In today’s culture leaders need navigational tools to guide you (and your organization) from where you are today to where God is calling you to go. This oftentimes means the learning of new skills. Many however, attempt to rely on past experiences. While learning from past experiences is beneficial, yesterday’s skills alone will not serve you fruitfully into tomorrow’s needs. In our everchanging culture, continued learning for an adaptive skillset is advantageous. This not only applies to leaders, but this is also another principle that applies to every man, woman, and child.

We are no longer in the industrial age. During the industrial age leadership mainly consisted of showing people “how to do”. How to perform a certain job, how to run a certain machine, how to type on a typewriter, how to cook a particular meal. The industrial age is now decades behind us.

Today’s leaders and the leaders of tomorrow need to be, “how to be” leaders, not “how to do” leaders. People today are quite capable of self-navigation as long as we are asking the right questions. I have written in books and in several articles that I believe we are not asking the right questions. As long as we’re not asking the right questions, we will never get to the correct answers. Therefore, our people, our organizations cannot be the fruitful vessels God created them to be.

Yet, we are still operating out of a “how to do” mentality. Perhaps the biggest question leaders in every industry and organization (including the church) continually ask themselves begins, “How do we get them to…” This is an industrial age question. Perhaps a better type question to ask in this post-modern culture is more about me (the leader) and my approach to leading for top potential from all in my organization (even in my family).

Let me pose the following type question for effective, fruitful leadership in today’s culture. “What is within my power to encourage and equip others to reach for their full potential in this organization?” While this question is posed to the leader, the results will move the leader to higher skillset and pave the higher skillset pathway for each person within the organization. This question focuses on “how to be” instead of “how to do”. How can you be a better leader, guiding and assisting those in your charge to reach for his/her potential. You are helping him/her to BE who God created them to be.

I do realize that the “How to do” will always be part of leadership, yet it should not be our focus as leaders.

Leadership should not be focused on how to do, rather on how to be…all that God created each individual to be.  What will you do this week to transform yourself into a “How to be” leader? Plan your first steps today.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Challenges in our lives are important as they provide opportunities for growth on multiple levels. Growth opportunities provided from challenges include personal and professional, mental, emotional, and spiritual. When a challenge arises we can embrace it and pursue pathways to meet and overcome the challenge, or we can run from it, literally or figuratively.
When we meet or accept a challenge, healthy endorphins are released by the brain promoting a beneficial and encouraging state of mind. This positive outlook helps a person overcome the challenge before him/her. Endorphins have been described as the body’s natural pain reliever. When released they produce positive, happy emotions.
When engaged in any challenge, all positive sensations promote encouragement which can lead to higher capacity in overcoming the challenge. If you are challenged by your doctor to lose 30 pounds due to increasing health risks, it may be difficult to get overly enthused about change in diet and exercise. However, every positive small result promotes this opportunity for growth (better health).
Every victory inside a challenge, big or small, builds confidence in completing or overcoming the challenge. Each challenge overcome builds self-confidence. Along with this self-confidence you build your inner-trust, trust in your ability to overcome future challenges.
Additional benefits of overcoming challenges include building your skills, talents, and expertise in the area of the challenge. Overcoming a leadership challenge will assist you in building your leadership skillset. It is important to take mental note (at least) of all the small learning points while endeavoring a challenge.
Building your skillset will increase your leadership ability and your awareness of potential similar challenges. Do not be intimidated about learning through challenges. Whether facing leadership, parenting, health or any other challenge, new or improved methods and discipline will always benefit you in future situations and challenges.
So whether you are facing internal challenges (fear, impatience, lack of confidence) or external challenges (insufficient resources, health, or social issues) determine to meet challenges head on. Those challenges have a beneficial advantage for you and those in your life.
Determine to accept all challenges as opportunities for growth on multiple levels in your life.
George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Isn’t life filled with challenges? Certainly, everyone’s life is. Some challenges seem daunting. Some people face repeating challenges such as overcoming our anxieties. I know a young mother who had a terrible car rolling accident on icy roads. It took some time before she was able to get behind the wheel of a car. Her anxieties and fears came rushing back each time she did. Even years later when she must drive in bad weather conditions, she faces those same anxieties. Those are repeating challenges in her life.

