Tim Spencer

Serve. Grow. Lead.

Archives for February 2015

4 Q&A Evaluation Strategies

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q&aEvaluation doesn’t have to be one-sided. Consider the give and take of a coaching dialogue to evaluate progress on important organizational goals and objectives.

Evaluation should be personal and relational, so begin any coaching conversation with a demonstration of authentic concern for your team member:

  • Check on family.
  • Discuss personal needs and growth.
  • Pray together.

Then ask thoughtful questions and listen for honest answers with these Q&A evaluation strategies:

1. Gaps and Goals – Identify important, vision-aligned gaps and focus on the next 30 days.

  • What business, customer or ministry GAPS exist? What’s missing and what’s a vision-aligned solution?
  • What 3 GOALS do you have for the next 30 days?
  • What 1 THING is the most important thing right now?

2. Stop, Start or Continue Method – Consider what you should stop, start or continue doing.

  • What do you need to STOP doing? What’s not working?
  • What do you need to START doing? What new ideas should you try? Why do you need to do this?
  • What do you need to CONTINUE doing? What’s working well?

3. Eisenhower Decision Matrix – Realize that what is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.

  • What IMPORTANT/URGENT things should be done immediately and personally?
  • What IMPORTANT/NOT URGENT things should be scheduled?
  • What UNIMPORTANT/URGENT things should be delegated?
  • What UNIMPORTANT/NOT URGENT things should be dropped?

4. SWOT Analysis – Evaluate internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats.

  • What are organizational and ministry STRENGTHS?
  • What are organizational and ministry WEAKNESSES?
  • Where are the external OPPORTUNITIES? Where is God working and how can you go there?
  • What are the THREATS to continued growth or ministry?

So what’s the Big Idea?

Ask careful questions to evaluate progress on important organizational goals and objectives. Thoughtful questions with honest answers are the coaching way to achieve the best evaluation outcomes.

Resources

More Questions

  • What are your top 3-5 objectives?
  • How well do department objectives line up with organizational objectives?
  • Why should you do that?
  • How will you do that?
  • How will you measure success?
  • What has to happen to have success with that?
  • What’s your follow-up or follow-on plan?

Like Father, Like Son

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fatherThere are so many things about my father I want to emulate. He was kind, caring, honest and godly, character traits that inspire me to be a better man and father in my own right.

It’s amazing how easily I subconsciously appropriated his character and nature. In both good and bad ways, I am my father’s son. And I can see the same process unfolding in my own children. They are like me in both good and bad ways.

The transfer from fathers to sons is more than genetic, of course. It includes emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual and intensely personal things. I can hope or wish that the transfer won’t happen with my bad habits and attitudes, but it’s unavoidable. Long after I’m gone, my “like father, like son” legacy will remain.

From an early age, children learn from observation, experience and social interaction with their parents. They learn how to treat others with respect, or not. They learn how to act with integrity, or not. They learn how to worship and pray, or not.

My one hope is Jesus—that he will take my life and transform it supernaturally into Christ-likeness at every turn. While I often fail in my Christian walk, my sons have another Father who won’t. That’s the best “like Father, like son” legacy of all.

An old lyric says it this way:

Like Father, like son,
with arms outstretched and love for everyone.
My highest praise will be,
that someone can say of me,
like Father, like son.

Guard your sons and teach them to be more like their spiritual Father. Introduce them to Jesus and encourage them to grow in their faith and their faithfulness to God.

You’ve likely heard that kids need to hear at least 3 things from their parents on a regular basis. This is especially true in father-son relationships. They need to hear you say:

  1. “I love you.”
  2. “I’m proud of you.” (be especially proud of their spiritual growth)
  3. “You’re good at…” (affirm their godly words and actions and encourage them to understand and use their spiritual gifts)

So what’s the Big Idea?

Fathers, tell your sons that you love them and affirm their spiritual growth. Helping them become more like their spiritual Father is the best “like Father, like son” legacy of all.

Resources


Source

Dorothy Hausch, Joe Huffman, John Randolph Cox, and Reid Hausch, “Like Father, Like Son,” Makin’ It Matter by Truth, Benson Records, 1987.

5 Reasons Why Short-Term Goals Matter

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targetMost people need something to aim for. It’s the reason organizational vision and values are important. It’s also why we develop objectives, goals, strategies and measures (OGSM and other strategy plans).

