I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but when I started Orange Thread Media four years ago I never realized how much my prayer life would be boosted. Ever been in a situation where you don’t feel qualified or capable to succeed? Welcome to starting a business. Or at least that’s how I felt.

I’m not saying that I didn’t believe in myself, I did… but that was different when I dabbled in business during high school. There was no pressure. Parents were paying the bills.  Food and clothing weren’t something I had to worry about anymore and I only had to look out for myself. Do you see where I’m coming from? What was once a hobby in high school now woke me up at 6am some mornings.

I didn’t intend to start OTM either… that’s another story for another blog…. but it just sort of happened. One thing lead to another and soon enough I was coming up with a name and registering a business.

I don’t know about you, but for me when I don’t feel qualified or I feel out of my comfort zone the first place I run to is the cross. I ask for a ton of HELP!!! If you were able to hear some of my prayers they would sound more like a drowning man begging for a life boat than a high school student looking for a new idea. I found that my prayer was different when it became a reality rather than just another task on the to-do list.

There are days I feel like Jacob when I carry a God-given scar, in a way that that reminds me that God is by my side every step. Sometimes we just need to wrestle with Him in prayer first. I am desperately in need of God in my life and seek him daily for the answers of life. He is my refuge, my home.

We’re most comfortable when we’re at home aren’t we? We let our guard down and unwind a bit. Home makes us feel safe… and that’s exactly what I mean when I say that God is my refuge… he’s my Home. When I am most satisfied, regardless of what’s going on in the business, I find my prayer life is overflowing. When I am most dissatisfied, it’s when I am most in need of more Prayer.

When was the last time you felt at “Home” with God…. that’s when we begin to understand that God is our refuge.. He’s our abiding place…. our security and shelter.

For me, I cannot do this thing called “Leadership” without His wise council… so daily I wake in prayer. In meditation of His wondrous works and ask the question, “what do you want from me today Lord? Give me the guidance to accomplish your will, grow my influence for YOUR sake, not mine, and give me the courage to fight for Your will not others.”

There is a part of me that never wants to be able to be an “expert” at business because I fear loosing that need to seek out answers from God, the Bible, and wise men and women of Faith… and at the same time I want to become an expert so I can help and influence others for the Cross of Christ.

Diving daily in prayer… is the humble, yet necessary, posture of perseverance.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

- Philippians 4:8

I found this underlined in my bible tonight…. what a powerful piece of scripture. However it caught me off guard. One of the things I have been taught all my life is to live out of excellence. The most common verse I refer to drive home a point of excellence is Colossians 3:17… in fact so much that I think that is the only verse to talk about living out of excellence.

That’s not the case is it? No, the bible is full of statements of excellence…. doing admirable tasks and simply making your life count.  I don’t have time to write a ton tonight, but thought I would share this simple thought.

The world recognizes one thing above race, gender, wealth… or poverty, intellect and religion… There’s one thing that above all the world will commend and encourage. That is excellence. It’s interesting to me how many people I meet that truly think being a christian excludes them from working incredibly hard… being obsessed with excellence and paying attention to detail.

This process takes time to perfect, and it takes work too! Stop. Slow down and work on building excellence! Remove all those thoughts that don’t contain excellence in them… and fill your mind with visions and pictures of a life full of excellence, integrity, truth, love and purity.

The brothers attempted to start a second location on numerous occasions but simply couldn’t get one off the ground. The reason was simple. Dick and Maurice knew how to run a single-store business extremely well, but what they lacked was the capacity to grow beyond their initial dream and turn the company into a successful franchise.

However, this same restaurant exists today in 119 countries with over 31,000 locations. It is considered one of the most recognized brands in the entire world. You know this restaurant by the two brother’s last name, McDonalds. 

The success of McDonalds came from a man named Ray Kroc who purchased the McDonalds brand from the brothers in 1961 for $2.7 million dollars. After a short 4 years, Ray Kroc was able to build more than 500 profit-generating locations.

How come Dick and Maurice were not able to get a second location going, but Ray Kroc seemed to have exponential growth within a very short time frame? Ray Kroc had the capacity to grow.

For those pursuing the American Dream that have a burning passion to start your own business one day, capacity must be your number one focus.  Capacity is what hindered the McDonald’s brothers from making billions off their restaurant chain. Those with incredible capacity see incredible results.

The encouraging news is that you can actually grow your capacity. It may take time, and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach or formula.

In all the meetings and all the cup’s of coffee we have consumed together I don’t remember any of them telling me how lonely leadership can be. I mean, They have taught me a lot over the years and there’s a chance they mentioned it but no one informed me on HOW lonely it can really get….

Running a company, being the lead pastor or being appointed as the main leader for any organization can be the loneliest job in today’s culture. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this job doesnt have the potential for great satisfaction or incredible reward… I’m just saying that at times there can be moments when not having a boss can be really tough.

I think back to events in the early days of Orange Thread when I had to make key decisions about which clients to say yes to and which to say no to and how I really longed for a boss in that moment with “20+ years of experience” to give me advice on what to look for in each client or insight on how to make a decision like that.

