Last year Leadership Network broke new ground by doing a completely free, completely online leadership conference called The Nines. At 9:09 on 9/9/09 dozens of leaders began sharing 9 minutes of wisdom via pre-recorded video.  More than 20,000 people tuned in.

The format this year is similar, but the videos will be 6 minutes long and the theme is game-changers.

There will be more than 100 speakers including Rick Warren, Michael Hyatt, Ed Stetzer, Alen Hirsh, Len Sweet, and Francis Chan.

One cool new twist is you can submit your own “Game Changers” video, and if it’s good yours could be one of the videos shown.

The Nines takes place 9/9/10. It’s free again, though there are some paid options. You can register here.

Did you participate in The Nines last year? Going to participate this year? If so, which speakers are you looking forward to most?

Annual performance reviews are dreaded by most employees and supervisors.  For many it’s an awkward, uncomfortable conversation.

I actually love doing performance reviews with my staff.  I look forward to them.  I think it has a lot to do with some of the unconventional ways we do them.

So, here are 10 things I do regarding performance reviews, that I think contribute to making them really good.

1. Hire well. Performance reviews are a lot more enjoyable if you have mostly positive things to discuss.  That starts with hiring people who do great work. More than that, though, I make a point of hiring people who want to learn and get better at their jobs, people like that appreciate constructive criticism.  I also make a point of hiring people I genuinely like and enjoy hanging out with.  It makes work and performance reviews a lot more enjoyable.
2. Keep a performance log for every staff person. It’s really important to me to be able to speak about specific instances – good or bad – when doing performance reviews rather than just generalities.  I have a terrible memory, though, so I keep a log for every member of my staff.
3. Discuss performance issues regularly. I don’t ever want anything I say in a performance review to be a surprise.  I make a point of complimenting our staff regularly when they do something well.  I also address negative performance issues as soon as I notice them rather than waiting to bring them up at performance reviews.
4. Ask staff to do a self-evaluation. I have all our staff complete self-evaluation forms.  They not only rate their performance in key areas, but also provide comments and examples explaining their ratings.  This helps me understand how they feel about their performance before we sit down to discuss it.
5. Do reviews over a meal. I take each of my staff out for lunch or dinner when we do their performance review.  Everybody likes to eat.  People appreciate it when you treat them to a meal.  Eating also helps break any tension and makes the conversation happen more naturally.
6. Invite a 3rd person to join you. When I do performance review with one of our senior staff, I invite my partner (and brother) Mark to join us.  It makes the review more conversational minimizes the perception that it’s me vs them.  It also helps prevent any misunderstandings because there’s 3rd person to hear and clarify things.  When one of my senior staff does a performance review for a person they’re supervising, I participate.  I’m mostly there just to listen, and it also shows that what they do matters to me.
7. Give praise. A lot of performance reviews tend to focus on what’s wrong.  I view performance reviews as a big opportunity to encourage a person, tell them what they’re doing well, and challenge them to continue to excel in their strengths.
8. Provide opportunities to improve. A lot of the anxiety of performance reviews comes from having to discuss negative performance issues.  But I look at it this way: I want my staff to be the best they can possibly be and I assume they want to be the best they possibly can at their job.  After telling the person what they’re doing well, I follow that by telling them if they want to take their work to the next level, here are the areas I think they can get better.
9. Have them evaluate your leadership. In the self-evaluation form and the performance review, I ask our staff to rate me on my leadership, how clearly I’ve communicated the expectations for their role, the amount of oversight I give, and the extent to which they have the resources to do their job well.  If I want to empower my staff to do their best, that starts with giving them the best leadership I possibly can.
10. Give the people they supervise input on their review. I ask all the people a staff person supervises to fill out a short evaluation form asking them to review their supervisor on the same things I ask people to review me on – leadership, clear expectations, oversight, resources.  I don’t share these reviews with the person I’m evaluating, but they help shape my evaluation.

If you’re interested, here’s the self-evaluation form we use.

Which of these resonates with you?  Any other suggestions to make employee performance reviews awesome?

Tuesday I wrote about why “do everything with excellence” is hogwash.

I didn’t mention it in the post, but I wrote it in reaction to this post by David Foster which I read Monday.

I think we’ve mistaken excellence for something unattainable, more like perfection than what might reside within the reach of the average man or woman.

You can define excellence this way, and it’s achievable to anyone who wants it.  Here it is:

Excellence is doing the best I can with what I have where I am in the time allotted.

