Are You Benchmarking your Life?

Everyone has benchmarks in their life. People, moments, places, books, friends, events, accomplishments, awards, etc. These benchmark moments help define your journey. Think of it as chapter headings for your story. Have you determined your life benchmarks? Have you written these down? Take a moment and write out these benchmarks. Do you see a story being weaved together? What do these benchmarks say about you?

Here are a few of mine:

  • Church of God foundation
  • Tom Hopkins, youth pastor
  • My Parents
  • Grandparents and establishing a work ethic
  • Valedictorian
  • All-State Athlete
  • What’s so Amazing about Grace and The Jesus I Never Knew- Philip Yancey
  • Young Life in College- Volunteer middle school leader
  • Lambda Chi Fraternity in college
  • Working at Lost Valley Ranch after college
  • Billy Blanchard, Ben Martin, Matt Weaver, Jason Shipman, Phil Stone
  • Bob Foster Sr.- a mentor
  • Trip to Thailand with Bob Foster/ELIC
  • Scripture memory through the Navigators
  • My extended family
  • Life@Work Journal
  • Cornerstone Group; Steve Graves and Tom Addington
  • Good to Great- Jim Collins
  • The Ragamuffin Gospel- Brennan Manning
  • Generous Giving- Daryl Heald, a new approach to giving
  • Peb Jackson, a mentor in creating relational networks
  • Gabe Lyons, Ken Coleman, Jeff Shinabarger- great friends
  • INJOY and John Maxwell
  • Relevate
  • Catalyst
  • Society Room experience
  • Blue Like Jazz
  • Andy Stanley and North Point Community Church
  • Rwanda trip with Compassion
  • 12Stone Church
  • Tribes by Seth Godin
  • Catalyst expansion

Are you a hustler?

Here's the deal: Hustlers are in, and posers are out. Now this is not breaking news. We would all agree on this. But with the current realities of our day, including the economy, much flatter work environments, free agency, transparent staff and team cultures, and a growing dependancy on producers vs dreamers, you better be hustlin. Leadership is no longer just about barking orders and pushing tasks down the chain of command. Leadership is influence, and influence these days is about, as my friend Charles Jenkins says, being "a beast." Which simply means someone who is making it happen. Make it happen leaders are hustlers.

Hustlers are: willing to get it done, willing to work harder than everyone else, willing to stay late, willing to arrive early, willing to start, willing to learn more, willing to make it that much better, willing to start over, willing to work through the dip, willing to do the menial boring tasks, willing to celebrate, willing to pass on credit but absorb criticism, willing to push others higher while pushing themselves lower, willing to take out the trash while also reaping the rewards.

Are you a hustler? Or just a poser?

One Prayer 2010

This June, leaders and churches around the world are standing together in unity for One Prayer 2010. Thousands of churches will join forces to share resources, serve our communities, and give to meaningful causes.

One Prayer takes place June 5/6 through June 26/27, and is an opportunity for churches to build unity while showing God's love to the world. During this time, churches share resources by using video teaching messages and other free materials from participating churches. They also team up with other churches in their community for outreach and service projects, and give beyond their four walls by collecting an optional offering for an organization of their choice. Suggested causes include: Compassion International, EnterMission, Convoy of Hope, and Samaritan's Purse.

One Prayer began in 2008, and I'm very grateful to Craig Groeschel, Bobby Gruenewald, and the team at LifeChurch for leading on this effort. There's no cost at all to take part in One Prayer. However, a free registration is needed. So learn more about One Prayer 2010 today and sign up.

5 Links of interest

- Check out the 2010 Time 100. the world's 100 most influential people, as ranked by TIME Magazine. - 5 Questions You've Never Been Asked from Tyler Stanton. Featuring Susan Isaacs. This is good. And for a second kick, watch 5 Questions with Donald Miller.

- You can still get the Catalyst West Experience Kit, featuring ALL talks from Catalyst West, as well as all kinds of other great stuff. Check it out.

- the new Catalyst Atlanta website is up. You can win a FREE iPad weekly. Register to win right now.

- Watch the Saddleback Civil Forum online on Monday night. The focus is Orphans, Adoption and Vulnerable Kids. So appreciate Rick and Kay Warren for leading the conversation on our role in taking care of the orphan.

Discover the Rescued on CNN this Saturday

Make sure to watch a brand new documentary this Saturday, May 8 at 8 pm EST on CNN. "Discover the Rescued" is a powerful story of two Haitian orphans as told through the incredible talent of host Soledad O'Brien and director/producer Jonathan Olinger.

It is important we continue to be part of the solution in Haiti, and this film will help you understand and see the real stories of two children and their struggles since the earthquake. Part of our responsibility is to HEAR from the children, the orphans, who have been impacted by the last several months.

I was able to sit down with Soledad and Jonathan earlier this week for an in-depth interview regarding the film and also the issue of orphans in general. You can listen here or download directly from itunes.

Leading authors of our generation

So Jon Acuff asked this question the other day on Twitter, and I thought I would chime in here on the blog. Who are the leading authors of our generation? Basically those currently between the ages of 30-42.

