[00:00:00] Good morning, afternoon, evening to everyone, depending on where you are joining us from. I know that we have several people internationally joining us, so we are so glad that you’re joining us. Welcome to the Kingdom at Work webinar. I’m Amanda Bullen. I’m the manager of Kingdom at Work, and our mission at Kingdom at Work is to inspire, ignite, and equip leaders to find their why.

Before we dive into today’s content, let’s go over a few housekeeping items to ensure a smooth and productive session. First and foremost, we want this webinar to be as interactive as possible. So, uh, Please feel free to use the chat feature, uh, to ask questions or share your thoughts throughout the presentation.

Uh, we really value your participation. Now about the questions, uh, we will have a dedicated Q& A session at the end of the presentation [00:01:00] where we’ll address many of the questions you’ve submitted. So if you have a burning question, um, um, don’t worry, we will get to them. Um, if for some reason we can’t address all of your questions, um, during the Q& A or if there’s a question that requires a more in depth answer, Fear not, we’re committed to providing valuable content, so some of the unanswered questions may be featured in our upcoming blog post.

So keep an eye on our blog for more insights and answers. Lastly, this webinar will be recorded, and the recording will be available for you to review or share with colleagues. We’ll send out an email with the recording link. Shortly after the event. Thank you all for being here, and without further ado, here’s Rick Beaton bow as he dives into developing everyone.

Well, hey y’all, I’m so excited to be here. I’m so glad that you’re here. Um, this is [00:02:00] a really exciting topic for me. Developing everyone. Um, I think a good place to start here is where we ended maybe last time. A reminder that God loves all of his creation. After all, he well created it, but his favorite part of his creation is you and me, and specifically the people that we might lead.

They’re his people. Moses said this, Lord, these are your people. David said this, uh, Solomon prayed for wisdoms to lead God’s people. And we should remember that these are God’s people, his precious creation, the most precious part of his creation. And so he entrusts them to us, and he expects them to to be fruitful, to develop them.

And so we have a mandate from God to do that. And that’s a very important place to be in this. Um, so second thing that, or [00:03:00] really the first thing on this point is. a reminder that your leadership is spiritual. Um, I know sometimes people are nervous when, when I say, Hey, you’re a spiritual leader or you’re the spiritual leader.

They don’t understand that whether they’re thinking about it or not, their leadership is spiritual. It’s just a matter of what spirit is leading you while you lead your people. And you want to make sure that that’s the right spirit. God’s spirit is the, is the right spirit to lead me as I lead my people.

Maybe some of the common spirits that are out there just to kind of contrast this or. I’m too task oriented or I’m career oriented, or I’m engaged in things that I shouldn’t be. And God wants me to let his spirit lead me and he wants to talk to me about my people. Um, when we understand it, when we think of it that way, we know that God’s spirit does some things.

Jesus in John [00:04:00] 16 says. I have to lead so that I can send you the spirit of truth. He’s talking about the Holy Spirit, and it’s variously called counselor, teacher, helper. But I love spirit of truth, and that’s an important way to think about it. Because God’s spirit, the spirit of truth, Jesus said, will lead you into all truth.

So a couple of thoughts here, as I’m letting God’s spirit lead me, the first thing I should remember is that God’s spirit knows everything. Isn’t that be an amazing thing for me to know things that I can’t know any other way, but that God’s spirit tells me about. And you first got to believe that God’s spirit knows everything.

And then the second thing, it reveals those things to me, reveals things to me that I might not know or can figure out otherwise. Also, the spirit of truth inspires, you know, really, I’m just looking for the truth. Who should I hire for this role? What do I need to talk to him about? How do I [00:05:00] help them grow?

These are all things that God’s spirit can reveal to me. If I’ll just stop and ask. I was talking to someone the other day, a leader who said You know, I had a meeting with an employee coming up and I was a little nervous about it. And she said, so I just started asking the Lord, Lord, what do you want me to say to this person?

What’s really going on? They were having a problem and it was a problem they had talked about. And she was just, she needed some wisdom. She needed God’s spirit to lead her and reveal something to her that was powerful. And God did that. That spirit gave her an idea about what was going on with this person.

And when she sat down with him, it was inspiring that she knew what was going on. And then it also finally illuminates, that is, gives me a light on the path, my next step with this person. Should I abide with them? Should I move on from them? You know, these are all parts of this conversation with people.

Um, [00:06:00] so the first rule here is your leadership is spiritual and you should be led by God’s spirit as you lead people. Um, and you’re going to have to stop and ask the Lord for that. And, um, Dig into that, and you might have to do that more than once with folks. The second thing is this idea that we started talking about a little bit last time, which is my mindset and my language needs to be developmental, not judgmental.

Remember, primary way that people grow or develop is mistakes and corrections. Um, think of it like this. If I get in a plane, I’m going to fly from Lubbock to Kansas city. How many changes? In the steering, am I going to make hundreds, thousands of little adjustments? There’s not a problem there. That’s what it takes to stay on course and fly all the way to Kansas City.

