What does a leader do?  Lots of things, of course.  Today though, I want to give just a couple.

 

A leader does two things:

 

Passion and Remind. 

 

Passion.  One of the greatest attributes a leader can show is passion.  It is amazing how many times I will speak at something and the feedback I receive back has to do with PASSION.

 

pas·sion

a. Boundless enthusiasm: His skills as a player don’t quite match his passion for the game.

b. An abandoned display of emotion.

People look to the leader to be excited about what the organization is doing or working toward.  The times I have been in the PITS (doing dishes at camp) I mostly make sure that I have great PASSION about tit – “boundless enthusiasm” and it makes a huge difference.

 

Remind.  Every business, job, ministry, or family has some core values.  Most people know them but sometimes just need to be reminded.  Reminded of who we are, reminded about what we are about, reminded about why we do what we do.

 

We remind our crew at summer camps the original legend/story of the first summer of Young Life camp.  As the story goes, the workers all were outside waiting for campers the first week . . . and none came.  The 2^nd week they watched on the Colorado horizon and again, no campers.  The 3^rd week came and the first cars came over the horizon . . . the cheering, the welcome, the sheer enthusiasm was amazing.  This is the background, the REMINDER, of why we welcome campers the way we do in Young Life.

 

Reminding people in your organization why you do what you do, is huge.

 

re·mind  

tr.v. re·mind·ed, re·mind·ing, re·minds

To cause to remember; put in mind

 

What you can do today that will make a difference . . .PASSION and REMIND.

 

In Young Life we have a current Big Hairy Audacious Goal – BHAG.  It is to Reach A World Of Kids.  The goal is to go from impacting 1,000,000 kids to 2,000,000 by 2016.  In the Western Division I sit on a “Think Tank” to brainstorm how we can achieve this goal.  We came up with one idea a couple of years ago – double the number of leaders and by doing so, double the number of kids we reach.

 

As we met this past September as a Think Tank we decided that the best thing we could do for our staff was to help them remember the WHY’S of what we do – i.e., REMIND.  We also decided that be putting passionate people in front of them, who had BOUNDLESS ENTHUSIASM also made a huge difference.

 

How do we as a THINK TANK do this?  For us, we created forums to teach, we created some online resources, we update a website, and we utilize a Facebook page for staff.  All of this is to spread passion and to remind.

Here an example of how we remind:  http://rwokleaders.com/

 

At a car dealership it will look different I am sure . . . reminding your salesman about the daily goal of cars sold . . .  having enthusiastic meetings as to how we will achieve these goals.  In the end, whether in ministry, selling cars, owning a restaurant, or being a mom of little kids – we will achieve our goals to a higher degree when we REMIND and express PASSION about our goals.

 

Have a great Tuesday!

 

Eric