Even last week — having to tackle some of the toughest obstacles our company has faced. I think about how lonely that process was and how in those moments I needed mentors… advisors… and someone who was faithful to help me get through those moments.

Life is much less fulfilling when we have to experience it alone.

The same is true with organizational life. We’re not called to be leaders by ourselves. That’s why the writer John records Jesus saying to his followers, “I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full.”

Leaders – In those times of despair…. in those times of struggles… and in those times of weakness when we just don’t feel like we’re capable of doing this on our own… there’s an incredible hope awaiting. One of my favorite verses of scripture is:

“The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”

 -1 Thessalonians 5:24

What an amazing promise. God, the one who called us to what we’re doing at this very moment… is telling us that we don’t have to fear. God is faithful and He will complete the work for us. Too often I think I cut that verse in half because I personally lack the faith that God is big enough to do whatever it is that I am struggling with. And then I realize that God doesn’t need me to finish my job. He just wants me to be with Him… which in turn removes the loneliness and life becomes more full in the process.

So when that “loneliness” creeps in leaders, and we feel completely isolated to the rest of the world… just remember that Christ came for us to have life… and life to the fullest. So let us rest assured that we have a Faithful God. We have an all-loving and an all-merciful God. We have a God that is bigger than our loneliness. We have a God much greater than our obstacles.

He will not abandon us in our calling. God has invited you and I walk alongside Him in the process of fulfilling HIS calling.

You ready to join the journey with me?

-Abraham Lincoln

Maybe you were just promoted and the rest of your ‘past co-workers’ now work for you instead of with you. No matter what the situation, sometimes we are faced with the challenge of leading our own friends and peers.

Leadership, as we all know, is much more than a position of authority. It’s so much more than a title.  There’s a big difference between boss and leader. The struggle with your friends working for you is that it is far more difficult to gain their respect as their leader and not just their boss.

There are four key areas of focus that will help each one of us when we find ourselves in these situations. Today I am only discussing one of them…

Lets boil leadership down to the most simple aspect… people follow others who can take them somewhere they havent been or can’t go. Does that make sense? No one wants to follow someone who can’t take them somewhere. That would be a colossal waste of time for both us and those we are trying to lead.

If you were planning a trip to visit Nashville, the city I have lived in for many years now, you may reach out to me for suggestions of what to do, where to eat and who to see. You would want someone to help point out a few areas of interest to maximize your time here, right?  Now imagine your friend from Bellingham, WA who has never been to Nashville and tries to tell you that they can help you plan your visit.

There’s no question as to who’s advice you will follow. We don’t want someone to lead us who is just as good at taking a guess as we are. We want someone we feel can actually point us in the right direction… and as leaders that’s our goal. Leaders are obsessed with taking people somewhere they aren’t able to take their place.

Therefore what we’re all seeking is someone with a vision. Someone who can lay out the map for us and say, go here and check out this event and I’ll meet you at this coffee shop along the way to see how you’re doing. We want people in our lives who can add to our lives… and make them better. We want leaders with vision in our lives.

So take the time to process your vision for the organization, ministry,  company, family, relationship or division. Explain in detail where you are going to take people as their leader and what you want to do as a team together. This will not only cause people to have respect for you but it will also build unity among your team.

In Short: People want a compelling vision. They need a leader to show them that vision.

Be it a friend, peer, someone older than you or someone you have had a relationship with for a long time, I will talk about how to overcome the obstacles of gaining their support.

Leadership is much more than just acquiring a title:

“True Leadership Cannot be awarded, appointed or assigned. It comes only from influence, and that cannot be mandated. It must be earned.”  - John Maxwell

As you can tell, we can’t just assume a new role of power and expect everyone to be on board with us. It’s going to take intentional time and effort to earn the influence of our peers. A small step is looking at the bigger picture of the organization and seeing how we can leverage our influence to benefit everyone in the organization.

I look forward to walking through that with you in the coming days and weeks.

I guess I can blame it on the busyness of life or my crazy work schedule. I’m not 100% sure what caused me to stop, I just know I haven’t blogged since then. Technically I have written blogs since then, but those blogs are not relational like this will be. They are technical blogs like TripleWide Media. This is different.  I want to write about life, leadership, love, grace, compassion, relationships and all the topics it seems God is teaching me as he molds and refines me as a man of God.

If it’s okay, I may pull from the “best of the past” and re-post some I wrote a while back (like the one below this post). No matter what it is that I am writing I hope it falls into one of three main purposes. The first purpose is to inspire.

I want to inspire people to live extraordinary lives for the fame of Jesus Christ! You see, life is way too short to let it all go by in a few good memories or meaningful discussions. If we can figure out how to attach our lives to the name and fame of Christ we will be able to leave a legacy that is far greater than we can ever imagine!

I want to inspire others to a life of excellence.  There is one form of respect that is evident in every people group, every sector of industry and ever way of life no matter where you live. That is excellence. Imagine for a second with me that Christians were the best of their trade. We would immediately have the world’s attention and the Glory of God would be manifested in unimaginable ways!!

Finally, I want to inspire others to understand their influence in their world! God has each of us in unique environments and situations for a purpose. No one is exempt from the great commission… our sphere’s of influence is different from one another and when we begin to live by that understanding we have the opportunity to leverage it for the sake of the lost, broken and underprivileged!

