My team and I are currently on our annual Staff Advance (we never retreat). One of the essential components of this yearly event is showing one another our accomplishments in strategic projects and initiatives. This is about much more than accountability. It’s about being able to participate in each other’s progress. As awareness of our successes is spread across different departments, a powerful synergy of feeling of “we got so much done” is created and ongoing progress is enabled.

Momentum is one of the most valuable assets a team can ever possess. And I’ve found that one of the best ways to create it is to share your successes. When progress becomes the expectation through participation and celebration, progress will become the norm in your organization. And not because you as a leader value and expect it. But because your team will come to value and expect it.

The same dynamic can be found in the area of spiritual transformation. If your church staff wants people to be serious about growing in their faith, highlight examples of it actually happening and let everybody participate in the advancement of God in other people’s lives. If you celebrate it, you empower it.

Or maybe you feel like your family is stuck in a state of spiritual inertia. Begin asking them where they see God moving in their lives and where they’re making progress in their faith. Even if it’s just a little bit. And then respond with encouragement in tangible and meaningful ways.

The level at which of you participate in and celebrate the progress of those around you is directly related to the level of energy you will possess to continue to make it in the future. The moment you’re too busy to honor progress is the moment you lose your ability to sustain it.

Effective communication is one the most valuable commodities in any organization. Excellent ideas or initiatives without a corresponding level of excellence in communication will never get off the ground.

Most leaders know this. Yet many companies and churches are still riddled with employees and members who aren’t getting the messages their leaders are trying to convey.

The reason is that most of us usually stick to the base line question, “what are we communicating.” This is necessary, but it is not enough.

Real leaders aren’t satisfied or content with, “what are we saying to our people?” They go a level deeper and ask the question, “what are our people hearing?” They take responsibility not only for the message they are sending, but the message that’s being received, or the way it’s being received.

This is what separates the master vision casters from the wannabes. A lot of people will use the copout, “well I told them that, they just weren’t listening.” This completely misses the point. The goal is not to deliver a message. Anybody, from the kid in the mail room to the executive in the corner suite can do that. The goal is to make sure the intended message was actually received, understood, and responded to.

Whether or not you said it won’t determine whether or not the instruction, encouragement, or correction was acted on. Whether or not they heard it, understood it, and are able to actualize it is what is going to make the difference.

This might mean you’ll have to reorganize your communication structures. Or you might have to find multiple ways to convey your message and keep communicating it well past the point you think it should have been accurately received.

It will require extra work and patience. But that is what the leader has to do. Your job is not done until your people are hearing the exact message you want them to hear.

As a leader, as a vision caster, make sure you’re always asking the question, what are people hearing, not just what are we saying.

Real leaders and master vision casters are going to look at both sides of the same coin.

We are a nation of consumers. Usually this is seen as a bad thing. And for good reason. Economic and material consumerism is ultimately about the maximum selfish accumulation of things for the benefit of ourselves.

But there’s another type of consumerism that is indispensable in our development as leaders and is about obtaining maximum output for the benefit of others. It isn’t selfish. In fact, if you want to be a leader who is continually developing and able to impact others, you are going to have to be a person who consumes a lot.

Sermons. Books. Blogs. Tweets. Podcasts. Anything and everything that will feed your mind and keep it fresh so that you might actually have something to give to the people under your leadership.

For example, in my own life I’m addicted to the art of preaching.
 For the last 13 years and counting, I’ve devoured any preaching I can get my hands on. I love it all. Good preaching, bad preaching, country preachers, refined preachers, 3 point alliterated outlines, post-modern narrative ramblings, screamers, forced hushed devotional whisperers, edgy stuff, stuffy stuff… my appetite for sermons is never satisfied.

Why? Because I know that there is always at least another little piece of information that I don’t yet have that I might yet need to become the preacher God made and saved me to be. There is always something new to be learned that I can assimilate into my own style and use to bring my proclamation of the Word of God to a whole new level.