If I don’t make those little adjustments, I’ll end up in Canada or Mexico. [00:07:00] And so we need to understand that development is all about these macro adjustments that we make as we go along. And let’s use the right language. I think sometimes we can get caught up in judgmental language. And I. often coach our leaders to not use these words.

Don’t say things like you can’t do this, or you can’t be a manager here, or I don’t think you can or you aren’t. You won’t. You don’t. Those are not the right ways.

Hey, we’re having some technical difficulties right now. So just stay with us right now. Give us one second. If at any time, um, that Rick has said anything in the previous few minutes, um, about developing your people that you have a question about, we would love to answer that live. Um, the last little bit [00:08:00] of our, um, webinar, we will do that and we will cover, um, what that means as a leader.

Um, to be able to provide, um, developmental feedback and not judgmental feedback. So we will get that taken care of. Um, I apologize. We have had some wifi issues, but we are taking care of that right now. Give us just a moment. So if there is, um, any questions you have down at the bottom, um, the chat button, you can add into that.

Um, earlier I said that if we didn’t get to your question, cause we usually get quite a few and some are very in depth. We will add those in on our blog. And so our blog, if you have not signed up for that, um, you can go to our website and those come straight to your inbox and our website is kingdomatwork.

com. And, um, we will get you signed up for those and Rick is back [00:09:00] and smiling, so we are ready. All right, Rick. Sorry about that, y’all. Seems like, uh, we’re constantly under attack, our communication is. So let’s come back to our slide one back, Brooklyn, please.

Changing our language and also changing our mentality here. I love the idea that we would invite people to think about what’s in their way of developing. How can I help? Uh, let’s go do this together. What do you need? Do you see the difference in the way this feels to someone? Rather than you can’t or you aren’t doing this or you haven’t been doing it or you won’t do this.

Those, that language is terrible. It really compresses people and They don’t have any place to go and it’s not actionable. That’s one of the things I like to say is I can’t do anything with, you can’t be a [00:10:00] manager or you can’t do this. I can do something with you can, if you will do this. And sometimes I say things like, I need to see this.

I haven’t seen this from you, but I believe you have it in you to do this. So I need you to make a change here. And that’s a, that’s more developmental. We want to help people go to the next level, to go to the next place to grow. And I think we need to give ’em actionable language and we need to believe in it and believe in them and let’s, this is not taken away from the idea that they still have to do it.

They’re still going to have to do it. Um, and I’m going to watch for that. But it’s the leader’s job to provide clarity and it’s the team member’s job to provide commitment. They make a commitment to this. They give their best to it. And that’s how we have to think about this.

You know, one of the things I love about [00:11:00] the Bible is God, all through the Bible, sees people for what they could be, and not what they are currently. Um, you know, David was 14 years old when he sent Samuel to anoint him king of Israel. And that shepherd, that little young shepherd in the field, couldn’t have been further from being a king, but God knew he hadn’t any to be the king, and sent Samuel to anoint him to that purpose.

In fact, even Jesse’s, even Jesse, David’s dad, when Samuel said, assemble your sons, he didn’t even think about David being one of the one, being the one, and he didn’t even call him in, because he didn’t see him that way. He didn’t, he didn’t see him for who he could be, he just saw him for who he was, and he didn’t think this little shepherd boy could be the king of Israel.

But God did this commonly through the Bible, and he does that commonly with us. And so, could we do this? Could we see people for what they could be, and then [00:12:00] call them up as God did? He called Moses up, said, you can do this. Moses even said, I don’t think I can do this. God said, yes, you can do this, and I’ll go with you, but you can do this.

And that’s the way we should be with these people that we’re meeting, if we want to develop them. You know, a reminder here, too, is, Developing people is not for my benefit or my organization’s benefit. It’s for their benefit. I want to develop them to the highest potential for God’s purposes. And he may move them to another business.

But what if you raise someone up, teach them some things, give them some skills, give them some courage, some confidence, and they leave your enterprise to go do this somewhere else. Sometimes I think we think of that as a bad thing. as a loss. And what we should do is we should celebrate that. That’s to be about the kingdom and not about my kingdom, be about God’s [00:13:00] kingdom is I want to develop someone for God’s purposes and for them to have the benefit of that somewhere else.

Maybe that is a powerful way to think about this. Um, I think the next thing we need to talk about that’s really important is if we’re going to have this style about us. We’re going to let the Lord lead us and give us the truth about things, and we’re going to be developmental and we’re going to, we’re going to be optimistic.

That’s honestly what being developmental is, is I’m going to be optimistic. I might not really in my heart believe someone can make, can do the things they need to do to grow, but I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt. And I’m going to give them my very best effort. I’m going to be excited. to go with them as they cross into some kind of growth.

