June, 2012 | ExecPastor.com

Archive | June, 2012

5 Steps Toward Your Goals Using A Weekly Review – Pt. 2

by Don.h on June 27, 2012 in Church Operations, Leadership

In my last post I gave the first 3 steps to my weekly review:

1. Review notes from previous week
2. Review previous weeks tasks and projects
3. Look at my week ahead – meetings, appointments and projects

The next two steps are the crucial planning for your week. Without absolute clarity on how you will tackle your week, you will be a victim of your schedule rather than a captain of your vision moving forward.

4. The action sheet – this is a list of what I want to move forward this week broken down by roles I fulfill in life and ministry. I want to emphasize that this is not just work stuff, these are genuinely my roles in my life, family and ministry. This concept I’ve borrowed from Steven Covey again and like how his approach acts as a compass for what I value. In each category I am looking at how I will move forward in each role based on goals I’ve set for the year.

Disciple – what will I being do this week to continue growing in my appreciation for the Gospel. This is a “not urgent – important” category that if I’m not staying focused on, will be crowded out. This could include a goal to memorize a verse, study time through a book in the Bible etc..

Blogger – I record my action list for what I want to move forward with my blog, I review my blog post drafts and when I will complete and post the next updates.

Husband – What intentional things will I do in my marriage this week – write a note, words of affirmation, quality time, encouraging my wife’s gifting?

Father – what intentional things will I do to encourage my children? Again…quality time, activities, intentional teaching/training.

Pastor – How will I grow my pastoral shepherding ministry? Who will I encourage this week? Who do I need to speak with, call or send a note?

Ministry Overseer – Core role in my career – a review of my projects I’m involved in and collaborating on.
Operations Overseer – Another core role in my career – review of departmental direction and projects I’m moving forward with the team.

5. Plug the Action List into Google Calendar – In a previous post I discussed how I use my morning review to tackle a tough day. My daily review is really a “tweaking” of what I’ve laid out for the week. I Recognize that as the week unfolds we have to be flexible to the crisis that hit our desk. However, by reviewing my goals and planning what I want to move forward this week, I am able to make tweaks on a daily basis that give me just enough latitude to stay on track and not abandon my goals.

After I’ve done all of this I give a last look to make sure that I’m being bold – but not unrealistic. There is nothing more deflating that moving most of what you were going to do this week to next week….trust me I’ve done that. By have a bold agenda I find that it breaths life into my busy life and provides passion to what could at times just be a list of tasks.

How do you move goals forward with your busy schedule?

5 Steps To Help Reach Your Goals Using A Weekly Review – Pt. 1

by Don.h on June 20, 2012 in Church Operations, Leadership

I use a weekly review to ensure success with accomplishing my goals. And when I speak of goals I mean even moving toward those “things I’ve always wanted to do.” Those are typically quadrant 2 activities that are not urgent and therefore rarely get done. Trust me, my success is not based on talent, but instead by using a system and sticking to it. Additionally, I now have a hard time kidding myself, and that realism is a good tension to the optimism of the goal setting process.

The idea of weekly review is not unique to me, I’ve borrowed from David Allen and Michael Hyatt. I’m also used some of Steven Covey’s teaching that the rhythm of accomplishment is looking at your goals in weekly chunks as opposed to days, months etc.

So what’s my weekly review look like…..let me give it to you in 5 easy steps

1. Review Notes From Previous Week – Every Sunday evening I have programed in my calendar that at 8pm I sit down and do my weekly review. By then I’m starting to wind down from the weekend and am ready to to put my head into the week ahead. A critical tool to that review is my handy notebook…..let me explain.

As I go about my week I carry a black Moleskine notebook which I take notes in from every meeting or idea that I have during the week. I use a marking system that I also borrowed from Mike Hyatt that goes like this:

Square box – this means this task I am responsible to accomplish
Circle – someone else is responsible after a dash I write that persons name for followup
Asterisk for important and noteworthy points made in the meeting or that I was struck by during a meeting.

Many of you jot notes on Ipads, or your Iphone etc….and all of that works just great with my system. I just firmly believe note-taking in meetings is critical.

With my notebook in hand I start my review by looking back through my previous week to see how I’ve progressed on all those tasks. By now I should have them all put into projects, my to do list etc so this portion of the review is to catch any loose ends. Many times I find an important task that just somehow got lost in all the excitement…..I now plug that in to my week ahead.

