December 10, 2024 • 32 mins
Ever wondered if life’s pursuits are as fleeting as vapor? Tune in as we explore the wisdom of Ecclesiastes, kicking things off with a touch of humor about a personal "Rudolph nose" scenario that's thankfully on the mend. We unravel the profound themes of "vanity" or "hebel," and its implications on how we perceive purpose and meaning in our daily lives. This episode challenges you to cherish life’s journey, acknowledging its temporary nature yet finding fulfillment in the present moment.
As the holiday season draws near, we pivot to leadership insights inspired by Ecclesiastes, urging a focus on meaningful experiences over material gifts. We discuss how leaders can build strong team dynamics through shared activities, fostering bonds that extend beyond the workplace. Reflecting on life's higher purpose, we encourage setting personal and professional goals that align with one's values, and the power of seeking honest feedback to grow as a leader. The conversation underscores the importance of accepting that not everything is within our control, drawing wisdom from Ecclesiastes to navigate life's complexities.
Finally, we stress the significance of accountability in leadership, likening it to the famous Ecclesiastes' passage about there being a time for everything. As the world shifts, with streaming services replacing Redbox and churches adapting to digital connection, constant evaluation and adaptation become imperative. Insights from a Forbes article highlight the value of owning mistakes for leaders and their teams. Amidst these discussions, we maintain our commitment to light-heartedness with dad jokes and invite listeners to engage with us on our website. We close with a festive spirit, wishing everyone a joyful December and promising enriching discussions ahead.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
all righty, yeah, uh-huh, yeah, come on, come on,
all righty welcome to anotherexciting show.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hey, welcome welcome welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
See, I guess I need to just have you do the
introduction.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
No, you just do it better.
Welcome, welcome.
Welcome to another.
You've got a great voice forradio.
I have a great face for radio,hey, but my Rudolph nose is
getting a little less red it isgetting a little less red today.
Yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I don't even have Rudolph music teed up on this
show, so last week I was playingthe Rudolph music.
It was really red last week.
It was really red last week.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
So they said it could take a month for the red to go
away and for that skin to heal,and okay you know, I'm about 10
days out and it's less red it is.
It's still a little sore, butyou know, just being less
Rudolph today.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I understand that's what we have to do.
So if you didn't hear lastweek's, podcast oh yeah, yeah, I
guess we should let them knowwhy you have a Rudolph.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I have a little skin cancer on my nose.
It has to be removed sometimein January and I'm doing this
chemo.
Well, I did this chemo cream totake out any precancerous
things on my skin around my nosebefore they do that surgery.
And so this chemo cream thatyou do for 14 days literally
(01:53):
turns your nose beet red, and solast week it was really red
because I just finished.
This week I put a lot ofAquaphor on it because you don't
want it to peel and stuff, andso it's a little less red.
And every week.
We do this, hopefully byChristmas.
By Christmas, my Christmaspresent, when Santa needs you.
(02:15):
You won't be Rudolph anymore.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
No, my gosh.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, what is he going to do?
I don't know what is he goingto do.
I bet he'll make it anyway.
What is he going to do?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
I don't know what is he going to do?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I bet he'll make it anyway.
Somehow, someway, oh All right.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
So last week and I think you explained last week
we're getting into the booksthat are considered wisdom.
Is that right Wisdom?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
literature.
Yes, that is wisdom literature.
So we've already done Job, andthen we have Ecclesiastics.
Last week we did a proverb.
Have Ecclesiastes, last week wedid a proverb.
So those are the books of thewisdom literature, which there's
a lot of lessons.
And we look at the book ofEcclesiastes today and it's
(03:00):
important to know that there aretwo main characters.
There's more than two, butthere's two important things.
One is the author of the bookand then there's one called
either the preacher or theteacher, and different
translations translate the worddifferently, but most of the
time you would call it thepreacher or the teacher, and so
the author is not the preacheror the teacher.
(03:21):
He is actually quoting thispreacher-teacher, and so that's
just important.
If you're thinking, is it thesame person?
No, it's not the same person.
So that's just at the verybeginning of the book of
Ecclesiastes.
And then we go through the bookand one of the things that this
could be, for, if some peoplehave not read the book and
(03:44):
understand it, it can be adowner.
It can be a real downer,because it starts out with
vanity, vanity, all is vanity,and you're thinking, wow, that's
what they're saying about life,that it doesn't really matter
this and that, and it'simportant to know what that word
actually means.
In the Hebrew, original Hebrewlanguage, it's the word hebel
(04:08):
H-E-B-E-L, that's how we say itin English and that word is
really well.
it's used 38 times in the book38 times.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
I know that was an amazing stat that came up.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I know it, but it literally is translated
literally means vapor or smoke,and so there's a metaphorical
meaning about that which is it'stranslated meaningless or
vanity.
But the whole image is that youcan see smoke, but when you try
(04:41):
to grasp it you can't graspsmoke or you can't grasp vapor.
It just kind of goes throughyour fingers.
And so the question is is thathow we're living life?
We're trying to grasp thosethings that we see that we think
are important, but when weactually grasp them we realize
that we can't hold on to that,or that's not really what the
(05:04):
main issue of life is all about,and so that's kind of the theme
that runs through the entirebook.
It's a very challenging book.
It's got some great lessonsabout leadership that we'll get
to in just a minute, but thatsets the stage.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
It does, you know, sets the stage of you know that
the Hevel you know, and you somany times, and temporary sort
of fleeting and that weshouldn't.
You know, and it even says alittle shocker there it's like
it goes through the rich and thepoor and the wise and you know
the fool and it just they'regoing to die, going to die, and
(05:41):
you know, and I think they madea great analogy there, like you
know one of the things when Ishow prep, you know the
mountains are still going to bethere.
You know the sun's still goingto be there, the ocean's still
going to be there, but a hundredyears from now you know two or
three generations.
Unless you're doing some stufflike Einstein or something
that's impacting worlds and allthat, nobody's going to remember
(06:10):
your name.
You know, you think back ofrelatives.
You know three, four generationsand a lot of us we don't know
our relatives three, fourgenerations back.
And it's what you do and somany people miss the picture and
they're always searching forthe purpose or the meaning in
life and sometimes it's rightthere as a purpose and meaning,
not really something you have tosearch for.
It's living it.
We talked about the journeycompared to the ultimate end
(06:33):
result.
A lot of people are alwayssearching for that end result.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yes, and we were talking about this in show prep.
I know I'm guilty of this.
Sometimes so many people arefocused on the goal that they
don't enjoy the journey, and Iknow I'm guilty of this.
Sometimes so many people arefocused on the goal that they
don't enjoy the journey, and Iknow I'm guilty of that
sometimes.
I think the older I get, themore I enjoy the journey when we
travel.
My wife and I love to traveland we've been doing a lot of
(06:59):
that since we retired.
But we just enjoy driving, weenjoy being with each other, we
enjoy talking with each other,just reminiscing, thinking about
what we're seeing.
