Personal Touch

Personal Touch

Today, we wake up to check the news report for an update on the coronavirus pandemic that has halted the world from moving as we know it.  

Louis Hoffpauir loves people.  He is helping me start men's Crew groups at Stuart Campus.

Business-as-usual has shifted to watch-and-wait.  All of us who had mastered our business skills are sitting paralyzed at home wondering how to get anything done.  The way of the world has been to show up to our job site to plan events and gatherings.  Commuting to places of businesses and lunch meetings was the daily routine.  But with social distancing becoming the recommended practice, gathering in groups is prohibited.  And, even in a small group of 10 or less, experts are strongly cautioning to keep within 3 feet from one another.  This makes interacting quite difficult.

While many were already using social media as part of their life, they are now completely dependent upon it.  People who have never created a profile are learning in record speed how to create usernames and passwords so they can log on.  Older generations are having to navigate where to find the elusive link to join a video conferencing call so they can talk to loved ones.

What Do We Do Now?

What do we do now? How do we get work done if we cannot work? 

Not knowing what to do next is frustrating.  

Once we get past the feeling of confinement and frustration, we eventually start using the greatest business tool that we possess: our mind.

Ashely Murphy brings the fun to our church family. She makes people feel loved and special!

Rather than staying stuck on the limiting question: what do we do now,

we then begin to ask the activating question: what could we do now?

what could we do now?

At Christ Fellowship, we asked this question: what could we do now? One of our leaders had long desired that our pastors and staff team could call each and every person who was part of our church family, simply to check in on them, tell them we love them and ask how we could pray for them.  He reminisced when years ago he and his wife had started attending Christ Fellowship, one of the pastors, Todd Mullins had called him during the week to personally welcome him and get him connected within the church.  My friend, Bill shared what a powerful impression that made on him, that the pastor would take time to seek him out for no other purpose than show a desire to get to know him better.  That connection kept Bill and his wife not only connected to Christ Fellowship, but committed to the mission of the church.  That was over 20 years ago.  

What if our pastors and staff could make use of this time when we are having to work from home and start calling our church family? What would it take to prepare the lists of our people and re-organize our work schedules and focus to do this? 

Verania Velazquez just joined our team at Christ Fellowship Stuart Campus.  She is a joy to work with!

Suddenly, our team began working through a large list of phone numbers, reaching out to people, making notes from the conversations. The result has been that people are elated to get a call from their pastor or church leader.  Especially with the anxiety that people are facing, they are very open to a listening ear and a caring prayer.  

Pastor Todd shared with some of our business leaders how he was re-focusing his team on these connect calls within our church.  The business leaders thought this was a brilliant idea! They said that they needed to emulate this idea by having their teams reach out personally to each of their customers and clients.  

While we can’t touch people physically, we can touch them personally.

While we can’t touch people physically, we can touch them personally.  And, while Social Media posts and videos are a great strategy to connect with people, they still lack the feeling of touch.  Video conferencing is a great tool for holding face-to-face meetings where distance is a barrier.  But even these lose the sense of community and sharing that meeting in person affords.  

Greg Gorman and his son, Josh are great friends of mine.

In this unique season where the world has stopped, what could you do to reach your audience? 

I would suggest that this is an opportune time to go old-school.  Make personal calls.  Write hand-written notes.  There is power in reaching one at a time.  Even though digital platforms allow us to reach many at once, it dilutes the level of connection that comes in reaching the one.  

Psychology of Connection

Take a moment to think about the psychology of how someone feels when they feel connected to another person.  How did that come about? What made the connection so powerful?

I think back to significant people who took the time to make a personal connection with me.  It impacted me.  I think of them as very special moments in my life.  And, I have a sense of love and appreciation for them. 

I remember when I had the opportunity on two occasions to meet Senator Rick Scott of Florida.   At the time, he was Governor Rick Scott.  The first occurrence happened when I was scheduled to play the piano and sing at a home gathering of financial donors for the Governor’s Senate race.  I was not a guest, per se; but rather, the “help.” I was to play and sing soft music in the background.  My musical set up was set off to the side of the reception area.  When the Governor arrived on the scene, he was greeted by many donors. However, he was intentional to greet every worker serving refreshments.  When he noticed me over in the corner playing the piano, he made his way to welcome me.  He took a moment to ask my name and thanked me for providing such nice music.  At the end of the event, he again came over to shake my hand and thank me for doing such a great job.