Here is some closing practical advice. First, make a list of the people you admire. The people who are most aligned with your way of thinking. Not only is it permissible to have heroes, role models, and mentors-
it’s mandatory for those who want to get better.
 But it’s not simply enough to idolize them. You have to consume anything and everything they’ve ever produced. Listen to everything they’ve said. Read everything they’ve written. Take extensive notes and begin to ask what it looks like to integrate their ideas into what you’re doing to increase the quality of your leadership.

But don’t make the mistake of consuming only from the people you already agree with. It isn’t helpful. This isn’t about having your own personal amen corner. Glean from a variety of perspectives. Read books from authors who wouldn’t eat at the same table together. Absorb both of their material. Then make judgment calls about what you want to assimilate and integrate and what you need to throw away.

Let the inspiration and consumption of how others preach, write, think, lead, and walk with God drive you not to imitation, but better preparation and creation of your own message. Consume the maximum amount of material for the maximum amount of output.

This post is specifically for leaders.  Not just pastors- moms, dads, coaches, teachers, big brothers…if you lead anyone or anything, I’m talking to you.

My 4-year-old Elijah has had a little cough for the last week.  Nothing serious at all.  But of course, it’s waking him up a lot at night, his throat is starting to hurt, and now he’s not talking as much because his voice is so scratchy.

No parent likes to see their kids in pain- even when it’s a minor thing.  I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to watch your child suffer through a major illness.  If you’ve experienced that, I’m very sorry.  I would never want to come across like I’m comparing my son’s cold to a serious health issue.  But I want to share something simple God showed me through something as ordinary as a run of the mill, spring cold.

Elijah came up to me on about day 4 of the cold, hugged my leg, and said (in a pretty pitiful tone of voice, incidentally): “Daddy, my throat just keeps hurting and hurting…did you go to throat school?”

(This is a Furtick family inside joke.  When my kids complain about being hurt, I ask them where they hurt.  If they say it’s their nose, I tell them not to worry, because Daddy went to nose school.  Then I might wiggle their nose, maybe rub some lotion on it, blow on it, and otherwise treat the condition until they’re satisfied that it’s better.  I also went to ear school, knee school, tummy school…you’d be surprised how thoroughly educated I am.)

So I performed some standard throat school techniques on Elijah, but then decided we should pray together.  I mean, not that my throat school skills aren’t effective.  It’s just that, I was kind of getting sick of seeing my son being sick.  And something about how pitiful his eyes looked pushed me over the edge.  So I told him we were going to pray about it.  And we didn’t pray one of our typical: “Jesus, help me feel better” prayers.  We got downright Pentecostal.  I even got out my olive oil and commanded the sickness to leave my son’s body in Jesus’ name.  I told Elijah to thank God for his healing, and taught him a scripture to recite when he feels really bad.  I’m not sure how much he understood.  And I’m not even sure where you line up on how to pray for the sick theologically.

But I know this: while I was praying the most forceful prayer I knew how to pray for my child to feel better, I realized how important it is that I take my position as the covering of my household seriously.  The concept of a spiritual covering is a complicated, oft-abused, and somewhat obscure one for a lot of theological traditions, mine included.  I’m not even sure I understand all of the implications.  I do know this:

If God has made you a leader, He has empowered you to be a sort of spiritual covering for those you lead.  Are you covering them with integrity?  Prayer?  A good example?  Words of blessing?

Not just when they’re sick or in trouble…but are you covering their daily decisions?  Are you covering them with affirmation?  Wisdom?

It’s a humbling thing to realize God has placed you as a protective parameter over someone else.  And you have to keep this concept in context, because obviously, each of us has an individual accountability before God, so we can’t internalize the failures of others as our own.  And above all, we should never pervert this idea to serve our own purposes or manipulate others.

But you can’t get away from it- God calls those of us who are strong to defend the weak.  Those of us in positions of authority are commanded to diligently watch over those who look to us for insight and help.

You are someone’s covering.

Make sure you’ve got them covered well.