2. Review Previous Week’s Tasks/Projects – I review what I had set to accomplish the previous week, what I did do and what now needs to moved into this upcoming week. There is always some tasks that must be reloaded, but usually this system gives me the satisfaction of being able to see how much moved forward last week. I then open my Gantt chart software and review the projects I’m working on to see where I’m at in each timeline and transfer the critical tasks to be performed to my weekly action sheet.

3. Meeting/Appointment Look Ahead – Actually looking at the the appointments/meetings for the week ahead. I open Google calendar to get my head around what kind of a week I’m going to be navigating. I always have certain times block for actual project work, I review what I have scheduled around those chunks of time so that I have a realistic look at what I have to work with.

Do you use weekly review? If so…what does yours look like?

Next post I’ll get to the critical action side of the review that gets things done.
Don

How To Crush A Tough Day In 4 Easy Steps

by Don.h on June 15, 2012 in Leadership

I’m living in a season right now where I’m effectively working two jobs at Rancho….Ministries and Operations. However, the challenge of managing multiple priorities has actually propelled my effectiveness, largely because it has forced me to maintain altitude on how I work with people and projects. A crucial piece to my strategy is a 30 minute morning review I do each day before breakfast. Here are 4 steps I use to kick start my day.

1. Scan my schedule – I use Google Calendar and love it because it automatically updates whether I’ve entered the appointment via Iphone or Macbook. I prefer to use the “week” view even when working with my actual day. This preference is based on the fact that I move toward short term and long term goals with increments of what I’ll accomplish this week. This keeps me thinking of what must move forward today in order to stay on track for this week’s objectives. As I look at my day, I want to understand each transition in my schedule and what it will take to accomplish. I do that with two key strategies:

a. If I’m tight I’m going to put in some “alarms” on my Iphone that will signal its time to cut a meeting and go.

b. I always explain upfront in a meeting what time I must leave so that nobody is caught off guard. People understand if you’ve booked tight when you extend the courtesy of that information at the front of the meeting.

2. Work my time blocks – I block actual times in my day where I have margin to work on my projects. If you don’t schedule time to actually move priorities forward, your schedule will control you. I look at the time blocks I’ve scheduled and enter my “To Do” list (calls, email) and which projects I’ll move forward.

3. Get granular on my tasks – Once I’ve selected which projects need to move forward today, I’ve got to get into the real details. I can’t just put “office move” as something I’m going to work on…..its way too vague. I’ve got to take the time now to see which specific tasks in the project sequence need to be done today to keep me on track. I personally use a “Gant Software” to track my projects and I’ll post on that strategy in the near future. I’ll identify what must be done and “get real” about the time that will be needed in order to do that.

This particular step is the one most people just don’t really think through. Instead they have a big “To Do” list they carry with them all week and on Friday they are frustrated with how little they’ve accomplished. They’ve worked all week, been busy, and yet their projects are not moving forward. This is also why their very important and not urgent (as Steven Covey teaches) tasks never get accomplished.

4. Final review and tweaking – I do a final review of everything I’m going to accomplish and make absolutely sure I’m being realistic – if not – I make some tweaks.

a. Delegate – We tend to want to do everything ourselves so now I’m being forced to think outside that box. I ask myself a crucial question – can I delegate part or all of a task to someone else on my team? This has been a very important part of my success while juggling multiple priorities. We tend to take ourselves way too seriously in mix of what must be done. Many times we need to take risks on other people and let them try new things. Delegate well, provide clear direction of the desired outcome and then let them run with it.

b. Make a cut – Rather than keeping an unrealistic task list, I want to actually accomplish everything I’ve laid out. The only way to do that is cut what I will not have time for. In order to do that I must have a clear perspective on how that will effect my projects. Understand this process is actually very helpful in keeping my stuff moving forward. Because I’m constantly wrestling with what MUST be done and when, I’m forcing myself to remain focused on my goals for each week. Rather than working late, I’ll cut a task and move it to another day. However, I’ve done that with a full understanding of how that will effect the overall project, and who I need to update on that change. With clarity and communication this won’t be a “dropped ball.”

Bonus – Listen to a podcast on the drive in – Once I’ve tweaked my schedule and spent time getting very granular on the day ahead…..I’m dying to get “Big Picture” again. I do this by listening to one of my favorite podcasts on the way to work. You may choose to listen to music to do the same, but I’ve found a “visionary” type podcast helps me to climb back up to 10,000 feet on my day, week and life. I keep a notepad handy so I can scribble thoughts as I listen. I find that when I pull into the office I’m charged and ready to go. I admit that the fact that I live in the wine country of Temecula helps make my drive to work nice too! Some of my team have commented that I almost jog from my car to the front door….its because I’m now in charge of my day..not the other way around.

