According to my Kindle, I am 32% through Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin. I think I like it now. I didn’t like it at first. The title grated against my understanding of humility and servant-leadership. The opening sections did nothing to change my perception.

But people I respect spoke highly of the book (such as Michael Hyatt here and here, especially since his company did not publish the book). Jay Lorenzen (onMovements) is reading it so I look forward to his thoughts.

It is growing on me. I’m intrigued by the concept of emotional labor. Some statements from Godin’s book:

• Emotional labor is the hard work of making art, producing generosity, and exposing creativity.
• Every interaction you have with a coworker or customer is an opportunity to practice the art of interaction [emotional labor].
• One of the most difficult types of emotional labor is staring into the abyss of choice and picking a path. [This is especially meaningful to me as a leader where I regularly stare into the abyss of choice and am responsible for leading us in a path towards our mission.]
• Emotional labor is available to all of us, but is rarely exploited as a competitive advantage. We spend our time and energy trying to perfect our craft, but we don’t focus on the skills and interactions that will allow us to stand out and become indispensable to our organization.

Then I thought about my partners in ministry — those who engage in the mission with Kay and me through faithful prayer, funding, and encouragement. Am I indispensable to them? Am I producing generously and creatively with them? Am I practicing effective emotional labor from their perspective?

I’m still working through thoughts. What about you? If you’ve read Linchpin and have thoughts, write them in the comments.

One of my favorite email newsletters is Breakfast with Fred. His newsletter today was powerful ways to grow yourself into a better person and a better leader.

I’m unable to find a way to link to it, so I am duplicating his newsletter of 16 Feb.

Self improvement is not short-term.  It is a way of life.  We can do quick sprints with shots of motivation, but it won’t last.  My friends call me Fat Fred for a very good reason —-I haven’t adopted a Svelte Smith way of life.  I eat grapefruit for awhile, then lapse back into gravy on the mashed potatoes.

Make a plan to change your thinking.  Make a plan to make self-development second nature.

I didn’t have the advantage of a college education, a monied background, or a network of contacts.  But, I knew I wanted to grow and to make something of myself.  I knew I needed a plan.  I analyzed my strengths, looked for mentors, and set a life mission.  For me, my epitaph will read “He stretched others.”

How does a young man from the mill district of North Nashville do this?  Here are four support posts in my development plan:

1. Read- We cannot be informed unless we read.  Unless we are informed, we are not improved.  However, reading must be in line with our development objectives.  I read broadly, but with discrimination. For example, I read the classics to stretch my mind, improve my vocabulary, and brighten my personality.  I read the scripture to strengthen my values and keep me focused on truth.  The old phrase, “Leaders are readers” is a simple way to say it.

2. Associate- We are all chameleon-like to some extent.  We take on the habits, actions, and thoughts of those around us.  Therefore, it is important to match our objectives with our associations.  It is not social climbing to identify and attach yourself to those who are higher than you and accomplish more than you do.  It is just good sense and good judgment.  If you want water, go to the well; if you want knowledge, go to the wise.

3. Speak – The ability to speak is important in all areas of life.  Accept all speaking opportunities and then prepare.  I actually enjoy the preparation much more than I do the delivery.  As I work on a talk I am “riding under the whip” and this results in growth.  Even if the talk bombs, no one can take away from you what you have learned as you prepared.  Speaking will give you poise before a group and poise before many results in poise before individuals.

4. Write – One of my favorite quotes is from Francis Bacon, “Writing makes an exact man.”  It is impossible to jot down on paper an understandable statement until you first understand it.  In speaking you can use gestures, voice inflections, eye contact, etc. and massage your point.  On paper, it must be exact.  My mentor, Maxey Jarman, always said “nothing is definite until it can be written down.”

As we develop, we are constantly surprised and excited by opportunity and challenge. A growing life is never boring.

This week think about: 1) What is my personal plan for self-development? 2) What is the latest book I’ve read? 3) What current thoughts would writing clarify?

When I saw you last, you mentioned the “making meetings POP” idea that you were using to have Purpose, Outcomes, Process of meetings clear.  Could you send me any links or materials you have on that? Thanks for any resources you can pass on!

That’s what my friend Erik wrote me yesterday. I thought “That’s easy. I’ll send him a link to the blog post I wrote.” But the post wasn’t on this site. I found it in the drafts section, never published. So, I’ve finished it and here it is.

I run a lot of meetings. I sit in many more. Most of my days are spent in meetings.

A successful businessman once confided to me that he would no longer attend a meeting of our organization until we moved the focus of our meetings from discussion to decision. Fortunately, they were not my meetings, but his words continue to echo through my mind frequently when I’m in meetings.

Now, there are several types of meetings. We can assemble for discussion, for fellowship, for worship, for prayer, for parties… But it’s important to be clear about the purpose of the meeting, especially a business meeting.

Meetings are not leadership. But a good meeting can be an effective tool of leadership.

So, what makes “good meeting”?

Some online definitions of good. Some of my favorites in this context are:

• effective. exerting force or influence
• most suitable or right for a particular purpose

Some online definitions of meeting:

• a formally arranged gathering
• the social act of assembling for some common purpose

I’ve found a few resources that help me assemble colleagues together so that we exert force or influence in a way that is suitable for the particular purpose.

I’ve been greatly influenced by the article Make Your Meetings POP. When I prepare for a meeting, I think POP (Purpose, Outcome(s), Process). When I send a meeting invitation to others, the invitation is organized as Purpose, Outcome(s) and sometimes Process.

