Daily Concern

Last year I had the opportunity to attend a brand new conference called Story. The focus was on effectively communicating the greatest story ever told. I was blown away at the creativity of the event. Everything thing from the website, promotion, atmosphere, hosts, music, drama and speakers was absolutely unique and inspiring.

I was so excited to hear that Story was coming back this year, this time I immediately signed up for two tickets, one for me and one for my wife. She’ll love the conference and we plan to stay a couple of extra days in Chicago as a weekend getaway. I’m also planning on sending another one or two people from my Marketing & Communications team.

If you a part of the communications, creative arts, web or video team in your church then do NOT miss this event. True to form, Ben Arment has re-worked this year’s conference to be completely different than last year – I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us all. Following are some exciting details regarding the event!

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STORY is a conference for the creative class in ministry on September 23-24, 2010 at Park Community Church in downtown Chicago. The purpose is to fuel the church’s artists, writers and producers in communicating the greatest story ever told. You’ll hear from some of the best creative practitioners in both ministry and the marketplace, from filmmakers and authors to actors and musicians. Presenters include:

• Dan Allender – best-selling author, professor at Mars Hill Graduate School
• Charlie Todd – creator of Improv Everywhere in New York City
• Princess Zulu – AIDS victim from infancy, advocate for the oppressed
• Jason Fried – founder of 37Signals, creator of Basecamp, author of Rework
• John Sowers – president of Donald Miller’s The Mentoring Project
• Shauna Niequist – former creative director at Mars Hill, author of Bittersweet
• David Hodges – formerly of the band Evanescence, award-winning songwriter
• Leonard Sweet – futurist, author of 40 books, professor at Drew University
• David McFadzean – creator of Home Improvement, producer of Roseanne
• Richard Walter – accomplished screenwriter and professor of film at UCLA
• Sean Gladding – member of Communality, a new monastic community
• Andrew Klavan – author of True Crime (Clint Eastwood) and numerous novels
• Gary Dorsey – founder of Pixel Peach Studio in Austin, TX
• Music by Vicky Beeching, Kari Jobe and Carlos Whittaker

Seating is limited to just 500 attendees, and the event is scheduled on a Thursday and Friday so you can enjoy the weekend in the city. Following its inaugural event in 2009, STORY is now a two-day, main-stage event with no breakouts or workshops; just an intimate audience with the top creative minds. You’ll be able to ask questions during the event and continue the conversation after it’s over. Visit www.storychicago.com.

If you don’t know me, let me set the record straight. I LOVE the University of Oklahoma. And I especially love OU football. They lost their 5th straight BCS bowl game on Thursday and their 3rd BCS title game. Maybe it's because they played on Jan 8th – that's normally a bad idea.

Why do I care so much about the Sooners, or the Dallas Cowboys, or whether my +30 golf handicap is better than my co-worker? Why do I lose sleep over a stupid football game? Why do I care if I win in golf when I so obviously suck at the game? Because I have passion. Passion drives me to love things, not just like them. Passion causes me to improve even in areas I’m not naturally gifted at. Passion keeps my mind racing with product ideas and problem solving in the middle of the night. Passion causes me to work harder, study longer, and care more – for just about everything.

Passion is not a bad thing. Sure I’m disappointed that the Sooners lost… again. But as the great philosopher Tony Romo said after a tough loss to the Eagles “If this the worst thing to happen to me then I’ve lived a blessed life”. Without passion, I would be impassionate. I would simply exist. I wouldn’t care. I wouldn’t feel pain. And without pain or loss we cannot fully appreciate or understand joy. So I embrace passion. I endure pain. I embrace challenges. I persevere. I strive to do better the next time. I attempt to learn from my mistakes. (And I assume the Sooners do too!) And when I or my teams (work or recreation) succeed, then success is all the more sweet.

I am thankful God instilled passion within me. My prayer is that I harness it and direct it towards things that matter. Like my faith, my wife, my family, my church, my community, Fellowship Tech, my co-workers, and our clients. If the Sooners, or the Boys’ or the Mavs do win a championship (albeit not likely) then that’s simply icing on the cake.

God bless,

Curtis S

A key aspect of leadership, perhaps one of the most important, is to clear any barriers or impediments to success for your team. I sometimes jokingly refer to it as “removing excuses”. I’m not suggesting that your team is looking for excuses not to accomplish their tasks and/or goals. But I wouldn’t be surprised that you’ve heard them list a number of reasons they fell short of their original plan. Some were likely legitimate and others were barriers you might have liked for them to push past.

