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Relactional Leadership

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As we wrap up the Transformational Leadership blog series this month, we thought it would be fitting to hear from Ford Taylor, the founder of C3’s Core Solution Partner from  Transformational Leadership. When it comes to transformation on the personal and professional level, Ford has an incredible roster of transformation testimonies from around the globe that support the power of what can happen when the Bible is practically applied. The following is an excerpt from his bestselling book, Relactional Leadership.

Lead Relactionally

In your organization, what happens when highly relational people collide with highly transactional people? What happens when people-oriented workers intersect with task-oriented workers? Stress? Anxiety? Anger? Gossip? Underperformance?

On one end of the relationship continuum are people who are highly relational. For these people, the relationship is the most important part of everything they do.

On the other end of the continuum are people who are highly transactional. For these people, It’s not usually that the relationship is not important to them; it’s just that getting the job done is far more important.

What would happen if highly relational people had the tools to become more transactional without giving up their natural inclination to be relational, and highly transactional people had the tools to be more relational without giving up their natural inclination for transaction. One of your primary jobs as a leader is to provide these “tools” to your people so they can get along well and get the job done well.

The main challenge in leading people with such diverse personality styles is that you also have a default style. But in order for your organization to perform at a high level, it’s not enough to rely exclusively on your default style of leadership. It is important to lead both relationally and transactionally. This is called relactional leadership.

As you model this relactional approach, the people in your organization—whether two people or many—will become happier and more productive as a result. Relactional leaders produce relactional teams. They cultivate organizations in which the people get along well and get the job done well. In order for this transformation to start happening in your organization, it must begin with you, the leader.

Yes, you are a leader. If you have influence with at least one person, that makes you a leader. And when two or more people are in relationship, that makes them an organization.

The Tools, Ingredients, and Behaviors of a Relactional Leader

As I have travelled to many cities and countries around the world, I have found that nearly every person I meet is smart, gifted, or talented in at least one area—often, in multiple areas. I have also found that nearly every person I have met has a huge heart. So, years ago, I started asking myself, If so many people are smart, gifted, or talented and are also good-hearted, why are these not the sort of people we hear about in the media more often?

As I wrestled with this question, I began to realize that many have never been given the who, what, when, where, why and how of leadership. Most have been given the what, but few have been taught the practical tools and processes of effective leadership. I then realized that leadership is like baking a cake.

Baking a cake requires different ingredients, tools/utensils, and a recipe manual. Also, in the best-tasting cakes, there are many ingredients that don’t taste good on their own as well as others that do. But, for some reason, when they are mixed together in the right proportions in the right way and cooked at the right temperature, the cake tastes really good.

Many leaders have been taught how to manage people, yet few have been taught the practical tools, ingredients, and behaviors to lead people and manage processes, policies, systems, and procedures around them effectively. Relactional Leadership will help you to acquire these tools, ingredients, and behaviors needed to become a relactional leader who can develop teams that thrive relationally and transactionally.

Ford Taylor is leadership strategist, keynote speaker, and author of Relactional Leadership. As the Founder of  Transformational Leadership, he is known as a man who can solve complex business issues, with straightforward practical solutions, while maintaining his focus on people. His career has taken him around the globe and continues to thrive on the foundations the interpersonal focus, agility, adaptability, and innovation required in today’s dynamic marketplace. Ford and his wife of 37 years, Sandra, live in College Station, Texas. They are blessed with three lovely daughters, Whitney, Emily, and Quincy. Ford can be reached at ford@transformlead.com.

Transformational Leadership helps you identify, address and remove personal, team and process constraints. Removing these constraints allows transformation to occur and encourages healthy, trusting relationships to grow.

 Want more  Transformational Leadership? Join us at TL Charlotte, OCT 29-30, 2018 www.TLConference.com

Hear more about Relactional Leadership from Ford Taylor on the Eternal Leadership Podcast: https://eternalleadership.com/186/.

To get more information and join the South Carolina Christian Chamber of Commerce (SC-C3) movement, go to www.sc-c3.org and become a member today!

 

A Leader’s Motivation

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Motivation – The Source of Movement

Every morning we wake up and choose to engage the day.  Sometimes, we may not feel like it is a choice, but rather an obligation to act as a response to the commitments we have made in life (to family, friends, coworkers, community, etc).  As leaders, we have accepted a variety of responsibilities toward those we serve. These responsibilities come with a robust list of activities into which we pour our energies. But what is it that motivates us in all this activity.  Are we being “pulled” by our obligations toward others? Are we fueled by our emotional ties? Or do we feed off the driving forces that we have developed in our lives?

Let’s focus on a core definition of the word Motivation…

1 : a motivating force, stimulus or influence.  (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary)

Motivation matters. Our motives matter. The movement we need to see in our life is a function of what is motivating us.  The nature of our motivation determines the energy and the sustainability metrics of our efforts. For many years, we as Believers have been working to facilitate true change in our own lives, in the lives of those around us and in our communities at large.  Much of our attempts may have been noble and well-intended and yet the driving forces behind them have left us short of our desired outcome.

