I’m no expert on Haiti, earthquakes, or really much of anything for that matter. However, watching the Haiti earthquake coverage has brought some thoughts to mind.

Heartwrenching. How could anyone feel anything but great sadness for the people whose images overwhelm your TV screen? Oh my.

There’s nothing we can do about earthquakes but respond to them when they’ve happened, pick up the pieces, bury the dead, bind the wounds of the injured, and cry with those who’ve lost the people they’ve loved. But there is something that people—governments in particular—can do: be prepared. I love the fact that America is prepared. When we have disasters in America people run into the fray with their resources. Here in Tornado Alley citizens load their trucks with chainsaws, diesel fuel, and all manner of disaster recovery equipment. The national guard shows up. The president and governor talk and work out the disaster declaration—-aid comes!

Where is the aid in Haiti? Oh, I know that all manner of U.S. based charities are running toward the Caribbean. Franklin Graham of Samaritan’s Purse was on CNN tonight begging the U.S. Government to open Haitian airspace so his organization could put plane loads of aid into the country in the morning. Convoy of Hope from here in Springfield, Missouri where I live is already on the ground in Haiti. But where is the Haitian National Guard? Oh, I forgot. They don’t have one. The people in charge over the generations haven’t cared enough to educate, organize, train, and lead their citizens to build a better Haiti. As a result, simple commodities like gasoline are in such short supply they can’t even run the generators so badly needed to care for the injured. No water. No food. No tools—they are digging people out with their bare hands. Why?

For generations all manner of dictators and potentates have ruled Haiti. My guess is that—as is typical with dictators and potentates—they were in it for what they could get, instead of what they could give. There is gasoline in Haiti; to power the cars of the ruling elite. And, I’ll bet that—outside of Port au Prince—their toilets still flush.

I’m not a member of the ruling elite in the U.S. For the most part, we don’t have a ruling elite. But I am a member of the blessed, and my guess is that you are, too. Our obligation my friend is to exercise our leadership, and utilize our resources and abilities for the benefit and betterment of others. God blessed us so we could bless. We need to get our minds around that. It’s Core Value #1: It’s about the people depending on us! I have to believe a similar attitude by the rulers of Haiti would have built a country that lifted its people out of poverty and created the resources so that Haitians could participate in helping Haitians.

I think there is a spiritual component here. The philosophy of Core Value #1 (It’s about the people depending on us) is rooted in my faith. Whatever God has given me is so that I can be a channel of His blessing to others. I’m not a reservoir of blessing. I don’t contain it. I channel it to where it is needed. I’m not just talking about money here. I’m not even primarily talking about money. I’m talking about resources—-intellect, ideas, inspiration, energy, solutions, brain power, and ability. Those things are vested, I should say “entrusted” to us so that we’ll deploy them in lifting others up.

I wonder if their dictators and potentates had their countrymen on their mind when they took power in Haiti? I doubt it. Generation after generation has grown poorer and less able to help themselves because there is no sense of “us” and of “God in us” and “God for us” and “Us for God and them.” (Well, I misspeak. With dictators and potentates there is an “us” but its a pretty small circle, and if it comes to down to you and me, it’s gonna be me.)

Sanitize American history and detach it from it’s roots however you want. At the end of the day American’s rush to aid each other and the rest of the world because inherent in our DNA are Biblical Judeo-Christian values like “us” and “us as the image of Him.” We are better. Not inherently, but fortunately. We are better because our imperfect forefathers did plant seeds of righteousness in the ground from which we continue to reap a crop of blessing today. I’m grateful for that blessing and for the heritage from which it comes. I didn’t choose to be born here instead of Haiti. It was a gift to me for which I am grateful, and responsible.

I don’t know what you and I can do about Haiti. Perhaps not a lot. But we do have an opportunity to make a difference tomorrow in our workplace and communities. We’ll be wise if we recognize our responsibility to advance the ball for others and make the world a better place for the people who are depending on us.

No dictators. No potentates. Just servants using our gifts to make a difference.

Oh God, help me to be a Difference Maker.

Won’t you join me?

“There are four quarters in a game, and four quarters in a year. At the end of the year did you walk away having won, or did you just play the game?” Nola Peterson crystalized that thought yesterday at the end of a brief Year End Sprint training session in which I focused our top leadership on “running through the bag” so the year could be completed instead of  just lazily “trotting” the bases until the year was over. It’s an important thought. Are you winning, or just playing.

I think most people engage their work for the sport of it instead of playing to win. It’s a game to get up everyday, suit up, show up on the playing field, drink Columbian Gatorade with friendly teammates, step to the workstation to run a play, drink some more finely ground Columbian Gatorade, have half-time, then go back to the playing field and run a few more plays all the while waiting for the clock to run out. I call this “Playing between the 40’s.”