I have a lot of respect for David, but that definition of excellence just doesn’t work for two reasons.

1) Results matter.

Giving your best effort is important.  But if your best stinks, it’s not excellent.

We may want to evaluate ourselves based on effort, but the truth is we expect results from everyone else.

Not convinced?  Why not buy some beach front property in Louisiana?  BP made a great effort to cap and contain the oil spill.  Or maybe you’d like to listen to a collection of love songs by Leonard Nimoy (aka Spock).  He put quite a bit of effort into them.  Or maybe you’d like to use the first pick your fantasy football draft on Betty White.  I’ve heard she’s a hard worker.

Steve K posted a comment on Tuesday’s posts that reflects the views of a lot of people have about excellence:

The process (effort) and the product (effect) are to be considered separately… ‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men’ – that, to me, is excellence.

We do need to honor God with our best effort.  But let’s be honest, more often than not, focusing on the effort instead of the result is just an excuse to justify a poor result.  That’s because…

2) We can influence the time, effort, and resources that go into any task.

When a person says, “I did the best I could with what I had in the time allotted,” he’s really claiming he had no influence over the resources or time put into the task.  That is almost never true.

If you’re doing poorly on a work project, as a spouse, as a parent, as a volunteer, as a wind surfer, or whatever, you always have the option to put more time into it, spend more money on it, or ask someone for help.

It’s going to cost you something in some other area, but the first step is to recognize that you are not powerless.  You get to choose.

The second step is to consciously choose to allocate your time and resources according to what’s most important to you (as opposed to what you’ve always done or what other people think is important).  The third step is to have confidence in those choices.

Instead of making excuses for why some of the things we do don’t produce excellent results, let’s take ownership of choices we make.  Be confident in the choice to do some things with “averageness,” so you can put your time, effort, and resources into doing other things with excellence.

Do you agree that excellence is more about results or effort?  Why?  Give some examples.

A lot of people are trying to “raise the bar” on excellence these days.  Excellence is important, but the idea that we should do everything with excellence is an impossible goal.

Excellence means exceeding expectations.

Unless you are blessed with a talent that enables you to naturally exceed expectations, to exceed expectations in any endeavor you are going to have to put extra time, extra effort, or extra resources into that endeavor.

Your personal time, energy, and resources are limited.  If you put extra time, effort, or resources into one thing, you have to take it from something else.  It’s impossible to be excellent in your career, an excellent spouse, an excellent parent, an excellent PTA member, an excellent home owner, have an excellent body, and be an excellent golfer all at the same time.

Sure, there things we can do to raise performance and productivity across the board and we should, but there are still limits to what we can do.

Ultimately, excellence is a matter of choice.

Intentionally or unintentionally, we all choose what we want to do with excellence, and what we are OK with doing OK.  We make that choice when we decide what we to put extra time, effort, or resources towards, and what we’re just going to do as well as we can with less.

I want to be an excellent husband, parent, follower of God, and leader at work. While I often fall short of excellence, I do my best to put extra time, effort, and resources into those things.

On the other hand, nobody is every going to confuse me for a model or a pro athlete, so I’m content to exercise for 30 minutes 5x a week with some cast-iron weights and an $80 bike I got at Wal-mart.  My house is never going to be in Better Homes and Gardens, so I spend time and money on the weekends with my family rather than on home improvement projects.  I usually help coach my son’s baseball and soccer teams, but I’m not out to win a national championship, so I don’t put time and money into researching the best methods, training videos, and equipment.

What do you want to do with excellence?  Have you made an intentional choice to put extra time, effort, and resources into those things? If so how?  If not, what adjustments are you going to make?

“Today, people under the age of forty have little of this sense of loyalty. To some people this may sound discouraging, but I believe this value of loyalty to an institution is being replaced with something better.” -Hugh Halter Matt Smay

I love this quote from the book AND.  It has huge implications for every organization business, non-profit, church, and other organization in the world.

Ever been in a leadership meeting where people lamented the lack of loyalty?

People complain about the lack of loyalty all the time.  Customers aren’t as loyal as they used to be; they’ll buy whatever product has the lowest price at the time.  Employee aren’t loyal; they’ll jump ship if a better position becomes available at a competitor.  Church members lack loyalty; they’ll jump from church to church looking for whichever seems to meet their needs best.

But all hope is not lost.

“The new value is meaning.”

People won’t stick with your organization just to be loyal, but they will stick with you if you give their lives meaning.

