4 Insights from the 2012 Chick-fil-A Leadercast

This last Friday, I had the privilege of attending the annual Chick-fil-A Leadercast produced by Giant Impact. The theme this year was “choices.” As leaders, we make hundreds of choices a day. Choices that not only affect us personally but our families and those we lead. It was a killer lineup of speakers including Andy Stanley, Pat Lencioni, John Maxwell, Urban Meyer, Tim Tebow, Soledad O’Brien and more. While each of the talks probably deserve a separate post, I’d like to hit some of the highlights from a few different speakers and give you a handful of my personal insights for my leadership at CARE for AIDS. Hopefully, these will resonate with you and have application in your own leadership context.

1. “What would my replacement do?” Andy Stanley kicked off the day by giving us three questions to add to our decision-making arsenal. His first one was, “What would my replacement do?” I don’t think my job is in danger, but if someone with more experience was brought in, what is the first thing he or she would do? When I hit a dead end or my strategies and tactics seem tired, this is a great question that brings objectivity and focus to a matter that could often be clouded by personal bias or attachment to an idea or strategy.

2. The Law of Awareness.  John Maxwell shared with us a few laws with us from his upcoming book The 15 Laws of Personal Growth. He said that in order to grow ourselves, we must know ourselves. Mainly, we need to have awareness in three areas:

Requirement – What is required of me?

Return – What gives me the greatest return? (staying within your strengths)

Reward – What is rewarding to me?

Aligning those three answers creates passion. As we begin to coach our staff on their personal development, I will really be focusing on creating alignment in these areas.

3. “Flip the hierarchy.” I could write a whole post on Angela Ahrendts’ talk. She is the CEO of Burberry and assumed that role shortly after the organization’s 150^th anniversary. As you can imagine, she had to make some radical changes to bring Burberry into the modern and social era, but one of her strategies was really mind-blowing. She created a committee of the youngest, most innovative minds in the company and gave them the liberty to create the vision and strategies that would help Burberry succeed in this social age. Then, the executive team was responsible for executing that vision. What a radical idea which is so counter to the typical corporate culture! It has worked for them in a big way. To read more, visit Great Leaders Serve for a complete post on her talk.

4. “The real competitive advantage is a healthy organization.” The final speaker of the day was Patrick Lencioni. He said that there are two sides to any business: being smart (marketing, strategy, etc.) and being healthy (culture, values, etc.). He stated that in this day and age, being is healthy is the real competitive advantage because any organization can be smart. We as leaders have to create cohesive leadership teams through vulnerability and be very clear about the values and beliefs that drive our organizations. We must over communicate those values and reinforce them whenever possible. This was a good reminder that, in this scenario, redundancy is not a bad thing.

Do any of these principles resonate with you? How can you apply these lessons in your organization or family? If you also attended Leadercast last week, what were some of your takeaways?

5 Memorable Moments in Kenya

Another incredible, but unique, trip to Kenya is in the books. I just returned home yesterday from my first trip of 2012. After six months away from our team and centers, I was so thankful to be back in country. These trips are life-giving to me. I hope that I was able to encourage those I met while I was there, but without a doubt, the staff and clients inspired me tremendously.

I was able to hear, firsthand, the stories of about a dozen of our clients over the course of the trip, and I was moved by all of them. It goes without saying that those experiences were memorable for me, but unfortunately, I cannot capture all of those in this post. Let me share a few highlights that were more specific to this particular trip.

1. First Staff Meeting in our New Office

For four years now, our CARE for AIDS guest house and office have been one and the same, but we had finally outgrown the space. God made a way for us to rent a very affordable space in nearby Limuru that will act as our home office for the foreseeable future. While we currently only have six people working out of this office, I can easily envision what it will look like with 20 staff members in it. I can’t wait to watch God fill this space up. We had our first ever staff meeting in the new office and all 25 staff members from Nairobi were in attendance. What a reminder of how far God has brought us in such a short time!

