Questions That Sustain Your Leadership
Posted by: Jack Ling on: July 22, 2009
“Judge a person by their questions, rather than their answers.”
~ Voltaire
The willingness to ask questions coupled with the discipline to seek out answers separates leaders from followers. Influencers question assumptions, inquire about the environment around them, and probe into the future. They have an insatiable appetite to learn, and they convert their knowledge to action at light speed.
The Value of Questions
While leaders constantly investigate their surroundings, the most important questions they ask are the ones they pose to themselves. By routinely questioning their goals, motives, and purpose leaders renew their self-identity along with their sense of perspective. Consider the following benefits of examining yourself as a leader.
1) Quality Questions Create a Quality Life
You only get answers to the questions you ask. If you won’t dare to wrestle with the tough dilemmas in life, then you’ll live small.
2) Focused Questions Stimulates Creative Thinking
A well-considered question penetrates to the heart of the matter and triggers new ideas and insights.
3) Honest Questions Lead to Solid Convictions.
Inquisitiveness clarifies morals and beliefs. Values are shaped when you force yourself to be truthful in answering tough questions about where you stand on key issues.
4) Correct Questions Help Us Find Ourselves and Our Mission.
Tackling life’s biggest questions brings direction and meaning to life’s journey. Bob Buford captures this thought in his book, The Second Half.
What is your passion? What have you achieved? What have you done uncommonly well? How are you wired? Where do you belong? What are the ‘shoulds’ that have trailed you during the first half? These and other questions like them will direct you toward the self your heart longs for; they will help you discover the task for which you were especially made. Throughout your years in leadership, if you know the right questions then you will ultimately gain the right answers.
Questions I Ask Myself as a Leader
1) Am I Investing in Myself?
This question probes your commitment to personal growth. An empty glass won’t refresh anyone. Before you can influence others, you need to contain something worth offering to others.
Don’t be content to stockpile knowledge. Once you’ve ascertained a new insight or developed a skill, pass on what you’ve discovered. A learnerbuilds reservoir of learning, whereas a leader becomes a river of learning for others.
2) Am I Genuinely Interested In Others?
This question delves into motives. As J.P. Morgan cynically observed, “A man always has two reasons for doing anything – a good reason and the real reason.” Since leaders are inclined to figure out situations before anyone else, they have capacity to take advantage of others. For this reason, it’s essential to regularly question your motives. There’s a fine line between manipulation and motivation. The former moves people for personal benefit, while the latter moves people for mutual gain.
3) Am I Doing What I Love and Loving What I Do?
This question determines passion. You will never find your passion doing work you despise. If you go to work only to fulfill processes and functions then you’re in jeopardy of losing your humanity and turning into a machine. “Find your passion and follow it,” is all the career advice you’ll ever need. Passion gives you the edge by endowing you with more energy than others have.
4) Am I Taking Others to a Higher Level?
This question has to do with mission. Regardless of your industry, as a leader, you’re in the people development business. Fulfilling your mission depends upon lifting the performance of those you lead. As Zig Ziglar says, “You can get everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” By adding value to those you lead, you’re investing in men and women with the potential to multiply your influence exponentially.
5) Am I Taking Care of Today?
How you treat today speaks volumes about your likelihood of success. In fact, if I spent one day observing your priorities, behaviors, and interactions with people, then, with about 90% accuracy, I could let you know your leadership potential. Why would I be so certain in my judgment? Because I’ve learned that the secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda.
Conclusion
The great artist, Pablo Picasso, once remarked, “Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.” I tend to agree, and I think Picasso’s observation carries truth for leaders as well. Regardless of your technical skill or relational charm, you’ll be inhibited as a leader until you learn the art of asking questions. Knowing how has merit, but influencers will always be the men and women who understand why.
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Printed from the GiANT Impact website (www.giantimpact.com).
The online version of this article can be found at
http://www.giantimpact.com/articles/read/article_questions_that_sustain_your_leadership/
Content from this article may be used, but must be accompanied by the following credit line in its entirety: “This article is used by permission from GiANT Impact. Find other leadership content, resources, training, and events at www.giantimpact.com.”
Facing the world’s five giants! by Rick and Kay Warren
Posted by: Jack Ling on: March 19, 2009
The world is full of problems. Some are small and some are huge. As Kay and I considered the problems facing the world today, we concluded there are five giants — five pervasive problems that affect billions of people.
