by tashmcgill | Jun 2, 2009 | Uncategorized
Leadership Is Mastering Atmosphere
For anyone to open their heart, they need the right atmosphere, and something to prompt them.
Jung Chang
For me, a landscape does not exist in it’s own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life – the light and air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere with gives subjects their true value.
Claude Monet
Leadership is mastering atmosphere – which is a continually changing and mystifying invisible force. It’s the way we perceive emotion and what’s going on in a room, how we play out social awkwardity.. it’s how we relax or fnd ourselves tense.
Being a leader is about understanding what atmosphere is, how to create it, manage it and shape for the best possible outcome. This is not manipulation – simply recognising that all human beings have a ‘frequency’ that we sound best at.
Just like music being a balance of all it’s components – both sound, tone, rhythm, language and silence, harmony and dissonance.. so to is BALANCE the key to atmosphere.
Like a exceptional meal, atmosphere is not about creating and maintaining one stable, calm environment – as we so often tend to think of balance. That kind of balance leads to blandness, boredom and beige… in fact, mastering atmosphere is about procuring balance by bringing all the edges and fringe experiences to play. That is – to create a masterpiece of flavours… just like a truly enjoyable meal, the sweet, spicy, salt, creamy, crunchy, smooth, rich, light, acidic flavours must all be combined and played off one another to create something exceptional that opens the palate and senses.. the full range of taste, aroma, texture and enjoyment..
in the places we lead … this translates to understanding the necessity of peaks and troughs.. we desperately need to pull the flavours that reside at the edges to the centre, in order to create balance from the extremes. What are these extremes? Joy, quietness, excitement, grief, tragedy, seriousness, delight, conflict, romance, passion, fear, adventure, noise, colour, structure, flexibility.
You don’t create atmosphere, or manage it by simply pursuing what feels like a comfortable fit. Understand that your job as a leader is to engage in this changing environment and make a masterpiece of it – that opens the souls and hearts of those you are leading – to greater and greater experience and understanding.
by tashmcgill | May 27, 2009 | Uncategorized
Leadership is Hope.
A leader is a dealer in hope.” Napoleon Bonaparte
Some of the simplest quotes on leadership reveal the biggest truths.
We look to a leader to give us hope; hope that they will lead us through our difficulties and into a better future.
The best leaders do not hide reality from their followers but they are able to show them that despite the difficulties there is a way through.
Moses at the Red Sea, when the Israelites had nowhere to go – what did he give them but hope?
Why is hope so crucial? Because hope inspires us to the horizon, but hope isn’t something far off. To be a dealer in hope is to be a dealer in the here and now.
Hope is in the footsteps, whether you’re taking the stairs one, two or three at a time.
Hope is the thing that carries you on the journey and great leaders will incapacitate fear in their people by willing to walk through and on to the horizon.
Being a leader in hope isn’t about relentless enthusiasm or boundless optimism. A leader who applies hope to every situation brings perspective:
1. the reality of what is
2. the surety of a different possible future and what can be
3. the willingness to find the pathway there
4. the lessons and wisdom from the past.
by tashmcgill | May 11, 2009 | Church, Uncategorized
by tashmcgill | May 1, 2009 | Church, Uncategorized
I’m convinced of it. Everyone is trying to shoot above their game, to learn as they go on the sly from the ones they have convinced they know what they are doing.
No one really knows what they’re doing – surely the economic crisis is a sign. Cos even those that don’t know anything about money, knew trouble was coming and we ended up there anyway. Will we say the same about the way out? Who knows.
But I know this. It’s okay to fake it. You just gotta know at what point to cut your losses and realise you’re not gonna make it. You just gotta know at what point to just be honest and find someone who isn’t faking it, who can point you in the right direction.
Everybody trades on confidence. Which means that where there is wind, bluster and blow… somebody’s faking it.
What does all this mean? Heck, I don’t know. Just relax, stop taking yourself and everyone else so seriously for a five minute mental health break.
Realise everyone is faking it somewhere along the line. Figure out what you need to keep faking til you get your head around and what you can open the curtains on now. Easy. Nothing to stress about cos everyone’s doing it.
So why don’t you go ahead and stand out from the crowd, whatever that means you have to do?
by tashmcgill | Apr 9, 2009 | Uncategorized, youth ministry
I wrote a leadership blurb recently talking about the concept of sharing knowledge, rather than hoarding it, as a method of building and developing your leadership and influence.
It’s a really important idea and a major ideological shift from boomer-type leadership strategy to egalitarian GenY-friendly model. So, increasingly, in business, church & community leadership this method of sharing knowledge is really one of opening doors and creating opportunity for others to step into the conversation, offering something of their own to the collective whole, even if it’s just presence to the conversation, that shapes and develops their own potential. All this, is influence.
Why do I think this matters? Because historically in the last thirty years, especially in ministry circles, especially in youth ministry circles – we have struggled as a collective faith body, to make spaces and develop healthy dialogue around how and why we do what we do.
So those that have struggled to find a place have moved the conversations they long for, into other, alternate spheres. This brings both great discovery, great adventure.. and sadness. Because the conversations that develop in separate worlds, by their nature, become so easily conflicted, instead of conducive to growth, mutual understanding and broadening of our worlds. As we grow new approaches to leadership – the young and emerging push and struggle for their place. But if they simply choose to separate for the long-haul – then we all suffer. Really, this is no more than stating the obvious in a more minute example of Phyllis Tickle’s theory/observation of ‘rummage sales’.
The best teaching pastors I’ve ever had and still regard, are the ones who led me along with them to their conclusions and thoughts, because sharing the process invites healthy dialogue. Sharing the process enables the asking of questions about the journey, not simply arguing over the destination and conclusion. It teaches me and teaches the teacher. So yes, Steve, I think you are right… that sharing how we think, is an engaging and critical part of this ‘wisdom’. It makes space for doubt, questions, hope, discussion and alternate endings.
Perhaps most importantly for teenagers and young adults – by sharing the ‘how’, we intimate the presence of ‘time’ in our own thinking and learning. And Time, gives permission to breathe, to question, to doubt, to argue and wrestle with for yourself. Time… one of the most beautiful gifts to youth ministry and the thing we run in fear of passing. Time to doubt, time to get it wrong, time to be learning, instead of cataloging what we have learnt.
At the end of the day, where is this most important? Where do we know this so surely from? The desire and quest for wisdom and understanding – that unique process of learning how to engage in Learning?
The endless questions of five year olds. The aching confusion of teenagers. Share what you are learning and how you are learning and un-learning it – because it gives permission to those who long to do the same.
Share wisdom, share your Learning stories – don’t settle for sharing Answers, which ultimately, may not be the answer you need to offer at all.
