Yes, we took our entire team to NYC.

I imagine there are a spectrum of responses to this fact:

From, “That’s so cool.”

To, “That sounds expensive.”

To, “How in the world can that be a smart business decision? Think of the time and money spent!”

And here’s my response: It’s not about New York. We’ve hosted a retreat in Chicago and many others only an hour from our office. The location doesn’t matter as much as the opportunity for our team to create shared moments.

Shared moments create shared memories.

‍At one retreat, we went horseback riding as a group. One of the horses walked into a bee’s nest and was instantly spooked. You can imagine the chaos as a couple members of our team got bucked off their horses while others held onto their horses for dear life! (I hope our insurance underwriter is not reading this). At one of our retreats last year, we surprised our team with a special guest speaker—former UGA Head Football Coach Mark Richt. We will always remember the intimacy and intentionality of that meeting with such an incredible leader.

This is not to mention the many late night conversations around campfires, the team building exercises, and the meals enjoyed together. We still talk about these experiences together, and they provide our team the framework for stronger work relationships to flourish.

‍Shared experiences create a fertile environment for trust to grow and trust helps teams go further and faster. ‍

Getting people out of their offices, out of their city, and out of their comfort zone provides them with an environment to build trust with the people around them. This also happens over time in the office as people work toward a common goal together. However, out of office retreats help expedite this process and teams are more unified and eager to work together when they return.

In any environment when you are trying to accomplish big things, you are going to encounter obstacles, frustrations, and differences of opinion. In fact, there will be times you flat-out disagree with others on your team. Without a foundation of trust, your ability to work through those differences will be challenging at best. The greater the level of trust, the better your ability to trust motives and keep moving during difficult times. When you truly know people, like with a spouse or close friend, you don’t allow small things to set you back.

So, that's why we do things like take our team to New York. (At least this is what we tell the finance people).

‍It’s also just a lot of fun.

Think about the ways you cultivate trust on your team. It may not be a retreat, but an investment in building trust will pay dividends for years to come.

The first time we went, George was fearless. He rode the rides with no problem and wanted to experience all the action.  But the second time we went, it felt like I had brought a different child with me. He would let me know he wanted to ride something, so we would get in line, wait for an unreasonable amount of time, get all the way up to the front . . . and then he would melt down and say that he was too afraid to do it.

The day at the water park was grueling.

Was I frustrated because we wasted time? Yes.

Was I more irritable because it was hot? Absolutely.

But there was something more important that was bothering me. I was mostly frustrated that George was missing out. I didn’t want to force him to do something he didn't want to do, but I knew that his irrational fear was preventing him from doing something that he would actually enjoy.

This experience at the water park turned out to be a great teaching moment for my son and a good reminder for me.

When we were driving home, I looked at George in the rearview mirror, and said, “I want to explain to you why I wanted you to do those rides at the water park. I knew that you would enjoy it. If you would have just tried it, you would have loved it. Instead, today you allowed being afraid to hold you back from something I know would be fun. I don’t want fear to hold you back from doing good things in life.”

Donald Miller said it this way:

“Fear is a manipulative emotion that will trick us into living a boring life.”

Isn’t this lesson and this quote true for all of us? A boy wants to ask a girl out, but doesn’t because he’s afraid she might say no.

The student doesn’t try out for the soccer team because she thinks she won’t make the roster.

The people with great ideas don’t start the business because they are afraid to fail.

The employee doesn’t voice his opinion because he’s afraid he won’t be heard.

The neighbor doesn’t pursue the new friendship because she fears she’ll be rejected.

How many things have we missed out on because of fear?

Consider this, how many times have you been afraid but took the risk anyway? More often than not, the fear was far worse in your head than what happened in real life. So my advice to you and to me today is the same advice I gave my son: Don’t let fear hold you back from doing great things.

Don’t let fear hold you back from doing great things.

When you take the leap, you might find joy.

You might be challenged.

And, guess what? You might even get hurt.

But at least you won’t be bored. Life is meant to be experienced. It’s time to get off the sidelines and start living.