But we have to be honest. They have to do it right. So we have to be truthful. And what I really mean by that is be truthful to ourselves. I [00:14:00] think often we just hope for people to develop that they’ll pick it up, they’ll catch it, that I tell them one time what they need to do and they’ll do it. And as leaders, we all know that’s just kind of not how it goes.

They’re going to need some guidance and constant guidance. And around here in beating Boland, we always say, don’t squint. And what we’re talking about is When you’re hiring someone, don’t squint. Um, don’t, don’t hope that something’s true. And if you’ve already hired them and you’ve called them out for some growth, and you’re walking with them, calling them up to some growth, I should say, and you’re walking with them toward that growth, don’t squint.

They need to make progress. They have to do this and you’re going to check in with them regularly and you’re going to watch for progress. That’s how I gauge this. When I invite someone to change what they’re doing so that growth can happen, [00:15:00] I’m going to watch for progress. And when progress stops, we’re going to start talking about this, honestly.

We also say something right here, don’t shoot them twice, because I think sometimes when someone is not growing or doing the right things in the role they’re in, we might want to move them to something else. And if we’re going to move them to something else, it needs to be because they’re going to be truly a good fit for that something else, not because they’re not a fit for what they’re doing.

See, it’s, it’s kind of like shooting them when you move them from what they’re doing. And you’re going to shoot them twice. If you move over something, they can’t do that either. If, if, if this is a behavioral or attitude thing, it needs to be adjusted or some skills are required for that other job, you’ve got to develop those in them and it’s, they’re not qualified for that role just because they’re not qualified for the role again.

Um, I see this happen a lot in our organization at times. He will move someone to something else because it’s not working [00:16:00] out, but they move them over there because it’s not working out, not because they’re a great fit for the next thing. And that is just the wrong way to do that. We ended up shooting twice.

So maybe, maybe they ended up letting them go. And that’s the other thing. There comes a moment when we just have to say, you made a commitment to this. And I don’t see that commitment being fulfilled. Um, I don’t see the changes that need to be made. For this growth to happen. And so I got to make a change and I invite somebody to go find something that they’re really passionate about something that can be better at than there being in this role they’re in.

And we just have to recognize that God has a very high accountability and so should we. Moses was removed from management, y’all. There’s just no other way to say it. God removed Moses from management. He loved him. He established him as the leader to go get the people. And I don’t think he changed his mind.

Moses just didn’t do everything that he needed to do. And God removed him from management and gave that role to someone else. He said, [00:17:00] you’re going to come be with me, but I’m going to give this job to Joshua, and you’re not going to cross over into the promised land. And, um, he still loved Moses and I can still love someone when I say, Hey, I’ve got to make a change here.

There’s not the progress or the commitment to growth that I asked for. And so I’m going to have to move on. Now, I want to make sure that I’ve done everything I can, that I, that I really walk with him, that I give them every possibility to, to achieve this. role to grow in this that I walk with them closely.

God said, I’m going to go with you, Moses. You know, and I’m going to, I’m going to be there and you can talk to me about everything and I’m going to lead you as you lead the people. And that’s how we should be leading the people alongside them. Like that, I believe that the leader’s job is the people and that the job that needs to get done belongs to the people.

I should not be doing my people’s job. I should not [00:18:00] be dragging them along and we’re doing that job together. They should be doing the job. And I should be taking care of them and making sure they have everything they need, including confidence, the courage, the resources, everything they need to do that job.

And that’s how people develop by doing that job. If you do it for them, they don’t develop. Um, they develop when they do the job and you’re there to encourage them and give them everything they need to make sure that happens. Well, um, this is a. This is the, this is the highest calling of the leader is to be developmental.

You know, the number one job for a leader around here is to make sure that the people that come on board that team are being developed, that they’re better. tomorrow than they were yesterday. We want development leaders. We should be development leaders. This should be something that we’re thinking about all the time.

We need to be praying all the time. Lord, what do I need to do to help people grow to be [00:19:00] better and better and better? I want them to to become the very best person they can be. I want to lead them well spiritually and financially and personally and professionally in every way. So that they can have the most opportunity for success.

That’s what God wants. He wants his people to flourish and he wants his leaders to have a developmental role in that. Helping your people flourish is your primary job. It’s my primary job. And it’s something that I think about all the time and pray about it, ask the Lord to lead me in. And that’s where the spirit of truth comes.

Is this really working out, Lord? Uh, is it time for me to move on? Is it time for me to. Give them a new opportunity. Those are things that, that I need to be talking to the Lord about. And I need to have a genuine, a deep relationship with these people to do that well, I need to, I need to truly love them. I can’t truly leave people that I don’t love.

And if I don’t love them, I need to ask the Lord to break my heart for them. And I’ve said this several [00:20:00] times through this season, but it’s worth saying again, most important thing you can do is. Continually, ask the Lord to break your heart for the people, to show you, give you empathy for them, and to develop a deep relationship with them.