But part of it of traveling isenjoying the journey, not just
oh, we got to get to here, wegot to get to there, we got to
get to.
No, enjoy the journey.
(07:19):
And I think part of whatEcclesiastes is saying is if
you're just focused on the goal.
Now, goals are important.
We talk about goals and we talkabout vision.
We talked about that last week.
We've talked about that a lot,and one of the leader's
responsibilities is to set thosevisions, to set those goals.
But if you only focus on thegoal and you don't enjoy the
(07:42):
journey, that when you get tothe goal you're going to look
back and go, wow, I missed a lotof important things.
And so I think the book ofEcclesiastes is trying to help
us think through enjoying thejourney.
We get one chance at this thingcalled life.
(08:02):
It's a gift and we need toenjoy the journey Now.
Sometimes everybody's going togo through some challenging
times Everybody.
Every business is going throughsome challenging times.
Every person, every family,they're going to go through some
challenging times.
So the question is whether it'sa good time or a challenging
time.
Are we enjoying the journey orjust waiting for it to be over?
(08:23):
You know, oh, this is a hardtime.
I'm just waiting for it to beover, or I can't wait till this
happens.
You know Christmas is coming, Ican't wait till Christmas.
Well, what about enjoying thetime between now and then?
You know, with your family,friends?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
you know, whatever you got to do for work, whatever
, and that's one of those thingsthat, you know, one of my
friends a long time ago taughtme and I've lived by it and I've
heard it so many times since hedoesn't buy stuff.
He doesn't buy physical thingsand gifts for Christmas and
birthdays, he buys experiences,because experiences last.
(08:57):
That's a memory and if you redoyour thinking a little bit,
then not going out and buying anew car for this person or a new
coffee pot or whatever, and buyan experience where you can go
visit something, go to take themto Paris or whatever it might
be that experience is going tohold a lot more weight.
So it's part of the journey.
That's always been a powerfulthing when it came to my head.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yes, yes, and that's one of the things that I'm going
to just challenge our listenersto think about, that for
Christmas, because since ourkids have grown and gone off you
know they're done with collegeand they're starting their own
families and those kind ofthings, for the last several
(09:47):
years well God, many years nowat Christmastime one of the
things we want to do is what canwe do as a family to have that
kind of experience?
You know, let's enjoy not justthe presence under the tree, but
let's go do something as afamily.
Now, one time we just go downto Fort Worth, to the um park,
down at Trinity Park, where theyhave an incredible playground
for the grandkids, and we justsat there and just had a great
time.
One time we went up to theGaylord, texan went through the
icekids and we just sat thereand just had a great time.
One time we went up to theGaylord, texan went through the
ice exhibit that's really cool,and so the question is, what are
(10:11):
you going to do this year thatyou can experience life together
?
And that, to me, is one of thethings I think good leaders do
is like, okay, what are yougoing to do as a leader to maybe
do something outside of theoffice to help create a more, a
(10:35):
teamwork, cohesiveness, asynergy with your people?
It could be that you take ahalf a day, pay everybody.
You take half a day and go to afood pantry and pack food, you
help with a toy drive, you gohelp with a Habitat house.
I mean something that you'llthink, wow, that pays a lot of
(10:58):
dividends, because we're notjust focused on work, we're
focused on building our team,we're focused on relationships,
and I really think that's whatthe book of Ecclesiastes is
trying to say.
Okay, on this journey calledlife, what is the most important
(11:18):
thing about life?
And in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 12, verse 13,.
This is what we read.
This is at the very end of thebook of Ecclesiastes, 12, verse
13,.
This is what we read.
This is at the very end of thebook.
It says the end of the matter.
All has been heard, fear Godand keep His commandments, for
this is the whole duty ofhumankind.
(11:39):
So, after all of this work aboutvanity, life is meaningless.
We're trying to grasp the smokeand and that we never hold onto
that.
What is the real bottom linefocus of life, and that is to
love God and enjoy Him.
(11:59):
So for those listeners who arepart of the tradition that does
catechism okay, could beCatholic, could be other
denominations the catechism is alist of questions to teach
people about faith.
Now, the very first catechismwas written in the first century
.
Okay, Some denominations stilluse a catechism to teach
(12:24):
children and adults about faith.
The very first question aboutthe catechism is this what is
the chief aim of man?
Or what is the chief aim ofhumankind?
And this is the answer Man'schief and highest end is to
glorify God and to fully enjoyHim forever.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Wow, that's powerful and that comes right out of the
book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 12, verse 13.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
And so you might not be able to do that at your work.
Focus on religion.
But the question is, what aboutyour personal life?
What is?
Your chief aim in life?
Is it to get more money in thebank?
Is it to have the biggest house?
Is it to have two or three nicecars?
(13:14):
What's your chief aim there?
What's your chief goal in life?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah, from a leadership standpoint, it's that
sense of stewardship.
What's the impact you're havingon people around you?
You know, I always ask a lot ofthings and seminars I teach you
know what are.
Tell me somebody that that yourespected as a boss, as a leader
, and why did you respect them?
And we, we do that.
(13:41):
And I said now tell me somebodythat you, you didn't care to
work for, and what were theircharacteristics?
Now take a look at that.
Between these characteristicsand these, how much of these
positive ones do you instill inyour actions every day to your
people?
Because if you looked up atthis person, you would think
you'd want to model that person.
So make sure you're modelingthat.
(14:04):
We always say be your own self,but at the same time, there's
qualities that resonate withpeople, and if you like them
more like the people that aredrawn to you are going to like
them as well.
So make sure you're modelingthose actions.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, what a great lesson that is.
And if you want to do something, that might be a little scary,
you might have your co-workersevaluate you according to
certain things like that, and soyou can humble yourself and say
, okay, how can I be a betterleader to the people that I lead
(14:36):
?
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Okay.
Well, you don't know theimpression you're giving.
You might think you're doingsomething and you're doing just
the opposite.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
And do it multiple times, because people will lie
on the first time.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
But if you do it quarterly.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
They're going to be like all right, at some point
I'm going to give it up.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I'm going to have to tell the truth, right?
Speaker 1 (14:52):
But the first time they usually lie.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
They're like oh no, you're great, and do it in
December when Christmas bonusesare out right.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
It's going to be a whole different story than first
of the year.
In July I'm going to be a wholedifferent story than first of
the year, a whole differentstory.
In July I'm going to tell thetruth.
That's exactly right, oh.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
That's exactly right, and so let's talk about some of
the leadership characteristicsor leadership principles that we
see in the book of Ecclesiastes.
One of them is that we're notalways in control.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Okay, we might not be in control of certain things we
weren't in control of when wewere born.
We might not be in control ofwhen we pass away, and there are
certain things we don't need totalk about the pandemic but
there are certain things thatwe're just not in control of.
And so the question is duringthose times when we're not not
(15:47):
in control of, and so thequestion is during those times
when we're not always in control, what do we convey?
