Level 5 Leadership<\/p>\n
In his \u201cextra chapter,\u201d Jim Collins really brings some great insight into the difference of leadership between a \u201cfor profit\u201d business and the social sector or \u201cnot for profit\u201d organizations.[1]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 I have been keenly aware over the past year that most of the \u201cgreat\u201d authors of the books that we have read are willing to address this one issue before they move on into the context of what they are proposing or researching.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Collins follows the same path about leadership.\u00a0 Looking at language and then addressing it for application.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s when it dawned on me, we need a new language.\u00a0 The critical distinction in not between business and social, but between great and good.\u00a0 We need to reject the naive<\/p>\n imposition of the \u201clanguage of business\u201d on the social sectors, and instead jointly<\/p>\n embrace a language of greatness\u201d [2]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n So what is it that separates good from great in the social sector as well as in business?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What is the change of language?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n First it would be about money.\u00a0 [3]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Business has the parameter of money to establish its greatness.\u00a0 Social only has money as an input not as a measure of greatness.\u00a0\u00a0 It is interesting that social takes in money but most of them find ways to give this away.\u00a0 So is it how much to you give away that makes you great?\u00a0 Or is it doing what you have set out to do, thus making your mission of greater importance. \u00a0\u00a0Fulfilling the mission of the organization becomes the driving force and the question did you make an impact is a change of language.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So when the measurable output changes from money to sometime immeasurable elements like, \u201clife change\u201d there has to be a shift in what defines greatness.\u00a0\u00a0 I find this incredibly refreshing that someone has finally address the difference between the two.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Second, it is about what you measure.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really matter if you quantify your results.\u00a0 What matters is that you rigorously assemble evidence, quantitative or qualitative, to track your progress.\u201d [4]<\/a>\u00a0 There must be a way for all organizations to measure what they are doing.\u00a0 Sometimes within the social sector the measurement of success or failure are based on non productive measurements.\u00a0\u00a0 How do I measure the success of our ministry efforts?\u00a0 Is it life change.\u00a0 Is it living for Christ for 15 years while making Godly choices?\u00a0 Defining what is going to be measured and then what is done with the measurable is what brings greatness into focus.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Third, it is about delivery on the mission.<\/p>\n To synthesize what I am reading is there a way to measure what is happening within our youth ministry?\u00a0 At Xtreme we have a three-fold mission.\u00a0 Friends, Family, Faith.<\/p>\n Do students who come into Xtreme experience these three things?<\/p>\n Friends?\u00a0\u00a0 How do you measure friends?\u00a0\u00a0 What if you came to Xtreme and you knew no one but you keep coming back for 4 weeks in a row.\u00a0 You found a group of people that would accept you and talk with you about your highs and lows of the weeks.\u00a0 A group of people who would actually listen while you expressed yourself? \u00a0\u00a0Are they your friends?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So how do you measure family?\u00a0\u00a0 Has xtreme become a second family to each student?\u00a0\u00a0 I guess the measure of this would be statements like this from parents, \u201cmy kids would live here if they could.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And last but not least is faith.\u00a0\u00a0 How do I measure if a student has acquired faith for life?\u00a0\u00a0 I want them to but ultimately it is their choice and they are making choices every day.\u00a0 I can lead them to the word as a guideline for their faith but I am never sure during these hormone driven years that even one thing I an teaching will stick.\u00a0\u00a0 So the return on this is down the road.\u00a0\u00a0 I talk about it being for life\u2026.\u00a0\u00a0 But I don\u2019t always know.\u00a0\u00a0 Fortunately, I have stayed in the same location long enough to see second generation students come through our youth ministry. So in their case faith really did take hold of their parents and now they are being raised in the same environment.\u00a0 But that takes years to see those kind of results.\u00a0 Measuring a soul that is truly saved and redeemed is a tricky business.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So what do you do to be a level 5 leader in this setting?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I really love what the author presented.\u00a0 The whole point of being a level five leader is not about business or social sector but it is about this:\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cTo make sure that the right decisions happen- no matter how difficult or painful for the long term greatness of the institution and the achievement of its mission, independent of consensus or popularity.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n So what is the right decision?\u00a0\u00a0 If it is all about me than the decision is based on the premise but if it about Xtreme being the best place on the planet, then it has to be about others.\u00a0\u00a0 So if I want to be that level 5 leader than I must decrease and others must increase.\u00a0 Humility plus great decision making is the key to all of this.\u00a0\u00a0 So my plan is to continue to become less to become more and to become more like Christ and less like me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Jim Collins, Good to Great and the Social Sectors:\u00a0 A monograph to accompany Good to Great,\u00a0 New York, Collins Publishing, 2005. 0.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Ibid., 2.<\/p>\n