The Project Management Method and the SDLC

Many people are confused over the difference between a project management method and the System Development Life Cycle. Some believe a project management method is a subset of the SDLC and some believe the inverse, that the SDLC is a subset of a project management method. The truth lies somewhere in between. In terms of importance to a project, the SDLC and a project management method are co-equals which complement each other. Together they harmonize to form a complete methodology for delivering high quality products to our customers that meet or exceed their expectations. Neither can stand on its own to deliver high value to the business. They each have different roles in support of business initiatives. Throughout the life cycle both of these methods work together to achieve business goals, drive the value equation and progress organizational maturity. Though their activities differ greatly, they interrelate and harmonize to produce superior results.

A project management method provides detailed instructions for the discipline of planning, organizing, controlling, reporting and managing project resources to successfully complete project goals and objectives. It includes all of the activities for managing a project. A project is temporal in nature. It has a defined beginning and end. The project management method begins with project inception and closes when its product is delivered. When a project is over, the project manager moves onto something new.

The SDLC provides a framework that describes the activities performed during each phase of a systems development project. The SDLC is about quality, consistency and product delivery. It is about the realization of a product’s requirements. Products are of a more permanent nature than a project because products continue to exist long after the project that delivered it has closed. Therefore, the SDLC’s framework provides guidelines for supporting the product post production. Guidelines include practices for knowledge transfer, training, document turnover, maintenance and on-going support. When a product is to be retired, the project management method takes over to sunset the system. It is a full circle in a system’s life.

Project management is often expressed in terms of the constraints of scope, time and cost. This is also known as the project management triangle. Each side of the triangle represents a constraint. No side can be changed without affecting the others. At one time, “quality” or “performance” was considered a component of scope. The model has since been refined to delineate quality as a fourth constraint.

Time is the period available to complete a project. Cost is the project’s budget. Scope is what must be done to complete the project's deliverables. The three constraints often compete with each other: scope creep means increased time and higher cost, a tight time frame may mean higher costs and less scope, and a tight budget may mean less time and reduced scope. Quality may be at risk if there are changes to any of the constraints.

To demonstrate the complementary nature of the SDLC to project management, I’ve contrived the SDLC triangle. Earlier I said the SDLC is about quality, consistency and product delivery. Quality, consistency and product delivery are the outputs of a defined, managed, measurable, repeatable and reusable set of processes and practices. The processes and practices form the core framework of the SDLC. Where a project is defined by its constraints, the SDLC is defined by its freedoms and empowerment. The SDLC empowers a project team to choose from among several approved pathways to deliver the highest quality products possible in the shortest amount of time and at the lowest possible cost.

Scope is a constraint that SDLC processes liberate by managing scope creep. Scope creep is a project killer. Let’s be clear, project scope will change during the course of a project. That’s because business priorities are fluid and may drive changes in projects so that evolving current needs are met. It’s how we manage scope that’s important. We’ll never be able to eliminate scope creep, but we can manage it effectively so it doesn’t become the constraint that kills our project. In many ways, managing scope creep begins with the project’s business analyst.

Consistency of process helps keep the cost constraint under control by practicing repeatable, measurable and defined algorithms. Let’s be pragmatic. Whenever we practice something, we get good at it. It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about music and the arts or sports or anything else. The old adage is “Practice makes perfect.” If we do something the same way over and over again, not only will we get good at it; we’ll find ways to improve what we are doing so we can do it faster, better and cheaper.

The schedule constraint is complemented by the SDLC’s timely delivery of a quality product that meets or exceeds customers’ expectations. If we manage scope creep effectively and are consistent in our ability to repeat and improve our processes, not only will we deliver a product on time, there may even be enough wiggle room in the schedule to address lower priority items or deliver the product ahead of the due date.

The complementary relationship between the SDLC and a project management method cannot be denied. They do not compete against each other.

IT Governance and the SDLC – Part 2: Upfront Requirements Elicitation

When discussing investment opportunities at governance meetings, senior managers invariably ask: “How much will the project cost us?” In the early phases of opportunity talks many IT leaders respond with the “SWAG” (Scientific Widely Aimed Guess) based on experiential supposition. Later, after governance approves a deeper investigation into the cost, IT leadership returns to governance with a slightly more predictable estimate known as a ROM or Rough Order of Magnitude, based on nothing more than executive level discussions, the research they’ve done from talking to vendors and presuming what resources will be needed. They don’t even have enough information at this point to distribute a formal Request for Information (RFI). Returning to governance, they supply a statement of work documenting what they believe is required, a Return on Investment (ROI) calculation based on the ROM, resource plan and projected schedule. If all goes well, governance is convinced of the projected derived business value and ROI and approves the project—all based on conjecture.

