ARTICLES BY DR. ANDY NEILLIE, CSP

If you don’t like change, you better love irrelevance…

I’ve been a member of Recreational Equipment Incorporated for more than 20 years.  REI started out as a small mountain-climbing buyer co-op, and I was into mountain climbing in high school and college.  REI has grown to become an international member co-op with retail locations across the US and around the world, and their gear has gone far beyond ropes, carabiners and pitons.

Their equipment now even includes headlamps – incredibly bright LED lights mounted on elastic –

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In his excellent leadership book, Axiom, Bill Hybels challenges us to “Hire Tens.” By this, he means that we should only hire a leader who is a “10” at their job: top-caliber in their abilities to lead and drive excellence. The fear is that, if we hire an 8, the best that person can get underneath them is a 6 or 7, and pretty soon we have 2s, 3s and 4s doing the work of our organizations.

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A recent blog entry about The Leader’s Hour generated some interest in what practices a leader engages to start their day off right. While not a perfect approach, here are the five things I do to start my day off well. What would you add to this list?

• Scripture reading and reflection. For the past four years, I’ve been using a through-the-Bible-in-a-year program as part of the OliveTree bible app on my iPad.

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The Leader’s Hour:

• Prioritize prioritizing.
• Begin with the end in mind.
• Start slow to go fast.
• Reflect for impact.
• Start like no one else to end like no one else.

It doesn’t matter who the leader is, they all know the same thing: leaders must spend time on their own, ahead-of-time, deciding where to invest their influence.

I call it The Leader’s Hour.

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In addition to the leadership and training work I do, my wife and I own several local businesses in Central Texas: Aqua-Tots Swim Schools.  These schools are child-friendly year-round indoor swim centers. Our team members at these schools get to help thousands of children annually become safe and comfortable in the water.  They are making a significant difference in Central Texas, which faces a real challenge when it comes to little children and water.

This year,

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