without consultation with the individuals concerned.

Types of Psychometric Assessment Questionnaire

Questionnaires and tests come in various shapes and sizes and it’s important that you choose the right tool for the job – Use a plane not an axe to take off that bit of wood from the door that keeps sticking!

Ability and Aptitude Tests:

• Numerical Reasoning Tests: When recruiting, if you want help deciding how good someone will be at manipulating and understanding numerical information, choose a numerical reasoning test.
• Verbal Reasoning Tests: If you want to know if they will be able to understand complex ideas and produce easily understandable presentations you want to use a verbal reasoning test.

Research from 174 studies and 36,000 people reviewed in the American Psychologist journal concluded that higher ability test scores are commonly associated with higher levels of performance in any given role. The key is selecting a test that is appropriate to the role the person will be fulfilling and the context: If you are recruiting for a youth worker you don’t want a test designed for a Treasurer.

Personality Questionnaires:

Often using models developed by leading psychologists such as Raymond Cattell or Dr. Reuven Bar-On, these questionnaires assess the personality that drives the way individuals behave:

• Measures for personal development: Are designed to help you understand and increase your personal effectiveness and that of your team by increasing your self awareness. If you understand what drives your behaviour you are more able to do something about it. They are not designed for, and should not be used for assessment and recruitment.
• Measures for assessment: Aimed at assessing how effective an individual is in comparison to others. They can be used for development purposes but are particularly useful for recruitment and understanding the future potential of individuals.

Some questionnaires help you understand individual behaviour and others how a team works.

Examples of Personality Tests

How can psychometrics help me with my people puzzles?

• As part of recruitment: The most effective way of making recruitment decisions is to use variety: interviews, presentations, ministry based role plays and psychometrics. The decision can then be made on a broad view of the candidate, not just a single criteria or method. If you want to ask the right interview questions use psychometrics to prompt questions that explore someone’s way of working. Don’t wait until 6 months into the role before you discover behaviour that has a negative impact on their performance. Using this variety can also help those you are recruiting to understand if the job is the right one for them.
• As part of individual development and support you offer: This will help raise self-awareness and enable individuals to personalise and apply training. They will also help you to have some of the more difficult conversations about individual behaviour. For example:  to help you work with a team member who fails to understand the impact of their actions on others and how others may be emotionally affected by changes in the organisation. Using a questionnaire can highlight the issue and give you a basis for beginning what might be a difficult conversation and having a more honest and open conversation about the issues and then help you to build a development plan.Claybury have used EQi as part of the coaching support we provide to Christian leaders to raise their self-awareness of how they understand and relate to others and help them address specific relationships issues. Helping them uncover some of the underlying issues and take action to strengthen these relationships.
• As part of team training: Use some of the team questionnaires to help your team understand how they work together as a team and the role they each play in the team, in addition to their job role. E.g. For a church Leadership away day the individual team members complete an MBTI questionnaire before the event and are provided with their own results before the event. Claybury facilitate the event by talking through the MBTI model and sharing the results of the whole team and the implications this has for how they work together. Specific issues are discussed ad how the learning from the MBTI can help them improve how they work together as a team.

Key Learning Point:

As a Christian leader there is no need to be scared of psychometrics:

• They can give you the confidence to tackle some of your people puzzles because they can give you a deeper understanding of your team members.
• They can also give your team members the confidence to loosen their grip on their individual differences that can become a stumbling block to team effectiveness.
• They can help you make good recruitment choices and perhaps enable you to avoid issues in the future.

Psychometric or personal inventories are useful in Christian situations. The secret is to remember that they are simply providing valid insight into people (often ourselves) just as medical measurements give insight into our bodies.  These insights are useful, informative and helpful, but as with everything else, the Christian leader should never use them in isolation. The insights they provide must be considered prayerfully and any decisions must be taken in submission to God, seeking to fulfil his plans and purposes. more »

Imagine that outside your front door at this very moment is everyone who, in the last week, has sent you a text, an email, called you on the telephone, written you a letter, spoken to you about seeing them for a pastoral visit, invited you to a meeting and those you have chosen to spend time with….

How far around your neighbourhood would that queue stretch and how long would it take you to see them if you saw them one after the other, even without a break?

Perhaps you feel overwhelmed by the demands you and others place on your use of time? Maybe the full weight of the issues you face in making the best use of your time are masked by the technology you use to manage your problem or perhaps you are working far too many hours to cope with all these demands on your ministry?

A Time for Everything

The writer of Ecclesiastes 3 v1-6 tells us there is a time for everything, describing the endless ebb and flow of actions that can sweep us up in an endless flurry of activity that leads to stress. There is a time for everything, but that does not mean we have to do everything NOW, as much as we or others might want us to do so. Nor should we simply succumb to all the demands others place on our time. Although we cannot manage time, as we are not in control of its passage, we can manage the way we and others use our own time. As a servant leader we need to role model a healthy use of time for our own benefit and for those to whom we minister.

10 Top Tips to manage your time better

1.  Review how you use your time.

Spend a week keeping a diary of your use of time, (including coffee breaks, telephone calls, travel time etc.) and with whom. Then review the diary, looking for recurring patterns and highlighting where you have not used your time as you would have liked and/or as effectively as you could. E.g. if you split your day into morning, afternoon and evening: do you regularly work all three sessions? Would it help if for all or part of the week you only worked 2 of those sessions per day?

2.  Review your diary with a trusted friend

Discuss the various areas in and then agree to take steps to address a couple of the issues it highlights.

3. Prioritise your use of time.

Steven Covey in his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” introduces a simple four box model to help us use our time effectively. On one axis is “urgent” and “not urgent” and on the other what is “important” and “not important”. Our issue is often twofold: firstly, that we spend our time meeting the demands of others in what they see as urgent and important. Secondly, that in failing to deal with the important but not urgent tasks, that the tasks soon become urgent and lead us into feeling and being overwhelmed.

Populate each quadrant of the diagram with your view of what fits where. Next decide, and agree with others what are the important but none urgent issues for you to be an effective leader and resolve to spend most of your time on these. Where would regular hospital visits or home communion come? What about the article for the church newsheet? Personal retreat?

4.  Set expectations

Set expectations about response time and considerations of urgent and none urgent issues. My experience in working with ministers is that when people use the phrase “this needs doing urgently”, this can mean anything from in the next 10 minutes to the next 3 days”. When we and others understand what we all mean we can respond appropriately and prioritise our time effectively.

5.  Take a team approach

Talk to your co-workers about your joint use of time and the challenges you each face and how you can support one another e.g. do we all need to be copied into emails about the redecoration of the church hall? Sifting through which emails to read or not all takes time when we have large numbers of them.

6.  Use Meetings effectively

Do meetings have to happen the way they always have? Do you have to be there for all of the time or just the part that needs your input or when you need to hear vital information? Can other technologies help reduce the time and frequency of your regular meetings? Can you have an on-line discussion of some agenda items before the deacons meeting?

7.  Don’t let technology control you

Take control of the technology. It is easy to respond to the ring of the telephone or the bleep of the mobile phone or the ping of the email arriving in the in box. Turn off the bleep of the email and only check your emails twice a day (see also “Taming the Email Dragon” ). Turn off mobiles during meals, use an answer machine or call divert on a mobile phone when you should not be interrupted. Would we pause in the middle of a conversation with a bereaved couple to respond to a text message? Why do we then allow other situations to be interrupted by the call of technology?

8.  Manage interruptions

Research suggests it takes approximately 8 minutes to recover from being interrupted when you are in the middle of a task. Be ruthless with time, but gracious with people when handling interruptions and try to keep interruptions to a minimum. Find a time and a space where you won’t be interrupted, use technology or another “gatekeeper” to help e.g. your wife. Often when we are struggling with the task we find our own interruptions to distract us from the difficulty of the task e.g. that third cup of coffee, social chat with a colleague.

9.  Avoid procrastination

Procrastination:  “putting off the doing of something that should be done—intentionally, habitually and reprehensibly”. (John Adair). Do the worst jobs first – once you’ve got them over with you will feel a sense of relief and won’t be dreading them for the rest of the day/week. If it’s a big job that you are putting off, break it up into bite size chunks: it’s easier to think of repainting one room in a house than having to repaint the whole house.

10.  Does it have to be me?

It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking “If I don’t do it, it won’t happen or be done as well”. Allocate some of your tasks, meetings to others. Might some of them be a development opportunity for others? It may take longer to do this at the outset as you have to explain what is needed but is a worthwhile time saving in the long term.

Reflection

How much of your use of time is driven by your personality and that of others? Do you thrive on being with people generally and certain people in particular? Does sermon preparation get crammed into your remaining time?

Do you have to push yourself to leave the solitude and preparation time spent in the study for pastoral visiting?

Whatever your personality, time spent with a coach reflecting on how our personality impacts on our use of time, supported by the completion of personality inventories that highlight our own issues, can be extremely helpful.

• Commit to completing your time diary
• Set up an appointment with someone to review it together
• Try out one of the tips and see how it works for you: Today!

Image: Alan Cleaver 2000 Flickr.com

This series on stress has been focusing on organisational stress and we have looked at the role that the Christian servant leader has to play by adopting strategies that help reduce stress for the people in his team or organisation. So far we have not considered what you can do if, through reading these articles, you identify high levels of occupational stress in yourself. Colin Buckland shared some more tips with me.

If you are in the ministry or on the mission field you may find this series on ministry stress helpful as well.

Dealing with Occupational Stress for Yourself

So, here are 5 things that you can do to help reduce the impact of occupational stress on your life.

Stress Self Diagnostic

Well, I think the first thing to do is a bit of a self-diagnostic really. You need to start thinking about you. “Are the things we have discussed in this series especially present in me?”

You can engage trusted others with this; your spouse, a close friend, or a near relative who knows you well and aren’t ‘yes’ people. By that I mean they’re not just going to tell you everything you want to hear, but they’re going to give you an honest response… you can ask them. Some times we’ve had leaders go home and ask, “Am I irritable?” And then their spouse would say, “My goodness, I’m so glad to hear you say that, because you’ve been irritable for a long time.” They just haven’t realized.

So, self-diagnostics; don’t just rely on yourself when you do that, but ask these trusted others.

Review Your Workload

When you discover that you are exhibiting signs of stress then you need to start doing something. It’s a bit like you’re burning yourself in a fire, you need to get out of the fire. So, you need to start looking at your workload. “What do I take on?” “What do I say ‘yes’ to?” “What do I say ‘no’ to?”

You could actually start charting your working week, and look at the hours that you do. So, over maybe a two or three week period draw up a table of hours, fill it in. Nobody really likes to do this, but it’s amazing what it can tell you. Over a two or three week period you can look at how much work you’ve been doing. That might be the very cause of your stress; you’re just doing too much.

Establish Good Eating habits

Diet is important. If we eat good food and healthy food that will start to help minimize our stress. (There are lots of good books on this, run a search on Amazon)

Engage in Exercise

One of the greatest stress-beaters is exercise. Learn to exercise. We don’t necessarily have to get a personal trainer who runs us into the ground. Start doing something that raises your heartbeat maybe thirty minutes three times a week. That will make a huge difference to your stress levels. This is a stress-beater.

Develop Relaxation

One other thing that you can do is learn to relax. Several times a day stop what you’re doing, relax. You’ll find that will make an enormous difference to you in your place of work.

You can use relaxation techniques like breathing, and thinking about warming liquid flowing through your body, and so on. There are lots of books that will give you lots of these exercises available in most good bookshops.

There are a couple of devices I could mention to help with relaxation.

One is a simple thing called a stress dot. This is a temperature sensitive dot that you can put on your hand. It’s colour-graded and the more stressed you get the more your body temperature changes and the colour of the dot changes. Your hands begin to get cool. It will show you, really in an instant, how you’re doing. These have been used on school children, to assess the stress levels of children at school. They are very effective so, it’s a good piece of work.

The other device  is a bio-feedback monitor, which looks a little bit like one of those 1960s transistor radios. I remember I used to listen to one of those under my bed clothes at night, just a little personal radio. Well, you get this electrode that you strap on your finger and the device makes this annoying sound. The more stressed you are, the more heightened your system is, the higher the squeal. As you use it you can learn to relax and slowly bring that sound down until it becomes a tic-tic-tic.  What you’re learning to do is relax.

Reflection

The first thing that you can do is that self diagnostic. Consider the symptoms of stress that we have discussed in the this series; do you recognize any of them in yourself? If you do, then begin to work through Colin’s tips.

If your stress seems extreme then of course you should go and visit your doctor as soon as you can as well as take steps to reduce the sources of your stress.

Even if you have not recognized stress in yourself, one day soon it could be there. So we recommend getting a head start, consider your diet and begin an exercise regime. But more than that consider the insights that you have gained from this series and apply the lessons to your work life and your approach to leading your organisation or team.

Image: TheeErin Flickr.com

A Servant Leadership Culture and Style is the Key to Organisational Stress Reduction

As we have seen in the first three articles, stress frequently arises because of the demands that are being placed on staff without a reasonable consideration of their capacity and capability and it is exacerbated when they feel they have no control over their situation. They feel that they are simply Cog-ware, parts of a machine that demands performance but has little care for their well being. The result is stress and with that declining performance.

The best, most productive organizations develop a servant leadership style that is inherently concerned with enabling people to achieve their full potential and in such an environment they do.

The Christian servant leader will be seeking to model a Jesus-style of  servant leadership as they outwork concern for the team members and contribute to their ability to achieve their full potential while reducing levels of stress. The result is an effective organisation even when the going gets tough. This approach is as applicable to church leaders as it is to leaders in para-church situations.

Now, here is the irony of leadership…..

Being so concerned with quality and productivity that the people come second or may be third on the list, results in less than the best in terms of quality and productivity. While, being concerned primarily for the people, working out a style of servant leadership modelled on Jesus, and actively engaging them results in improved quality and productivity.

Why?

Because the people become committed to the success of the team, the department and the organisation.

What aspects of such an anti-stress culture have the most effect on reducing organisational stress? Colin Buckland shared five aspects that you can start implementing today.

Servant Leaders Create a Sustainable Culture

One of the things that is more important than most people realize is the corporate culture; that is to say “it’s how things work around here”. Corporate culture is virtually always driven by the leaders. It starts with the most senior person and it runs through the senior leadership. How they behave and how they respond in certain circumstances will determine how other people will respond.

As an example, let’s say you model starting work at 6 AM and not leaving until 7 PM, taking few breaks through the day. You do it day-in and day-out. You’ve personally got a lot of productivity and you churn out the work. You may enjoy the feeling that somehow you’re a bit of a hero in the organization, but I want to remove that little rug from you and say, “Actually, you are modelling a style that is probably going to be quite destructive for other people.”

Typically, what happens is a leader sets a way of being and the people who report to that leader will begin to emulate that style which cascades down through the organisation. Now bear in mind that not everybody is the same, so not everybody’s got the same capacity for work, or even for stress as you, but they’ll try and be you. So your modelling is enormously important.

