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A good article appeared last week in Forbes’ online magazine about how to retain top talent. Actually, it sought to answer the question: “Why does top talent leave?“ The author boiled ten reasons down to two primary factors:
- Top talent doesn’t like being poorly managed
- Top talent doesn’t like “organizational lameness” (shifting priorities, no vision, uninspiring atmosphere)
So, to flip this over to the positive side, how do you retain top talent?
If you are a manager, learn to manage well. Your staff or employees don’t require perfection; but they respond well to a leader who is growing and sharpening their skills. If you are in a hiring position, hire managers with good people skills. Competencies can be supplemented with additional hands and feet. You can’t contract out people skills.
Secondly, examine your culture. High capacity people want to make more than a marginal difference. They can’t swim long in the waters of mediocrity. They want to share in creating and living the vision. Inspired people do inspiring things.
To read the original “ten reasons” article, click here.
Passing this along from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.
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Thinking Outside the Box – Literally
By Christopher Shea
Just how potent is the metaphor “thinking outside the box”? To find out, researchers built a literal box out of PVC pipe and cardboard — 5′ cubed.
Roughly 100 test subjects were given a 10-question word-association test designed to measure one kind of creativity (sample item: What one word links “measure,” “worm,” “video”?). As they answered, participants sat inside the box, sat outside of it, or sat in a room sans box.
People sitting outside the box answered more questions correctly than either of the other two groups (and the difference couldn’t be explained by claustrophobia or confusion, both of which were measured). Creativity seemed to be spurred by the acting out of a familiar figure of speech, the researchers said. (The cover story for the experiment was that was exploring the effects of different work environments.)
In a variation on that experiment, people pondered creative puzzles while walking a rectangular path in a laboratory; freely departing from the path when they wanted; or while seated. Once again, people who walked “outside the box” had the most creative answers.
Source: “Embodied Metaphors and Creative ‘Acts,’” Angela Leung and six other authors, Psychological Science (forthcoming)
 
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I get a kick when I hear someone refer to blogging as “old school.” Canvas Converse are old school.
But it is true that of the three major forms of social media — Facebook, Twitter, and blogging — blogging is the oldest form. Even more so when you realize that blogging is just the electronic version of keeping a journal (I would say diary but that turns off most guys).
I have had some form of a blog at kenhensley.com since 2001. There are several reasons why I have chosen to continue blogging. These include:
1. Platform. A blog provides a platform to express yourself without the limits of 140 characters, 30 minutes, etc. This is not about ego but influence. I try to write blog posts that have benefits beyond myself. I try to pass along helpful information from other writers and sites. Having a blog is a great way to categorize things you care about and provide information to people.
2. Catharsis. Much like keeping a journal or a diary, a blog is a wonderful way to express emotion and to process events. I’m not talking about venting or vomiting every emotional detail. But when a tragedy strikes or a challenge arises, I’ve found that blogging provides a way to engage the difficulty head-on — not necessarily to the point of resolution. A blog post allows more space than a Facebook update, and in a more personal way.
3. Discipline. You’ve heard it said that leaders are readers. I also believe they are good writers. As one who is paid to communicate with the spoken word, the discipline of writing words is a good one. It helps to distill thoughts and work out kinks. Regular blogging keeps my thinking skills sharp.
4. Development. This is similar to discipline. As any blogger will tell you, “There are great thoughts out there.” The discipline of regular blogging has forced me to stay current, to research what others are saying, and has opened me up to a wealth of information. I would break this development into two parts: personal and professional. I have grown as a person, pastor, and leader as a result of blogging.
Those are my reasons. Why do you blog?
Twitter can be a scary place for pastors: it limits your posts to only 140 characters.
Aside from Facebook, I believe Twitter is perhaps the second-most-important place for a pastor to be. A few of the same reasons from yesterday’s post apply to Twitter — so I won’t go into those. I will offer a few other reasons I believe you as a pastor should be on Twitter.
1. You have instant access to thought leaders and trend setters. The list of people I follow on Twitter ranges from Guy Kawasaki to Rick Warren and Mark Driscoll to John Maxwell. In real-time I am provided a snapshot into what they are thinking or reading. It’s like shadowing them around but being able to do so from your smart phone.
I have tried to select leading thinkers from multiple disciplines: church, theology, business, science, leadership, etc. With Twitter and Twitter-related apps (my favorite is Hootsuite), you can easily create lists based on themes, topics, or people. This allows you to sort the information into digestible form.
2. You have the ability to spread your influence. As John Maxwell says, leadership is influence. One of the benefits of Twitter is that it allows everybody to have a platform, not just the megachurch guys or Forbes 500 leaders. You have great thoughts and insights, too — so share them. With a quick retweet, you can also spread the influence of others.
3. It’s a great networking tool. One of the criticisms of social media is that it only creates virtual relationships, thus causing real, living human relationships to suffer. There is some truth to that. But I have also found that social media, Twitter in particular, has opened up new networking channels that never before existed. And in several cases, the Twitter connection led to a real, living relationship (my friendship with @jamesreiner is a good example).
How else have you benefited from being on Twitter?
You can follow me on Twitter: @kenhensley.
This was my communion meditation for this weekend …
Back in the days before digital photography, a young college guy wanted to have a picture of his girlfriend duplicated. He took it to a photography studio where the owner carefully removed it from the frame. On the back, the owner noticed this handwritten note: ““My dearest Tom, I love you with all my heart. I love you more and more each day. I will love you forever and ever. I am yours for all eternity.”