Nobody up to this point has gathered any of the actual requirements from the business users. The discussions thus far have all been very high level. This is highly ineffective IT Governance in action. You may also say this is IT Governance inaction. Ineffectual governance processes often lead down the path of conducting requirements elicitation and analysis early in the project lifecycle but only after the project is approved and funded. This is always a bad decision and one that leads to more problems for IT leadership down the line.

When Business Analysts start the requirements elicitation process after the project approval and kick-off, it doesn’t take too long to discover the original investment estimates were way too low. Now that the true business requirements are known, the project team realizes the scope to deliver the necessary functionality to the business is much broader than they first thought. As the project proceeds several months down the road, IT leadership goes back to governance and asks for more money to complete what they started and explain why the original timeline has to be extended. Governance either reluctantly responds to the increase in funding or trashes the project altogether. Whatever the case, IT leadership loses credibility with senior management.

Do you think this scenario is farfetched? It’s not. I’ve worked in organizations that have followed this exact process and have witnessed it time and time again. Senior leadership’s loss of trust and credibility in the IT organization is always the result. It is a difficult if not nearly impossible obstacle to overcome. Trust and credibility can be regained over time, but it takes a lot more than continuing with the same processes that got you into trouble in the first place. It often requires replacing the senior IT staff and embarking upon a long journey of IT business process transformation.

The truth is that questions surrounding IT investment and prioritization cannot be fully answered until at least one practice area of the SDLC[1] is executed and at least partially concluded. That area is performing the processes and practices governing requirements elicitation and analysis. This may also be known as a feasibility study. The question that now comes into play is “How deeply must I capture the requirements at this phase?”

The answer is variable depending on the project, but as a general rule of thumb, if we apply the Pareto principle to investment value and requirements, the resulting theorem says, “80% of the business value of an investment comes from 20% of the requirements.” This tells us that we don’t have to capture all of the requirements in the initial pass. We only need to capture the major requirements in a quantity sufficient to extrapolate a fairly accurate resource allocation and cost projection. A common practice is to pad IT project cost estimates with an additional 25% contingency anyway. By executing the requirements elicitation upfront, before project approval, you’ll provide much more accurate cost estimates, lower your contingency padding and reduce the chance of project overruns.

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[1] Systems Development Life Cycle.

IT Governance and the SDLC – Part 1

What has the SDLC got to do with IT Governance?

It has long been the tradition of board-level executives to defer all key IT decisions to the company’s IT professionals. The truth is that many board-level executives don’t understand IT well enough to manage IT effectively; and IT professionals don’t understand business initiatives well enough to decide how to invest in them. Deferring key decisions to the IT staff often leads to disconnects between the board’s strategic goals and real business initiatives and the investments IT makes. It leads to frustration at all levels.

IT governance is a business-driven function which focuses on the investment and prioritization of IT systems, their performance, risk management and enhancing a company’s competitiveness. It’s about ensuring IT investments harmonize with the enterprise’s strategic priorities. It’s about IT demonstrating to senior leadership they are receiving acceptable value in return for making IT investments.

In June of 2005, I attended a summer session on IT Governance and Leadership at the MIT Sloan School of Management Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) in Cambridge Massachusetts. The course was facilitated by Peter Weill and Jeanne W. Ross. Peter is the director of CISR and Jeanne is a Principal Research Scientist. Together they authored the book “IT Governance” published in 2000 by Harvard Business School Press. The book is about “How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results.” It is written for “concerned officers of the enterprise (CEO, CFO, COO, and other senior managers) looking for practical guidelines to improve their returns from IT investments.”

According to Weill and Ross, “Top-performing enterprises succeed where others fail by implementing effective IT governance to support their strategies. For example, firms with above-average IT governance following a specific strategy (for example, customer intimacy) had more than 20 percent higher profits than firms with poor governance following the same strategy.”

All companies have some sort of IT governance. Effective IT governance includes well defined and documented processes for work uptake, decision making, budgeting and estimating resources, approvals, IT value realization, project reporting and change management. Many IT governance committees are comprised of the senior most leaders from all strategic areas of the business, not just IT leaders. With a finite enterprise budget, there is competition for capital project dollars. There must be a governance process in place to assure that the right projects are getting the right amount of investment at the right time to improve bottom line profitability and shareholder value.

Weill and Ross assert that effective IT governance answers three questions:

1. What decisions must be made?
2. Who should make these decisions?
3. How will we make and monitor these decisions?

To further explain the first question, they say, “Every enterprise must address five interrelated IT decisions: IT principles, IT architecture, IT infrastructure, business application needs, and IT investment and prioritization.”

