Is Leadership Lonely?

Have you heard it said that leadership is lonely? I read this week a quote by ML Anderson that said “leaders are called to stand in a lonely place…”

Leadership can be lonely, but as a Christ follower, living out your call as a leader means you never lead alone. We stand with Christ by our side, having access to his love, guidance and LEADING.

"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you and watch over you." Psalm 32:8

God is speaking…

Are we listening?

He wants to lead and guide us, he wants to speak to us. But so often we struggle to hear. Sometimes we are hoping that we would hear God’s booming voice loud and clear, telling us what to do.

But maybe we need to try things differently. Maybe God is speaking, but His voice is drowned out by all the noise around us.

1 Kings 19:11-13: "The Lord said, 'Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.' Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?'"

We have winds of work and stress, earthquakes of hurry, fires that burn with the desire for instant answers and solutions. But God so often comes as a gentle whisper, and these things drown out His voice. We can so easily miss it if we don’t take a step back, remove the noise and listen for the whisper...

Have you ever taken time out in silence and solitude?

In his book Leading On Empty, Wayne Cordeiro says that there are only four ways to live your life:

1. Reaction – passively dominated by urgencies and pushy people
2. Conformity – succumbing to the fear of man and just being and doing what everyone else wants, which is not necessarily following God’s will for you personally
3. Independence – nonconforming rebellion in the name of freedom, marked by doing only what you want and ignoring godly authority over you
4. Intentionality – reverse-engineering your life and living it prayerfully and purposefully, journaling your thoughts throughout the day, and using silence and solitude to hear from God and organize your life

How are you living your life now? Where would you like to be?

Why not try do things differently from now on. Instead of wanting God to shout above the noise, why not try spend some time and turn off the noise and listen for the whisper...
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Don Muller has spent the last 4 years working into corporate and church leadership development and training both locally and internationally. He has a passion for and works towards seeing individuals live out their strengths and calling daily.

It’s a beautiful game... for who?

Yesterday was a day of mixed emotions. It started at 13h30 when I donned my Bafana shirt and headed onto the streets with vuvuzela (South Africa’s new national bird!) in hand to watch my first live game in durban - Spain vs Switzerland. Certain that the Spanish would dominate I joined in on some of the spanish chants prior to the game. ‘Moytjo Spanyo (sp?) (repeat x 2) HAY! HAY!’ (repeat all x300) The atmosphere was electric. I was awed. The camera’s, people, stadium, pitch and that all of this was tacking place literally in my back yard!

Then it happened. The Swiss won! A huge upset which sent thousands of Spanish home in agony. The crowd all seemingly headed in one direction. Straight to the beach promenade and down toward the fan park to support Bafana. Again the atmosphere was electric. I have never heard so many vuvuzela’s in one place, never been in a crowd so diverse!

Then it happened. Bafana lost. Badly. The crowds went silent after that first goal and it just seemed to slip away from there. Like the Spanish we left bitterly disappointed at the result and wondering where this leaves our team.

All the commentators could say was, “That’s why they call it a beautiful game”

For who?? The winners or the losers?

There’s a start and there’s a finish in every game of football.

At the start everyone has an expectation running through their mind, a picture of what is to be. At the end some of those expectations are met, some are even better than expected and some are completely blown to a dithering pulp. In between are a bunch of factors which influence that result. Bad decisions, a fluke of a shot, mistakes, brilliant play and a stadium which is humming as though the worlds entire bee population migrated south for the winter. They seem to say ‘its beautiful’ cause it is simply so full of flux - anything can happen! My logic is that players and spectators who recognise it to be beautiful despite its unpredictability are the ones who make the most out of every moment. It’s the difference between those who leave 10 mins early and those who hear the final whistle. If it’s beautiful we can never lose hope, can we?

There is a start and a finish to every season in life.

Those who recognise life to be beautiful despite it’s unpredictability are the ones who make the most out of every moment - who livelifeNOW!

For who?? Not winners or losers. But anyone who chooses to see it that way. Thats your choice.

My expectations have shifted. I no longer see Bafana holding up the cup (I imagined a white president / victorious black Bafana captain reversing INVICTUS at one point!) I see other wins; for our country, my city and our people. Yes, they are expectations and might not be a reality but that perspective determines how I will live right now and I choose ...

