Contextual Leadership

Hey, this is Tim Pratt Jr. and I want to welcome you to the Student of Life Podcast. Listen, we're going to get into so many transferable truths throughout the content of these episodes that I believe God is going to use to help you apply, because he's going to reveal what's already been there the entire time. Enjoy. Yo, what's up? So I want to welcome you to the Student of Life Podcast, and I'm your host Tim Pratt Jr., and this is season 5, episode 3. So I want to be transparent and honest with you all. Last week was a very rough week. For you all that's been tracking with me, you know that we're getting close to our— my wife and our little daughter, our first and last little girl, uh, will be here. Uh, so we're proud, we're happy, man, we're blessed, we're fortunate. And it's been a journey, it's definitely been a journey. Uh, my firstborn was, you know, born when I was 19 years old. Different seasons in my life, you know, having basically a kid, having a kid, and then, you know, my second, uh, my youngest son now, which is, you know, my wife and I were one plus one. And, uh, so like, it's just, it's different. It's different because, uh, with them, you know, they were already kind of established. They're boys, they're easier. And I was in a different season of my life when, you know, DJ came into my life, uh, so I was doing things a little bit more better. I had grown and matured. And now you know, what, 3, 4, what, 5 years later, I'm more mature, thank God. And so I'm really looking forward to this journey. And so I just want to kind of share that context with you, that that's what's been going on. And so I actually backdated this to just to keep the cadence going. I know, like I said, I'm a week late, but that's what's been going on. I'm real. And you know, this content I had wrote out, I had some things, but But life happens, no matter how, uh, how you try to, you know, stick to a plan. Sometimes it's just— it is what it is. Uh, but that being said, hey, let's jump into episode 3 of this one, and we're gonna call this one Contextual Leadership. So we've been in this leadership series, and I, I believe whether you're a leader in corporate, ministry, in your life, or whatever, uh, whether you're a parent, whatever, like I've always said, if you are only leading yourself, you are doing leadership. You're doing leadership in some capacity, some way. Uh, we all don't have the same level of influence, we all don't have the same positions, and we're all not given the same opportunities. But however, I believe for the most part, somebody is looking to you, whether from afar or up close. They are looking to you and they are watching how you lead. Um, so that being said, for, for this episode, I want to jump into it So I did a video, I believe, for social media and YouTube called Relational Leadership, Contextual Leadership. And I don't even know if that's a real thing. And you've kind of heard me say that. And I think that sometimes this can be a weakness for me because I can sometimes try to get too much context, or I'll always say, hey, in what context? Or this and that. And sometimes, like I said, it's just like, okay, Tim, make a decision with the context that you have. But however, the reason why I'm like that, because I've seen so many miscues, so many people blow up, so many people get it wrong in leadership for the lack of context. Because we are so quick to— we're moving so fast now. And then, you know, we see 30-second soundbites, we get parts of a message, distorted messages and things like that, and we're making decisions without the necessary context.. And I've always been one to say, in most cases, sometimes the context can be just as important than the content of the message. Because you can take content and you can take that, you can hear them like, oh wow, you know, I'm gonna take and run with it, I'm gonna make a decision, I'm finna lead based on this content. But you didn't have the context where they were coming from. And so that's something in my perspective that I believe that we want to be very mindful of in leadership. And so one of the first things that I would say in going down this journey, uh, whether, you know, you're dealing with situational leadership, uh, like say you're being relational or whatever, is that you want to always take time to make sure that you're informed. And so I would say well-informed, but I get it, sometimes you don't, depending on how you want to look at that. But maybe that's true, maybe you want to say I'm well-informed. So to make sure, for example, if we're really leading with intentionality and we're really leading with a place of contextual leadership, if I'm engaged with my team, you know, I'm getting to know them, I'm doing regular one-on-ones, I'm talking to people, I'm keeping the heartbeat of my team, I'm surveying my team and looking at these results, I might not be able to get all the nitty-gritty details, but for the most part, like, um, that context is ongoing. So I know if I say something or if I throw something out there, it's— I'm going off of the context that I have, you know, versus just sitting back and not leading with intentionality, not taking the time to have conversations with people, not taking the time to foster those relationships and cultivate them and on and on and on. Then I can throw something out there, I can throw content out there that I might be very smart and very knowledgeable, but wrong context. So for example, what does that look like? Well, I'm a senior ADM and also an associate pastor, and one of the things that I do is that I'm always trying to monitor the heartbeat, the heartbeat of the team. Like, just straight up, I'm always trying to monitor the heartbeat of the team. I'm always trying to talk to people. And so a lot of times when I, when I see things, not just in ministry or, or on my ADM team, but even when I like try to go in and work with different people one-on-one, or I work with— over the years, you know, working with different organizations with different type of side hustle projects that I've tried to, you know, launch and do with consulting and coaching, I have to probe. I have to ask a series of number of questions. You know, we can call this like the diagnostics phase, uh, where basically I'm going in and I'm trying to build historical context. I'm trying to build, you know, what's relevant to today, you know, what's the present context, what are we moving towards, so