Initiative And Listening
2 Cor 3:12, Isa 42:9, Isa 43:19, Isa 48:6 Jer 31:31, Mat 13:52
April 28, 2003
I. I have been talking about qualities that we need to develop to be the leaders in our families, at our jobs and schools, and in our service to God. One of the things is we need to be initiators
A. Webster’s dictionary defines and initiator as someone who to causes or facilitates the beginning of something .
II. Kemmons Wilson has always been an initiator. He started working when he was seven selling magazines, news papers and popcorn.
A. In 1930 at the age of seventeen he started working for a Cotton broker in his first salaried job, for $12 a week writing figures on the price board.
B. When a bookkeeper’s job paying $35 a week came open he applied for it and got it, but when he got his first check it was still $12, and when he asked why, he was told that they weren’t going to pay a 17 year old kid that kind of money. So, he resigned, and that was the last salaried job he ever had.
C. Wilson made money at differentd jobs after that in pinball and vending machines, and saved enough money to build his mother a house.
D. That’s when he realized that there was a lot of money in building, so he started a building business, and made a fortune in the post World War II building boom.
E. Wilson’s initiative made him a lot of money, but he didn’t have much of an impact on the world, that is until 1951. Wilson took his family on a vacation to Washington D.C., and learned about the sorry state of motels that were available to traveling families.
F. Some were suitable for families, and some rented rooms by the hour, and there was no way to tell which was which.
G. Wilson said, "some places were too squalid for words. And they all charged for children." Wilson had five children and that tripled his bill. So he decided to do something about it.
H. He told his wife "Let’s go home and start a chain of family motels." His goal was to build four hundred motels, and his wife just laughed.
I. When he got back to Memphis, he hired a draftsman to help him design his first motel, and by 1959 he had 100 motels built, which didn’t meet his goal.
J. Then Wilson decided to franchise his motels and that boosted the openings, and by 1964 there were 500 Holiday Inns in America, by 1968 there were 1000, and in 1972 a Holiday in opened somewhere in the world every 72 hours, and the company was still growing in 1979 when Wilson stepped down from his position as leader after a heart attack.
K. Wilson said" I was so hungry when I was young, I just had to do something to make a living. When I retired after my heart attack, I went home to smell the roses. That lasted about a month."
L. You see it is hard for an initiator to stop making things happen.
III. In his book "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership" John Maxwell points out that leaders are responsible for initiating a connection with their followers. But that is not the only place that leaders have to show initiative. Leaders always have to look for opportunities and be ready to take action to make things better.
A. We need people in this church to be initiators. People who will be devoted to what they are doing in their service for God enough to look for ways to make positive things happen.
B. One of things that we have to develop in ourselves to be initiators is WE HAVE TO KNOW WHAT WE WANT!
1. Comic and Pianist Oscar Levant once joked, "Once I wake up my mind, I’m full of indecision." And unfortunately that’s the way that most people operate.
2. No one can be indecisive and EFFECTIVE. Napoleon Hill says it well, "The starting point of all achievement is DESIRE."
3. For us to be effective leaders in our family, and vocation, and in our service to God, we have to know what we want to accomplish.
4. Knowing what we want to accomplish is the only way that we will be able to see and opportunity when it comes.
5. And as leaders in our family, and vocation, and in our service for God we have to be looking for ways to initiate things that will improve the lives of those we lead.
C. Another thing that initiators do is THEY PUSH THEMSELVES TO ACT!
1. There is an old saying " You can if you will."
2. Initiators don’t wait for other people to motivate them. They motivate themselves, and they push themselves beyond their COMFORT zones to see positive things happen in what they believe in. And, they make it a REGULAR practice.
3. We all say that we believe in God and the redemption that he provided through Jesus on the cross, but how much do we PUSH ourselves to see positive things happen in what we believe in?
4. How many times to we make our service to God and people coming to know God such a priority that we put our energy into initiating ways to improve the way that we do it, or even that we do it at all?