The second time I interacted with Governor Scott was at a small meeting I was invited to with two other young leaders in Martin County.  He sat down with us to hear the concerns of Martin County.  He was warm, not in a rush, and down-to-earth.  I reminded him of my first meeting at the reception.  He remembered.   A week after this meeting, I received a hand-written note from the Governor thanking me for the time together.  

Wow.  Can I tell you that I am now a BIG fan of Rick Scott? Not so much because of his politics, but because of my personal interaction with him.  He did not promise anything to me.  He did not do me any favors.  But his intentionality to reach out to me made an indelible impression.  Now, I have a positive view of him.  There are politicians that may have gifts that Rick Scott does not have.  But, their gifts do not impress me.  Rick Scott impresses me.

If you would get a list of your people, your customers, and clients and start calling them personally through this season, you will make an indelible impression.  Don’t try to do business as usual.  Don’t try to sell or market.  No one is buying right now anyway.  Simply care.  Listen.  Get to know them a bit more.  Don’t try to learn their business needs.  They will sense that you have an agenda.  Simply make your agenda as getting to know them as a person.  

I believe that the businesses and ministries that take time to reach out personally to their people will create such a sense of care and attention, that they will have earned a higher sense of trust and loyalty.  When the time comes for people to “buy” or buy-in, you will have so much business coming your way, you will have to double your staff and company! 

If you can’t touch their hand, touch their heart

Make a personal touch

The Right Tool for the Job

If you find yourself in a leadership position within your organization, at some point you will find yourself in the pressure point of having to reach your goals.  You were given your role to grow the team, build the organization, create a system that works.  Yet you are confronted with people to please, problems to solve, and obstacles to overcome.

What most of us do as a logical next step is we do what is expected of us.  We follow the prescribed strategy and system that is in place.  We ask our peers what they are doing to succeed.  We think that if we just keep doing more of the same, but try harder, that it will get us to finally achieve the growth and success we are responsible to bring.

However, let me challenge you that many times, using the same thinking, same procedure may not give you the break-through success you seek.  You may need a different tool for this task. 

 

Think of yourself as a handyman (or woman - my wife is actually more handy than I am 😃 ).  You have a tool belt strapped around you and you are accessing the job that needs done at the house.  You see a screw is loose on a cabinet in the kitchen.  As you look more closely, you notice that the screw is a Phillips screw.  Now, you wouldn’t pull out your hammer and begin hammering the screw, would you? (OK - maybe some of you who are impatient enough may!)  Rather, you would look through your tool belt and find your Phillips screwdriver and tighten the screw! 

This analogy has helped me get unstuck when I am neck-deep in an objective I am trying to accomplish..  That is, I remind myself to employ what is my greatest resource, the RIGHT TOOL I have at my disposal:

We have been given an incredible mind by God, Who created us.  God is the Great Creator.  He is Creative.  The Bible starts off by revealing God’s very creative nature:

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.

The Bible also says that we, His creation are made in His image.

Genesis 1:27 So God created mankind in his own image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

So, when we are creative, we are actually using the very nature, the actual tool that God gave us.  Our creativity is one of the attributes that sets us apart from all of God’s creation.  It is our ability to ask questions, to design something fresh, to think out of the box that makes us, as the writer, David says “we are fearfully and wonderfully made.” Psalm 139

When you are in the crunch of having to produce results, but feel stuck and stifled, consider the following:

Don’t Tell Me What You Don’t Have

Pastor Ashley Murphy thinking out of the box on bringing a fresh feel to our Student Experience - it was awesome!

Don’t focus energy on what you think you lack.  Rather, immediately take an inventory of what you DO have.  As a Pastor, I always keep in mind Pastor friends I have who do NOT have a building to meet in, who do NOT have a budget, who do NOT have any volunteers.  I quickly begin thanking God for all of the wonderful resources I am entrusted with by Christ Fellowship to accomplish the ministry of the church.  Sometimes, when I want to tease my two teenage kids at home, I remind them “isn’t this WIFI nice?” or, “don’t you appreciate this wonderful air condition?” They give me a silly frown, but I like to remind them to never take things for granted.  The truth is, when you begin writing down even the most fundamental things that you DO have, you begin to realize that you likely have enough to affect change towards the results you seek to achieve.

