Tuesday at 2:00pm with Russ

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

Greetings to you!

Each week I send out a short leadership blog that's called "Tuesday at 2:00pm". The purpose of this is simply to provide a brief thought on leadership that you can read and think about in just a few minutes. I send it out every week at 2:00pm (PST) and encourage you to make an appointment with yourself to pause and think about the thing I'm writing about.

Russ...

LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"I've laid down a pattern for you. What I've done, you do." Jesus

What does this stir up? Either write me HERE or comment at the end of the blog post HERE.

A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

I've been talking about INFLUENCE for a number of weeks. You can read the posts off of my website HERE if you're interested. This will be the last post on this topic, then we're going to move into a different theme talking about REST for a few weeks.

I hosted a Leader Mundial Global Summit event a few weeks ago in Georgia, and spent 4 full days with a group of 66 leaders, representing about 15 different countries and about 30 different organizations. We spent the week focusing on the topic of INFLUENCE and were encouraged to examine the scope of our personal and organizational influence and pay attention to those that are impacted through us and by us.

As I moved through the week, I spent some personal time simply looking at Jesus and his instruction to each of us to follow his example.

The quote above comes out of John 13:15 in the Message translation, and I love the simple image he gives... "I've laid down a pattern for you" or in the ESV or NIV, "I've given you an example".

I remember as a small child dreading going with my mom to the fabric store. That was a place I never wanted to go because it felt that we were there forever and it was really boring (at least for a 7 year-old boy).

What my mom was doing was buying fabric so that she could match it to a pattern and make a shirt or a dress or whatever out of it. She had a template of what she wanted to make, and she was following that plan.

I thought she was just going to the fabric store to talk and to torture me, but there was a purpose behind it.

Jesus says this to us: I've given you a template, a model, a plan, now follow it. He wants us to follow his example and do what he did.

If you read a few verses earlier in John 13, you see exactly what he was modeling when he washes the feet of his disciples. He's illustrating a powerful message here of influence. He's showing his disciples what to do, then he's telling them to go and do it and then he's telling US to do it.

We learn by watching, but we learn best by doing. Jesus did both and in that moment he turned the message of leadership upside down teaching leaders to serve others first.

This is the greatest example of influence.

How has Jesus influenced your leadership? What do you do differently because of what He said, what He did and what He challenged each of us to do?

DEEPER STILL:

One more word on INFLUENCE from Jesus.

Besides Jesus' instruction to "Go and do likewise", the other thing he said to many people was simply "Come and Follow Me".

  • He said this to his disciples when he said "follow me and I will make you fishers of men" or "follow me and be my disciple".

  • He said it to the rich young ruler when he said to go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, then come follow me.

  • He said to to all of us when he said "if anyone wishes to come after Me he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me".

Jesus continually invited people to simply follow Him, to walk with him, to watch him, to be influenced by him.

This is a powerful form of influence.

Here's the problem for those of us who want to model this kind of influence:

  • We don't want people following us because we've got some bad habits or some secrets.

  • We're afraid of people following us because of the pressure that puts on our behavior and on our mistakes.

  • We invite people to follow aspects of our life, but not everything.

Jesus didn't define it more deeply, he simply said, "Come, Follow Me".

I asked my dear friend CLAUDE, "what is the greatest form of influence?" and this was the answer:

"Not words. Not authority. Not position. But a life lived visibly in a way that others can see, feel and follow."

And here's why:

  • Words can be ignored. People hear thousands of words a day. They filter most of them out. But a life consistently lived a certain way is hard to dismiss.

  • Authority can be resented. Power can force compliance, but it rarely changes a heart. People do what they must under authority - but they do what they want to under inspiration.

  • Example, however is compelling. It bypasses argument. It answers the unspoken question "but is this actually possible?" with a living, breathing yes.

Long before AI, Jesus taught this, and we can read all about it in the Bible in story after story of people of influence, both positive and negative influence.

How is your "LIFE LIVED" your greatest form of influence today?

 

Things I'm Reading, Listening To and Watching This Week:

Source: www.leadermundial.org