Because you know, when I have a relationship with someone, I can tell them anything, I can make them happy. I can help them grow with hard, hard accountability. Um, I’ve had hard accountability from people that I’m meeting because that goes both ways. Um, I told this story this week, the group of our leaders, someone asked me what my hardest correction had ever been.

And you know what it turned out to be in my mind instantly when I asked that question, it was a correction that an employee made of me years ago, Charlie. Was, uh, part of our leadership team. And he came to me one morning and said, Rich. I don’t think I can work here anymore. I’m gonna, I’m gonna go on. I said, Charlie, what’s going [00:21:00] on?

I love Charlie. He’s doing a great job. I couldn’t imagine that he would go somewhere else. And I certainly certainly wasn’t my idea. I said, what’s going on, Charlie? He said, well, you and your dad and dad and I were leading the company together at the time. It’s sometimes you and your dad. And he said this is a great thing on some days and not so great on other days.

You guys start, you and the North Pole and him and the South Pole and y’all passionately discuss or maybe argue about things and sometimes that doesn’t, isn’t healthy and sometimes it’s even a little harsh. And he said in the last couple of times it’s been too harsh for me to, to be around and I, I just can’t do that anymore.

And I realized that instant that he was giving me a 9 1 1. He was, he was quitting me. You know, he was firing me. If you think that a boss can’t be fired, well, this is how it happens. Somebody that you love and need and want on that team goes because of your leadership. They just fired you. And in this [00:22:00] moment, Charlie was firing me.

He was correcting me and in a harsh way and in a tough way. And I realized instantly my heart was broken, but I needed to make a change there. And in fact, I invited Charlie to hold me accountable that change. I said, Charlie, I can’t change that for both of us, but I can change that for me, how I respond.

And would you help me with that? And so he said, well, sure. I said, stay and help me grow. Don’t go and let me die in this moment. I think that’s the best way to think about it. And I invited him when Dad and I would get into a heated conversation like that. to give me a look, a kind of a little sideways look, kind of a code word that I needed to cool it.

And I agreed to be accountable to that. And over the next months, he did that. When we, when that would happen, he’d give me, and I knew that in the moment that was the Lord speaking to me through Charlie, settle down, [00:23:00] change your posture, and don’t do this. And that is The way development goes is I make a commitment to it in my leader, or in this case, somebody I’m leading holds me accountable to that and that accountability does go both ways.

What a precious thing that was. I learned a lot in that season and it really improved my relationship with dad as we led. So we need to do three things just as a reminder, be led by God’s spirit, the truth as you lead your people. Secondly, do this with a developmental style, a relational and developmental style.

I’m going to get to know them well so that I can correct them in relationship and they’ll hear it and adjust to it. And I’m going to use positive language, hopeful language. I’m going to give [00:24:00] them the benefit of the doubt that they can do it. And I’m going to go with them and make sure they have confidence and all the resources they need to do it.

And then third, I’m going to be truthful about that result. Are they truly committed to this? Do I, do I have their commitment, both in words and in action, over time, and am I holding them accountable? And have I invited them to hold me accountable? How can I help you grow? That is me inviting you to hold me accountable to your growth.

You may need some things from me. And so that’s the way I think about those three things, and I hope that helps you all. So let’s answer some questions. All right, really great. Thank you, Rick, for challenging us. We’ve got quite a few questions, and so if you have any, um, that are pertinent to what Rick just talked about, go ahead and add those in the Q& A.

So first question, and this is in regards to what you were talking about earlier, [00:25:00] Rick, getting a commitment from a team member. Can you give us some examples of getting a commitment from a team member and what that looks like? Sure. Um, well, a couple of times I have had to do this where a leader maybe gets a little bit, uh, you know, I’m mostly leading leaders.

I’m not really leading, uh, frontline employees much anymore these days. So, uh, my perspective of that is, do a leader. So I have a leader that I’m leading, and They become distracted or spread a little thin and they’re not as focused or spending as much time or engaged with their team as they should be.

And most recently I actually did this. I went to a leader that I’m leading and I said, man, I need a, I need a closer engagement from you and your team. [00:26:00] Too far away from them, too far back from them. And they need closer in Europe than we’re doing. And. He agreed. He understood. And I said, so then what I need to do is make this formal.

I say, do I have your commitment? That you’ll have that you’ll work closely engage right away. I don’t mean next week. I’m talking about today You’re going to go more closely engage with your team Do I have your commitment to do that and i’m looking that person straight in the eye and they have clarity Uh, if they don’t have clarity and they might say what do you mean exactly?

I’m my job is to is to be very precise. What do I mean? Um, go to them more often during the day and talk to them about what they’re doing and what they need, or be more careful to make sure that you’re talking about the thing, decisions they’re making. Sometimes when they’re, when they don’t have good close engagement, people are making [00:27:00] decisions.