My wife’s dad passed away.

Two days later, we welcomed our third child.

Nine days later, we were in the hospital with him for viral meningitis. A week later, we were three hours away from home for my wife’s father’s funeral which had been delayed because of our life circumstances.

As we look back on this difficult season for our family, one of the things we are so grateful for are the actions of people around us. The people who brought meals, offered to help, sent a card in the mail, or even sent a text to check in reminded us that we were not alone and encouraged us to keep moving forward. All of these meaningful, yet often small, actions reminded me that the smallest action is better than the grandest intention. Unfortunately, we can all fall prey to good intentions that are not carried out in actions.

The smallest action is better than the grandest intention.

When was the last time you said something that started like this?

‍I hoped to . . .I wanted to . . .I planned to . . .I intended to . . . If you’re like me, you probably did yesterday!

Often we don’t translate intentions into actions, because we are planning for bigger and bolder actions that never take place.

‍I am not going to reach out to that client until I have these things together for them.

I need to check in with that person on our team, but I’ll wait until we can go to lunch in a month.

I am going to host this bigger event when I have more time.

I’m gonna to start writing the book when I have something worth saying.

I’m going to send that text when they’ve had some space to grieve.

I’m going to offer to help when I have time to do more for them.

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‍Here’s my challenge to you today: Be comfortable with small actions. Then act.

The purpose of this post is not to guilt you into doing more. It’s actually the opposite. I want to encourage you to get comfortable with doing less. Because doing less is far better than doing nothing. Whatever it is that you intend to do today, do it.

Do it even if the action is much smaller than you think it should be.

Do it because actions are always better than intentions.

He was in a place of privilege. He had an important job working directly for the king. His life was comfortable, but he heard about a challenge. There was an issue in his home country. Specifically, there was a wall built around the city for protection, and that wall was in disrepair. Nehemiah felt in his heart that he needed to do something about it, so he got permission from the king to leave his current job, go back to his home, and rebuild the wall. This is where we will pick up the story. At one point during this rebuilding process, Nehemiah encounters a group of people who are doing whatever they can to stop him from finishing the wall. They ask him to come down from the wall to meet with them, but he responds by saying, “I’m doing a great work, and I can’t come down” (Neh. 6:4). The thing I am working on is too important. I can’t be distracted at this moment. They ask him four times, and his answer is the same every time.

What does this story have to do with me and you? I believe each of us is called to a great work.

Most likely, it’s not to rebuild a wall in our hometown. Nevertheless, our work is important and the stakes are high for us and the people closest to us. Thankfully, we have a model to look to for help. Nehemiah’s response gives us a blueprint for what to do when we’re given something important to accomplish.

Here are three lessons we can learn from Nehemiah:

1. You have been called to a great work.

With the right purpose in mind, anything you are doing can be a great work. Though Nehemiah’s job was dirty and difficult, he pushed through to finish the task because he could see the greater purpose behind every brick he laid. Parenting often feels this way. Changing diapers and cleaning up messes isn’t glamorous, but it’s laying the foundation of care necessary to raise children who will become kind and caring adults. The same is true in the office.

Responding to emails, completing paperwork, and editing Excel spreadsheets isn’t always exciting work, but it’s important work and necessary for a business to succeed.

With the right purpose in mind, anything you are doing can be a great work.

2. There will be discouragement when you are doing a great work.

Just like Nehemiah had detractors, you will have people in your life discouraging you from continuing this good work. It could be an outside influence, but often it’s the people you are trying to serve who may not be grateful for the work you are doing. This happens all the time to pastors, teachers, and parents. The church member who always has a complaint, the students who roll their eyes as you begin another lesson, and the kids who claim they “never do anything fun” as you clean up the slip ‘n’ slip in the yard with sweat pouring down your face. It can even happen to a business leader who enacts policies that help the organization but are unpopular with the team. Let these moments be like water on a duck’s back for you, and keep working. It’s worth it.