2. Cornel’s Surprise Birthday Party

Kenyans rarely celebrate birthdays as it is, but a surprise birthday is a very special occurrence. We just so happened to be in Kisumu on Cornel’s 35th birthday, so we planned a party for him. As per their traditions, Cornel was doused with water upon entering the party. Below, he is holding up the photo printer our team bought him for his birthday present.

3. Client Graduation – Banana Hill Center

Graduations are without a doubt my favorite events to participate in while in Kenya. The joy and hope that these clients possess is contagious, and it is in stark contrast to the loneliness and hopelessness that existed nine months earlier. The picture below captures it perfectly. Upon giving this lady her certificate, she gave me a big thumbs up. There is nothing lost in translation there!

4. Rhino Encounter

You may not think that a safari experience is very relevant and definitely not spiritual, but God’s power is demonstrated through his majestic creations. The safari gives us time to rest and reflect on what God did during the trip. This time, we were on safari in Lake Nakuru National Park, home to many white rhinos. Even inside an SUV, I knew we didn’t stand a chance if this guy got upset…

5. Dwanna and Nick’s Wedding

Dwanna Bunch, now Dwanna Kight, volunteers as the CARE for AIDS accountant and was going on her fourth trip to Kenya with us. Her fiancé, Nick, decided that there was no better place to tie the knot than in Kenya, a country that had meant so much to Dwanna over the years. So, on Friday, March 23rd, they got married and most of our staff was in attendance. We danced and sang and celebrated this amazing couple. Don’t count Kenya out when you are considering your destination wedding…

Thanks to everyone who prayed for us while we were gone. It was an unforgettable trip for me personally, and I think the other teams members would say the same. Please visit our Impact Trip page to learn more about going to Kenya. I hope you will join us in June or September to share in these once in a lifetime experiences.

What excites you most about the idea of going to Kenya?

Fresh Eyes for Africa

Today I’m writing from London’s Heathrow airport, halfway home from my first visit to Kenya since moving back to the States last summer.  It was a phenomenal trip – full of hearty handshakes and back-slapping welcomes, jaw-dropping beauty and exciting adventure.  The part that will stick in my mind most, though, might well be the experience of seeing Kenya and CARE for AIDS through eyes that have become accustomed to America. 

I realize now that months on end of seeing poverty and hurt, along with growth and hope, had made me callous to both the bad and good sides of Kenya.  After nine months in America, though, I feel like I came to know Africa all over again during this trip.  Free from “compassion fatigue,” I found a refreshing ability to focus on the individual stories that were right in front of me without getting lost in the macro-level issues, and I was incredibly encouraged!

Cornel with Jane and I and my parents at the celebration in Kisumu

A key part of this fresh take on CARE for AIDS, specifically, came on Friday evening.  Our group of family and friends had spent a full day in Kisumu, visiting clients in the morning and relaxing with Cornel’s family after lunch.  By mid-afternoon, the entire CFA team (with their spouses), each of the five partner church pastors, and many of the Kisumu church committee members starting trickling in for a celebration.  Soon we had a giant circle of fifty or so people, sitting outside under the shade trees sharing a feast of fish, nyama choma, chappatti, and all kinds of other Kenyan favorites.

Fish buffet - Kenyan style!

While the food was amazing – and enthusiastically devoured – I was far more moved by the community.  Seeing so many people together because of CARE for AIDS, all excited about the opportunity to be connected in any way with this vision, was incredibly humbling.  After speeches, prayers, and hugs that went on well after dark, I felt extremely blessed to have the chance to play a role in the bigger picture of what God is doing through the Kenyan church and families affected by HIV/AIDS.  Sitting at a desk in America, it can be hard to remember why we do all of this, but hearing from a circle of people under a shade tree in Kisumu, it all seems remarkably clear.  It’s so refreshing to see numbers take on smiling, grateful, Christ-following faces!  I’m thankful for the part that I’m able to play in helping each one of those fifty people in Kisumu pursue their passion, and I hope you are too.  Over and over I was told to pass on appreciation to each of you reading this from the States, so please know that there are hundreds of lives in Kenya that will never be the same because of you part that YOU are playing! 

An incredible celebration in Kisumu!