Month: February 2016

When Your Vision is Put to the Test | Leading Through Failure

Posted on February 29, 2016 by - Business, Calling, Change Management, North America, Stories

Kyle leads an organization called Living Hope Camping FoundationKyle, which exists to reach families for Christ through the ministry of camps and seminars centered in financial management education. He was inspired back in 2010, when he took part in a church-wide book study of The Beautiful Flight by Gary Thomas. While reading the book, and basking in the sun along the lakeshore near his home, Kyle was reminded of his love for camp and his passion to help families with their financial management. Why not bring the two together?

Launching a vision

That same year, Kyle attended his first Summit.

“The Summit was crucial because it was only a couple of months after my experience on the shore,” said Kyle. “At that point, I knew what I wanted to do, but didn’t really know what to do. The speakers, including Cory Booker (New Jersey Senator, then Newark mayor) and the event as a whole helped me launch into service, and one month before the next Summit, I was officially the founder and director of a non-profit organization that already sent a few kids to summer camp.”

As the organization has grown, Kyle has clarified his vision, “We have not done our job unless the people we serve come away with a vision-centered focus on finances,” Kyle explains. “We desire that all come away with Jesus at the center of their money, families, career, and life in general. I love the envelop system, particularly for a person only beginning to understand financial management. Unfortunately, traditional lessons using this often unintentionally lead to people putting money at the center of their budget. So we start with personal vision for life and move to finances SO THAT we can instill an attitude toward money management that puts this vision, and ultimately Jesus at the center. I belief this helps us do so much better including following Christ, achieving financial goals, and money management.”

Vision put to the test

Kyle’s vision was put to the test when he followed a call even though the initiative failed.  He believes it was still prompted by God, but not in God’s time. He recalls a time he was faced with a decision in which the common and often right decision in the secular world was contrary to the right decision in faith. He explains, “We attempted to organize a triathlon a few years ago and firmly believe this was and remains a decision founded by God. However, I tried to move forward but the event ended up being cancelled.”

A difficult decision was at hand. “We had several financial commitments and registrants, all of whom agreed to the entry fees being non-refundable. Living Hope had a legal basis to not refund the money,” he explains. But knowing in his heart what he should do, Kyle decided to do something he didn’t have to do, even if it meant hurting the bottom line for his newly founded organization that he was so passionate about.

“We refunded all the money, most of which came from me personally,” said Kyle. It was a difficult time in his ministry and his life, and a time of greater than normal sacrifice.

Lifted from the lions den

“I came out of this experience realizing more so than ever that God really does work in the Lion’s Den,” Kyle shares. “I stepped out in faith, and like Daniel, I trusted and believed that everything would work out. I firmly believe that Daniel did not expect God would allow him to be thrown into the Lion’s Den, and I did not expect that he would allow the event to fail. We all know where Daniel went, and when the event failed that is what it felt like for me too. But God continued to work for both me and Daniel and lifted us out of the Lion’s Den so that we could continue to live and work for the glory and honor of God.”

As it turns out, one of Kyle’s proudest moments in his leadership was actually when this initiative failed. “It may sound funny, but the triathlon failure is something I look at with pride. Yes it failed, but we are still an organization that exists without debt. Ultimately, I am proud of the fact that Living Hope even exists. I am not an independently wealthy person and thus work a 9-5 job while still trying to grow a non-profit and counsel people all in addition to my day job.”

Each step, even failed steps, in a 20 mile march

Kyle remembers Jim Collins’ talk about a “20 mile march” being one of the most impactful sessions he heard, and one that he’s resonated with the most. Each step on the journey has lead him closer to his goal, and ultimately to God’s vision for his life, even if those steps have meant a failed project. “Yes, you will face struggles, sometimes seemingly insurmountable and sometimes it will seem like the system is working against you,” Kyle shares. “You can let the system crush you, or you can work even harder (even when it seems like you are already working as hard as you can) to overcome the odds. If you are doing things right (and you must be painfully honest with yourself on this) there is a way out of the trouble. You may have to go out of your way to get there but there is a solution.”

“You never know who or what is going to inspire you at the Summit.”

How God Used a Nightmare, a Church, and an Australian to Bring Change to Durham, North Carolina

Posted on February 24, 2016 by - Calling, Church & Faith-Based, North America, Stories

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As a young girl, Abbi Tenaglia experienced something that no little girl should ever have to go through – sexual exploitation. Having been manipulated online, she found herself states away from home with a much older man who had stolen her innocence. She was terrified, alone and vulnerable. Fortunately for Abbi, she was able to escape, but the nightmares remained. She experienced inescapable pain and addiction into her teen and college years, and her life felt hopeless.

