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Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: Stay Aligned To Your Purpose

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illusutrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it serves as an illustration of the importance of maintaining alignment to your purpose.

One of the things God allows me to do is mentor students who are pursuing a PhD in organizational leadership. That means I get to be a guide for them as they go through the process of conducting a research study as a dissertation. Before they write a single page of their paper, they must first craft a single sentence – their problem statement. Then they must identify several key components that will drive their study – their purpose statement, research questions, theoretical framework, and methodology. At this particular university, these pieces are referred to as “The Golden Thread,” and they form the basis of the study to which they must stay aligned. Part of my role is to help them stay aligned to that Golden Thread.

For me personally, this illustration connected in my mind as a result of my own thought process at the time when I am beginning another year of the Leadership Ezra website. Almost every week for the last three years I have been writing and posting articles and podcasts related to the focus of this website: “Faith. Wisdom. Leadership.” The purpose has been (and continues to be) to connect biblical truth with wisdom for leadership). However, after nearly 150 episodes and articles, I struggled this week with the next one. I found myself thinking about it as a chore that I had to do again this week. And I struggled with the purpose.

Then I had a student I was mentoring who was drifting from the alignment to his Golden Thread within his paper. I had a conversation to redirect him back to the focus and purpose of his study, to get his dissertation back on track. It’s for this reason that recently, early in their process, I started having my students write a 1-page outline of the key components of their study as their touchstone to periodically refer back to, to help them maintain alignment to their purpose. As I was directing this student back to his 1-page outline, it reminded me to go back to the beginning of my work on Leadership Ezra, and see again what I was doing and why I was doing it.

That’s what I needed this week. I needed a reminder of the focus and purpose of what I am doing. Leadership Ezra came about with a purpose that God had given me, and for a purpose that was an outcome of what God has done in and with my life. What God does with it is not up to me, it’s up to God. My purpose is to be His vessel and to share what He has given me to share. And what He has given me to share are these lessons on leadership. I needed to be reminded of that, and to reorient and refresh my mind back to that purpose.

That’s the lesson on leadership from this little thing in life, from helping a doctoral student get back into alignment in his research study. When we have been doing something for a while, sometimes we end up walking through the trees so long that we lose sight of the forest. That’s where I felt like I was, and I needed to step back for a moment and remind myself of what I was doing and why I was doing it. I needed to realign with my purpose so that I could renew and refresh my work. Periodically, you need to do the same thing. If you have been doing something for a while, it may be time for you to pause, step back, remind yourself of your purpose and focus, and make sure you are still in alignment.

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Quote Your Dad

“You can be better or bitter, but better is better than bitter.”

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Podcast Season 4, Episode 1: Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life – Enjoy What You Love

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it serves as an illustration that reminds us about the enjoyment that comes from doing what you love.

Here is the link to the podcast.

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Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: Enjoy What You Love

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. When we see or hear or experience something from which we can learn, it is that example and experience that often helps us remember the lesson. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. And so I am sharing examples of circumstances and stories that I have experienced in my everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those stories, and it serves as an illustration that reminds us about the enjoyment that comes from doing what you love.

We were away on a family trip, and as one of the activities on this trip, we went to an escape room. My six-year-old grandson loves to solve puzzles and clues, and he is enthralled with locks, secret doors, and hidden rooms, so when we surprised him with this, he was so excited. As we worked our way through the clues, his enthusiasm and joy were obvious. He absolutely loved figuring out the codes to unlock locks, which led to a door to a secret room, which had more clues that led to another door to another secret room. From start to finish, he was invested and fully involved because he was doing something that fed his soul and brought him joy.

What I observed in my grandson is a valuable lesson for you and me. If you do what you love, you will enjoy it more. You will be more committed and more invested in what you are doing, because it’s something that brings you joy. And when you do something that brings you joy, you want to do it more, and you want to do it well. Applied to your leadership, that means that if you are in a place doing work that you love, the joy in the work that you are doing will be both motivation and reward for you, and you will thrive much more in that work.

And when the work that you do is not something that you necessarily love, you can help yourself by weaving what you love into what you do. Because of what my grandson loves, we look for ways to “gamify” his learning, which means that we look for ways to incorporate puzzle-solving into his curriculum and his learning process. By doing that, work that he would not necessarily enjoy becomes work that he enjoys doing. You can do the same for yourself by looking for ways to weave what you love into your work.

