THE 7-STEP CHECKLIST FOR SUCCESS | TERRI SAVELLE FOY | TERRI.COM

 1. USE YOUR IMAGINATION.

• “Imagination should be used, not to escape reality, but to create it.” Colin Wilson

• You have to IMAGINE yourself succeeding on the INSIDE before it shows up on the OUTSIDE!

IMAGINE IT’S ONE YEAR FROM TODAY:

What have you accomplished? Where have you gone? What have you paid off? How much money have you saved? Imagine logging into your bank account, what do you see? What's that number? Who have you met or worked with? Where do you live? If you close your eyes, can you imagine driving up to the house of your dreams in the car of your dreams? What do you look like? When you look in the mirror, what do want to see? A healthier, fit version of you?

• Your ability to visualize yourself succeeding is VITAL to going where God wants you to go!

  

2. LEARN THE LANGUAGE OF SUCCESS.

• The language of success is positive, full of faith and gratitude.

1. Start a gratitude list You could have your own “gratitude wall” or use a gratitude journal to jot down each morning 3-5 things you're thankful for. This changes your mindset!

• The more gratitude you express, the more abundance you experience.

2. Start speaking positive, faith-filled affirmations over yourself and your future.

Romans 4:17 tells us that we serve a God who “speaks of nonexistent things as if they already exist.”

 • You have to use your words wisely in the direction you want your life to go by making positive declarations over yourself. Whatever you want to see happen in your life, speak it out!

3. DEVELOP A PLAN FOR PERSONAL GROWTH.

1. Be intentional about your personal growth. Make it one or your top 10 goals for this year.

2. Enroll in courses. Take a course that will push you, challenge you, keep you accountable to grow.

3. Set a goal to read a certain number of books each year. (12-15 books/year)

4. Set a time on your daily planner to read each day. (I read 20 min each morning before work)

• You owe it to yourself to develop what God has put in you.

4. GET CRYSTAL CLEAR ON WHAT YOU WANT!

• Most people don't get what they want in life because they don't even know what they want.

• Go to a new level of clarity

TERRI.COM | QUICK TIPS TO SETTING GOALS:

1. Imagine December 31 – and you say: “This has been the most phenomenal year of your life!” What needs to happen for you to say that?

2. Write it down. Write at least 7-10 goals for this year

...

please click here for all 7 steps: terri.com/7steps/

SUMMARY ATTEMPT | WHO'S HOLDING YOUR LADDER | SAMUEL R. CHAND | CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 9

WHOSE LADDER ARE YOU HOLDING?

Every true disciple of Jesus Christ holds somebody's ladder. That's God's plan. We need each other and we fulfill God's plan when we hold others' ladders.

Effective leaders understand that they are holding someone's ladder, whether it's the business partner's ladder, that of another church pastor, or a denominational leader. God has called all of us to hold ladders for others.

Effective leaders recognise two facts:

1. In leadership we will always need ladder holders.

2. In leadership we will also hold someone else's ladder. We are meant to support, assist, and help others in their climb upward.

Ladder holders must be strong, attentive, faithful, firm, and loyal. It is obvious that we need to be the kind of people we want others to become. If you want to develop superior ladders holders, we need to become superior ladder holders ourselves.

God always intended for service to be a street where we travel both ways. It is the law of reciprocity and it teaches us that what we give will come back to us. That's absolutely true; however, the problem is that we can only give what we have. We can only pass on what we possess. If we aren't good ladder holders, how can we expect to have good ladder holders helping us?

QUESTIONS FOR US TO PONDER

Do I possess those five essential qualities of good ladder holders?

Do I intentionally hold someone else's ladder?

Am I a dependable ladder holder? When was the last time I walked past a visionary leader and said "I really like his vision and like where he's going. I want to work alongside him and assist him by holding his ladder"?

When was the last time I asked, "What leader can I help?"

What does it say about us if we always seek someone to hold our ladder, but we are unwilling to hold another person's ladder?

When was the last time I attended a leadership conference when I wasn't a speaker?

When did I go to a conference just to hear somebody else?

When was the last time I read a book and thought, I really like this, and then corresponded with the author?

When was the last time I saw somebody else's advertisement in a magazine and said, "I want to serve that person"?

It's the principle, which is also in the Bible, that we reap what we sow. If we sow holding ladders, we reap those who will hold our ladders. We receive by giving.

The realisation that no one openly and intentionally mentored me has caused me to become more intentional to mentor others. I'm an accidental leader, but I don't want to be an accidental mentor.

Here are some large and final questions:

Whose ladder are you holding right now?