In football if your team manages to keep the game between the two forty yard lines, nobody wins. The ball moves a few feet one direction or another while players repeatedly grunt, sweat, and pile into a heap. Not much exciting happens, and no points are scored. They don’t give points away for “fine execution between the 40’s.” You are credited with points when you break across the 40 and drive into the opposing team’s end zone.  Trophies don’t go to teams that consistently “deep into the 42 yard line.” Trophies go to teams that break across the goal line and occupy the enemy’s territory.

Notice the use of the word “break.” If you are going to succeed you’ve got to have a break out, away from the rest of the pack. You’ve got to break away from old habits and break-up with negative people who are holding you back.

Why don’t more people experience breakouts? I think its because breaking out involves risk. If I stay huddled with my team between the 40’s, nobody is going to criticize me for showboating and my opponents aren’t going to come crashing into me, making me eat dirt because I broke out. There is camaraderie in the huddle and safety in the group. There is no thrill of victory. There are no awards for accomplishment. There is no forward momentum for greater achievement. But it’s safe. If you’ll just agree to not go beyond the 40, the other team will take it easy on you when they tackle you and make it look like you are really playing the game. If you won’t embarrass them and make them run “all the way” down to the endzone. They won’t face-plant you. But that’s no way to live, knowing neither the sweet taste of victory nor the satisfaction of giving your best amidst defeat.

If you are going to be successful, you’ve got to break out away from the group. You’ve got to take the risk that when you rise above the crowd somebody will take a shot at you. You’ve got to understand that people you thought were your friends will suddenly turn on you because your hard-work, effort, and success make them feel bad about their own life between the 40’s. But life and work are not hobbies played for mere entertainment, we’re here to win. When we win big we advance the ball for our family, our team, and all the people depending on us. And, we give ourselves the respect we deserve. We are worthy of being winners!

As we make the final turn in 2009 and head toward the starting gate for 2010 let’s evaluate our game. Let’s be willing to do the hard work so that in 2010 we can spend more time dancing in the end zone of life.

Core Value #5 in our company is Winning. The theme Bible passage for that core value comes from Jeremiah 29:11 where God said to his people “I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.” I taught this core value in our team training last week, waxing eloquently about why winning was important, about why God’s design for us to win, and about attitudes and attributes of winners. My team bought it hook, line & sinker.

Unbeknownst to me, the day before friends of mine had lost their son-in-law to a car accident. He died leaving a young wife, and two primary school aged children. Today the mother-in-law posted to Facebook that the last two days (which included the funeral) had been the hardest of her life.

Plans to prosper you………not to harm………hope…….a future.

So where is the prosperity, the hope, the future in this? Where’s the God who wants us to win that I taught about last week? I’ve been struggling with that thought. My guess is that its hard to offer praise to God in a household that has experienced such loss, I get that. How can we maintain our faith and reconcile the death of this Daddy with a God who says he wants to prosper us, give us a hope and a future. This is hard math. I just can’t make it add up.

I remember Job had everything taken from him, and he said “Yet if God slays me, I will still trust him.” Nice poetry. But none of us want to have to do it.

Understanding why this young man died is beyond my grasp. But I do remember hearing Babbie Mason sing once at our church in Columbia that “God is too wise to be mistaken. God is too good to be unkind. So when you don’t understand, when you don’t see His plan, when you can’t trace His hand, trust His heart.” His heart is pointed toward us, toward that young widow, her children and even the young man that was taken from them.

I believe that.

We who trust Him do so because we know Him. We know His character. We know His voice. We know His deeds. We know what He says about His desire and intent for us. That’s enough to allow us to continue trusting Him when nothing makes sense. We’ve read the end of the story. And it allows us to say with Job “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”

When it comes to executing your roles in your family, and in that responsibility for which you are economically compensated, are you a leader or a manager? Oh, I know some reading this post will say “I’m neither, I just……” but wait, in that case you are at least a manager; responsible for managing that particular responsibility which you’ve been assigned. So if you are willing to accept at least the “manager” designation, then I want to engage in thought with you about Leadership vs. Management. Perhaps in the mental conversation you’ll find a way to make a bigger difference in the world.

This matter arose in my company because of a management issue. I have colleagues who the world would call “managers” but I find myself talking to them about being better “leaders.” What’s the difference and why does it matter? Good question!

My mentor Lee Brower called my attention to the fact that we have way too much management in this world, and not nearly enough leadership. This is true from Wall Street to your street. Think about it: The large financial companies were gaming the system in the early 2000’s and proverbially “got caught with their pants down” causing legendary firms with centuries of history to vanish over night in 2008. The response was “We need more regulation.” That’s “management speak” and it’s wrong.