But there are also the things that you have to do, that you don’t want to do or don’t like to do. In those circumstances, you have to do what you can to enjoy what you don’t. You may have to get creative, you may have to determine a reward that you can give yourself, or you may have to break it into manageable components to make it work; regardless, find a way to turn it into something that can bring you joy, even if that is only joy in its completion.

That’s the lesson on leadership from this little thing in life, from watching my grandson having the time of his life solving an escape room full of puzzles and clues. As much as you are able, do what you love. When you love what you do, you do it with greater enthusiasm and excellence. If it’s not something you love, find a way to weave what you love into what you do. If it’s something that you don’t enjoy at all, you need to find what you can enjoy anyway. If you can love what you do, you will have joy in doing it.

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Quote Your Dad

“Your walk talks and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks.” (My most quoted saying from my dad.)

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Podcast Season 3: Year In Review

Year 3 is ending, and year 4 is ready to begin, and I will be continuing the series called “Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life.” What’s in store for the next year is in God’s hands, but beyond that, what I would hope for is that God would bless this work and put it in front of more people who would benefit from what He has given me to share. So, if you have read the book, followed the website, or listened to the podcast, and have found any of those to be good for your leadership, would you tell at least three other people? With your help, I believe that God can use these resources to better equip leaders who will make an impact for His Kingdom.

Thank you for following and listening! On to the next year!

Here is the link to the podcast.

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Year 3 In Review

A little less than three years ago, I had embarked on a new (and scary) journey. For the needs of my family, I had stepped away from over 30 years of ministry in Christian education, with 24 of those years as a principal or superintendent/head of school. I wasn’t retiring, but my personal family circumstances necessitated making a change so that I could be at home every day. So, I stepped down from my position at the place where I had served for 8 years as the Head of School to start a new journey using my experience and abilities to serve God and develop people. And that led first to this venture at www.LeadershipEzra.com. I did not know what would come of this, but I was looking for a way to give my experience and wisdom to the Lord to be used for His purpose in reaching and developing other others.

At the same time, God was gracious in providing work to teach an online graduate course on leadership and an undergraduate online course on education, and to mentor doctoral students in their dissertation and research project work. What made all of this scary was that I was starting something completely new in my life, while still needing to provide for my family, with no idea of what the outcome would be. Along the way and in the process, I accumulated what I began to call “Joshua Stones,” those unique and specific events that were clear evidence of God at work, events that would stack up to become my personal memorial marker that served to remind me of God’s divine presence and leading in my steps. Ultimately, where God primarily directed and placed me was in working for two different universities, one (Gracelyn University) with a focus on education, and the other (Columbia International University) with a focus on organizational leadership.

My desire with the website, though, was that God would use Leadership Ezra in a much greater way to grow others in their leadership. The initial idea for this had come about out of a lot of prayer, and in that process, what the Lord had made clear to me was that I needed to connect faith, wisdom, and leadership in a way that would help other followers of Jesus grow in their leadership and make an impact. That original dream of an idea turned into three things: the self-publication of a book on Amazon (Leadership Ezra), the creation of the Leadership Ezra website, and the initiation of a corresponding podcast, streaming on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The overarching theme became “Faith. Wisdom. Leadership.: Connecting biblical truth with wisdom for leadership.” As an added bonus, I included a weekly feature on the website called “Quote Your Dad,” where I simply shared wisdom-filled quotes that I would often hear from my dad.

In the first year of both the website and the podcast, I shared leadership principles and ideas that I have learned, but primarily in standalone articles and podcast episodes. They were important ideas, but initially each was its own idea, not necessarily connected to others. As the year progressed, I started grouping ideas together to form series. By year two, I had shifted to communicating with series, and I shared three different series over the course of the year. The first was called “Who’s in Charge Here?” and it was a review of the ideas I covered in my book, Leadership Ezra. The second was called “The Five Be-Attitudes of Better Leadership,” and it was about five groups of attributes that are essential to good leadership. The third was called “The Character of Leadership,” and it was focused on identifying a character trait representative of a biblical character, and learning valuable lessons about leadership from it.

By the time year three got underway, I had moved into a year-long series called “Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life,” where I would share a typical, everyday experience or life event, and connect it to a leadership lesson. They were usually personal, every day experiences, but they would serve as analogies or illustrations of leadership lessons. As the year progressed, this settled into a rhythm that worked well, so, moving forward, I am going to continue with the same idea. I don’t know if I will return to any of the other original series or ideas, or initiate something new, but for now, I am enjoying sharing everyday stories that teach us something valuable.