Who is climbing upward and trusting you to be there at the bottom, bracing the ladder for him or her?

Who is climbing high because you stepped out of the way and said, "Let me support you"?

Who will look back one day and say, "I rose forty-five feet in the air because you held my ladder"?

We have opportunities to be somebody's ladder holder. Because no one has done it for us, it may be difficult to intentionally commit ourselves to holding ladders, but it's not impossible.

We can commit ourselves to learning how to hold the ladders so others can climb high and some of them may even soar above us.

No matter how high we go we should be holding someone else's ladder - that's God's plan.

As leaders, we when we start upward, our most important decision is to choose the right ladder holders; as ladder holders, our most important decision is to select which ladders we hold.

When we accomplish great things on our own ladder, we remember what we've done. When we intentionally hold others' ladders and they accomplish great things, they remember us. Their achievements become our legacy.

Source: Who's Holding Your Ladder by Samuel R. Chand

Summary Attempt: Who's Holding Your Ladder; Chapter 8

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SUMMARY ATTEMPT | WHO'S HOLDING YOUR LADDER | SAMUEL R. CHAND | CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 8

HOW DID JESUS CHOOSE LADDER HOLDERS?

Peter, James, and John we are partners before Jesus called them. Jesus didn't break up their partnership.

Jesus wasn't looking around casually. He scrutinized or focused carefully. It is as if Jesus gazed thoroughly into the man and then - and only then - did he say "Follow me."

People are recruited as ladder holders as a group, but they continue as individuals.

Source: Who's Holding Your Ladder by Samuel R. Chand

Summary Attempt: Who's Holding Your Ladder; Chapter 7

Summary Attempt: Who's Holding Your Ladder; Chapter 9

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SUMMARY ATTEMPT | WHO'S HOLDING YOUR LADDER | SAMUEL R. CHAND | CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 7

ARE WE LOOKING UP THE LADDER?

We are only as good as the person who is answering the phone, the person who is greeting the customers, the person who deals with complains. Nobody cares who's the president of the company.

If you create a great human organisation, then everything else takes care of itself.

The principle is simple. If people are joyful and love what they're doing, it will show in everything they do. When they answer the phone, the caller will know they're happy in their jobs. I tell the people at the reception desk, "You are the director of first impressions".

You have to know what you do best and do it. The notion that you can make it at anything you want to do just isn't true. There are things you can and can't be successful at. You have to sit down and measure your skills - strong and weak - and then build toward the strengths.

You are only as good as the people around you. So surround yourself with good people.

It requires a lot of time and effort to make sure you have the right people working the right jobs, but we believe it is time well spent. Customer satisfaction is the pay off.

Given a choice, employers say they would take an adaptable 'people' person over a technically proficient worker.

Our biggest challenge is making sure we have the right people on board, trained properly, and qualified to provide the answers...about technology.

People before technology.

If we don't get the people right, it all goes away. We lose everything.

The best thing you can do is make sure you pick the right people.

Source: Who's Holding Your Ladder by Samuel R. Chand

Summary Attempt: Who's Holding Your Ladder; Chapter 6

Summary Attempt: Who's Holding Your Ladder; Chapter 8

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SUMMARY ATTEMPT | WHO'S HOLDING YOUR LADDER | SAMUEL R. CHAND | CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 6

CAN WE TURN LADDER HOLDERS INTO LADDER CLIMBERS?

Every effective business leader and every senior pastor started somewhere. They may have already had the gifts that eventually pushed them up the ladder, but most of them didn't start there. God's plan was already in place but it started in a lowly position.

The only time you start at the top is when you are digging a hole.

Where did Elijah start? He held the ladder of the great prophet of Israel and faithfully followed until his turn came.

We are here today because Jesus saved us, of course. But we are also here today because his disciples started as supporters for Jesus until their times came to move upward. They are the ones who continued the work after Jesus was ascended.

At one time, I was the janitor, breakfast cook, and dishwasher at Beulah Heights. I held the ladder so that others could succeed and minister.

STEPS FOR TURNING LADDER HOLDERS INTO LADDER CLIMBERS

Spiritual Formation: focus on spiritual discipline and developing individuals. We want to help people develop who they are. We want them to be able to answer these questions:

What am I passionate about?

What are my gifts and talents?

To what kind of work is God calling me?

What frustrates me?

What makes me cry?

What brings me joy?

Skill formation: this is where we change and begin to focus on others. We are trained to do ministry through our local church.

Strategic formation: Here we focus on extending God's kingdom on earth and on leadership development.

In most churches we train but we don't develop.

UNLEARNING AND LEARNING

In developing leadership skills, I've learned that is more difficult to unlearn than it is to learn.