What we needed then and now is leadership which says “that’s wrong, danger ahead, you can’t cheat the system and keep inflating the numbers into perpetuity. There will be a pay day, some day.” Leadership speaks to the WHY behind those kind of decisions while management just seeks control. But control ultimately never works. In the 30’s the government tried to control liquor. All that did was make the bootleggers like Joe Kennedy and Al Capone rich. Today, we’ve got drug laws that seek to control use of illicit substances. How’s that working in your community? It won’t work on Wall Street either. Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme has already resulted in a great host of additional government “management” through financial regulations seeking to “control” unethical financial behavior. What’s needed instead is leadership born of personal morality that says “No. You can’t do it. We won’t allow it. And you should be ashamed of yourself for trying to do it. We shun you!” all the while teaching people about the financial, emotional, moral, social, and spiritual costs of such thievery. Really, we need stronger teaching, not stronger legislating. There are absolutes, and those of us who know that need to stand by them.

Lest you think this is just an issue on Wall Street, let’s look at your street. Lee has mentioned how leadership vs. management plays out at your kids school, or in their Little League, or Mighty Mights or whatever they are involved in. Have you heard about these places where the children’s athletic teams don’t keep score because “we wouldn’t want little Johnny to feel badly because his team lost”? Or how about the schools that don’t give grades because they wouldn’t want the low achievers to feel badly because they flunked. What kind of stupid thinking is that? Do you think that when these kids grow up they are going to get a passing grade in life and business just for showing up, without contributing…..”doing their homework” so to speak? Is no one going to keep score in life? Is their employer going to give everyone the same promotion and the same raise, or are there going to be winners and losers? Those who advance, and those who are held back? Those who succeed and those who fail? Ask the guy I terminated yesterday. He’s a prince of a fellow. I like him alot! But he wasn’t getting the job done. He wasn’t passing the class, and ultimately he got kicked out of school. He lost his job. To have kept him on the team risked the economic health of the entire company and ultimately the jobs of every person on the team. Management might have protected his job and thus his emotions, but leadership ultimately protected the jobs of 50 others.

I’m all for cushioning someone’s pain the best we can. Medicine calls it “palliative care” But I’m also for letting people learn by experiencing the hard realities that are life. You will lose, sometimes. You will get hurt. You will experience pain. You will someday die! This is life. Good leadership doesn’t try to “manage” away the pain, instead it equips people to overcome the negatives they face.

Are you leading your family, or managing them? What about your department? Your peers?

When it comes to the vision you are pursuing at home or professionally, are you throwing wood or water on the flame, or are you the keeper of the flame? One is management, the other is leadership.

Here’s another difference between management and leadership: Management focuses on short-term results—what will get the best response “tomorrow?” Leadership focuses on long-term results—what will ultimately make us the strongest as a family or a company over the long haul?

Which is best, short term management, or long term leadership? It depends on what you want. Pine trees grow rapidly. They are a “soft” open-grained wood and don’t have tremendous strength. Oak trees grow slowly. They produce a “hard” tightly grained wood with the greatest strength. So what do you want? A soft child that is emotionally weak? Then manage his environment so that he is protected from every unpleasantness. But if you want a strong family that endures and thrives amid the hardship of life you lead them in how they are to think, how they are to approach and experience life’s difficulties, and you produce a child that will have deep roots through which to draw water during the harsh droughts of adulthood.

In my company I want leaders. People come to us for our leadership. We even having a saying “We help people who have problems, not those who are problems.” That’s true. People come to us when their financial, investment, real estate and business life aren’t working, and we help them sort through their options and develop a strategy to move their life forward.

I want each member of my team—everyone I touch, really—to step up their leadership; to seek to influence for better, the situations in which they are involved and the people they are around. I don’t want people who know how to check boxes, though that is required. I want people who understand intuitively WHY we are checking the boxes. It’s NOT so we’ll have “checked boxes” at the end of the day. It’s because if we have checked all those boxes we’ll have followed a protocol designed to give the highest probability of a positive result for the people who are depending on us.

You see, it really is about WHY vs. WHAT. People who ask WHAT always work for people who KNOW WHY. WHY people set the temperature in the room. WHAT people monitor the temperature in the room.

If the WHY is big enough, the WHAT will always become evident, at least for bright people.

You are bright. You wouldn’t have been able to read this far in this lengthy epistle if you weren’t. You are bright enough to be a WHY guy (or gal). You can be a leader. You can be a difference maker in your family, your church, your community, and your workplace. It starts when you move through and beyond your management responsibilities to take up the mantle of leadership for all the people who are depending on you.

