Column Title: Leadership Life Stories: Communicating and Leading through Your Story
Column Entry: “Measuring Success”
By Chris Hamstra, PhD, Davenport University
Description: There is a power when people come together to share stories. As people of faith, the practice and process of storytelling helps us understand ourselves, our communities, and our organizations. When combined with leadership, stories provide examples of how to serve authentically. This column brings people around the virtual campfire to explore the concept of leadership life stories and how to learn to engage people in the classroom and boardroom with wit and wisdom.
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I appreciate the ebb and flow of the academic year. My focus adjusts as the calendar moves from month to month. Working at a teaching institution for the past 20-years, the Fall semester typically is packed with new students and the blur of activity. Winter typically will see deeper conversations about learning and life. During Summer, I move from the classroom to the office to read and write.
I’m reading the book, The Choice: The Christ-Centered Pursuit of Kingdom Outcomes from authors Gary Hoag, R. Scott Rodin, and Wesley Willmer. They contrast the Common Path and the Kingdom Path. The Common Path focuses on ever growing results like: budgets, enrollment, services, income, and others. At my institution I hear how close enrollment and credits are to benchmark compared to the last five years. All common measures of success in business, communities, and education.
The Kingdom Path seems to flip this focus and defines success in terms of obedience to Jesus Christ. I like the description of Steward leaders who “…are not driven by production. They are Christ-followers who depend on God to produce everything.”[i] The authors ask readers to shift our focus from what we are doing for God to a focus on what God asks us to do.
Leadership Life Stories and Kingdom Goals
As we focus in on the Fall semester, I’m challenged to set up meaningful goals. This academic year the goals feel a little bit different. Instead of looking outside at the data points that can come from Student Evaluation of Teaching, I’m looking inside at my heart and my purpose as I engage the work. Instead of looking down at the career path, I’m looking up more at the journey the Lord has in front of me. My hope in this article is to continue some thoughts about the breath of the Holy Spirit in our leadership life stories and how we might define success.
Leadership life stories are based on the fundamental aspect of breathing IN and breathing OUT. Last column I suggested that the Greek work efharisto, which means Thanks, is a starting point of gratitude. As we take the first steps this academic year, let me offer some practical steps as we think about success this year.
Whisper – Leadership life stories can come through the whisper of the Holy Spirit. How are you listening for the moments to be obedient to the Lord throughout your day? I think about the small nudge to engage a learner who appears to be having a bad day. As I sit in meetings, do I really need to say what I’m thinking in the group?
An important step for me each day is trying to tune in with the leader of my life. Trying to hear the whisper of the Holy Spirit before my feet hit the floor. Before checking the headlines on social media, I try and start my days with gratitude for the challenges and good things going on. Often, this is as simple as a full breath in and out to say: “Efharisto (Thanks) Lord for the day.”
Conversation – As faculty, think about the shear number of words we say each day. I easily say 15,000 words through lectures and classroom conversations. A joy within leadership life stories is sharing experiences with others. More importantly, leadership life stories are the moments we listen with the human being in front of us and engage the back and forth of conversations.
How can you be obedient to the whisper of the Holy Spirit in your conversations? In my conversations this year, I’m specifically reminding myself that the person in front of me is made in the image of God. I’m seeking to be obedient to God’s call on my life to make disciples.
Shout – With another election this Fall, I’m preparing myself for the political conversations. I want to speak with quality information but I’m also prepared to listen well and be challenged in my ideas. I’m choosing to lean in to these difficult conversations. Psalms 19:14 (NIV) just popped in my head, “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight. Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”
As you engage the shouting that seems to be all around us, I’m reminding myself that there are times I really don’t need to immediately offer a quick or witty reply. How are you taking a moment to breath in and breath out?
Next Steps – Use a Compass
As we wrap up let me share this short story. I carry a compass in my backpack which comes to every class. The compass holds special meaning because it reminds me of my hometown in Colorado Springs, CO. I had to use this once before GPS to help my directions on a road trip. As a symbol, the compass has provided direction for years as I navigate life. This summer the compass holds new meaning for me connected to the Kingdom Path journey of obedience to the will of the Lord in my life.
Let me encourage you consider your goals and how you define success. My hope is that through the practice and process of leadership life stories that you are better able to point others to Christ through the stories you listen to and share in your classroom.
* The views of any CCSN columnists are their own, and do not necessarily represent the views of the CCSN. We invite and embrace a wide range of views and critiques on important communication and cultural issues from a Christian perspective. The CCSN is a community of Jesus followers who study communication. We do not support or promote a particular social, political, or denominational agenda.
Notes
[i] Gary G. Hoag, R. Scott Rodin, and Wesley K. Willmer, The Choice: The Christ-Centered Pursuit of Kingdom Outcomes (Winchester, VA: ECFA Press, 2014), 8.