3. Don’t quit in the middle of a great work.

When things get tough, it’s easy to want to give up. But if you’re in the middle of a great work, don’t quit until it’s over. Put your hand to the plow and push harder, or better yet, ask a friend or co-worker to help you. We all need people in our lives who are willing to give us a boost when we don’t have the energy to jump over another hurdle.

You are called to a great work. Don’t let it collect dust in your mind and heart, unfinished and abandoned. Be like Nehemiah, stay focused on the good work before you, ignore the detractors, and don’t give up. You never know how completing this great work could leave a lasting impact on the world around you.

I see the value of it from a business perspective daily as I work with our ADDO team. Setting goals for sales and customer service metrics provides our team specific targets to work toward. I also experience the value of goal setting in my personal life and the lives of my family members and friends. Big goals like getting out of debt, committing to run a marathon (someone else, not me!), working to lose weight, and reading a certain number of books a year help us use our time intentionally to grow. Leadership guru Zig Ziglar famously said, “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”

And even author Mark Twain gave his two cents about goal setting: “Without dreams and goals, there is no living, only merely existing, and that is not why we are here.”

No one would deny the fact that goal setting is important and valuable. Yet, I think most of us don’t consider one potential pitfall that leads committed goal-setters to feel dissatisfied.

If we only spend time measuring ourselves against where we want to be instead of where we’ve come from, we can live in a state of perpetual discontent.

Dan Sullivan, founder of Strategic Coach, calls this problem the gap and the gain. The gap is the distance between where we are now and where we want to be. The gain is where we’ve come from and what we’ve accomplished so far. Dan explains the strange paradox between high achievers and a constant level of discontent. Can you relate? I know I can!

One option to avoid feeling discontent is to simply not set goals. That’s a bad idea. Dan’s advice is to keep setting goals, but to take time to measure yourself against where you were, not where you want to be. Your business is not where you want it to be, but look at how far you’ve come.

You haven’t hit your weight loss goal, but look at how much you’ve lost.

You haven’t hit your sales goal yet, but you are on track to surpass it by year’s end.

You aren’t running as fast as you want to be, but you are much faster than you were last year!

Your customer service ratings still need improvement, but they are moving in the right direction.

It’s good and proper to set your sights on the future. But it’s also important to enjoy the things you have accomplished and the ways you have grown. We must do both.

So here’s my advice:

Set the big goal and celebrate the small wins along the way.

Community has become a buzzword in recent years. We’re told it’s important. We’re told that we need it. And as leaders, we’re told to foster it. But if we’re honest, most of us don’t have any idea where to start. Let’s begin by defining it. Oxford English says community is “a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.”

This fellowship provides an outlet for mutual encouragement and support. It also provides a platform to solve problems, innovate, create, and impact. Strong communities of people can leave a lasting impact on the world around them, but strong communities don’t form overnight.

Know this:

The conscious cultivation of community requires the conscious commitment of time.

So, in addition to time, how do you tangibly foster, create, and cultivate community? Let me suggest two places to start: prioritize in-person connections and establish trust.

First, prioritize in-person connections over virtual ones.

‍Our smartphones and the internet make it possible to connect with people from all over the world instantly. We can host meetings from the comfort of our homes. We can text a hurting family member. We can get a life update about a friend from social media. We can watch a church service online.

These things in themselves are not bad. These virtual connections can be helpful. However, if we as leaders suggest that virtual connections are as beneficial as in-person ones, we’re creating a barrier for the people we lead to experience deep, meaningful, and productive relationships. Encourage your teams to meet in person. Encourage your family members to have meals together around the table (without devices!) and talk! Ask your friend to go out for coffee, so you can catch up.

There is no substitute for in-person relationships.

Second, establish trust.

‍Stephen Covey has identified these five ways to build trust in relationships:

1. Talk straight. Tell the truth, and don’t mince words. As Brene Brown says, “Clear is kind.”

2. Demonstrate respect, by showing you genuinely care about the person in front of you.

3. Listen first. Avoid assumptions and seek to understand.

4. Right wrongs. If you make a mistake, own it, and work to make it right!

5. Deliver results. Be reliable. Get the job done without excuses.

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Modeling these actions to the people you lead will help set the stage for trust building. After all, your team needs to trust you first before they will follow you and be active participants in the vibrant community you’re seeking to build.