Secondly, I want to equip people. I want this to be a place where people are equipped to become better leaders; equipped to give their lives away. Leaders that are equipped to have a relationally-minded spirit about them. Leaders that are equipped to use their influence to benefit those without influence. We may from time to time have someone else join us to help us become better at our trade, our craft or our art. No matter what, I hope we grow as individuals here.

The final purpose I have for this blog is to be a place that builds community. If you don’t already know this about me, you will discover soon enough, I believe that relationships are the most important thing in the entire world. That is not the first time I have ever said that statement and I guarantee this is not the last time you will see those words on this site.

It would break my heart if I cultivate a site of “ramblings of Luke McElroy” and in some way or another not engage people in a conversation. This is not intended to be a one way conversation, but two way. Therefore, I encourage you to get involved. Share your opinion, tell the community how blogs relate to your story, or bring debate to the table. If we’re all going to grow as individuals, we must engage in healthy debate from time to time.

Inside I have a lot of fear, shame and gladness as I begin this journey again. I hope we get a chance to grow deeper in our walk with Christ and play a critical role in HIS story together along the way.

So, after a year and a half of processing, learning, listening and growing… here’s to writing again.

Originally written on August 8, 2008: 

Over the last several months I have been a part of the Orientation Council at Belmont University. During my time on this team, I have had the opportunity to grab a hold of a whole new understanding of leadership, and furthermore, a whole new vision for my life. I have been entrenched in deep community with 25 others over the past few weeks and I am want to share one small aspect of what I have learned during my time here this summer.

I know that many people who read this are most likely in a leadership position in some way, shape, or form… but if not, I trust that we all will experience leadership somewhere, somehow. For some, it may be on a project at school…. or at work… but a lot of us will get a chance to lead in our family, in our friends and around our communities as we grow older. This is the Team-Minded Leadership model.

TEAM-MINDED

Our schedule this summer was pretty tight, and by that I mean extremely tight. we were usually up by 5:45 a.m., in order to be in the office by 6:15-6:30 every day, and we were lucky if we were in bed before 10:30 pm on most nights. Between these hours, our schedules were filled with breakouts, main sessions, introducing speakers, holding doors, saying hello to distressed parents while pointing them in the right direction, as well as cramming our meals.  For us, Time was always on the go. Time was precious. Time was in no way on our side, and as we learned quickly into the process… Time flew by very quickly!

With so little time, there are many people who would tell me that the smartest approach to getting everything done was to divide and conquer. Ever heard of that term before? This is where things started to change, because we didn’t choose this model.

You see… for our team [the 4 Orientation Council members, our intern, and our advisor] we had a choice to make, every minute of the day……   Choose to invest in our team, or take care of our time/the next event.  In moments when time is not readily available to us, we had  a difficult choice to make. Look after time or look after our people?  I will share with you that our choice, 99.9% of the time was our people, or our team.

Your team is the most important people in your organization, because if you didn’t have a team, most likely you wouldn’t have an organization. Your team members are the people who actually carry out your mission and vision. They are the “hands and feet” and people in leadership roles know that their often does most of the work, but rarely gets enough credit.

That is exactly why in every situation, we took the opportunity to be present with our team. We knew that if we invested in our team, they would feel connected, involved, and appreciated for the role they play. I will not lie… it was a tough thing to do most of the time.

You see, no one really wants a boss. The connotation with that word has so much negativity attached with it. A boss assigns tasks, stays distant in his/her office a lot of time. A boss is focused on efficiency and not maximizing the potential of their employees. A boss is often times focused on the end task of making good reviews, or increasing the profits. People want a leader though. A leader is more like a friend than a boss. A friend cares for you; for who you are and what you’re feeling. They do not wish for you to perform, but rather to be genuine in all interactions with others. A friend loves first, and worries about tasks second. A friend wants you to be successful wherever you are, rather than focusing on numbers and increasing revenues.  A leader is a friend who takes care of you in the process of growing.

In the end, we may have missed some details here and there. We may have had moments in the programs that could have run smoother and flow smoother. We could have even had a few more “strongly agree’s” on our ending survey… But we were incredibly pleased with our results. Our team was a team and we didn’t sacrifice people in order to achieve our results.

The proof was in our closing dinner. The group we were leading spend over 3 hours saying their goodbyes. They poured their hearts out to one another. They wrote each other letters and said unbelievable words of encouragement. My heart was full that day in a way it has never been before. To think that I was “leading”?!?

We happen to receive the highest approval ratings in the programs history as well. Not because we were better leaders than the other groups, I assure you that is not the case.  Not because our events were perfect either, because again, they were not. I really believe that it was directly related to the fact that we cared for our team, and in turn they were able to be present for the new students and parents that were on our campus.

Leaders don’t just dictate… they demonstrate. We were able to turn our 6 person team into a 25 member team because we altered the way we lead. In the end, I have come to this conclusion: Your team is the most important aspect of your organization and if neglected the entire organization will suffer.

Our team mattered.

YOUR team matters.

Become Team-Minded.