Recalibrating our 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. Hey yo, what's up? So this Tim Pratt Jr., I'm a host of the Student of Life Podcast, uh, and listen, we're gonna jump straight into this episode today, uh, Recalibrating Our Leadership. Recalibrating Our Leadership. So many of you know that one of the— this is a faith-based podcast, and so I'm not gonna, you know, if you've been tracking with me, I don't always go heavy on scripture. Sometimes I am, sometimes I don't, but for the most part, really all the time, everything that I say is going to be influenced, by a biblical worldview, even though I might not state that scripture. But as I always say, you know, we can, we can take it offline, we can talk, deep dive, set up a session and go from there. Uh, but this is the niche that I, uh, believe that I've been called to reach. I'm not trying to be a theologian, uh, or, you know, preach and teach the gospel more so, uh, in a, in a traditional, uh, even a non-traditional format, uh, that I typically do when I'm in the local church or, you know, in certain other settings. Uh, but in here is just a safe space Man, let's dive deep. And like I say, but I will say everything that I say, uh, for the most part, you know, now sometimes I will put my opinion in there, but none biblical of course. But when it comes to most things that I say, I've considered them and there is a biblical, uh, worldview. And then some things I say are just quotes, you know, it's not biblical or anything like that, but I believe that it's very in alignment with scripture, if I may say. So that being said, let's jump into this one. Uh, so recalibrating our leadership, uh, man, what, what does that mean? Uh, well, for me, I would say that, you know, we live in a time now where leadership is different. I mean, leadership is really about— I think in times past, you know, we could kind of sit back, study, you know, critique, watch the market, uh, talk, consider things, weigh a lot of things, and then make a move and, you know, and go on and on and on and do that. I don't believe we have that same luxury anymore. I believe now we live in a day and age where it's like we really have to continually learn and sharpen that saw, build the right team around us through, you know, hiring the right people, selecting the right people, whatever terminology you want to use, and just, you know, navigating things and learning how to fail forward in like very calculated ways. If I may say. I, I think it's all about like just iterating and iterating and iterating over and over and over. Uh, like I don't think that, like I said, we have that luxury to just analyze because of how fast the market is moving. Uh, and I think this is just, of course, you know, struggle with businesses as well as the ministry. So it's marketplace and ministry today. A lot of people are trying to figure it out and a lot of people are innovating. And that's the beautiful thing. Like it has really created a space where it has just allow people, uh, the ones that are trying and, you know, have new ways of leading and going about things, it's allowed them to lead in a very creative way versus, like I say, all of these, um, gatekeeping ways, for lack of better terms. Um, so we have to really learn how to recalibrate our leadership and understand that most of the time— I'm not, not saying all, because I believe it's some very, very intelligent and smart leaders out there like straight up. But most of the time we are leading people that are very, very knowledgeable. Sometimes these people are even smarter than us in certain areas, if not all sometimes. But, you know, we might be the one that just might be a better people's person or just whatever, you know. We might have better skills on the leadership side where they're more a very, very high solo contributor or individual contributor. And so when it comes to that, if we're not careful, you know, back then we kind of get trapped up in that thing where the leader was kind of like the knowledge person, like they held everything. So some people hold that position because of what they knew, but it might have not made them the best leader. And unfortunately, a lot of people train people to be that way when that's not the case anymore. And, and so what I'm trying to point out is that if our leadership is still calibrated like that, like, I'm the smartest person in the room, uh, I know everything, all things run through me, I make all decisions, I have to be involved with everything. Um, our leadership is calibrated in a very, very outdated way. Uh, and I like what John C. Maxwell said, is that our leadership has to be more like a conductor. You know, conductor brings a unified vision to music. Now, they have not touched one instrument up there, but however, they are considering every aspect of the music. And how to make it as inspiring and incredible as possible. Like, this is what they do. Then they work with the orchestra, you know, basically in that environment to make the vision come alive. So they are just basically massaging and pushing and doing so many more things. Like, they understand the context of what's going on, although they might not be the ones just more say like doing the work. Now, now some of them probably can't go in and play the instrument and they know it or have done it over time. They like, in some shape, form, or fashion, they might have done that role, but that's not what they're called to anymore. They are called to know how to make everything come together and present this beautiful piece to the audience, you know, create a beautiful team, and so on and so on. And like I said, you know, today you used to plan for 1 year, maybe even, you know, 2 years out, 3, 4, or 5 years. But that's not the case. And most people now, like, you might have a light roadmap— I like to use the term— but I can guarantee you, even 6 months to a year, something is going to change. Like, you're not going to follow that plan to full detail. Even the PMP— PMI, I should say, Project Management Institute— project management professionals. And I'm not saying the whole agile space, you know, from agile coaches and things like that, has it all figured out, but these people are continually recalibrating to integrate and find a way to basically, like, you know, come to adapt to these challenges. And so technology innovation, man, it just, it moves so quickly that we might need to just be more adaptive in our planning. I like to say this term, I'm sure it's very popular, but I love because continuous planning, continuous adaptive planning, meaning that I'm going to plan like based on what I have, but I'm