Will Mancini

Over the last fifteen years, by God’s grace and through difficult decisions, I have created my dream job. Yes, it is very possible. And yes, if I won the lottery tomorrow, I would not change how I work. When you find your dream job, you leave others wondering whether you are at work or at play. Sound good? Consider these observations and actions.

#1 Most dream jobs are created, not found.

Observation: Your dream job probably doesn’t exist right now. Action: Resolve to create, not find, your true, sweet-spot fit.

#2 Most people could care less about your dream job.

Observation: People will always want you to do something for them that is not your dream job. Action: Think beyond the expectations and limited imaginations of others and beyond existing job categories.

#3 Most individuals live with a projection of their dream job that does not precisely align with what they would really love.

Observation: Thoroughgoing self awareness is rare. Action: Embrace a journey of self-examination amidst diverse experiences knowing that both successes and failures are a great asset to clarity.

#4 Drivenness to create your dream job must be tempered with contentment in any job.

Observation: People with something to prove (unhealthy ambition) or something to loose (fear) will never find their dream job. Action: Never stop applying the gospel to your heart, so that your pursuit of a dream job is a response to God’s grace not a pursuit of self-righteousness.

#5 The most important wisdom on your dream job path is usually free.

Observation: There is someone closer to your dream job than you are, and they are usually willing to talk. Action: Pursue the people who can add value, open doors, and share wisdom to guide your steps. You won’t believe what will happen if you dare to ask.

#6 The biggest steps toward your dream job, require stepping away from really good jobs.

Observation: Most people’s addiction to “good” prevents them from discovering the “best.”  Action: Jump at the right time and be prepared for a risk-step that will always present an element of faith.

#7  Never stop dreaming and taking the initiative.

Observation: Dream jobs never come to those who quit dreaming. Action: Let each dream-idea birth new action steps and each action step birth new dream-ideas.

While the AHA! is new a new kind of learning format, the feeling of being drenched by an information fire hydrant is not. As I watch folks tweet and celebrate and whine about this blast of kingdom wisdom, I wanted to share a few thoughts to guide your learning experience. Consider taking a 5 minute intermission to reflect now.

What we are aiming for is not the picture of a child playing and splashing in the hydrant’s water-works. There is no learning there. We are looking for the leaders ability to sip from the hydrant (without loosing your lips!)

Three things can drive your knowledge junkie “drenching” over a learning leaders “drinking”

#1 Omission Paranoia - This problem has come with the cultural phenomenon of hyperchoice. We are constantly provided with so many options and so many evolutions of improvement with products, services, and everyday choices, that we can live overwhelmed and not even recognize it. If you are an opportunistic person like me, the problem can be worse. Eventually, an unsettled spirit creeps its way deep within our soul. The result? We live paranoid that we are going to miss out on one of the options, the “right angle” or the “winning choice.” Attending the AHA! is pure hell if you have omission paranoia. Don’t worry about what you will miss. Drink and ingest what is meaningful when you can.

#2 Hidden Jealously - One of my mentors, Howard Hendricks used to say, “You focus on the depth of your relationship with God and let God determine the scope of your ministry.” If you’re like me, there is a little commentator inside your head when you see 40 plus speakers get platformed in a cool venue like the AHA!. We wonder what we would say, how they got invited, yada, yada, yada. With these conversations in your head you really can’t drink well.

#3 Photocopied Vision - If you follow me you know that this is my continual burning platform. The longer I look under the hood of ministry teams across the country the less I am surprised by the clarity vacuum. Please know that most leaders are missing some clarity and the more you’re lacking the harder it is to sip from the hydrant. Why? True clarity provides a frame or filter through which to evaluate everything. (I call it a Vision Frame.) Robust clarity actually makes learning more aggressive and meaningful, because you continually cull out or highlight content based on the needs of your vision and strategy. You know when this “personal calling filter” is working when you can skip chapters in a book or hit pause on a AHA! presenter without a second’s thought.

What’s the answer to these challenges?

They all push me back to Jesus. Battle omission paranoia by resting in God’s goodness and sovereignty. Repent of hidden jealously. Take time and create margin to refine your ministry vision and understanding of God’s call on your life.

A potential action step: Auxano runs a process called the Vision co::Lab for this purpose and we have several starting in the next few months. It’s the polar opposite of the AHA!. Instead of spending 5 hours with 40 leaders spend 24 hours of vision coaching with a small group of 8. More info here, PDF brochure here.

In order to maximize AHA! learning experience, by Leadership Network consider the context of the offering.  The mission of Leadership Network is to accelerate the impact of 100X leaders. What is a 100X leader?  The concept is rooted in Matthew 13:23. People produce different amounts of fruit depending on the soil of their soul.  The verse references thirty, sixty, and hundred-fold fruitfulness. LN taps into hundredfold leaders (100X) to accelerate their impact and to encourage the multiplication of that learning.

