Just For Fun: A Leadership Cartoon

Meeting Summary: Session Two

Good morning all,

I hope you had a chance to go home and relax a bit after our meeting.  Once again I am amazed at the speed at which you are coming together as a group.  Thank you all for your willingness to be a part of this process.  Marie we missed you but will see you next week and pray that William recovers quickly.  Last night we recapped the homework and discovered there are many different models, types, styles of leadership.  Nobody embodies all of them and the effectiveness of the style often times directly relates to the leadership context.  For example the autocratic leadership style works well in an emergency crisis but would not serve well working with a very specialized, high-functioning team; the hands-off approach would be a much better style for that team.  The main point in the exercise was for all of us to realize that our leadership potential can manifest itself in many different styles.  Some of the styles we may never embody, but that doesn't mean we are not a leader.  The second part of the homework was to consider the difference between managers and leaders and the final conclusion we came to was that leadership requires people.  One cannot lead time, materials, resources or finances but they can manage them.  An important note to consider about managers is that being a manager is not a rung on the ladder to becoming a leader like some of the Internet literature would suggest.  A manager can be a leader in their own right.

The second part of the session involved looking at the personality preferences of the Myers Briggs Personality Inventory and taking the Kiersey Temperament Sorter.  We discovered as a group that while on the surface we seem quite diverse, at a personality level we had very little diversity with most of the group being ISTJ.  Part of this weeks homework is to take an online version of the Myers Briggs.  Follow this link: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp .  There are 72 yes/no questions and you will get your results the moment you click submit.  Once you have taken the text please reply to this post with a comment that has your name, your letter breakdown and the number that goes with each letter.  For example I would post: Faron Owen ENTJ, 100/25/50/33.  The second piece for homework was to consider spiritual formation and discipleship.  Come next week prepared to define these concepts, discuss their importance, their relationship to leadership and to character.  We have plenty of drinks left over so we don't need those, but Brandy has dessert.  Thanks again to Michael and Cindy for drinks and desserts last night.

Your brother in Christ,

Faron

Meeting Summary: Session One

Greetings All,

I want to tell you how excited I am after last night.  I was overwhelmed by your openness, honesty and willingness to participate and I cannot wait to see what God does in our midst.  Thank you all for sharing your answers to each question during the first half of the session last night.  I feel like I got a glimpse of a deeper part of each one of you.  In the second half we had a great discussion on the characteristics of a leader.  You added things to the list like good communicator, innovator, passion, faith and plenty more while also recognizing that all leaders do not have all of these traits.  This list will be the foundation for us developing a definition of a leader, especially a spiritual leader.  The homework for next week was to come back prepared to a) discuss the different types of leaders and b) discuss the difference between a leader and a manager.  Michael you are bringing drinks next week and Cindy you have dessert.

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

Leadership Characteristics: Facing Failure

Greetings All,

 As we consider characteristics of leaders I want to highlight some on the blog. Today I want us to consider the issue of "failure." One of the challenges leaders face is the reality that we may fail in our undertakings be them business or ministry or even family. The truth is "failure is a part of life." It is not that leaders avoid failure, it is how we acknowledge the reality that we have failed and how we move forward from there. Here is a link to an article in Forbes magazine about what we can learn from failure.  While it is an article focused on the business world, the ideas put forth are just as applicable to a ministry setting.  When you get a moment read the article and then post a comment to this post where you name one of your personal failures and how you moved forward.

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

Welcome!!!

Greetings CUMC Leaders, Welcome to our Leadership Development Group (LDG) Blog. This will be our primary communication point apart from our Tuesday meetings. I ask that you check the blog once each day. Sometimes it will have devotional thoughts, other times practical information about the upcoming meeting, sometimes articles about leadership, or thought provoking questions about leadership, theology and life. It will become the journal of our time together. A place we can look to the future as each upcoming week is laid out on the schedule and where we can look back on what we have learned and discussed and experienced over the past few weeks. As we progress in the group I will give all of you posting privileges on the blog so that you can share with the group things you have learned, ask questions or even challenge us to think differently about something. I am so excited to be sharing the upcoming year with each of you and cannot wait to see what God does through each of you and this group! Your brother in Christ, Faron