Here are a few names I would recommend to have on the list (in no particular order):

1. Donald Miller

2. Francis Chan

3. Mark Batterson

4. Margaret Feinberg

5. Craig Groeschel

6. Rob Bell

7. Mark Driscoll

8. Gabe Lyons/David Kinnaman (from UnChristian)

Who else would you add to the list?

Interview with Donald Miller

The latest Catalyst Podcast features an interview with Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz and the most recent A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. Ken Coleman sits down to talk with Don about his latest book, the Mentoring Project, and a few other surprises. Ken also chats with Jedd Medefind, President of the Christian Alliance for Orphans.

You can listen here or download from itunes.

Win a FREE iPad on the Catalyst Conference site

The brand new Catalyst Conference website is now live. Check it out. Make sure to register to win a FREE iPad. We are giving away an iPad WEEKLY up until Catalyst!! Make plans to join us October 6-8, 2010 in Atlanta at the Gwinnett Arena. We are expecting over 13,000 leaders in attendance. And I'm really excited about the speaker lineup. Check out the full speaker lineup here.

You can stay up to date with Catalyst through Twitter as well. Weekly giveaways to the Catalyst twitter community!

Why Chick-fil-A is so good

This week is the Chick-fil-A Leadercast, a simulcast leadership event held in Atlanta and broadcast all over the US. Our company puts on this event, and it is a great way for local churches, businesses, and organizations to host a great day of leadership training right in their own community. Check it out to see if there is a downlink site in your community. If so, I recommend you attend.

In honor of the event, I thought I would provide a few reasons why everyone loves Chick-fil-A.

1. There's purpose behind the chicken.

2. That dang spice that makes the chicken so good.

3. No matter who invented the chicken nugget, these are the best chicken nuggets in the world, period.

4. Waffle fries. That go straight to my love handles. But taste so good.

5. Great customer service. Every time. Everywhere.

6. Free refills.

7. The Cathy family. One of the great American restaurant families.

8. Polynesian sauce. I could drink that stuff.

9. Did I mention the chicken nuggets???

10. That one pickle.

Young Influencers List, April edition

Here's the April edition of the Young Influencers List. You can see past editions here. 1. Michael Jr.- great comedian in LA. Appears frequently on Tonight Show. Releasing a documentary called The Road Less Traveled, about doing comedy in places not usually filled with laughter.

2. Hannah Song- Exec. Director of Link Global, which aims to raise awareness regarding humanitarian issues in North Korea.

3. Kyle Wiens- founder of iFixit, an innovative new group seeking to create a free online fixit manual that you can edit and add to from anywhere in the world. A wikipedia for gadgets.

4. Brian Wurzell- pastor, worship leader, blogger extraordinaire, creative guru and host. On staff with Cornerstone Church in Chandler, AZ.

5. Mariah McManus- amazing singer/songwriter, and daughter of Erwin. She's really, really good.

SoChurch. Communication. Simplified.

Sochurch is a brand new communication tool for Church leaders, and I am happy to be a part of the advisory team. This communication, community and connection resource for churches will be available this fall, and I'll make sure to provide more updates over the summer how you and your church/organization can be a part. We all know how hard it is to have a full service communication tool that allows for comprehensive and cohesive real-time connections. SoChurch is the new resource that will do this. The goal really is to empower church leaders with seamless and simple communication tools that will enhance their leadership and allow them to impact the communities they serve in a greater way. A great team has been working hard on developing the program. I've included just a sneak peak screen shot of what the tool will look like on your computer.

For now, make sure and follow SoChurch on Twitter.

Catalyst West this week

Well, the blog posts are going to be rare over the next several days, with Catalyst West happening, starting on Wednesday morning with Catalyst Labs. You can follow along starting on Thursday morning at 8 am PST at Catalyst Backstage. Good friends Carlos Whittaker, Anne Jackson, and Brian Wurzell will be hosting the Catalyst Backstage experience. You can also keep up on twitter by checking out the tweets using the #catwest hashtag. And of course they'll be lots of bloggers who will be posting updates throughout the event.

I'll be back to posting later this week over the weekend.

Write it Down. Always.

Young leaders consistently ask me: "what's one practical piece of advice for being a leader who gets things done?" A leader that is trustworthy and reliable. The kind of leader when you ask them to get something done, you have complete confidence that it will happen. My answer is always the same: Write It Down. Always. What do I mean?

1. never show up to a meeting without a pen and a notebook. My preference is a sharpie and a moleskine notebook. But doesn't matter whether it's a legal pad or a Red Big Chief pencil, Or your iphone or laptop. ALWAYS show up to a meeting ready to record thoughts, ideas, takeaways, and action items. I tell my team this all the time, whether we are having a group meeting or individual meetings.

2. carry a pen and notebook with you wherever you go. If you have a thought, write it down. Remember a task that needs to be completed while in your office, capture it in an email or in a running to do list on your desktop or in Evernote. In the car?.... capture it on your iphone audio memo or on a dictation machine. But always make sure it is captured somewhere. Always.