Do we convey a thing ofconfidence or do we convey chaos
?
And that is such animportant—I'm not trying to be
Pollyannish about it and justpretend everything's okay when
it's not.
But the question is are wegoing to encourage our people
(16:10):
hey, you know this is tough, butwe're going to get through it
or, oh my gosh, this is horrible.
I don't know how we're going toget through it.
I mean, just a few things likethat can really set the tone for
your organization.
That could really have goodresults, even during difficult
times.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And another one that stood outto me is verse 3-1, where it
talks about there's a time foreverything and a season for
every activity under the heavens.
And you know, I recognize that.
As you know, change, change isinevitable.
Right, we're going to, thingsare going to change, and we have
to adapt a lot of times intosituations like that.
(16:50):
We can't control some of thestuff.
The Hevel, the Hevel, you know,uh, it's out there.
We think we control it, wethink we can reach out and grab
it and move it out of the way,but it's.
You know, sometimes you've gotto walk through that fog.
You know, and we told a lot ofstories too, you know, of
situations that we had everyintention of it going the way in
one way and it turned out goingtotally different way.
(17:11):
And, and I've, I've beenthrough that in businesses I
start out on and, and we've had,you know, even the past radio
shows and stuff where we set outdoing this and by, you know,
two weeks later, three weekslater, we're going a whole
different direction than we eventhought we were going.
And things are going to go theway they're supposed to and a
(17:32):
lot of times it's out of yourcontrol.
It's just going to happen.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Correct.
And so the first part ofchapter three of Ecclesiastes,
maybe some of the most quotedverses in the entire Bible.
In fact, many years ago therewas a song about that, you know,
and it's just great.
There's a time and place foreverything under heaven.
(17:58):
And so the question is thiscould be a time, you know,
starting now, where you make aresolution as a leader, to
realize that change is coming.
You know whatever that mightmean Could be the interest rate,
it could be, your supply chainis.
You know you have to changesuppliers.
You know you're doing something, this or that, and you've got
(18:22):
to adapt.
So this is just a funny thing onmyself.
So every so often we don'twatch a whole lot of television
at all at our house.
We're reading books orsomething like that.
We just don't watch a lot, butevery so often we want to watch
a movie.
So not too long ago I got on myphone and I looked up the
(18:42):
Redbox app and I thought, oh,let's go rent a movie from
Redbox.
I didn't realize that, likefour months ago they were out of
business.
Yeah, yeah.
It's like, yeah, because so manythings are streamed now, you
know.
And so we actually went to amovie at the movie theater which
(19:02):
was such a good movie.
It was the greatest Christmaspageant ever.
That was a really good movie.
I encourage people to go seethat.
But I was just realizing, wow,Redbox, they just I don't know
what happened, but they're gone.
Yeah, they're gone, Just gone.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
And you know a lot of stuff they haven't evolved.
I mean, we've mentioned themmany times on here.
There's a lot of things thatnever evolved.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
They just don't adapt and they don't change with the
times.
And I mean, who would haveknown five years ago that one of
the main ways to watch a movieis to just live stream it?
Just to stream it, you know,from Amazon, paramount, whatever
you know, netflix, whatever itis.
I had no clue that was coming,but that's not my business.
(19:49):
So the question is but in thechurch world you know the
thinking about okay, that was myjob for 45 years it's like what
are the trends coming forchurches?
Speaker 1 (19:59):
There you go.
That's a great question, right?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
The COVID affected them.
I mean a lot of people stilllive stream and that wasn't an
option at any point.
People have kept that going nowyes, so that really changed a
lot.
What do you think?
Do you think of any trends?
Speaker 2 (20:15):
that might be coming.
Well, I don't know about trends, but I do think that the live
stream thing was such a huge—wetalked about it for a long time
thing was such a huge, we talkedabout it for a long time, but
then when COVID actuallyhappened, we had to implement
that in one day or two days.
We had some great people in thecongregation that loaned us
(20:36):
their equipment before we couldactually buy it, and so many
people were buying equipmentthat was backlogged.
So you had to kind of just doit and we, we would evaluate, we
would film it, we would, youknow, film it like on Thursdays
and it would post on Sundays, um, and every week we had to
evaluate what did we do wrong?
(20:56):
How did we make it better?
And so we were constantlyreviewing ourselves and I think
that's a good leader reviewswhat they do to say how can I
make it better next time.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Right.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
You know, how can I improve the training of my
employees?
How can I improve this?
Speaker 1 (21:13):
LBs and NTs what did I like best?
And NTs next time, what would Ido different?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
What would I do?
Speaker 1 (21:19):
different, you know that's what you got to do.
That's how you evolve.
You know you look at everyconversation, every action,
every phone call, everythingthat you do.
And next time, what would I dodifferent?
What did I like best about howthis situation went today?
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, and so that's one reason it's so important to
take notes throughout the year,so like when you have to do your
evaluation.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
And somehow we still have dad jokes on our show.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
We're not stopping dad jokes.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
We're not stopping them.
Maybe we need to get better dadjokes on our show.
You know, that's the key how wecan improve.
I couldn't resist that littlethrow-in comment.
Next time we're going to havebetter dad jokes.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
I don't know when that next time is coming.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
It's our New Year's resolution.
Better dad jokes.
We can't get better ones goinginto Christmas.
Maybe that's your resolution.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
It's not mine.
I'm going to have horrible dadjokes.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
But we'll get to dad jokes in just a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
So maybe we should finish up One of the things that
I was just reading we do a lotof show prep before the show and
one of the things that I wasreading.
I was actually reading anarticle from Forbes magazine, so
let's just take a different,and this was about what leaders
want from the people they lead.
And I thought, wow, that's adifferent twist to it.
(22:37):
You know, and the number onething that leaders want from the
people that lead is to takeaccountability for their
mistakes.
And I'm thinking well, that'snot just true of the people they
lead, that's true of the leader.
So, you know, if we've made amistake which I've made plenty
in my life- the question is dowe try to hide it?
Do we blame someone else, Do wewhatever?
Or do we try to hide it?
Do we blame someone else, Do wewhatever?
(22:58):
Or do we take accountabilityfor it and do we say you know
what?
I made that mistake, it was myfault, you know.
I'm sorry about that.
Let's just see how we can workthrough it right now.
And that is a really goodlesson, not just for the people
that you lead, but for yourselfas a leader as well, and not
just for the people that youlead but for yourself as a
(23:19):
leader as well.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Right, yeah, yeah, and I think that's, a lot of
people don't know how to takeaccountability.
They don't understand theconcept, and I think when you
get the little gray hair in yourhead, or the lack of hair in
your head, it's just you learnthe wisdom about what it means
to take accountability.
You know, at some point there'sthis gray area that you try to
(23:41):
dodge when you're, when you'regrowing up and I went through
that where it's like I'm nottelling the truth but I'm not
lying, I'm not takingaccountability, but I'm not not
taking accountability.