“Exploitation, addiction and abuse are familiar to me,” she shares. She preferred death over the pain and the nightmares. “After ten years of pain, all I wanted to do was die, but I decided to try one last thing – God.”

At her lowest point, homeless and alone, Abbi took a leap of faith and stepped into newhope Church in Durham, North Carolina for the first time, not knowing what to expect from the service, or if anyone would even relate to what she was going through.

Pastor Benji Kelley stood up front, and began to tell his own story of pain, abuse and addiction. For the first time in a long time, Abbi felt known. She felt understood and like she belonged. She was overwhelmed by the idea that God could make beautiful things from what had been broken. “I realized if God could do anything in Pastor Benji’s life, God could also do anything with me.”

“Freedom, joy, and hope didn’t come naturally. I had to learn how to find them and where I found them were in the arms of my Savior.” Instead of ending her life, she gave her life to Jesus, and fell in love.

Abbi’s love for God overflowed into service, and she quickly began getting involved with the church, serving everywhere she possibly could. So when the opportunity to serve at the 2010 Global Leadership Summit came, she took it without hesitation.

Christine Caine spoke that year. Abbi knew nothing of Christine except that she was from Australia, so Abbi decided to slip into the auditorium to hear her accent. Little did Abbi know what Christine Caine was going to say, and the impact it was about to have on her life. God was orchestrating something bigger.

Abbi listened to Christine Caine speak about sex trafficking, abuse and exploitation. She couldn’t sit still in her seat. Christine inspired her with a message of hope and transformation. The passion in her grew. Abbi was being called to do something to eradicate the terrible reality of trafficking and sexual exploitation in her community. “Since then, it has been clear to me that my mission on earth is to help guide others who are enslaved (commercially or not) to hope and true joy,” Abbi shares. “Because of what I have been through, I am committed to using my one and only life on earth to fight for the freedom of those who have been trafficked.”

She left the Summit with a vision and a passion. In that same year, she launched Transforming Hope Ministries to serve her community, and eradicate sex trafficking and exploitation in her city. Ultimately she wants to create a safe community and a healthy environment for kids to grow in.

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On her journey, she’s realized how real spiritual warfare really is, and how important it is for her to remain closely connected to God, and remember his truth. “It’s important to prepare yourself to know the truth, and recognize the true enemy,” she said. “We need to know how the enemy works so we don’t let fear overtake us. As a leader, I need to remember God’s truth and fight from a place of victory.”

Uncovering Your “White Hot Why?” | One Woman’s Leap of Faith Toward God’s Call

Posted on February 22, 2016 by - Calling, Diversity, Education, Execution, North America, Stories

Denny (right) with her friends at her bucket-list visit to the Summit in South Barrington.

Denny (right) with her friends at her bucket-list visit to the Summit in South Barrington.

Denny Meadows spent the first 10 years after college wondering whether she was on the right track.  Though she went on to build a successful career with Fortune 500 companies working in senior strategy and financial roles, something tugged at her heart, calling her to her true passion and purpose. “I began to experience kind of a ‘crisis of meaning.’  Business just didn’t feel like the right path for me anymore,” she said. There was something about remembering her own experience after college, when she was trying to discover her purpose, that helped her uncover what she was most passionate about.

A Leap of Faith

“Three years ago, I left the corporate world in order to pursue my give-back goal of helping young adults connect with their purpose,” said Denny. “Every day for me now is a tiny leap of faith. When I left my corporate career, I left my professional identity and financial security behind in order to create a field that doesn’t exist in service to a need that was only on a hunch. I can’t fully explain the steps that led me to this work, but I can tell you three years later that the need is even bigger and more pressing than I imagined.  If God chooses to use me, I am here to serve joyfully.”

Denny founded and leads SilverFern Advisory with a mission to help colleges and universities succeed in igniting the talents and passions of their students. “It’s been both exhilarating and exhausting to immerse myself in the problem, to pull up and create the vision, to attempt to articulate the value proposition and to develop the foundational relationships,” said Denny. “The two markets I serve are either notoriously poor (students) or understandably reluctant to embrace input from the outside (higher-education).  And yet here I am, because I care deeply about ensuring that students are equipped to make the leap from a great education to a meaningful career.”

Clarifying a Vision

Denny believes that we have an opportunity – and responsibility – to act boldly to prepare the next generation of leaders, innovators and change agents to find their place in a world that desperately needs their vision, their creativity, and their desire to make a difference.  “I want to help young adults avoid the first 10 years of wondering whether they got it right, so they can focus instead on developing the skills, passions and expertise they’ll need to have the kind of impact that matters to them.”

