Welcome to a Impact Field Leader blog. This site is for both practitioners and researchers who desire to dialogue about practical insights and ideas that can enrich the stewardship of team, country and area leaders in missions. We invite you to comment on the blogs. Please also give us your ideas at ken@gmi.org.
Category Note: Click on “Category” button to select posts on one of the topics covered in the blog.
If done effectively, Phase 3: Implementing Plans can build an enriched relationship between a field leader and his or her supervisor. This is especially true if the interactions result in a trusting relationship. In mission organizations we often talk of “trust” like it is an amorphous, warm fuzzy feeling.
While it has emotional aspects to it, “trust” is much more. Continue reading
Phase 3: Implementing Plans: Connectivity and Support, the last post,covers oversight practice over 11 months. It is also a phase that is filled with potential for communication that nurtures or hurts the field leaders being supervised. Two key communication practices that can build are effective affirmation and feedback. In this post we will focus on affirmation.
Recently I came across a Workplace blog by Ken Blanchard, Vicki Stanford and David Witt of The Blanchard Company on the topic of praise. You may remember Dr. Blanchard for his many training and development books. Since renewing his faith, he has also written several books with spiritual themes using Biblical principles. His one on servant leadership is a good one to use in a reading/discussion program for your field leaders. Today he is the Chief Spiritual Officer in The Blanchard Company.
Now some of you might be tired of me writing about the importance of praise. Just take a moment to read this article, “Singing the Praises of Praises“. Think it will enhance your understanding of the power of affirmation in your supervisory practice.
Comments: What are some of your practices to affirm field leaders?
(Note: this is a complex post that may require multiple readings.)
If you, as a supervisor, have been diligent in Phases 1 and 2 with a field leader, you will want to take a week or two before you begin Phase 3 oversight. You will be tired, and the field leader will need time to activate his/her plans.
But don’t take too long because all field leaders need support in their challenging role, even if only to affirm them. Phase 3 is about Continue reading
In Phase 1 and 2 of Oversight Stewardship we have been talking about the field leader’s calling/sense of purpose and how it is integrated into this role and plans. During this Christmas time, it is important to ask the same question John Ortberg asked in his recent Leadership Journal column: Do you love your calling?
This question is critically important for field leaders, just as it is for pastors. Loving your calling doesn’t mean everything is going the right way. It also doesn’t mean that you enjoy all parts of your role as a field leader.
Read the column and reflect. Identify your own indicators for loving your calling to the field leader role.
Do You Love Your Calling? Four indicators that you’ve embraced what you are doing. by John Ortberg
Comments:
Take a moment and begin a conversation. Let others know your indicators for embracing your field leader role. Merry Christmas!
This phase of field leader engagement is all about the supervisor helping the field leader choose activities that effectively accomplish his of her life purpose in the specific field leader and ministry roles. Phase 1 and 2 are times of reinforcing the realities David spoke of in Psalm 139, Continue reading
For oversight to be an act of stewardship, it needs to have the right starting point. That starting point however, may not be the most obvious one for the supervisors of field leaders. A job description, as important as it is, is not the starting point. Nor are development plans and goals, strategic as they are.
Supervision as an act of stewardship starts with understanding the person being supervised. One cannot promote leadership effectiveness and holistic health from a “blank slate.” The person being supervised is a special person, designed and gifted by God. Knowing the unique design of that person, his or her life journey and sense of purpose is the starting point. Discovering such deep awareness helps the supervisor to intentionally integrate the person into the role, not vice versa.
Others groups have found that this sense Continue reading
My March 12th Post introduced the fact that appropriate oversight could be a transformational stewardship practice with field leaders. The practice included the need for a written job/role description, leader goals and a development plan.
But you might say, “We have these and they are not transformational. They don’t give life, but rather seem bureaucratic.” I agree Continue reading
On Good Friday, as I was thinking about the death and resurrection of Christ, I came across two blog posts on leader “loneliness.” They forced me to think of Christ’s loneliness in the Garden, and also to reflect on times when I experienced “loneliness”.
Loneliness is one reality of leading, especially for field leaders in mission organizations. The field leaders in the IMPACT survey Continue reading
Most missionaries selected to be field leaders (e.g. team, country or area leaders) need to learn how to become effective overseers or supervisors. One of the best ways to understand the life-giving benefits of effective oversight is to have experienced it for oneself first-hand. Consequently, one transformational instrument Continue reading
As you think of your leadership in 2013, I am sure that you want to become a better leader. Take a minute and read a different slant on leadership from this 12-26-12 Forbes post. Expect to be challenged. I don’t know Mike Myatt, but the Spirit challenged my heart. Thought you might benefit as well. I have found several of his blog posts stimulating as well.
The Most Misunderstood Aspect of Great Leadership
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