Also if we reward people, for example, who work long, long hours, it will go around the organization that long, long hours is what this organisation wants. So, people will start to try and do that. In the early stages we may think, “Hey, this is great. People are really throwing themselves into work.” But this is a false economy, this is not going to last, because a lot of these people are going to burn out and they’re going to get increasingly less productive over time.

The servant leader needs to consider the impact these kinds of dynamics and set about building a sustainable model. That is not about being green, it is about recognizing the culture that the leaders model can burnout the organization.

Servant Leaders Create an Open Communication Culture

First and foremost, as a servant leader you have to engage yourself more with the workforce, because the distance between leaders and workers is sometimes huge. We call it the power-distance ratio.

You know, sometimes there’s a big distance and so you may be isolated from what’s really going on. You won’t really be able to deal with an issue if you don’t know it’s there. All you’ll see is loss of productivity, more absenteeism and so on. It’s not adding up for you. When in actual fact, if you were to start to engage with the people more, you will learn more. The more you develop an open communication culture in your organization, the better that will be.

Part of doing that really means that people are able to tell their managers or indeed you or their leader, exactly what they think and feel without that somehow being considered rude, or a negative practice. So, you need to hear the voice of the people, because they are the soldiers that are carrying out the workload that you’re setting up for them. If you don’t know what that costs them, then you may be the cause of their difficulties and stress. In fact it’s quite possible, that a sole leader, a senior leader in an organization, could be the cause of major waste in that organization, simply by the way they go about their leadership. The root cause is that they don’t engage with the people, they are not being a servant leader let alone showing the concern that would be a hallmark of a Christian leader.

Servant Leaders Get Out Amongst Their People

In one particular case I was talking with a senior leader in Europe who I asked, “When do you get up from your desk and go and walk the halls, and chat with your workers to see how they’re doing?

He said, “I’ve never done that. I never do that. That’s not something that I do.”

And, I said to him, “Well, actually, it’s time you did.”

The story finishes well because he started to do that. The first time he walked into an office everybody stood up and said, “What can we do for you, sir?” That’s because they weren’t used to him turning up. Over time they got used to it. So, now he is able to be alongside the workers and understand what it’s like. It gave them a sense of “We’re all workers here, we’re all doing this together” and that really did help in that organisation.

Developing open communication is a cultural shift. So if you think, “Well, that’s a good idea. Next Monday we’ll do it. From now on, everybody, it’s open communication.” It’s not going to happen. It’s a cultural shift, so it has to happen over time. It begins with all the teams, and all the team leaders, and so on. It begins with you and over time you will develop this and reap the benefits; everybody will reap the benefits.

Servant Leaders Give Appropriate Feedback

Often leaders put staff appraisals low down on their list of priorities because we’ve invested appraisals with a kind of negative face. So, people think, “This is going to be my annual rap over the knuckles,” rather than something positive.

The servant leader can completely rescue that by the way that its done. It’s rescued by entering into a joint discussion about what is a reasonable expectation, and what would help the team member to thrive in this organization. That’s great, but if you don’t do it annually, or whatever the agreed period is, you’re actually harming your people.

It’s not sufficient just to have appraisal meetings but the feedback they provide must be effective. We’ve come across countless situations where a worker is stressed for want of feedback. They don’t know whether they’re doing a good job or a bad job. Interestingly this is further exacerbated by cross-cultural communication.

I’m thinking now of one particular story in Eastern Europe; it was an Eastern European worker reporting to a North American manager.

The Eastern European worker said to me, “I don’t know when I’m doing a good job.” This was a stressor, a major stressor.

He explained, “When I turn in my work if I know in my heart that that’s not a great piece of work… He [the manager] says to me ‘great, great, well done’ – a kind of a high-five scenario, which is foreign to my culture anyway.” He went on, “But then if I turn in a good piece of work, a piece I’ve put many hours into he goes “Great, great, well done” and  high-fives.

This is all “well-done. I’m sure he’s trying to encourage me, but frankly I cannot work out what is good work, and what is bad work, and what the expectations are.”  That was becoming a source of stress for this man.

Effective feedback is essential.

Servant Leaders Give the People their Voice

Giving your people a voice is very much a part of open communication. We demonstrate in the cultural shift towards open communication that we value their point of view.

What that actually means is that stress -the silent killer has its teeth pulled because these people are not then going to suffer silently to the point where ill-health ensues. They’re going to talk to you about their experience of the workload. That’s probably one of the most valuable relationships that you could have with your staff, that level of communication. You see, they’ve got to feel safe for that. It’s really only the leaders that can generate that sense of safety.

What Can You Do Today?

Here we are talking about a process that takes time but it can draw the teeth of stress and have the benefits we discussed in the first article. Your people will be able to achieve their full potential, productivity and effectiveness will increase, staff sickness absenteeism and churn will reduce. It needs to start, so start it today.

• Because people will follow you as a role model, set a work style that is survivable.
• Establish open communication. That’s mixing with your people so that you can get a sense of where they are and they can get a sense of where you are. (You may find thinking on responsible communication skills helpful too.)
• Get up out of your seat and go amongst the people.
• Give the staff voice, so they can express their concerns and in response to giving them voice, ensure that they know they are valued.
• Give appropriate feedback, so that people know when they are doing a good job and when they’re not.
• Generate a sense of safety when they are open with you.

If you want to tread gently just pick one of those aspects and try it out. See what happens. It will take time so keep on keeping on. You can learn more about leadership qualities here

Reflection

Do you engage in these servant leadership strategies? If not where can you start? Make an opportunity to retreat to a park or a country walk for an hour or two and ponder the things you have learned about organisational stress.  Work out how to make a start on one or two of these strategies.

Image: quapan Flickr.com

There is a phrase that always amuses me. It’s “the elephant in the room”.  We all know that it means that there is some big issue that is not being addressed.

Well, organisational stress is most times a silent elephant in the corner of the room. It needs to be dealt with but no one will, and people who are suffering from occupational stress are often the last people to speak up about it.

Why?

Simply put – Fear.

They perceive it to mean that they are not up to the job and that if they speak up then they put their job at risk, because their manager will think that too. This may be entirely wrong but experience shows that often they can be forgiven for believing that staff members may be disposable commodities. It’s not unheard of for organizations to wring their staff dry and then replace them for a new model with more juice. And so the cycle goes on. This approach to leadership is destructive but that is another set of articles sometime……

The Christian Servant Leader and Stress

The Christian leader who is living out the principles of servant leadership should be different, showing  compassion for his people who are under stress. The servant leader needs to relieve the causes because they are reducing the effectiveness of his team. Under such circumstances they cannot achieve their full potential and, therefore, neither can the organisation. More than that, he is modelling Jesus’ style of leadership and that model requires a compassionate response that is sympathetic to an individual’s situation.

It’s worth remembering that these organisational issues are as relevant to churches with team ministry as they are to non-church organisations.

Identifying Organisational Stress

In the first article we mentioned that levels of sickness and absenteeism go up and time keeping, quality and productivity decline. In addition to those symptoms I asked Colin Buckland what organisational factors can indicate that stress may be at work in your team, especially when it’s a silent elephant in the corner of the room……….. eating all the donuts.

Increased Levels of Change

Change is typically very stressful for a workforce. Part of the way of managing change- and this is not often written up by the way- part of the art of managing change is to recognize the stress factors of change that affect an average member of the population.

Change is usually very stressful for people. Some people thrive on it, but by no means everybody. So ask yourself about any change that is taking place, and how far that might be stressing people?

Careless Communication

Ask yourself: “Am I giving out information that is stressful?” Let’s say, for example, your organisation is struggling financially.

What are you doing with that?

Am I saying to the staff, “We’re under threat, we’re under threat”, and then am I hoping that by saying that somehow they’ll work harder?

Typically, what happens is they work less hard without even recognizing it, because their stress levels are climbing. They’ve got their mortgages to pay, their children to care for, they’ve got the car to upkeep; all the expenses of the modern world and the western society. And what you are saying to them is, “It is under threat, it’s under threat.”

Living with that day by day, powerless to do anything about it, that’s extremely stressful.

Not Engaging the Wisdom Pool to Solve Problems

What you need to do in circumstances of the kind mentioned above is to allow the staff in to try to solve the problem. Then they will own the problem along side you and work as a team, they will feel empowered and they’re doing their best to try and save the situation.

It is enormously important to feel like you can at least weigh in to solve the problem.

So, trying to solve that problem for them, without engaging their wisdom, and then telling them how it’s going will only result in increased stress.

I think that we need to use what we’ve been calling the “wisdom pool” a whole lot more. Getting the thinking of the people engaged in solving the problem and not just the thinking of the leader. Do you do that when there are problems to solve?

People Watching – Body Language

One of the things we can do is develop the ability to understand body language.

If, for instance, somebody is wringing their hands and you say to them, “How are you?” and they reply “I’m fine.” Because they are wringing their hands, if you think they’re fine, you’re actually blind. They are showing you in their being that they are not fine.

You can see in people that they’re undergoing heightened levels of stress and tension. When you see people rubbing their necks and rubbing their muscles, what you are seeing is wear and tear, especially if they’re not physical labourers but, they’re working at the computer, or whatever it is, and they’re in pain. It’s not just about the seating that you’ve provided; it’s probably about the stress levels that they are under. So, body language is very important.

Increasing level of “water-cooler conversations”

If you walk the halls of your organization to get amongst the people (I want to encourage all leaders to do that frequently) and you find people meeting around the water cooler or the coffee station more often, in small groups, and seemingly going very quiet when you come along, don’t get paranoid that they’re gossiping about you. It’s usually a sign of being disgruntled about something. And, that’s often about some form of stress within the organization that you’re not noticing and you’re not handling.

As leaders, we need to be vigilant to what we are seeing. Then we need to look for the cause of it, and it’s often work related stress.

Increasing Background Irritability and Emotion

If you or your managers find yourselves hearing more complaints from people over things that actually seem quite small, what you are looking at is organizational stress.

One of the outflows of stress is that people become irritable and are more easily irritated, and so they will complain a whole lot more about things. In fact, you may see the people showing heightened emotions in general; some people may weep, some people may get more angry, and then they storm out. They may answer back very quickly and very brashly. These are all emotional signs that show us that something is not right.

It’s not the people, or that suddenly the people caught some kind of disease. It’s that they’re suffering under weight, and it’s stress that’s doing it.

Reflection

Stop for 10 or 15 minutes and ponder your organisation, department or team. Seriously consider if you recognize any of these things that Colin identified?

If you do, what then?

Take time out to walk around the place and talk with your people to see how they are getting on, what their issues might be. Then read the next article in the ” 5 Ways That Will Help You Reduce Organisational Stress ”

Image: David Blackwell Flickr.com

The Stress/Performance Curve

Stress is part of life and to some extent stress, or at least benign stress (let’s call it pressure), helps to motivate us to perform well. To that extent it can be considered positive.

With too little pressure performance is sub-optimum. Witness the difficulties and boredom generated by too little work as well as insubstantial work that you can’t “get your teeth into”. The problem is that as the pressure increases performance peaks and then declines as the pressure turns to high level stress.

This stress/performance curve almost adds to the idea of being over-the-hill, although in this case it’s not about being “up to it”, it’s about being on that incline that leads to the cliff. It’s about the increasing inability to perform along with declining health brought on by stress.

I almost wrote “declining health brought on by excessive stress” but stopped myself because that seemed somewhat absolute. It does not recognise an important reality. The servant leader needs to keep in view that each individual is just that, individual, different to any one else. The stress that you can stand may wipe me out, or vica versa.

The idea of this stress/performance curve gives rise to the questions “How do I know when things have gone too far? What are the symptoms?” As a Christian servant leader this is an important thing to understand. I asked Colin Buckland about this, here are the insights that he shared.

How Does Stress Work On People?

Overwhelmed by Adrenaline

“Stress effectively is invoking what we call the fight and flight dynamic. This enables us to be energized to withstand and avoid threat, so it’s a good thing. The problem is that if we live in that state constantly, our health seriously breaks down. The reason why people die is that stress has broken down their health to the extent that death ensues.

What happens to us when we enter into a state of stress, regardless of the source, is that we invoke this flight and fight dynamic. This literally pumps chemicals, adrenaline, into our system. What’s interesting is that, thanks to the adrenaline,  people can achieve tremendous physical performances when fight or flight kicks in. We are given almost super human strength by these dynamics, but our system is not designed to stay at that level of heightened capability. It’s a bit like an aircraft or a kite, what goes up must come down. It can’t stay up.

If our stresses are heightened and the chemicals are flushing our system, we can’t stay there, or at least we can stay there, but we shouldn’t. What can happen is that we can develop what is sometimes graphically called “Hurry Sickness”, which is really an addiction to our own adrenaline, or high adrenaline states. The more that you find yourself having to live in a high adrenaline state, the more you will burn from the effects of stress, because your system wasn’t made for that. It’s just not physically good for you.

Cholesterol Retention

When stressed, for some of us at least, our bodies retain cholesterol, we won’t get into that too much in detail now. This cholesterol harms us and ultimately can lead to heart conditions, high blood pressure and stroke. Actually staying in a stressful state, in that heightened state, means that you can retain cholesterol that is ultimately having a negative effect on your body.

Skeletomuscular Stress

Staying in a heightened flight or fight state really places a heavy load on your muscles and your bones.

We often find that people have what we call concrete shoulders, their shoulders are constantly like rock. They are like that because they are held in tension, ready for the fight or the flight, and they find themselves in that condition regularly. That starts to give you strain in the body.

Typically most of our bodies have a weak spot somewhere, so you will find for example that they will struggle with back pain. A lot of the back conditions are as a result of being over stressed, staying in that condition, putting an undue load on the body, and the body reacting and breaking down.

Stress will find your weak spot. People often find that they have terrible headaches and it isn’t because they drank a glass of bad wine the night before, it’s because they are staying in this stressful state and their muscles are stiff and it starts to impact their body.

Increasing levels of illness

Now, over time what can then happen is that your ability to withstand illness declines so that you are actually getting more colds and flu, and even cuts and sores won’t heal. Your body is complaining that it is living in an unnatural place. That ultimately can lead to your death in extreme cases, and sadly there are a lot of those cases to report.

Sleep Problems

Finding it difficult to sleep, or finding it difficult to get up from sleeping is another issue.

People in extreme stress are often accused of being lazy and the reason for that is they say they won’t get out of bed. The psychology behind that is that the moment my toe hits the bedroom carpet the day begins. The longer I can put off the day beginning, maybe the safer I can keep myself.

The truth is that they are in a heightened, stressful state. So not only do they face aches and pains and the loss of the ability to fight off illness, but they struggle with sleep along with getting irritable with people, showing less patience.