what's the future context. And all those type of things. And so when I'm doing that, you know, taking a step back with— if I'm working with my team, I'm trying to do better now, or just being more intentional, better with making sure that the leaders of leaders are well informed with this information, uh, trying to say, hey, like Paul Sprague, so, hey, I think, you know, you might want to look into this. And, you know, and you have to let that person gain their context until what's going on, you know, or make a decision. But for the most part, because I'm in the, the— a lot of the intangible things, because getting context is an intangible— I think more so than tangible— tangible skill set. But for the most part, I guess what I'm trying to say is, like, as John C. Maxwell said, I'm trying to touch a heart before I ask for a hand, or I'm trying to make sure I see things right before I attempt to set things right. Because sometimes we can come in, especially in leadership, you know, we, we have this thing where we come in with guns blazing, and there's nothing wrong with that. Uh, I think that works in a lot of dynamics. Uh, sometimes it's just what's needed. You need that person to say, listen, it's a mess, it's bad, you brought me here for a reason, I don't really have time to get a lot of context, I know what I'm doing. Boom, heads off. Somehow, some way, they get there. Now, people might leave. Yes, you might say, I wish you would have got a little context or whatever, but nevertheless, they figure it out. But I think if you have a balance of saying, okay, I want to apply contextual leadership here, even though I'm kind of one of these guns blazing, I get things done, I drive results, I, you know, I hit expectations, I exceed expectations, so on and so on. It's just the fact that you can take a step back and say, okay, listen, let me touch a heart. I, I have my game plan, but I want to touch heart— I want to touch hearts before I started asking for a hand or giving direction. I want to see things right, making sure that I understand things right, make sure that I don't run the people off that need to be ran off, you know, making sure that I don't keep people that need to be here, that the— like, I need to let these people go. I need to make sure that I'm doing my best to make the right decision based on what I have. And the only way we can get there is contextual leadership. Same thing, you know, in a marriage, uh, whether if you're, you know, the husband— and you just go both ways, I'm just speaking from a man's perspective, um— one thing that I'm definitely trying to grow in and apply this in my marriage, uh, even with my kids, is just When I'm leading my family, do I have the right context? Can I see things the right way? You know, with my kids, uh, when they're going through different things, can I be so intentional, uh, where like, yeah, I can be highly involved and, you know, I can be like, I can teach them wisdom, but can I cultivate that wisdom in a way through the power of God that it's contextual to their life, where it's more impactful, where it can reach them, where they can say, okay, this really inspires me, this is what I needed, this is how I need it, because my dad took the time to understand me and meet me where I am versus just giving me this general knowledge because he's been living and he, you know, he knows what to do or whatever. I've been through that. But that's one thing that I can say, uh, this contextual leadership principle in my life that I'm trying to apply with my kids and then with my wife, of course. Is just making sure that I continue to study her, that I have context so we won't have a lot of miscues. And so, you know, if we do, I can come back and be like, okay, where is this coming from? Because, uh, what's going on right now, I'm, I'm missing something. I'm missing something contextual. And if I can just humble myself and have the patience to, to, to get that context, and I believe that, you know, we can redirect this conversation or whatever that's trying to operate here. And so when you're leading, I just say, man, like, always, always make sure that you're striving to just see things right. You know, clarity comes in degrees. Like, it comes in degrees. And when you live— when we live in the world today, like I say, you know, like right now, somebody can post a 45-second video and, you know, I've seen people have to backpedal and say, oh no, no, I didn't mean it like that, I didn't mean it like that. And, and it's, you know, we live in a soundbite world. We live in a very controversial world where people want to drive traffic and drive noise and stuff like that. So some of this stuff, well, a lot of it is very intentional, but sometimes it's just, no, you have to go look at the whole thing and get it in context. And then sometimes you'll find out when you get it in context, you're like, well, I didn't really need that because my conclusions were still right, so their context furthered my point. And that's going to happen But if you can and you have the necessary time and you, you have, you know, and this is an ongoing thing, like you just can't, oh, I'm contextual, then I'm not contextual. Like, you have to be a person that's striving to, you know, this— a lot of this is ongoing because let's take a step back. If I'm leading something that I didn't start and I went into a situation, that's ground zero versus if I've been here for 5 years. I shouldn't have to keep doing a whole bunch of, you know, things that, that's helping me build historical context because I've been there. I should have been managing and like I say, cultivating these relationships and these dynamics and things like that. So that's totally two different things. But if I'm starting new, then I know I— for me, how I will approach it is that I know that I have to spend a lot of time in discovery phase. Because I don't have what, you know, like I say, somebody's been there 5, 10, 15 years have. And so I just want to say, like, as leaders, man, truly get to know people. Because one thing that I have always said is that you can replace any role anywhere, but you cannot replace the person. You can replace any role anywhere, anywhere, but you cannot always replace that person. And so you want to make sure, like, as a leader, that you are taking the necessary time and to just like, hey, listen, I want to make sure— I just want to make sure, especially, man, when you're dealing with people, that I get