The 5 Levels of Irresponsibility

Posted on September 26, 2017 by Joel Smith

The 5 Levels of Irresponsibility (a step by step guide on how to be a Turkey at work)

Level 1 – Begin to understand only what you need to know to get by.

Figure out how to do things just well enough that others won’t notice your shortcuts.
Just do what everyone else is doing, don’t make waves.
If you’re not sure, just do what makes sense to you.

Level 2 – Make sure no one can point a finger at you, cover your tracks.

Sometimes this means twisting the truth a little or claiming ignorance “I didn’t know…”
Protect your appearance of importance at all cost; don’t take the blame for anything…ever!
“Look, if you want more out of me, you will need to pay me more”
Don’t let anyone else get more favor from the boss than you. That’s your territory, protect it at all cost.

Level 3 – Make sure everyone else is being responsible so they don’t cause you more work.

Don’t do any more than what the others are doing. It’s not fair that I do more than them!
As long as you aren’t any worse than everyone else, you can claim that you are just doing what they do.
“It’s not my fault that he did what he saw me do, I didn’t make him do it”

Level 4 – Make sure others fully understand the chain of command.

Entitlement – “I am the boss, it’s my way or the highway!” or “Do you see my badge? What does it say?”
Representation – “My boss doesn’t get it! I’m not doing all that extra stuff; I will do it my way!”
Tolerance – Let them keep getting away with crap, so you don’t have to confront them. Confrontation is never good; don’t want to upset the apple cart.
Servanthood – Make sure you are in control and well served. You deserve to reap. the rewards for making it to the top. “It’s good to be the king!”
Delegation – Get others to do the stuff you don’t want to do. You have power now so use it!

Level 5 – Takes credit for the success, but certainly not for failure of a group or organization.

Commitment – “I will do this as long as it doesn’t impede on my personal life or get too hard.”
Leverage – Hire only when in serious need, try not to lose anyone or you will then have to start interviewing again.
Fortitude – “If it gets too hard, I can always move on and get another job: The grass is always greener.
Accountability – “I just don’t want to be blamed for anything. I don’t know if my self esteem can handle that”
Stand your Grownd – “I am not changing for anyone!” “This is how I have always done it and how I want’ to do it”
Validation – “Look what I did!”

Great leadership is contagious! Unfortunately, so is bad leadership.

When I was a child…

Posted on September 8, 2017 by Joel Smith

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” 1Co 13:11

Have you ever met anyone that is a full fledged grown up in age, but has not been able to put ways of childhood behind them, someone stuck in time, paralyzed, lost in the world? Of course you have. They are everywhere. If you haven’t, you likely are that person. I was.

I remember when I became a man. It wasn’t when I turned 18. It wasn’t when I moved out, or paid rent on my own for the first time. It wasn’t even when I got my first real job, or had my first long term relationship.

When I was 23 years old I remember how I viewed the world in great detail. I had been burned, had a serious attitude toward life and justified it vigorously.

There were three principles that were most important to me.

Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. Take what you can get.
You can only really trust yourself, everyone else will always let you down.
It’s my life, I will live it how I want! Get off my back!

These three principles became my hiding place in my early adulthood. They gave me direction (pleasure seeking), protected me from harm (other people) and made me the king of my world (It’s all about Me). I was a pretty good thinker so I was able to stave off any threat that came along with my witt and ability to argue. My guards were up and I was a self-preservation machine. My artistic and deceptive skills allowed me to create a ficade of my life. I wore whatever mask I needed at the time, and became what I needed, to get what I wanted. Reality was something to mold, twist and make a slave out of. Perception was reality, and deception was the way to change reality.

The Crash

And then it all caught up to me at once. My world came crashing down in a pile of rubble. Like waking up from a dream or experiencing sight for the first time, I realized that the earth didn’t really revolve around me. It was the greatest most painful loss, and at the same time the biggest sense of relief.

I took a long hard honest look at my life for the first time ever. I was ambarrassed and ashamed of the blindspots that everyone else already knew. I seemed I was the last to find out. I had been exposed.

I took a long look at myself, and here is what I discovered. My worldview was all wrong. Here are some of the the values I had come to embrace throughout my life:

I must let nothing be my fault as to remain blameless.
I must allow myself a way out of any situation in case it gets difficult (avoid commitment).
I must hold everyone accountable for how they have hurt me.
I must be in control of the situation, and not be controlled by the situation or anyone.
I must convince everyone of my impressiveness so they will respect me.
I must hide my flaws so no one can criticize or look down on me.
I must expect grace for my actions, and justice for everyone elses.
I must not think about my problems or acknowledge they exist so I don’t have to deal with them.

I realized that I was eating and drinking and being marry to avoid committing to anything. Committment requires trust. I didn’t trust anyone, because that would mean I needed to be a person that could be trusted. I was living life how I wanted because I didn’t want to be held accountable. I was avoiding responsibility in most every way.