And they needed to have more conversations with their leader, but their leader’s not, not closely engaged. So in this case, I asked for a very specifically for that commitment. And he said, yes, I am committed to that. Now, sometimes if, if they can’t commit to that, you might give them some time, right? Why don’t you go home and think about that today?

And let’s talk tomorrow. Or maybe over the weekend. Let’s talk on Monday because I don’t want a snap commitment in this moment. I want a deep commitment that you’re going to make that you’re going to keep. I want to commit that you’re going to keep right? So I want to give them some time sometimes to do that.

I want them to verbally commit to this. I want to make sure they have good clarity about what they’re committing to. And then I’m going to say, Okay. Okay, so I have your commitment to do that, and I’m going to hold you accountable to that. Are you agreeable to that? You may say yes or no, and that’s what I mean by verbal commitment and then my [00:28:00] commitment to that holding accountable to that.

Good stuff. Thank you for that, Rick. Yeah, Rick said earlier, it’s the leader’s job to bring clarity and the team member’s job to bring commitment. So thank you for Answering that. So Rick, you said that you are a leader of leaders. And so that’s different terminology than some people have. So one of our questions includes about the C suite.

So that is leading leaders. And they asked if you could share some examples of how you resolve disagreements and hurt feelings within the C suite team.

Well, um, the first thing about a C suite team, really, maybe this applies to any team, but it certainly applies to a team where you’ve got really experienced, um, mature leaders. And I hope that a C suite team is a, your, that [00:29:00] your C suite team has experienced mature leaders. Um, they’re going to, they’re not going to be short on opinions, right?

They’re going to, these are likely to be strong personalities, With and everybody has an opinion and, you know, a couple of things to remember. It’s not the senior leader’s job to come up with all the ideas. It’s the senior leader’s job to make sure all the ideas are heard and that the best one is chosen.

And so that’s a critical view for the senior leader to have as you lead a team of high capacity leaders. You don’t have to come up with all the ideas. You just got to make sure that all of them get aired and we pick the best one. And so one of the ways that I think we really help that is by openly inviting everyone’s opinion for anything that we’re about to do.

I might believe in my heart that I know what, what way we should go, but I’m going to make sure that everybody on that team. has an opportunity [00:30:00] to voice their opinion about which way we should go. And they all know that only about, you know, 10 percent of the time is my idea going to rule over that. Very often, if we’ve got really good people, we’re going to choose one of these other ideas.

And so everyone has a seat at the table. Everyone has an opportunity to bring their idea. And that goes a long way toward Everybody being excited about this over time, and they know that normally what happens is once everybody voices their opinion, it becomes kind of clear to all of us which one of those ideas is the best idea in it.

And I’m inviting everybody to get excited about somebody else’s idea if it’s the best one. And we all know that we want the best idea, not my idea, because our idea is going to be the best idea, the one that we come up with together, and then we’re going to unpack it together. I think what I’m saying is, The best way to avoid hurt feelings and feelings of rejection and those kinds of things are by just [00:31:00] avoiding coming to that place ever.

Giving people a voice and Inviting them to buy in and to take somebody else’s idea together, we’re going to make it the best that it can be because often we say this to when somebody has an idea before you think about it too much, get too entrenched in it, throw it out there so that we can all beat up on it or improve on it together, and then it becomes our idea.

Your idea just became our idea. And then as we work on it, it becomes our solution to this problem. Now, this agreement ultimately can still happen where no matter how much conversation we have, it actually happened this morning in a leadership meeting with all of our team, everybody was agreed on one thing.

One person was not, but that person is a seasoned leader and, uh, they’re not going to get their fingers hurt. He actually said out loud. Sounds like everybody else. is excited about that direction, and I’m the one that’s [00:32:00] not. But if everybody else is, then I can get on board with that. And I really appreciated that.

Now, there comes a time when someone really feels strongly, can’t get on board with it. And if, as long as we all believe that that’s coming from the right heart, Then what I like to do is say, Hey, let’s don’t make a decision, baby. And let’s sleep on this. Let’s all go do our, our thing and let’s reconvene and see how we’ll feel about it overnight.

And let’s all commit to ask the Lord, Lord, what should we do? We have, we’re not in complete agreement and let’s don’t proceed until we are. Um, now we can’t take forever. And ultimately it falls to me as a senior leader to make the decision, which way we go. And what I would probably do in the case where somebody is strongly feels That they, that it’s the wrong idea and everybody else has agreed.

Or I know that I believe the Lord is leading us to do this. I’m going to go talk to them, you know, apart from the rest of the group and say, Hey, I think this is the [00:33:00] idea that the Lord wants us to go with. Um, can you get on board with that? Are you okay with that? And we have a deep enough relationship because relationship.