People want to live for something bigger than themselves.

In fact, people will be far more loyal to a meaningful cause than they ever were to an organization back in the “good old days.”

If your organization is fighting for something bigger than itself and your cause resonates with their hearts, they will give their time, their money, their passion, and their lives to it.

Is your organization trying to institute loyalty or inspire passion to a meaningful cause?

I’ll be giving away a copy of AND later today. Get details and read my review here.

Today we’re reviewing, discussing, and giving away a copy of AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay (affiliate link).  Keep reading to learn how you can win a free copy.

AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church is written by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay who pastor Adullam Church in Denver, CO.  To quote the authors, “The idea of the AND is that every church can find a balance of both scattering people out for mission while maintaining a biblically meaningful reason to gather together.”

The traditional way to do church in the U.S. is centered on a Sunday service that people in the community must come to.  This type of church is often referred to as attractional.  But some people argue that many people have no interest in church at all, a new kind of church is needed to reach these people, one that goes out into the community, serves and builds relationships with people.  This type of church is often referred to as missional.  A big debate has erupted within the church as to which is better.

AND makes the case that “picking one side of the other is not the place to start.”  If a missional organization is successful, a community of faith will naturally want to form around it.  And if a church has no missional component it risks “becoming nothing more than a hospital, social/spiritual club, or teaching center.”  “A key to success in this flow [from engaging culture to community formation] is to avoid letting the two processes become isolated from each other… As our community begins to form, we are also continuing to engage more people.”

Favorite quotes

• The scriptures are clear.  God is the one who builds the church.  In Acts 2, he turned a network of house churches into a mega-church and in Acts 8 he allowed a centralized Hebrew church to be scattered all over the new world. (P 26)
• Church happens when a group of people decide to go on a mission with God together. (P 46)
• How “missional” you are is largely determined by the extent to which your people model the life, activities, and words of Jesus. (P 52)
• The reality is that living this way means you don’t get what your flesh wants.  You don’t get to keep all the money.  You don’t get to do whatever you want with your time.  You have to share your house, your stuff, your money, your kids.  You have to exchange your ambitions for God’s your kingdom for his, and you must be available for God to interrupt your nicely scheduled day with needs that will cause you to pull your hair out. (P 79)
• The great things of God cost us our life. (P 80)
• It’s time that we begin developing qualitative methods for turning consumers into missionaries, fans into followers, adherents into leaders. (P 80)
• Deeper discipleship can’t happen from the pulpit or through church programs.  It seems to happen best when a leader gives someone personal time. (P 86)
• The gravity towards consumerism is simply a symptom of how bored our people are with the basic Christian experience. (P 92)
• The most meaningful experience a person can have in this life is to feel connected with God – to know that God is leading their lives. (P 93)
• The common message of controlling sin, going to church, reading your Bible, journaling, and praying is that it just does not paint a compelling enough picture to keep people engaged spiritually, nor does it actually produce an active spirituality where people see God and grow. (P 93)
• [Jesus] didn’t waste time and emotional energy planning programs or leading strategy efforts to draw people to a consumer-oriented environment.  And he wasn’t too worried about opening the front door or closing the back door of his group of disciples.  Instead, Jesus preferred to allow people to observe him and make that extra effort to figure him out.  He knew that the real seekers would keep pursuing him and wouldn’t be satisfied until they had come to him. (P 105)
• People are not drawn to mission statements anymore.  They are drawn to stories like their own. (P 107)
• In the absence of vision, pettiness prevails.
• The church service is not inherently a problem, but it can lead to the consumer-oriented faith we’ve all come to know and lament.  Weekly services take a lot of time and resources, and they have the potential of lulling people into a spectator religiosity. (P 163)
• If the vision of the church is not scary if it doesn’t require everyone to pitch in, if faith is not needed, then folks will stay home and watch the football game. (P 172)
• If you try to start a church or grow a church you often attract people who just want to do “church things”; but if you start with a mission, God will draw people together and church will happen naturally. (P 174)
• Imagine what would happen if the average pastor/teacher who gives 25-30 hours a week to preparing a sermon actually gave 25-30 hours a week to teaching people how to teach other people the scriptures? (P 184)
• Faith is easy when you don’t need it.  And when you don’t need it, it’s not faith at all! (P 200)

Personal thoughts

The church in America (and all of western civilization) is in crisis right now.  Everyone knows it but few know what to do about it.  Attractional churches like Willow Creek began to emerge 30 years ago because traditional churches failed to change and were becoming irrelevant.  Many pastors and Christian leaders gravitated towards that model because unlike traditional churches it was engaging and relevant to people’s lives.