Hurry Sickness

Frequently over-stressed people feel like they are achieving a lot when they are really not. This is a symptom of Hurry Sickness which often presents itself as racing around in ever decreasing circles but not really doing very much, and always feeling like someone is going to want something from you. You can find a great article on Hurry Sickness here

Reflection

As a servant leader, the condition of your team members will be of great importance to you.  Take a few minutes to reflect on your team. Do you recognize the symptoms identified above or those we mentioned in the first article in this series?

• Decreasing performance
• Increasing levels of sickness
• Increasing absenteeism
• Increase in staff churn

If you do, it may not affect everyone, because we each respond to stress differently. Try to identify what is causing the stress.

What can you do to help team members who may be exhibiting signs of stress? The remaining two parts of this series will give you some ideas.

Image: JB London Flickr.com

“The truth is we should minimize negative stress in the workplace if we want to maximize productivity. If you really want to get the best with your people, from your people, then actually minimizing work-related or occupational stress is really something worth looking at.” Colin Buckland

Stress and the Christian Servant Leader

A goal of the Christian servant leader is to enable his people to achieve their full potential. One of his enemies in this endeavour is stress because, unchecked it sucks the motivation and energy out of people, leaving them unable to come close to their best.

There is another dimension from the Christian perspective, Paul plainly instructs Christians to deal with each other in humility, with gentleness, consideration and compassion, looking out for each other’s best interests.   In this light the Christian leader has a significant issue to deal with when the people under his supervision become so stressed that they cannot function effectively.  Not only is there a responsibility for the well being of his people, he has a responsibility not to be the cause of the stress in the first place.

It is here that leadership style is important.

Organisationally, the consequence of operating in a stressful environment can be significant and, because organisations are populated with people,  it can arise just as easily in the Christian sphere as the secular. This i9s, therefore an issue for para-church organisations and team ministry churches alike. In fact in the Christian domain there are additional spiritual and material factors at work that can make it more prevalent.

The Organisational Cost of Occupational Stress

Stress dissipates energy uselessly, seizes-up ability and constricts capacity. That is why it not only reduces the ability of staff to perform, and therefore causes an organisation to under perform, it drives up sickness, absenteeism and staff churn. All of this prevents organisations from delivering the goods while driving up costs.

In the Christian sphere, where organisations are heavily dependent upon donors, finances are severely restricted and every penny possible is spent on achieving ministry goals.  This demands that such organisations deliver maximum effectiveness in order not to waste precious and scarce resources. Stress mitigates against this.

The UK’s Health and Safety Executive reported that stress caused 14 million working days to be lost in Great Britain in 2006. In 2009 they reported that over 400,000 people reported levels of stress that made them ill and that 16.7% of the workforce thought that their job was extremely stressful, that’s about 3 people in 20. They estimate that stress accounts for 10.5 million lost working days a year in Great Britain. In 2000 Wheatley reported that 75% of executives say that stress adversely affects their health, happiness and home life as well as their performance at work.

The 10,000 foot view of the symptoms of a stressed organisation are:

• Decreasing performance
• Increasing levels of sickness
• Increasing absenteeism
• Increase in staff churn

There are other symptoms and effects too which will emerge as we work through this series. Besides the obvious productivity and financial costs of stress on the organisation there is a potential legal cost. In the UK, under health and safety legislation, employers have a duty to undertake risk assessments and manage activities to reduce the incidence of stress at work.

The Origins of Occupational Stress

Occupational stress essentially arises under many situations, for example when an individual is:

• Required, or feels it necessary, to perform, in a way that is beyond their ability, capability or skill level.
• Unable to exercise control over a situation.
• Asked to complete an excessive volume of work
• Required to carry out some task for which they do not have the necessary resources to complete the task.
• Faced with the actual or implied consequences of failure. This may be particularly true where vital aid is provided to people in areas such as care, rehabilitation and relief services.
• Confronted with change, even if it is well managed
• Bullied or feels bullied, whether intended or inadvertent, can give rise to stress.

The pressures that cause stress can arise from explicit demands placed on staff or the implicit demands exerted by the force of a manager’s behaviour or the culture of the organisation.

Speaking with me Colin Buckland explains how this happens: “One of the things that is more important than most people realize is what I would call the corporate culture. It is virtually always driven by the leaders, and it starts with the most senior person, and it runs through the senior leadership. How they behave, and how they respond in certain circumstances, will determine how other people will respond.

So, let’s say you model starting work at 6 AM and not leaving until 7 PM, you take few breaks through the day and you do it day-in and day-out. You’ve got a lot of productivity and you churn out the work. You may enjoy the feeling that somehow you’re a bit of a hero in the organisation.  Actually, you are modelling a style that is probably going to be quite destructive for other people.

Typically, what happens is a leader sets a way of being and the people who report to that leader will begin to emulate that style. Now bear in mind that not everybody is the same, not everybody’s got the same capacity for work or even for stress, but they will try and be you. So your modelling is enormously important as is what the company measures.

If we reward people, for example, who work long, long hours, it will go around the organization that long, long hours is what this organization wants.  So, people will start to try and do that. In the early stages we may think, “Hey, this is great, people are really throwing themselves into work.” But this is a false economy, this is not going to last, because a lot of these people are going to burnout and they’re going to get increasingly less productive over time.”

What to do about stress in the Workplace

Plainly high levels of stress are not desirable from either a Christian or an economic perspective. They have the ability to drag down your organisation’s productivity and effectiveness as well as destroy the health of staff.

So what is to be done about it?

There are lots of resources available from organisations such as the UK’s Health and Safety Executive and CIPD (the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development). You can also follow this Creative Leader Bulletin series “Stress – Tips for the Servant Leader” which will answer the following questions about stress, enabling you to reduce and avoid stress in your team to recover and maintain productivity and performance and, identify and reduce stress in your own situation.

• What are the causes, symptoms and consequences of stress?
• How can I identify stress in my organisation or team?
• How can I reduce stress levels in my team?
• How can I identify and respond to my own stress?

Reflection

Take a moment to reflect on what you see in your team or organisation. Do your people seem stressed? Do you recognise any of the factors discussed in this article?

A good servant leadership practice is to get out among your people  and discover how they are doing. This will help you confirm your views about stress in your team.

How do you deal with stress? Do you enjoy it, thrive on it? Are you setting an example that is pressurising your people?

Image: AndYaDontStop flickr.com

“Among all my autopsies (and I have performed well over a thousand), I have never seen a person who died of old age. In fact, – writes Dr Hans Selye in “The Stress of Life”. (Selye was a pioneer in the effects of stress on the human body) - I do not think anyone has died of old age yet.

To permit this would be the ideal accomplishment of medical research . . . To die of old age would mean that all the organs of the body had worn out proportionately, merely by having been used too long. This is never the case. We invariably die because one vital part has worn out too early in proportion to the rest of the body. The lesson seems to be that, as far as man can regulate his life by voluntary actions, he should seek to equalize stress throughout his being!

The human body—like the tyres on a car, or the rug on a floor—wears longest when it wears evenly.”

If stress allowed us to die, perhaps a little sooner but feeling comfortable that we, as a Christian leader had achieved our full potential for God and made a Kingdom difference, then we might think the trade worthwhile. Unfortunately it is seldom so clean and tidy, and perhaps even less so when, well before any part of our bodies give up, burnout’s devastating consequences wreak havoc in the church.

The life of a Christian leader, especially a church minister, is surrounded by more than enough stressors for any ten others. What is more, they are  often unobserved by them, their loved ones and their church board, waiting to strike. This may seem over dramatic but it is oh so real to oh so many.

The aim of this short series is to enable Christian leaders and those around them to be alerted to the risks and consequences of ministry stress and the devastation of burnout that so often follows. The series is adapted and abridged from “Freedom to Lead” by Colin Buckland.

15 Common Sources of Stress in Ministry for Christian Leaders

The first stage of managing ministry stress is awareness, so first I want simply to list some of the most common sources of ministry stress for Christian Leaders. Even as I write I am aware that lists are never really complete and so let me suggest that you add to the list those things that are missing and that cause you to be stressed. Your own list will serve you well as you seek to understand better some of your experiences in the ministry:

When the day is done . . .

The ministry is one of those occupations that does not have a set finish time each day, because the minister is often always ‘on call’. This can be taken to extremes and this never-ending day is a significant source of stress.

I don’t build tables . . .

If ministers did build tables then they would have something to view, a result to see. The nature of being a Christian leader includes not always knowing whether anything has been achieved.

Working with people . . .

This can be highly draining. Christian leaders, especially those in churches or caring ministries, often spend the whole day, listening to, comforting and interacting with people, and arrive home wondering why they are tired.

So, you’re back again . . .

Many Christian leaders enjoy working with people; for some, it may even be the attraction of the role. However, stress can result from having to give time to people who rarely act on the advice sought and just keep coming back for more and more and more of the same advice.

Black holes . . .

Not a plesant description but it is an appropriate graphical image. Stress is experienced in the Christian ministry when never-endingly ministering to needy people, who consume every last ounce of the minister’s time and energy. These people have deep-seated needs and probably require different professional disciplines, but for the good of the gospel, the minister will not stop pouring out their energy.

In the thick of it alone . . .

Another major source of ministry stress is the fact that many Christian leaders work alone, carrying a great sense of responsibility, shouldering the secret stories of the members entrusted in confidence, and feeling the burden of loneliness.

I should have been a fireman . . .

Some Christian leaders enjoy the need to be needed and encourage an ‘I’m always available’ expectation within the community that they serve. Feeding emotionally on the late night calls and the ‘it’s only me’ day-off phone calls is all very well, but the cost in stress is high. The fireman approach to ministry is ultimately destructive to the minister and his or her family. The rush and tear of the ‘emergency minister’ may be intoxicating but is dangerous.

Where he goes, egos . . .

This title stretches things a little, but ministers function in a role that may cause them to have a ‘public face’, the one they wear outside the house to depict their role. Wearing masks in public, while very common, saps energy reserves.

Where should I be now …?

Ministering in one church is stressful but a number of denominations require their ministers to serve multiple congregations. This is enormously draining and can only be survived with adequate personal stress management.

Star Trek makes me cry . . .

A Christian leader attending one of my seminars told me that he had burst into tears while watching his favourite television programme, Star Trek, and did not know why until I had said that ministers are drained of emotional energy by dealing with the joys and sorrows of their members.

A minister can typically be at a hospital bedside in the morning celebrating the joy of new birth with parishioners, take a funeral in the afternoon, and be at an eightieth birthday party in the evening. The swings of this emotional pendulum are exhausting, a vacuum sucking out those remaining emotional reserves.

Not Another Christmas . . .

Many ministers receive great joy from their preaching and from the Christian year, but in lengthy pastorates it can be stressful to continue to minister throughout the year with freshness. Preaching regularly in the same church (some-times twice or three times a week) needs to be understood as energy draining, since each sermon has a huge creative requirement. Many ministers are under stress to continue this level of regular and heavy output.

So, I’m not married . . .

It would be remiss, when looking at ministry stress, not to include the lot of the single minister. Single ministers experience additional specific stressors: Matchmaking – church members believing that they know who would be your perfect spouse!  Also you have more time so church members expect far more from you. In some church settings single ministers are paid less, creating serious ‘worth issues’ for them.

The new kid on the block . . .

High stress levels are experienced when a minister moves to a new church: the sea of new faces, the new expectations, the ‘honeymoon’, the ‘our last minister did it this way’ comments, etc. This complex group of stressors needs to be kept in mind.

From the city to the fields . . .

Any discussion on stress in the ministry needs to take note that changing ministry locations can often mean having to cope with sharp cultural shifts. This is a steep learning curve and it too delivers further stress.

Where will we put the sideboard . . .?

Moving pastorates or mission fields often means moving house. No two ministry houses are the same shape and size. Ministering families often go through high stress trying to make the ‘fit’ into the new accommodation.

The List Goes On….

The list could go on and on and these things don’t look so bad when viewed on their own – just normal stressful dynamics – but it all changes when you string a few together and repeat them week after week. Stressors accumulate and stress continues to exist in our system if no action is taken to alleviate the situation.

Reflection

Find a quiet spot and take a moment to review this list, and anything you have added. Ask yourself, “What steps can I take to reduce my stress levels?”

If you are a member of the church board, take a moment to think yourself into your minister’s situation. How well would you cope? What can you do to help reduce their level of stress?

What Next…..

I hope that you have found this article insightful and a help in understanding the scope and depth of stress that will be encountered in the ministry.

This is the first in a series of four articles that look at how stress leads to the devastation of burnout, how that can be recognised, what you can do to minimise and avoid being brought down by excessive stress and how you can help the recovery process.  This is all grounded in personal experience and many years of supporting pastors in their journey of recovery and survival, backed up by rigorous research into the state of the ministry.

The remaining articles are:

• The Elijah-Decision: When Stress Sucks Away Your Will to go On.
• If I Just Keep Working Then it Will All Go Away:  Responding to Burnout
• “Hoot a Few Hoots Voluntarily, Now and Then”: 15 Things That You Can Do to Reduce Stress

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Image: Jordan Hill School Flickr.com

“So Lord, how will I do all of that?” Moses asked. God had begun to instruct Moses regarding the construction of the Tabernacle. You can imagine Moses think “Oh my, where do I begin” and asking that question, so God told him:

“See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft”. Exodus 31:2-5

God also told Moses that he had similarly prepared Oholiab who could also teach others whom God had prepared. Whilst the text shows that God had especially equipped these men through the Holy Spirit, they still had to use the methods that God had provided to achieve his plan. Those methods were practical and could be taught and learned.

When it comes to doing things to fulfil God’s Kingdom plan we both need and rely upon methods. Think about it for a minute; you use a method to make the porridge in the morning. I am using several methods as a write these words. The question is, as Christian Leaders in Churches and organisations, when seeking to determine and do God’s will, how far can we go with methods? When are methods helpful and when do they hinder?

This third article in the “Man’s Plan and God’s Purposes” series examines some of the issues around this question.

Why God Provides Methods

Why did God provide Bezalel and Oholiab and equip with them with skill and teachable methods?

Because it required skill, ability and technique to make the Tabernacle to the standard required. God had described the key requirements for the Tabernacle. Bezalel and Oholiab would then have to take God’s instructions and work out the detailed plans concerning exactly how these were to be achieved; who would do what and when? This detailed planning required knowledge of the methods they world use, the specific special abilities of the craftsmen as well as project management skills to bring it all together.

Similar use of method can be seen underlying David’s preparation for the Temple and Solomon’s construction of it. Both men had received God’s direction and they designed the temple accordingly but then used construction and management skills to determine exactly how to achieve the construction in line with God’s requirements.

So it is plain that when it comes to executing plans that methods and skills have a role. Now, one must still be certain that a chosen approach fits with God’s plans. Why? Because God may only be revealing his purposes step by step and some change may be required. Some methods that we could use may be based on philosophies opposed to Godly thinking and behaviour. Also reliance on method, especially concerning direction, can make us deaf to God and would simply not be helpful.

