Mark Clement

Leadership Trumps Experience

If you're looking to hire someone for a senior/leadership position at your church or school or business or whatever, let me share three simple words with you: leadership trumps experience. That's true every single time and twice on Sundays. In this type of situation, give me the option between someone who knows a lot about a certain field or skill set vs someone who is a great leader and learner? I'll take the leader every single time.

The reason is simple. It's much easier to teach a leader almost anything than it is to teach a skilled non-leader how to be a leader. It's not impossible, but it's such a long shot that the first choice is a no-brainer. Leaders learn. If they don't know the answer they find someone who does. They get things done. They build teams of highly skiiled people around them. They have exponential impact and raise the level of everyone around them.

Ideally, you want leadership AND experience, but trust me, if you have to choose, go with leadership every single time. Do it now and thank me later.

Do you agree or disagree with this line of thought and why? Would love to hear your personal experiences in this area.

Meetings Suck

I've done the math and it is astounding. I've calculated that In my professional life thus far, I've spent well over 5000 hours in meetings. Fiiiiiiiivvveee thouuuuuuussssaaannnddd! And that's a conservative estimate. Good grief.

Now don't get me wrong. I love to get around a big table, lay it all out there and hash out a great idea, or convey some important information, or simply to get the key players in one place at one time long enought to get them on the same page and stoke their relationships. But how long does any of that take, really? And think about this: how mnay time have you walked out of a meeting and thought 'that was a huge waste of my time'?' Now, how many times have you left a meeting and said 'wow, that was incredibly productive!'? Yeah, I know, something is dreadfully wrong here.

Leaders, it's up to us to change this. We've got to be more proactive on the front end about meetings. Take a hard look at your next meeting agenda and ask yourself the following questions:

1. What is the objective/goal of this meeting and does it require a meeting to accomplish it?
2. If I sent out an agenda for the meeting ahead of time (and you should) would it make my team dread the meeitng or be excited about it?
3. How much of this could I communicate via e-mail or some other form of e-communication?
4. How much of this should I take care of face to face, but just one on one or in small groups with the key people involved?
5. If I wasn't leading this meeting would I want to be in it?
6. If we weren't having this meeitng, what could my team be accomplishing instead? 
7. What other team things could we be doing together if we weren't in this meeting, like something fun?

 

The Most Important Question You Can Ever Ask

Often times when I'm in meetings with clients I notice that a fundamental question is not being asked. When an idea is presented people tend to immediately jump to the who, what, when,where and how etc... the details. But rarely does anyone ask the most important question before doing anything: why?

If you can't answer 'why' then none of the other things matter. 'Why' is crucial. 'Why' quickly eliminates the unimportant, the distracting, the busy work, the rabbit chasing. Because when you have a great answer to 'why', then you've got something worth investing your time, money and effort into. When you have a great answer to 'why' then you can believe that your people are going to get on board, going to get excited, going to join you in the effort.

So before you start another ministry, another project, another committee, whatever...make sure you have a great answer to the question 'why'. And be ready to tell it to anyone who will listen.

How I Attend Conferences

I came across this post from Seth Godin and had to share it here. Totally resonated with me because this is exactly the approach I take when attending conferences/events.

It costs a ton of time and money to go to something like SXSW. Other than having a blast, why go?

Here's an interesting way to think about it, something I've used to change the way I attend events (I don't do many, and won't be there, so have fun without me):

Think back a year ago to the last time you went. What do you remember?

Do you remember the presentations that were later on videotape? Do you remember the special screenings of movies? Do you remember the crowded cocktail parties? Bumping into a net celebrity?  I don't.

So I don't do them. At the last TED, I didn't attend a single session. They're fabulous, but I can always watch them later, on video.

Instead, I focus on what I do remember: the engaged conversations. The one on one discussions of what someone is working on. Helping a friend design a book cover or solve a thorny entrepreneurial problem. Sneaking out to go to a taco stand for lunch with a very cool CEO...

These are the reasons it is worth going. (At least for me). So do more of that, I think.

This isn't easy to do. Most conferences are organized around mass, not around individual interactions that last. It takes an effort to seek out conversations that matter.

Will people miss you if you don't show up next year? Why?

Check out Seth Godin's blog HERE.

The Art Of Doing The Obvious

A few weeks back I caught a fascinating 60 Minutes interview with outgoing Brazilian President Lula da Silva. Why were they interviewing him? Because in eight short years, this high school dropout has turned his country around in dramatic fashion and is leaving office today with an unheard of approval rating of 87%!

When asked how he had been so successful he answered that the key to being a successful politician is very simple: it's in the art of doing the obvious. He said everyone knows what needs to be done, needs to be fixed or changed, but most politicians lack the courage to do it. They get wrapped up in the politics instead of focusing on the people. They had too many drug infested neighborhoods so he basically sent in the military and cleaned them out. Their economy was failing so to bring attention and global investments, he sought and won both the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics and tripled their investments. Many of us may not agree with a leaders politics or even their methods, but it's hard to argue with results. Their economy is booming. Their future is bright. The people are happy.