The SDLC figures prominently in executing the answers to all of the interrelated decisions above with the lone exception of IT principles. IT principles are subordinate to corporate principles established at the enterprise level. They support or enable strategic company business goals, guide the development and implementation of the SDLC and steer the decision making process in the other four areas. We’ll explore the linkage between IT Governance and the SDLC further in my next post.

Taking AIM at Organizational Change Management – Part 2: Cultural Fit

To fully realize a change management strategy, make sure the change fits your culture. You’ll also need detailed reinforcement and communication plans. Cultural fit is as individual as companies themselves. Every organization has its own variety of cultures and sub-cultures. Most businesses establish a target company-wide culture through their mission statement, vision, values and leader behaviors. Senior management demonstrates the cultural norms as they interpret these tenets. How these creeds flow down and become the organization’s cultural norms may differ from group to group within a company just as strategic goals start at the top and evolve to fit each group’s contribution to the overall strategy. There is no one-size fits all approach to cultural fit. There are tactics however that can guide your moves.

First, define the cultural dimensions of each group impacted by your change. For the SDLC, this is your entire IT organization, senior management and your business users and customers. The SDLC represents a broad sweeping change. It is important to first focus on the “low hanging fruit.” Exploit the aspects of the change that produce the highest yield and lowest risk. Take advantage of any opportunity to lead with results rather than rhetoric. Altogether avoid or reduce the initiatives that are more about image and not reality.

Each of your target groups need to have sponsors who are capable of identifying the cultural characteristics that support the change as well as the values, behaviors and “unwritten rules” that resist the change. Positively reinforce and emphasize the behaviors that support the change. Provide high visibility rewards and recognition for attaining the desired state.

Regardless of how effective your positive reinforcement is, you will face cultural resistance. Someone once asked me, “Why is it necessary to have a company-wide SDLC? We all do things now that are effective for us, why change?” This individual was a member of one of the working teams building and vetting the SDLC processes. His question caught me off guard. He didn’t understand the big picture even though he was serving as a change agent and involved with the very construction of the SDLC. As I thought things through, I realized this question is a direct result of my failure to effectively communicate the vision to the change agents.

For each major source of cultural resistance, you need to discover the answers to these three questions:

1. What are the values, behaviors and “unwritten rules” that are motivating the resistance?
2. What is it about the culture that reinforces the “unwritten rules?”
3. What is it about our system that rewards the “bad” behaviors?

Armed with this intelligence, you can then work to define and implement specific changes that reduce or eliminate the cultural dimensions that reinforce change adversity and execute those that reward the new behaviors. Develop a positive reinforcement plan that is stronger than the motivation to keep the status quo. It requires significantly more sponsorship attention, discipline and stamina to inspire a group to move from “discomfort and resistance” to “opportunity and need.” The sponsors must “walk the talk” and visibly display the new behaviors even if they are individually painful.

Consider offering financial rewards as part of your positive reinforcement plan such as a salary increase, bonus, prize or perk for demonstrating the new behaviors. Apply the positive rewards immediately after observing the performance of the new behaviors. Celebrate early successes and wins. Do whatever you can to make it more difficult to continue to operate in the old state.

Build an effective communication plan that explains the objectives and rationale, the time frame and the cost of not changing. Implement the communication plan early and communicate often. Send out frequent progress updates. Focus the organization’s attention forward and generate an excitement about the new changes to the SDLC. Commission surveys or walk around the floor to learn if people understand the message. Are they getting it? Keep your communications credible, comprehensive and clear.

We’ve only touched upon a few aspects of organizational change management. There are a lot of moving parts to any organizational change, but especially so when rolling out a SDLC. An organizational change management strategy is much broader than the few examples I’ve presented here, but for a SDLC implementation, it is absolutely essential.

Taking AIM at Organizational Change Management – Part 1

I am a student of the AIM Methodology of organizational change management. AIM is an acronym for the Accelerated Implementation Methodology, a proprietary approach developed and perfected by Implementation Management Associates, Inc. (http://www.imaworldwide.com). Pfizer included me in a pilot AIM training program after their Learning and Organizational Development group decided to deploy the methodology to the Research and Development Division. I became a vocal advocate and champion of the process, even sending one of my direct reports to school to become an instructor

Don’t confuse this AIM with the other popular AIM, Oracle’s Application Implementation Methodology. Oracle’s AIM is essentially a legacy SDLC for the Oracle applications platform. The two AIMs couldn’t be more different. Also, don’t confuse organizational change management with project change management. Change management in a project context is very different from organizational change management. Project change management is a process by which changes to projects are formally introduced, vetted, approved, tabled or denied. An organizational change management method is not typically part of a SDLC or project management method although elements of organizational change management, such as communications plans, may be.