The best use of power is to give it away. We give it away by investing in others.

Most of the leaders of my generation - the boomer generation - are accidental leaders. We stumbled into leadership.

We need to get the right people on the bus and get the wrong people off. Then we need to get the right people in the right seats on the bus.

The person who does an excellent job of holding a twenty-foot ladder may not be the same person we need if you want to go higher. It cost me intense pain to realise that good people - committed, hardworking individuals and people of integrity - may not be the ones we need to help us move to the next level.

We need different ladder holders for different levels in the organisation. Old leaders are rarely new leaders because people continue to view the organisation at the level they came to it, whereas new leaders see it as it is now.

Source: Who's Holding Your Ladder by Samuel R. Chand

Summary Attempt: Who's Holding Your Ladder; Chapter 5

Summary Attempt: Who's Holding Your Ladder; Chapter 7

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SUMMARY ATTEMPT | WHO'S HOLDING YOUR LADDER | SAMUEL R. CHAND | CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 5

ARE WE MANAGING LADDERS

Leaders know where they want to reach. They point up toward the spot that's so high those standing next to them don't always see it.

First, I want to make it clear that leaders aren't superior and neither are managers. One is not more important than the other; however, they are different.

Second, we need to recognize which one we are, because if we are leaders in managers' position we are frustrated and ineffective. Just as true, if we're managers in leaders positions were killing the organisation.

Leaders | Managers

Emphasize what and why | Emphasize how and when

Work from the future back to the present | Work from the past to the present

Focus on the long term | Focus on the short term or immediate

Embrace a macro-perspective | Embrace a micro perspective

Favor innovative thinking | Favours routine/save thinking

Seek to balance idealism with realism | Emphasize pragmatism over idealism

Show revolutionary flair | Protect the status quo

Clarify the vision: inspire and motivate | Implement the vision

Excite others by change | Are threatened by change

Decide quickly | Decide slowly

Identify opportunities | Identify obstacles

Take risks | Avoid risk

Pursue resources | Actions limited to available resources

People centred | System centred

Idea centred | Plan centred

Centre on core issues | Distracted by peripheral issues

Want others' approval | Need others approval

Do the right thing | Do things right

OBSERVATIONS ABOUT LEADERS AND MANAGERS

Leaders and managers complement each other. 

Both need to work in the area of their strengths.

Successful managers aren't always successful leaders; successful leaders aren't necessarily successful managers.

We need to evaluate the success of managers differently from the success of leaders.

We consider managers successful when they operate the organisation efficiently as well as deliver services on time and within budget.

We consider leaders successful when they enable the organisation to grow in its ability to serve the community by discovering new needs, expanding the resources base, and innovative approaches to service delivery, and when they energize or transform the organisation.

Leaders know where they want to reach. Managers know exactly where to position the ladder for maximum benefits.

If we are managers, we pride ourselves on being practical. If we are leaders, we pride ourselves on being imaginative and visionary.

Leaders focus on the future. They work from the future back to the present to show others how to get to the fulfilment of their vision. Managers conceptualize by walking from the past to get to the present. They build on the past to work efficiently in the present.

If we switch managers into leaders' roles, everything stalls. If we try to make leaders into managers, they can't take their eyes off the skies long enough to figure how to strengthen the ladder or position all the people they need.

Those who know how will always work for those who know why.

Change excites leaders and it frightens managers. We need both. Healthy fear is an ally.

Leaders identify opportunities; managers identify obstacles.

Leaders take risks; managers avoid risk. The larger risk is to refuse to take a risk. If we wait until we are 100% sure were already too late

MAKING DECISIONS

We have four questions we need to ask before we make our decisions - and those four must be in the right order.

1. Does this go along with our vision, mission, and core values? The fewer things an organisation does, the better off they are because they can focus and do all of them well.

2. Do we have the heart to make this happen? (Zeal and commitment).

3. How will God be glorified?

4. How much will it cost? We don't discuss money until we answered the first three questions. No one can bring up the cost factor unless we have positive answers to the first three.

Leaders see the empty coffers and know they can fill them; managers see only that the coffers are empty.

Salvation is free, but ministry is expensive.

For leaders, people's approval is a want; for managers, approval is a need.

The best ladder holders are excellent managers. Once they devise a plan, they can make things happen.

For leaders, ideas, concepts, visions, dreams, and entrepreneurship, fills their tank,  puts a smile on their faces, and makes them excited. For managers, fulfilment, affirmation, and encouragement are the major motivators.

Managers get the most out of themselves, but leaders get the most out of others.

