Bloggers Book Study: ax.i.om by Bill Hybels...

Happy Monday morning! What a week and weekend! Shout out to my husband, Heredes, and everyone from Potential Studios and others that made F309 a major success.

This morning we will be in pages 40-48 in the book ax.i.om.

9. The Fair Exchange Value: It comes right out of 1 Timothy 5. In any type of "corporation"- "leaders try to extract the most output from staffers in exchange for the least amount of input". Hybels says that sadly it even happens in the church. He shares the occurring years [5 yrs] that this would happen at Willow. Every year staffers hoped for that raise, etc. But it didn't really happened but they served excited and still at a high level. But after a couple of years, and seeing more buildings and ministries being built, the level began to drop and some had to have that talk with Hybels. He shares about one of his leaders who had to find a marketplace job. At the end Hybels and him worked it out and he is still working and leading after 32 years.
"I had espoused the value of fairness for as long as I could remember, and here I was losing one of my best workers for one simple reason: I was violating the fair exchange value."
And to all of you on staff at Flamingo Road Church- man, you guys rock! Thank you for the sacrifices you take in day in and day out. God has your reward.

10. The Value of a Good Idea: Hybels was in Spain leading a conference and was heading back home but needed to bring in a good idea to see change in Willow's congregation. "I might be one good idea away from a message series that could fire up our church again." Before leaving, he walked on the beach, back and forth, until God gave him that best good idea. God did. ;)
He asks, "What is the value of a good idea? A thousand lives added and tens of thousands of lives touched- all of which could be traced back to a desperate plea to God on a rainy day in Spain."
"Leaders traffic in idea creation. The best leaders I know are ferociously disciplined about seeking them out and incredibly committed to stewarding them well."
I loved this small section: talking about- to get to that one best good idea, you need to allow for hundreds or even thousands of mediocre ideas. "After all, if your big 'aha' is number seventy-eight, you'll never discover it unless you discipline yourself and your team to think through numbers one through seventy-seven."
Steward good ideas well. And great leaders keep a pad of paper and a pen by their bed. ;)

11. Build a Boiler Fund: Mismanagement is one of the many causes organizations fail/close down. And most of the time it has to do with a financial area. "The painful truth is that unless we become consistently profitable, we will not exist to minister another day." Proverbs 6:6- we should be like the ant storing up a reasonable about of reserve. As a church, there should be a boiler fund, so when something huge breaks down, etc. it can be replaced by the reserve we have set aside. "If you and I really believe that the local church is the hope of the world, then I believe we should do everything in our power to make sure that, at least from a financial perspective, the ministry can thrive well into the future."

That concludes my section. Thanks for stopping by. Join us tomorrow as Stacie Gonzalez leads the review. Now off to work! ;)

Bloggers Book Study: How the Migthy Fall...

If you missed the introduction to Jim Collins book "How the Mighty Fall" jump over to Matt Miller's blog here. I will begin the second part today- the first two stages of decline.

Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success:
Collins opens up with the beginning of Motorola's fall from greatness. It started with stage 1.
Hubris: "excessive pride that brings down a hero, or alternatively, outrageous arrogance that inflicts suffering upon the innocent." Yikes!
Multiple forms of hubris:
1. undisciplined leaps
2. company's pursuit of growth beyond what what it can deliver with excellence
3. bold, risky decisions of conflicting or negative evidence
4. denying that the company may be at possible risks, due to other competitors
5. And finally the most insidious form of hubris: Arrogant Neglect
Markers for Stage 1: [self- diagnostic checklist of possible decline]
1. Success entitlement, Arrogance: people begin to believe that success will continue almost no matter what the organization decides to do, or not to do
2. Neglect of a primary flywheel: leaders neglect [due to distractions] a primary flywheel, failing to renew it with the same creative intensity that made it great in the first place
3. " What" replaces "Why": rhetoric of success [we're successful b/c we do these specific things] replaces understanding & insight [we're successful b/c we understand why we do these specific things & under what conditions they would no longer work]
4. Decline in learning orientation: leaders lose the inquisitiveness & learning orientation that mark those truly great individuals who, no matter how successful they become, maintain learning curve as steep as when they first began their careers.

Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More
Opens with the thought that many companies fall because of complacency
"Over reaching tends to increase after a legendary leader steps away."
The best leaders, in these two sections "had a peculiar genius for seeing themselves as not all that important, recognizing to build an executive team & to craft a culture based on core values that do not depend on a single heroic leader." [eg. Walmart, Best Buy]
Though he is a "leadership skeptic" he concludes: "while no leader can single-handedly build an enduring great company, the wrong leader vested with power can almost single-handedly bring a company down."

Join the next sections by visiting Lilibeth's blog here.
What are some companies and/or leaders that you've seen start off great but then failed?
What areas do you want to improve or continually practice as you lead your ministry, occupation, family?
Continue being a leader that learns, grows, and works out humbleness... hmmm.. good things for me to put into practice...