Organizational change management is about people’s behavior. Organizations are comprised of people and their behaviors formulate the accomplishments of the organization. Organizational change management explores behaviors to achieve greater results in performance which in turn drive bottom line value.

Just as IT system development methods share commonalities, so do change management methods. Regardless of the method you choose to follow, the core fundamentals of organizational change management are the same and must be observed if you want to achieve success.

Change management starts at the very top of the organizational structure. For IT, this starts with the CIO or CTO as he or she defines the strategic vision and goals. The CIO’s goals are aligned with the overall strategic goals of the organization as determined by the Board of Directors and the CEO with his/her senior staff. To successfully deploy an organizational change such as implementing a SDLC, it must be a strategic goal of the senior most leaders. As strategic goals cascade throughout the organization, it creates alignment with a clear and common language and understanding for the change.

Once goals are defined and distributed, assessing the organization’s readiness for change is the next step. How do you do that? Surveys are a good method. The goal of an organizational readiness survey is to uncover the barriers that exist within your organization’s climate, both current and historical. Barriers that may have impeded the progress of previous changes must be discussed to capture lessons learned. You’ll also want to uncover implementation strengths. What has gone right in the past that we can do again?

Identifying the approach you’ll take to implementing change follows the readiness assessment. You really only have two choices here. You can force your hand and generate compliance using the hammer approach or you can choose to build commitment and buy-in by managing the transition. On the surface, you may think the hammer approach is a little heavy handed and it may not be a good fit with your personal values. There are reasons where the hammer approach is the right approach. What if the change is due to regulatory, HR or safety compliance?

The second approach, transition management, requires more time to adapt a change. The organization becomes increasingly focused and the additional time allows for course correction along the way before implementation. You’ll gain greater buy-in, produce less waste and achieve greater precision in your implementations. Transition management is particularly effective when implementing changes in customer service, quality assurance and developmental paradigms such as the SDLC.

Organizational change will not happen efficiently without the right sponsorship. We’ve already talked about strategic goals cascading from the top down. Sponsorship is making certain the right people are doing the right things at the right times to demonstrate their commitment and ownership of the change. You’ll need an Executive Sponsor who has sufficient authority to authorize the change and commit the resources to make it happen. Then you’ll need Champions who can influence the organization’s commitments levels and Change Agents who’ll plan and execute the implementation.

Tomorrow, we’ll take a look deeper look at one of the most significant key success metrics of organizational change management: cultural fit. So stay tuned for Part 2.

Smart Executives Invest in IT During Economic Downturns

Whenever there is a downturn in the economy, two corporate groups that seem to bear the brunt of fiscal conservatism are Human Resources and Information Technology. Unless you are actually in the business of IT to generate revenue, in the corporate world, both of these departments are cost centers. Although they are both productivity enhancement enablers, it is often argued that they produce little to no direct bottom line value through their work.

In stark contrast to traditional business management theory, Dr. Howard Rubin[1] said in a presentation given at an October 2009 Gartner Symposium, “The most opportunistic time for technology investment is during an economic downturn; it is the only area in which investment can change the operating profile of an organization—doing so effectively can create an insurmountable competitive gap. Bad IT economics will put you on the wrong side of this gap and may even be creating advantage for your competitors.”

To gain competitive advantage during an economic downturn, smart executives invest in IT if they have the confidence in the IT organization to deliver that which is promised; quality products that meet or exceed customer expectations, on time delivery and well managed budgets. For IT organizations to be successful today and tomorrow, they must evolve into values-based cultures that drive high performance, low turnover, and increased productivity without impeding creativity and innovation. The organization must embrace defined, managed, measurable, repeatable and reusable practices that form the blueprint for their overall systems delivery strategy. The blueprint feeds the continuous improvement cycle. It’s said in the Six Sigma world, “If you can’t measure it, why are you doing it?”

This is where an effective SDLC helps. The SDLC provides a framework that describes the activities performed during each phase of a systems development project; activities that are defined, managed, measurable, repeatable and reusable, just what the doctor ordered. It endorses standards and practices to ensure consistency across projects and tasks undertaken by different groups within IT such as Telecom, Data Center, System Administration, Quality Assurance, Network, Applications Development and others.

