I’m reading Andy’s book on communicating for the third or fourth time and this sentence is hanging all over me.

At some point we’ve got to begin caring more for the people in the audience than the person on the platform

As a communicator, if the focus is not on the listeners, then it can only be on ourselves. And I guess that’s a pretty good definition of selfishness. So, whether I am writing, speaking or even tweeting, the audience should be the main focus. I need to admit that that’s not always the case. I think the more you care about the audience, the more open you become. You speak honestly about struggles and issues. You admit you don’t have it all together.

For me, I’ll start off by admitting I don’t have it all together. I still worry about little things like being noticed and liked. I want all my ideas to be amazing world changing ideas. And worse off, I want the credit. I don’t mind sharing the credit, as long as I’m getting a piece of it. I hate that, but its true. And the funny thing about that is if I’m honest with myself, there’s no way I could take all the credit because God has blessed me with an amazing wife and team that without them, nothing would have been accomplished anyway.

So, those are a few of my issues. I do want to be used by God to do huge things for Him. Here’s to James 4:6. Honesty is the new cool!

If you work out of the home full time or just occasionally, you know there are positive and negative points to this arrangement. The positives include: no travel time, no fighting traffic, no facing the cold weather, numerous work stations, food in the kitchen, the ability to do chores around the house if necessary, and not having to pay for a baby sitter. While those are great, there are negatives as well: possible distractions from spouse, roommates or children, no accountability for hours, no set lunch break, and less interactions with people. But for many, the positives greatly out weigh the negatives and by focusing on a few key areas, you can maximize your performance from the home office. The main principle is to work from home the way you would if you were working for someone else at the office.

Here are some tips:

1. Set Office Hours: Every other job gives you required hours to work. Do the same at home. Set a start time and a leave time. Try and start every morning at the same time. For me it’s exercise, shower, breakfast, reading and then going into my office at 8 am.

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New Backstage Leadership podcast is up. In this episode, we talk about the principles of leadership shared by Mark Earley in a guest interview. Mark shares that the principles of leadership are the same no matter where you lead. Mark is the president of Prison Fellowship and former Attorney General of Virginia.

What did you like about Mark’s interview?

Louie said something like this at Passion 2010 this weekend in one of his talks.  Since worship is more than singing, true worshipers will put action on their words and do something. Worship is also about justice. So, we can’t sing to God how much we love him and ignore the injustice’s of the world. By doing something about injustice, we put legs on our songs.

That idea got me thinking about the bigger principle that words only mean so much. At some point, action becomes king. At some point leadership has to move past reading books, it has to move into action. At some point “I love you” has to move into action. At some point “I want to write a book” has to move to writing the first chapter.

I don’t want to be that guy that only speaks. I want my words to have legs. I want my wife to not only hear “I love you”, but to see the it in action.

I think this principle is what separates those that want to do great things with those that do.

What do you need to add legs to this year?

That is a true statement if you are starting something new.  You are sloppy. And that’s not a bad thing. It’s just reality.

This hit me today as I was in the gym and noticed a ton of people I didn’t see there in December or November or October or…ok, you get the point.  They were all over the place. There were a few people on treadmills in front of me that simply looked ridiculous. How can you look ridiculous on a treadmill? I have no idea, but they were successful. There were weird stretches that I’m pretty sure did more harm than good. There was the tip-toeing on the stair climber. There were awful looking (and I’m sure feeling) “sit ups”.

Now, as I was  watching these people, I quickly realized that the beginning steps of anything are sloppy. Your first day on the bike is not going to look like Lance Armstrong. Your first day in the kitchen is not going to produce results like Rachel Ray. Your first blog post will not be as weird and quirky as Bryan’s. Clearly these people were brand new to the gym or were coming back after a long time. And the fact that they were there was a good thing.

So, if you are starting something new, like a church, a non-profit, a business, or even a marriage, in the beginning, it will be sloppy. But that doesn’t mean that you’re failing or not on the right track. What it means is, there is a process to everything. And if you want to reach your goals and vision for whatever it is that you are starting, then push through the sloppiness with focused effort and intention. If you stay sloppy, your results will too.

How to get un-sloppy:

1. Read books. What ever it is you are trying to do, there’s someone one who’s already done it or done something similar. Learn from them.
2. Talk with people who’ve already been down that journey. That’s one of the cool things about Backstage Leadership. You get to ask amazing leaders and creators anything you like.
3. Evaluate your self. If you are still making the same mistakes 12 months into your new gig, you need to make changes. If you are still only running 1 mile after 6 months of training, something’s got to change.
4. Get a trainer. Find a coach. Get an outside perspective that can help guide you, especially if you are not making progress.
5. Be committed to improvement. What you focus on will change.

What are some other ways to get better when you are starting something?

This is a repost of an earlier entry, but thought it would be a good reminder at the beginning of the year.

If I look at my own journey, I’ll admit that it hasn’t always be easy nor did it play out how I wanted at the time. But, what’s great is our ability to look back and see that its this journey that really matters. I know that’s so cliche, but without these experiences, we wouldn’t be who we are today. God is always preparing and always using. I have to remind myself that a lot. Its not that God is just preparing me to use me later, He’s using me now.

Maybe you need to be reminded of that too. God is using you now, or He wants to. Even if you are called to be a senior pastor and you are the youth pastor, God can use you now. Maybe you are called to start your own company, but you are working as an assistant, God can still use you now.

If we embrace that God is not only preparing us to use us later, but he is in fact using us now,  we would have more joy in our current circumstances, which would enable us to be used even more.

Are you losing joy in current circumstances because you are waiting to be used?

Backstage Leadership is a distance learning program where you get to ask great leaders any question you want. Each month you participate in a private session with a particular leader and the content is driven specifically by you. Plus there’s no travel expenses or time away.

Here are this semesters speakers:

Mark Batterson- Pastor NCC, author, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and Wild Goose Chase

Catherine Rohr- Entrepreneur and founder of Prison Entrepreneurship Program.

Dan Cathy- President and COO of Chick-fil-A

Mike Foster-Founder, Ethur and author Deadly Viper Character Assassins

Ken Blanchard- Business leader, author-One Minute Manager & other books selling more than 18 million copies.

Here’s an example I use frequently.  If you were at Catalyst two years ago than you remember Dave Ramsey knocking it out of the park with his talk on building trust in his organization.  The talk was awesome.  The principles were sound.  The problem is this…I don’t have 300 employees and 8 direct reports.  I have a handful of volunteers and half of those are family!  I’m not on step 50 Dave, I’m on step 5.  I’m trying to lay the foundation so that when I have 300 employees there will be trust.  Help me get there!  This is where Backstage Leadership comes in.  Now, you can ask the questions you want answered.

This is more than a conference.  This is a journey that you’ll experience with other hungry leaders that want so desperately to grow and be used to do great things.  If you are ready to go to the next level, then visit www.backstageleadership.org and apply today.

Sign up here. Deadline is January 18th. Spots limited.

Cost: only $300