5 Questions to answer:

1. What is your leadership challenge at work?

• Under challenged, Appropriately challenged, Dangerously over challenged
• At what level do you do your best work? Just a little above the appropriately challenged level.

Knowing that leaders do there best work just above the appropriately challenged level:

• If you are under challenged, do what you have to do to bring yourself up
• If you are dangerously over challenged, you have to do something quickly to fix that

What is the challenge level of your associates?

• Good leaders will leave if they are under challenged

What is the challenge level of the organization?

2. What is your plan for dealing with challenging people in your organization?

• If you lost 50% of your revenue, who would you keep/say goodbye to?

The key to an organizations future is their ability to attract and keep fantastic people. The same is true on the other end of the spectrum; an organizations future also depends on letting people go that need to be let go.

• How long do you let someone with a bad attitude remain?  30 days max, it is addressed as soon as you see a pattern develop
• How long do you keep someone who is under performing? 3 months. Put on a performance plan and address as soon as you see the pattern develop
• How long do you allow someone to remain when the organization outgrows that leaders capacity? These are tough calls to make. This almost always leads to heartbreak. 6-12 months are given to develop or redeploy. If they have to leave, you should honor them for their service and give them a generous severance.

If you don’t deal with people that have a bad attitude, you will discourage and defeat your fantastic people. You have to deal with challenging people quickly.

Challenging people, deep down, are not happy people. When you have these tough conversations many times they will come back and thank you later.

3. Are you naming, facing and resolving the problems that exist in your organization?

• Real leaders face and resolve the problems. It builds trust in the organization.

Ideas and programs will only last so long. Everything has a life cycle. The things that are booming and that have momentum now will eventually decorate and tank, becoming a problem that will need to be faced. They key is to reinvent before something tanks.

4. When is the last time you re-examined the core of what your organization is all about?

• Great leaders ask are we all about?
• The Bible is clear, the church is in the life-changing business.

5. Have you had your leadership bell rung recently?

• Leaders rarely learn anything new without having their world rocked or their bell rung.
• It is easier to make excuses than to create solutions to move your organization from here to there.
• Keep moving things forward. The way you end is the way you are remembered.