Others are inspiring challenges motivating us to undertake the challenge. We all love success and every challenge in life brings opportunity for success. When a new, unexpected challenge presents itself, how do you respond? The attitude with which you respond to challenges goes a long way in determining how you will prosper.

Challenges can be both motivating and draining. Challenges always require some action on our part. The level of action given to any challenge will determine the amount of reward as well as the amount of drainage to our being. For some, the thought of drainage is more than he/she is willing to expend and they are likely to give up and abandon ship. Yet, the drainage can be part of our reward. An athlete vigorously exercises and trains throughout the year for a short season of competition. The drainage of those workouts are producing strength, skill, and endurance that is rewarded during competitions.

Likewise, in life we should be motivated to pour into our challenges knowing that the physical and mental drain is assisting us in meeting head-on and overcoming the challenge before us. The mental and emotional drain can be as depleting as physical drain. Physical drainage is easier to recognize and identify than is mental and emotional drainage. Each one is real and can cause unforeseen issues if not addressed.

Therefore, as we work through challenges, we must also recognize the need for rest and restoration to our body, mind, and soul – our complete being. Your body will tell you when it is physically spent. This is more easily recognized than emotional or mental depletion. For some reason most people do not want to accept the thought that we might be mentally or emotionally exhausted. Time away from our normal, harried mental practice is imperative for complete restoration.

What will you do this week to build a systemic restoration process which you can engage in following the challenges of life? What can you do to refresh your mental and emotional capacity and take care of your physical health as well? How will you safeguard that you will undertake these actions following your life challenges?

Build this restoration process in your life and defeat the drainage of challenges!

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

I’ve known Charley (name changed) to be a good, church going man, always well dressed, well groomed and polite. We’ve been in Bible studies together. Charley has even been known to lead Bible studies in his workplace. He is a professional industrial equipper/trainer for an international company. I’ve only known him to be a very caring, considerate man and a great family man. When I first heard someone sharing of Charley’s behavior at a youth sporting event, I thought surely they were speaking of a different person with the same name. Yet, I trusted the source and Charley’s behavior was later confirmed by another trustworthy person and then a third.

A façade is a false front, used in architecture to enhance the front of a building that gives a good first impression of all who ride by the building. What is inside the building or the construction of the building may be completely different. A building can be made of concrete blocks, or ordinary siding, yet the front of the building can be made to look like expensive, fine stone, to give an appearance of richness and high quality.

In life you and I can also present a façade, a fine outward impression, yet on the ballfield of life what is inside will shine through. The question is, “What is shining through when people see beyond your façade? Vince D’ Acchoili, in The transparent Leader writes of our familiarity of the great painting The Mona Lisa. Then he asks, But how many people could describe its frame?

A good picture frame complements the picture. A good frame never distracts from the beauty of what is inside. Our appearance – our façade – should never distract away from what is inside, because what is inside will always come out and shine through. When the inside is discovered to be less than the façade, disappointment is guaranteed. If what is inside is ugly or demeaning, even the nice façade loses its beauty.

More than a façade, we should strive to improve what is on the inside, always caring and considerate of others. The greatest achievement in life is to help others without expecting anything in return. If what is on the inside of a person is dissension, bitterness, and disdain for others, like an ugly stain, it will show through any façade you attempt to project. That stain will then be ever-present.

When people see you out in the ballfield of life, what do they see?

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

What you are in the middle of today is preparation for what you will do next. God has designed each of us with a purpose in mind. While He knit us together in our mother’s womb, He continues to build within us using our life’s experiences. Your prior experiences, jobs, relationships have all been building your strength and skill set for what you are doing today. Today’s experiences are building you for tomorrow, next year, and the rest of your life.