Don’t forget; leaders need community too. In seeking to help the people you lead form a strong community, be active in creating community for yourself to thrive personally at work, at home, and in your other spheres of influence. Prioritizing in-person relationships and working to establish trust are great places to start.

Truett Cathy recognized this fact and famously said, “How do you know if someone needs encouragement? If they are breathing.”

Ideally, we’d put ourselves in encouraging environments with people around us eager to build us up: our spouses, our children, our bosses, our coworkers, and our community. But if you’re human, chances are these relationships (even the healthy ones) aren’t always enough to fill up your cup.

It’s possible to have great relationships and community and still find ourselves in an encouragement deficit.

When we find ourselves in that situation, what should we do?

Let’s take a look at a great leader from history who found himself in a deeply discouraging situation and came out of it encouraged to move forward.

This leader was King David. Most of us know the story where David first stepped on the scene. Many mighty warriors cowered in fear in front of Goliath, but David faced the giant with boldness and faith in God. David became the kind of king Israel had been waiting for and ruled his people justly, though he wasn’t perfect. In fact, there are many stories that recount his faults and failures.

That’s where we find him in this moment of deep discouragement. The Amalekites, one of Israel’s greatest enemies, had raided their land, captured their women and children, and burned a city to the ground. As Samuel recounted, David became greatly distressed because his people wanted to stone him. I don’t know about you, but that would be enough to distress me. However, I love this line from 1 Samuel 30:8 when it says, “but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.”

Not only is David distressed because his own family members have been captured, but the people were angry with him. They blamed him that their wives, sons, and daughters had been carried away by their enemies, and they were threatening to take his life.

So what does he do?

He, through faith, encourages himself.

Maybe you are reading this today and feeling discouraged. I want to give you three ways to encourage yourself.

1. Look Back:

‍Remember what you’ve accomplished in the past and the things you have gone through to get you where you are today. You survived and were resilient. You will make it through what you’re walking through today.

2. Look Up:

‍Find the bright spots. Remember the good things you’ve been given and be thankful. It’s amazing how fostering a spirit of thankfulness can lift a discouraged heart and give you a proper perspective of your circumstances.

3. Look Forward:

‍Focus on a brighter future. Dan Sullivan, the founder of Strategic Coach, said it this way: “The best way to make your present better is to make your future bigger.” When your business is struggling, what is the opportunity in the future? White it’s true that hope is not a strategy, it is an effective tool.

“The best way to make your present better is to make your future bigger.” –Dan Sullivan

If you’re discouraged, you’re not alone. You’re also not helpless. There is something you can do about it, and I encourage you to take these steps to encourage yourself today.

Alright, this is my last post from my book Inspired Every Day. (At least for a little while!)Want to know a key reason many people are not inspired? It’s because they are bored. Somehow, someway, we have worked to remove all risk from our lives. We want our lives to be secure. To be stable. To be safe. And oftentimes, secure, stable, and safe is boring.

On a recent trip to Africa, I had the opportunity to do one of my favorite things in the world—go on a safari. Our group was amazed. We were excited to see such beautiful and powerful animals up close. As the time approached to leave and head to the airport, we finally came upon a group of adult and baby elephants. Unfortunately, we were running late, so we didn’t have time to linger.

After pausing for a few minutes, the Jeep charged ahead a little more quickly than usual, and the elephants responded. One of them began to charge our vehicle, so our driver hit the brakes. The elephant stopped but stood ready, his blazing eyes fixed on the Jeep. As I watched the elephant poised and ready to charge my side of the vehicle, I applied a death grip to my seat. My heart raced. I held my breath. When it seemed the elephant had calmed down, we slowly drove away from the present (equally terrifying and exciting) danger.