this right. But also give yourself grace and make sure that you move in a way that you demonstrate a lot of grace to others, because we're going to get it wrong sometimes. Like I say, Sometimes no matter how much we strive to get the context, we're just not going to have it. We're just not going to have it. We're just not going to be able to get it. But we have to continue to press forward and do what we can as leaders to make sure that we're close as possible. So contextual leadership. And if you want more of an application point, how do you really get here? Ask more questions. Sometimes, man, we're so quick, like I say, to just talk, talk, talk. Talk, ask questions and listen. Apply the 80/20 rule. Dig, dig. Know, like, when you're going in on your first time dealing with people, you're probably not going to get a lot of context because you got to get people to open up. You have to get people to open up. So this is where relational intelligence comes into place. Like, depending on how relational you are, I'm not, I'm not saying you have to like build a just great relationship, but can the person see that you're highly relational as a leader? And so this is what it started giving you, or people might start giving you more access into and say, okay, this is this, this isn't that. And so I'm never really, for the most part, trying to make decisions in a vacuum, although it is times that I have to do it because it's the nature of the role, it's what I signed up to. That comes with the territory, both in ministry and in the marketplace. And so I just strive, as I said, as a leader just take time because we live in this fast-paced world and we're always just go, go, go, go, go. And we think we know everything. We think we know all the books. We, you know, we read, we have podcasts and access to information. So a lot of times we just make assumptions. We think we know what people are about to say. Well, I've read this before, but it's always— everybody's life is different. We don't really know how people and why people approach things unless we— unless we get the necessary context. From them, or by studying them, or by, like I say, asking questions to see how they acting. And this, this takes patience. And a lot of times in leaders, we don't have that necessary patience to do the things. So that's why I like, especially in ministry, man, when you deal with like local churches and things, that's why I love the local context. I, I love the local context in the, in the, the local church, you know, because we're moving to a model now where you see so many people are kind of like, you know, the, um, what's what I'm looking for, kind of like just a drive-through mentality where it's just like, okay, one size fits all. No, everything is a local context, man. Like, yeah, we can have the same ministry or same business in like, you know, the franchise model, for lack of better terms, uh, here like 15 different places, and it's okay, this is what we're all doing, we're all going to be on one accord. And that's true, but I still believe that you have to take in consideration what is that low— what, what, what is that local church dealing with? What is the context there? What is the— that community dealing with? Like, what are they dealing with locally? So you can take that and we still all be on one accord and have unity, but at the same time, you know, we're not pushing uniformity. And so all of that is basically comes back to like, okay, let me stay local, let me make sure that I'm close to the, the field, I'm in the trenches, so I can build the necessary context in order to take back and say, okay, I understand all of these things, but this is where I think we need to tweak it for our team or our leaders or our people or whatever. So same thing, this contextual leadership thing, this contextual leadership principle in general, I really believe that it can be applied in any dynamic, any dynamic, whether you're on the workforce, whether, like I say, you, you, you like in the ministry field, whether you're in your family dynamic friends, associates, or whatever. I feel like if you really apply it and really just spend some time with it and make sure that you're relational, you'll be fine. So contextual leadership, man, it's just— I just want to have a conversation. And like I said, we're, we're in this leadership series, and we'll probably do one or two more, and we'll conclude. And, um, I don't really know now how season 5 is going to go because, like I say, I, I thought I started at the right time, and I had a lot of things lined out, but a lot has happened over the last two weeks in my life. Uh, but hey, I'm gonna go forth anyway, and that's what makes me human, and I'll figure it out. We might take a pause in season 5 like the TV shows do and come back. And you know, like sometimes when TV shows go, you're like, man, my show is still in the season but 3 weeks hiatus or whatever. So whatever it may be, but for the most part with me, I'm striving to be consistent, and I want to really get, you know, the season 5 out because I love doing this and I love the feedback that I'm getting from people. So contextual leadership, if you want to talk more about this and say, hey man, it's my first time hearing about this, or don't really know what this is, don't really know what that is, hey, like I say, feel free. www.timothyprattjr.org, go there, you can get in contact with me. It's just links to everything, all my social media. You can hit me up straight from the page. I have a chat feature now where if I'm not online at the moment, it'll come straight to me and we can chat it out or whatever and do whatever we need to do., uh, to help each other just become better in life. So man, I love you all. Keep being blessed, man. Keep plugging in, keep sharing. And if you have any ideas also too, or something that you would like me to speak on, or try a guest that you would like me to have a conversation with that you know personally, whatever, or don't know personally, just hit me up and let's go with it. And we, like I said, we'll just keep growing together. Be blessed. Love you all. Have a great day. Hey, what's up? I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to the Student Life Podcast today. If this content has impacted you in count away. Please take some time to share it on your social media feeds. And also, if you want to connect with me or just learn more about me, go over to www.timothypratt.org. Once again, thanks.