Lasting Impression Teams - We exist to create a welcoming experience thru serving with excellence

Many years ago, I can recall asking my brother what was so exciting about watching a bunch of cars drive around in a circle for hours. He said he couldn't explain it, you had to experience it in order to understand.
About 2 years ago, my husband and I started watching Nascar on TV. Good friends of ours went to Phoenix twice a year for the races and had been encouraging us to check it out. What can you say about a sport on national TV that prays before each race, and doesn't race on Mother's Day or Easter? There was even a driver involved in Pug Rescue, so he became "my driver".
Last year we started talking about renting a motor home and joining our friends in the April '08 race in Phoenix. I do have to admit that I have never seen a complete race on TV, I watch the beginning, check back about half way and watch the last 20 laps or so. (The hockey fan in me likes to watch the wrecks!) So, an entire weekend of racing was a HUGE step for me. We bought tickets, but missed out on the RV spots. As an alternative we were going to stay with family and drive home from the race each night.
Last week, Ken was able to find an RV spot on eBay. We were in! I was so excited about staying at the event and taking in the whole event without wearing myself out, I started making a list of what I needed to pack on the back of one of the inserts during Ed's message last Friday. (sorry Ed - God was in the details of the camping/Nascar experience!)
The day before we left, Ken called at work with bad news. Remember the pug driver? Well, he lost his ride. I missed the chance to meet him by one race. Now I had just days to find a new favorite driver. Do I choose based on stats? Popularity? No, I have a much more scientific method - my anniversary date is 9/29, so I checked out those 2 drivers, but settled on #99 - Carl Edwards. Whenever he wins a race, he does a back flip off of the car.
Now I need to back up. In January I went to Napa for a girls weekend. One of the wineries that we toured sponsors a car in the Nascar West series (sort of like AAA ball) I asked if I could have my picture next to the car and the tour guide said I could climb in. I dropped my purse and my jacket and gave my girlfriend my glass to hold and I was in!



We arrived Thursday afternoon after an uneventful ride from San Diego and a slightly less than pleasant rental experience from the RV place. (They need some work on their customer service) After settling into our spot and meeting our neighbors we went to walk around. Walking around the merchandise trailers, I have never seen so many tattoo covered, beer drinking, chain smoking group of people - who were the nicest, friendliest group I have ever been around at a sporting event!
That night, I find out that instead of the trucks racing, the Nascar West series would be. I was so excited and surprised - I actually "knew" one of the drivers - after all I got to sit in his car.
Ken has been like a kid in a candy store all weekend - collecting autographs and free give-a-ways.
I have no idea what any of this blog has to do with leadership, but I had such a wonderful time, I wanted to share it. The noise and the adrenaline is indescribable. We are making plans to return again - maybe for November, but definitely April '09.
PS - I still haven't been able to sit through the entire race - even live.
PSS - Check out my Flickr account in the next few days. I'll have downloaded all the photos from the weekend.

Posted in: on Sunday, April 13, 2008 at at 7:23 PM  

This weekend Ed talked about how God prune's our lives to encourage/increase growth and to eliminate the not so good stuff in our lives. I don't know about you, but when I am being pruned I never see it until I am thru that season in my life. Only then, can I look back and see what God was doing. I find it much easier to recognize it in other peoples lives than in my own.
I have a new coworker who is in something like a pruning season. In the 4 weeks she's been here, she's been involved in a car accident, been late to work 3 times and gotten 2 parking tickets. She believes this isn't the place for her because she has had such a string of bad luck. I have been trying to tell her that when stuff like this happens, it's a lesson not a punishment. After hearing Ed's message, I can better explain this season in her life. I hope she decides to stick it out, because I know she can make such a positive difference here.

Posted in: on Monday, April 7, 2008 at at 12:39 PM 1 comments  

Posted in: on Friday, April 4, 2008 at at 12:57 PM 1 comments  

As everyone is aware of, I'm sure, that Rod is no techno-phobe. At one point in time, I believe he possessed 3 cell phones, a PDA and a laptop. He has been after me, as well as others at Journey, to join a variety of organizational networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Skype and Flickr. I am no techno-guru, so these all sounded like a foreign language to me. I wondered, with email, why did I need all this other stuff?
I was excited to see a watered down definition of these networks in a recent article in Fortune magazine (the March 31st issue) The article is called Web 2.0 Gets Over Its Goofing-Off Phase, by David Kirkpatrick. It talked about companies that offer services that create a constant stream of inter linked data. This data can be about your organization, business contacts, or about yourself. The article mentions a bit about Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and Dopplr. David Kirkpatrick has a column for additional info on Web 2.0 tips.
I am still not as tech-savvy as others around me, but I have joined Facebook (I have one friend - Rod - so far) and I joined Flickr to share my photos with my family. I will have to wait and see about Twitter - I just can't image my friends and family need to know that I washed dishes 6 hours ago, or just finished a book 1 hour ago.