Makes a big difference when someone everyone knows that I love them and care about them and respect them and want their idea and love their ideas. They’re open to anything. Um, a few days ago, somebody else said this, I think that we were talking about somebody we’re going to hire and they said, I don’t think that that person is the right person that you should hire, but I trust And so I’m just giving you my opinion, but if in the end you decide to hire them, I trust you in that decision.

And, uh, wow, that’s a, that’s a powerful vote of confidence. It can only come have strong relationship. Spend your time developing strong relationships with the people that you leave for the moments when that relationship is going to make a [00:34:00] difference, which is going to happen right away. Um, I, you know, over the years I’ve had to correct it.

Actually, everyone on my senior leadership team, I’ve had a 9 1 1 at some point over the years. And every single one of those came out of a relationship. I had a strong relationship with them, and so they could hear. The hard words I had to give them and that, as you’ve already heard, goes both ways. They each had to come to me with hard language or a hard way to say something that it was a correction.

And I can hear that because I know they love me and I know they want the best for me. They’re not being critical. They’re being developmental. And so that’s how we do this. I hope that answered that question.

That’s a great answer, Rick. So, um, as a leader, if, uh, I’m the CEO, I’m the business owner, everything rises and falls on leadership. As the top leader, how [00:35:00] should I go about developing myself? That’s a good question. You need to be developing yourself. We, we each have to be growing. We have to be growing at the same pace or faster than the growth we’re inviting in the people we lead, right?

Or they’ll outgrow us. And I’ve seen that happen. That has happened in our business over the years. Um, more than once where, where a leader just wasn’t growing and someone on that team kind of outgrew them. And people won’t follow leaders, um, whose leadership has not developed as fast as their leadership has, you know, a level three leader cannot lead a level four leader.

That’s just not going to work out. And so we must continue to develop ourselves. Um, and that I think one of the best ways is to constantly ask the people around me, what, what do I need to be working on? You know, one of the questions that I want to [00:36:00] ask my leadership team personally and individually over time is, hey, how’s my leadership?

What, what do I need to do differently? Is there, is there something? And if you do that regularly enough, People are going to give you that feedback and you’re going to naturally grow. We also just have to be a student, you know, a lifetime student, constantly pursuing, uh, information and knowledge and trends and what’s going on.

And, you know, I think that worldly leadership is not my pursuit though. So mostly the way that I develop myself is by constantly being in the word and God’s word. We need to spend more time. Every morning, early, in the quiet. With our Bible and we do with business books. Um, we read too many business books and not enough of the business book.

[00:37:00] God has spoken to me so powerfully over the years through the Bible that, you know, these ancient stories that just, they have relevance, um, for today. I mean, something will come to me that I know I need to do because I’m reading, you know, a story about David and his leadership. And so I think that God’s wisdom is what we should be pursuing.

His, the spirit of truth is, will lead you into all truth. Um, anything that’s truth that’s really true is God’s truth. Even if people don’t know that it’s from God, you know? So I think that I need to be constantly developing a better and better relationship with the Lord, hearing from him, acquiring his wisdom.

Just as Solomon said, Lord, Give me wisdom to lead these people. I want the Lord to give me that wisdom. I want to, I want to constantly be growing in my understanding and [00:38:00] my revelation of God’s kingdom. So that’s the way I think about that. That’s really good. Thank you for that insight. Okay. This is a pretty big one, Rick.

Okay. Coffee this morning. It’s a good one. Can you give some examples of reactive development as opposed to proactive development? How can I become more of an in the moment developer of people? Okay, that’s a great question. I think, uh, that we don’t have to make this too complicated. It’s, you know, it goes back to flying that airplane.

These little constant adjustments around here, we call those one degree corrections. And I think often development that is sustained over time is full of these one degree moments. Um, I think we kind of have a bad habit sometimes of not addressing small things in [00:39:00] the moment. We let them go or we, you know, business distracts us.

Um, but remember every single one of these little small adjustments, you know, somebody says something to me. Um, or I hear someone say something or do something, I want to informally, the next possible moment, say, catch up with him and say, Hey, are you thinking about that the right way? And I like to ask the Lord about that.

And sometimes I say, Lord, if it’s important for me to catch them right away, would you, would you give me that moment? And sure enough, I’ll come turn around the corner and there they are standing there by the coffee pot. And I’ll have this opportunity. And I want to take that opportunity and I want to do that informally because it has less weight, but it has, again, out of relationship because they know a level not being critical.

You know, we’re trying to, we’re trying not to be critical or judgmental. We’re trying to be developmental, and in those moments, they need [00:40:00] good, clear feedback that they, that’s actionable. Something they can do something with, and, you know, I think that’s proactive development. Reactive development is waiting on people to grow, and people are not a fine line in a bottle, and they’re going to get better over time on their own.

That just isn’t how this works. Real development happens proactively. We just time. It’s just not the thing. That’s a lazy answer. You know, we hear sometimes you hear people say, well, they’re just not ready. What do they need? Well, they just need some more time. Really? They just need some more time. What what they really need is something specific.