Tell Me What You DO Have

Margarita Rosario not only sings on our worship team, she develops leaders for our church!

Not only think of what resources you have, like a building, equipment, a name brand, but also think of what you can offer personally.  What you have IN YOU is AWESOME.  You forget how “fearfully and wonderfully made” you are! Remember: God made you, and He

doesn’t make junk!  Take time to describe your personality, your strengths, your gifts and skills you have learned.  If you are with your inner-circle team, go around the room and take time to acknowledge and remind every person their uniqueness and their value to the team.  This exercise is not meant not only to affirm the group; it is really meant to point to the powerful assets you have, that your team has.  

Mikeala Danchenko has found her niche in singing in her church

As we mature through life, we should begin zeroing in on the two or three key strengths we possess, much like different tools in our tool belt.  When you collaborate together with your team, and begin identifying the gifts and strengths of each person, you realize that you have an entire utility belt of tools to tackle the objective!

Tell Me What You See

When you look at your goals, are you looking at achieving your objectives straight on, from the same perspective? Are you simply doing the same tasks over and over, but not feeling like your getting traction? How about starting with a clean slate, allowing some new ideas, fresh thinking to happen in your mind.  Many times, I can be in problem-solving mode, or in the rut of managing the day to day tasks, that I turn off my heart and my mind.  Creativity is like a tool that must be used, it must be kept sharp.  Don’t forget to plan dreaming sessions and collaboration gatherings with key people.  This is not extra work, this is essential TO YOUR WORK.  Fresh thinking and different perspective is so needed in your mix to help inspire and keep thinking relevant.  Creativity is often sparked by people asking great questions, and then listening.  When I ask you “what do you see?”, do you see the obstacle, or the opportunity? Do you see pressure, or the potential?

Tell Me Why You Fear

Usually, the reason we are not willing to think creatively is that we fear failure.  Or, we fear getting in trouble by the leadership over us.  Or, we fear looking stupid (this makes me think of some of the art creations I made in elementary school - horrible 😃).  Indeed, all of these fears are viable, and are unavoidable.  But I am contending with you that you NEED CREATIVITY.  It is the missing ingredient that will give lift to your objective.  Creativity opens up your mind and widens your view to new possibilities.  Don’t let fear of failure choke your creativity.  Don’t let fear of displeasing your supervisor paralyze you to present a daring idea.  Don’t let fear of looking stupid hold you back from taking a calculated risk.  The truth is - people will applaud you for your courage to be creative!

Make an appointment this week with you and your inner-circle people/team to BE CREATIVE.  You will begin to see great results that will help you achieve the success you seek!

Rules Are Meant to Break

Ouch! That sounds dangerous.  That is not allowed.  I mean, you have been taught to mind the rules, to color within the lines.  

I know some of you who enjoy crossing your t’s and dotting your lowercase j’s are already breaking in to a cold sweat right now.

        I’m even starting a new tab in my blog, just to break the composition rules I learned in high school 😃

Seriously, I want to discuss with you how I think about rules.  I want to show you a bigger perspective of how I see rules.  

Rules are meant to break

I see a difference between a rule and a principle.  A rule is a regulation that has been defined by people, from past experience.  A principle is a fundamental truth that gives basis for a belief in conduct in life.  So, I am not advocating against breaking principles that guide our life. Principles are beliefs in God, in how we treat people, how we treat ourselves and conduct ourselves.  

I am landing more on challenging the status quo.  I am asking that you don’t be confined to what the set directions have always been.  

This philosophy comes from my personality naturally.  I have always been a “what if” person, a “why not” person.  When I see a goal I want to reach or a dream I have that I am passionate about, and I am told by people that we are limited to the rules, my natural response is to ask “but what if?”, or “why can’t we?”  For some reason, I get pleasure out of thinking how I can find a work-around, so that I can reach beyond what has been done before and chart a new path.  I see a particular rule as a barrier that others could not get over, so they stopped there.  I see it as my job to get over the barrier, to reach higher and farther.