3. One of the most important, if not THE most important person in the room during a brainstorming or creative session is the notetaker. And if you don't have a notetaker for these meetings, find one. Don't have another meeting without one. It has to be someone who is really good at listening, filtering, and capturing. It CAN'T be someone who is actively engaged in the creative or brainstorming elements.

By doing these things, it frees you up to have energy to be creative, think outside the box, dream, and ultimately keep a running account of what items are on your list to get done. I'll share my system for getting things done, especially as it relates to writing items down, in a future post.

Lights, Camera, Inaction

One of the most valuable traits of any employee or team member is someone who executes. A leader who gets it done. A team member who makes things happen. Is driven towards ACTION. However, most of us, at the end of the day, default towards INACTION. We lean towards giving up, or stalling, or procrastinating. We start with a great idea, but getting to the finish line and "shipping" as Seth Godin likes to say is a rarity.

One of the things I love about our Catalyst team is that we have team members who get it done. Action and completion is what drives them. I love being around leaders who are passionate about making ideas happen and moving the ball across the finish line.

So A few points on being a leader of action, and not inaction, and making sure this permeates through your organization:

1. create a plan and stick to it

2. set up a culture that is motivated towards completion, not idea creation

3. find doers, not talkers.

4. as the leader, let your team manage up way more than you manage down. Reversing the micromanaging system that many type A leaders automatically set up can free your team up to get things done.

5. if a project or initiative needs to be dropped, kill it immediately.

6. Celebrate action. Constantly. Let your team take pride in getting things done.

How do you greet?

Hello. How are you. What's up. Hey. All of us greet differently. There is no right or wrong. So a few thoughts on greetings that might create a few laughs:

1. If I don't know you, we're probably not going to hug. Let's stick with a firm handshake for the first introduction.

2. If I've already seen you that day, we don't have to regreet each other. Regardless of in the office, at an event, or at a social gathering, we've already established a connection, so no need to have to re-establish that. Stick with a simple headnod.

3. When greeting, avoid using nicknames that you think are funny and the other person doesn't. Not necessarily a good way to build a bridge.

4. For greeting those you know, I prefer the clasp and hug, not just the straight hug. Straight hugging can get awkward, but when you go to the clasp handshake first, it establishes a point of contact to then hug from.

5. Unless you really want to know, don't ask me how I'm doing. Just make a statement instead, a statement that stands on its own, that doesn't require a response from me. Something like "today's the day" or "there he is!" or "you're the man!

6. If we are just exchanging friendly passerby greetings, don't ask me something deep, or something that requires me to necessarily stop for a complete conversation. Again, I love conversations, but if we're passing by, that probably means we are both on our way somewhere.

7. If I know who's calling me on my phone, because of caller ID, I'll usually greet them with a customized greeting vs. a standard greeting. You should do the same. If I am confident of who is calling, I don't need to say "This is Brad." But maybe "what's up bigtime" or "where are you?" or "you ready to go?" Feel free to say the other person's name in your customized greeting.

Pepsi Refresh- Vote for Gift Card Giver to win $25,000

gcg_logo_300_onblack Gift Card Giver is one of my favorite things to be involved in. I have the honor of serving on the board of directors, and have watched this grow from just an idea to now a major project and campaign that continues to gain momentum.

The latest big piece of news- Gift Card Giver has been nominated to potentially receive a $25,000 grant from PEPSI in the Pepsi Refresh Contest.

But here's the deal. I need you to vote for Gift Card Giver to win. Go here and you can vote. Please VOTE now. And throughout the month of April.

No strings attached. Just help us out by voting, and also by spreading the word to your facebook friends, on twitter, through your blog, texting and however else you can make your networks aware. Thanks for the help!

Interview with Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia

The latest Catalyst podcast features an interview with Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia the anyone can edit, and consistently ranks in the top 5 of the most visited websites in the world. We discuss a number of issues, and also hear about some of the things he's working on next. You can listen here or download from itunes.

Look at me, please

So I had the chance earlier this week to attend a breakfast in DC with some fairly high profile leaders. Not sure why I was there, but nonetheless was honored to be in the room with many well-known folks. One thing I've noticed about those who "arrived" in terms of influence, and stature, and credibility, is that they are usually the kind of leader who authentically takes an interest in you when you first meet them. They ask good questions, and are genuinely interested in talking with you and learning more about you. They look you in the eyes. I noticed this with several leaders I met for the first time earlier this week, as well as friends who I got to catch up with and hadn't seen for a while. They didn't gaze around the room looking for someone else to talk to- they truly engaged in conversation with me. Very authentic.

Then there's the "posers." John Maxwell categorizes these kind of folks as "climbers". As with any other gathering, party, function, or event, everyone wants to see who else is in the room. Especially those who aren't as "well known." And they are way more interested in climbing than connecting. Talking to you is just simply a step in the right direction to someone else who is way more important.

That really bothers me. And I know I've been guilty of doing this before. And that bothers me even more.

So let's all commit to not doing this. This week, I was reminded of how important it is to focus on who and what is in front of you. Whatever environment you are in, it's way more important to be a connector rather than a climber.

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