But in recent years, there’s been a backlash against attractional churches.  Our culture has changed again.  Many people disdain organized religion.  Many people are skeptical of anything that appears over-produced and inauthentic, including church services.  Many people are tired of structure, rules, and authority.  And those are people within the church.

As a result, many Christian leaders repelled by attractional churches have started emergent, organic, house, and missional churches.  In some ways, these movements have been a reaction to the seeker church movement, and so there’s been a lot of criticism and resistance within them towards the icon of the attractional church, the large worship service.

AND is an extremely important book, because it bridges the gap between the attractional and missional models.  It makes a convincing case that churches in general need to be more missional, that missional organizations need large gatherings and structure if they’re going to continue to disciple and send out more missional people, and that it’s both scriptural and logical for churches to embrace both a sending and gathering nature.

AND really resonated with me because I’ve been wrestling with the whole attractional vs missional dilemma.  I’ve been a bit frustrated with some aspects of attractional churches, and I have to admit that the idea of ditching the Sunday service engaging exclusively with an organic/house church has had some appeal.  But I’ve had a hard time finding vibrant, outreaching, house churches, which has made me skeptical that it’s a more viable expression of church.  AND helped me understand my discontent with attractional churches and my disappointment with more missional house churches, and showed me that churches ought to be a combination of the two.

AND is a book I think every pastor, church leader, missionary, and parachurch leader should read

Discussion

1. Do you agree that it’s possible – even necessary – for a church to be both attractional and missional?  If so why?
2. Is your church more attractional or missional in nature?
3. In what if any ways is your church working to become stronger (missional or attractional) in the area where its been historically weaker?

Get a Free Book

If you’d like a free copy of AND, all you have to do is

1. Retweet this post or share it on Facebook, and
2. Post a meaningful comment to this post that contributes to the conversation (include your Facebook or Twitter usename in your comment so I can connect your comment to your share/tweet).

One person will be randomly selected the afternoon of Wednesday 7/14 to receive a free copy.

Of course, you could buy a copy of AND now (affiliate link) and if you’re lucky enough to win, you can give that copy away.

Let me just say up front that I haven’t watched NBA basketball since Michael Jordan retired, and I haven’t followed the LeBron James drama at all.  But I read the letter Cleveland Cavaliers Owner, Dan Gilbert, wrote in response to James’ decision to go to the Miami Heat, and… wow!  Can you say…

Worst.

Letter.

Ever.

Read it for yourself.   There are at least 7 leadership lessons we can learn from this.

1) Don’t resort to name-calling. It makes you look like a 5th grader. In the letter, Gilbert calls James a deserter, narcissistic, self-promotional, betrayer, cowardly, shameful, selfish, disloyal, heartless, and callous.  Ouch!  Is he going for the nickname “insult thesaurus?”

2) Don’t blog/email/tweet when you’re angry. You will regret it later.

3) If you’re a public figure, hire a gate-keeper/media manager who you run your public communication through before it becomes public.

4) Always take the high road. I don’t know  LeBron James’ character or what happened behind the scenes.  But even if he is everything Gilbert called him and more, it’s just classless to insult a person publicly.

5) Don’t promise things you can’t possibly deliver. It just makes you look like you’ve lost all grip of reality.  Gilbert wrote, “”I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE.”  Please.  All this says is you want to show LeBron up.

6) When you sound like you’re out-of-control, manipulative, and classless, you lose all public sympathy, and you give everyone you’re criticizing justification for getting as far away from you as possible.

7) As a leader, when you look like an idiot, you embarrass everyone around you. I feel bad for the rest of the Cavs organization and Cavs fans.

And one bonus lesson…

Don’t rant in comic sans font.  It will only make you look more ridiculous.

This letter is embarrassing not only for Dan Gilbert but also for the entire the entire Cleveland Cavaliers organization and the entire city of Cleveland.  There will be damage control.  He will probably issue a carefully crafted mea culpa apologizing, citing passion for the Cavs, emotions getting the best of him, etc.  But Gilbert will never be able to live this down.

Your thoughts on the now infamous letter?  Other lessons learned from it?

Today we’re reviewing, discussing, and giving away a copy of Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement by Dave Ferguson and Jon Ferguson (affiliate link).  Keep reading to learn how you can win a free copy.