“Big picture” objectives drive most of the goals we set. That’s a good thing. Each type of goal—short, medium or long-term—has an important place in the process.

Let’s define the duration of goals this way:

  • Short-Term – 30 days or less
  • Medium-Term – 2 to 11 months
  • Long-Term – 12 months or more

Recognize that every long-term objective rises and falls on details, next steps and daily to-do lists. If the small things remain undone, the greater goal simply won’t have traction.

Here’s why you need short-term personal, professional and organizational goals:

  1. Short-term goals create a “next step” culture. It’s helpful to think in terms of next steps. Ask youself: What’s the best thing I can do to move one step closer to a long-term goal? It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you spend intentional time every day on smaller goals, inching ever closer to larger objectives.
  2. Short-term goals provide a psychological boost. Long-term (think annual) goals and objectives may seem unrealistic or difficult. Adjust your thinking with a focus on the day, week or month ahead. Be specific with short-term goals and due dates, but don’t be anxious about the long-term objective. Instead, give your mind a mental boost by focusing on achieving this week’s goals.
  3. Short-term goals prioritize daily tasks. Daily and weekly goals are a great way to sort through the Eisenhower Decision Matrix. Recall that what is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important. Short-term goals help you prioritize important/urgent things first, important/not urgent things second, and least important things last. Read more
  4. Short-term goals provide for supervisor-employee feedback. Most of us need objective feedback and accountability to stay on track. Short-term goals provide for that in small, timely and specific ways. Monthly supervisor-employee coaching, mentoring and other feedback built around a discussion of short-term goals helps you know where you’re succeeding and where there’s room for improvement.
  5. Short-term goals create space for adjustments to “big picture” plans. Annual goals and objectives are the “big picture” plans you’re striving for. Breaking down those long-term goals into smaller segments is a good idea. If there’s a problem with your “big picture” plan, you’ll discover it as you implement the plan and aim toward a short-term goal. Short-term goals help you adapt to changing conditions on the fly and adjust the long-term objective.

So what’s the Big Idea?

Establish short-term goals as a first step towards achieving larger personal, professional and organizational goals. Spend intentional time every day on smaller goals, inching ever closer to your long-term objectives.

Resources

Make Prayer Part of Your Daily Routine

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routineIs prayer “missing in action” in your personal routine, family or church? I’m ashamed to admit that prayer falls to the bottom of my agenda far too often. Priorities and the tyranny of the urgent are the culprit, but there’s more to it than making easy excuses.

I’m compelled to ask myself whether or not I really believe in prayer. Do I faithfully expect that God will take my work and multiply it in the prayers I offer? Or do I have lowered expectations for the work God wants to do in and through me?

Spiritual issues and problems require supernatural solutions, and that’s where regular prayer becomes important. Prayer leads me to evaluate my priorities, decisions, motives and attitudes. It impacts my heart and mind, making me a more effective leader and servant.

Bill Hybels describes this “supernatural walk with a living, dynamic, communicating God” this way:

Authentic Christians are persons who stand apart from others, even other Christians, as though listening to a different drummer. Their character seems deeper, their ideas fresher, their spirit softer, their courage greater, their leadership stronger, their concerns wider, their compassion more genuine and their convictions more concrete.

I want that kind of power and conviction in my life, family and church. Perhaps you do too. If so, ask yourself some key questions about prayer:

  1. Where does prayer rate in your daily schedule?
  2. Does your family pray together regularly?
  3. Is prayer valued in your church or organization?
  4. How can you develop more effective prayer habits?

On that last point, let me offer a prayer model from Dr. Greg Frizzell, Prayer and Spiritual Awakening Specialist with the Oklahoma Baptist Convention. Based on The Lord’s Prayer, our most important biblical model, Dr. Frizzell’s PRISM acrostic is a powerful way to pray every day:

P = Praise
R = Repentance
I = Intercession (about spiritual things and for spiritual protection and deliverance)
S = Supplication (petition)
M = Meditation on the Word (listening for lessons in Scripture)

So what’s the Big Idea?

Make prayer part of your daily routine for greater effectiveness in every area of your life. Expand that principle to your family and church to appropriate divine power for living the everyday mission of God. Most of all, believe in the power of prayer.

Resources


Sources

Bill Hybels, Too Busy Not to Pray: Slowing Down to Be with God (10th Anniversary Edition, Revised and Expanded), 2nd ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998), 125.

Greg Frizzell, PRISM Prayer Model, January 19, 2015.