Serving Others

Yesterday in Toledo, we had our Community Leaders Prayer Breakfast which we hold annually on the National Day of Prayer. This was our 20th year so we decided to ask John Maxwell come to share with us. He also conducted a three hour leadership session. Both events really helped a lot of people.

Because I was on the committee that put this on, I had the privilege of spending some time with John at dinner the night before. Bob, who was the chairman of this year's event, was asking John at dinner how he wanted things to go on Thursday and John replied, "Bob, it doesn't matter to me, I'm just here to serve you." Here is maybe the world's top leadership expert who has written 50 or so books and speaks all over the world telling Bob that he was simply here to serve him. Very cool.

During his seminar, John shared that leadership is simply influence and that if you want to increase your leadership capabilities, you must increase your influence. So you may say, how can I increase my influence? John said that the way to increase influence is simply to add value to others. In fact, he says he gets up every morning and asks, "Lord, who can I add value to today?" Then before going to sleep he asks, "Who did I add value to today?"

John was constantly looking for ways to add value to all of us. He came to serve us. Now that's a leader!

“Instead, whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
Matthew 20:26b-28

God At Work

This past year I was privileged to be chairman of the 19th annual National Day Of Prayer Breakfast held in Toledo. The event was a great success.

This year I am serving on the committee while Bob Borcherdt, a great friend of mine and college basketball teammate serves as chairman.

We met last Friday to discuss the possibility of taking this to a whole new level and doing something that could help the entire area from a leadership perspective. Bob had an in with John Maxwell and asked if we should pursue that.

We all said "Yes!" We all agreed that this was a long shot to say the least and the only way it was going to happen was if God made it happen. Afterall, John Maxwell is probably the best-known teacher on leadership in the world and he is very difficult to book.

So despite the odds, Bob and a couple of others from the team crafted a great letter to send to John Maxwell's manager. Yesterday (5 days after the letter was sent), we heard that John has agreed to come for the event! He will also put on a 4 hour workshop that day (May 7th) in the afternoon.

Wow!

We as a committee are still stunned and we almost have a sense of, "Yikes, what did we get ourselves in to?" We know much work is in front of us but we also know that God is making this happen and we just mostly have to stay out of His way.

Cool stuff!

People On The Bus

Jim Collins writes in his best-selling book, Good to Great, that great companies all do something when it comes to hiring people. Before they do anything, they make sure they have the "right people on the bus." He says they do this even before they know where the "bus" is going because they know that the success of the organization depends on having good people.

I have had a chance to witness this first-hand. I have been privileged to be able to serve as the chairman of the 19th annual Northwest Ohio National Day of Prayer Breakfast this year which happens tomorrow morning. It has truly been a great experience, probably because of the team that has been serving with me.

Yesterday I received an email from one of the team members telling me that I have been a good leader for this committee. I have to admit, that felt good. You see, I like praise (that is one of my big problems that I know God is working on in me). However, in this case, I really didn't feel like the praise was deserved.

I don't think I did much from a leadership perspective because the group was so good. I knew that if someone said they were going to do something, it would be done. They made my job easy. So any praise really needs to go to God for assembling such a neat group of people.

I have heard coaches in the college and pro ranks say, "Good players help me to be a good coach." Well that same thing holds true in any leadership position. This prayer breakfast experience has really shown me how truly important getting the right people on the bus is!

By the way, Ray Hilbert from Truth At Work is our featured speaker. I am looking forward to God doing some great things tomorrow!