Sermon Tone Analysis

Leading Out of Crisis, Part 1

Let's dive into new content, what we're gonna do is a two-part teaching, this is part one.

And part two drops on the third Thursday of this month, so two weeks from today we'll drop the new episode.

And I wanna start by stating the painful obvious truth that our world has been through over two year of extreme trauma.

And you know what we've been through, but the pandemic shut down the world, we've had countless tragic deaths.

We've had political division, we've had the ongoing racial tension.

We've had economic inconsistencies, and now we've got all sorts of new problems, supply chain issues.

You can't get anything delivered to you.

You've got soaring inflation, you've got soaring wages.

The Fed raise the interest rate, you've got a high employee turnover in many organizations, and of course you've got the war in Ukraine and the whole world feels very, very unsettled.

Well, I wanna tell you, in leadership language, how I've been processing the latest season.

With three decades of leadership experience, that means I'm getting kind of old, well, I've seen most different types of what you might call leadership seasons, or leadership situations, or leadership environments.

I thought that I've seen almost all the different things you could see, until I realized that I've never led in a season like we're in now.

And the reality is, neither of you.

None of us have led in this very unique season, and what I wanna do is try to unpack it for you in this episode and in the next one.

So here's what's been goin' on in my mind.

I have been so focused on leading well in crisis.

Heads down, hands on, intense leadership in crisis, that there's three things I didn't notice about this current season.

I'll tell you what those three things are.

The first thing I didn't notice, is the toll that crisis leadership took on me.

I didn't realize how difficult this was, and how much I was beaten down in the crisis leadership mode.

The second thing I didn't notice, is the toll that crisis leadership took on our leaders.

They've been paying a real price, and we've just been working, and I didn't realize just the weight they've been carrying, and the toll that they've been enduring.

The third thing I didn't notice, is that we've entered a completely uncharted season of organizational leadership, and let me say it again.

I can't overstate how important this is.

That right now, the season we're leading in, it is uncharted.

We have not led through this type of season in any of our leadership.

And I wanna unpack all of those, but I'm gonna spend the most time on the third one, and then we'll really spend a lotta time in the next episode.

Let's talk about the first thing, because this may hit you as a leader.

Number one.

I didn't realize the toll that crisis leadership took on me, Like you, for the last two years, I've been heads down, hands on, focused in an intense leadership season.

And due to the ongoing intensity, I was just kind of in the game, trying to lead well.

I didn't realize how emotionally exhausted, mentally depleted, and even spiritually fatigued that I was.

And I wanna slow it down for a moment, because this will speak to a significant percentage of you.

Most of you may be in a very same place, you don't realize the toll that the last couple of years have taken on you, because you've been in the game, you've been leading with intensity, you've had passion, you've had focus.

And there are many of you, and I want you to hear this.

Many of you, you're not just tired right now.

You're not just tired.

You are depleted.

And there's a really, really big difference, you aren't just tired, but you're depleted.

If you're tired, you can take a nap, you can go on a vacation.

But you aren't just tired.

You're depleted, you're empty.

And so you don't just need time off, you need time to refill.

You need to replenish your leadership energy, because, you'll never lead well when you're on empty.

If you don't refill, if you are depleted in your leadership, you have to refill or your leadership is always going to be limited.

And I wanna just kind of get into your personal business for a minute and tell you, it is absolutely up to you.

No one is coming to rescue you.

No one is gonna help you do this.

You have to take the initiative on your own, not just to rest, but to refill to do something that builds your faith, your energy, that is engaging your mind in a new way.

And you have to refill so that you can give out, in fact, I've talked openly about working with a performance psychologist for quite some time.

And what he helped me do, is to do activities, in order to refill, I have to disconnect my mind.

Probably like many of you, my mind is always spinning on leading the organization, I'm always thinking about issues.

I think about it when I wake up, I think about 'em in the middle of the night when my mind drifts to work-related issues.

And so in order for me to refill and be at my best, I have to disconnect my mind.

So, how do you do that?

And here's the key, it's gonna be different for all of us.

For some people, they're gonna disconnect their mind by relaxing, that might be gardening, or working with their hands, or reading, or meditating.

For my personality type, my counselor helped me understand, I need intense activity.

I need something that's high adrenaline, and something that even feels dangerous to me.

Hence, what I've talked about before, is I've been doing jujitsu for a little over a year, and I've been takin' flying lessons, I just passed my written exam, now I have my oral and my check ride before I get my pilot's license.

Are those things really dangerous, eh, they're pretty safe.

But when there's a guy much stronger than me smooshing my head on a mat, or I'm trying to land a plane by myself, it feels really, really intense, and what it does is it disconnects my mind, and that helps me to refill.

So what I want you to do in your leadership, is I want you to take a moment, and you may discuss this with your team, and assess where you are.

And I want you to look at four different areas and be really, really honest.

How are you physically?

Meaning, when you're leading intensely, sometimes your physical health slips, you might start eating comfort foods, you might not sleep as much, you might start using medicine to get to sleep, or you might start using too much caffeine to get going.

You might not be exercising, because you've been going, how are you physically?

Also, you wanna look at emotionally.

Leading well takes an extraordinary amount of emotional energy.

And when you give out and give out and give out, if you don't replenish your emotional health, you're gonna find yourself in a very compromised state.

Also look at your relationships.

Anyone who's leading intensely will oftentimes neglect some of their key relationships.

And that puts them in a very compromised situation, as it goes in your home, so it goes with you everywhere else.

That is primary to your effective leadership, and anything that matters in life.

And then look at your life spiritually.

Physically, emotionally, relationally, spiritually.

Sometimes we get distracted from what really, really matters in life, because we get so focused on the urgent problems.

We tend to forget what's really, really important.

It's a little bit like this.

If you've ever been in a fight.

Or if you've ever played some intense sports.

What happens is, if you're in a fight, you take a punch, or you're in the game and someone hits you, It doesn't really hurt, because your adrenaline is so high.

But afterwards you go, "Oh man, that was a real blow.

Oh man, I'm really hurt".

You start to assess, am I injured?

And this is very likely how many of you have been leading, you've been in such an intense battle, that you don't recognize the battle has taken a toll on you.

Assess where you are.

Assess honestly.

And what you wanna do is you want to make some adjustments, you may not be just tired, but you may be depleted.

And if you're tired, you can take a nap, if you're depleted, you actually need to refill.

Because you can't give out consistently without refilling occasionally.

We have to do this, and so, I wanna encourage you to really take a look, in order to continue to lead well, you have to take care of yourself.

The first thing I didn't notice was the toll that this season took on me.

The second thing that I didn't notice was the toll that crisis leadership took on our leaders.

Chances are, you're surrounded by really good leaders.

And like you, we have world class, durable, and very consistent leaders.

But think about what they've endured.

On top of all the organizational challenges, most of your team members experienced different forms of, let's just call it trauma.

They've had emotional challenges.