I ask myself that question ALL THE TIME. Occasionally I like the answer. Sometimes I don’t. Usually I just don’t know for sure. But in a recent time of reflection I concluded the answer is YES!  I am/We are making a difference. Here’s some examples:

• There’s a guy who works on our corporate team who as of August has made twice as much money as he made in an entire year in his old job. In the two years he’s been with us he’s hated me (not literally), been offended plenty of times (it really hacked him off when I told him he wasn’t a salesman, he was just an “order taker,” but then he came back later and said “you were right”) and on occasion been beaten on (again, not literally) mercilessly. But today he sent me an email and said “I am amazed at how far financially I have come, having achieved monetary feats I didn’t even think were possible” and “I also think about how much better I am in my work, how much stronger an overall employee I am. I owe it all to you two.” He got that almost right. He is a stronger employee, but much more he is a stronger person. He’s changed the way he thinks, and from those thoughts have flowed the progress he’s made in his life. he’s made progress in part because he’s adopted the posture of a learner. (My friend Ernie Hughes says “The enemy of learning is knowing.”) He wrote to me today “When you submit, it is a lot of fun, as I learned this year.” But probably what made me feel the best was a few weeks ago when he told me about taking his family on a day trip to a theme park and about how it was no longer a financial stress for him to be able to do that.

We’re making a difference!

• There’s a husband and wife who are both members of our team. She’s starting her 13th year with us, and her husband has been with us 10 years. They are great people, the kind the world needs more of. At age 40, having never had children of their own they decided to adopt. Soon thereafter they became parents of three siblings, a 9 year old daugther, a 13 year old son, and a 14 year old daughter! Wow! Several weeks ago while talking about the kids she spoke of their strong financial status and about the things she’d learned and about the way her thinking had changed during her time on our team. She cried as she said “You’ve made this possible.” I think she overstates the case. But certainly God has blessed many of our team members financially and intellectually, particularly in the past few years as we’ve stretched and grown in ways none of us ever imagined.

We’re making a difference!

• There are over a 100 people (maybe closer to 150) who have food in their belly and a roof over their head paid for as a product of their work on our team. I’m proud of that fact alone. But I’m also proud that during a time of great economic turmoil when many are without jobs, these people—mostly in the construction trades of all places—are making more money than most of them ever have in their lives.

We’re making a difference!

• I finally got to spend some time with a guy who has worked for us off and on for a couple of years. In our conversations about life and God I discovered he didn’t understand what it meant to have a relationship with God through Jesus’ substitutionary penalty payment of death on the cross. Through our conversations he came into a relationship with Jesus, began attending church, and began studying his Bible.

We’re making a difference!

• A lady came in to interview for a job; one that I’m not sure we have available. When I asked her why she said “Because Shawn has told me this is a great place to work.”

We must be making a difference!

• One of our subcontractors took my partner to lunch today just to say thank you. He is planning a cruise with his family. Couldn’t ever have done it up until now because he didn’t have the money. He’s making more money today than he ever has in his life. They got into a big discussion about kids and my partner was able to teach him about instilling confidence in his children. Hmmmm. Confidence—one of the key components of our Core Values which are practically a “Statement of Faith” at our company.

Sounds like a difference to me!

• A middle-aged executive just resigned from a 14 year carreer at one of the world’s largest accounting firms to join our management team. I don’t know what was in his cool-aid but he must think we’re making a difference.

I’ve always wanted to make a difference.

To tell the truth, I probably have always defined making a difference in spiritual terms………masses of people developing faith in Jesus……or in miraculous terms……people being healed……..or in physical terms like providing for orphans or medical care for tribal people in the jungle. We’re not doing much in those areas. But we’re still making a huge difference.

In recent months I’ve began to see how we can take money I’ve previously been advising clients to mail off to Wall Street and instead keep those dollars working here at home through a concept called “Local Dollars Making a Local Difference.®” My clients like it, it makes a difference in our community, and just this week a banker from Arkansas told me how Walmart—the mass retailer—is pioneering a similar “back to local” project. What we’re doing with this “local” thing is going to pay huge dividends in our community and for our clients. It’ll really make a difference!

When it comes to making a difference, if I told the truth it would probably be that I always wanted to be Billy Graham. It appears though that God just wanted Barry Watts. Barry making a difference, teaching his team, sharing a vision, touching people, growing their lives bigger than they thought possible.

I/we are making a difference. It’s a great life! And I’m honored to live it!

A Dios sea la gloria!

Now quit wasting oxygen! Go make a difference!