The Use of Methods

The question that then arises is how should we go about making and executing our Kingdom plans as we seek to serve God?

Plainly we need to discern God’s plans, simply making our own plans is not sufficient. However, we are required to participate in the process, even where God sets it all up, as with Peter and Cornelius. Had Peter stuck with his wisdom and not gone with God’s plan he would never have gone with Cornelius’ servants. (See second  “Man’s Plans and God’s Purposes” article)

We need to be flexible enough to apply God’s direction appropriately as he makes it plain to us. Consequently we need to seek God’s mind through listening prayer and obedience. After all, we are seeking to align ourselves and be obedient to God’s plan. It’s his plan and purpose not ours.

• Paul planned his second missionary journey believing it to be God’s will. If Paul had not had the desire to bring glory and honour to God through obedience he might of ignored God and fought on, attempting to preach the Gospel in Asia. What would have become of Macedonia then?

• Joshua appears to have sought to use “conventional wisdom” (method) to plan his battles against Jericho and Ai. It was only when the assaults were according to God’s plan that he saw success.

• Moses was given Bezalel and Oholiab to teach methods to the Israelites called to build the Tabernacle. They were endowed with the skills by the Holy Spirit to lead and manage the work.

How should we use methods and processes in achieving God’s will?

And the answer is: With great care and with submission to God.

Reflections on Methods and Plans

The situations that we have looked at show that there is a role for methods without doubt, but we must avoid allowing those methods to displace God and his direction through the Holy Spirit. In the Kingdom context we are to bring about his will not make it up for him.

As figure 1 illustrates, methods become more useful and valid as we move from the point of God’s direction towards executing a plan that is compliant to God’s direction. Provided of course that those methods are not counter to God’s commands and expectations, and that we are always open to his leading to change course. Also some methods are just not Godly, as we discussed in the second article, and we need to avoid those at all costs.

Figure 1 God’s Direction & Man’s Methods

The further away from the point where God gives us his direction the more useful methods will become. At the execution stage it may be a completely methodical process but consecrated to God. This we see in the construction of the Tabernacle. Fundamentally hammering gold requires the skills of a goldsmith and embroidering garments requires the skills of a seamstress.

But here is the problem with reliance upon methods.

We can choose wrong methods to achieve a specific goal. When it comes to declaring the Gospel Paul avoided human wisdom as a means of persuasion to believe but rather relied upon the power of the Holy Spirit. “..my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)

When it came to of the construction of the Tabernacle Bezalel, Oholiab and their workforce were anointed by God to have the necessary skills. However, they were given only the end goal, the description of the Tabernacle, and they had to use their skills and associated methods to plan and implement the execution.

When it came to execution planning Joshua forgot that God might have a specific plan when he only took notice of the intelligence he received from the Ai spies. He applied only human wisdom and method to the attack and he was faced with a disaster (see the first  “Man’s Plans and God’s Purposes”article).

Wisdom based methods can become a substitute for God’s will, especially when developing high level and strategic plans concerning Vision, Direction, Objectives and Strategies.

God is the director and we seek to implement our part in his plan. The fact is that it is his plan and his vision set according to his wisdom. This means that he must reveal it to us. Methods that derive from human wisdom will by definition be unable to show us God’s wisdom.

The attraction of these methods is that it is perhaps easier for us to try and work these things out ourselves than struggle to seek to understand God’s mind. It may also make us feel that we are doing something significant. Consequently we may have a tendency to use methods indiscriminately without understanding that they are likely to cause us to diverge from God’s plan. After all “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” We saw how Paul seemed to have planned to preach the gospel in Asia but that was not God’s plan.

Participating in God’s Plan

When it comes to our participation in God’s plans and purposes we need to keep in sight that:

• God has a plan and it his plan that will prevail, we must therefore seek God in order that we might obediently align ourselves and join in with his will. (Romans 12:2)
• God’s plan can be counter-intuitive or simply seem “off the wall” or even “unthinkable” from our perspective, in which case no planning method based on human wisdom can ever align with it.
• Often God will only reveal his plan a step at a time; we therefore need to be attentive to him and flexible enough to be obedient to him as it is progressively revealed.
• God’s wisdom is not man’s wisdom, which is the basis of man’s methods, so planning based solely on man’s method will likely miss the mark.
• Methods can provide insight into situations enabling us to ask the right questions of God and so more intelligently seek his will.
• Methods can enable us to think differently by developing new or different perspectives, releasing us to hear God when our thinking would otherwise constrain us only to the “thinkable”.
• Methods can enable us to execute God’s plan, but we must always be attentive to God’s will, especially if he is progressively revealing his plan.
• Nothing we do should be out of step with the Bible.

What can we do?

Apart from not using method to cut God out and not using methods that are in opposition to Biblical teaching, it is simply difficult to set out hard and fast rules about how to use methods for the Kingdom, they have their place.

When it comes to finding our direction, the more we can “tune in to God” the better. It’s his plans that prevail and it’s his purpose to which we need to be obedient. It’s here that using methods will at best cause us to ask God the right kind of questions. However, devising a Kingdom direction using human wisdom based methods alone will miss the mark.

When it comes to executing a plan, then methods come into their own because they are the outworking of our God given ability, intelligence, knowledge and craftsmanship. However, we must concecrate ourselves, our thinking and our efforts, always keeping close to God to be certain we are going his way and are attentive when he reveals his plan progressively.

As leaders, Jesus is our role model and it is notable that he explained that what he did was the father’s will not his own. “So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.’” John 5:19&20. We know from the Gospel account that Jesus stayed close to his father through times alone in prayer. When it comes to working out plans and strategies that is where we must be also.

Reflection

Take a moment to reflect upon how as a Servant Leader in God’s service you establish your plans.

• How heavily do you reply upon methods to bring about the Kingdom?
• How do you set about determining God’s direction and plan for you, your church or organisation?
• Do you seek God’s direction at all levels of your work, even for the detailed activities?
• Are you flexible enough to let God change your plans?

How far do you think it is appropriate to rely upon method when working out Kingdom plans?

This is part of a  three article series entitled “Man’s Plans and God’s Purposes” which looks at the issue of how we determine God’s plans and then execute them:

Part 1: Being Effective for the Kingdom

Part 2: According To Whose Plan?

Image: Patrick Hoesly Flickr

It had not gone according to plan and now they were hundreds of kilometres from where they expected to be. Then the man from Macedonia called out in a vision “Come over and help us.” This was not the first change to Paul’s plans on this trip.

Some time before in Antioch, Paul and Barnabas had discussed their plans. “Let’s go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing” Paul proposed.

In the end it was Silas who set off with Paul on his second missionary journey, which began by retracing the first one in reverse. Eventually they reached the region of Pisidian Antioch where they crossed the border into Asia, intending to preach the Gospel there. The journey through Asia took them some 600km on foot to Troas but the Holy Spirit prevented them from preaching there at all. When they reached the northern border of Asia they attempted to enter Bythinia but the Holy Spirit prevented them from leaving Asia.

In the first article in the “Mans Plans and God’s Purposes” series we learned about implementing God’s plan from the failures of Joshua. In this article we look at experiences of both Paul and Peter to learn a little more about the ways God uses to reveal his plans and some of the challenges that we face in working out how we align what we do with God’s plans and purposes.

The situation must have been frustrating for Paul. That Paul was not allowed to preach the gospel in Asia was clearly an issue because we are told about it. This also clearly implies that Paul had intended to preach in Asia. His passion was to preach the Good News and establish new churches whenever and wherever he could, and yet he was constrained from preaching in Asia but not allowed to leave. That journey across Asia would have taken at least 40 days but Paul was constrained not to declare the “good news of the gospel of the glory of Christ“.

What was happening to Paul’s plans? Surely he should preach the good news when he could?

Things were not going as Paul had expected but they were going how God had planned. God was directing Paul to Macedonia, which was where he wanted Paul to minister and to see rich results. Preventing Paul from preaching in Asia meant that he and his party arrived in Macedonia relatively quickly.

Who’s Plan Is It Anyway?

Paul’s encounter with God’s plan regarding his ministry, recorded in Acts 15 and 16, highlights the tensions between man’s plans and God’s purposes. Given what we know of Paul’s character it seems impossible that he would not have prayed over his plans and listened to God before formulating the details.

So what happened?

God Reveals His Plans A Step At A Time

The least likely reason for Paul’s plans being constrained is that he had gone his own way until God had disrupted and overridden them. The most likely; God had only showed Paul part of his plan to start with and the rest in due course, in his own time. That meant that Paul probably did not have the full picture of God’s plan when he embarked on his journey.

It seems that Paul had in mind evangelising Asia. It was a highly credible and sensible plan, however, God wanted him to go to Macedonia and that is where he ended up. Had he preached in Asia he may have spent months in each place establishing new churches, as was his practice, and so conceivably taken a year or two to get to Troas and Macedonia.

It is more likely that it was God’s will that Paul arrived in Macedonia in a timely manner than to deprive Asia of the Gospel.

What can we learn here? Because God sometimes only reveal his plans a step at a time we must always be ready for his “mid course correction” and not be so wedded to what we are doing that we are reluctant to change course as he directs. Sometimes, we may need to embark on the journey knowing that we do not have the full plan yet.  That of course brings Abraham to mind of whom we read in Hebrews 11  “and he went out, not knowing where he was going“. That can be a test of faith that is unnerving in the extreme.

Understanding God’s Will Can Be Difficult

There is another potential explanation as to why Paul’s plans were changed.

When it comes to responding to God’s will, whether it be set out in the Bible or as some specific response from him to prayer, there are three points at which we can get it wrong. We have to hear God clearly, interpret what he says correctly and then apply that by taking appropriate action. It is easy to “get it wrong” at each step.

Conceivably, God may have told Paul to go into Asia on this trip and Paul then interpreted this to mean that he was to do what he normally did and preach the Gospel in Asia. So he made his plans appropriately. If this were the case, God’s intent was plainly for Paul to go to Macedonia for which he needed to cross Asia, heading for Troas. This is would explain why Paul was inhibited from preaching the Gospel in Asia. The intent to preach the Gospel in Asia could have arisen from an incorrect interpretation of God’s instruction to Paul.

The lesson from this is that we need to be careful when seeking God’s direction. We need to check out what we heard and how we respond before we leap in with both feet. That said, it is hard to believe that Paul was not careful to be as confident about his plans before God as he could be.

It is God’s plan that prevails

Whatever the reason for the constraint upon Paul and the change of plan, the point is that given God’s sovereign and omnipotent nature, it is his plans that come to fruition, not those of man.

• Isaiah recorded God’s intent for the Assyrians and declares “This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?”
  Is 14:26-27.
• In Proverbs 19:21 Solomon wrote “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
• In Ephesians Paul explains that God “…works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will…” Eph 1:11.
  

God Reveals His Plans in His Time

The other thing that emerges from Paul’s story is that aspects of God’s plan are not necessarily made plain until he is ready to do so. When Paul planned his journey the sovereign, omnipotent God could have directed him to add Macedonia to his itinerary, or even to go there directly after Pisidian Antioch, but he didn’t. He waited until he was ready. Why? I guess that this side of heaven we will never know.

The Importance of God’s Plan

The importance of our compliance with God’s will is made plain by John in his first letter “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him.”
1 Jn 5: 14 & 15. In short, our prayers need to be aligned to God’s will in order that we have the confidence that “[we will] have what we asked of him“. By extension, this applies to the things we plan to do for the Kingdom, for him.

There are two major aspects to God’s will: That which is revealed in the Bible and that which he may reveal directly in some way, Paul’s vision of the man in Macedonia being an example of the latter.

Paul’s obvious desire to preach the Gospel in Asia was plainly in line with the Bible. Not preaching the Gospel in Asia was God’s specific will for that situation. The purpose of that prohibition would only become clear later in Troas.

When it comes to planning our contribution to the Kingdom of God it is plain that we need to have a sound, but not necessarily expert Bible knowledge. Operating in line with what God has revealed in the Bible is a prerequisite.

In seeking to determine God’s plans for specific situations we must rely upon God and thus stay away from philosophies and methods – the wisdom of the world – which are contrary to or divert from Biblical principles. For instance consultation of mediums is a no-no (Leviticus 19:31)  as is reliance upon human wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:20-25) and this by extension should make us careful about methods based on human wisdom. There is more about that in the third article in this series.

When God’s Plan Is Beyond Our Conception”

“Surely not Lord!”

Peter had just been invited to eat what he considered to be unclean food, more than that it was God that had made the invitation three times by means of a vision (Acts 10). Peter who was a leader of the church, Peter who had walked with Jesus was being asked to do the unthinkable. He had gone through so much before and after the Crucifixion: he had been taught by Jesus and learned from him, he had been filled with the Holy Spirit and delivered the Pentecost sermon, he healed the crippled beggar, he stood his ground before the Sanhedrin, he saw Ananinas and Saphira drop down dead and more. Despite all this, he was simply unable to conceive of what God was asking him to do; it was so alien to his way of thinking. God wanted him to minister to gentiles, this was unthinkable, and yet it was God’s intent.

Sometimes God’s plan is so contrary to the way that we think that, unless he directs us more plainly, we are unable to participate. Then our wisdom, and by implication the methods that arise from such wisdom, is of no use, in fact it stands in the way of God’s plan because these methods, that originate from man’s wisdom,  inherently encompass this lack of conception regarding God’s will.

Of course, our sovereign God can do anything that he chooses to do, nevertheless we should not test him by using the world’s wisdom as  matter of course and hope that he will overrule the outcome. Sometimes, we may find ourselves in a place where in faith we feel that we have no choice to do so. That should not be the norm but even then we would proceed prayerfully.

Reflection

Take a moment to reflect upon how you establish your plans.

• How do you keep close to God’s Kingdom plans?
• Is your thinking open to the unthinkable?
• Dare you step out without the full plan?
• When things go wrong what has failed; execution or planning?

Is it difficult to be flexible to God’s course corrections? What is your experience?

This is part of a three article series entitled “Man’s Plans and God’s Purposes” which looks at the issue of how we determine God’s plans and then execute them:

Part 1: Being Effective for the Kingdom

Part 3: When Methods Have Their Place

Image: Panegyrics of Granovette flickr.com

Joshua lay face down in the dirt. Things had not gone according to plan. He had been there all day and had failed to work out what had happened. It was only now that God said to him “What are you doing down on your face?”

It had all been going so well, Jericho had fallen just as God said it would, albeit in a very strange way and the Canaanites had melted in fear. Now Joshua had instructed his men to attack Ai and they had been defeated, routed with 36 men killed. What had gone wrong?

Man’s Plans and God’s Purposes

Identifying our objectives and planning how to achieve them is an unavoidable process as we seek to fulfil our part in bringing about the Kingdom of God. But, and it is a big “BUT”, it is often difficult to discern what God’s plan is and what part we must play. Perhaps more often than we would like, we end up like Joshua, disappointed with the outcomes and asking God “What happened?”.

