What's on your summer reading list?

I've posted before on the high value I place in reading. It's something I learned from my father, and something that my own kids have caught. Regular readers of this blog also know that I am always reading several books a week - books of all types. So when "The 100 Best Business Books of All Time" came out earlier this year, it was only a matter of time till a reserved copy came up at my local library. I've started reading it on my Dallas trip and it is living up to its title.

11,000 - that's the number of business books published in the US in 2007. In more concrete terms, that's a stack of books as tall as a nine-story building, with 880 million words that would take six and a half years to read. "100 Best" authors Jack Covert and Todd Satterson also maintain that locked up somewhere in that tower of paper is the solution to your current business problems.

With their comment in mind, for the next few days, I want to dive into "100 Best" and pull out a few that made the list and have proved their worth to the church leadership audience.

At the top of my list from "100 Books" is Peter Drucker's "The Effective Executive". While I will not attempt the impossible task of trying to capture the genius of Peter Drucker in a few paragraphs, I would instead encourage you to pick up a copy from your library and read it; better yet, just go buy up a paperback reprint.

The word "effective" in the title speaks powerfully to Drucker's wisdom. One quote will suffice:

Effectiveness is, after all, not a "subject", but a self-discipline.

You really can't get much simpler, nor much deeper, than that. Effective church leaders do first things first and they do one thing at a time. Effective church leaders are continually learning - and practicing - these disciplines: Time. Strengths. Contribution. Concentration. Decision-making.

How do you measure your effectiveness?

What is Your Plan?

To further the mission of your church, there must be action today and specific aims for tomorrow. Yet planning is not masterminding the future. Any attempt to do so is foolish because the future is unpredictable.In the face of uncertainties, planning defines the particular place you want to be and how you intend to get there. Planning does not substitute facts for judgment nor science for leadership. It recognizes the importance of analysis, courage, experience, intuition - even hunch. It is responsibility rather than technique.

Effective plans have five elements:

• Abandonment - the first decision is whether to abandon what does not work, what has never worked - the things that have outlived their usefulness and their capacity to contribute.
• Concentration - concentration is building on success, strengthening what does work.
• Innovation - you must also look for tomorrow's success, the true innovations, the diversity that stirs the imagination.
• Risk taking - planning always involves decisions on where to take the risk. Some risks you can afford to take; some decisions carry great risk but you cannot afford not to take them.
• Analysis - it is important to recognize when you do not know, and therefore need to conduct an analysis of potential decisions.

What is your plan?

Asking questions of yourself and your organization is never finished. Leadership requires constant resharpening, refocusing, never really being satisfied. Perhaps the most powerful question of all is this: What do we want to be remembered for? It is a question that induces you to renew yourself - and your church - because is pushes you to see what you can become.

Go ahead - keep asking questions!

What are Your Results?

The results of social sector organizations (like the church) are always measured outside the organization in changed lives and changed conditions – in people’s behavior, circumstances, health, hopes, and in their competence and capacity. If the church is going to further its mission, it needs to determine what should be appraised and judged, and then concentrate resources for results.

Progress and achievement is measured in qualitative and quantitative terms. These two types of measures are interwoven and shed light on one another – and both are necessary to illuminate in what ways and to what extend lives are being changed. Qualitative measures address the depth and breadth of change within its particular context. They begin with specific observations, build toward patterns, and tell a subtle, individualized story. Quantitative measures use definitive standard. They begin with categories and expectations and tell an objective story.

Leadership is accountable to determine what must be appraised and judged, to protect the organization from squandering resources, and to ensure meaningful results.

What are your results?

What Does Your Customer Value?

This is a very complicated question! What satisfies your customer’s needs, wants, and aspirations? It is actually so complicated that it can only be answered by the customers themselves. Leaders should not even try to guess at the answers but should always go to the customers in a systematic quest for those answers.

The danger for ChurchWorld is that people are so convinced they are doing the right things and so committed to their cause that they come to see the institution as an end unto itself. I believe that’s what you call a bureaucracy.

Don’t forget that you have two customers to ask this question. Your knowledge of what primary customers value is of utmost importance. Yet the reality is, unless you understand equally what supporting customers value, you will not be able to put all the necessary pieces in place for the organization to perform.

What do your customers value?

Who is Your Customer?

Don’t get hung up on the word “customer”. When you answer the question “Who must be satisfied for the organization to achieve results?”, you have defined your customer. For churches, there are two customers: the primary customer is the person whose life is changed through your work; the secondary customers are volunteers, members, partners, employees, and others who serve your mission. The primary customer is never the only customer, and to satisfy one customer with satisfying the others means there is no performance.

Today, our customers are often one step ahead of us. So you must know your customer, or get to know them quickly. You will have to ask this question time and time again because our customers constantly change. The organization that is devoted to results – always with regard to its basic integrity – will adapt and change as its customers do.

Who is your customer?

What is Your Mission?

Simple questions are the hardest to answer. Simple questions can be profound, and answering them requires us to make stark, honest, and sometimes painful self-assessments.

This week, I’m asking you to ponder 5 simple but deeply challenging questions first posed by Peter Drucker in “The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Nonprofit Organization” in 1999. Many of today’s best and brightest minds ask these questions of themselves and their organizations constantly. Don’t you think the church should do any less?

Each social sector institution exists to make a distinctive difference in the lives of individuals and in society. Making this difference is the mission – the organization’s purpose and very reason for being. A mission cannot be impersonal; it has to have deep meaning, be something you believe in – something you know is right. A fundamental responsibility of leadership is to make sure that everybody knows the mission, understands it, and lives it.

To have an effective mission, you have to work out an exacting match of your opportunities, competence, and commitment. Every good mission statement reflects all three. With the limited resources you have - not just people and money, but also competence - where can you dig in and make a difference? Where can you set a new standard of performance? What really inspires your commitment?

What is your mission?