In their new book Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement, pastors (and brothers) Dave and Jon Ferguson provide insight and practical advice into how to lead a church movement.  Dave and Jon don’t just write theoretically.  They along with a handful of friends started Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL which has gone on to launch 11 other campus and a church planting network.

Exponential is all about reproducing.  It starts from the smallest unit – you, and provides advice on reproducing leaders, reproducing small groups, reproducing churches, and reproducing movements.

Favorite quotes:

• Every movement starts with one person. (P 15)
• You can do it. (P 17)
• You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. –Acts 1:8
• Insisting every small group begin with a leader and an apprentice leader was one of the most important choices we ever made. (P 24)
• Leadership path: individual -> apprentice -> leader -> coach -> director -> campus pastor/church planter -> network leader (P 32)
• The core competency of any movement is apprenticing. (P 44)
• Leadership can only be developed through practice. –Ram Charan
• When you dream big, it changes how you think, how you act, and it can even change those around you. (P 46)
• God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. –Eph 3:20
• Wherever the creative class gravitates, there will be the creating of culture. (P 73)
• Our churches will need to become more comfortable with chaos and failure – if they want to be faithful to God. (P 116)
• Developing coaches (leaders of leaders) may be the single most overlooked yet vital task in spreading a missional movement. (P 118)
• The greatest gift a coach can bring to a leader is to be available when needed. (P 123)
• God’s dream is not for the church to be led by a one-man weekly show but for it to be a team led by great coaches. (P 129)

Personal thoughts

In many ways, Exponential, is the polar opposite of the last book I read and reviewed, Jesus Manifesto.  While Jesus Manifesto calls Christians back to loving Jesus more than anything, criticizes Christian formulas, and warns of allowing causes (even the causes of evangelism and church planting) to become a god, Exponential calls Christians to put reproducing at the forefront of their minds and it’s chock full of formulas like:

• 5 Reproducing Principles We’ve Learned
• 4 relationships every leader needs
• 5 keys to developing a church culture that attracts creatives
• 6 coaching questions
• 3 questions for discovering God things

I think there’s room in Christian conversation for both books.  God created a universe of systems – the solar system, the water cycle, the circulatory system, etc.  Systems are good as long as we don’t allow systems to become gods, and as long as we continue to be motivated by love for God and led by his Spirit.

There are billions of people in this world who are far from God.  There is only so much any one person can do to help people find their way back to God.  That’s why it’s critically important to multiply leaders, multiply teams, multiply churches, and multiply church networks.  Dave and Jon have proven they know how to do this.

No matter what Christian leadership role you find yourself in today, you’ll find insight and practical advice that will help you follow your God-given dream.  In particular, I recommend Exponential to small group coaches/directors, directors of music/arts, senior pastors, and people who find themselves currently on the sidelines with nothing but a dream.

My biggest takeaways from Exponential were.

• If you want your ministry to multiply, you have to start with that as one of the stated goals.
• Apprenticing others is one of the most important factors in multiplying, no matter what level of leadership you’re at.
• Apprenticing requires pouring into a person one-on-one.

Discussion

1. Do you want your ministry to multiply?  If so, is that one of the stated priorities?
2. How important do you think apprenticing is for multiplying ministries?  Do you have an apprentice?  Are you being apprenticed?
3. How important do you think meeting one-on-one is for personal and leadership development?

Get a Free Book

If you’d like a free copy of Exponential, all you have to do is

1. Retweet this post or share it on Facebook, and
2. Post a meaningful comment to this post that contributes to the conversation (include your Facebook or Twitter usename in your comment so I can connect your comment to your share/tweet).

One person will be randomly selected the afternoon of Tuesday 6/8 to receive a free copy.

Of course, you could buy a copy of Exponential now (affiliate link) and if you’re lucky enough to win, you can give that copy away.

33 days ago I had surgery on my right knee to replace a torn ACL and repair a partially torn meniscus (cartilage.)  Yes, I’ve been counting the days.

The last 33 days have been difficult.

The worst part?

Not the pain.  Not the physical therapy.  Not walking around on crutches.  Not that I’m under doctor’s orders not to drive.  Not that I can’t go swimming or play catch or run around with my kids.

The worst part has been that I’ve only gotten about 4 or 5 hours of sleep every night for almost 5 weeks now.

I’m exhausted.