And I’d like for you to identify that is a Maybe they need, you know, uh, some training or maybe they need, uh, your presence a little more, you know, in their decision making, maybe they’re making decisions on their own and they, none of us should make decisions on our own. We always need to collaborate and invite somebody else.

[00:41:00] Because again, our idea is always going to be better than my idea or your idea. And so proactive development says we’re constantly collaborating. I’m taking every opportunity to give them feedback, and I’m constantly inviting feedback for myself from them, too. And that’s, that proactive development just adds up, stacks up, you know, one, one little block at a time and becomes a powerful thing over the years.

You just look up and someone has, has just grown from those minute Things and it really is development happens in the small things and altogether they become a big thing.

Really good. Thank you, Rick. Okay. Um, earlier you talked about hard accountability. Can you dive into that and unpack what hard accountability is and maybe give an example of what that looks like with frontline team members as well as leaders to [00:42:00] leaders. Okay, well, it looks it should look pretty close to saying if I’ve done a good job, that’s why the first thing that you must do that we must do as leaders of a frontline employee or other leaders is really develop a strong relationship.

I need to know them. Well, I need them to know where I’m coming from. I need to communicate. As quickly as I can, how much I care about him and how much I want them to be their best. I want them to know that because out of that I can say anything. You know, sometimes, uh, we’ll put a pretty tough minded person in a senior role because, well, because they’re a tough minded person.

And sometimes that’s going to be hard on the people. That’s been true of me in the past for sure. And so, you If I had to go to someone who I’m leading and I’ve given a large territory to [00:43:00] and they I’ve got to tell them something personal about their leadership there. They’re being too harsh that one of their key people has come to me and in tears.

And does it feel heard? And they’re that that relationship is strange because they haven’t. They don’t feel heard. And that’s that leader had been too harsh with him. That’s a pretty hard thing to tell somebody. Um, I had had to do that with a few of our employees, a few of our leaders, you know, to go to him and say, tell him something about their leadership that I’ve heard from someone else.

And that has a big opportunity to hurt their feelings. Um, I know that he wouldn’t mind me sharing this, but Cal is the president of our home building company and really smart guy and a tough guy and this happened early in his leadership where I needed to go to him and tell him in no, in pretty strong terms that he was being too tough.

He’s been too harsh [00:44:00] and he, you know, one of the people on his team was in tears and That that was not going to work out and that if he didn’t make a change, that was going to cause his leadership to fail. And there was an unemotional conversation, but he knew I loved him like a son, and so he would hear anything from me, including something like that.

And he responded to that really well, and I got his commitment to make a change. And the rest is history. That was probably four or five years ago. And so anything like that, it’s going to be tough. If you’ve got a frontline employee that greets customers and they’re not doing that really well, you got to take them aside and you got to talk to them about that.

And that’s not, that’s something that could go badly if they feel like you’re being critical or you don’t have enough relationship with them. [00:45:00] And that’s why the relationship comes first. Now, don’t misunderstand. The relationship cannot trump the requirement that people do their job well. Relationship is how I approach people.

It’s not the reason that I don’t approach them. You know, we say, I don’t want to tell them that because I love them. Well, if you really love them, then you tell them the truth. And you do it in such a way that they know they’re loved. and they hear it and they can adjust to it. That is an amazing thing for someone to really love you, really care about you and bring some truth to you that makes you better.

It’s not love to not bring that truth to them. And so that’s going to be hard in moments and in the moment. If they don’t respond, then you could really get in a jam, which means that I might get to fire a [00:46:00] really good friend, or a really good friend might quit. That’s the consequence of deep relationship with the people that you leave, potentially.

But, I’d rather have that. For one thing, it’s my job in that moment to remain their friend if I possibly can, even if our relationship is broken. And the business is going to end in this moment. Have enough relationship that you can bring truth to people. They’ll hear it and make the adjustment and grow on the other side of it.

Over and over you keep saying our relationship Is really key for the development side. So a question that leads into that, we have two questions left. Um, and it is how do I genuinely be excited for team members that I’ve invested in, [00:47:00] loved, developed, and then they leave me, I’m sorry, I say that last part again, Amanda, how do I genuinely Uh, be excited for team members that I loved, I’ve grown, I’ve developed, and they decide to leave for another job.

Well, I think that’s something we all have to go into. I certainly had to go into that. So, um, The first time that happens, the first time that someone comes to you and they’re going to go do that and you’ve, you’ve invested a lot in them. It probably is going to be true that in that moment, you’re going to be a little disappointed.

But I think what we have to do is remember that I’m not building my kingdom. I’m building God’s kingdom. And This is the, this is what, what Kingdom is, is the idea that I’m developing them for their own good and for [00:48:00] God’s purposes for them. And if he’s leading them into something else, I just did my job, which was to give them everything they needed to go do that job.