As we surrender our lives to Christ, we still must, in obedience to God, pursue improving our skill set, education, and strength of service. I often wonder if at the end of this life a question we will each hear from God is, “What did you do with what I gave you?” In a sense, coming from God that can be a startling question.

Regardless of who we are or what we accomplish in this life, God is the All-knowing God. He knows how much more we could do with His provision. I do not know how much I will miss, but I want to continue to build on what God has given me, striving to learn and improve in every area of life, as God wills. What I do today, I would never have dreamed of 25 years ago. God has brought people into my life to mentor, guide, and teach me, to strengthen me for today. He has provided opportunities for learning and equipping that would physically, mentally, and spiritually strengthen me for today. He has allowed me to walk through the events and situations of these past years, both good events and trials, to build me into His design that I might fulfill His purpose.

As we openly avail ourselves to God, He will continue to strengthen and prepare us for even greater things than our past. He wants our availability and our obedience. On the other side of obedience there is always a blessing. Each time we follow in obedience to where God desires to lead us, we will always find a blessing. Those blessings are part of the strengthening and building process of our lives.

Whatever your lot in life, wherever you find yourself today, thank God for all that He is allowing in your life because He is using every piece to build you for a fruitful tomorrow – fruitful for His desire, His plan, and purpose. Reach for your full capacity today, for God is wanting to use it to build you into your full God-given potential in your future.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

You’ve likely heard the adage, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” But have you ever considered how long it takes to make that first impression? Person to person that first impression is made in the initial ninety seconds. That’s right, less than two minutes. Each individual begins making an impression based on his/her life’s experiences and perceptions, even before the first words are interchanged.

In business and the church world we might have a little breathing space in the time that first impression is made. In the church, and the same is true with any business, there are four sets of firsts. With each one of these any newcomer will have an impression of your organization within the first three minutes.

The first is turning into your property. The first things a guest sees is making a lasting impression. How is the curb appeal, neatly landscaped, colorful, clean, or shabby, run down trashed? Three minutes is a long time. In most cases you will have made a lasting impression on a new comer in less than three minutes.

The second is signage. Is it clear to a newcomer where to park and where to enter your building? If they must drive around with no clear sign for point of entry, and a clean looking entry, some will keep on driving, looking for something more appealing.

The third is entering your building. People want to be greeted. Even Walmart learned this years ago, though they have gotten away from the original intent of their greeters. I’ve seen greeters in churches standing talking amongst themselves while ignoring guests walking in the door. This does not make a good impression.

Another important factor for guests entering your building is signage inside the building. Once inside is it clear where to go? Where are the restrooms, nursery, worship facility? Once inside a store is it clear which way to turn to get to the department or line of products desired? If not greeted, made to feel welcome with clear direction in three minutes, you’ve likely lost a returning guest.

The fourth area in the church is in the worship center. Is it warm and inviting? Are guests being greeted? Are members speaking to guests, welcoming them or staring at them? Within three minutes guests will know if this is a place which they desire to return.

It takes less than three minutes to make a first impression. Fortunately, you have four opportunities to make a good first impression in the church and other businesses. If you fail in any one of these, the other three may not be strong enough to garner a return visit.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” This famous quote by U.S. President John F. Kennedy requires a paradigm shift in one’s thinking from the normal. Culture has taught us to use a rank and order mode of leadership with children, students, employees, co-workers, and volunteers. And it is not something that has happened in the last few years. Even when Kennedy made the above statement, he was stepping out of the paradigm of normalcy.

Parents, managers, bosses, and teachers all have a deep-rooted conventional drive to tell instead of asking. When we do use questions, the ones we ask seldom allow growth potential of the individual. When presented with a possible better approach, many people  in leadership roles will reject or run from the needed change.

The paradigm shift in Kennedy’s quote was giving permission for each individual to break the chain of waiting to be told what to do and how to act. It actually shifted the responsibility of reaching potential onto the individual. Many people in leadership have a fear of making this type of shift. It is the fear of losing control.