So there there's that littlemind games you play with
yourself, and I think you getthat when you get a little gray
hair.
And then it's so importantPeople want to trust, they want
to have a trust, and one ofthose things is to do what you
(24:03):
say you're going to do and ownyour own actions.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
So let's just take that one about accountability,
and we'll talk about some otherones, maybe in another podcast,
but there's actually four thingsthat this article mentioned.
We'll just focus on the firstone today, and that is
accountability.
So let's just talk aboutaccountability with our words,
okay, accountability with ouractions is one thing, but
accountability with our words.
(24:27):
So in the book of Ecclesiastes,chapter 8, verse 2, it talks
about having a discreet mouth.
Okay, a discreet mouth, okay.
And so the question for theleaders out there is what comes
out of your mouth is soimportant.
Are you one that encouragespeople?
(24:48):
Are you someone that puts themdown?
Are you someone that only putspeople down to elevate yourself?
Or how do you do that, and areyou accountable for your actions
?
Speaker 1 (25:01):
You can build them up or you can tear them down.
It depends on what you want.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Exactly right.
And so the question is what isyour main way of operating?
Now, I'm not, you know, becausesometimes you have to hold
people accountable for theirwork if they're not, you know,
doing their job if they're notmeeting timelines.
You know those kind of things.
You have to hold peopleaccountable for their work.
If they're not, you know doingtheir job if they're not meeting
timelines.
You know those kind of things.
You have to.
You know, and I've had to firepeople for, unfortunately, for
just not doing their work ordoing what they thought was
(25:28):
their work, even though we'vetold them hey, you know, I want
you to focus on this and they goand do their own thing.
And you know there's a processfor all that we had to go
through own thing, and there's aprocess for all that we had to
go through, but accountabilityfor your words and for your
actions.
To me, as a leader, it's soimportant to build people up.
(25:48):
I think that is one of thebiggest things a leader can do
is to build people up.
Find something about everyperson that you lead to build
them up, and I'm not justtalking.
You know this is Christmas time.
It's time to give, you know,maybe bonuses or Christmas gifts
or something.
Maybe you don't have the moneyto do that.
(26:09):
Sometimes in the church, manytimes in church, we don't have
the money to do those kind ofthings.
Okay, but writing a note andjust say thank you for this or
doing something that they wouldappreciate, you know, maybe give
them a gift card to Starbucks,something that would just build
them up to say, hey, Iappreciate you.
That goes such a long way inthe eyes of the people that you
(26:31):
lead.
They will think, wow, they tookthe time, they noticed me.
I must be important.
Yes, you want them to know thatthey are important to the
organization.
They're an important andvaluable person.
You're glad that they're there.
How can the leader showappreciation to the people they
lead?
I think that's an importantthing, that's exactly it went on
(26:51):
.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
My list today is to go buy thank you cards, because
I've talked about it for yearsof getting better and I send out
a few.
But I'm gonna make a point, uh,and it doesn't have to have to
be the first of this year orwhatever non-new year's
resolution, but I'm I'm gonnastart sending out more thank you
cards and and uh, make surethat that's part of it.
Now to add on to your stuffthere.
(27:14):
What I want to talk about isI've got five things here that
are takeaways for accountabilityof words.
Oh, okay, and the five arethink before speaking, right.
Think on the words if they'rekind, if they're necessary, if
they're truthful, right.
So think before you speak.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Don't just spit things out, right Filter.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yeah.
Number two speak less, meanmore.
So in other words, choose yourwords wisely.
Be more concise.
I say this every time I speakwith a group of people.
You're going to come off morepowerful, more clear, as if you
can say your point in less words.
(27:59):
It's a leadership thing.
If you just ramble and rambleand ramble, you lose the people.
So speak less and mean more.
Honor commitments.
Number three be trustworthy inyour promises and your
agreements.
So, in other words, if you havea commitment, if you've said
something, make sure you do whatyou say you're going to do
right.
Avoid gossip.
(28:20):
You know how many times didthat?
Speak with integrity?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Oh, that's huge.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
You know, we need to avoid the gossip.
How many times?
And I'm trying to teach my kidsthis because they'll say well,
you know, I heard this.
I'm like, well, you heard thatyou don't know if it's true.
Well, you know, I heard this.
I'm like, well, you heard thatyou don't know if it's true.
Well, I mean, somebody saidit's true.
I'm like somebody said it'strue, but does it true?
I said you don't want to repeatthat that's gossip.
That's what gossip is.
(28:45):
Just because you hear a storyyou don't know if it's true, if
you figure out it's true, thenthat's fine, but you just don't
take for somebody from theirwords because they may not, you
know, be good.
And then the last one there isuh, choose timing wisely, you
know.
Uh, deliver the right messageat the right time with the right
tone.
Basically, you know and I thinkthat's where accountability
(29:06):
words if you can, you can gowith those five.
You're, you're going to be amore powerful, you're going to
have more accountability in your, your speech and and be part of
it.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
So could you repeat those real quick?
Speaker 1 (29:14):
for our listeners.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
You might want to write those down.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Think before speaking .
Speak less, mean more, honoryour commitments, avoid gossip
and choose timing wisely.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Excellent point, there you go.
Excellent point.
I think it's time for some dadjokes.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
I see you're reaching for emergency dad jokes there.
I know he was teeing up.
He's like I'm going to get someemergency dad jokes.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
This is for all the pirates out there.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
I've got some good friend pirates right.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Yeah, this is for the pirates out there for a
Christmas present.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
We'll dedicate this to the pirate king.
If he's listening, he knows whohe is.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Where do pirates go to buy their hooks?
Speaker 1 (29:55):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
They go to a second-hand store.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
All right, I'll give you that one.
I can't even throw it in aLaVloz on that one.
I like that one.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
All right, I like it you know, we were horsing around
over Thanksgiving and I got hitwith a can the other day.
It was a good thing, it was asoft drink.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
I've heard that one.
That was good.
Hey, do you know why the snailpainted an S on his car?
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Do you?
So his friends would say lookat the escargot.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I did like that one.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
What else you got?
You got one or two more.
Yeah, why do nurses?
It's December.
By gosh, I can throw a coupleof these out, whatever.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Why do nurses always have red pens?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Nurses have red pens.
I do not know.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
In case they need to draw blood.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
All right.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Yeah, that's appropriate response.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
What do you call a man with a rubber toe?
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Oh, I've heard this one, I don't remember.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Roberto.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Roberto, we'll just stop right there with Roberto
Roberto.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
All right guys.
Hey, we enjoyed it.
Happy December to you.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Happy December.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Getting a little bit closer, a little bit closer to
this festive time, this wholemonth's festive, it is I mean
from.
November.
But yeah, check us out biblicalleadership showcom.
Send us, uh, some chat.
You can go in there and chatwith us.
You can send us some messages.
You can send us some dad jokesIf you want us to hear dad jokes
(31:46):
on the air.