We are all quick to criticize our leaders for not doing what seems obvious to us, but how are we doing in our own kingdoms of family or business, church, etc...? Are you taking care of the obvious things?  Are you finding solutions and creating vision for new opportunity and growth in your organization? Are you taking responsibility for what needs to be done? Or is it same old same old. What is your approval rating?

Challenge: find five obvious things that need to be dealt with in your family, your job, your business, your church, wherever you are a leader. Then write them down along with what success for each issue would look like. Now create some simple steps to get there, one small thing at a time and start working on it. Let's quit talking and start doing. And hey, if you don't know what needs to be done, just ask the people you are leading. They will know, because to them, it's obvious.

Film Update

For those of you who follow regularly, sorry for the incredible lapse in postings over the last month. Truth: blogging has been furthest from my mind. And for all the right reasons. Chief among them, we are swamped and that's a good thing. Also exciting is the intense build up leading toward the filming of our first film 'One' which starts late next week. God is assembling an incredibly talented team around me and I'm blown away every time one of them says 'yes'. It's really amazing.

Over the next couple of weeks I'll be doing my best to keep you posted to the daily progress of pre-production and filming (Nov 4-7). Currently we are in the middle of creating the final shot list, walking the locations with the cinematography crew, doing readings with the key actors, etc... Oh and servicing all of our clients at an extremely high level as always :)

To kick things off, wanted to introduce you all to the cast, from L-R:

Our lead actor is Scott Ross, a veteran actor and great filmmaker in his on right who resides in Birmingham. Our lead actress is Mindy Wester, a veteran screen and stage actress also from Birmingham. Supporting actors include Paul Skidmore, a very talented filmmaker from Memphis, TN and Hannah Wilkerson, a very gifted and experienced actress from Birmingham. I also want to introduce Madelyn and Cooper Reynolds, a brother-sister combo who will be playing the kids in the film.

Scott                 Mindy                 Paul                  Hannah

Just as important we have an incredibly talented production team including Wayne Franklin (DP/Cinmetagropher), John Marc Green (Production Mgr/Assistant DP/Lights), Will Giuliani (Audio/PA), Marcus Mullet (PA), Tammy Clement (Script Supervisor & Line Producer), with myself directing.

There are still several ways to be involved if you are interested. We are currently lining up folks to help with meals and catering during the 4 days. We also are trying to nail down someone to cover props/wardrobe and hair/makeup. If you or anyone you know might be interested, please contact me HERE.

 

 

 

The Friday List

Crazy last couple of weeks with tons of filming and travel to Chicago and Auburn. Some interesting stuff:

• From Dentsu, the creative agency behind the incredible holographic typography, comes another 3-D stunner: Sculptures of paint reacting to sound.This is an amazing thing to watch. You can learn more about it here.

• Check out the latest music video from OK Go for the song "White Knuckles". As usual extremely creative, but I have to say it pales in comparison to their recent efforts. They just set the bar so stinkin' high. 
• Production for the movie 'Blue Like Jazz' has been delayed and may be cancelled altogether due to a lack of funding. These two guys have taken it upon themselves to raise $125k to fill the gap and make the movie happen. Click HERE to find out more and lend your support.
• This blog post from Behance about using analog tools to help you be more productive is really fascinating. 
• Barton Damer who created ALL of the hologram visuals at the STORY conference last week featured them on his blog. While this new technology looked good and was very cool, I didn't personally find it to be a 'wow'. It really only worked if you were looking at it dead on. Off to the sides it totally lost it's effect and to call it a hologram is a bit of a stretch. But I do think it's an important early step toward what will surely be a great technology at some point in the future.
• Saw Josh Garrels live at Story in Chicago last week and was blown away by his unique voice. Do yourself a favor and check him out on iTunes.
• In the midst of final casting for our upcoming short film 'One'. We're filming here in B'ham Nov. 4-7.
• The indomitable  Scott Ross and I are working on a concept for what I think could be an amazing documentary film in 2011. Could change the way you look at your pastor forever.

How Analog Rituals Can Amp Your Productivity

As a society, we are engaged in a constant pursuit to be more productive. For the most part, this is a good thing. We want to work smarter. We crave efficiency. Time is our most precious commodity, and productivity tools help us spend it more wisely. 

Over the past few years, I have observed all sorts of methods for productivity. One consistent surprise is the role of monotonous rituals and what could be described as "analog drudgery" among the especially productive. For such accomplished people, I am shocked by the apparent lack of efficiency in their daily routines.

At one point during my research for Making Ideas Happen, I interviewed Bob Greenberg, the legendary CEO of the digital agency R/GA. With high-flying clients like Nike and other household names, Greenberg is overseeing a tremendous number of heavyweight projects at any point in time. He's a busy guy and he's been leading his industry for decades. 