So in order to encourage multiplication, they are hosting this massive conversation called the AHA!.  Over 5000 church leaders are registered to hear from 40 different speakers. I believe this will be one the most innovative and effective learning event of the year. Yet it has come together quickly and with a bit of intrigue. So how can you actually maximize the learning from this event?  Here is my advice.

1) Carve out as much time as possible to watch live.  This stuff is FREE and will be more focused and diverse than ANY conference you have to pay for and travel to see.  Grab your team and cancel your appointments. These are great thinkers and leaders.  They are not exclusively “rock stars” that we have heard from to death.

2) Keep streaming tweets while watching OR if you can’t watch live. I have blogged on this innovative way to attend a conference click here to read more. I can’t wait to watch the Emotional Resonance Spectrum tomorrow. The hashtag of leadership network generally is #leadnet, but for today’s event it is #ahaLN

3) Zero in by asking for the Holy Spirit to help. Okay, if you are a church leader you are always praying for other people. Like me, you might forget this little step when it comes to learning. Pray for God to deliver the arrow of truth that you need to penetrate your heart.

4) Think “syntopically.” This is where the value proposition of AHA! gets exponential. When you hear a dozen to forty snapshots of passionate, persuasive nuggets from really smart leaders, look for the common themes and shared angles of the content. This is what all futurists and visionaries do.  They are not just seeing what others see. They are organizing and articulating in new ways what other people have seen but have not fully appreciated. Remember, no one is coordinating content, so common themes will be Spirit-driven. Also remember that there is no real meaning to the order of the presenters.

5) Focus reflection. All of this great content must translate, at some point, to meaningful take-aways based on the clarity of your own calling. My personal strategy will be to take hand written notes, that I will group eventually into no more than three categories. In my experience, if a leaders tries to carry more than three ideas, thoughts, or actions away in their wheelbarrow, he or she risks tipping over and having nothing.

6) Act immediately. Perfect learning is the enemy to good execution. The truth is that you don’t need more information to do a better job as a leader.  You need perspective, conviction, passion and stretched imagination. I think LN should host a conversation about the results of the learning tomorrow.  Your leadership will be measured, NOT by the size of your AHA! notes or the number of your compelling retweets. Your leadership will be measured how you act with what you gain.  What will you need to stop, start, enhance, plan for, or discuss immediately with your leadership team as a result of what you learn?

In 24 hours, Leadership Network will begin their second, online conference experience. Why should you watch?

• 40 speakers, many are new voices with fresh content
• Each speaker is limited to 6 minutes each
• The speaker focus is a story or principle of a life-changing “aha moment” 
• Leadership network’s motive is to accelerate YOUR impact
• This thing is totally free, but you have to register here
• For a few bucks you can get speaker info
• Leadership Network may give Todd Rhoades a raise if more people sign up!
• Enjoy from the comfort of your own home
• You’ll feel better that you were there live, when everyone is talking about it

What more can you ask for?  I am grateful to be a part of this event. I will be speaking on “How a Funnel Changed My Life.”  See you tomorrow at noon.

Last week I enjoyed an evening with Chris Willard and Tom Wilson who work with the OneHundredX family of ministries, Leadership Network and HalfTime.

Tom is currently the President of OneHundredX, a new company that was developed in a clarity process with Auxano. Before coming to this ministry Tom served for over three decades with Young Life, concluding his time as a VP of field operations. While talking shop on vision, Tom recalled a year when he made special trips to motivate Young Life camp counselors.  Currently Young Life has 20 camps that bring in over 90,000 students a year. 

One hallmark of the Young Life camp experience (from which many Christian camps take their cue) is the exhilarating welcome that campers get the moment they arrive. As a high-school sophomore, I visited Frontier Ranch and can still remember the thrill of the cheering tunnel of counselors who screamed like they won the lotto when we showed up. It was big. 

Over the years,  Tom said  he watch energy of the welcoming experience cool off. So one year, he decided to address it by systematically vision-casting at all of the camps. What did Tom say? He told them the creation story of the first camp welcome.  He reminded them of the deepest why behind the hype that had grown hollow. 

Early in the camping ministry camp counselors committed their precious summer time to serve the younger high school kids who would come in from across the country. The problem was, in the early days, awareness of the camps had not grown, and not every week of camp had campers. And if campers didn’t come, that meant more boring project work for counselors like painting fences and repairing sheds. With a drought of campers, the counselors began to passionately pray for God to bring students. All they wanted to do was to love on kids! After a few weeks an old beat-up van pulled up the mountain with a dozen or so brand new campers. When the counselors saw it, they were so excited that they spontaneously erupted in applause to God, ushering in the first unforgettable welcome.

One simple story of how it all started brought tons of meaning to the camp counselors that year. 

I just about lost it as I heard the story,  because I still remember the incredible welcome I received at Frontier Ranch. It made me want to be a counselor all over again! 

What about you? Hearing the why behind what we do is an easy way to refresh motivation. Where do the motions of ministry under your leadership need more meaning? What story can only be told by you? What story would people love to hear?