This reminds me of the man who re-invented the technique for the high jump in the Olympics.  Dick Fosbury in 1968 brought a very different, unconventional technique to the sport.  He jumped backwards and arched his back in a way that he could clear the bar higher than others.  It became so successful, they named the technique the Fosbury Flop.  It is still the new “rule” of high jumping practiced to this day.

When I studied music, I mainly studied classical music.  I loved classical music, and studied the great composers like Mozart, Beethoven, Debussy and Bach.  This helped me form a construct of how music worked, how music was built through chords, time signatures, and key signatures.  But I remember being introduced to jazz music in high school.  I remember hearing one “rule-breaking" teacher say to me…

You learn all of the rules in music so that you can break them

What? Learn all of the rules so you can break them? What did that mean? Does that mean I can play notes that are outside the key of the song? Does that mean I can use a different scale in a passage? Wow - that means I can create new voicings, new harmonies.  That means I don’t have to compare my musical arrangement with someone else’s.  I can not just study composers, I can BE a composer.

Let’s re-visit rules.  Rules are not bad.  They are very good.  They were created by someone in the past who learned something and then did us the favor of drawing a road map for the rest of us to follow.  That is helpful - very helpful.  Thank goodness for people who learned something and took the time to help the rest of us.  But most of us “worship” the rules.  We bind ourselves to the rules, like we are hanging on to them for dear life! In order to adhere to the defined rules, we stop reaching for greater effectiveness.  A win for us becomes abiding by the rules, not having greater impact.

Let’s get practical in how breaking the rules will help us:

Budgets

At the Movies sets and designs are off the charts this year at Stuart Campus!

Budgets are meant to bust.  At work, if you are doing a project and given a budget, don’t just figure out how you can stay under budget; think of how you can make the project the best you ever have! Think competition - “our project will be the best one of all!” If your focus is to make your work high quality, highly creative, highly effective, and you happen to go over budget, guess what? They will likely raise your budget!  You might think you will be punished, but the CEO is actually looking for rule-breakers, for out-of-the-box thinkers.  They won’t tell you that, but that is how they think! Do such a great job that they want to give you more resources.

Experiments

I took a chance inviting Congressman Mast to church to help celebrate our country - was so delighted he came!

In most businesses, there are defined rules for how things are done.  The bigger an organization gets, the more institutionalized it becomes.  The natural life cycle is that ideas become fewer, creative thinking diminishes, and automation ensues.  What is desperately needed (but rarely is stated publicly) is experimentation.  When you and your team block out thinking time to ask good questions like “what if?” or “why not?”, fresh creativity begins to flow.  When the team takes time to ask themselves “how do we take this to another level?”, they begin priming the pump of their creative minds.  It’s risky, it’s messy, it’s unmanagable - it’s genius!   Be willing to try just one of the great ideas that come out of these sessions.  Be willing to be criticized by the rule-followers.  Test your idea, give it a try.  Good things always come from trying - you will learn something, and it may just get you out of a rut.

Work Flow

For our men's event, we thought creatively how we could use our beautiful property at Christ Fellowship - guys loved it!

Do you have your staff meeting in the same office room on the same day? Are your meetings with your people predictable? When is the last time you had an outside speaker come invest in your team? Is everyone in the office doing the same work over and over? I would challenge you to assess your work environment with your team around you.  While you may be responsible for getting the work done, maybe there is a way you can spice up HOW it is done and WHERE it is done.  If you are a rule follower and may have difficulty getting outside the rigidness of your current state, you need to invite one or two people in to your office and ask them honest questions. 

What could make this more fun?

What could make this fresh for our people?

What do we need to get a spark in to our work flow?

What will get us thinking differently than we currently think?

Don’t be afraid of the responses.  And don’t think you have to react or change to every thought.  Something good will come from these conversations.  It will test the rules to see if they are guiding life principles, or just a rule that has been instituted in the office and needs to be updated.

The big idea here is to bust through convention, to bend or break rules that may look important, but actually may just be a limit to you and your team reaching a greater level of joy and effectiveness

Rules are meant to break