I mean, we always welcome those.
Other than that, Um, you know,just keep having a great
December, Hope you're having agreat time and and this is thing
if, if, if you're not having agood time, you know we always
offer our services for a prayerrequest.
We always, definitely will prayfor you.
(32:06):
Uh, reach out to us, send us amessage off our podcast and, uh,
other than that, uh, have agreat rest of the time.
Till next week, We'll come backand and talk a little bit more
and keep going back through ourseries on the Bible here.
So, other than that, any otherwords besides your favorite get
out of here.
Words, no, that's it.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
All right.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Well, dr Dean, take us away, make it a great day.
Thank you, have a great day.
all righty, yeah, uh-huh, yeah, come on, come on,
all righty welcome to anotherexciting show.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hey, welcome welcome welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
See, I guess I need to just have you do the
introduction.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
No, you just do it better.
Welcome, welcome.
Welcome to another.
You've got a great voice forradio.
I have a great face for radio,hey, but my Rudolph nose is
getting a little less red it isgetting a little less red today.
Yes, it is.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I don't even have Rudolph music teed up on this
show, so last week I was playingthe Rudolph music.
It was really red last week.
It was really red last week.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
So they said it could take a month for the red to go
away and for that skin to heal,and okay you know, I'm about 10
days out and it's less red it is.
It's still a little sore, butyou know, just being less
Rudolph today.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I understand that's what we have to do.
So if you didn't hear lastweek's, podcast oh yeah, yeah, I
guess we should let them knowwhy you have a Rudolph.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
I have a little skin cancer on my nose.
It has to be removed sometimein January and I'm doing this
chemo.
Well, I did this chemo cream totake out any precancerous
things on my skin around my nosebefore they do that surgery.
And so this chemo cream thatyou do for 14 days literally
(01:53):
turns your nose beet red, and solast week it was really red
because I just finished.
This week I put a lot ofAquaphor on it because you don't
want it to peel and stuff, andso it's a little less red.
And every week.
We do this, hopefully byChristmas.
By Christmas, my Christmaspresent, when Santa needs you.
(02:15):
You won't be Rudolph anymore.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
No, my gosh.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, what is he going to do?
I don't know what is he goingto do.
I bet he'll make it anyway.
What is he going to do?
Speaker 1 (02:25):
I don't know what is he going to do?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I bet he'll make it anyway.
Somehow, someway, oh All right.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
So last week and I think you explained last week
we're getting into the booksthat are considered wisdom.
Is that right Wisdom?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
literature.
Yes, that is wisdom literature.
So we've already done Job, andthen we have Ecclesiastics.
Last week we did a proverb.
Have Ecclesiastes, last week wedid a proverb.
So those are the books of thewisdom literature, which there's
a lot of lessons.
And we look at the book ofEcclesiastes today and it's
(03:00):
important to know that there aretwo main characters.
There's more than two, butthere's two important things.
One is the author of the bookand then there's one called
either the preacher or theteacher, and different
translations translate the worddifferently, but most of the
time you would call it thepreacher or the teacher, and so
the author is not the preacheror the teacher.
(03:21):
He is actually quoting thispreacher-teacher, and so that's
just important.
If you're thinking, is it thesame person?
No, it's not the same person.
So that's just at the verybeginning of the book of
Ecclesiastes.
And then we go through the bookand one of the things that this
could be, for, if some peoplehave not read the book and
(03:44):
understand it, it can be adowner.
It can be a real downer,because it starts out with
vanity, vanity, all is vanity,and you're thinking, wow, that's
what they're saying about life,that it doesn't really matter
this and that, and it'simportant to know what that word
actually means.
In the Hebrew, original Hebrewlanguage, it's the word hebel
(04:08):
H-E-B-E-L, that's how we say itin English and that word is
really well.
it's used 38 times in the book38 times.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
I know that was an amazing stat that came up.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
I know it, but it literally is translated
literally means vapor or smoke,and so there's a metaphorical
meaning about that which is it'stranslated meaningless or
vanity.
But the whole image is that youcan see smoke, but when you try
(04:41):
to grasp it you can't graspsmoke or you can't grasp vapor.
It just kind of goes throughyour fingers.
And so the question is is thathow we're living life?
We're trying to grasp thosethings that we see that we think
are important, but when weactually grasp them we realize
that we can't hold on to that,or that's not really what the
(05:04):
main issue of life is all about,and so that's kind of the theme
that runs through the entirebook.
It's a very challenging book.
It's got some great lessonsabout leadership that we'll get
to in just a minute, but thatsets the stage.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
It does, you know, sets the stage of you know that
the Hevel you know, and you somany times, and temporary sort
of fleeting and that weshouldn't.
You know, and it even says alittle shocker there it's like
it goes through the rich and thepoor and the wise and you know
the fool and it just they'regoing to die, going to die, and
(05:41):
you know, and I think they madea great analogy there, like you
know one of the things when Ishow prep, you know the
mountains are still going to bethere.
You know the sun's still goingto be there, the ocean's still
going to be there, but a hundredyears from now you know two or
three generations.
Unless you're doing some stufflike Einstein or something
that's impacting worlds and allthat, nobody's going to remember
(06:10):
your name.
You know, you think back ofrelatives.
You know three, four generationsand a lot of us we don't know
our relatives three, fourgenerations back.
And it's what you do and somany people miss the picture and
they're always searching forthe purpose or the meaning in
life and sometimes it's rightthere as a purpose and meaning,
not really something you have tosearch for.
It's living it.
We talked about the journeycompared to the ultimate end
(06:33):
result.
A lot of people are alwayssearching for that end result.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yes, and we were talking about this in show prep.
I know I'm guilty of this.
Sometimes so many people arefocused on the goal that they
don't enjoy the journey, and Iknow I'm guilty of this.
Sometimes so many people arefocused on the goal that they
don't enjoy the journey, and Iknow I'm guilty of that
sometimes.
I think the older I get, themore I enjoy the journey when we
travel.
My wife and I love to traveland we've been doing a lot of
(06:59):
that since we retired.
But we just enjoy driving, weenjoy being with each other, we
enjoy talking with each other,just reminiscing, thinking about
what we're seeing.
But part of it of traveling isenjoying the journey, not just
oh, we got to get to here, wegot to get to there, we got to
get to.
No, enjoy the journey.
(07:19):
And I think part of whatEcclesiastes is saying is if
you're just focused on the goal.
Now, goals are important.
We talk about goals and we talkabout vision.
We talked about that last week.
We've talked about that a lot,and one of the leader's
responsibilities is to set thosevisions, to set those goals.
But if you only focus on thegoal and you don't enjoy the
(07:42):
journey, that when you get tothe goal you're going to look
back and go, wow, I missed a lotof important things.
And so I think the book ofEcclesiastes is trying to help
us think through enjoying thejourney.
We get one chance at this thingcalled life.
(08:02):
It's a gift and we need toenjoy the journey Now.