How can I lead my company, my family, my church, my small group, and more when I have no energy?

The Effects of Lack of Sleep

Like most people, when I’m tired I am more irritable, more easily frustrated, and less patient.  I find it much more difficult to concentrate, to write, and to make decisions.  It seems to take me longer to do everything.

What’s more, as a leader, my energy level impacts everyone I lead.  As Michael Hyatt wrote on his blog today.

As a leader, everything you do is contagious. If you are discouraged, pessimistic, or lacking in energy, people will feel it. The organization will reflect it. It will spread faster than an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

In fact, because of my current situation, Michael’s post this morning titled How to Be a More Energetic Leader really caught my eye.

Of course, his number one recommendation?  Get a good night sleep.

Argh!  Thanks.  I’m trying.

Choose to Be Energetic

Michael’s fifth recommendation is “Decide to be energetic.”  He writes,

This is huge. Unless you are ill, you can be more energetic by simply acting  more energetic. I am always surprised at how my emotions follow my body. If I walk faster, sit on the edge of my seat, and smile, I will eventually feel more energetic.

This is good advice.  However, sometimes leaders misunderstand and get this wrong.  I think sometimes as leaders we think we have to exhibit energy and enthusiasm for our teams all the time, even if it means faking it.

In my current situation, I could try to fake it.  I could act like I feel great, I’m excited, and everything is great.  But if I do, chances are the people around me will not be fooled and they’ll think I’m either delusional or a phony.  Instead of inspiring confidence and energy, it would actually undermine people’s confidence in my leadership.

So, after some thought, I put together 5 suggestions for leading when you lack energy.

1) Acknowledge reality. Be honest with people about where you really are.  If you’re fatigued or going through some emotional personal issues, let people know.  You don’t have to go into details, but letting people know you’re not on you’re not 100% will build trust and preempt gossip or speculation.

2) Look beyond circumstances. When you don’t feel good or circumstances are difficult, don’t let your feelings or circumstances determine your attitude.  Remember why you’re doing what you’re doing.  Imagine what things will be like when the vision or goal has been accomplished.  Focus on that instead of the current circumstances.

3) Trust your faith. As a Christian, I know I can rely on God’s promises in the bible.  “I will never leave you or forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5).  “Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.” (Isaiah 40:13)  If your spiritual beliefs differ from mine, there are still probably some elements within them that provide you with hope.

4) Adjust the pace. When you lack energy, expecting that you’ll be able to do everything just as well and as quickly as when you’re at full capacity can only lead to more frustration.  Sometimes we’re even tempted to make up for our lack of energy by working even harder and longer, which inevitably makes things worth.  Consider extending deadlines where possible. Delegate what you can.  Cut out non-essential tasks.

5) Fill your bucket. When you’re low on energy, ultimately the best solution is do what you have to do to replenish your energy, or as we sometimes say fill your bucket.  What fills our buckets and gives us energy is different for each of us.  Some possibilities include… take a nap, meet up with a friend who is inspiring and encouraging, go for a walk, take a vacation, play a game with your kids, listen to music, pray, write a blog post.

If you lead a team that’s low on energy, you may have to do these things for or with your team.

How do you lead when you have no energy?

Watch out!  You’re likely to see a lot of changes around here over the next month.  That’s because I’m going to blogging school.

OK, so not exactly.  But I am leading a group of 50 bloggers and counting who are going through Darren Rowse’s (aka ProBlogger’s) 31 Days to Build a Better Blog ebook over on the Christian Web Trends blog.

Each day for 31 days we are reading a lesson and doing an assignment that will help us to improve our blog and our blogging skills.  Additionally, there will be a blog post published to Christian Web Trends each of the 31 days where we’ll discuss the lesson and assignment.

I am tremendously excited about this because it combines two things I’m very passionate about: communication and helping people develop.

But that’s not all…

You’re Invited

If you’d like to not only learn how to take your blog to the next level but actually do it. And not just do it, but do it with a great group of bloggers who genuinely want to help each other get better, you still have time to read the details & sign up.

Monday was day one, so you’ll have a little catching up to do, but you can do it.

Speaking of Day 1

Day 1’s assignment was to write an “elevator pitch” for your blog.  Describe your blog in a way that will give them an idea of what it’s about and make they curious enough to want to know more in the in the time span of an elevator ride, about 30 seconds or 100 words.

In the process of doing that, I also wrote the About page for this blog.  Something that was missing for the first 3 years of this blog.

What do you think?