How do you tackle your tough days?

How Do We Teach Our Son’s To Be Men

by Don.h on June 6, 2012 in Family Life, Gospel Community

I just returned from a 3 day retreat with 7 other dads and their sons. This was the second year we’ve done this retreat with one clear intention – entrusting what it means to be a “man who follows Christ” into the hearts of our boys.

It all began 2 years ago in my living room over a pretty casual conversation with 3 other families. Our wives had encouraged us to all get together to explore how our families could have an impact on young people in our valley. What came out of it was very different. Although the outreach piece was an awesome vision, the dads realized that much of the problem was a failure of fathers in their home. We additionally knew that any vision we had for others needed to overflow from our own relationships with our kids…..especially our sons.

Within two weeks we were meeting once a month and going through Robert Lewis’ curriculum entitled “Raising a Modern Day Knight.” What emerged was a vision for 4 fathers not only raising their sons….but actually participating with one another’s sons as a community of men.

Last week we returned from Pine Summit Camp in Big Bear California. As a group of now 7 dads we spent 3 days pouring our lives into the hearts of our boys…..it was awesome. Our teaching content centered around one of the acronym’s from the RMDK program…SWORD.

S – Sin and confession
W – Wisdom he must live by
O – Offenses he must forgive
R – Requirements to Obey
D – Deceptions to Avoid

We each took a turn at one of the teaching sessions – 30 minutes of discussion and 20 minutes of father/son time. It was amazing to see what each dad brought to the weekend, how our different gifts were used to strengthen each of our boys. We used media, Swords, large posters, music…..all to help our sons understand the importance of anchoring our lives to Christ as we navigate a world that longs to steal our affections.

The schedule for the weekend was maybe a tad busy….but with young boys….I think it may have still been the right pace.

FRIDAY
11:30 Depart My House (stop for quick lunch on way)
1:00 – Arrive / Unpack 3:00 – 1st Recreation Session – Sins Must Confess theme (run by staff)
5:00pm – Dinner
 6:00pm – Session 1 – Sins Must Confess (Don)
8:00pm – Campfire
9:00pm – Flashlight Game  

SATURDAY 
8:00am – Breakfast
 9:00am – Session 2 – Wisdom – Mike
10:00AM – Rec Session 2-Wisdom & Offenses to Forgive
 11:00am – Session 3 – Offenses to Forgive – Garrett  
12:00pm – Lunch
 1:00pm – High Ropes/Activities/Free Time 

5:00pm – Dinner 
6:00pm – Rec Session 3 – Requirements to Obey & Deceptions to Avoid
7:15 -Session 4 – Requirements to Obey – Brian  
Ceremony at Campfire 
8:30pm – Snacks, Campfire, Flashlight Game 

SUNDAY 
8:00am – Breakfast 
9:00am – Session 5 – Deceptions to Avoid – Tim
10:30am – Depart

The teaching sessions and activities were an amazing time together. On Saturday night we held a ceremony with our sons that far exceeding any of our expectations. We had purchased these beautiful “Armor of God” coins for each son with the idea of presenting them at the campfire ceremony. I had this brainstorm that we need to involve all of the dads in each of the son’s experience receiving their coin. I felt that we needed to help our sons understand how the community of faith should involve receiving guidance, wisdom and encouragement from the larger community of men in their lives. Men have a tendency to try to “go it alone” and we wanted to send a clear message that Christianity involves a life of “one anothers” not just “me & God.”

So for the ceremony we had each son walk down, holding a candle which he placed next to the fire. He would then receive his coin from his father, and then one by one each man would speak affirmation, challenge and encouragement into the boys life. That was the theory…..what unfolded was a work of God. What came out of my mouth and these other dads was truly powerful….we could never have scripted it. The best part was watching these boys stand up straight and hear what each dad had to say to them.

I think it is amazing to see how some very “imperfect” fathers can decide something noble for our sons, wondering if we can even pull it off. And then in that place of humility God meets us and makes His name great. What happened Saturday night and the entire weekend was a work of God in spite of us. We were obedient to the responsibility placed on us in Deuteronomy 6 and Ephesians 6, but God touched the hearts of our sons. The part we also weren’t prepared for was the close friendship and community we have as dads. When one is down, we rally around him with truth and encouragement.

I hope this post will encourage other men to take some risks as they pursue the hearts of their sons.

Here’s the highlight video I showed on our first night from the first year we did this.