going to continuous— continuously do it and update it and iterate on it as things go on. I don't want to present a 2, 3-year plan and then try to follow that plan to the teeth because we don't know what the market might say or what might happen to people or resources and things like that, what we have. And so as I understand that like things are always changing in a shorter time frame. I need to be more agile. I need to be more adaptive. And so another point that I like, uh, is that adaptability is the ability to change or to be changed to fit new circumstances. I'm gonna say that again, reading from directly from my notes. Adaptability is the ability to change or to be changed to fit new circumstances. So this is a crucial crucial skill for all leaders. If you are not willing to adapt, if we aren't willing to adapt, our leadership is calibrated to the wrong, uh, just frequency, tone, or whatever. Now, this does not mean that we have to conform to everything. For all my biblical people out there, even some business leaders, this does not mean we have to conform to everything. It just means simply adapting. So like Paul, you know, one of my things I like to say, he said, 'I become all things.' Now, he didn't adapt in the context that I'm going to sin or run with sinners and do everything that they do. But however, I'm going to adapt in a way to reach them, long as it just— it doesn't compromise me going outside the boundaries of Christ and being Spirit-led. Now that can get very gray, um, you know, you can pick and choose when you see people do that. I believe if we read in the broad context in the Bible and not just hijack that verse I do think some of us, uh, go a little bit too far with it. And then I think some of us can be a little bit, uh, judgmental, uh, because we don't know the full story of it. So we just have to kind of trust and believe, okay, that like I'm looking at the fruit of this person and I'm just— I'm gazing and I'm just going to trust and believe that they are adapting and not conforming. But like I say, I'm not going to get into that. I'm not going to even call names, but it's plenty of examples out there. So in other words, man, we just want to make sure that we're growing into tomorrow's challenges, uh, and not just going into them. So this is again, you know, are you reflective? Uh, I work in like an environment, uh, where I am a senior Agile delivery manager slash Scrum Master, whatever you want to call it. I do a lot of coaching, a lot of facilitating, a lot of delivery planning, a lot of project management, and so on. But every day I'm trying to read the room, I'm trying to understand like personalities and dynamics, I'm trying to understand organization I'm trying to understand the teams that I'm responsible for as well as the teams that I support. Then I'm trying to understand individuals and so how they make up those teams. And then, you know, just all the different personalities that clash and don't clash. And some people are very outspoken and some are not. And so, you know, these are challenges that I'm just continually trying to grow into versus just taking what it is, like, I'mma lead my way. I'm always trying to adapt. Facilitate in a way that brings that caliber, you know, to help me recalibrate and move the team forward. And sometimes all this stuff doesn't show up, you know, on the reports because it is a lot of coaching, it's a lot of conversation. You know, people bring their whole selves to work today. People, like I say, people are very knowledgeable. Yes, you can rule by, I said do this because I'm the VP or I'm the director or I'm the senior VP or I'm the, you know, manager, dev manager, I'm the pastor, I'm the associate pastor, I'm the leader of this department. I'm the leader of this auxiliary. You can rule with that positional authority, but I guarantee you, uh, if you keep doing that without learning how to be influential and relational with people, um, they're gonna leave. Like, most people are gonna leave. Like, you're not gonna keep the best if you have to keep pulling that card. And I don't like doing that. And, you know, and I used to be way on the far end. I do believe it is a time for— you have to read the room and understand the situation, situational leadership. Uh, but I think if it's always that case, then you might not be very influential as you think. Uh, you might just be, you know, a very, uh, positional leader, a very just title-driven leader where you have not took the time to really build relationships. Not just a relationship as in a direct report, like, oh, one-on-one, you know, you report to me, let's get to understand. I'm talking about actually building the relationship where you can influence that person. Or influence that team in front of you. I think it's a little bit slower, but I think it works. So we got to be able to— one of the first points is that we have to be able to set the tone. And in order to set the tone, we kind of already encompass it. We have to be able to lead ourselves well. I can't lead a team nor organization if I can't lead myself well. If I don't have the necessary self-discipline to say, okay, I am the leader of myself, Yes, I might have a boss in this area, this area, and they can give me instructions, but most of the time they're not standing over me watching my day-to-day moves. So I still have to have an ability to say, okay, this is what they have given me, this is what I've been instructed to do, this is what I've been asked to do. So I have to lead myself in a way to do it. I have to plan, I have to, you know, do time management, time boxing, or whatever, time blocking. I have to distinguish between, you know, household and do this. I have to lead myself well. And one of the ways that I can do that when it comes to, you know, helping others lead themselves well is that as a leader, we can lead from personal— we can lead from personal stories. Like, for example, I can tell about successes and failures, like mix them in as a leader and tell those personal stories to help the people that you're responsible for leading. Tell those personal stories. That's what's going to help you set the tone as a leader. Like, it's so lead yourself well, teach others to lead themselves well, and then do it through a combination of personal stories. And, you know, you want to throw other things in there. Like I said, we can go very, very deep with this, but that just is something you can consider. Like, okay, man, like, let me tell you about a time I've led myself well, or let me tell you about a time I didn't lead myself well, and just keep doing it in there, one-on-ones and just conversations