Posted in: on Monday, March 31, 2008 at at 6:14 PM 2 comments  

On Saturday I was gossipping with one of my dear friends, who was confessing (among other things) that she fed her children chocolate chip cookies for breakfast. Somewhere in our conversation, she mentioned that I haven't posted to the LIT blog in sometime. I told her I was working on one about a book that I just finished, but I was still trying to put my thoughts in order. I was accused of being to analytical - so in honor of my dearest friend- here is a post that rambles!
Yesterday was Easter. This year, in planning for this large event, I took a step back and allowed the leaders of each individual team to plan their coverage. I purposely didn't volunteer to greet or serve as an usher. I wanted to just attend a holiday service for a change. In the past, it was not unusual for me to serve at every service we held during a holiday weekend. I made sure all the team leaders had the necessary info and passed along those who were interested in being a "First Serve". These amazing leaders ran with it! Each team recruited from among their regular team members, and promptly contacted First Serves. Every service - including a 5:30 Good Friday service had plenty of help. Team members stepped up and filled in when a leader had a daycare challenge. Sunday greeters volunteered to "lead" at Good Friday where we can sometimes be "greeter challenged". It was humbling and moving to see everyone work together to serve our Lord.
I was able to attend the second service with my in-laws. (yeah I got them to come back - they were last here for Christmas - baby steps!) Although it was really nice to sit and enjoy the worship and the message - I felt totally disconnected and out of sorts! I realized, although I have some leadership gifting, I am really wired to serve! I felt left out and really missed that "serving high" I get after helping with big events, such as Christmas, Easter and the Summit.
I have exactly 135 days until I get my Summit service high and 276 until Christmas. I hope my leaders don't mind that I am going to stick my nose back in and serve right along side of them!

Posted in: on Monday, March 24, 2008 at at 12:29 PM 1 comments  

Dan Sanders is the CEO of the award winning service oriented United Supermarkets. His book Built to Serve
talks about how to put people first and how by doing that it increases the bottom line. Some insights I gained -

• There is something special about being called to serve
• Team members remember leaders who make the time to take the time
• The vision is everything!
• Above all Have Fun

LIT is preparing to gather to create purpose statements. I found this book very insightful. It mentioned that an effective vision statement has less to do with success and more to do with significance. It compared organizations to a team, and a team has fans and players. Players represent a team every day. Regardless of whether they are playing or not, they are still part of the team; players rely on one another. Fans on the other hand are fickle (fair weather) If a team recruits "warm bodies" rather than hiring for the vision, fans tend to infiltrate the team. The larger the team, the more difficult to spot the impostor(s). Team players are the first to spot the impostor, and the leader(s) tends to be the last. Fans don't contribute much to the team. In fact they may cause more damage than if the team had played a man down for a while until the right person could be found to fill the vacancy. Once a fan has infiltrated the team, it can be painful to remove them from the organization. Scouting for "players" is time well spent. It's important to remain faithful to the values and make decisions based on your beliefs and/or principles not on what is popular. Time should be taken to fully explain what our team(s) represents and make sure the commitment/vision is understood and embraced whole heartedly before a long term contract is entered into. I am going to keep these lessons in mind as I work on team descriptions for our church website. I now see the importance of recruiting with the team vision foremost in my mind, not just to bring people on-board because we are short handed somewhere.

Posted in: on Monday, March 10, 2008 at at 7:52 PM 1 comments  

I work for a large heath care organization. I can come in contact with around 100 patients per week. If you have ever seen The Doctor with William Hurt , you can understand that I try to treat each patient as an individual and connect in some way. On Thursday a coworker came into my office and said she had a patient asking for me. This gentleman had not been in to see us in over a year. At our last encounter we talked about his music, collage football and about how ill his wife was. He specifically asked for me to let me know that his wife had passed away. He said he wanted me to know because I had taken such an interest in them the last time he was in the office. It made me realize you never know how you are going to impact people, and how precious each encounter is. I have a daily opportunity to leave a lasting impression (positive or negative) with each and every interaction I have with people.

Posted in: on Sunday, March 2, 2008 at at 6:37 AM 2 comments