Sometimes everybody's going togo through some challenging
times Everybody.
Every business is going throughsome challenging times.
Every person, every family,they're going to go through some
challenging times.
So the question is whether it'sa good time or a challenging
time.
Are we enjoying the journey orjust waiting for it to be over?
(08:23):
You know, oh, this is a hardtime.
I'm just waiting for it to beover, or I can't wait till this
happens.
You know Christmas is coming, Ican't wait till Christmas.
Well, what about enjoying thetime between now and then?
You know, with your family,friends?
Speaker 1 (08:35):
you know, whatever you got to do for work, whatever
, and that's one of those thingsthat, you know, one of my
friends a long time ago taughtme and I've lived by it and I've
heard it so many times since hedoesn't buy stuff.
He doesn't buy physical thingsand gifts for Christmas and
birthdays, he buys experiences,because experiences last.
(08:57):
That's a memory and if you redoyour thinking a little bit,
then not going out and buying anew car for this person or a new
coffee pot or whatever, and buyan experience where you can go
visit something, go to take themto Paris or whatever it might
be that experience is going tohold a lot more weight.
So it's part of the journey.
That's always been a powerfulthing when it came to my head.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yes, yes, and that's one of the things that I'm going
to just challenge our listenersto think about, that for
Christmas, because since ourkids have grown and gone off you
know they're done with collegeand they're starting their own
families and those kind ofthings, for the last several
(09:47):
years well God, many years nowat Christmastime one of the
things we want to do is what canwe do as a family to have that
kind of experience?
You know, let's enjoy not justthe presence under the tree, but
let's go do something as afamily.
Now, one time we just go downto Fort Worth, to the um park,
down at Trinity Park, where theyhave an incredible playground
for the grandkids, and we justsat there and just had a great
time.
One time we went up to theGaylord, texan went through the
icekids and we just sat thereand just had a great time.
One time we went up to theGaylord, texan went through the
ice exhibit that's really cool,and so the question is, what are
(10:11):
you going to do this year thatyou can experience life together
?
And that, to me, is one of thethings I think good leaders do
is like, okay, what are yougoing to do as a leader to maybe
do something outside of theoffice to help create a more, a
(10:35):
teamwork, cohesiveness, asynergy with your people?
It could be that you take ahalf a day, pay everybody.
You take half a day and go to afood pantry and pack food, you
help with a toy drive, you gohelp with a Habitat house.
I mean something that you'llthink, wow, that pays a lot of
(10:58):
dividends, because we're notjust focused on work, we're
focused on building our team,we're focused on relationships,
and I really think that's whatthe book of Ecclesiastes is
trying to say.
Okay, on this journey calledlife, what is the most important
(11:18):
thing about life?
And in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 12, verse 13,.
This is what we read.
This is at the very end of thebook of Ecclesiastes, 12, verse
13,.
This is what we read.
This is at the very end of thebook.
It says the end of the matter.
All has been heard, fear Godand keep His commandments, for
this is the whole duty ofhumankind.
(11:39):
So, after all of this work aboutvanity, life is meaningless.
We're trying to grasp the smokeand and that we never hold onto
that.
What is the real bottom linefocus of life, and that is to
love God and enjoy Him.
(11:59):
So for those listeners who arepart of the tradition that does
catechism okay, could beCatholic, could be other
denominations the catechism is alist of questions to teach
people about faith.
Now, the very first catechismwas written in the first century
.
Okay, Some denominations stilluse a catechism to teach
(12:24):
children and adults about faith.
The very first question aboutthe catechism is this what is
the chief aim of man?
Or what is the chief aim ofhumankind?
And this is the answer Man'schief and highest end is to
glorify God and to fully enjoyHim forever.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Wow, that's powerful and that comes right out of the
book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 12, verse 13.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
And so you might not be able to do that at your work.
Focus on religion.
But the question is, what aboutyour personal life?
What is?
Your chief aim in life?
Is it to get more money in thebank?
Is it to have the biggest house?
Is it to have two or three nicecars?
(13:14):
What's your chief aim there?
What's your chief goal in life?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah, from a leadership standpoint, it's that
sense of stewardship.
What's the impact you're havingon people around you?
You know, I always ask a lot ofthings and seminars I teach you
know what are.
Tell me somebody that that yourespected as a boss, as a leader
, and why did you respect them?
And we, we do that.
(13:41):
And I said now tell me somebodythat you, you didn't care to
work for, and what were theircharacteristics?
Now take a look at that.
Between these characteristicsand these, how much of these
positive ones do you instill inyour actions every day to your
people?
Because if you looked up atthis person, you would think
you'd want to model that person.
So make sure you're modelingthat.
(14:04):
We always say be your own self,but at the same time, there's
qualities that resonate withpeople, and if you like them
more like the people that aredrawn to you are going to like
them as well.
So make sure you're modelingthose actions.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, what a great lesson that is.
And if you want to do something, that might be a little scary,
you might have your co-workersevaluate you according to
certain things like that, and soyou can humble yourself and say
, okay, how can I be a betterleader to the people that I lead
(14:36):
?
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Okay.
Well, you don't know theimpression you're giving.
You might think you're doingsomething and you're doing just
the opposite.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
And do it multiple times, because people will lie
on the first time.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
But if you do it quarterly.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
They're going to be like all right, at some point
I'm going to give it up.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I'm going to have to tell the truth, right?
Speaker 1 (14:52):
But the first time they usually lie.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
They're like oh no, you're great, and do it in
December when Christmas bonusesare out right.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
It's going to be a whole different story than first
of the year.
In July I'm going to be a wholedifferent story than first of
the year, a whole differentstory.
In July I'm going to tell thetruth.
That's exactly right, oh.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
That's exactly right, and so let's talk about some of
the leadership characteristicsor leadership principles that we
see in the book of Ecclesiastes.
One of them is that we're notalways in control.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Right.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Okay, we might not be in control of certain things we
weren't in control of when wewere born.
We might not be in control ofwhen we pass away, and there are
certain things we don't need totalk about the pandemic but
there are certain things thatwe're just not in control of.
And so the question is duringthose times when we're not not
(15:47):
in control of, and so thequestion is during those times
when we're not always in control, what do we convey?
Do we convey a thing ofconfidence or do we convey chaos
?
And that is such animportant—I'm not trying to be
Pollyannish about it and justpretend everything's okay when
it's not.
But the question is are wegoing to encourage our people
(16:10):
hey, you know this is tough, butwe're going to get through it
or, oh my gosh, this is horrible.
I don't know how we're going toget through it.
I mean, just a few things likethat can really set the tone for
your organization.
That could really have goodresults, even during difficult
times.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And another one that stood outto me is verse 3-1, where it
talks about there's a time foreverything and a season for
every activity under the heavens.
And you know, I recognize that.
As you know, change, change isinevitable.
Right, we're going to, thingsare going to change, and we have
to adapt a lot of times intosituations like that.
