basketball stars picture: Excellence

I just received this handout about honor from Bill Buckley, our new Fellowship of Christian Athletes Director here at Mississippi State. I believe it will benefit us all.

The definition of honor is to highly value and consistently promote another through both my actions and my attitudes.

Three powerful truths about honor:

1. True authority flows from honor.

We honor when we accurately identify and consistently value the identities and roles of those on our team.
Honor is not just about obeying. It's about catching the heart of your leaders so that you can see the wisdom behind their directives.
Honor calls us to be under authority so that we can be in authority.

2. Honor is unconditional.

Honor gives another what he needs the most when he deserves it the least sometimes at great personal sacrifice.
Hone demands that I affirm others' strengths before I judge their weaknesses.

3. Honor promises great rewards.

Honor moves us from motivation to inspiration, from rules to relationship.
Honor promotes the two most valuable qualities of a team player-being coachable and being grateful.
Honor is the number one key to receiving from heaven.

"I have found my servant David in whose heart honor lives. He has attracted my favor and I ill give him dominion and My arm will strengthen him. The enemy shall not outwit him, nor shall evil afflict him. I will beat down his fores before his face, and plague those who hate him. But My faithfulness and mercy shall be with him. His legacy will endure forever and his leadership will be as strong as the sun."
Psalm 89:20-24, 35-37

Listen to this definition of excellence: Excellence is the result of caring more than others think is wise, risking more than others think is safe, dreaming more than others think is practical, and expecting more than others think is possible. I just think that is a really interesting thing - think about yourself and how you are doing in a caring scale, how you are doing in the risking scale, how you are doing in the dreaming scale, and how you are doing on the expecting scale. I really think that’s a wonderful definition of excellence. Be excellent today – care, risk, and dream and expect big.

Speaking of excellence… At the University of San Diego, my wife Margie and I teach a course as part of the Master of Science in Executive Leadership program. Our course is “Determining Your Leadership Point of View.” Your leadership point of view is really figuring out who you are as a leader, and sharing it.

There are seven aspects of it:

1. Who are the role models you had early in life that impacted your belief about leadership? Most people don’t talk about bosses; they talk about their mother or father, uncle or cousin, teacher or coach—what we call “lifelong leaders.”
2. What’s your mission in life? What are you trying to accomplish?
3. What are your values – what’s going to guide your behavior?
4. Based on those three things, what’s your leadership point of view—what are your beliefs about leading and motivating people?
5. What are your expectations of others?
6. What do your people expect of you?
7. How are you going to walk your talk? How are you going to model what you say you stand for?

It’s a fascinating process. We discuss this in Chapter 15 of Leading at a Higher Level. So if you want to find out more about that, get a copy of that book and read that chapter. If any of you haven’t developed a leadership point of view, I would like to challenge you to develop it. Then sometime, maybe in the first part of next year, sit down with your people and share your leadership point of view with them. Because it really does clarify expectations and who you are. It’s not about weakness; it’s about sharing who you are so other people can share who they are with you. It’s a wonderful process. And remember, it’s not just supervisors that should have a leadership point of view—all of you are leaders in some aspect of your life. You’re a leader as a spouse, as a father or mother, or as a volunteer. Anytime you try to influence the behavior of someone else, you’re engaging in leadership. Where did you get your image of leadership? I challenge everybody to develop and be able to share their leadership point of view.