Ironically, this shift can produce the most effective swing in any organization, from family to church to a fortune 500 company. Children learn responsibility, workers and volunteers learn accountability and capacity. Our nation has moved away from instead of embracing Kennedy’s mindset when he made the statement quoted in the opening of this article. Rather than empowering people to reach for their potential, we are building generations of restrained thinkers.

As leaders we should be asking ourselves, “What must I do to empower others to reach for his/her potential?” It is when we empower others that we become true leaders instead of managers and rulers of people.

Sample generic questions that empower toward reaching potential:

What steps would you consider critical for you to complete your task?

How will you include the input of others to help you accomplish this feat?

How should leaders and members share in the responsibility of forward progress?

What equipping provisions could be implemented for leaders of your team?

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Have you ever walked in the dark carrying a light behind you? A light behind you will not light the path in front of you. Thes same is true with a light focused on you. To make forward progress, to advance in the dark, you must remain behind the light. To see the path in front of you must remain behind the light. When walking a dark path, we all know to keep the light focused on the path in front of us.

Leaders will do well to take a lesson from walking a dark path and the shining light concept. Effective leaders never shine the light on themselves. This should be understood as common practice, yet often it is not. Too many people in leadership positions have as their first priority to always have the light shining on themselves. This habitually comes from the lack of understanding the shining light concept.

A light shining on yourself will not only not illuminate your path, but it will also blind you to the obstacles along the path. It is also easy to be blinded in life and leadership when we desire the light shining on ourselves instead of focusing the light on the path ahead. Society has trained us to shine the light on ourselves. In doing so, it has failed to equip us with the knowledge needed to turn the light to guide us on the path ahead.

An effective leader will always keep the light in front of himself and focused on the path ahead, not turned to illuminate the leader. When the light is focused on the path ahead, everyone walking with the leader sees what lies ahead and the entire group makes forward progress. In this situation, the person with the light is truly leading with the light focused as it should be – for everyone’s benefit.

When you remain behind the light allowing it to light the path, everyone benefits, including the leader. This leader not only has a title, he/she is truly leading others by guiding them with the beam of the light casting forward. The leader benefits as people and the organization moves forward. All following the light will begin to trust and respect the leader for his/her role in the organization’s progress.

In your roles of leadership, at work, home, church, and other areas, where is the light focused? Is it on you as you attempt to climb the ladder of success, or as you try to prove why you are better than others? If so, I pray you will see the light (pun intended) and turn the light around, insuring you stay behind the light, illuminating the way for every man, woman, boy, and girl who look to you for leadership. Stay behind the light, positioning it so that all will have a safe and confident journey, making forward progress.

As we stay behind the light, we are always able to walk toward and into the light.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

Mr. and Mrs. Styles decided to have Mrs. Styles homeschool their children – all eight of them. While she knew that each of her children had individual personalities, Mrs. Styles soon realized they not only acted differently with different personalities, they also had differing approaches to learning.

The oldest two children were twins, Vanessa and Veronica. Vanessa prefers to experience learning with words. She enjoys group discussions and doing word studies. Her twin, Veronica is a visual learner. She learns best by physically seeing the lesson in front of her. Veronica experiences learning through object lessons, videos, and posters or maps. Vanessa is a Verbal learner, Veronica is a Visual learner.

Larry is the oldest son of Mr. and Mrs. Styles. Larry takes after his father. He functions best through well thought out processes. Mr. Styles helps his wife design Larry’s learning experiences to include outlines, notebooks, and well-structured short lectures. Larry, is a Logical learner.

Paul is the next in line and Paul has an active personality. It is more difficult for Paul than others to learn from one stationary sitting position. Paul likes to move around and enjoys movement in the room. Mrs. Styles always gets Paul involved in acting out situations and playing active games. Paul is a Physical learner.

Michael is next and he has a gift of musical talent. His mother knows that Michael learns best through Musical activities. She plans his learning activities around listening to music, writing lyrics to accommodate the learning experience, or researching songs to highlight a lesson. Michael is no doubt a Musical learner.