Despite his digital interests, Greenberg's productivity tools are entirely analog. He uses a paper agenda with a series of lists written at the top that he writes every single day. In the morning, Greenberg will manually bump uncompleted tasks from the previous day to the current day. He also re-writes the names of key clients and other areas of focus; often transcribing the same names again and again, daily, for weeks if not months or years.

When I hear about such monotonous and repetitive work, my instinct is to make it more efficient. If Greenberg used a digital system — even a spreadsheet — he could save a significant amount of time. Even better, he could use an online project management tool that automatically bumped everything to the following day for him. Scratch that; he's a CEO! Why doesn't he have an assistant that does this all for him?!

For Greenberg, it's all about feeling the granularity of prioritization. By manually bumping a certain task every day, he feels that it is incomplete. He is faced with the reality and forced to either complete the task, delegate it, or bump it again.

And it's not just Greenberg who operates like this. Many admired (and extremely effective) leaders use an analog approach to productivity as a way to stay accountable and feel connected to their decisions around how they spend their energy.

Yes, monotony and routine can be truly wearisome. They transform our colorful, over-stimulated existence into black and white. But a task left undone SHOULD be a burden. If you make your system for productivity too productive, you will become anesthetized to your responsibilities.

We are left with an important lesson: The manual labor involved with productivity is valuable. Repetitive rituals will make you pause. You will feel burdened, but you will also catch a glimpse of just how busy you are and what you should prioritize.

This post was written by Behance Founder & CEO Scott Belsky, whose new book, Making Ideas Happen, chronicles the methods of exceptionally productive creative people and teams.

The Friday List

In an effort to create a space for all the random thoughts and interactions that don't really fit anywhere else, I'm going to start a weekly post appearing each Friday and just throw it all out there. In no particular order:

• Check out this amazing interactive infographic created by @stamen that chronicled in real time all the social media interaction surrounding the VMA's. Really cool idea and looks awesome as well.

• Twitter has created a new interface to compete with third party apps like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck. It's very well done. Check it here.
• Today is my birthday. I'm 42 and dreaming bigger than ever.
• Next week is the Story conference in Chicago. It's sold out and looks to be amazing. I'm in town working with a client, but will be popping in and out as much as possible. Let's hook up! If you haven't already seen their website, do yourself a favor and be amazed.
• Saw 'Going The Distance' last week. Viewer warning, it's pretty rough in the language dept. But I have to say, 2 of the funniest scenes I've seen in a long time. Literally could not catch my breath for laughing. If you can get past the ridiculously coarse language, it's a pretty good story.
• If you missed it the last couple of weeks, our blog series 'What People Wish Their Pastors Knew About Church' has straight blown up. Check it out and let us know what you think.
• Check out Fast Companie's 2010 Masters of Design. Creatives knocking it out in the real world.
• Unless you're living under a rock you have had to of heard about @shaunking's latest venture TwitChange. Great use of social media to bring about change. Check out his CNN interview here.
• I'm sick and tired of hearing people say they got divorced because they married too young. As someone who got married at age 19, let me be the first to say that marriage is hard enough, and marrying that young did in fact make it exponentially harder. But so what. Married is married. Two wrongs don't make it right. They just make it more wrong. Suck it up, stick it out, and find the incredible satisfaction and reward that comes from honoring a commitment.
• If you're a Seth Godin fan, check out this talk called 'This Is Broken'. Classic Godin.
• If you are a church looking to build anytime soon, when you look for an architect do yourself a favor and check out LIVE Design Group. You will be blown away by how they can start designing your building on the screen right in front of you as you describe what you want. It is amazing. And Michael Trent (aka @churchbartender) works there now so you know they've got to be cool.
• Played around with Tumblr a little over the weekend. I so badly want to use that as my blog platform, but just can't quite get my hands around it as a practical daily tool. What am I missing?

Have You Seen The NEW Twitter?

In an effort to compete with third party apps like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck, Twitter the website has made some pretty impressive improvements to its interface. Check out the video here:   

You will now find @mentions, retweets, searches, and lists just above your timeline – creating a single, streamlined view on the left of the screen. On the right, you can see the features you’re familiar with, including whom you recently followed and who recently followed you, favorites, and Trending Topics.

Now, it’s easy to see embedded photos and videos directly on Twitter, thanks to partnerships with Dailybooth, DeviantArt, Etsy, Flickr, Justin.TV, Kickstarter, Kiva, Photozou, Plixi, Twitgoo, TwitPic, Twitvid, USTREAM, Vimeo, Yfrog, and YouTube.

When you click a Tweet, the details pane shows additional information related to the author or subject. Depending on the Tweet’s content, you may see: @replies, other Tweets by that same user, a map of where a geotagged Tweet was sent from, and more.

You can click a @username to see a mini profile without navigating from the page, which provides quick access to account information, including bio and recent Tweets.

These changes will roll out as a preview over the next several weeks. During the preview, you'll be able to switch back and forth so you have time to grow accustomed to the way things work. Eventually, everyone will have the updated version of Twitter.com.

You can find more details here.