Source: Who's Holding Your Ladder by Samuel R. Chand

Summary Attempt: Who's Holding Your Ladder; Chapter 4

Summary Attempt: Who's Holding Your Ladder; Chapter 6

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SUMMARY ATTEMPT | WHO'S HOLDING YOUR LADDER | SAMUEL R. CHAND | CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 4

HOW DO WE RECRUIT VOLUNTEERS?

My advice is simple. Stop asking for volunteers. We need to view volunteers as unpaid staff. I've come to the conclusion that the most qualified people are waiting to be recruited. They don't rush to sign up on the legal pad hanging on the bulletin board. They don't call the worship leader's cell phone. They're there, available, and they're willing to serve if they're asked. We need to learn how to recruit volunteers.

Followers didn't choose Jesus; Jesus chose followers. Jesus held a powerful vision of his ladder that stretched from earth to heaven. He didn't want just anyone supporting him. in fact, just before his betrayal, Jesus said to his disciples: "you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain" (John 15:16a)

If we want something to happen, we rely on those who are talented, gifted, and who can make it happen. We don't sit around and hope they will knock on our doors. Like Jesus did, we go after them and say, "We want you. We have a place for you"

Wise leaders assimilate people by recognising their gifts and placing them in the right role.

We need different ladder holders for different levels of ministry.

IMPORTANT ISSUES, IMPORTANT RECRUITING

If a tree starts growing right the first time, we don't have to spend all kinds of time trying to straighten it out.

Leaders ask what and why; followers asked how and when.

BEFORE CLIMBING LADDERS

Before we start climbing we have to do three things:

1. We need to decide where we want to go.

2. We need to be clear about our vision.

3. We need to ask ourselves: what are we doing to prepare ourselves as better communicators?

I also remind church leaders that whenever we get up to preach, we need to remind ourselves that we have five generations facing us. How effective am I at reaching them? For us to be more effective, what are we putting in our tool kits on communication skills, storytelling skills, movement, hand gestures, body language, and vocabulary? What are we reading that puts us in touch with the now generation? It's also important to remind ourselves that everyone is not a leader. God doesn't call all of us that way.

Source: Who's Holding Your Ladder by Samuel R. Chand

Summary Attempt: Who's Holding Your Ladder; Chapter 3

Summary Attempt: Who's Holding Your Ladder; Chapter 5

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SUMMARY ATTEMPT: WHO'S HOLDING YOUR LADDER | CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 3

FIVE CORE QUALITIES OF LADDER HOLDERS

Those who are gripping the ladder don't have to agree with my tactics or methods. They do have to believe in my vision and agree with where I'm going.

There are five essential qualities we seek:

1. Strength: If they need to be corrected in certain areas, they can change without my having to worry about how much I am going to hurt their feelings. We need strong ladder holders; so strong enough to take criticism and who wants to do better. “the greater the need, the shorter the prayer”, I must have people holding the ladder who can handle instructions in two or three words and be able to do it quickly.

2. Attentiveness: They ought to be alert to what I'm saying and absorb it quickly. I don't want to give them the same lessons repeatedly. We don't have to chase after attentive people repeatedly; they understand the first time.

3. Faithfulness: They must have faith in me as their leader and be committed to me. If they aren’t faithful to me – if they aren't committed to the same vision I am – they will abandon me. I need people who remain at the ladder no matter how difficult things become. As long as I am up there, the faithful show me that I can be assured they are down below.

4. Firmness: Manipulative people who won't be able to exploit them. Terrorism in the church is nothing new, but it is usually cloaked in clothes of ecclesiastical language, hidden in the bylaws, or made to sound spiritual and appealing.

Three Important Lessons

a. If we disagree with our leader, we don't do so publicly. We need to discuss it with that person in private.

b. If we disagree, we ought to search our motives before we speak. We need to be sure that others don't set us up. They won't speak up themselves, but they will find naive and trusting souls to do the work for them.

c. If we disagree, we should be sure we don't do it for personal gain.

5. Loyalty: They don't always agree but;
(i) They may disagree with my head but not to my heart 
(ii) They may disagree with how I do things but not why I do things 
(iii) They may disagree with my methods but not my motivations.

PASTOR OR CEO

Even though they are both pastor and CEO, they can't be both at the same time.

The first lesson we learnt is that we hire people for what they know and we fire them for who they are. When we select ladder holders, we need to spend more time with who they are rather than what they know. Troubles in the job usually start over personality issues and not over competency.

This leads me to the second lesson I've learnt: hire slowly and fire quickly. It's better to have a vacancy than to have bad help. Don't rush hiring decisions, don't delay firing decisions.

