Just finished reading Killing Cockroaches by Tony Morgan. I got it in the mail a few weeks ago and was dying to read it. I heard from some friends that the book was Tony’s blog basically printed out and bound as a book. I read his blog on a regular basis, so I decided to put the book aside instead of diving right in. I was sort of disappointed thinking I had already heard all of the material.
I am so glad I finally picked it back up yesterday. It is Tony’s blog all put together in a book, but that is what makes it such a great tool for leaders. I was reminded of some great leadership nuggets that hit me differently now than the first time I read them.
Killing Cockroaches really focuses on some areas that I need to grow in as a leader. I have been privileged to hold some leadership positions at a relatively early age. Most of these have been in a ministry context where resources and manpower are both in short supply. As a result, as a leader, I have not only build the team, trained the team, and led the team, I have also had to spend a lot of time on the details. That is what Morgan refers to as “killing cockroaches”. He encourages leaders to take time to assess what they are spending their time on and ask the question, “who else could be doing this at least 80% as well as I can do it?” If you can think of someone on your team that fits that bill, they should be doing it.
He reminds leaders that we are to cast vision and make sure the team, ministry, insert your context here, is working together towards that common goal. If not, either you aren’t a great leader, or you haven’t surrounded yourself with a great team.
He also focuses a lot on simple and strategic moves over more complex ones. In reading, I was challenged to ask myself, can I explain my goals to my team in a 5 minute meeting? If not, you might want to look at simplifying in order to be excellent in a few areas rather than scattered in several.
My goal was to read this book just for pleasure reading and give my well-used highlighter a little bit of a summer vacation. However, I realized that instead, I was dog-earing every page I wanted to go back to, so I just whipped out the highlighter at the end. Here are a few of my take-aways.
- “10 easy ways to keep me awake and engaged during an entire message: be real, talk like normal people talk, use humor, don’t tell me what to think, be honest, avoid being too polished, reveal your weaknesses, be brief, make me smart, and tell me why i should care.” (p 176-177)
- “If all I’ve ever known is straw houses and I control every detail of their construction, then my leadership will never generate brick house ideas.” (p 181)
- I was challenged to remember that positive feedback will usually always go a lot further than constructive criticism. God is reminding me that I love to be encouraged, therefore, my first thought should always be to encourage others. (p 185)
- My first response is usually to try to fix a problem. God is teaching me to keep my mouth shut so that others will have an opportunity to contribute. If I always bully my way to the front of the discussion, my team is going to miss out on a lot of great ideas. I always tell my students to remember that God gave us two holes (ears) to hear with and only 1 hole (mouth) to speak with. Doesn’t that mean I should listen twice as much as I talk?