By Elisa Morgan, Publisher, FullFill™
Most of us feel stuck at some point – whether in life or in leadership. Recently Mission: Momentum, the umbrella organization for FullFill™, hosted a webinar with Carolyn Custis James and me where we purposed to propose questions we can ask ourselves in order to get unstuck. You may have joined us? It was called “Through the Leadership Maze.”
We started off the time together asking one question of the participants: Where are you stuck – and why? The answers ranged from seasonal issues (like a needed focus on kids at home) to leadership quandaries of how women can serve in the church and how to move out of an area we’re really not very good at in order to minister in one where we shine. Carolyn and I felt connected to the honesty and transparency of women just like us!
Together then we asked four questions to offer a crowbar out of mired spots and were then deluged with requests for those questions again and again. Each question focused on an element in moving further and farther to invest our influence. So here they are:
Recognize: Where do you have influence? Can you name people you are influencing RIGHT NOW?
Utilize: How are you ready – or not – to invest your influence? Are you holding on to what YOU NEED yourself to invest or are you draining out your influence in codependent relationships?
Maximize: Where do you need more faith in order to invest your influence? So many of us disqualify ourselves before we ever get going.
Mobilize: How are you doing what you could (see the concept of She Did What She Could at www.shedidwhatshecould.com) to mobilize others to invest their influence – in the daily?
Getting unstuck is often a matter of simply answering the next question. Not all the questions. Take a look at the list above again. Which element best represents where you are stuck: recognize, utilize, maximize or mobilize? Answer the question that goes with the verb. The next question.
PS – Click here to register for our next Mission: Momentum webinar on June 15, 2011 with Dr. Liz Selzer on mentoring entitled “Why Can’t We All Just Get Along: Mentoring Four Generations.” It’s FREE for the first 100 women
While all these are good questions for women seeking growth and opportunity for service, I honestly "smell" a level of self-centeredness in such thinking and striving. For example, do we need more faith "in order to" influnce? Well, in my mind, when faith become a tool to "achieve" our own desire, it is rather dangerious than applausable.
ReplyDeleteSo, what are some of the more important questions to be asked?
Faith--have I given myself and my life completely to God for His glory and purpose only?
Humility--am I seeking others as better and more important than myself to model a Christlike life?
Obedience--can I accept the lot given by God at the moment for the good of my eternal life more than my "career development"?
After all, we are not to forget God's word in Mic 6:8: He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
If we are walking humbly with our God, what kind of "leadership" or "influence" could we talk about other than the one resembles that of the world?
Sorry, lost a "not" in the last sentence of my post, and it should be:
ReplyDeleteIf we are NOT walking humbly with our God, what kind of "leadership" or "influence" could we talk about other than the one resembles that of the world?