5. Theodore Roosevelt was one of the greatest initiating leaders in the twentieth century. He said " There is nothing brilliant or outstanding about my record, except perhaps this one thing: I do the things that I believe ought to be done...And when I make up my mind to do a thing, I act!
6. We need leaders in this church and in our families that do what they BELIEVE ought to be done, and act when they see something that needs to be done instead of WAITING for someone else to do it.
D. Leaders that initiate TAKE MORE RISKS!
1. Even when a leader knows what needs to be done and they are willing to push themselves to act, there is still one more hurdle. And, that is the WILLINGNESS to take the risk to make it happen.
2. People who get things done always take risks. And the reason that good leaders are willing to take risks, is that they realize that there is usually a greater PRICE for not taking risk.
(2 Cor 3:12 NIV) Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.
3. We who are Christians say that we have a hope that overcomes even death, if that’s true then we should be bold and willing to take the risks necessary to see that, that message of hope gets to as many people as possible
4. President John F. Kennedy said, "There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction."
5. To accomplish great things with God we as a church have to be willing to take CALCULATED risks and be bold initiators to see great things happen.
E. Initiators also MAKE MORE MISTAKES.
1. The good news for initiators is that they make things happen, and the bad news is they usually, because they are willing to take risks make more mistakes.
2. Thomas J.. Watson the founder of IBM realized that and said. " They way to succeed is to double your failure rate." Which basically means that you are not going to succeed if you are afraid to risk failure, because you will never find better ways of doing things if you are afraid to try something new.
3. Only those people who are willing to take a chance on failing GREATLY can ever achieve GREATLY, if you want to achieve great things you have to be willing to initiate new things, and try to find better ways, and that means putting yourself on the line.
4. But those of us who claim to be Christians, also claim to have God leading us, and we have to be willing to get out of our comfort zones to allow God to lead us to better ways of reaching people, and if we say that we have a great hope in our relationship with God, and we are timid about doing anything about it, or telling people about it, what does that say to people about what we really believe about God?
F. God has been and will always be an initiator.
(Isa 42:9 NIV) See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you."
(Isa 43:19 NIV) See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
(Isa 48:6 NIV) You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not admit them? "From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you.
(Jer 31:31 NIV) "The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
(Mat 13:52 NIV) He said to them, "Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old."
G. God created a new world, he made a New covenant, He makes us New people that are born again, and one day He is going to create a New Heaven and a New Earth, God is an initiator, and as his servants we are to be initiators also.
IV. As much as we have to be initiators to be good leaders, we also have to be LISTENERS too.
A. If we made a list of people that we considered to be some of the most influential leaders in the country the president would make that list, and maybe Alan Greenspan, and Michael Jordan maybe, but there is someone on that list that you might not think of at first.
B. Guys, I’m sorry to do this to you, but one of the most influential people in our country in the last few years is Oprah Winfrey.
C. In 1985 she was practically unknown. She appeared in some movies and hosted a local morning talk show she had been doing in Chicago for a year.
D. The success that she achieved could be associated with her ability to talk. She has even said, "Communicating with people is how I have always developed any kind of value about myself.
E. She says, " I remember being two years old and speaking in church and hearing people say, " that child sure can talk. That’s one talking child."
F. But, she has also done her share of listening. One of the major characteristics in her life has been the ability to listen. She read as much as she could find and learned about how people think and feel.
G. She constantly listens to find out the issues that she can address to make her show popular, and then she brings people on her show and listens to the things that they have to say.
H. Her ability to listen has brought her a lot of success and influence. She is the highest paid entertainer in the world and is worth nearly a half a billion dollars. In the United states alone every week nearly thirty-three million people watch her show.
I. But, despite her show’s success she recently decided to revamp it. Do you know how she decided to make the decisions about changing the show? She listened to her staff.
J. Her goal in life she says is to add value to people, and she succeeds because she listens.
V. In his book "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership" Leadership specialist John Maxwell says leaders have to touch a heart before they can ask for a hand. But before a leader can touch someone’s heart they have to know what’s in it, and they learn that by listening.