Let me point out that I’m being very careful not to use the word “software” when discussing the SDLC. I use the term “system” to emphasize the SDLC’s broader impact across all of IT. Undoubtedly, a major focus of any SDLC is software, but when you think of all the projects that are undertaken in an IT organization, every project team has a responsibility to:

• Elicit and analyze requirements
• Develop systems specifications
• Define success metrics
• Produce clear, consistent and unambiguous artifacts
• Deliver products that comply with the highest quality standards that meet or exceed customer expectations
• Transfer knowledge to operational support and maintenance personnel, sometimes to outsourced, off-shore locations
• Train end users and support resources
• Offer post deployment support and maintenance

Are these statements true or false? If true, then consistent reusable processes and practices across the entire IT organization are critical for an organization’s absolute success.

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[1] Gartner Senior Advisor, Founder Rubin Worldwide, MIT CISR Associate, howard.rubin@rubinworldwide.com

Opportunities and Redemption Abound on the Internet

Ever since my position was eliminated in December 2009 due to the recession, more doors of opportunity have opened for me than I ever imagined. First there was the public speaking engagement at AITP, then invitations to meet new friends for coffee or breakfast that may not have happened otherwise, frequent opportunities to discuss my book with people; and finally, becoming a registered facilitator of the Lead Like Jesus Encounter Workshop. All of this because of the Internet. (Then there’s also the Executive Consortium in which I have a leadership role, but more on that in a future post.)

This week I was introduced to a yet another new opportunity and even made a new friend because of it. Ken Whatmore from Colorado is my new friend. I’ve never met Ken in person to shake his hand, nor do I know if we’ll ever be in the same place together at the same time to actually meet in person. We have spoken on the phone and corresponded with each other, yet I know Ken will be a life long friend. Why? Because He’s a true brother in Christ!

This past Tuesday, Ken posted this challenge in the Christian Professionals Worldwide group on LinkedIn: “Share your story - How you came to know Christ and how He has changed your life. Make a difference in a life by sharing! We'll record a show that airs Sundays at 7pm MTN on http://www.radio323.com.”

I responded to Ken’s inquiry with a brief synopsis of how I came to know Christ as my personal Savior in May of 1976. I got saved under the most unusual circumstances in which God spoke very directly and personally to me from the Scriptures. I learned of my hopeless condition as a fallen human being and unregenerate sinner; and Jesus saved me. While my testimony is too long to share here, the full story is on our family website at: http://www.fontlife.com/victor/testimony.aspx .

As the Director of Radio323, Ken asked if I would share my testimony with his listening audience. We recorded the show Wednesday morning. I spoke for about 30 minutes. The show, called “Redemption,” airs Sunday evening on the internet to a global audience. I’m sure you’ve heard of Doctors Without Borders, well Ken’s vision for his radio platform defines the term Ministry Without Borders.

Ken says, “I am developing what God really put on my heart—a community outreach ministry. A new kind of outreach though developing networks of business groups, student groups, community groups on one side of the coin and on the other, networks of Christian ministry and outreach organizations who need volunteers.” He adds, “this new show 'Redemption' is really getting at the heart of the radio ministry…”

Ken has been Director of the radio station since January of 2010 after leaving a long career in the automotive industry. Radio323 frequently broadcasts messages from Christian Professional Athletes and Celebrities. I am grateful that he has included me among this list of distinguished guests. For more information or to lend support to this vital endeavor, please visit http://www.radio323.com. And don’t forget to listen to my appearance on Redemption this Sunday night at 7pm Mountain and 9pm Eastern.

When Outsourcing, Multi-cultural Training Means the Difference between Success and Failure

In a May 2004 study entitled “Leading Causes of Outsourcing Failures,” the Outsourcing Center[1] surveyed 305 buyers and providers in North America, Europe, Asia and India to assess their experiences and opinions about outsourcing failures. One-third of respondents were buyers, two-thirds were providers. They concluded that 25% of the reasons for outsourced project failures are due to poor communication (16%) and cultural fit (9%). If you believed 25% of your outsourcing projects would fail because either you or your provider didn’t understand each other, even though you both speak the same language, or innocently offended each other because you didn’t understand each other’s cultural mores, you would do something about it wouldn’t you?