‘It’s a beautiful game’

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Travis Gale has spent the last 5 years running his own development business in South Africa’s corporate world and is currently involved in various long term partnerships with clients across a number of industries. Furthermore he has travelled to conferences internationally hunting down latest trends and insights. Having cycled around the world and survived a tsunami, his passion for crossing borders often lends itself to an interesting blend of stories and insight. He sees himself as a ‘change catalyst’ and displays strength in facilitating insight into the right spaces. Find out more at www.appletreelive.com

A New Start

There seems to be something within us that longs for a new start. Maybe this is why each year we make New Year’s resolutions. Often as leaders we hope for the opportunity to start over, try again, to do things differently.

I think we have this desire in us because it is a desire of God …

Revelation 21:5 says "And the one sitting on the throne said, "Look, I am making everything new!""

It speaks of the newness of what God does in our lives. Each day is new and fresh.
Another scripture which speaks about the idea that God is in the business of ‘new’ is Isaiah 43:18-19:
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”

As leaders the idea of God’s newness is so important, and there are some very clear points that come out of this scripture.

Firstly, God is saying we should forget the former things and that we should not dwell on the past. Often the past haunts us, there is stuff that happened in the past that hinders us moving forward. Or maybe we experienced great things in the past and thus constantly look back at those times, instead of forward to the newness He has.

Is your past holding you back? What are these things is your life?

The promise is that the past is forgotten. God has forgotten it, now we need to as well.

Secondly, we see again the idea that God is wanting to start something NEW! He is wanting to speak to us about the newness He has for us. How often do we create space for God to talk to us about the newness He has for us? As leaders let’s make time to listen.

We also need to understand that with newness comes a new way of doing things. There is a saying that if you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got.

Jesus used an awesome analogy to explain this to his disciples, when they asked Him why he was doing things differently. His reply in Mark 2:22 says:
“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.”

When newness comes you have to do things differently. Let’s not try put the new wine God wants to pour out into our lives into the old wineskins of how we did things before, or how we expect things to be.

To remember this, why don't you start doing something differently? Drive a new way home, start a new book, try a new hairstyle, try a different Chocolate bar. Whatever it may be, try do something differently.

"See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?"

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Don Muller has spent the last 4 years working in corporate and church leadership development and training both locally and internationally. He has a passion for and works towards seeing individuals live out their strengths and calling daily.

Leadership Advice: What’s in your hand?

I dove back into the archives this week and ended up watching a TED clip by Rick Warren on purpose. Go to to view. You will remember him for authoring Purpose Driven Life. I have heard it before but again was riveted by what he was saying. One of John Maxwell’s leadership laws is the ‘law of process’. This law states that developing leadership happens through a continuous reinforcing of what has been learnt. It is small actions over time that deliver results rather than cataclysmic events! Watching this clip reminded me of commitments and insights that I had when I first saw him speak in 2006 and again how critical the ‘why’ and ‘what’ are continuously reinforced in our own lives.

Last week we reminded ourselves of a ‘deeper purpose’. This week we add a layer and look at the ‘what’. Once the ‘Why’ is clear it makes sense that we focus on ‘what’ we have to work with. Rick Warren uses the metaphor of Moses’s staff in the Bible which represented 3 core areas in his life - his Identity, his Income and his Influence. In other words the staff defined the job that he had, how he earned his money and the influence he had in that position. Rick uses the metaphor in talking about his work with NBA basketball players. The Ball represents their Identity, Income and Influence. That’s what’s in their hands.

What’s in your hand? What talents, skills, passions so you have that can impact on others?

Connecting to this ‘what’ off the foundation of a solid ‘why’ yields defining changes in your daily actions. You have been given gifts. You were not born with nothing to offer, but rather a great deal of uniqueness which the world needs to see. You being all of who you are is what makes the difference to the rest of us. Spending time on these questions helps you shift your focus away from self and onto others. Impacting on others fuels meaning and fulfillment, something all of us desire to strongly.

Take some time to answer these questions:

• What, when you do it, makes you feel powerful? Time seems to fly by, you feel energised and alive?
• What positive feedback have you been given consistently - a skill, talent, character trait etc?
• If it was not about money or time what would you most like to do with your time?
• What do you dream about doing to make a difference in the world?

Own it. Own what you have in your hands. Own it and use it!

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Travis Gale has spent the last 5 years running his own development business in South Africa’s corporate world and is currently involved in various long term partnerships with clients across a number of industries. Furthermore he has travelled to conferences internationally hunting down latest trends and insights. Having cycled around the world and survived a tsunami, his passion for crossing borders often lends itself to an interesting blend of stories and insight. He sees himself as a ‘change catalyst’ and displays strength in facilitating insight into the right spaces. Find out more at www.appletreelive.com