Why Start With Why?

Have you ever found yourself struggling in an assignment but were able to recalibrate in a way that connected your efforts back to the reason for that work in a way that resulted in you finding the fuel and/or focus you needed to be successful in it?  Getting to the “why” in anything can have such an empowering affect.

Leadership expert Simon Sinek advocates that we should “start with why.” He argues that we all have a “why” and once we identify it, we will be on the pathway to successful leadership and our organizations will be in a much better position to thrive.

TO-MO was coined by Vega Factor and is short for Total Motivation. They believe that zeroing in on “why we work determines how well we work” (http://www.vegafactor.com). The organizations they serve are realizing exceptional productivity as a result of applying this concept to their development.

Yet, as powerful as getting to the “why” is, I believe there is a much more powerful Source from which to draw our motivation.

WHO – Our Transforming Motivation

What if we drill down deeper then the “why”?

As Believers we know that everything was created by the original “WHO”, including our “why”. God is the fullest source and motivation that a person can operate from.  And even more glorious is the fact that as He becomes our motive (force, stimulus, influence), we find our own “who” attending to our moment-by-moment motivation.  In other words, our own identity is constantly supported and becomes an established reality that serves to motivate our continuous serving of others.

As the Author of our individual “who” becomes the consistent energy behind our effort, work and life, we find ourselves in the best possible position for fulfilling the Will of God and our destiny.  And when we as leaders embrace our “who” (Divinely, personally, and corporately) the Kingdom of God will manifest on earth. Then, and only then, will Jesus’ flocks be fed and tended. When our motivation as a leader becomes like that of Jesus, we will find ourselves excelling in patience, humility, selflessness, and transparency[i].

As disciples of Christ, we believe there is only One Source of True Transformation in life, that is the source of Life Himself. Lord, help us let you be our permanent motivation that transforms our world into Your highest and best design.

Matthew Fleming is the State Director for the North Carolina Christian Chamber of Commerce (NC-C3). Matthew has a strong vision for the functionality of the Christian community as believers endeavor to operate in unison.  He believes alignment and co-laboring from a united reality will be the catalyst for sustained Restoration in our world. Matthew can be reached at Matthew@nc-c3.org.

Transformational Leadership helps you identify, address and remove personal, team and process constraints. Removing these constraints allows transformation to occur and encourages healthy, trusting relationships to grow.

Want more Transformational Leadership? Join us at TL Charlotte, OCT 29-30, 2018 www.TLConference.com

To get more information and join the South Carolina Christian Chamber of Commerce (SC-C3) movement, go to www.sc-c3.org and become a member today!

Leadership and Trust

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The tension in relationships around the world and in every sphere of society has escalated to an unprecedented level. Most of us are so frustrated with the leadership around us that we don’t know what to do and where to start in healing the brokenness in our cultures. Today I’m going to ask you to consider 2 Cultural Lies that may be keeping you from engaging.

Premise – It’s not what you’ve done or what’s been done to you that keeps you bound… It’s the lies associated with those things.

Cultural Lie #1

Those in power are the most corrupt. (Truth – many of us have been hurt by those who are corrupt in positions of power, authority and influence.)

While many of us have been and continue to be disappointed in leaders in every sphere of influence – trust in leaders and as leaders must be established and cultivated if we are going to address corruption and dysfunction at any level.

You may be familiar with this statement from Lord Acton – “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The only way to break the lie associated with Cultural Lie #1 is to submit God, the highest power. Where power and love are synonymous – justice prevails. Where the scales of justice are tilted toward a corrupt bias and personal gain – corruption reigns.

When we submit to Jesus, the Lord Acton quote transforms into something like this…

“Power is not corrupt. God is absolute power. And that power is love. Power loves! And absolute power loves absolutely. Power is forgiveness and absolute forgiveness, forgives absolutely.”

– Ford Taylor, Founder of TL – Transformational Leadership

Now filter Cultural Lie #1 through this thought = If you have influence with at least one person – that makes you a leader. Based on that truth (assuming you believe it’s true) – where is the corruption in your leadership? Not anyone else’s – yours. Based on the understanding of absolute love and absolute forgiveness – how’s your power (leadership influence) being demonstrated?

There’s a good possibility that you’re thinking – ‘But how does that address the corruption in the leaders over me?’ Great question! It may not, unless you believe you can demonstrate the kind of leadership they need to see. The hard part about becoming a demonstration of unconditional love and forgiveness is that you have to go first (take personal responsibility) and you may never get the same demonstration (reciprocity) returned back to you.

Cultural Lie #2

That two uniquely different types of people, with different values and beliefs (often called cultures) cannot work together and honor each other. (Truth – much of the conflict we experience in our relationships has come out of fear, misunderstanding and lack of relational trust.)

In the West – one of the things that has created this current climate of distrust and accusation is the inability to confront directly with the unconditional love and forgiveness talked about above. Remember, based on the first Cultural Lie – the first place of confrontation is with ourselves.

