Follow The Leader, originally uploaded by Richard Martin..

We took our Leading from our Strengths assessment in March and have been working through them as a team. A couple things that I really solidified about myself.

• I’m a leader (lion)
• I’m an introvert (weird considering my strength on stage)
• My adapted style is a team player (otter)

Anyway if you want to know more about this jibberish I’m spewing on you then check out this awesome resource. Great idea for couples as well

But it got me thinking. I have heard a few times in my life that Leaders are the best followers… After going through this survey and then looking at my life I can’t help but wonder is that true?

Let me know what you think…

Are all Great Leaders also Great Followers?

(6/365) The Source of Strength, originally uploaded by Inspiration + Passion.

So I’m reading through Practicing Greatness by Reggie McNeal awesome book by the way.

He talks about finding and developing your strengths. On page 71 he talks about Donald Clifton who is the former CEO and chairman of The Gallup Organization. He wanted to help people discover and build on their talent. One of the things that we are passionate for @BrookwoodKiDs. He said that:

“People are more fulfilled when they are working from their strengths. He observed that people had fairly complete vocabularies for weaknesses, thanks to our culture. Even though we may not have any medical training or background in psychology, we are fairly well acquainted with neuroses and various psychological conditions like depression, bipolar disorder, ADD, various syndromes, paranoia, and schizophrenia.”

It seems as most people discover their strengths by taking a count of their weaknesses. Not only that but listen to this:

“The result of our culture’s obsession with weakness is that each of us is very well acquainted with what we are not good at” -Reggie McNeal

So how can we help kids discover and develop their strengths?

There are 5 that Reggie gives but you’ll have to buy the book for 4 of them! I’ll give you one that is most important for someone trying to help others find their strengths.

Feedback

Alot of times when we ask for honest feedback we assume the negative will come. What if you took the time to give meaningful truthful positive feedback on some awesome strength that you see a kid possess.

It’s time that we develop kids’ strengths instead of pointing out their weaknesses.

So help me out.

Give me one practical way for kids/students to find their strengths:

K5-

Elementary-

Middle School And High School Students-

ABC Blocks, originally uploaded by michaelgoodin.

So this week at BrookwoodKiDs we are in wk 6 of Zooplosion or Gospel presentation week. I love this week (even though the Bible Story is from Adam & Eve to Jesus’ death and ressurection ) that I get to present the gospel.

We do things different at Brookwood. But Ned Gable, my CP said something in passing today that I told him he should write a blog about since he hasn’t in awhile. But I chose to instead. He said “We want to be about the Believe more than the commit”

I really want to know what you think about this. Especially after my friend @tberry86 shared this with me:
“commitment is a lot harder. You can Believe anything, but putting your commitment into play takes a lot more faith.”

Hmmmm what do you think?
Are you on the Belief or Commitment side? (not that they are against one another) Do you teach different than what you feel is more important? After Orange I’m thinking alot more about what I communicate!

That’s Right I’ve been Swamped hahaha! But in the meantime of not updating the blog we’ve sold out our Adventure Week program. That’s right 450 kids and over 150 preschoolers will be at Swamp Stomp from June 15-19 at Brookwood Church. BrookwoodKiDs is about to set it off in a few weeks.

So I wanted to do this post for some people that I work with and will be posting a Getting started with Wordpress blog soon as well. I am using iShowU HD for the video tutorial.

Send it to your friends that are antsy about starting a twitter account so they don’t have a “I don’t know how” excuse. And follow me once you start the account.