When we start the meeting, we review the purpose, outcome(s), and process. For a recent meeting, this went something like “The purpose of this time together is to be updated on the partnership plans and to address our questions so that we can make a decision. Outcomes will be a go/no-go decision to move ahead with the partnership and a better understanding of the staffing and funding needs that will require. The process we’ll follow is to hear from Doug and Mike on the latest developments, to hear from Mark (our potential partner organization) about why they see this partnership as beneficial to their organization, and to decide whether to pursue putting the partnership together.”

I’ve found that going through this process personally before the meeting sharpens my focus to execute the meeting well. Going through this at the beginning of the meeting sets the tone and focus of the meeting that significantly increases the productivity of our time together.

I still have much to learn. Another article with great ideas is How to Run a Meeting Like Google. Imagine being a part of 70 meetings a week! Some yet-to-be-learned skills outlined in this article are use data to avoid politics and stick to the clock.

Another good article is Why Most Meetings still Suck by Michael Hyatt.

I’m on the journey to better meetings. What ideas, tools, and resources have you found helpful?

Here is a leadership idea I’ve found helpful. I facilitate a meeting twice each year for our leaders in technology from around the globe. One of the main focuses of these meetings is developing as leaders.

Our organization has adopted a leadership development framework. One of the roles of a leader is the spokesperson role.

At the conclusion of each GTL meeting, we develop talking points of our time together, developed in the language of leadership. Then each GTL member is to have a briefing meeting with their Director to talk through our GTL meeting using the talking points.

I normally write an email reminding them to meet with their Director. I include my report to my director as an example, and to show that I do what I encourage them to do.

I have found a webpage doing a very similar thing for an industry conference. I thought the conference webpage was a brilliant example of coaching conference attendees in their spokesperson role as they seek their boss’ permission. Of course, it is capitalism at work. The conference organizers aren’t really seeking to develop spokespersons as much as to get people to pay the $2300 to attend their conference! But they realize that by helping potential attendees to articulate smart outcomes from the conference, they increase the attendance, and increase their profits!

We should be doing a similar thing as we focus on the spokesperson role of those attending our meetings. Help attendees develop specific outcomes they are looking for, to communicate those with their leadership as they request permission and funding to attend.

Begin BEFORE the meeting by coaching people into developing and articulating their outcomes for the meeting, using the S.M.A.R.T. metaphor.

What do you think? What have you done to help others grow as spokespersons?

Ralph Wilson is a pioneer. We learned together, separated by 1500 miles. I was getting started in this thing we now call eMinistry or online ministry. I was launching Leadership University, Origins, stonewallrevisited.com (since discontinued), World Religions Index, Leadership University in Spanish and other sites. I was helping other organizations like Probe Ministries, Reasons to Believe, First Things Journal launch their internet presence which we hosted in exchange for sharing articles.

Ralph launched Web Marketing Today. And his ideas gave tremendous lift to my leadership growth.

My first contact was an email newsletter. I understood the technology of the internet, which my engineering background. I understood the ministry skills of online ministry, having spent 15 years in field and media ministry. Ralph helped me understand the marketing of the internet. His practical marketing insights drip with integrity and purpose. I have helped many others build strategic plans for their internet ministry presence through the Marketing + Delivery + Response = Effective Internet Presence paradigm. (Thanks to friend Rob Williams who developed the diagram above.)

I wrote Ralph earlier today:

Congratulations, Ralph, on 15 years of excellent service. You and I started together in our internet foray. We both started in the 1994/1995 timeframe. Your marketing ideas shaped my application of internet media to our gospel-based mission expressed through our websites. I’ve recommended Web Marketing Today to hundreds of others. You’ve been a good and faithful servant to so many. Well done.

Patrick Lencioni wrote a brief but very insightful perspective on leading virtual teams. He introduces the topic with:

When I speak to audiences about teamwork, one of the most frequently asked questions I get has to do with managing groups of people who are geographically dispersed, a.k.a. virtual teams. This surprises me a little because the topic, as well as the solution for addressing it, is certainly not very sexy.

He says the key is to avoid making three mistakes.

1. The first mistake that virtual teams make is underestimating the challenges of being dispersed. Because e-mail and voicemail and texting and instant messaging have become so second nature, we too often assume that a team member’s physical location makes little difference in the effectiveness of the team.
2. The next mistake that virtual teams make is wasting the precious time that they do spend together. Too many virtual teams utilize their quarterly or monthly in-person sessions engaging in social activities, somehow believing that this is how the team will bond. While social time is okay, there should be a focused and organized attempt to build relationships in the context of the work that needs to be done.
3. The last mistake that virtual teams make is failing to master an event that is one of the most loathed and underestimated of all corporate activities: the dreaded conference call. What teams have to do—and I told you up front that this is simple and unsexy—is make a serious commitment to one another that they will maintain a high standard of behavior during conference calls, even higher than they would for an in-person meeting.

What are your experiences leading from a distance?

Have you used Instant Messaging or Chat during a meeting, as an official part of the meeting? We are using invisible whispering in meetings and it really helps. We are finding that this really helps in several ways.

It helps meeting participants improve their understanding of the meeting content. Participants ask clarifying questions, and peers can respond. Points can be clarified. Facts can be checked for accuracy.

It helps keep people focused during the meeting. Interacting with others can help the group accomplish its work. People stay engaged with the content.

It helps provide social support to help quieter members “speak up” through contributions in the IM/Chat. Confidence is bolstered. Especially in a multi-lingual environment, some participants feel more confident when they can type out a question or comment and review it before sending it to others.

It provides direction in the meeting. If several participants are agreeing in the IM/Chat, the meeting content may be influenced. The direction of the meeting may change.

It allows for a parallel meeting within a meeting. Problem-solving or strategy development may launch among some participants in response to information received during the meeting. Participants may even critique the meeting resulting in improved meetings.

Our experiences so far have been good. We’ve used a Chat room. We’ve used a joint Skype session. What about you? Good experiences? Bad experiences?