And it’s, uh, I, you know, I don’t know how to characterize how to, how to make you feel good about it, but I’ll just tell you that the Lord is really pleased when we do that. And he’s going to fill that gap. You can trust him to do that. If you develop someone so that they can go get an opportunity that you don’t have or a better opportunity, you should be excited about that.

And he’ll bring along someone to come in and fill that gap. In fact, chances are that they’re already in place and you just didn’t see it or you don’t know it until that person leaves and then they’re there. Now, of course, if you’re, if you’ve been leading them and, and. You’ve been developing them and you’ve been inviting them to be developmental.

My favorite thing is when someone comes in and says, I am going to take this other opportunity. Thank you for what you’ve given me so that I’m ready for that opportunity. And by the way, Joe is [00:49:00] ready to take my spot. I’ve been developing him. I’ve been walking with him and he’s ready to do it. He can do it.

I love that. And I’m excited for him and Joe. And look what just happened when that happens when we’re all being developmental. Everybody wins in that deal. And, um, I’ll just tell you, you know, we’ve given away our home building business to other leaders around the country. And some of those guys are my very best friends.

I get a ton of joy and excitement. out of what they’ve accomplished. And we got to give them a shortcut. We gave them everything we had, which is counterproductive to what the marketplace would say. And people have left here to go start home building companies that learned everything that they know about building homes from us.

And I’m excited for them to do that. And I wasn’t in that first moment, but I got over it quickly. Lawrence said, Hey, be excited for my servant that you’ve raised up. They’re ready to go do something else. Um, [00:50:00] Jesus did this. He gave everything to his disciples, and then he left, and he wasn’t disappointed when they stood up.

He was actually disappointed when they didn’t stand up. He came back for 30 days, and they’d gone back to fishing. He said, Hey, stand up. I’ve given you everything. You got to go do this, and he just was about developing people to go do amazing things. Um, Jesus himself said, Hey, I have all the authority. My father has given me all the authority and I give it to you.

You will go and cast out demons and heal people. He gave him authority to do that. His authority to do that. He was excited when someone did that. When Peter or one of them would go and someone would be healed through their authority. He wasn’t jealous of that. He invited that. And so, if we want to be like Jesus, then we got to go be like Jesus.

We got to give real authority and we got to be excited when people stand up and don’t do something that we help them do. [00:51:00] And we can trust the board to bring along somebody to fill that spot.

Thank you for that feedback. Good, good stuff. All right, last question. And it’s in regards to remote employees. How do I develop my team members that are remote? That’s a good question. I don’t, we don’t have a lot of experience with that, um, around here, though I would say we have started three other home building companies, or helped start three other home building companies, in which we gave them all of our stuff, and they’re a long way from here.

One of them’s in Sherman, Texas, one of them’s in Joplin, Missouri, and one of them’s in Kansas City. So, I have had. Lots of remote development opportunity there, and it’s just about connecting regularly by phone or Zoom or some way. And, [00:52:00] you know, we learned a lot through COVID season here that we can, in fact, stay connected to people more than we thought we could remotely.

It just has to be, it has to be consistent and authentic. You’ve got to work extra hard to make sure communication is clear because you’re not face to face. But I think it’s just about consistent time with somebody. I can do that on the phone. Um, I really can spend an hour with someone on the phone and we can talk and we can talk as deeply as we might talk just sitting around a coffee in a coffee shop or around a desk.

You just have to be consistent and intentional about that. And you should. We can’t allow distance. to cause us to be apart from each other. You know, we can just use communication even more regular. Maybe it requires a more regular communication. [00:53:00] Um, when you might have somebody that you can see every day, but you just gotta be intentional about it.

I think.

Thank you for that. Rick. Good. Wise, wise. Uh, direction for us as leaders. Hey, everyone. We always want to give you the opportunity to vote. Um, so I’m going to put up a poll for October’s webinar and we want to hear from you. So for this webinar, we want to find out, we want you to vote right now, live. If you would like for October for us to talk about selection verse hiring, or if you would like for us to talk about spiritual calling.

Or the marks of a leader. You can go ahead and mark that in right now. And we’ll let you know, um, in the email that will be sent to you what our next webinar is going to be, um, in regards to the topic. You will also have an opportunity [00:54:00] to have, um, the recorded webinar, um, in your inbox as well, and to register for October’s webinar.

So right now, at 4 p. m. 50 percent we have spiritual calling. So that will be what we talk about next month. And last thing I want to share with you is, um, our workshop. So we do a kingdom leadership workshop, and for 2024, we are very excited. That QR code right there. We’ll send you directly to our website page.

We have three dates, one in February. May and October. This is for CEOs and business owners. We invite them to come and bring their leadership teams. And so if that’s something you would be interested in, my team would love to talk with you. That QR code will direct you to a form and get you in contact with us.

Thank you guys for joining us. Y’all have a blessed day. Bye [00:55:00] bye.