(16:50):
We can't control some of thestuff.
The Hevel, the Hevel, you know,uh, it's out there.
We think we control it, wethink we can reach out and grab
it and move it out of the way,but it's.
You know, sometimes you've gotto walk through that fog.
You know, and we told a lot ofstories too, you know, of
situations that we had everyintention of it going the way in
one way and it turned out goingtotally different way.
(17:11):
And, and I've, I've beenthrough that in businesses I
start out on and, and we've had,you know, even the past radio
shows and stuff where we set outdoing this and by, you know,
two weeks later, three weekslater, we're going a whole
different direction than we eventhought we were going.
And things are going to go theway they're supposed to and a
(17:32):
lot of times it's out of yourcontrol.
It's just going to happen.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Correct.
And so the first part ofchapter three of Ecclesiastes,
maybe some of the most quotedverses in the entire Bible.
In fact, many years ago therewas a song about that, you know,
and it's just great.
There's a time and place foreverything under heaven.
(17:58):
And so the question is thiscould be a time, you know,
starting now, where you make aresolution as a leader, to
realize that change is coming.
You know whatever that mightmean Could be the interest rate,
it could be, your supply chainis.
You know you have to changesuppliers.
You know you're doing something, this or that, and you've got
(18:22):
to adapt.
So this is just a funny thing onmyself.
So every so often we don'twatch a whole lot of television
at all at our house.
We're reading books orsomething like that.
We just don't watch a lot, butevery so often we want to watch
a movie.
So not too long ago I got on myphone and I looked up the
(18:42):
Redbox app and I thought, oh,let's go rent a movie from
Redbox.
I didn't realize that, likefour months ago they were out of
business.
Yeah, yeah.
It's like, yeah, because so manythings are streamed now, you
know.
And so we actually went to amovie at the movie theater which
(19:02):
was such a good movie.
It was the greatest Christmaspageant ever.
That was a really good movie.
I encourage people to go seethat.
But I was just realizing, wow,Redbox, they just I don't know
what happened, but they're gone.
Yeah, they're gone, Just gone.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
And you know a lot of stuff they haven't evolved.
I mean, we've mentioned themmany times on here.
There's a lot of things thatnever evolved.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
They just don't adapt and they don't change with the
times.
And I mean, who would haveknown five years ago that one of
the main ways to watch a movieis to just live stream it?
Just to stream it, you know,from Amazon, paramount, whatever
you know, netflix, whatever itis.
I had no clue that was coming,but that's not my business.
(19:49):
So the question is but in thechurch world you know the
thinking about okay, that was myjob for 45 years it's like what
are the trends coming forchurches?
Speaker 1 (19:59):
There you go.
That's a great question, right?
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
The COVID affected them.
I mean a lot of people stilllive stream and that wasn't an
option at any point.
People have kept that going nowyes, so that really changed a
lot.
What do you think?
Do you think of any trends?
Speaker 2 (20:15):
that might be coming.
Well, I don't know about trends, but I do think that the live
stream thing was such a huge—wetalked about it for a long time
thing was such a huge, we talkedabout it for a long time, but
then when COVID actuallyhappened, we had to implement
that in one day or two days.
We had some great people in thecongregation that loaned us
(20:36):
their equipment before we couldactually buy it, and so many
people were buying equipmentthat was backlogged.
So you had to kind of just doit and we, we would evaluate, we
would film it, we would, youknow, film it like on Thursdays
and it would post on Sundays, um, and every week we had to
evaluate what did we do wrong?
(20:56):
How did we make it better?
And so we were constantlyreviewing ourselves and I think
that's a good leader reviewswhat they do to say how can I
make it better next time.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Right.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
You know, how can I improve the training of my
employees?
How can I improve this?
Speaker 1 (21:13):
LBs and NTs what did I like best?
And NTs next time, what would Ido different?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
What would I do?
Speaker 1 (21:19):
different, you know that's what you got to do.
That's how you evolve.
You know you look at everyconversation, every action,
every phone call, everythingthat you do.
And next time, what would I dodifferent?
What did I like best about howthis situation went today?
Speaker 2 (21:32):
Yeah, and so that's one reason it's so important to
take notes throughout the year,so like when you have to do your
evaluation.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
And somehow we still have dad jokes on our show.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
We're not stopping dad jokes.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
We're not stopping them.
Maybe we need to get better dadjokes on our show.
You know, that's the key how wecan improve.
I couldn't resist that littlethrow-in comment.
Next time we're going to havebetter dad jokes.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
I don't know when that next time is coming.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
It's our New Year's resolution.
Better dad jokes.
We can't get better ones goinginto Christmas.
Maybe that's your resolution.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
It's not mine.
I'm going to have horrible dadjokes.
Speaker 1 (22:08):
But we'll get to dad jokes in just a few minutes.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
So maybe we should finish up One of the things that
I was just reading we do a lotof show prep before the show and
one of the things that I wasreading.
I was actually reading anarticle from Forbes magazine, so
let's just take a different,and this was about what leaders
want from the people they lead.
And I thought, wow, that's adifferent twist to it.
(22:37):
You know, and the number onething that leaders want from the
people that lead is to takeaccountability for their
mistakes.
And I'm thinking well, that'snot just true of the people they
lead, that's true of the leader.
So, you know, if we've made amistake which I've made plenty
in my life- the question is dowe try to hide it?
Do we blame someone else, Do wewhatever?
Or do we try to hide it?
Do we blame someone else, Do wewhatever?
(22:58):
Or do we take accountabilityfor it and do we say you know
what?
I made that mistake, it was myfault, you know.
I'm sorry about that.
Let's just see how we can workthrough it right now.
And that is a really goodlesson, not just for the people
that you lead, but for yourselfas a leader as well, and not
just for the people that youlead but for yourself as a
(23:19):
leader as well.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Right, yeah, yeah, and I think that's, a lot of
people don't know how to takeaccountability.
They don't understand theconcept, and I think when you
get the little gray hair in yourhead, or the lack of hair in
your head, it's just you learnthe wisdom about what it means
to take accountability.
You know, at some point there'sthis gray area that you try to
(23:41):
dodge when you're, when you'regrowing up and I went through
that where it's like I'm nottelling the truth but I'm not
lying, I'm not takingaccountability, but I'm not not
taking accountability.
So there there's that littlemind games you play with
yourself, and I think you getthat when you get a little gray
hair.
And then it's so importantPeople want to trust, they want
to have a trust, and one ofthose things is to do what you
(24:03):
say you're going to do and ownyour own actions.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
So let's just take that one about accountability,
and we'll talk about some otherones, maybe in another podcast,
but there's actually four thingsthat this article mentioned.
We'll just focus on the firstone today, and that is
accountability.
So let's just talk aboutaccountability with our words,
okay, accountability with ouractions is one thing, but
accountability with our words.
(24:27):
So in the book of Ecclesiastes,chapter 8, verse 2, it talks
about having a discreet mouth.
