‘I don’t know, Chris, I just kind of spoke it into existence.’ That was the reply from one of the best pastoral leaders I have ever met. I asked him how he had galvanized a diverse congregation I expected a genius answer. I just didn’t expect THAT genius answer. From that point forward, I watched and listened carefully and he was right. The things that mattered most to the health of the church, he talked about all of the time. I could repeat many of them today. And those things were really true about the church.
Truett Cathy did the same thing with the famous Chick-fil-A reply, ‘My pleasure.’ It was not a genius plan implemented strategically around the country. It was just an idea that he thought would be important to the culture that he wanted to be true about his restaurants, so he talked about it all the time. Successful organizations that are cohesively moving in a positive direction require an enormous amount of people doing an enormous amount of things most of which are done outside of the daily watchful eye of the leader.
So how does a leader get so many people linking arms and moving in the same direction together? A lot of things, but one that I feel is underutilized is saying the same thing over and over again. Repeating themselves. This seems counterintuitive because we have all seen leaders that say one thing, one time, and their teams spring to action. We know coaches that threaten teams with their authoritative style by saying, 'Don't make me repeat myself!' I don't think anyone who operates this well will lead effectively for very long. Patrick Lencioni, often quoted leadership expert, states that leaders must be CROs, chief reminding officers. My father, a career-long educational leader, drove me crazy when I was growing up saying often, ‘Consistency is the key.’ When you put reminding and consistency together, you get repetition in the form of repeating yourself over and again. Andy Stanley, another widely recognized leadership guru, quips that your important messages can be complete or memorable not both. A huge part of being memorable is repeating it all of the time.
Here are three ways that leaders can be repeaters and keep the important thing at the forefront of the minds of the organization:
1. Tell stories about times when an important thing has happened around your organization. Many public speaking experts would say that a speaking engagement should open with a relevant story. Why? Because stories can provide a framework and visual for something that is important. Meetings, presentations, and emails are places that should often include stories that provide a framework for why the work of your group is so important. Repeat stories.
2. Frame your important goal, vision, or mission through rhyme or alliteration. This is an example of making your important thing repeatable because, as Andy Stanley would say, you have made it memorable. If you were to visit some of the places I have previously led and say, ‘character and class’ or ‘excellent athletics with eternal impact’ I am fairly confident that those communities would know exactly who said that and why it was so important. I had done the intellectual work of clarifying our mission and working it into a portable saying. And then I repeated it all the time.
3. Repeat the important thing to yourself often by tuning your mind to ways that you need to repeat it often. I find this point to be the most important point. Leaders often get so busy doing that they stop thinking about what really needs to be done or why it is so important that it gets done. But one of the potent things a leader can do is called metacognition. Metacognition, according to Craig Groeschel in ‘Winning the War in your Mind’, is thinking about what you are thinking about. The effect of doing this is that you can help others to think about what they are thinking about. You must ‘tune your mind’ to think about the ‘mission-vision-goal’ all the time and how you can repeat it to your group. When leadership experts talk about doing the things that only the leader can do this is what should go at the top of the list. In today’s wildly distracted and over-informed age, being able to focus and help others focus is truly a superpower.
It is overly simplistic yet very potent when a leader becomes focused on what is important and realizes they can speak it into existence. They just have to be prepared to repeat it over and over and over and…
Keep on keepin’ on, friends!
*Bonus Content! Here are some resources to help you go deeper on this topic - ‘Winning the War in Your Mind’ by Craig Groeschel, ‘The Advantage’ by Patrick Lencioni, and ‘Visioneering’ by Andy Stanley
‘Bite Down and Don’t Let Go’ is a collection of writings on relentlessly leading yourself and others well. Read about it more here.
Dr. Chris Hobbs is an educational leader with more than two decades of experience. He’s earned a few degrees and won some awards. He’s happily married to his high school sweetheart and they have three teen age children. Life is messy and complicated most of the time. You can follow him on Twitter for all sorts of inspirational thoughts and good laughs.
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