These are the ones we want to tackle, believing God gets the most glory when we attack the biggest giants. These problems are so huge that they can only be addressed with total dependence on God and with all of us — your congregation and mine, Christians all around the world — working together to confront them.
Here are the giant problems, as we see them:
1. The first global giant is spiritual darkness.
Here’s a startling truth: Billions of people have never even heard the name of Jesus Christ. Three thousand distinct people groups around our world wouldn’t even know the name of Jesus if they heard it.
“Who is that?” they’d ask. “What’s so significant about that name?”
These people know nothing about Jesus or about God. If you were one of those who had never heard the name of Jesus, wouldn’t you want somebody to come tell you about our Savior, our Lord? The Bible says in Romans 10:14 (NCV), “Before people can ask the Lord for help, they must believe in him; and before they can believe in him, they must hear about him; and for them to hear about the Lord, someone must tell them.”
The greatest giant in our world today is the fact that billions of people do not know Jesus Christ.
2. The second giant we want to tackle is the lack of servant leaders around the world.
Around the world, there are plenty of people in leadership who abuse their power. Many refuse to use their power for the good of their people — instead they choose to use it for themselves. This has created chaos in the world.
Leaders must have moral basis. They must have wisdom. Proverbs 11:14 (NLT) says, “Without wise leadership, a nation falls.” Proverbs 16:12b (Msg) says,“Sound leadership has a moral foundation.” And Zechariah 10:2 (TEV) says,“People wander around like lost sheep. They are in trouble because they have no leader.”
In the developing world there are 2.1 million pastors and church leaders. Of those, 1.9 million have never had any training at all. Not only have these leaders not gone to seminary or Bible school, they haven’t even gone to high school or primary school. They have no training whatsoever – and yet they lead the church. This must be remedied.
3. The third giant we’re going after is poverty.
More than half of the world — that’s three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day. One-sixth of the world’s population lives in slums. Those are heart-breaking statistics. Proverbs 28:7 (NIV) says, “The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.”
It’s easy to live in a bubble and think the rest of the world lives like we do. When we go about our daily lives forgetting how most of the world lives, we tend to judge people for being poor. Job 12:5 (GW) says, “A person who has an easy life [that would be you and me] has no appreciation for misfortune. He thinks it is the fate of those who slip up.”
Tell that to the parents of 10 million little girls who’ve been sold into prostitution in Southeast Asia. Their families exist in such grinding poverty they see no other way to feed their families than to sell their little girls into prostitution. It’s a horrible existence.
4. The fourth giant we want to attack is disease.
Billions suffer the effects of famine and drought. They are homeless, hungry, and helpless. They’re ill. We can do something about that.
Psalm 38:6-11 (GW) says, “I am bent over and bowed down very low. … My insides are filled with burning pain, and no healthy spot is left on my body. I am numb and completely devastated. … I’ve lost my strength. Even the light of my eyes has left me. My loved ones and my friends keep their distance and my relatives stand far away because of my sickness.”
We have seen the effects of poverty as we’ve traveled. We’ve seen the effects of people with HIV/AIDS. The stigma is enormous. People are abandoned by their own families. Their bodies slowly waste away from opportunistic infections. As Christians we cannot ignore these people.
Ezekiel 34:4 (TEV) says, “You have not taken care of the weak ones, healed the ones that are sick, bandaged the ones that are hurt, brought back the ones that wandered off, or looked for the ones that were lost. Instead, you treated them cruelly.”
5. The fifth giant we want to tackle is ignorance.
Over half the world is still illiterate. How can a country grow and be strong economically when its citizens can’t read, can’t write, and don’t know the fundamentals of math and science that we take for granted? It’s no wonder these countries aren’t strong. Hosea 4:6 (NIV) says, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.” There’s a desperate need for teachers and schools and materials to help people grow.
These five giants can be toppled. We can make a difference. In a future issue, we’ll talk about why the church is the perfect tool for toppling giants.
Taken from: http://legacy.pastors.com/RWMT/default.asp?id=200&artid=8140&expand=1
Selamat Hari Malaysia 2008!