Multi-cultural or cross-cultural training is a key success factor when considering outsourcing. Gerard (Geert) Hendrik Hofstede is an influential Dutch sociologist whose life’s work includes the study of the interactions between national cultures and organizational cultures. Hofstede defines five dimensions of culture in his study of national work related values which are:

• Individualism vs. Collectivism: measure of how greatly members of the culture define themselves apart from their group memberships
• Long vs. Short Term Orientation: A society's “time horizon” or the importance attached to the future vs. the past and present
• Masculinity vs. Femininity: the value placed on traditionally male or female values
• Small vs. Large Power Distance (PDI Scale): A measure of how widely the less powerful members of society expect and accept that power is distributed unequally
• Weak vs. Strong Uncertainty Avoidance: A metric of how extensively members of a society are anxious about the unknown and try to cope with anxiety by minimizing uncertainty

Having an understanding of the Hofstede PDI scale provides insight into one of the foremost causes of cross-cultural communication failures—the difference between high context and low context communication. The low context communicator expects straightforward conversation. If there is a problem, s/he expects a straightforward answer with specifics. In high context countries, subordinates acknowledge the power of others based on their formal hierarchical positions. The subordinates offer their superiors great respect. Out of respect, the high context communicator doesn’t directly inform their superior of project issues due to the concern that the superior may suffer an offense. Neither person is doing anything wrong. They are merely observing the cultural norms of their respective countries.

Effective cross-cultural training solves the issues that resulted in the 2004 survey’s 25% of project failures. Preparing employees to work outside of their native country or to work with offshore outsourcers is extremely important for outsourced project success. Basic multi-cultural training includes:

• Action plan for living abroad
• Communication characteristics and role
• Doing business in the country
• Eating and drinking
• Education, studies and professional training
• Introduction to culture and history
• Laws, norms, taboos and values of the society
• Leisure activities and customs
• Social contacts, friends and acquaintances
• Relations at work and management
• Women’s life and role in society

Without understanding those cultural norms, communication breakdowns lead to project failures. One of the greatest mistakes any IT organization can make is to enter into an outsourcing agreement without first subjecting its key players to basic multi-cultural training.

 

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[1] The Outsourcing Center is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Everest Partners, L.P.; Two Galleria Tower, 13455 Noel Road, Suite 2100; Dallas, TX 75240; PH: 214-451-3000 FAX: 214-451-3001; http://www.outsourcing-center.com/

Closing Thoughts on Servant Leadership

As I close this series on Servant Leadership I am compelled to say that Servant Leadership is definitely not for everyone. First and foremost, it requires a personal relationship with God and an extraordinary love for others that extends beyond ourselves. Without the love of God and the Holy Spirit guiding us, anyone attempting to commit to Servant Leadership in their own strength and on their own terms is doomed to fail and cause frustration in their life and the lives over whom they influence. Committing to Servant Leadership requires doing things God’s way, in God’s timing, as taught in the Bible, if there is to be any hope of true success.

I believe with every fiber of my being there is a God and my life is in His hands. I encourage readers to do what I did at the age of twenty-one, invite Him into your heart to take control…then see what He does to get you through life’s challenges. I’m thankful to Him for the blessings He has bestowed upon us and the gifts and talents He has given us in order to be munificent to others. Leadership is one of these gifts and I pray this series of blog posts is profitable to you and to your career.

As a registered facilitator of the Lead Like Jesus Encounter Workshops, I am available to lead groups from your church, business or non-profit in a one-day discovery journey where you will learn from the Bible what it truly means to be a Servant Leader. If this sounds like something that is of interest to you or your organization, please feel free to contact me so we can discuss.

The 5th Habit of Servant Leaders: Maintaining Accountability Relationships

Do you remember the saying, “It’s lonely at the top?” Leadership is a lonely business. We often rely on our own perspectives of how we are doing; and when we do, it’s easy to develop blind spots and rationalize our behaviors in ways that can quickly undermine our credibility, integrity and trust with those who look to us for leadership.

I’ve written before about how surprised I was the first time I received a 360-review when I worked at Warner-Lambert. The review was a surprise because the anonymous feedback was brutally honest and pointed out that I had blind spots to certain behaviors that failed to reflect the intentions of my heart. As a result, my credibility with those I led suffered.

When faced with the honest assessment, I had a choice of either one of two paths to take: allow myself to become a victim and martyr or accept the feedback as a gift and work to improve myself. If I chose the former, I could have permitted my feelings to blossom into resentment or self-justification. This would have been my downfall and I would have failed as a manager.

Instead, I chose the latter and committed to a detailed diagnostic and developed an action plan to overcome the negative perceptions with my leadership. I asked everyone I influenced to hold me accountable and within one year my 360-feedback was a complete reversal from the year before. The negative feedback was gone. People were now saying I was the best manager they ever worked with. If it wasn’t for my truth tellers, I might never have been able to climb the corporate ladder. My career would have come to a standstill.

We all need trusted truth tellers who can help keep us on course. Having people we trust who will tell us the truth we might not always want to hear is one of the greatest resources for growth that we have. If you bring truth tellers into your inner circle and let them know you are willing to listen, they will speak honestly to you. It doesn’t mean you have to do everything they tell you, but hear them anyway. They want to be heard and know you care about what they have to say. And don’t be afraid to share your vulnerabilities with them. Being open to feedback is only one way to grow. Willingness to disclose our vulnerabilities with other people is another way to grow. We are all human. We are all vulnerable. We all fall short.