It was signed “Love, Helen.”
It also contained a P.S.: “If we ever break up, I want this picture back.”
In communion, God declares his love for us. At the cross of Christ, God declares “I love you with all my heart. I will love you forever.”
Yet many Christ-followers wait for the P.S. When does the “but” come? Could God really mean it?
If there is P.S. to the cross, it might be this:
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
Even people who don’t use computers know about Facebook.
Launched in 2004, Facebook had 100 million users by 2008. In other words, it took four years to add 100 million people. By the middle of 2010, Facebook had over 500 million registered users. One year later, the total stood at 800 million. In church planting terms, that’s exponential!
I want to focus on how you as a pastor can benefit from being on Facebook.
1. It allows you to connect faster with more people. As your church grows, it becomes increasingly harder for the people in the pew to feel like they “know” you. One key ingredient of effective preaching is the relational bond between preacher and audience. I have found that being on Facebook not only allows me to learn names and faces quicker, but it also establishes camaraderie and rapport. I have had more than one person say to me, “I appreciate your posts on Facebook. They help me know you’re a real person.”
But not only do they get to know me — I get to know them as well. I read their frustrations, thoughts, day-to-day stuff. In terms of understanding your audience when you stand up to speak, Facebook is priceless.
2. It allows you to broadcast your vision and values. Effective leaders know that you have to take advantage of every opportunity to pass along your vision and values. For pastors, the pulpit is an obvious choice. But think about this: when I post on Facebook that I just left a great Friday morning men’s Bible study, I am elevating the value of men being in a Bible study. I don’t have to write “Every guy should be in a Bible study.” Instead, a simple post modeling that behavior communicates my values.
Sharing quotes, lines from books, or passages of Scripture that have impacted me — all of these are vision and values statements. Facebook is a great way to introduce your values into the conversation of your congregation.
3. It allows you to benefit from group thinking. One more than one occasion, I will post a request to Facebook along the lines of “Brainstorming sermon ideas. Any thoughts?” Or, “What makes it hard for you to pray?” Often I’ll ask for book ideas or movies that might tie-in to a topic or theme. My Facebook friends then become my research fellows. And since Facebook is not bound by geography, I often get great ideas from former classmates spread across the country.
4. It provides an easy way for church members to pass along information. For many years of my ministry, my “greatest” thoughts were spoken in a sermon or classroom and then lost in space. Maybe they got passed along at the water cooler. Maybe not.
With Facebook, your church friends can easily like, share, comment on, or pass along information. Facebook gives you access to the six degrees of separation we always hear about. When a church member “likes” an event, it gets passed along to their stream of friends. As far as advertising and marketing goes, this is word-of-mouth in the best possible way. That’s why making non-Facebook content (on your church site, for example) Facebook accessible is extremely important.
I’m sure there are numerous other ways you can benefit from being on Facebook. Care to share?
Just finished reading “Necessary Endings” by Henry Cloud. It’s a great book for thinking through the necessary changes we encounter in life. Two of my favorite sections were about pruning and how to to discern the difference between hope and wishful thinking.
It’s early on Saturday morning and since there’s not much happening yet on Facebook … I thought I would write about it!
All joking aside, it’s a topic that pastors ask me about often — “How can I best use social media tools?” For our purposes, I’m going to limit the discussion to just three over the next three posts: Facebook, Twitter, and blogging.
First a little background: social media has come a long way. Back in the early 90′s, my first exposure to “social media” was through electronic bulletin boards and FIDO Net. Then along came listserves which allowed multiple people to create email discussions that would be broadcast to subscribers. I can still remember sending out a sermon request and having a pastor from Boston respond — I thought that was the coolest thing ever!
My next stop on the digital journey was Silicon Valley and a few months at Christianity.com. The idea was simple: create an easy way for churches to get online and share content. Not quite social media as we know it today, but getting closer.
Fast-forward to today. Social media is everywhere: on your computer, phone, or iPad. It’s never more than one click away — which is both good and bad. New forms are created all the time. Regardless, one thing is clear: it’s not going away.
That’s why we need to know how to use social media outlets in beneficial ways. More tomorrow …
There are songs that make me want to cry and then there are songs that make me cry.
Yesterday I attended a prayer summit for area pastors. About 70-100 of us gathered at BridgeWay Church in Denver from a variety of church backgrounds and environments. The morning began with worship. That’s when God got me (again).
The worship leader began playing “How Great Thou Art.”
It’s not the fact that I grew up singing this hymn that makes me emotional. I grew up singing lots of hymns, many of which I hope to never sing again. The reason is simple: “How Great Thou Art” was my mom’s favorite hymn.
On the other hand, the reason is anything but simple. When I sing “How Great Thou Art” I’m not just singing words — I’m remembering. The melody alone is enough to make me think of mom. I can almost hear her voice. I can envision the way she stood when she sang. In my mind, I see the pews and I can feel the hymnals. All the collective memories come flooding back.
Music has that kind of power. It has the power to create and recreate. It has the power to embed in our brains bits and pieces of a larger story and then bring them back at will.
I’m thankful for the men and women who have crafted songs. I’m thankful that God is still inspiring men and women to put pen-to-paper and create placeholders for life.
What’s your song?
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