Okay, a discreet mouth, okay.
And so the question for theleaders out there is what comes
out of your mouth is soimportant.
Are you one that encouragespeople?
(24:48):
Are you someone that puts themdown?
Are you someone that only putspeople down to elevate yourself?
Or how do you do that, and areyou accountable for your actions
?
Speaker 1 (25:01):
You can build them up or you can tear them down.
It depends on what you want.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Exactly right.
And so the question is what isyour main way of operating?
Now, I'm not, you know, becausesometimes you have to hold
people accountable for theirwork if they're not, you know,
doing their job if they're notmeeting timelines.
You know those kind of things.
You have to hold peopleaccountable for their work.
If they're not, you know doingtheir job if they're not meeting
timelines.
You know those kind of things.
You have to.
You know, and I've had to firepeople for, unfortunately, for
just not doing their work ordoing what they thought was
(25:28):
their work, even though we'vetold them hey, you know, I want
you to focus on this and they goand do their own thing.
And you know there's a processfor all that we had to go
through own thing, and there's aprocess for all that we had to
go through, but accountabilityfor your words and for your
actions.
To me, as a leader, it's soimportant to build people up.
(25:48):
I think that is one of thebiggest things a leader can do
is to build people up.
Find something about everyperson that you lead to build
them up, and I'm not justtalking.
You know this is Christmas time.
It's time to give, you know,maybe bonuses or Christmas gifts
or something.
Maybe you don't have the moneyto do that.
(26:09):
Sometimes in the church, manytimes in church, we don't have
the money to do those kind ofthings.
Okay, but writing a note andjust say thank you for this or
doing something that they wouldappreciate, you know, maybe give
them a gift card to Starbucks,something that would just build
them up to say, hey, Iappreciate you.
That goes such a long way inthe eyes of the people that you
(26:31):
lead.
They will think, wow, they tookthe time, they noticed me.
I must be important.
Yes, you want them to know thatthey are important to the
organization.
They're an important andvaluable person.
You're glad that they're there.
How can the leader showappreciation to the people they
lead?
I think that's an importantthing, that's exactly it went on
(26:51):
.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
My list today is to go buy thank you cards, because
I've talked about it for yearsof getting better and I send out
a few.
But I'm gonna make a point, uh,and it doesn't have to have to
be the first of this year orwhatever non-new year's
resolution, but I'm I'm gonnastart sending out more thank you
cards and and uh, make surethat that's part of it.
Now to add on to your stuffthere.
(27:14):
What I want to talk about isI've got five things here that
are takeaways for accountabilityof words.
Oh, okay, and the five arethink before speaking, right.
Think on the words if they'rekind, if they're necessary, if
they're truthful, right.
So think before you speak.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Don't just spit things out, right Filter.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yeah.
Number two speak less, meanmore.
So in other words, choose yourwords wisely.
Be more concise.
I say this every time I speakwith a group of people.
You're going to come off morepowerful, more clear, as if you
can say your point in less words.
(27:59):
It's a leadership thing.
If you just ramble and rambleand ramble, you lose the people.
So speak less and mean more.
Honor commitments.
Number three be trustworthy inyour promises and your
agreements.
So, in other words, if you havea commitment, if you've said
something, make sure you do whatyou say you're going to do
right.
Avoid gossip.
(28:20):
You know how many times didthat?
Speak with integrity?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Oh, that's huge.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
You know, we need to avoid the gossip.
How many times?
And I'm trying to teach my kidsthis because they'll say well,
you know, I heard this.
I'm like, well, you heard thatyou don't know if it's true.
Well, you know, I heard this.
I'm like, well, you heard thatyou don't know if it's true.
Well, I mean, somebody saidit's true.
I'm like somebody said it'strue, but does it true?
I said you don't want to repeatthat that's gossip.
That's what gossip is.
(28:45):
Just because you hear a storyyou don't know if it's true, if
you figure out it's true, thenthat's fine, but you just don't
take for somebody from theirwords because they may not, you
know, be good.
And then the last one there isuh, choose timing wisely, you
know.
Uh, deliver the right messageat the right time with the right
tone.
Basically, you know and I thinkthat's where accountability
(29:06):
words if you can, you can gowith those five.
You're, you're going to be amore powerful, you're going to
have more accountability in your, your speech and and be part of
it.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
So could you repeat those real quick?
Speaker 1 (29:14):
for our listeners.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
You might want to write those down.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Think before speaking .
Speak less, mean more, honoryour commitments, avoid gossip
and choose timing wisely.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
Excellent point, there you go.
Excellent point.
I think it's time for some dadjokes.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
I see you're reaching for emergency dad jokes there.
I know he was teeing up.
He's like I'm going to get someemergency dad jokes.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
This is for all the pirates out there.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
I've got some good friend pirates right.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Yeah, this is for the pirates out there for a
Christmas present.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
We'll dedicate this to the pirate king.
If he's listening, he knows whohe is.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Where do pirates go to buy their hooks?
Speaker 1 (29:55):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
They go to a second-hand store.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
All right, I'll give you that one.
I can't even throw it in aLaVloz on that one.
I like that one.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
All right, I like it you know, we were horsing around
over Thanksgiving and I got hitwith a can the other day.
It was a good thing, it was asoft drink.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
I've heard that one.
That was good.
Hey, do you know why the snailpainted an S on his car?
Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Do you?
So his friends would say lookat the escargot.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
I did like that one.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
What else you got?
You got one or two more.
Yeah, why do nurses?
It's December.
By gosh, I can throw a coupleof these out, whatever.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Why do nurses always have red pens?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Nurses have red pens.
I do not know.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
In case they need to draw blood.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
All right.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Yeah, that's appropriate response.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
What do you call a man with a rubber toe?
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Oh, I've heard this one, I don't remember.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Roberto.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Roberto, we'll just stop right there with Roberto
Roberto.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
All right guys.
Hey, we enjoyed it.
Happy December to you.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Happy December.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Getting a little bit closer, a little bit closer to
this festive time, this wholemonth's festive, it is I mean
from.
November.
But yeah, check us out biblicalleadership showcom.
Send us, uh, some chat.
You can go in there and chatwith us.
You can send us some messages.
You can send us some dad jokesIf you want us to hear dad jokes
(31:46):
on the air.
I mean, we always welcome those.
Other than that, Um, you know,just keep having a great
December, Hope you're having agreat time and and this is thing
if, if, if you're not having agood time, you know we always
offer our services for a prayerrequest.
We always, definitely will prayfor you.
(32:06):
Uh, reach out to us, send us amessage off our podcast and, uh,
other than that, uh, have agreat rest of the time.
Till next week, We'll come backand and talk a little bit more
and keep going back through ourseries on the Bible here.
So, other than that, any otherwords besides your favorite get
out of here.
Words, no, that's it.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
All right.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Well, dr Dean, take us away, make it a great day.
Thank you, have a great day.
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