The Servant Leader challenge for today is to identify at least one person you trust and ask them to join you as a truth teller about your effectiveness and style of leadership. Truth tellers protect us from ourselves by being always ready to listen, giving advice when asked and being trusted to love us anyway, warts and all. Eventually, invite three others and form a supportive group of accountability relationships.

The funny thing is, I’m married to one of the best truth tellers anyone could hope for. I could have saved Warner-Lambert thousands of dollars in leadership training if I had only listened to my wife in the first place! Don’t overlook your spouse as one of your most trusted inner circle.

The 4th Habit of Servant Leaders: Accepting God’s Unconditional Love

For Servant Leaders, the question becomes, “Where do we place our trust and hope?” There are going to be many times during our season of leadership where our decisions will reveal the answer to this all important question. Have no doubt about it. There will be many times when we take a stand and face the fear of negative consequences or we’ll be tempted to rely on our own self-accumulated resources and efforts as our source of self-worth and security.

The world we live in fuels the fires of pride and fear. As much as we might want to believe that we can find security, safety and meaning in acquiring more and better goods and services, the absolute truth is, we can only find security, safety and meaning in a relationship with God. If we place our trust in the unconditional love and promises of God, we’ll find a never-ending supply of what we need to live and lead as Servant Leaders.

We live in a performance based society. Our performance is constantly being evaluated by those with whom we interact. At least once a year we go through a performance evaluation process. Our salary increases are called merit increases. Do we merit a raise based on our performance? Exemplary performance can lead to more money, promotions and more responsible titles.

Accepting the reality of God’s unconditional love and promises is a struggle for us. With a performance–oriented mindset, it’s hard to grasp that God’s unconditional love for us is not premised on our performance. It’s promised for our acceptance and response to it. His unconditional love and promises are very specific, meant for us personally. Surrendering our reservations to His love can be one of the hardest things we’ll ever do. Look at these following promises:

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” –Romans 8:38–39 (KJV)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” –John 3:16 (KJV)

To lead as Servant Leaders we need to learn to love as Servant Leaders. As Servant Leaders, if we do not love God, we cannot love the people we lead. Nothing but the love of God will compel us to cheerfully go through the difficulties and discouragements we experience as leaders.

All individuals need to be heard; they need to be praised; they need to be encouraged; they need to be accepted. As Servant Leaders, we need to practice these expressions of love. Why? Because we express our love for God by loving those He puts in our path. Think about all of your interactions with people within the past 24 hours. If how you treated them is a reflection of your love for God, how much do you really love God?

The 3rd Habit of Servant Leaders: Study and Application of Scripture

Mark Twain once said, “Most people are bothered by those passages in Scripture that they cannot understand; but as for me, I always noticed that the passages in Scripture that trouble me the most are those that I do understand.”

2 Timothy 3:16–17 (KJV) says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”

Skeptics of God’s Word argue that it was written by men and is therefore fallible. It is true that God’s Word was recorded by men, but it originated with God. In fact, it is God’s personal letter to those He loves and it provides tremendous benefit for His people. It teaches us, corrects us, trains us and transforms our thinking so we can be more like Him in our leadership roles.

Four of the Ten Commandments deal with our relationship with God and six of them deal with how we interact with each other. When Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment, He responded with “to love God with all of our being.” The fact is that God’s Word is built upon a simple foundation: love God and love other people. If you only use the Bible to study and apply the practical wisdom it contains about dealing with people and overcoming our internal challenges, it absolutely stands on its own as the greatest book ever written. The Scriptures are God’s Holy Word, delivered by holy men, to teach holy truths and to make people holy.

There are five steps required for the Servant Leader to cultivate the third habit of Knowing and Applying Scripture: Hear, Read, Study, Meditate and Memorize. As Servant Leaders, you probably know these steps already, but are you practicing them? If not, it takes time to develop them as habits. If you haven’t stored away God’s Word beforehand, it is impossible to bring its power into play when you are faced with the hard choices of the day. You can’t give what you haven’t received.

Perhaps you can remember a time when you were about to make a big mistake by giving into some temptation and God’s Word pulled you back from the precipice. Perhaps you remember a time when a burden was almost too hard to bear and you found comfort in God’s Word. Or perhaps you remember a time when you weren’t too sure of the path your life was supposed to take and things appeared to be very scary, yet you found courage and confidence in the promises of God.

