Simplicity

I recently attended the annual Chick Fil A Leadercast.  I always welcome the opportunity to sharpen my leadership skills and learn new things from other great leaders.  This year was no exception, as there were great things to be learned from many different leaders at this event.  I will be covering several of those in the next couple of posts.

The main theme of the conference was” Simply Lead.” Each speaker talked about something that related to this topic.  Andy Stanley (founding pastor of North Point Church in Atlanta – and one of the best communicators I have ever heard) started things off by talking about that when things get crazy, we need to break things back down to the simplest level.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

“Complexity is the enemy of clarity.”  There is truth in the fact that when things get more complex, it is very difficult for us to see clearly anything that is going on.  Even for the smartest leaders, as things become more complex you need a way and a place to keep your leadership simple – to re-center yourself.

When things get crazy, we should look at asking the following three things:

1 – What are we doing?

This is the simplest thing to always fall back on.  Getting to this point may not seem that easy, but it will always help in the long run.  Do you have a mission statement that you live by? One for your company as well? I could spend a whole blog post about creating a mission statement, but I will just say that although it may take a while to create one, creating one that is simple and held to one sentence is imperative.

As Andy said, “If you don’t know exactly what you’re doing, you’re going to have a hard time doing it!”

2 – Why are we doing it?

Having a reason as to why you do what you do is critical to continuing on with what you are. Do you have a purpose? Does your organization have a reason as to why they do what they do?  If not, you should help to define this.

3 – Where do I fit in? 

 Thinking about how your contribution fits into the overall scheme of the organization will only help you keep things in perspective.  How will things go if you don’t do what you are supposed to do? What is your critical core responsibility?

Re-thinking these three things when things get complex will help you to overcome.   Growth creates complexity – and this requires simplicity. What can you do to keep things simple?

Prov 15:16  “A simple life in the Fear-of-God is better than a rich life with a ton of headaches.”