Posted by: Jack Ling on: September 16, 2008
I was just at Marina Mahathir’s blog, and she posted up this song sempena Hari Malaysia 2008. I remember listening to this song as a kid and loving it…
Rise up Malaysia, rise up!
Perutusan Kemerdekaan Dari DSAI
Posted by: Jack Ling on: August 31, 2008
For the sake of the future… even if YB Anwar Ibrahim never becomes the PM now, I’m grateful for him speaking up and leading the way for a New Malaysia. I’m sure the future leaders, ministers & PMs will be ones who stand on what is right.
… for true merdeka!
AYA CHOIR PROJECT (Poster Design)
Posted by: Jack Ling on: July 17, 2008
A community choir project poster inspired by rock bands 
Saiful Bukhari Azlan: the mole in Anwar Ibrahim’s office?
Posted by: Jack Ling on: June 29, 2008
We need a V to perform some righteous kill very soon before any more innocent blood is spilled.
Bergambar dengan Shahrir Samad (Ahli Parlimen BN Johor Bahru)
A Jealous God
Posted by: Jack Ling on: May 2, 2008
In response to this whole thing about Oprah not able to accept the idea of a “jealous god”, I found this article helpful: A Jealous God by Richard L. Strauss
Holiness and Honesty
Posted by: Jack Ling on: April 29, 2008
From First Fruits of Zion: The Weekly eDrash (28 April 2008 issue)
Thought for the Week
What does a holy person look like? Do you picture a priest or a nun? Maybe a preacher? Perhaps you imagine a Chassidic Jew with a full beard, side locks and black hat. Leviticus 19-20 contains the Bible’s description of what holiness looks like. The passage begins with the words, “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy’” (Leviticus 19:2).
Commentary
One of the laws of holiness states, “You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another” (Leviticus 19:11).
Have you ever been ripped off by a religious person? It’s not surprising when we are cheated by people of the world. But it is disconcerting when a professing Christian or an observant Jew deceives or financially abuses us. We expect more from the religious person than a secular person. We assume that a religious person will conduct his affairs in concert with his moral values. That makes the religious person different from the secular person. That’s what being holy is all about.
The Torah says that when a religious person conducts himself without integrity, he profanes the name of God. The word profane is the opposite of the word holy. Holy means “set apart.” Profane means “common and ordinary.” When a religious person conducts himself no differently than the common, ordinary people around him, he makes God look common and ordinary too. He damages God’s reputation. An unbeliever who steals, deceives, lies, perjures and swindles is unremarkable, but when a believer acts that way, he disgraces the faith and gives opportunity for unbelievers to say, “You see? He is just like us. I knew there was no substance to his God or his religion.”
The sages understood the commandment, “You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him” (Leviticus 19:13) to be a prohibition against dishonest business transactions. As disciples of Yeshua obedient to God’s Torah, we need to strive for scrupulous honesty, especially in matters of business.
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Middot U’Mitzvot (Character and Deeds)
Grudges and Vengeance
You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:18 )
Revenge is a privilege not bequeathed to the people of God. When someone wrongs us, we are not allowed to return evil with evil. This places us at a distinct disadvantage by the world’s standards. What are we supposed to do when we are wronged? The Apostle Paul teaches that we are to overcome evil with good. We must return insults with kindness, curses with blessings. Paul says, “Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. … If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men” (Romans 12:17-18). This sounds like a recipe for injustice. It invites people to abuse us and take advantage of us. But Paul does not exclude vengeance and justice; he simply instructs us not to take it into our hands. If there is to be some sort of retribution, let it come from God. He says, “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God” (Romans 12:19).
This can be compared to two children fighting in the sandbox. The first child throws sand in the second child’s face. The second child could return the gesture by throwing sand back, or he could wait for Mom to intervene. If he throws sand back, he has stooped to his sibling’s level and loses the moral high ground. Both children are now sand-throwers; neither is better than the other. Moreover, both are liable for punishment. If the second child waits for justice to proceed from his mother, though, he retains the moral high ground and goes unpunished. His sibling will receive discipline that is probably more severe than the sand-in-the-face action. This is the approach Paul recommends.
If someone says something nasty about you, and you hear about it and respond by saying something nasty in return, you and the other person are both in the wrong. A better option is to take the moral high ground and leave the matter with the Almighty, who judges the universe in fairness. That is the path of real faith. When we take matters into our own hands, we betray a lack of faith. We feel we need to avenge ourselves because we don’t trust God to work out the situation.