This article, the first of three on Kingdom planning, looks at lessons that we can learn about planning and execution from Joshua’s experience so that we can perhaps avoid some of the disappointments and be more effective for the Kingdom of God. Understanding God’s plan is a significant challenge for Servant Leaders in Churches and Christian Organisations.

In business we often are given a goal and its up to us to achieve it using the people, resources and methods at our disposal. But does it work like that in Christian service? This series, “Man’s Plans and God’s Purposes” poses this question and examines some of the incidents in the Bible from which we can learn. It will challenge you to think about how, as a Christian leader, you workout and execute Kingdom plans.

When Plans Go Wrong

The plan to be victorious over Ai had not worked. Joshua’s reaction was to blame God for enticing them into the Promised Land. Now, with the River Jordan at their backs, he feared an overwhelming onslaught from the Canaanites. So Joshua fell, face to the ground before the Ark “Ah, Sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan!” (Joshua 7:7). It’s your fault God, Joshua was saying, we were only doing what you told us to do, take the land and we cannot even take this place that has only a few men. You are the sovereign God, so it was you who caused us to be routed. What have you done to us? What will you do to us?

We know that the root cause of the defeat was “Achan’s sin”, God explains this in the following verses. There was to be no booty taken form Jericho, it was all devoted to God and the gold and silver was to go into God’s treasury. Achan took some of the devoted things and hid them under his tent, later he and his family paid for their rebelliousness. This sin, a direct violation of God’s command, had been the root cause of the defeat. However, there is something more subtle going on that meant that the defeat and those 36 deaths could have been avoided.

Read through the story of Israel’s entry to the Land, the fall of Jericho and the taking of Ai. Ponder Joshua’s behaviour and attitude.

Whose Plans and Whose Methods?

Ahead of the assault on Jericho, the gateway to the land, Joshua was reconnoitring for himself (Joshua 5:13). The text says that he was near Jericho. Why would the leader of the Israelites, who had already received the report of his spies, be near Jericho? The story shows us that he felt the need for intelligence about the enemy. He had sent spies to Jericho and later to Ai, so it was quite likely that he wanted to see Jericho for himself as he formulated his battle plan.

In the opening verses of the Book of Joshua, God promises that no one will stand against the Israelites and he told Joshua “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them.” (Joshua 1:6). So here was Joshua trying to work out how he was going to lead the Israelites to victory by overcoming the first hurdle, Jericho. Joshua had a man-centred perspective as he recalled all he had learned about warfare. What would be the winning plan? This is why I think that when confronted with the “Commander of the Lord’s Army” (Joshua 5:13) Joshua asked “Are you for us or our enemies?” The answer was enlightening, “Neither“.

Hold on a moment. Was not Israel there because God had promised them the land? Were they not there because God had instructed them to take the land? Was Joshua not to lead them to inherit the land? Was this not the task that God had given Israel? Was this not their objective? How could the Commander of the Lord’s Army not be for Israel?

This does not make sense until you consider an alternative perspective.

Indeed, Israel and Joshua and been so commissioned but did Joshua now consider it to be his task to bring about God’s plan? To do this it was down to him to work out how. Was that why he was near Jericho?

This was not Israel’s plan; it was not theirs to work out how it would be achieved. It was God’s plan and yes, he had commissioned Israel and Joshua to play a part, but the means was to be God’s means. This is why the Commander of the Lord’s Army replied to Joshua “Neither“. It would not be sufficient for Joshua to take on the God given objective. It would not be appropriate for Joshua to plan how this would be achieved. “The battle is not yours but God’s” were the Lord’s words to Jehoshaphat some 550 years later and so it was here and now for Joshua. This meant that it was Israel and Joshua that had to be for God and his plan and not the other way round.

It was God’s plan that had to be executed in order to fulfil his purpose, not Joshua’s. Joshua’s question “Are you for us or our enemies?” belies a wrong outlook, a wrong perception of what was going on.

This is the subtle thing that was wrong and it meant that the defeat at Ai was not avoided and 36 people died. It was this perspective that left Joshua on his face, in the dirt, complaining that God had let them down because his plan had not been honoured by God.

But let’s look further at the working out of God’s plan at Jericho.

God’s Plan for Jericho

God gave explicit instructions on how the battle of Jericho was to be conducted and victory won. From the human perspective the battle looks strange. Joshua was instructed to lead Israel to do some peculiar things; things that were not at all militarily logical and which simply do not fit with the human perspective of warfare. However, it is plain that there is more to this battle than meets the eye, after all the Commander of the Lord’s Army is in charge. This leads us to expect that a battle invisible to Joshua and Israel also took place according to a plan that was not fully known by them. However, they had to do certain things for that plan to be fulfilled and God’s objective to be achieved.

(Daniel gives us some insight into invisible battles in the spiritual realm while men struggle – Daniel 10:12&13, 20)

What would have happened if Joshua had tried to execute his own plan for the taking of Jericho? Israel would simply have been doing the wrong thing, in the wrong place at the wrong time when, or even if, the walls had fallen. It was imperative that Joshua not only look to the achievement of the goals that God had set out for Israel but that he lead Israel in accordance with God’s directions such that the plan is achieved in God’s way.

For instance, would the walls of Jericho have fallen if Israel had engaged in classic siege warfare? From the human perspective it would seem like an obedient plan because it is seeking to fulfil God’s command. However, it would not have been following God’s plan. Israel would not have been in the right place, doing the right thing at the right time.

A siege would have been logical and in keeping with the wisdom of the best battle planners. How could doing that be wrong? Paul gave us the answer in 1 Corinthians 1:25 “For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” but more than that it would not have been obedient to God. Not out of  deliberate disobedience necessarily, but because of lack of care to consult God resulting in an unthinking conformance to the ways of this world, through a reliance on man’s wisdom.

The result of following the detail of God’s plan, even if it was counter-intuitive and counter-logical, was that Jericho fell.

What went wrong with Ai?

Why did Joshua end up on his face before the Ark to all intents and purposes asking God what he thought he was doing? Let’s look at what happened.

Joshua followed his practice of sending spies to reconnoitre and provide intelligence on the situation at Ai. After all knowing the enemy, finding out his disposition and weaknesses, understanding the lie of the land is what a good commander does. Only then can he form his plans, based on his wisdom and his experience and so lead his army to victory. Why did Joshua do this? After all, the war was being led by the Commander of the Lord’s Army in accordance with God’s plans. How did such intelligence help take Jericho? It didn’t, it wasn’t needed at all. God had all the intelligence he needed and he instructed Joshua to deploy Israel in a particular way so that the victory was achieved, in the manner that God wanted.

That Joshua sought the intelligence indicates that he was not thinking here in terms of God’s plans. He was about to make his own and, as a consequence, go it alone without God.

When the intelligence came back, what was the result? Puffed up by what they thought was their victory over Jericho the spies said “Not all the people will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary all the people, for only a few men are there.” (Joshua 7:3). Joshua showed that he also had the same mindset by sending only 3000 men. He had missed what had really happened at Jericho and he sought to win Ai in Israel’s own strength, without consulting God. He had failed to realise that whilst Israel had been given a goal by God, they could only achieve that goal God’s way. Rushing off to fulfil God’s plan in man’s way fails. The result? Israel was routed and 36 men were killed.

What would have happened if Joshua had sought God’s wisdom before the assault on Ai? He would have learned of Achan’s sin before things had gone wrong! God would have said then and not later, “Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction”. The devoted things would have been returned to God and the sin dealt with. More than that, God would have explained the battle plan for Ai to Joshua, as he did at the beginning of Joshua 8, and success would have been with Israel.

Kingdom Planning

What guides can we draw about Kingdom planning from Joshua and the battles for Jericho and Ai?

• The sovereign God has a plan and purpose and in any situation that plan has at least two parts decreed by God: the goal or purpose and the method.
• God’s plans and methods sometimes defy man’s logic and wisdom.
• Attempting to fulfil God’s purpose with our own plan and man’s methods will not lead to success
• Executing our plans puts us in the wrong place doing the wrong thing at the wrong time when God is seeking to fulfil his plan in another way. In short, our plans based on our wisdom, even if we think we are being obedient, will work against the Kingdom.
• To be useful to God as he fulfils his plans and before we make any plans, we need to seek his wisdom and obediently employ his ways.
• Humility is vital so that we do not think more of our ability than is real, lest we forget to seek God’s guidance or we think that we know better than God.

All of this means that we must earnestly seek God’s insights and direction in prayer for all of our plans, not simply the key objectives and broad direction. Nor should we simply seek his approval of our plans to achieve his objectives but we need to seek God’s mind that he might reveal his plans and our role in those plans.

Is this easy to do? Not necessarily. Will we get it wrong? Almost certainly. However, by trying and reviewing the results before God we will learn as he instructs us and we will become more effective for the Kingdom.

Reflection

Take a moment to ponder the approach that you take to planning your contribution to the Kingdom. Whose aims do you achieve, yours or God’s? Whose methods do you use when you work out what to do, yours or God’s?

Take time to prayerfully review one of your projects for the Lord and ask him to help you see what he sees and to learn from your experience. Remember, the best learning comes from our failures not our successes. In that sense even the worst failures can have a positive outcome.

What is the biggest challenge that you face in identifying God’s plans?

This is part of a three article series entitled “Man’s Plans and God’s Purposes” that looks at the issue of how we determine God’s plans and then execute them:

Part 2: According To Plan?

Part 3: When Methods Have Their Place

Image: Mykl Roventine Flickr.com

This post is reproduced with the kind permission of Tim van Gelder. http://timvangelder.com Originally posted 15th March 2010

A few months back I discussed Benjamin Franklin’s “moral algebra,” his simple prescription for good deliberative decision making.  We know of Franklin’s moral algebra only because he succinctly summarized it in a now-famous short letter to his longtime scientific colleague and friend, Joseph Priestley.  In that letter Franklin seemed to suggest that the moral algebra was his own invention, using phrases such as “My way [of making decisions]…”, but he didn’t explicitly claim it as his own creation.

One FelixM cryptically commented on my blog that:

St Ignatius of Loyola (founder of the Jesuits) recommended this approach, about two hundred years earlier. Presumably other people used it before him.

This was intriguing. What was the method that St Ignatius allegedly used? Was it indeed the same or very similar to Franklin’s moral algebra? And did Franklin know of it? Was it indeed the original formulation of the method?

I contacted FelixM, who kindly informed me that St Ignatius’ version of the method could be found in his major work “The Spiritual Exercises“, which to this day remains a key Jesuit text. The full text of the relevant section is appended below.

Felix was quite right; Franklin’s moral algebra, and Ignatius’ version, which we might call his “spiritual algebra,” are indeed very similar.

The Ignatius version is however expressed in what appears (to us) archaic and floridly religious language. Here’s my take: a contemporary, secular version of St. Ignatius’ spiritual algebra:

1. Identify the issue you need to decide upon, framed as whether to take a proposed action or not
2. Identify and keep in mind  your most important values and objectives.
3. Cultivate an indifference to the outcome.
4. List and weigh up the pros and cons of acting in the proposed way, and the pros and cons of not acting.
5. Determine whether acting has the greater net benefit
6. Choose what to do based on this determination rather than your gut feeling (“inclination of sense”).

The parallels are striking, but there are some differences:

1. St Ignatius’ step 2 – identify and keep in mind your most important values and objectives – is not mentioned by Franklin
2. Franklin recommends listing the pros and cons of taking the action only; he doesn’t recommend also listing the pros and cons of not acting.  [Arguably, these are just the inverse of the pros and cons of acting, and so there is no need to list both.]
3. Franklin provides a heuristic for determining the balance of considerations (i.e. “cancelling out” considerations of equal weight, etc.) whereas St Ignatius simply instructs us to “reckon” the overall balance.

As to whether Franklin knew of St Ignatius’ method, Felix says:

This may well be right, but I haven’t been able to find any independent evidence for it.

_____________________________

From The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola

THE FIRST WAY  TO MAKE A SOUND AND GOOD ELECTION

It contains six Points.

First Point. The first Point is to put before me the thing on which I
want to make election, such as an office or benefice, either to take or
leave it; or any other thing whatever which falls under an election
that can be changed.

Second Point. Second: It is necessary to keep as aim the end for which
I am created, which is to praise God our Lord and save my soul, and,
this supposed, to find myself indifferent, without any inordinate
propensity; so that I be not more inclined or disposed to take the
thing proposed than to leave it, nor more to leave it than to take it,
but find myself as in the middle of a balance, to follow what I feel to
be more for the glory and praise of God our Lord and the salvation of
my soul.

Third Point. Third: To ask of God our Lord to be pleased to move my
will and put in my soul what I ought to do regarding the thing
proposed, so as to promote more His praise and glory; discussing well
and faithfully with my intellect, and choosing agreeably to His most
holy pleasure and will.

Fourth Point. Fourth: To consider, reckoning up, how many advantages
and utilities follow for me from holding the proposed office or
benefice for only the praise of God our Lord and the salvation of my
soul, and, to consider likewise, on the contrary, the disadvantages and
dangers which there are in having it. Doing the same in the second
part, that is, looking at the advantages and utilities there are in not
having it, and likewise, on the contrary, the disadvantages and dangers
in not having the same.

Fifth Point. Fifth: After I have thus discussed and reckoned up on all
sides about the thing proposed, to look where reason more inclines: and
so, according to the greater inclination of reason, and not according
to any inclination of sense, deliberation should be made on the thing
proposed.

Sixth Point. Sixth, such election, or deliberation, made, the person
who has made it ought to go with much diligence to prayer before God
our Lord and offer Him such election, that His Divine Majesty may be
pleased to receive and confirm it, if it is to His greater service and
praise.

EDITOR: A more extensive and easily understood interpretaion of St Ignatius’ method for decision can be found at An Ignatian Framework for Making a Decision – 11 Steps for Making a Decision Following the Ignatian Method

Many thanks to Tim for allowing us to reproduce his original article.

Image: Serge Melki Flickr.com

Email has revolutionised how we communicate!

However (and it’s a big bold “however”), in organisations email has become a depersonalising tyrant. While it has liberated communication it has also turned modern workers into the hi-tech equivalent of the industrial revolution’s mill workers. It’s made people “cog-ware”; just another part of a relentless machine as they serve email rather than it serving them.

Don’t get me wrong. Without email there is so much that we would not be able to do in this global village. In my working life based in the UK I have had the privilege of working with colleagues and customers from all over the world, from the USA and Canada to Brazil and Uruguay; Sweden to Portugal; France to Turkey, Morocco to Oman; Egypt to South Africa and Japan to New Zealand to name just a few. Without that marvellous thing called email it would have been impossible.

But there has to be a better way to use email, a way that shows more concern for people and that increases effectiveness; a responsible way to use email.

There is.

