Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Welcome
We all hate to be the bearer of bad news, but often it's an unavoidable part of our jobs and our personal lives. In this week's feature article, Anita Schamber shares valuable advice to follow when we find ourselves having to break bad news, and offers helpful steps to consider when preparing for the conversations we dread. Learn how to open the communication door for those "crucial conversations" and approach them in a God-honoring way.
Then read Ron Jensen's approach to getting along with the difficult people in "12 Steps to Conflict Resolution," and John Pearson's 5 key strategies for enhancing your employees' performance and effectiveness in "How to Bless Your Team Members!"
If you're a leader in your job or at church, partnering with others can be beneficial for everyone involved. Scroll down to our Insights for Organizational Effectiveness section below to read about the most effective ways to collaborate with other leaders.
Grace and peace,
CMA Staff
Opening the communication door for "crucial conversations"
Anita Schamber
This article provided by the Engstrom Institute
The movie The Wedding Planner highlights the enormous details that go into planning such an event. Imagine the experience of a wedding planner 2000 years ago at the wedding at Cana, to which Jesus and his disciples were invited.
Click to continue.
ALSO:
What do you do when you have a business meeting after work, a church dinner, and your son's tee-ball game to attend? How do you manage the balancing act of career, church, and family? This packet provides biblical and practical advice through articles, handouts, and assessments that will help you prioritize your responsibilities and manage your time so that one area never gets the leftovers. Download Now
Human Resources are strategic agents of change in your ministry. Through a series of articles, this packet will tell you how to acquire, develop, deploy, and retain human capital. Additionally, this packet gives you guidance for evaluating, interviewing, and orienting new employees. By reading through these resources, you can learn to utilize individuals in order to expand productivity.
Download Now
Richard Lepsinger
360° feedback is a conceptual tool that helps you achieve organizational goals and quickly augment employee performance. Lepsinger and Lucia take readers step by step through the process of setting up a 360° feedback program and easily show how it will benefit companies that choose to employ it. Buy Now
Robert Quinn
In this self-help book, Quinn defines "deep change," discusses the need for personal change, provides insights into the perceptions of an internally driven leader, and challenges the reader to develop a vision that includes the creation of excellence. Buy Now
Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
Focusing on three former CEO's of major corporations, the authors examine why some highly intelligent, energized leaders with great character succeed and why some fail. Building a true performance culture is never easy. Buy Now
Harold Myra and Marshall Shelley
Most people know him as an evangelist, but Billy Graham was been an extraordinary leader with global influence. Highlighting 21 leadership principles lived out in Graham's life against the political and historical background of the last 5O years, this book is an engaging and honest read. Buy Now
Insights For Organizational Effectiveness
Collaborative Leadership
In a Nov. 2007 U.S. News and World Report article entitled "The Spirit of Teamwork," David Gergen, U.S. News Editor at Large and director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard said:
"It used to be that the Center for Creative Leadership, the country's largest executive training program, taught its students to think of leadership in two concentric circles. The inner circle is you, it instructed its students, and to become a leader, first you must learn to lead yourself. The outer circle is your organization, and next you must succeed in leading there.
In recent years, though, the center has added a third circle, this one representing organizations and institutions outside the leader's own group. Now, it tells students, you must learn to collaborate and lead there, too. Other advisers are making the same argument: The most effective leaders are those who can cross boundaries, forming partnerships not just in their own sectors but with other sectors—worldwide—as well." Click here for the full article.
IRS Rules to Remember
The IRS and the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) offer guidance to churches that run or hope to run a business.
They recommend:
Proper Governance—an independent board of no fewer than five members, of which three or more should be non-employees and not personally related to the head of the entity. It should meet three times a year to review the business's policies, performance, and finances.
Accounting Controls—Trust should not replace generally accepted accounting principles. Standards ensure documentation for income and expenses, as well as property and asset maintenance.
Transparency—The business and church should have nothing to hide and therefore be open to inspection. A tax-exempt organization should file all necessary paperwork. If it joins the ECFA, the organization should document all money going in and coming out—even when the government doesn't require it, such as for a church.
Click here for the full article.
Balancing Life's Demands
Strategic HR Planning
The Art and Science of 360° Feedback
Deep Change
Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham
