{"id":2323,"date":"2012-07-13T03:00:30","date_gmt":"2012-07-13T10:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=2323"},"modified":"2012-07-18T15:39:21","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T22:39:21","slug":"how-leaders-invest-their-energy-to-create-momentum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2012\/07\/13\/how-leaders-invest-their-energy-to-create-momentum\/","title":{"rendered":"How Leaders Invest Their Energy to Create Momentum"},"content":{"rendered":"

How important is the connection between where you invest your time, and the velocity of your church\u2019s forward momentum?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s everything.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Image via iStockPhoto.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Whether you\u2019re leading a small group, a ministry department, or the entire church, where you choose to invest your time will have a direct bearing on the likelihood that your church, ministry or department will surge ahead.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what it looks like in practical terms.<\/p>\n

Your energy as a leader can be invested in any one of three \u201ctime accounts\u201d; the \u201chistory account\u201d, the \u201cpresent account\u201d and the \u201cfuture account\u201d. All three are important, and you as a leader need to spend some time<\/em> investing in each of these.<\/p>\n

The key to forward momentum, though, is in knowing how much of your energy to invest in each of these accounts.<\/p>\n

Here is a basic investment guide.<\/p>\n

The History Account<\/strong><\/p>\n

Activity in this account includes such practices as staff reviews, preparing or analyzing reports, and looking at last quarter\u2019s financials.<\/p>\n

Each of these activities has a place in the life of the leader, but in any given week aim to spend no more than 10% of your time here.<\/p>\n

The Present Account<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another word for this account is \u201coperations\u201d. This includes all of your organization\u2019s ongoing or immediate activities, such as weekend services and other gatherings, as well as most administrative functions.<\/p>\n

As a leader you must invest some time here, but aim to invest no more than 40% of your time in the Present Account.<\/p>\n

The Future Account<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is where momentum is driven. This is where vision happens. This is where dreams are birthed and nurtured.<\/p>\n

Activities here include developing future leaders, strategic planning and long-term goal setting.<\/p>\n

Effective leaders know they must invest their best time to this account.<\/p>\n

Aim to invest no less than 50% of your time here.<\/p>\n

Note: these time suggestions are averages.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are seasons in your year when you\u2019ll invest more time in the History Account (such as year-end, or when preparing for an annual members meeting) as well as the Present Account (such as during Christmas production season).<\/p>\n

But these seasonal variations notwithstanding, use these time parameters to guide your energy investment strategy.<\/p>\n

The church-momentum dividends can be huge.<\/p>\n

Do you agree with these investment percentages?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How important is the connection between where you invest your time, and the velocity of your church\u2019s forward momentum? It\u2019s everything. Whether you\u2019re leading a small group, a ministry department, or the entire church, where you choose to invest your time will have a direct bearing on the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[738,478,7],"tags":[31,919,672,692],"class_list":["post-2323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-effectiveness-2","category-featured","category-leadership","tag-energy","tag-investment","tag-momentum","tag-time-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2323"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2343,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions\/2343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}