A. Peter Drucker who is the initiator of many of the management practices in American believes that 60% of all management problems in business are the result of poor communication. But, beyond that most communication problems are the result of poor listening.
B. We have to LISTEN to people to connect with them and to learn, and for that reason we have to keep our ears open to people:
C. We also have to listen to THOSE WHO FOLLOW US!
1. The kind of leaders that people want to follow do more than just conduct business when they talk with people who follow them. They take the time to get a FEEL for who each person is, and what is important to them.
2. Philip Stanhope the earl of Chesterfield said, "many a man would rather you heard his story than granted his request."
3. If you’re in the habit of listening only to the facts instead of the person who states them, then change your focus and listen to the person as much or more than the facts. Hear WHY they are saying what they’re saying as well as what they are saying.
4. Remember it is not what you are responsible for that is the most important thing it is WHO you are responsible for. People are the most important thing in the world to God! And they have to be the most important thing to leaders regardless of where they lead.
5. There is a Cherokee saying that says, "listen to the whispers and you won’t have to hear the screams."
6. As leaders in our families, vocations, and service to God we can’t get so caught up in our own ideas that we don’t hear the concerns, complaints, and suggestions of the people that we are to serve by leading them.
7. Good leaders make it a habit to stay in CONTACT with the people that they are serving, and listen to why they are saying what they are saying , because most people don’t tell you what is really bothering when they have a problem, we have to as leaders learn to listen to the WHY as well as the what.
D. Another group of people that we must listen to are THE PEOPLE THAT ARE DOING THE SAME THINGS THAT WE ARE DOING.
1. Sam Markewich once said, If you don’t agree with me, it means that you haven’t been listening."
2. Although he was making a joke, it is a sad truth that when leaders see other leaders only as competition, they usually focus their attention only on building their own case or championing their own cause, instead of learning from what the other person has to say.
3. Larry King says, "I remind myself every Morning: nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I’m going to learn, I must do it by LISTENING."
4. As a leader in our family, and vocation, and in our service for God we can’t base what we do on what the other person is doing. We have to let God lead us, but we should listen to what others are doing because we can learn from them.
E. MOST IMPORTANTLY WE HAVE TO LISTEN TO GOD. Most of us have the habit of making prayer a time that we talk to God, but for it to be what it should be we have to talk and then take the time to LISTEN.
1. When we pray it has to be communication with God, and communication only happens when we LISTEN as well as talk.
2. More than anything, we have to listen to GOD to be the kind of leaders that God wants us to be.
3. We have to get our direction from the one who knows the game plan more than us. If we are going to be initiators we have to take RISKS and we will make MISTAKES, but if we let GOD direct us well make less mistakes.
4. God wants a relationship with us, and there is no relationship that can be what it was intended to be with out communication.
5. God may not peel back the clouds and scream answers to you but he will through reading the bible and through the direction that he gives your thought process lead you to the right answer if you will really take the time to listen instead of just talking.
F. It is important that we listen to others as leaders, and it is crucial that we listen to God. The word listen is in the bible 352 times, and the word hear is the bible 379 times. If we are going to be the leaders that God intends us to be we have to listen and hear what God is saying, so that He can direct our lives and through us direct the lives of the people that we are leading, and everyone of us is leading somebody.
(Luke 8:18 NIV) Therefore consider carefully how you listen.
(Luke 9:35 NIV) A voice came from the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him."
(John 10:27 NIV) My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
G. I hope that you will work at making yourself an initiator, and look for ways that you can improve the things around you and especially your relationship with God and your service for God.
1. I hope that you will in your service for God trust Him to guide you and not be afraid to take risks to improve what he is trying to do through you.
2. And I hope that you will learn to listen, not to just what people are saying, by why they’re saying it.
3. And most importantly I hope that you’ll learn to listen to God and follow his leadership so that you can be the leader that God intends you to be.