Paul does recommend a backward type of revenge. He says, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). We are overcome by evil when we return it. When we repay evil with evil, we become evil. Paul recommends repaying evil with good, and he quotes a proverb to demonstrate the efficacy of this approach:
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you. (Proverbs 25:21-22)
Finding Joy
Posted by: Jack Ling on: April 25, 2008
by Dr. John C. Maxwell
The pursuit of happiness. It’s one of our unalienable rights spelled out in The Declaration of Independence, but what does it mean to pursue happiness? When so many of us are unhappy and empty, how can we find joy?
To begin with, we must learn to reconcile the ambition to do with a willingness to be.
As change agents, leaders sense all is not well in the world. We see problems and search for solutions. Yet, if we only focus only on what is wrong, we miss the joy of the blessings in our lives – family, friendship, health, and freedom. We have to offset our discontent with the status quo by finding contentment in the life we have been given.
As leaders, we are lean and hungry, looking for opportunities to improve and grow. However, we find joy by being comfortable in our own skin. Happiness comes when we learn to take pride in our talents and to smile at our quirks.
We have an inner drive to do something – a restlessness to make something happen. At the same time, joy is discovered in the peaceful quiet of a soul at rest. Alongside our restlessness for change, we have a need for relaxation and recreation.
We won’t fully experience joy until we’ve answered life’s biggest question: Why am I here?
Without a life purpose, we flounder around without direction or joy. Life coach SuEllen Williams encourages clients to write out their life story in five-year increments, noting life-altering events and influential people. During the exercise, clients will often discover a predominant theme that has brought them fulfillment. By re-aligning with what has brought meaning in the past, Williams feels her clients put themselves on track toward the pursuit of happiness.
If we don’t nourish ourselves, joy will elude us.
We nourish ourselves whenever we enter into activities that build our energy reserves. Consider this list of common nourishment sources:
1. Music – What songs lift me?
2. Thoughts – What thoughts speak to me?
3. Experiences – What experiences rejuvenate me?
4. Friends – What people encourage me?
5. Recreation – What recreation re-creates me?
6. Soul – What spiritual exercises strengthen me?
7. Hopes – What dreams inspire me?
8. Home – What family members care for me?
9. Giftedness – What gifts activate me?
10. Memories – What memories make me smile?
To find joy, we must clean up our vocabulary.
We pursue happiness when we banish the shoulda, coulda, wouldas in life and decide that everything is fine the way it is. To reconstruct our vocabulary, it’s important to understand the difference between facts of life and problems. A fact of life is something we cannot change, but we can adjust our attitude about it. A problem is something we can change, and becomes possible when we take responsibility to fix it.
To discover joy, it’s important to celebrate success.
Timing is critical to celebration. Be sure to celebrate after the fact and not before the job is done.
The Kentucky Wildcat football team learned this lesson the hard way. In 2002, the Wildcats led the heavily favored Louisiana State Tigers 30-27 with two seconds left to play. The Tigers had the ball, but they were 75 yards away from the end zone – an impossible distance to cover in one play.
Wildcat players dumped Gatorade on their coach to celebrate the win. Kentucky students poured out of the stands and waited to charge onto the field after the final whistle. The Kentucky quarterback waved his arms toward the adoring fans in a salute of victory.
Then, the impossible happened. The LSU quarterback lofted the football as far as he could throw it. The ball bounced off the fingertips of a mob of players, and landed in the waiting arms of an LSU receiver who raced to the end zone! LSU had won the game on a desperation pass!
Shocked and silent, the Kentucky fans were left to stare at their soggy coach as the LSU Tiger players celebrated their stunning, last-second victory.
In closing, happiness doesn’t always find us, we have to pursue it. Doing so involves a number of steps:
1. Willingness to Be Who We Are
2. Searching for a Life Purpose
3. Nourishing Ourselves Regularly
4. Cleaning Up Our Vocabulary
5. Celebrating Success
In this edition of Leadership Wired, I hope I’ve given you some helpful tips on chasing down joy. Best wishes as you pursue happiness!
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This article is used by permission from Dr. John C. Maxwell’s free monthly e-newsletter, “Leadership Wired,” available at www.maximumimpact.com.
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