I have blind spots. Ready… you have blind spots. Whew! Got that out of the way. What I don’t have – or I should say – What I didn’t use to have in my life were people who loved me enough to tell me when my life was hurting them, myself and others. I do now.

In order for others to feel safe enough to share things they observe in you that could hurt you and others – they have to feel that it’s safe to approach. Have you ever asked someone to tell you what they think of you? To evaluate you? If not, I can pretty much say that you have little positive influence.

When leaders distance themselves either above or apart from those they lead or have influence with they create differences. It is these differences that can become barriers for separation. Many of those barriers are false assumptions based on limited information. Many of those barriers are perceptions based on revealed behaviors that contradict what is often said by those individuals. While we all say words matter (and they do), it is the incongruent behavior that reinforces Cultural Lie #2.

If you want to bring about transformation with uniquely different people you have to be on the cutting edge of personal transformation first. Sorry… I wish there was another way. 

 Reality – All transformation begins with personal transformation.

Cultures and organizations are places where two or more people are in relationship with each other. The greatest way to set fresh foundations for trust and cohesiveness is by knowing that person and creating appropriate expectations.

In TL (Transformational Leadership) we do it by building clarity for engagement. Clarity – what do you want out of this? Engagement – what would allow us to show up and show out with the same understanding, potential investment and desired results?

We have a process that we call the Social Covenant. In this process we unpack two simple but transformational questions –

  1. When we’re together – how do we want to treat each other?
  2. Assuming we can agree on how we want to treat each other – what will we do when one of us fails the original expectation / agreement?

Look friends, bottom line – Relationships equal Conflict. The only way to raise the bottom line is to invest in a powerful new reality that allows for unconditional love and forgiveness to be the values we seek and contribute to everyday in every way with everyone.

Patrick McBane is a Lead Trainer – Relationship Manager for FSH Strategy Consultants and Transformational Leadership. Patrick can be reached at patrick@transformlead.com. This article was adapted from “Developing Cohesive Cultures – Anywhere.”

Transformational Leadership helps you identify, address and remove personal, team and process constraints. Removing these constraints allows transformation to occur and encourages healthy, trusting relationships to grow.

 Want more Transformational Leadership? Join us at TL Charlotte, OCT 29-30, 2018 www.TLConference.com

To get more information and join the South Carolina Christian Chamber of Commerce (SC-C3) movement, go to www.sc-c3.org and become a member today!

Leadership Foundations

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Adam was the first natural leader commissioned by God. As Genesis describes, he was charged with naming the animals, subduing the earth, and bearing fruit with his helper, Eve. Adam’s leadership was intact until something went wrong, something within the scope of what had been given to him to oversee. Deceived by the Enemy, Eve disobeyed God, came to Adam, her mate and leader, and he joined her. Without taking any gravity away from the original sin, I argue that Adam’s identity as leader was not tarnished until His Divine Leader, confronted him. In other words, prior to the fall, Adam was sinless yes, but perfect…no. Let’s look at what happens when God approaches Adam, His commissioned leader.

“He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’” – Genesis 3:11-2

Adam’s response to God depicts exactly how his leadership broke down in a moment. He (1) avoided personal responsibility for his actions and (2) shifted blame (albeit factually correct) to Eve.

FACE IT

There is no way around personal responsibility as a leader. Scripture could not be more clear about its importance! For example, when someone wrongs/hurts/betrays/offends us, when things go wrong, the Word instructs that we take the initiative.

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone.” – Matthew 18:15

More than that, if circumstances escalate to physical violence or legal action, scripture maintains taking personal responsibility by exhibiting patience and peace!

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.” – Matthew 5:38-40

Accordingly, when we are the offender, we are instructed to step up.

“So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” -Matthew 5:23-24

GOD’S WAY

There is another way to think about personal responsibility: a spirit of repentance. In the Kingdom gospel Jesus preached, repentance and the Kingdom are inextricably linked. Thankfully, as believers we are no longer in Adam but in Christ. Therefore, we have access to all of the grace and fruit of the spirit necessary to be a leader whose foundation is personal responsibility, who embraces repentance.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. -Hebrews 12:6

OUR FAITH

As we dive into the theme for this month, Transformational Leadership, each principle we share will rest on the leadership foundation of personal responsibility. As a believer and leader, I urge you to consider your heart position on the matter. Remember, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and repentance is the path to salvation, healing, deliverance, miracles, favor, transformation, and faith (which pleases God, Hebrews 11:6).

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. -James 5:16

To get more information and join the South Carolina Christian Chamber of Commerce (SC-C3) movement, go to www.sc-c3.org and become a member today!

Lindsay Fleming is the State Administrator for the North Carolina Christian Chamber of Commerce (NC-C3). At heart, she is a God-inspired expressionist. Her driving passion is expressing revelations of God through prayer, writing, and design. Lindsay’s work can be found at PropheticGrounds.com. Lindsay can be reached at office@NC-C3.org.