It will need a change in our outlook (sorry!) but it can be done. Email can be used in a way that liberates people, instead of driving them as if they are only the cogs of an impersonal machine. A way that improves efficiency rather than works against it.

The Email Cog-ware Machine

When email becomes a tyrant it is merciless; in organisations it can generate a virtually continuous demand for attention and instant response. It spawns huge volumes of “stuff” that you have to read, most of which is pointless and then it demands a response.

There is a myth that email is more efficient than other means of communication. Only if it is used responsibly is that true. If used unthinkingly, as a default mechanism expecting instant responses, it becomes that dragon that consumes, that diverts from the important to the supposedly urgent and it burns up our time.

For example, discussion style communications in email need several cycles to reach a conclusion as replies proliferate and then there is the copy list! How many people are on that? What might have been dealt with in a 5 minute phone call now begins to consume man hours when all the participants are included.

The individual tasks associated with an individual email may be trivial but their volume and the inability to control the flow, plus the constant diversions away from one’s main tasks, are fertile ground for negative stress. Negative stress drains away a person’s ability to perform and saps the capacity to care and destroys effectiveness. The tyrannical email master is out of control.

Email: The Time Thief

Have you considered how much time you spend handling emails?

Let’s assume that you get 50 emails a day and spend 4 minutes on average on each one. That would be 200 minutes per day i.e over 3 hours a day. In a week that is 15 hours; about 2 working days. In a working year (48 weeks say) that is around 100 days. That’s about 40% of your working life.

Now ask yourself the following questions:

• How many of those emails were necessary?
• How many of those emails needed my attention at all?
• What didn’t I do when I was dealing with them?

So, what could you do with 100 extra working days a year?

Even if you get fewer emails, this little exercise highlights the impact that emails have on us and how much they divert us from doing our real work. Do the sums for yourself:

• How many hours a week do you spend reading and writing emails?
• How much of that time was unnecessary?

Responsible Emailing

There is a way to use email, a more responsible way, that is less demanding on you and your colleagues and causes less stress, less diversion and less wasted time. In Third Sector organisations, where money and resources are scarce, that has to be a good thing.

• Emailers need to stop and think about what they are doing. Is email the best method of communication to use?
• Did you know that there are at least 11 communications needs for which we regularly try to use email BUT email is only good for less than half of them.
• Unwise use of the Copy List proliferates the impact, multiplying the wasted time.

If you feel that:

• Your work day is dictated by email?
• Too much of your time is spent reading and writing emails?
• You have difficulty completing the tasks which are your responsibility because you are diverted by emails?
• Are afraid of missing an important email?

Then there is a FREE on-line course from Claybury International that is for you. It will help you to become a responsible emailer; taking control of email, reducing your stress levels and improving your effectiveness. Follow this link to Taming the Email Dragon: How to be a Responsible Emailer

In the mean time here are some quick tips to help you use email more responsibly.

The Three Most Important Email Questions

Before you originate or reply to an email don’t think “Email” instead think “communication”. Ask yourself the most crucial question, “What will be the best way to communicate in this situation?”

Can you deal with the matter more effectively by speaking with your correspondent?

Many strings of emails could be dealt with much more effectively by a phone call followed by an email, if necessary to document the outcome of the conversation.

If your correspondent is overseas you may need to email to set up a time to speak with them.

Who needs to be to be copied on the email?

Frequently people are added to the Cc list that really don’t need to be there. Unnecessary emails take up their time and may cause unnecessary replies. So, if you have to email, perhaps to pass on some data, then think carefully about who needs to be on the “Cc list”. If you cannot avoid copying the email then do only copy it to the essential people.

How much do I need to write?

Have you ever received an email, seen how long or complex it is and felt your energy just drain away? You find that you do not have the will to read to it. So, when you send an email, keep it as brief and as simple as possible.

Layout is important too. Use short paragraphs, it looks less intimidating and is easier to read quickly. Be sure to keep to one idea per paragraph. If you need a response ask specifically and if the email is addressed to more than one person, then be clear who needs to respond, else all the recipients will assume that someone else will complete the act

The result of wise answers to these questions will be fewer emails and conclusions or agreements will be reached more quickly and, less time will be wasted.

Reflection

Take a look at your inbox work out how much time you spend working on emails. Then ask that first question: “Can you deal with the matter more effectively by speaking with your correspondent?” When the answer is “Yes!”, pick up the phone. If you make some agreement use a brief email to document it, and leave the Copy list blank if you can.

To take a look at the Free course follow this link to Taming the Email Dragon: How to be a Responsible Emailer It will only need an hour or so of your time and it will pay dividends.

At the end of the module you will be able to identify how effective you are at using email and apply your learning to increase that effectiveness by:

• Analysing your own use of email
• Being able to select the most appropriate method for specific communication needs.
• Understanding the tactics and means available to take control of email and devise and use a your own personal email management policy.
• Being able to configure your email client software to help make your personal email management policy work.

Image: Daniel Foster Flickr.com

The irony of effective communication skills is that the most powerful tool at your disposal is not speaking but listening. If you fail to listen you will fail to communicate.

This post provides tips on how you, as a servant leader, can listen effectively when trying to communicate with another so that you can answer the fundamental question your listener has: WIIFM – What’s In It For Me? Fortunately, in the context of Christian leadership, this is not about unholy gain but about more basic issues such as answering the question ” How do I know what I need to do?”

You will have seen the reverse play out often and most of us will have experienced it at sometime. You meet someone at a meeting, a conference or somewhere similar. Reading their name badge you engage them with a friendly, “Hello, Fred what do you do?” Five minutes later they have not come up for breath. You are wondering how you can escape without being rude. They don’t even leave enough space for you to excuse yourself because you need to escape – sorry, I mean circulate.

That person has demonstrated no interest in you at all. You feel trapped and develop a desperate need to escape and leave them to their own self-interest. Had they engaged with you in return, shown interest and dialogued instead of monlogued, you would have had a different opinion of them all together. In fact, if they had built rapport with you then you would probably still be engaged in an interesting conversation.

Servant Leaders Engage in Responsible Listening

A key to effective communication is listening to the other person and of course, in order to listen to the other person, you have to give them opportunity to speak. This is why in ‘Communications Tips for Servant Leaders: Are you an Engaging Speaker or “Mogadon Man”‘? I recommended:

• Speaking in short segments; it allows you to come up for air and provides space for the other person to say something and;
• Asking questions of the other person.

When you have a message to convey its only through listening that you can be certain that you have communicated the value of what you have to say; that you have answered the other person’s primary question, “What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM).

WIIFM may seem terribly mercenary and unchristian but its not. It is simply acknowledging the fact that what we have to say must mean something to the other person, to have some value, otherwise it will have no effect. The listener may be polite but the moment he goes away what you said is forgotten. The thing of value to them may be as straight forward as the information necessary for them to complete a task. If you don’t give it when they need it they would rather spend the time working out what they need to do. As a servant leader your goal is to enable the listener to achieve their full potential and making sure they have the information they need is central to that. Its only when you give the other person the opportunity to speak and you have asked them about their needs can you be sure that you have captured their interest and answered their questions.

Why is it called “Responsible Listening?” because as well as making ourselves responsible for ensuring that the other person has understood us, we take on the responsibility to ensure that we have understood the other person as well. Listening to the other person is at least as important as speaking when you are trying to communicate.

Building Rapport – Listening Completes the Feedback Loop

Listening enables you to establish rapport with the person with whom you seek to communicate. It proves to them that you are interested in them and not simply yourself or your own purposes. In so doing, you demonstrate that the other person is important. That is really important to you, because people appreciate and respond to being listened to and feeling important. It has been said, that in the western world, that the next best thing to being loved is being listened too.

When it comes to your desire to communicate with someone, only when that level of rapport is achieved will they be happy to talk with you. Why? Because it is enjoyable and they know they will not be wasting their time. Your attempt to communicate with them will move not just from monologue to dialogue but into conversation. Information will be voluntarily shared and comments will be shaped and purposed to meet each other’s need. That is, to understand and answer each other’s WIIFM question. Its worth remembering that you both have a WIIFM question: You invest your time in the conversation because you desire some response. The other person does the same because they anticipate some kind of benefit; even if it’s simply being able to follow instructions sufficiently well to do a good a job.

How do you show someone that you are listening to them?

Firstly, you need to provide your partner in the conversation with evidence that you have understood what they have said. This means that you need to reflect what they have said by restating it for clarification or asking questions that develop the theme and extend the information being shared with you.

Secondly, you must adapt what you say so that your message is applied to meet the other party’s needs – i.e. answer their WIIFM question. In a team situation, perhaps you will make sure that the information you provide is clearly explained so that the team understands what actions are required to be successful.

Reflection

Claybury International’s Colin Buckland tells of one occasion when he was teaching an Responsible Communications Skills seminar. One of the guys in the group was a newlywed. It seems that his new wife was always saying, “You don’t listen to me.” So, what he did was to apply these listening and feedback skills when he phoned her that night. (The seminar was a few countries away from her in Europe.) He started to practice those skills there and then, and the next day he reported that his wife had said, “What is it that you’re doing in that seminar? You seem to be listening to me like you’ve never done before.” He was simply using these skills.

Take a moment to think through the people that you communicate with. How good a listener are you?

Give responsible listening a go and see what happens. In your next conversation with anyone try that feedback loop.

• Ask questions
• Clarify what you understood
• Adapt what you say to meet their need related to this conversation.

The Effective Communications Series

This article is one of series on effective communications in the context of being a servant leader in a Christian setting. You can access the others through the following links:

• 5 Mistakes That Lead to Ineffective Communications
• Are You an Engaging Speaker or “Mogadon Man”?
• 6 Ways That You Can Help Your Listeners Hear You

Image: law_kevin Flickr.com

One reason why servant leaders are effective is that they concern themselves with needs of the individuals whom they lead; the needs that must be fulfilled for them to achieve their full potential. For Christian leaders its clear that Jesus adjusted his approach to his disciples according to their needs and circumstances. When it comes to communications, the listener’s learning style can play a big role in how well they keep up with and understand what we have to say.

In this part of the “Communication Tips for Servant Leaders” series we look at how learning styles affect our ability to communicate with others.

We each have a different learning style, which is a description of how we learn best. In a formal class it is possible that my ability as a student will be diminished if the teacher presents the lesson in a way that works against my learning style. Similar things can happen when we speak to people. In principle both are about conveying information to elicit some response. A young man that I know primarily has a kinaesthetic learning style. Essentially this means that he learns best by doing. He has great difficulty with chalk and talk teachers and finds their lessons difficult to deal with. In contrast, give him a practical subject or practical learning exercises and he is in his element and enjoys himself while learning. He also needs to be convinced that what he is asked to do is worthwhile. That means he needs to understand “Why?” before effective learning can take place.

Why are Learning Styles Important for Effective Communication?

In essence all forms of communication are about conveying information in order to achieve a response. This is what teaching and learning is about too. Your learning style affects how you are able to receive, absorb and integrate information, whether in a formal lesson or an informal face-to-face corridor conversation. The same is true for other people. If we can accommodate their learning styles when we speak with them, then our attempts to communication are more likely to be successful. If you don’t know the other person, then it’s obviously difficult to specifically tailor how you interact with them. Of course, everyone is a mix of styles with specific preferences.

The servant leaders’ perspective means that one of his goals is to enable people to perform to their very best. This means that whether it’s a one-to-one conversation or a team briefing, or even a sermon, accommodating learning styles is very important in helping our listeners keep up with us and absorb what is being said.

There are several models about how people learn and a full consideration of learning styles can get somewhat involved but there are plenty of books to help you.

A Simplified View of Learning Styles

The following, greatly simplified view of learning styles will help you structure what you have to say.

Explain why it’s important

Some people need to understand the reasons why something is important. Its really part of the “What’s in it for me?” issue, but if you fail that test then they will not be interested. Then they may well switch off because they are not convinced that what you have to say is relevant.

Convey what it’s all about

What is it all about? These folk need to have a more theoretical view of the issue at hand because they can then work out the implications and requirements for themselves. Minimize that detail and they will find it harder to respond.

Set out how to do it

“Just, tell me what you want me to do?” might be the request from these people. They need to understand the practical, pragmatic process in which they are to engage. They may understand what it’s about but need to know how they are required to respond.

Encourage exploration

“What if?” might be the question uttered by the explorers, the doers, the experiential learners. They need a challenge to go and do something and learn from the experience. They may need a pointer on how to begin.

Use words for the verbal learners

Verbal learners like the written and spoken word. They can take in what you say and process it all. Some may prefer the written word, others the spoken word.

Use images for the visual learners

Visual learners use images, pictures, charts, maps drawings and the like to express themselves and learn. They are able to visualise information and may find a “words only” communication more difficult to deal with.

Servant Leaders Take Learning Styles into Account

When you are planning your communication, whether it be written or spoken, one-to-one or one-to-many it is helpful to accommodate as many styles as possible. The first four mentioned above can form a logical structure to help organise your communication (Why? What? How? And “Have a go”). The last three types will affect the style of your communication. If you know the person you are to communicate with well, then tailor your message to address their learning styles.

Reflection

Where do you fit in that simplified learning styles model? What do the people you consider to be good communicators do to help you understand what they say?

Think about each of the members of your team or a group with whom you communicate regularly. From your knowledge of them, what do you think their learning styles are? How can you use this insight to make you more effective as communicator the next time that you speak to them? Give it a go and see what happens but remember practice makes perfect, so don’t give up, it will soon become second nature.

The Effective Communications Series

This article is one of series on effective communications in the context of being a servant leader in a Christian setting. You can access the others through the following links:

• 5 Mistakes That Lead to Ineffective Communications
• Are You an Engaging Speaker or “Mogadon Man”?
• Do You Fail to Communicate Because You Fail To Listen?

Image: Robert S Donnovan Flickr.com

Engaging our listeners interest is the only guarantee of their attention. As Christian leaders, seeking to practice servant leadership, this is a vital step to enabling our listeners to achieve their full potential. So, when it comes to communicating with people are you “Mogadon-man” or do your listeners stay with you?

Let me share with you a story of how effective good communications can be, and equally how damning is poor communications.

In the mid 80′s, while fibre optics was still a fledgling technology I attended a telecommunications conference. Compared to today this was the technological stone-age. After almost 25 years two presentations at that conference stand out in my mind to this day. One was delivered by a Japanese technologist. Unfortunately his English was indistinct and in an auditorium sadly impossible to follow. I am sure his topic was interesting but he was just so much hard work that, along with the rest of the audience, my brain shut down for 40 minutes as frustration and boredom set in. Having said that, his English was far better than my Japanese, so good for him for having a go.

The other presentation was by an American from AT&T as I recall. Allowing for Mr Webster, he passed first base by being understandable to a British-English ear. More than that he passed second base too; he was interesting and engaging. The amazing fact he shared was that, at that time, there was more copper under Manhattan than was still in the ground in Zambia! He illustrated this with amazing photographs of communications cable conduits literally bursting with bundles of copper cables the thickness of a man’s body. I can still see the photograph in my minds-eye.

