Paolo Punzalan.com

Listening to Paul Barker teaching us the 5 Foundations of Productive Teams (based on Patrick Lencioni’s 5 Dysfunctions of a Team).

He mentioned an very interesting poll made by Gallup. There are 4 main things people look for from a productive and highly effective leader. I’ll start with the 4th. Here goes…

4. Create hope.

Members of a team want a leader that inspire and instigate vision. They want to see their leader ‘lead’ them to where they need to go.

3. Provide stability.

A.D.D. has become an excuse by leaders who don’t even have A.D.D. to justify instability. People who follow a ‘red balloon’ one day and then another ‘red balloon’ the next week has caused many a team member to lose trust. People want stability. People need stability to trust their leader.

2. Show compassion.

When a team member says, “My leader cares about me as a person, not just about what I can contribute to the organization,” it becomes a win for the whole team. People follow leaders who show compassion and sense that they are not just being ‘used’ as an instrument for the success of the organization.

1. Build trust.

Leaders who build trust not just because of what they say but by how they live their life and apply the very standards they ask their team members to meet is what people seek for. Trust is built when leaders lead by example not by a ‘top-down’ type of leadership which would be – ‘do as I say with no questions asked.’

What are we trying to build?

I spoke to a leader of a church this afternoon.  There were certain accusations that were being thrown at him.

First and foremost, I told him, that that’s to be expected.  As a leader, people will comment, criticize, applaud, scorn and say stuff.  Comes with the territory.

Second, it is important to understand clearly what God has called us to do.  He did not call us to be successful.  He calls us to be faithful. (read a recent post I made here)

And as you’re certain about the call God’s placed in your life, be secure that as long as you’re doing what you’ve been called to do, then all that matters is not the applause of man but the applause of heaven.

Criticism may hurt.  It will hurt.  But what are we building?

Are we building our reputation or are we building His kingdom?

Many define success today as ‘bigger is better’.

Unfortunately, I’ve been sucked in by that pressure many times over because I want to be able to keep up, join in, belong and feed my ego (if I can be so honest).

But when we look at the life of Noah, after 100 plus years of building the ark combined with calling out repentance, only 7 people listened to his message and got in the ark thereby being rescued from the Great Deluge.

Now church growth experts will look at a church of 8 people (Noah plus the 7) and probably will not look at it as very successful.

But in God’s eyes, Noah was faithful to who God’s called him to be and what God’s called him to do.

Bottomline: Success is to stay faithful to who God’s called you to be and what God’s called you to do.

His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

I was reading a book by Mark Sanborn entitled “You Don’t Need A Title To Be A Leader” in a public library yesterday called Barnes & Noble (haha!) and came across an interesting story that illustrates the power of focus.

Here it is…

Bill who lives outside Kalamazooo, Michigan bought a new house on the edge of a lush wooded area. Bill likes to feed birds, so upon moving in, Bill put up a feeder in his backyard. But before the sun even set that evening, squirrels were swinging off the bird feeder and chasing the birds away. Bill realized that he had to do something or the birds would soon be too scared to come near the feeder, so for the next two weeks he declared war on the squirrels. Bill isn’t a mean guy and wouldn’t do anything to hurt the squirrels, but he was willing to use any peaceful method necessary to keep them out of his bird feeder.

He tried greasing the post the bird feeder was on, but that didn’t work. Stumped, Bill visited his local hardware store and bought a “squirrel-proof bird feeder”, an odd looking feeder with wire mesh wrapped around it. The label said it was guaranteed, so Bill took it home and put it in his backyard.

But by sunset, the squirrels were once again swinging off the bird feeder. Bill was now really upset, and the next day he took the feeder back to the hardware store. He asked to see the manager, demanding a full refund.   “Calm down,” the store manager told him. “I could have told you when you bought it that there is no such thing as a squirrel-proof bird feeder.”

Bill looked at him in disbelief. You mean we can land a man on the moon and send instantaneous messages via satellite to anywhere around the world, but our best and brightest scientists and engineers can’t design and manufacture a bird feeder that can outsmart an animal with a brain the size of a pea?   “Yep,” said the retailer.

“Why not?” Bill persisted.

“Let me ask you something, sir,” the man replied. “How much time on average have you spent in the last two weeks trying to keep the squirrels out of your bird feeder?” Bill thought it over for a minute and responded, “Maybe ten to fifteen minutes a day.”

“And how much time do you think the squirrels spend each day trying to get in?”

The power of focus.

“The more responsibility you have, the more hats you wear, the more likely you are to become more inefficient.”  (Dave Crenshaw, Myth of Multi-tasking)

Calamities can bring out the best and the worst in people.

I have been so blown away by people from church and how they’ve given, donated, sacrificed, helped, committed, organized, cleaned, offered, contributed… (running out of words)… when typhoon Ondoy hit Manila.

At the same breath, unfortunately, some ‘took advantage’ of the situation.

When we went out to a particular evacuation center one night to distribute relief goods, we were told to leave the venue first because a certain politician was there and our goods cannot get mixed up with theirs or else he will get the credit or vise versa (since we were working with local government units for that day).

We were told to park our truck somewhere else first, wait an hour and come back after this particular person left.

I felt dejected to say the least. “How hard is it to help? Does it have to be this complicated?”

Our nation is in desperate need of leaders who will serve and will not need to take the credit to help.  The sad thing is that this doesn’t only happen in THAT world.  It happens everywhere – business, education, church, entertainment, banking, corporate, non-profit organizations, …

It’s often been said that it doesn’t matter who gets the credit, as long as the job gets done!