I realized that the worldview that I had embraced, that I thought was serving me, was actually waging war against my soul. It became clear to me that seeking to serve my own needs left all my needs unmet.

It was that day that I decided I was going to put the ways of childhood behind me. I was about to begin a brand new life of adulthood.

Because Jesus Christ took 100% responsibility for my sin, I was able to became 100% responsible for my life. Not only my actions and bahavior, but also my thoughts and emotions. No longer was I going to allow my circumstances to control my thoughts and keep me in emotional imaturity. For the first time it wasn’t about self-preservation, pride or impressiveness.

I discovered a different set of principles to live by:

I must make no excuses for my actions, thoughts and sins.
I must embrace reality (truth) and live by it, rather than distorting it.
I must committ myself fully to people and responsibilities given to me.
I must forgive everyone who hurt me and expect nothing in return.
I must be transparent and humble. For when I am weak, I am strong.
I must be responsible for only what I can control, and patient with what I cannot control.
I must earn respect through putting others needs before my own.
I must expose my sin, purge it from my life and experience freedom.
I must live fully accountable for my actions.
I must face my fears and perservere through the obsticles holding me back.
I must surrender in order to have victory.

I still fall short, but now I am more aware and have a savior to vouch for me.

Give me a call, let’s chat. 319.930.1045

Don’t Judge a Book By its Color

Posted on September 1, 2017 by Joel Smith

I just spent four wonderful days at the International Maxwell Certification Conference in Orlando Fla. The leaders of the John Maxwell Team and Johns Leadership teaching are a magnet for quality individuals. There were 2600 people from all over the world and I didn’t meet one I didn’t like (and I met lots). Many dozens if not a hundreds countries were represented. Every kind of clothing from 3 piece suits, cowboy boots, bright African colors and even high-top sneakers were on display, even a guy wearing a kilt. There was a mutual respect among everyone there. I made a few friends from around the world that I really connected with.

After a few days connecting with dozens of people from every corner of the earth, I saw on a TV in the background some news commentators discussing the Charlottesville incident. It hit me, I realized that not one person in any discussion I was part of all weekend had talked about racism . That was so refreshing to me. I get so tired of the media and Facebook crowd bringing so much bad attention to it (angry or bleeding heart). I really like Morgan Freeman’s take on it. He was asked in an interview what the answer to racism is, and he said “Stop talking about it”. I am so glad that is exactly what happened at my conference. Maybe everyone should try it. Morgan would have fit in well.

I have done some thinking about that over the past few days and have come up with a few observations that I wanted to share.

Now I don’t deny that racism is real, active and a huge concern in our country, but I believe that so many people of all color are actively pointing their fingers, maybe in the wrong directions. I believe that a very small percentage of people are responsible for a very large percentage of the problem on both sides. It seems to be causing unnecessary division among great people who do not deserve to be dragged into the fight. These are people only in the fight in by association because others are pointing at their skin color, no other reason. When we generalize about like people, it covers everyone and it spills over onto innocent people who aren’t asking to be part of it.

The distinction we need to be making is not between color or ethnicity. It’s a more of a matter of character beliefs based on ones worldview. We need to slice it horizontally and not vertically. It’s a degree of character, not a degree of color. Last weekend showed me that when you get large groups of people of high character together with a common value for human life, race doesn’t seem to matter much. There is a freedom to enjoy company, share ideas and learn about other interesting culture. We don’t have to question motives because of an infectious idea. A common bond of unity can only come when we view the world through the eyes of a common Creator who created us in his image. Ideas have consequences, so we need better ideas if we want better character development.

It also seems that when people with a common disregard for human dignity get together in opposition with people of other races with similar questionable values, the chances of tensions rising goes way up. People of lower character beliefs come in every color, age, gender, religion, economic class and level of education.

Poor character beliefs is a HUMAN trait based on a bad worldview, not a racial, economic, social, political or national trait. Poor character comes naturally, high character come from intentional growth.

People of poor character are drawing far too much attention and making the rest of their ethnic group (all colors) look bad by generalizing and assuming. A thief believes that everyone steals. A cheater believes that everyone cheats and a person who discriminates believes everyone discriminates. Good people see the good in people, bad people see the bad in people. So, if you believe everyone discriminates, you may be one of them!

A much smaller number of people are projecting the problem to be wider than it really is by limiting everyone else to their own inside the box, views, and assumptions.

The idea’s and beliefs that each of us hold about the world and what is true determines how we see people. The choice to love others or hate others is your choice and yours alone. No one can cause you to hate unless you choose to. No, exceptions. Character is shaped by what we choose to believe. Poor character IS the problem, and DOES separate us. Color is NOT the problem and doesn’t have to separate us. We need to know the difference and focus on fixing character rather than fixing other colors.

The next time someone discriminates against you for any reason, know that it is the ignorance in them that is causing it, and not the color of their skin.

Don’t judge a book by its color, get to know the author of all colors.