At the risk of sounding like a spoiled brat, I have to be honest: After this type of experience, it’s hard for me to enjoy the zoo. It’s not the same as seeing an animal in its natural habitat. The element of risk creates a feeling I don’t experience at the zoo on the other side of the metal bars that stand between me and the elephants.

As I’ve reflected on this experience, it makes me ask: Have organizations done to individuals what zoos do to animals? Have the structures we put in place removed too much of who we truly are?

We take away most of the risk with the goal of creating a safer space, but in the process, we suppress our uniqueness, our individuality, and our gifts.

Too many businesses make people leave their personality at the door.

Too many offices create a culture that rewards routine over innovation.

Too many schools force their students to give up creativity to color inside the lines.

Too many colleges mandate a curriculum of checklists instead of a training ground for the real world.

Too many churches reduce the King’s monumental purpose and high calling to just attending once in a while.

‍Don’t sacrifice what makes you special for what makes you comfortable. Like animals in a zoo, we’ve forfeited what makes us wild and unique, and we walk willingly into a cage of predictability and security.

Don’t sacrifice what makes you special for what makes you comfortable.

Here’s my challenge to you today: Don’t give in to a pattern of stability and forfeit the future you were created to pursue. If you embrace the risk of pursuing your purpose—facing problems with like-minded partners—you’ll be inspired to do far more good for the world than you ever imagined.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to stay inspired and how to inspire others, click the link below and purchase a copy of my new book!

PURCHASE INSPIRED EVERY DAY

On this day in 1776, our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence, so it’s the day we, as Americans, celebrate our freedom. There are few things I love more than cookouts, fireworks, and celebrating the freedom we have in the USA.

Typically, this blog is dedicated to leadership lessons, life principles, and best practices for business. So today we are going to celebrate Independence Day by reflecting on a few foundational principles we can learn from the leaders who have shaped America.

‍1. Clear Vision:

‍“Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18a).

Everyone needs vision—a goal, a destination, and an end they are working toward. We are motivated and moved by vision to act, but if our vision isn’t concrete, we’ll struggle to know the way to get there. Former presidential speechwriter James Humes said,

“To be concrete, use sensory language.”

President Kennedy famously projected this kind of vision for our country. He didn’t say, “We want to advance space exploration for scientific progress.” Instead, he said, “Our goal is to put a man on the moon.” This concrete image of a man on the moon is easier to get excited about than simply the concept of space exploration.

Kennedy led our country through the space race by giving scientists, engineers, astronauts, and everyday citizens a goal to rally behind, work toward, and celebrate!

A few years back we chronicled stories of remarkable people for our leadership program with Chick-fil-A. One video was based around President Kennedy’s ability to clearly articulate vision. Check it out here:

2. Core Values:

‍Strong leaders have strong core values.

Martin Luther King Jr. believed that all men are created equal, so he dedicated his life to fighting the horrors of racism and segregation. He led out of a desire to meet the needs of others, and all of his words, decisions, and actions as a Civil Rights leader were for the good of others. We call this servant leadership.

Servant leaders focus on leading by acting in the best interest of others.

King embodied the values of a servant leader by using his unique gifts and passion to serve his own generation and all of us who would come after him.

‍3. Compelling Communication:

‍Compelling communication moves people to action.

President Reagan defined success clearly, and he communicated in a way that people understood exactly what he wanted. On June 12, 1987, he gave a speech at the Brandenburg Gate and boldly declared, “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” He knew that the only way to reestablish peace and prosperity in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe was for the Berlin Wall to fall. In today’s environment, many would feel outraged by this kind of declaration and even consider it disrespectful. However, Reagan’s clarity and courage were refreshing. There was no mistaking President Reagan’s goal, and both Americans and the world responded to his leadership.

Like the JFK story, as a part of the Chick-fil-A Leader Academy, I had the privilege to visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. We captured this story of the power of Reagan’s communication.

Today, I hope you have the opportunity to rest, to spend time with family, and to celebrate our freedom. Let’s take these lessons from the past and apply them to the present to help create an even brighter future for America.