If there was a competition between these two speakers the American won hands down. Why? He simply engaged the interest of his listeners and then kept us with him. He certainly had effective communications skills as a speaker. Maintaining the energy of our listeners by engaging and feeding their interest is a key to effective communication skill whether it’s one-to-one or one-to-many.

Engaging our listeners interest is the only guarantee of their attention. As Christian leaders, seeking to practice servant leadership, this is a vital step to enabling our listeners to achieve their full potential. So, when it comes to communicating with people are you “Mogadon-man” or do your listeners stay with you?

Servant Leaders Take Responsibility for their Communications

The servant leader’s attitude that underpins effective communications skills is recognising that, as the speaker, we must take responsibility for our listeners. Take responsibility to ensure that they understand. It is not enough simply to speak and then pass the buck to them. The fact that we are speaking means that we have a vested interested in them understanding. It’s us that lose out if they don’t understand. The objection “Well I told you” when things have gone awry doesn’t really help much.

What does it look like when we take responsibility?

• Partnership: There is a partnership that jointly owns the communication by developing a dialogue
• Interest: The listener’s interest is engaged by the way we construct and deliver what we have to say.
• Needs: The listener’s needs are addressed. i.e. their important questions are answered
• Feedback: There is feedback from the listener that steers what we say and how we say it.

There is a flip side to this of course and that is that listening is important too. Responsible listening is as much an effective communications skill as is responsible speaking. More on this in another post in this series. If we recognise that as speaker we must take responsibility to ensure that our listener understands, what can we do to maximise the possibility of understanding? How can we engage and maintain the listener’s interest so that they understand? Assuming that you know what you need to say then:

Don’t Engulf the Listener

It’s all too easy to engulf the listener, saturating them with what we have to say. It’s the “Xavier problem” discussed in the Effective Communications Skills: 5 mistakes that can cause one sided conversations. When we do that we don’t connect with our listener and we fail to build rapport and we lose them.

• Speak in shorter segments. Then they can deal with an idea or two at a time. I guess this is somewhat like the problem of speaking through an interpreter. They not only have to translate the language but select alternative phrasing where there is no exact match. They also have to process and the handle idioms of two cultures. So you need to present ideas in a way that they can handle. If you are communicating cross-culturally in a single language this approach will definitely be important. Short segments also provide opportunity for the listener to give you feedback.
• Develop “intrigue” to keep their interest by using “cliff hangers”. This will help your listener want to know more. Of course, you then have to follow up with the answer to the hanging question.

Obtain Feedback

Obtaining feedback from the listeners is vital. Unless you get it and take notice of it you will fail to build rapport with them and they with you. Feedback turns a monologue into a dialogue and taking note of the feedback turns dialogue into conversation. Eliciting feedback is a pivotal effective communication skill. There are two primary ways to obtain that feedback.

• Questions from the listener help you because they indicate what they have understood and what they need to know. Questions are the listener’s role in the communication. If they are not raising questions you need to stimulate them by asking questions yourself. The goal is to help them absorb what you have said, integrate what they have understood and clarify what they have not understood. In many situations speakers are frightened of questions because of the risks they raise; primarily the risk of looking foolish because you don’t know the answer. If that is the case, take an action to find the answer and get back to them.
• Communications Marker Feedback comprises the non-verbal and tonal messages that you receive from the listener and include body language and tone of voice. These cues are available even if the listener offers no questions. We have grown up learning to respond to them and it is important to respond to them now and not ignore them. There are lots of books available that can help you with this point.

Accommodate Learning Styles

The listener’s learning style can play a big role in how well they keep up with and understand our message. We each have a different learning style, which is a description of how we learn best. In a formal class it is possible that my ability as student will be diminished if the teacher presents the lesson in away that works against my learning style. Similar things can happen when we speak to people. In principle both are about conveying information to elicit some response. Everyone has a mix of styles with specific preferences. When you are planning your communication, it is helpful to accommodate as many styles as practically possible.

Address Both The Big Picture And The Detail

Recognising whether the listeners need detail or the big picture is important; of course in a group you will probably have both. A big picture person who gets only the detail and a detail person who gets only the big picture will both get frustrated with you quite quickly. Providing both the overview and some detail is a good strategy. Obtaining their feedback will then enable you to adjust what you say to meet their needs, providing more big picture or more detail as required.

Apply What You Say To The Listener’s Need

To maximise your engagement with the listener what you say has to apply to them. If it doesn’t then they will shut down and not take in what you have to say. If does apply to them, then your job is to ensure that they understand. This is actually a special part of the feedback loop and may require you to ask questions to identify the information that they need.

• “What’s In It For me?” (WIIFM) is the key question that motivates interest. You must answer that question. Often times you will not know the exact answer unless you engage in dialogue with the listeners and that means asking questions.
• Things they need to Know: In situations, where the listener must act there may be things that they need to know but you have not told them. Dependent upon their situation you may not know what they need to know unless they tell you.

Use Stories

Stories are a good way of making what you say interesting and of addressing the “WIIFM” question. You can use real situations which may relate to similar situations so that the listener can identify with what you have to say. You can also use a made up story to illustrate a point.

Reflection

How do you do as an effective communicator? Are you the Mogodon Man?

Take a moment and reflect upon the last time you had to convey information to someone, compare yourself to the points discussed above. What do you learn?

Plan your next communication to address what you have discovered.

As listeners, what can we do maximise our ability to absorb information?

The Effective Communications Series

This article is one of series on effective communications in the context of being a servant leader in a Christian setting. You can access the others through the following links:

• 5 Mistakes That Lead to Ineffective Communications
• 6 Ways That You Can Help Your Listeners Hear You
• Do You Fail to Communicate Because You Fail To Listen?

Image: sergis blog Flickr.com

Servant Leaders, especially those modelling themselves on Jesus’ leadership style, are good at communicating with others because their goal is that the people they lead achieve their full potential and how can they do that if you are a bad communicator.

One of the tenets of servant leadership is that others should be enabled to achieve their full potential. Central to this is communication. It is vital for us to be able to effectively communicate ideas, problems, objectives, methods and the like, to others. It is vital because they need to respond appropriately in order to achieve their full potential and in so doing assist us to achieve our desired goals. Whilst mostly we are all able to talk and listen this does not guarantee communication success.

Let me give you an example of a bad communicator:

I remember once  visiting the toilet at work to discover my boss trapped in a cubicle by Xavier, one of our sales guys and of course that is not his real name. Because my boss could not go anywhere Xavier was taking great delight in the opportunity to overwhelm him with words. This demonstrated the lack of sensitivity that was the reason that this was the only place Xavier could get my boss’ attention. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that Xavier would not be getting anywhere with his insensitive, one-sided communication style that ignored the needs of his listener!

You might not be as tactless and inconsiderate as Xavier but are you anymore effective when it comes to communicating with others?

This issue, of course, is relevant to any verbal communication in any setting. The practicalities of how effectiveness is achieved may vary dependent upon the context but, the principles apply one-to-one and  one-to-many for church leaders, mission agency leaders or leaders in other para-church organisation.

So here is the question for you: Do you make these 5 mistakes when you speak with people?

Ineffective Communications- Ineffective Leadership?

This series on “Communication Tips for Servant Leaders” is about what happens when we speak and how we can become “responsible” speakers and “responsible” listeners. Why responsible? Because it’s about us taking responsibility for understanding: Responsibility that our listeners understand us when we speak and, when we are the listener, that we understood what has been said to us. . It will help you to engage with both individuals and your team so that you can convey information to them in a way that makes a difference. It will help you in many other situations too, in fact any time you interact verbally with another person.

So here we go:

1 – Do you overwhelm your people with words?

Frequently people are so anxious, self-focused or simply so short of time that they spew words out like a burst dam. Often they are afraid that if they pause for breath the listener will nuke them with an objection or just tell them to go away. The result: they overwhelm the listener. Then when things are not understood or subsequently go awry they can be heard saying “Well I told them what they needed to know!” This is not the way of any who profess to lead in a style that would have been recognised by Jesus.

What happens to the overwhelmed listener? They neither have time to gather their thoughts and “clue-in” to what is being said, nor are they able to find a way in to clarify the situation, to get more information or ask for help in understanding. The “communication” is a one way flow. The longer it flows the less relevant it becomes to the listeners who switch off. When that happens the speaker’s frustration rises because no-one is taking any notice and he tries to beat them into submission with words and a positive feedback loop kicks off. Positive feedback may sound good but it is bad. It is the reason for those painful whistles and screams that cry out of a PA system when it’s not set up right. The whistle is picked up by the microphone and is amplified, emerging form the PA only to be picked up and amplified some more. It keeps on going until somebody turns the volume down. Jimmy Hendrix managed to make music with it but most of us don’t have that skill and it results in an objectionable noise.

What to do about it?

• Relax: Don’t get wound up about whether people have understood or not, just make sure that you have time to help them understand. Avoid being in a rush.
• Quality not Quantity: People can only take in so much information at a time so think out what they need to know, limit what you say and give them opportunity to ask questions.
• Follow-up: If there is more information to convey then organise a follow up session when everyone is prepared to go into the detail.

2 – Do you tell them only what interests you?

The question here is what is more important to you? That your listener understands what you are sharing with them and commits to an appropriate response or that you are able to dump what you know or care about or think is relevant on them, in the hope that they can do something with it? That path leads to the listener switching off because you have failed to address their needs. Your message will seem less than relevant to them and will tend to be ignored because of this if not because they cannot work out how to respond appropriately. Whatever you are talking about, your listeners will have a perspective, concerns, objections or insights on the matter. All of which will be important to them. Key to engaging them is finding out what they think and what is important to them and addressing those issues. You may have to adapt what you a have to say accordingly. That is not to say you have to change things on the fly but draw things out or emphasise particular points in a way that addresses their questions.

What do about it?

• Engage: Seek to engage in a dialogue not a monologue. Be equal parties in the conversation.
• Ask questions: This will enable you to see if you are getting your point or your information across.
• Invite questions: Do this as you go along. It will help your listener help you to tell them what they need to know.

3 – Do you ignore the communication markers?

Communications markers are the non-verbal cues that your listener gives when you are attempting to communicate with them. In face to face situations it’s primarily body language and tone of voice. These markers give you clues as to what your listener is thinking. Being sensitive to them will help you steer a course that keeps them on-side and engaged. Ignore them at your peril.

Remember Xavier? He demonstrated a serious lack of sensitivity that meant that trapping  his victim was the only way that he could get my boss’ attention. It also meant that he could happily, if unhelpfully ignore all the communication markers, which may well have meant that the conversation eventually erupted in the positive feedback loop of violent language!

Don’t be so self focused or unaware that you ignore the communications markers from your listener. To do so means that you have joined  Xavier  standing outside that toilet cubicle. You won’t get anywhere fast because your will miss the signals that say “We have had enough.” “We don’t understand.” “Can you say that again please.” “We want you to stop.”  “I have to go now.” ……

What to do about it?

• Avoid being self focused: Think about and interact with your listener as you talk with them.
• Be concerned for the other person: Do your utmost to make them feel an important part of the conversation.
• Learn the physical signals: There are good books that can help you understand body language but some of it is very obvious. You won’t miss it if you maintain your awareness of the other person.
• Listen for the audio cues: Communications markers are audible as well as physical. Listen for changes in tone of voice.

4 – Do you assume they have understood you?

If we are self-focused or simply concerned to “dump” our message and rush off, it is very easy to assume that our listeners will have understood what we have to say. It may be that we are a “detail person” and simply overwhelm people with that detail, forgetting to provide any context. There are any number of reasons why we may prevent people from understanding us. Then of course, there is whatever is going on with the listener that means they miss the point, get the wrong end of the stick or are just unable to “tune in”. Factors that may further obscure understanding are abstract concepts and our attempts to be diplomatic. I remember one of the first staff appraisals I ever conducted. I was diplomatically attempting to “correct” my team member’s approach and attitude, which had shown up in his frequent conflict with another team member. I was so diplomatic that in the end he thought that I had complimented him. Chalk that one up to experience!

An extra dimension to be aware of is attempting to communicate cross-culturally. We may be speaking with people for whom our language is not their first language. Then issues of vocabulary, idiom and style can impede our attempts to communicate, even when we have everything else right. Whatever the reason, there is always the possibility that others do not fully understand what we have said, its implications and the need for action. The consequence is misunderstanding, confusion, incorrect action and  even conflict. A man called Wiio declared a law of communication, which essentially is: If it can go wrong, it will go wrong; if it can be misunderstood it will be misunderstood.

What to do about it?

• Keep it simple: Use plain language and avoid jargon, idioms and phrases that assume knowledge on the part of the listeners
• Make space for understanding: Speak in shorter segments so that the listener can assimilate what is said before you move on to the next idea. That will also provide scope for them to ask questions.
• Ask questions: This gives the listener the opportunity to confirm understanding and seek clarification.

5 – Do you assume that it is the listener’s responsibility to understand?

“If they don’t understand they should ask” may seem sensible, but it has at least two flaws.

• The first is that in general, people tend not to ask out of fear; fear of looking silly or perhaps fear of you.
• The other is that they may not fully understand that they do not understand. If they have missed or misunderstood something then it may all seem to make sense – until later that is.

Beyond the various issues already discussed, when things seem really clear to us it can be difficult to appreciate that people may not have understood or perhaps cannot understand. After all it is so obvious. At the other extreme we may feel that it’s not our job to “wet-nurse” our listeners. However, if it is in our own interests that they understand what we are saying then it is in our own interests to take responsibility to ensure that they understand.

What can you do about it?

• Make understanding your goal: Measure success differently. Communication is only ever achieved when the other person understands and can act accordingly.
• Avoid assumptions: Many actions fail due to assumptions, especially the unwritten or unthinking kind. It’s best to avoid them, declare them or test them.
• Partnership: Communication really only succeeds when both sides are in an equal partnership that allows understanding to flow. Encourage your listeners to participate in that partnership. Be aware that you may need to give them permission to join in.

Reflection

Take a moment over a cup of coffee to reflect upon how you approach communication with others. Are you concerned that they can achieve their full potential? Have you recognised that this is also in your best interests? Think on how you set about communicating with others and whether you get the results that you desire?

Turn your next attempt at communication into a dialogue. Ask the listeners specific questions to test understanding and encourage them to ask you questions. Try it and see what happens.

The Effective Communications Series

This article is one of series on effective communications for Christian servant leaders. You can access the others through the following links:

• Are You an Engaging Speaker or “Mogadon Man”?
• 6 Ways That You Can Help Your Listeners Hear You
• Do You Fail to Communicate Because You Fail To Listen?

Image: Todd Ryburn Flickr.com

As a Christian Leader, adopting a Christ centred servant leadership style is probably the most significant thing you can do to enable your people to excel. Excellent leadership inspires an organisation’s people to greater commitment, enabling them to achieve their full potential.