Robin is a young lady with a highly active social personality. She loves being actively involved around other people. Her mother understands Robin functions well in a learning experience that includes other people. Mrs. Styles plans Robin’s learning experiences around activities that include, small group studies, exploring case studies, discussion panels, and role playing. Robin is a Relational learner.

Nathan, the youngest of the male siblings, has a preference for things of nature. He has always had an affinity for collecting things of nature. Nathan’s best learning experiences come from being outside, planting, cultivating, discovering things outside or discussing God’s creative work. There is no doubt Nathan’s learning preference is that of a Natural learner.

And then there is Rebecca, the youngest and quietest of the eight. Rebecca approaches learning quietly. She works well alone, in a contemplative state. Rebecca is a thinker. Her mother often plans Rebecca’s learning experiences to include times for Rebecca to sit alone, quietly contemplating, thinking about the truths of a lesson and what it means to her in this learning situation. She enjoys writing in a journal, answering opinionnaires, and keeps her own diary. Rebecca is a Reflective learner.

As Bible study leaders this is what we are challenged with every week. The eight learning preferences listed above are not eight Styles children, they are the learning styles behind the faces in your Bible study each week.

Though they may have different names you have in your classroom every week:

Vanessa the Verbal learner

Veronica the Visual learner

Larry the Logical learner

Paul the Physical learner

Michael the Musical learner

Robin the Relational learner

Nathan the Natural learner &

Rebecca the Reflective learner

While you do not need to plan a different lesson for each learning style, you should include teaching methods that highlight various learning styles for each session. If you only use one teaching method week after week, you will never see the growth potential of your class members, spiritually or numerically.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.

The objective of any educational setting is not to teach but that the learners learn. Christian education must move beyond the telling plane and allow our listeners to become active learners. We want the listeners to learn and we must utilize the different methods available to ensure learning takes place every time we meet.

A doctor will prescribe an antibiotic for an illness. If that antibiotic does not bring about restoration of health, he prescribes another one, something different. If the first one did not bring about the desired change, the doctor does not continue to use the same prescription.

We need a teaching prescription to restore the health of the church. A prescription to bring about life-change in our learners. If our teaching does not affect change in our listeners, what are we teaching? In some of our churches the same prescription has been in use for forty or fifty years to no avail.

The concept behind a medicine is to bring about change in a person’s health. If a medicine does not bring about the desired change a different prescription must be tried. In Christian education, the inspiration behind teaching is to bring about change in the learner’s spiritual health. If life-change is not occurring, a different prescription (teaching method) must be tried.

I contend that much of the “Christian education” in our churches is not affecting the life-change desired. If it were would the majority (90%+) of our churches be in decline? What is the evidence of effective, life-changing teaching? Would it not be found in people’s lives being radically changed, sharing the gospel and the love of what God is doing in their life and the life of the church? Would we not see our members bringing new people into the fold of Christ?

One place to start is with active learning. Active learning will only come to pass when learners are allowed to participate in the learning process. Active learning helps people use their natural God-given learning abilities. Each time you deliver a lesson there are up to seven different learning styles sitting in front of you. As a teacher using only one method of delivery, you may only be reaching one-seventh (1/7) of the potential learning in your classroom pupils. That means, at best you may be affecting only 14% of the learning potential in your classroom. Actually, 14% is likely a stretch.

Spending time studying learning styles will make you a more effective teacher. Developing and using different teaching methods will make you a more efficient teacher. Prepare your lesson with each of your class members in mind, then build your lesson using various methods that engage the different learning styles. Introduce different methods in your teaching and you will see your class begin to learn at an increased level, and with greater enthusiasm!

Allow God to stretch you in the way you teach and He will pour out blessings on you and through you.

George Yates is an Organizational Health Strategist and coach, assisting churches, organizations, and individuals in pursuing God’s purpose for life. Click here to receive this blog in your email inbox each Tuesday.