The third lesson I learnt is this: the best the best time to fire somebody is the first time it goes through your head. I've also learnt that if the situation is serious enough to fire people and we don't, after that we begin to search for reasons to keep them. When you are assigned the task of taking the hill – or the market – you are less concerned about who is for you and more and more concerned about who is with you. Those who make pledges are for us; those who pay their pledges are with us. We don't have to be involved with churches very long before we recognise that there is a large gap between those two groups.

THREE LEVELS OF LADDER HOLDERS

1. Followers: may refer to everyone in the congregation.

2. Ministers: those who have a heart to serve others.

3. Leaders: They minister through others.

Ministers do service primarily by themselves; leaders do service through others.

Source: Who's Holding Your Ladder by Samuel R. Chand

Summary Attempt: Who's Holding Your Ladder; Chapter 2

Summary Attempt: Who's Holding Your Ladder; Chapter 4

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SUMMARY ATTEMPT | WHO'S HOLDING YOUR LADDER | SAMUEL R. CHAND | CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 2

 WHAT KIND OF PERSON IS HOLDING YOUR LADDER?

Ladder holders are the foundation of any organisation. They are the ones who allow leaders to reach their highest potential. They have the ladder held so securely that the leaders don't have to fret or constantly worry if they will fall.

We need to pick the right people to do the job we want done.

NEGATIVE QUALITIES

Here are the kinds of people we don't want to hold our ladders:

1. We don't want people who need constant reminding.

2. We don't want those who behave casually. I want to make sure that my ladder holder understands what I'm trying to accomplish.

3. We don't want resume builders. As leaders, we need to choose those who are committed to us.

4. We don't want unhappy people.

5. We don't want people just to agree.

Source: Who's Holding Your Ladder by Samuel R. Chand 

Summary Attempt: Who's Holding Your Ladder; Chapter 1

Summary Attempt: Who's Holding Your Ladder; Chapter 3

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SUMMARY ATTEMPT | WHO'S HOLDING YOUR LADDER | SAMUEL R. CHAND | CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 1

WHO’S HOLDING YOUR LADDER?

Whether in management or systems, the effectiveness of a leader depends on the person or persons who hold the ladder; those who are in support roles.

Those who hold the ladders are as important as the leaders themselves.

Those who faithfully support from the bottom are often unseen. That doesn't diminish their importance or the need for them. It does mean that even though their ministries or their positions are every bit as important as the leader on the top, sometimes they do their work unnoticed. Sometimes, God may be the only one who knows who’s holding the ladder.

The ladder holder determines the height of the ladder climber; those who hold the ladder control the ascent of the visionaries.

LADDERS AND LEADERSHIP

Three ways in which we do ministry: the first is to do everything ourselves. that's too much work. The second is to hire it out. That is too much money. The third is to develop others. that is too much time.

Because they didn't teach others to hold the ladders for them, a few visionaries have fallen. Others have burned out from overwork and trying to do everything themselves. Some have simply quit trying.  “It’s just too hard” they say, “and too lonely.”

There is a vast difference between training people and developing them. Training focuses on tasks; developing focuses on the person. Training is uni-directional; developing is omni-directional.

God never intended for the local church to be a one-person organisation.

If we don't develop and equip others, we’re never going to have the kind of ladder holders we need - especially when we want to climb to the highest rungs.

We can't treat people the way we treat ideas or activities.

We need to help those we develop to: Understand their purpose, grasp why their roles are important, cope with disappointments as well as with success, ignite their passion, be inspired to reach their fullest potential.

Having many activities isn't always advancing.

We leaders need ladder holders the most when we make the jump from activities to working with individuals.

We lead people but we manage things.

Too many of those who call themselves leaders are actually good at projects. They can visualise what needs to be done.

Dealing with projects is easier; dealing with people is more difficult.

All projects need people - but they need the right kind.

THE RIGHT LADDER HOLDERS

I've come to one foundational understanding: The most important decision leaders make; is to select the right helpers. If they don't have the right people holding the ladder, the project will fail.

In the church we need to choose leaders who are involved, active and already showing their commitment to Jesus Christ by their involvement. In business, we need the same kind of dedication. When we look at the qualities we seek, however, before anything else we need to start with integrity.

In God's eyes, people count more than bridges, elevators, escalators, or ladders.

The fulfillment of the vision depends on the people who support the ladder of the visionary leader.

The higher we need to go, the more important the ladder holders become.

Source: Who's Holding Your Ladder by Samuel R. Chand

Summary Attempt: Who's Holding Your Ladder; Introduction

Summary Attempt: Who's Holding Your Ladder; Chapter 2

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