Back in the 80s two men, Kouzes and Posner, studied hundreds of organisation to work out what made the difference between the best, the mediocre and the worst. They noted that it was leadership and leadership of a certain style at that. Since then they have completed over 25 years of original study with more than 4 million leaders around the world. They found 5 key practices of excellent leadership and that where there was leadership excellence, the organisation out performed its rivals by a country mile.

When you read the factors below undoubtedly you will think it’s all quite obvious, no rocket science here and you would be right. But that does not stop so many leaders letting it pass them by as they put up with less than is actually possible. The reason being that so often they fall into a “me boss, you not” leadership style.

For Christian leaders it is clear that our “leadership style” really ought to be modelled on Jesus, and that means servant leadership. The difference being that the servant leader aims to facilitate the best possible performance from his people instead of demanding it, come what may.

From the perspective of Christian servant leadership Kouzes and Posner’s 5 factors are 100% in line with practices that are consistent with Jesus’ style of leadership . To learn more about being a Christian Leader in a manner that is centred on Jesus I would recommend reading the series entitled “The King Who Led with a Towel”

How you are as a leader of people is probably the most significant factor in the success of your organisation or team. Excellent leadership inspires an organisation’s people to greater commitment, enabling them to achieve their full potential. With that comes the reward of an organisation that makes the most of its opportunities and resources. A team that, man for man, achieves more than might otherwise be expected; plus the bonus: a more enjoyable and satisfying experience

The Big Question For Christian Leaders

The big question over leadership is “Can anyone be a great leader of people? Can you be a great leader? A Winston Churchill, a Nelson Mandela, a William Booth or a Billy Graham? May be not, but can you develop excellent leadership skills?

For sure, if you want to; pretty much anyone can. Excellent leadership is not about being born to it, it is not about being an anointed Bible expositor, a great evangelist or a natural visionary; it is a skill set that can be developed. From the Christian leader’s perspective it is also about conforming more and more to the character of Jesus. But it has to be said, it seldom just happens, you have to work at developing excellent Christian Leadership skills.

Christian Leader, How Are you Doing?

So, now your own big question. How do you rate as a leader of people in your situation whether it be a team, agency, charity or business?

It’s a question worth answering because of the gains that can be made. The following Leadership Audit is based on Kouzes and Posner’s work but it looks at the evidences of your leadership skill through the prism of your people. Although the leadership practices derive from secular work you will observe characteristics that you would expect to see exhibited by Christian leaders who model themselves on Christ servant leadership style. I believe that this is no accident as mankind is created in the image of God, so when we see the best outworking in any human situation we must be seeing the image of God emerging more clearly than might normally be the case.

For each of these questions score your answer on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 is low and 5 is high. Note: Where I use the word “organisation” read, team, agency, charity or business; whichever fits your situation. The principles apply regardless.

How the Organisation Works

Before addressing the 5 practices of leadership there are some pertinent questions with regard to your organisation as a whole. While the 5 leadership practices can be applied to church situations this first set of question don’t completely apply, although they may be informative.

• Does your organisation have a deliberately defined and fostered culture (set of attitudes, beliefs and values) that is embodied in its policies?
• Do your people have SMART* objectives and are they reviewed?
• Do you have trouble retaining the best staff?
• Are absenteeism and the levels of genuine sickness puzzlingly higher than you would expect?
• Are productivity, quality and customer satisfaction levels lower than for comparable organisations that you know?

Modelling

Exemplary leaders live out the desired culture (attitudes, beliefs and values) of the organisation. As such they demonstrate standards of excellence and set the example of the way that people should be treated and pursue their goals. Plainly for Christian leaders the culture and goals are informed by Christ-centred values.

• Do your people enthusiastically embody the organisation’s declared culture as they go about their duties or do they do something different?
• Do your people follow the example that you set as you model the culture?
• Do your people exhibit trust in you or do they think that you say one thing and do another?

Inspiring

Leaders are passionate about the difference they can make and enlist others in the realisation of their vision. Of course one would expect Christian leaders to be passionate about making a Kingdom difference in the world.

• Are your people captured by and proactively working towards a shared vision and dream for the business or do you find it hard to keep them motivated?
• Do your people simply work to your directions or do they get the big picture and contribute beyond your expectations?
• Do your people proactively demonstrate their own passion for the success of the business?

Challenging

Leaders innovate to improve the organisation and its capabilities and they encourage others to do same. This can be a challenge for Christian leaders because the “church” tends to be conservative and Christian organisations seek to remain true to their mission. However, the goal is to achieve that mission with great effectiveness and excellence and this necessitates the flexibility to meet changing circumstances, as well as simply doing things better and being more effective.

• Do you your people continually seek better ways of doing things or do they only do things the way that they have always been done?
• Do your people show initiative and push on the boundaries to be more successful or are they risk averse?
• Do your people demonstrate the ability to learn from mistakes and adapt what they do accordingly?

Enabling

Leaders empower their people, encourage collaboration and build spirited teams to achieve extraordinary results, based on mutual respect and trust.

• Do your people collaborate, working together to achieve goals or do they tend to work against each other?
• Do your people feel confident that you will support their decisions or are they fearful that you would overrule them?
• Do your people go from strength to strength in their jobs or do they seem to stagnate?

Encouraging

Leaders spur on their people to greater achievement by recognising and celebrating the contribution of individuals.

• When you speak with your people do they respond as if encouraged and engage with their tasks more enthusiastically or do they seem demotivated?
• Do your people feel both recognised and rewarded for their achievement or do they grumble about not being appreciated?
• Do your people feel recognised and rewarded for their commitment, even if things have gone wrong?

How did you do? Top score for all the questions in both parts of the article is 100. Is any one area weaker than the others?

Reflection

Take a little longer over this for a more considered view. This survey looks at the behavior of your team as a reflection your skills as a leader. Having considered the results take half an hour out with a cup of coffee and sketch out an action plan for your leadership approach to deal with any weaknesses that you found. Effective Christian leaders follow the leadership example of Christ. You can read about this in the series “The King Who led with a Towel”.

Its not necessarily costly to fix the things you observe but the benefits can be huge. Whilst there may be people who are born to be charismatic leaders it has to be said that leadership skills can be taught, learned and honed through practice and coaching. It is possible for “ordinary” leaders to become exemplary leaders. In the Christian sphere it is possible for Christian leaders to model Jesus effectively, after all we have the in-dwelling Holy Spirit through whom Christ lives in us. But we do have to co-operate.

If you want a more objective view of your capabilities as a leader, the Leadership Practices Inventory is a 360 Degree Assessment based on the 5 leadership practices. Claybury International can help you run this, interpret its results and work out your follow up action plan to develop your distinctively Christian leadership style and qualities.

Ordinary leadership gets ordinary results. Great leadership gets great results. One of the key things to consider is that question of culture. What is the actual culture of your organistaion, department or team? How does that stack up against the declared culture and which do you model?

What could you do to be a better role model? A leader’s example is crucial in enabling the people in their team to achieve to their full potential.

* SMART = Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound

Image: AndYaDontStop Flickr

Christian leaders in all spheres lead teams and Jesus’ servant leadership model is key to being a team builder and developing a team that achieves its full potential. Check out how your team is doing.

I remember studying English Literature at school, not my greatest achievement I have to say. However, I remember a phrase from one poem that we studied. I cannot remember the title or the poet, just the phrase.  As far as I remember it went something like this: the hero of the poem – whoever he was – “leapt onto his horse and rode off in all directions at once”*. Does that sound like your team – riding off in all directions at once?  It’s not uncommon and its one of the reasons that as a leader there is hope. You can do more with what you’ve got, the secret is to get the team to all ride off in the same direction! Its like the guys in the picture of the yacht. If they were not all in the same place, working together, the boat would capsize and the race lost. Many teams, even Christian teams, do not deliver the goods because they have never gelled into a team and they remain a group of individuals, and to the frustration of their leader they each riding off in a different direction.

The Christian Leader’s Approach is Crucial

It has been said that a team is not a team until it has been made into one, before then it remains a group. At best a group delivers the same result as if its members worked individually. At worst they work against each other reducing effectiveness. This can sometimes create a toxic atmosphere which spills over and demotivates everyone else. But when they are formed into a properly functioning team they will be many times more effective; only then will the individual team members be achieving their full potential. The approach of the Christian leader is crucial to enabling their team to reach its full potential by developing a Christ-centered servant leadership, after all it will be distinctively Christian.

So, Christian leader,where is your team on the scale ranging from: pulling against each other, through to parity with a group of individuals, to being a team whose performance that exceeds expectations? Answering this question is just as important for Christian leaders as anyone else. Just because team members have a common faith does not mean that they will work well together without wise guidance and a clear role model from someone who is grounded in Christ and lives out his example.  To learn more about this Christian, servant leadership attitude take a look at “The King who Led with a Towel” series.

How well does your team do?

Based on the work of Pat MacMillan (The Performance Factor**) here is a simple diagnostic tool to help you decide.

Alignment

For your team to be a great team the members must be “aligned”. This is not about the team being aligned to the leader necessarily, but the team, including the leader, having  a clear and shared purpose and a 100% commitment to realising that shared purpose in a common and coherent way. Plainly the Christian leader has a great responsibility to facilitate this achievement.  The following questions will help you consider exactly how aligned your team is:

• Does your team have a declared purpose that is clear, relevant, significant, believed, urgent and motivational?
• If you asked your team members what the purpose of the team was, do they all give the same answer?
• Does that represent an agreed, common and shared view or are there gaps?
• Is all your team involved in developing the strategies and plans to achieve the purpose?
• Is each team member’s commitment to achievement practically demonstrated by higher levels of cooperation?

Crystal Clear Roles

Clarity is required in the minds of the team as to exactly what is the role of each member. The Christian leader needs to help the team develop this clarity, fudges don’t work.

• Do your team members have specific roles with well defined boundaries, responsibilities and accountabilities?
• Can each of your team members accurately tell you what the other team members do?
• Has anything that your team is responsible for ever “fallen through the cracks” or disappeared into “black holes”?
• Does conflict arise between your team members because of differing opinions about responsibilities?
• When you look at your team members honestly are their roles compatible with their abilities?

Accepted Leadership

A High Performing Team requires clear and competent leadership to facilitate and orchestrate the achievement of its goals. However, for specific activities task leadership will be provided by individual team members who have the necessary competence and capability to guide on that issue. Christian leaders can often fall into the “I’m in charge” trap for a host of reasons and many pastors and ministers have been trained in, and are expected to adopt a “one-man” style. However, effective leadership at any specific time is not based on a static position but by dynamic response to the encountered need and individual role.  The effective Christian leader facilitates this flexibility.

• Are you the only one that ever provides direction for your team?
• Do you delegate responsibility for specific tasks to team members?
• Do individual team members with expertise offer formal and informal guidance and direction in accordance with that expertise?
• Do you call upon the team’s wisdom and expertise by encouraging team members to offer their insights and leadership based on their expertise and experience?
• When you ask your team members do they express frustration at lack of direction and guidance?

Effective Team Processes

Team processes are not so much about individual jobs but are more about how the team interacts and functions as it makes decisions, solves problems and resolves conflicts. It’s about how the team members work together, encouraging and facilitating this is a key role for any Christian leader who wishes to model his style on Jesus.

• Do you understand the roles that each individual team member prefers and plays in your team (Take a look at Belbin Team Roles to help you )?
• Do the team members understand the roles that both they and their colleagues individually play in the team process?
• Given the purpose of your team, do you have any gaps in its make up in terms of the roles each member plays (For example  do you have people who are able to initiate; people who are able to coordinate; people who make sure everything is complete and so on?)
• Does the team work effectively because its members are playing to their strengths, have  a desire to serve the team as a whole and know how to use each other’s strengths?
• Is the structure of your team rigid or is it flexible enough to maximise the individual and collective achievement of all members?

Solid Relationships

Solid relationships are essential in a team but they are not about friendships but solid relationships; they are about being able to work together well. They are also about developing a trust in and appreciation of fellow team members so that collectively the team can deal with setbacks, misunderstandings, conflicts as well as those plain and simple bad days. This ought to be easy for Christians…… apart from the fact that we are all endowed with a fallen nature. The Christian leader needs prayerful wisdom in this area.

• Are your team members reliable, doing what they say they will do?
• Do you see your team members “doing it themselves” because that is the only way that they can be sure that the job gets done?
• Does your team squabble and play the “blame game”?
• Are there any personality clashes in your team?
• On the bad days does your team pull together or does it tend to fall apart?
• When one team member has difficulties do the others share the burden and make sure that the job gets done?

Excellent Communications

Excellent communications is a prerequisite for all the other characteristics. To function as a High Performing Team, members must understand not only how to share information in a way that others can receive but also to assume a responsibility for ensuring that they understand the communications that they receive. This short series on Effective Communications Skills can get the whole team moving in the right direction. If Email is a problem then this 0n-line training module Taming the Email Dragon: How To Be Responsible Emailer may be of help.

• Do your team members communicate via email excessively even when it would be better to speak to each other?
• Is email used well for collecting data and documenting conversations?
• Do any of your team members get frustrated because they seem simply unable to communicate with specific team members?
• Do any of your team members overwhelm others with words or emails in an attempt to communicate?
• Do any of your team members always seem to miss out on what is happening or what was agreed?
• Do you and your team members understand each others’ preferred means of receiving information?
• Have your team ever been trained to communicate effectively?

The process of building a High Performing Team requires that the team, as a whole, take stock of itself against these characteristics. It must then, together, undertake an appropriate plan of action to achieve its full potential. This is necessarily a process of individual steps which inevitably takes time to mature, although it is possible to make rapid strides. For instance a days training on the Responsible Communication style that a servant leader would use can begin to have an impact the very next day. As the team works, evaluates, learns and applies its learning, it will improve in performance as it becomes a High Performing Team. It will work more effectively, more collaboratively and refocus previously lost energy on achieving its purpose.  More than that the coherence of the team will magnify its achievement  as it begins to out perform its previous track record. This is a journey upon which a servant leader will take his team.

Reflection

Find a quiet place for half an hour and ask yourself these questions about your team and see how they score.  In the light of the answers you get begin to work out an action plan to address your team’s weaknesses. Then sit down with your team and do the whole assessment together as the first step to involving the team in their journey toward becoming a High Performing Team.

What are the differences between a team of volunteers, a team of people who are vocationally motivated, a team of employees and a team of professionals? Is there a difference in their needs from a leadership perspective?

* Thanks to the power of the internet I have since discovered  the actual quotation is “Lord Ronald … flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions. ” from Nonsense Novels, “Gertrude the Governess” by Stephen Leacock. It subsequently gave rise to the name of a Canadian Radio show “Madly Off in All Directions”.

**The Performance Factor, Pat MacMillan, B&H Publishing, ISBN-8-8054-2375-3

Image : Darren Baker-Fotolia.com