and connecting and things like that. And I just hope as you plant those seeds and you demonstrate it with your life, I just believe that as you recalibrate your leadership, it'll help recalibrate their leadership. One of my favorites: lead people, manage systems. I think I love this, and I think, you know, we're starting to see like this switch from, um, not saying things like resource management or let me put some resources on that Uh, it's not— you can say it's politically correct or whatever. I personally agree with, with, uh, going away from that because people aren't resources. We can't keep treating people like just units of production. Like, these are people with lives and things like that. And so we lead people and we manage systems. So when I'm managing the system or the processes or procedures and things like that, those are things that I'm managing, the holistic, you know, system, if I'm looking at just everything from the organizational view broke down to the team and, you know, working agreements or stewardship agreements in the church and stuff, the local churches, these are things that I'm managing. But with people, like, I'm literally trying to inspire them through leadership to do more. I'm, I'm trying to inspire them to take charge, to take initiative, to step up and be what they need to be in order, uh, to produce with this team and this company or this ministry, this organization. Organization needs to do. So I'm not going to be the one that's trying to manage their day-to-day workload. Now I understand it might be times that is needed, um, you know, with a more junior employee, with maybe a trouble employee that's trying to redirect. I get it, you know, it's not always black and white. But if that becomes a way of life, that might not be the best person to have on the team. So I don't personally want to do that. Now I try to set up systems that will, you know, create accountability and transparency as well as on myself. If right now you can interview people from my team, I literally share my dashboards. I share most of the time everything with the exception of sensitive stuff. 85 to 90% of the stuff that I share is anybody can see it. Anybody can have access to it because I welcome to be challenged at any given time. And there's times I just haven't got to it. It's times I forget. But for the most part, those critical things, I can be challenged whether in the workplace or marketplace. Or ministry. I literally try to operate as an open book with the respect of things that I just have to keep confidential. I don't, I don't try to manage people for the most part. I just, I try to lead people and I try to stay focused on managing systems. Uh, and then that kind of brings us, man, to like the last point I believe that will really, really help us, um, and just really understanding our recalibration of leadership. You have to know what you're responsible for. You have to know what's your responsibility. I can't remember where I heard this or this quote, but it's something I know I've said on this podcast, is that you might not always— it might not always be your fault, but it's your responsibility. As a leader, it might not be your fault, but it is your responsibility. And that's what I love about this whole conductor example, is that, you know, this conductor, he's unifying performers. He or she is unifying performers. They're setting the tempo. They're executing, you know, clear preparations and beats. Like, these are things that they're just paying attention to. They're listening, paying attention critically. Like, they're, they're actively listening and shaping the sound. Like, just shaping it to make sure, like, okay, like, is this coming? Are you shaping your team as a leader? Are you, are you executing and being clear on the things? Or like, are you recalibrating over and over and over, paying attention to the frequency and helping setting the tune to help your team deliver to what they need to? Or are you reactive? Are you just a very reactive leader? Are you a very responsive leader? Are you thinking ahead? Do you have the space to think ahead and really set time and just analyze things and pay attention to the heartbeat of the culture, the heartbeat of what's going on, the heartbeat of how you're calibrated to your team? And then what I love about it is to control the interpretation and pacing of the music. Because as things go wrong, as things blow up, you know, as somebody might look— be a little bit off. I see choir directors, even in ministry, uh, coaches. You see this on the field with just, just how they do things and hold the people account. Like, are you paying attention to that? Are you interpreting what's really being said? Are you listening to what's not being said to make sure that you're getting the best out of those people? Or like helping people set the right pace? Are they— are you like, you know, getting results, but then you don't even know that, you know, your team is working 13, 14 hours a week? Or in a ministry, are you treating volunteers like they're working another 45, 40-hour job a week? Do you have like leaders in too many— leaders committed to too many ministries? I mean, sometimes I look at churches and it's like 25, 30 ministries and they only have 50 members. Like, that's crazy. That's crazy. Like, that is just a recipe for failure. So these are like hard decisions that we have to make, and we have to make sure as leaders that we are recalibrating, um, just our leadership to what's going on. We have to— like, we really have to make sure that we're taking that step back and say, man, listen, uh, I'm going to make sure that my leadership— that I'm recalibrating myself to adjust and adapt, not necessarily conform, but adapt to the times that we are in so I can make sure that I'm leading my, my team well. Now, in the ministry context, it's God's people. But if he's delegated you authority, if he's called you to pastoralship as a, as a shepherd, with him being the— Jesus being the chief shepherd, and then, you know, you have under shepherds and elders and things like that, Uh, that's cool, but you still have a responsibility to play in that part and carry out what he's called you to do. And then we already know on the marketplace, in the business world, if you're in any type of leadership or manager capacity, you— we all have a responsibility, man, to get results and drive things to success by recalibrating our leadership. Hey, what's up? I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to this Student Life Podcast today. If this content has impacted you in any kind of way, 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.