It begins with telling your teacher “my dog ate my homework” or the one I heard from my son after he took the ACT test a second time and came back with a lower score than the first time, he said “My battery died in my calculator during the test”. It carries forward into the professional life with “My computer died”, “We ‘thought’ the back-ups were working”, “I didn’t think we had it in the budget”, and “I just didn’t have the time”.

Your role as a leader is to maintain open lines of communication with your team, ask them probing questions, make sure you understand if there are any technology, financial, hardware, software, or personnel barriers that will impede their success, and then remove them. It’s likely far more important that they are productive than you are.

If their laptop is outdated and inhibiting productivity, then upgrade it or replace it. If their keyboard is broken hand them yours until an adequate replacement can be found. If you believe they need a $40 book from Amazon to get them to the next level, then order it for them. You get the idea. Certainly you can’t solve every issue as they would expect. That’s where creativity comes in. Perhaps you cannot afford the specific thing they believe they need but you can help to find an adequate compromise.

Regardless, be aware of their inhibitors and then make every effort to clear the path for them to be productive.

My stomach was empty and I was full of optimism as I carefully placed my order through the faceless drive-in. “A number one with cheese, no tomato,
and a Dr. Pepper”. The person repeated the order back to me “A number one with cheese, no tomato, and a Dr. Pepper”. I naively thought to myself “They’re going to get my order correct!” I pulled forward, paid for my order, and they handed me the sack with the receipt attached. I rarely ever check the receipt but I did this time and wasn’t disappointed. The order clearly stated “minus Tomato”.

I was brimming with pleasure and satisfaction as I reached in to get my burger. What’s that? It feels too big, too heavy. Oh no, not again… Yep, you guessed it. I lifted the bun to find three large slices of a tomato sunk deeply into the cheese and soaked into the bun. My spirits fell, I was dejected, wronged once again. What started with such hope and promise ended just like every other trip I’ve made through a drive-thru. I like tomatoes as much as George Dubya likes broccoli.

Why do we even bother customizing our order at a drive thru? Why are these businesses and employees so indifferent? Is it a lack of training? A lack of knowledge or tools? Or a lack of motivation and emotional connectedness to their work?

Do you feel under qualified for your work? I do. Could you use more training? I could. Do you believe that more money for the proper tools, software and personnel is needed? I do. However, if you think about it, we’ll always feel that way regardless of what opportunities or resources are at our disposal. What we need most of all is to remember who we work for. Regardless of whether you flip burgers, gather trash, write software, lead people, teach children, or preach the word – we all should work as if we’re working for the Lord not for men. God expects our best, our very best. I believe it’s a good thing and a God thing to sweat the small details. Seek out excellence not just enough to get by. This is one of the reasons I love working for Fellowship Tech. Sure there are times we must compromise, make concessions, or we fall short of our goals or others’ expectations. However, our standards remain high. We have 100s of areas in which we are seeking to improve but I can assure you that our staff is committed to excellence, committed to a Colossians 3:23 attitude.

So next time leave off the tomato, go the extra mile, strive for excellence.

God bless,

Curtis S

I’m frequently engaged in conversations about an individual’s career through informal one-on-ones, mentor sessions, semi-annual checkpoints, or interviewing prospective new hires. Frequently one of the following statements are made — “I feel limited in my current role”, “I feel like I’ve accomplished all that I can in my job”, “I need a new challenge”, “Will this role allow me to grow?” Taken by themselves the statements and questions are valid. There are times when someone is ready to be moved to a new role or promoted to new levels of responsibilities. There are legitimate instances where someone worked in a “dead end” job at their previous employer. However, it’s been my experience that often the individuals making those statements and asking those questions are placing self-defined limitations on themselves based on the perceived scope and responsibilities of the role they were assigned within an organization. Or put another way, they are letting the size of the fishbowl (role) stunt their growth unnecessarily.

You shouldn’t feel limited by your current role or situation. Joseph never let his circumstances or role limit what God had planned for him (Genesis 37 – 50). He didn’t complain or “shut down” when things didn’t go as planned. Instead, Joseph kept his eyes on the prize, working as for Lord and not men, and through prayer, hard work, dedication, loyalty, and a servant heart he was rewarded with new challenges and new responsibilities.

So I encourage you today to feel empowered in your role and responsibilities, whatever they may be. You can grow and make a positive and lasting impact regardless of your circumstances.

God bless,

Curtis S