“On the surface it seems completely different from my corporate strategy work, but at the core it’s remarkably similar. What I love doing more than anything is figuring out how to make sense of complex issues so that solutions and actions become surprisingly clear. My deepest desire is to help organizations and individuals be their very best, whether it’s companies serving their customers, or colleges serving their students.”

“I call myself a Career Launch Advisor,” said Denny. “But ultimately I am a servant. My goal is to use my own God-given talents, in ways that are only limited by my courage and imagination, in order to help colleges and universities further their mission of preparing students for lives of consequence.” As Denny points out, “Everyone wins when we invest in discovering and pursuing our purpose: individuals win, their colleges and universities win, and our communities win.”

Denny’s Big Hairy Audacious Goal

Denny’s Big Hairy Audacious Goal is for every college to provide every student with access to the tools needed to discover his or her own unique path and purpose. “The old career services model just doesn’t work anymore. The world is a different place today.  There’s much more choice, and much more competition.”Yet sometimes progress in creating a new model, said Denny, “feels frustratingly slow. It’s a challenge to be patient yet persistent in earning the opportunity to contribute to a cause that is ultimately so important.”

Equipped for the Call through the Global Leadership Summit

That’s where the Summit comes in. It equips Denny for her Big Hairy Audacious Goal. Denny has been taking the Summit’s fresh ideas, encouragement and inspiration and using them to fuel her vision. “Sometimes my service mission feels like just another one of those ‘dumb ideas’ that Albert Tate talked about at the Summit in 2015,” she said. “I’ve told myself from the very beginning that I hold this mission in the palm of my open hand; if God wants to use me then something will happen, and if he doesn’t then it will go nowhere.  At the Summit, there were countless messages that I felt I was supposed to hear as encouragement from God to keep going. Things like, ‘Never underestimate the power of a dumb idea.’ Or, ‘Bring what you’ve got and get out of the way.’ Or ‘Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing.’  Or Craig Groeschel’s line, ‘You may be one relationship away from changing the course of your destiny.’”

“Thanks to GLS, I have a renewed sense of purpose, more guiding principles to live by and an ample boost of energy. As leaders, each of us needs to push on our own purpose and our own ‘Why?’  to the point of feeling the anger or frustration or elation that feeds our conviction, fuels our motivation, and helps us persevere.”

 

What fuels your white-hot why? Denny encourages leaders to attend the Summit and discover how it can fuel your ‘why’ the way that it has fueled hers. “Take a tiny leap of faith that God has something planned for you August 11-12, 2016. If you show up with expectation, you won’t be disappointed.”

To register for the Global Leadership Summit, go to www.willowcreek.com/summit

How Diversity Can Save Your Team from Groupthink

Posted on February 22, 2016 by - Articles, Change Management, Diversity, Leading Others

When Sallie Krawcheck took the stage at the 2015 Global Leadership Summit, she grabbed the attention of every leader with her compelling message of team diversity.

But there was one line in particular that was, to me, an absolute game-changer when it comes to team building.

Krawcheck said slowly and deliberately, “When you’re building a team, ask, ‘Who is the best person for the job?’ But for too many, the best person for the job looks just like me.”

She was, of course, referring to the innate bias of most leaders to build their teams by stacking each position with people as similar to themselves as possible.

Leaders will tend to gravitate toward team members who look, sound and, unfortunately, think as they do.

And the inevitable result can be ‘groupthink.’

The term and concept was coined in the early ‘70s by social psychologist Irving Janis, and refers to what can happen when judgment is short-circuited through the collective mindset of a highly cohesive group.

Such groups can become relentlessly focused on a particular way of seeing things. And the result can be consistently poor decision making.

Scripture is full of examples of groupthink, perhaps none stronger than when the Israelites defied God’s warnings and chose instead to invade Canaan. “In their presumption they went up toward the highest point in the hill country….Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah.” (Numbers 14: 44-45)

The key phrase is in their presumption. Group thinking, characterized by unfounded or ill-informed presumptions, had the Israelites marching toward certain doom. Groupthink had replaced clear leadership.

The antidote to groupthink is to ensure that your team is comprised of as many diverse leaders as possible. As Krawcheck pointed out, “Diverse teams make more effective decisions.”

This week, take a diversity audit of your team. Honestly assess,

  • “How much do we look the same?”
  • “How much do we sound the same?”
  • “How much do we think the same?”

The results might be telling you that it’s time to consider moving toward greater diversity.

The alternative could be decisions that will drive your team “all the way to Hormah!”