In the last edition of “Leadership Wired,” I said that if we are going to change an organization, we must begin by changing ourselves. Change is not a once and for all kind of thing—if only it were that easy. No, changing ourselves is a lifelong process. Not only that, but we must be intentional about how we want to change. I have found that:
(Remember what we learned last time)
1) When you change your thinking, you change your beliefs.
2) When you change your beliefs, you change your expectations.
We pick up this week by understanding that:
3) When you change your expectations, you change your attitude.
Positive expectations produce feelings of excitement, desire, conviction, confidence and enthusiasm. Here is where a natural-born pessimist can re-program his or her basic outlook on life. What a difference it makes when you expect the best, not the worst – the possible, not the impossible!
4) When you change your attitude, you change your behavior.
Once we begin to see change as being the key to a better future, it’s easy to modify our behavior accordingly. Going the extra mile no longer seems out of the question; in fact, we do so willingly, knowing it is taking us closer to where we want to go.
5) When you change your behavior, you change your performance.
I find that we often make two mistakes in this area. First, we often sit around and wait for God to change our circumstances. Second, we wait for circumstances to change our behavior. Is it any wonder that some people change so little?
I’ve seen the following changes in my own life as I’ve applied these principles. When I began to change my normally playful behavior and became more disciplined, it opened up a myriad of opportunities for me. When I changed my bent toward people-pleasing to become a God-pleaser, I began to make tremendous strides as a leader. When I broadened my focus from the local church to a national focus, it resulted in a burdened heart for leaders, especially pastors. When I shifted my behavior from being a leader of people to a leader of leaders, I began to see exponential growth around me. This is all to say:
6) When you change your performance, you change your life.
Most people fail to see that life is moving on at a rapid speed. None of us have all the time we’d like. If you see an area you need to change, CHANGE NOW. I’m not talking about cosmetic changes. That’s where we change our talking but not our thinking, our environment instead of our expectations, our appearance instead of our attitudes, our business instead of our behavior, and our biases instead of our beliefs. Rather than focus on changing ourselves, too many of us content ourselves with dreaming about the results we desire from life and wonder why they remain just that—dreams.
Making Changes That Count
Consider the following six questions carefully. Each addresses a critical area of life that may need improvement.
- What areas of my thinking do I need to change?
- What beliefs do I hold that hold me back?
- What expectations hinder my personal growth?
- What attitudes hurt my success?
- What behavioral areas must I change to give me a boost?
- What things are keeping me from a peak performance?
Making changes in yourself is a prerequisite to leading any organization through change. Once people around you begin to see the results of personal growth, you gain both credibility and respect. With those two things, change in your organization moves from possible to probable.
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John Maxwell grew up in the 1950s in the small Midwestern city of Circleville, Ohio. John's earliest childhood memory is of knowing that he would someday be a pastor. He professed faith in Christ at the age of three, and reaffirmed that commitment when he was 13. At age 17, John began preparing for the ministry. He attended Circleville Bible College, earning his bachelor's degree in 1969. In June of that same year, he married his sweetheart, Margaret, and moved to tiny Hillham, Indiana, where he began his first pastorate.
While serving in his second church, Maxwell began to study the correlation between leadership effectiveness and ministry effectiveness. On July 4, 1976, while preaching at a service commemorating America's bicentennial, John sensed that God was calling him into a ministry to pastors. Within days after that event, pastors began to contact him, asking for his assistance in nurturing their churches. Over the next four years, on an informal basis, John helped scores of fellow pastors. Then, in 1980, he was asked to become Executive Director of Evangelism for the Wesleyan denomination.
Though his time at Wesleyan headquarters was productive, John soon realized that his deeper desire was to help pastors from numerous denominations. He knew that desire would be unfulfilled if he were to stay at denominational headquarters. As a result, in 1981 John accepted the call to return to the pastorate, this time at Skyline Wesleyan Church in the San Diego, California area. But he did so with the church's blessing to pursue his vision. The Skyline congregation allowed him to continue mentoring and assisting pastors even as he led them to new levels.
In 1985, as he continued to equip and encourage other pastors, John took the next crucial step in leadership development. He founded a new company called INJOY and created the INJOY Life Club, featuring a monthly tape for leaders. The fledging operation, established in the corner of a garage, was soon bursting at the seams. The INJOY Life Club tapes were received with great enthusiasm, and the number of subscriptions quickly increased from hundreds to thousands. Simultaneously, the demand for other resources and seminars exploded. Pastors from coast to coast were responding, and their desire for help was even greater than John had anticipated.
As the years passed, INJOY began demanding more and more of John's time. In 1995, he resigned from his position as senior pastor at Skyline following a very fruitful 14-year tenure. The church had tripled in size and its lay ministry involvement had increased ten-fold. Dr. Maxwell is in great demand today as a speaker. Through his bestselling books, audio and video resources, and major conferences, he communicates directly with more than one million people every year. He is frequently asked to speak for organizations such as Promise Keepers and Focus on the Family, but his greatest joy and desire is to help pastors become better leaders.
Because the need for leadership development knows no borders, John established EQUIP, a non-profit organization which trains leaders in urban communities, academic institutions, and within international organizations. EQUIP is also spearheading a movement which has enlisted more than one million pastoral prayer partners who covenant to pray specifically for those who shepherd God's flock.
John continues to seek new opportunities to help churches and church leaders. He knows that one thing is constant: the only hope for the world is salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, who gives life abundantly.