The Servant Leader’s challenge of the day is to go and make new memories with God’s Word. As you prepare for the challenges ahead by studying scripture, ask yourself the following three questions to help guide your progress:

• In what area of use and application of God’s Word do I feel most confident?
• In which area do I feel the weakest?
• What will it take to increase my level of effectiveness in my weaker areas?

And Servant Leaders, keep the following in mind as you take up this new challenge: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” - 2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)

The 2nd Habit of Servant Leaders: Prayer

If solitude is the most difficult servant leader habit to acquire, habitual prayer falls right behind as number two. Prayer is an essential act of the will that demonstrates whether we are really serious about living and leading as servant leaders. The servant leader’s prayer life is the most instructive indicator about how and where they might take their followers. Without prayer, we’ll never be able to connect our plans and efforts with God’s plan for our lives. Seeking God’s will through prayer, waiting in faith for an answer, acting in accordance with that answer and being at peace with the outcome, all call for spiritual maturity in your leadership.

Philippians 4:6–7 (KJV) says, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

The term “be careful for nothing” means not to worry about anything. The cure for worry is prayer. All too often prayer becomes an act of desperation, the option of last resort, the foxhole promise to God, when it should really be the first step for anything we do. What is it that causes you to worry? Do you ever pray about it? How often is prayer your first response to temptation or a challenge rather than your last resort? What is it that leads you to prayer? What do you most often pray for? Which of these phrases accurately reflects your attitude toward prayer: “Well, all we can do now is pray” or “The first thing we should do is pray?”

James 5:16 (KJV) says, “…The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” and James 4:2 (KJV) says, “…ye have not, because ye ask not.”

Prayer should be our natural first response instead of our last resort. In prayer, God has given us the most powerful, most immediately available resource for responding to the moment-by-moment challenges of both good and bad events. Finally, prayer honors God. Servant Leaders are called to honor God in all that they do.

The challenge for Servant Leaders is to begin keeping a prayer journal so you can be reminded of the daily prayers God is answering in your life. Pray for everyone you know, your work, your passions and God’s guidance for your life and leadership.

The 1st Habit of Servant Leaders: Solitude

We live in a frenetic, fast-paced world. From the time we get up in the morning until the time we rest our heads upon our pillows for a well deserved sleep, we are tugged in dozens of directions, many of which threaten to drive us off course from our mission and vision. It’s often been said we live in a rat race. Comedienne Lily Tomlin once said, “The problem with a rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.” The first habit of highly effective servant leaders is making time for daily solitude. This is the time we spend alone with God, feeding upon our source of spiritual nourishment and refreshment, helping us to focus on the tasks ahead and to discover His plan for our life by listening for His “still small voice.” (1 Kings 19:12)

Solitude is countercultural. Almost every waking moment is bombarded by the media, social networking, text messaging, email, cell phones, putting out the fires that arise in our lives and the interruptions from those competing for our time. This is not a new problem. Jesus suffered from the same time demands we face in life. The methods by which those demands were delivered are different, but the demands themselves are the same. He ensured solitude was a key habit in His life for a variety of reasons. As the role model for serious servant leaders, we need to take our cues from Him.

• When preparing for the tests of leadership and public ministry, Jesus spent 40 days alone in the desert (Matt. 4:1-11)
• Before choosing His twelve apostles, Jesus spent the entire night alone in the desert hills (Luke 6:12-13)
• When He received the news of the death of John the Baptist, Jesus withdrew in a boat to a lonely place (Matt. 14:13)
• After the miraculous feeding of the 5,000, Jesus went up into the hills by Himself (Matt. 14:23)

Whether He was preparing Himself for leadership, making important decisions, mourning the passing of a dearly beloved friend or dealing with the tasks of His daily walk, He found time for solitude. It kept Him in tune with His mission and vision for His life here on Earth.

What is it that keeps us from spending time alone with God? What are we afraid of? Why is it so difficult to make Him a priority in our lives? What changes do we have to make in our daily routines to make time for solitude? What activities stand between us and our alone time with God?

Here’s a challenge for you. Spend 30 minutes alone with God today. Turn off all the distractions, no electronics, cell phones, PDAs, radios, televisions, etc. Don’t even talk to anyone during the 30 minutes. Close your eyes and think about the things that excite you and concern you. Place them ceremonially at the feet of Jesus, then turn your attention to Him. Think of the attributes of God such as His Holiness, His love, His mercy, His kindness, and His great gift of salvation. Listen in your heart for His still small voice directing and guiding you. It could be the most difficult 30 minutes you’ll ever spend in your life, but it could also be the most rewarding. To develop a habit, it has to first become a discipline. To become a discipline, it has to first be accomplished as a task. Are you will to take the challenge?