As always, what’s in store for the next year is in God’s hands. Beyond that, what I would hope for is that God would bless this work and put it in front of more people who would benefit from what He has given me to share. So, if you have read the book, followed the website, or listened to the podcast, and have found any of those to be good for your leadership, would you tell at least three other people? With your help, I believe that God can use these resources to better equip leaders who will make an impact for His Kingdom.

Thank you for following and listening! On to the next year!

God Bless,

Jeff McMaster

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Quote Your Dad

“There’s no shame in your struggle, but it’s still wise to be careful who you share it with.”

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Podcast Season 3, Episode 48: Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life – Transparency Doesn’t Mean You Share Everything with Everyone All the Time

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. With that in mind, I want to take some time to do just that – share examples of circumstances and stories experienced in everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those examples, and it serves to point out that transparency does not mean that you should share everything with everyone all the time.

Here is the link to the podcast.

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Lessons on Leadership from the Little Things in Life: Transparency Doesn’t Mean You Share Everything with Everyone All the Time

Life is full of examples that teach us lessons. That’s why stories and illustrations make learning so much more effective. When a story can be used to illustrate or demonstrate a valuable lesson, the story makes it much more understandable, relatable, and memorable. With that in mind, I want to take some time to do just that – share examples of circumstances and stories experienced in everyday life which illustrate leadership lessons that we can learn and apply. This is one of those examples, and it serves to point out that transparency does not mean that you should share everything with everyone all the time.

The last couple of episodes, I’ve shared stories about experiences with my brothers, and leadership lessons that came from those. So this time, seems that it is only appropriate to share a story about my sister, and this one involves her wedding day. Her wedding was a beautiful ceremony and a wonderful occasion of celebration for our family. My siblings and I were all part of the wedding party, and we thoroughly enjoyed everything about her special day.

Unbeknownst to her, though, I was experiencing a significant difficulty beneath the surface. You see, about a week before the wedding, I was working in my backyard, removing some weeds. We were living in a rural farming community at the time, and what I did not realize was that one of the “weeds“ that I removed was actually poison sumac. I had been exposed to plants like poison ivy, but had never had a reaction, so I’m sure that I wasn’t being as careful as I should’ve been. I did not recognize it for what it was, and so I used my bare hands to remove it from the yard.

By the next morning, I had started to develop a painful and extremely itchy rash, and within the next couple of days, it had spread over my whole body. I went to an urgent care facility, where I was informed that I had had a reaction to poison sumac, and so I contacted my doctor to get help. I tried the medication and ointments that he prescribed, but they were of little benefit to the pain and the itching. So, when the wedding day arrived, I had no choice but to put on the tuxedo over the rash from the poison sumac, and keep a smile on my face while fully dressed in a suit on a hot summer day. I really did enjoy the wedding, and it was a blessing to be a part of it, but at the same time, it was a miserable physical experience. But this was her day, and an important day, so I kept it to myself.

That experience provided an interesting parallel lesson for my leadership that is a great reminder for you as well. Research has shown that transparency is important for building and maintaining relationship and trust within an organization, but that doesn’t mean all the details, challenges, and flaws need to be openly exhibited. Sometimes, there are issues that you are navigating behind the scenes or beneath the surface, and they need to be dealt with privately. I once heard a pastor say that we ought to confess and address public sins publicly, personal sins personally, and private sins privately. Some issues that you are dealing with are private to your organization, and that privacy needs to be protected while you deal with it. That’s not a justification to cover up and excuse wrongdoing, but it is a reminder to be careful of how much you share, and with whom you share it.

That’s the lesson on leadership from this little thing in life, from quietly dealing with a reaction to poison sumac on my sister‘s wedding day. There are difficult things you have to deal with in your organization, relationships, and life. It is important that you deal with those appropriately, but also that you do so in the right context and with the right audience. Yes, it is important to be transparent, but to protect your organization and your people, make sure you exercise wisdom, discernment, and discretion in what you share, when you share it, and with whom you share it. As my dad once said, “There is no shame in your struggle, but it’s still wise to be careful who you share it with. Because being transparent does not mean that you share everything with everyone.

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