To all of you married guys out there: this post is for you.

Marriage is an interesting relationship in that if your marriage is not thriving, neither is any other area of your life. Yet if your marriage is strong, you can weather parts of your life that are in a valley.

So let me ask you a question: are you a visible man for your wife?

I don’t know about you, but in my role as an executive pastor, I am having to simultaneously manage two seemingly conflicting realms. There is the 35,000 foot view, where I must be able to see the vision that needs to be crafted and executed. In addition, there is also the boots-on-the-ground view, where I am involved with the details that help a team arrive at a destination.

If I am not careful, I can easily fall into the trap of consistently giving my thinking and energies to what seems most advantageous at the moment. The result is that I am very liable to miss longterm strategic thinking and planning. There is no lack of busyness, but I end up looking back and thinking “Why didn’t this get done like we planned?”

Have you heard about the new app that is just killing it? It’s called Sarahah and it has quickly risen to the new #1 app in the Apple App Store.

It’s marketing push is simple: “Get honest feedback from your coworkers and friends.”

Change. Not a word we always like to speak about as leaders. Personal change is never easy, especially when it involves my own character. And there just seems to be an increased level of difficulty when it involves change of those around me with whom I have influence or responsibility. Like jumping into the unknown. So how do I help others authentically change?

I consider one of my roles as a leader to help shape those in my sphere of influence. Leading is not just about projects. It is more importantly about people.

Today we are on my final post of my “everyday carry” (or EDC) for leadership. It has been extremely helpful for me to think through those essentials that help me to be a strong leader and maximize my influence with others.

Have you ever considered those items that are foundational to your being an engaging leader? You need to. Because no one ever drifts into healthy leadership practices. What are your “go to’s”?

In past posts, we have looked at some of the essentials of what I “carry with me” in order to have a vibrancy and robustness in interacting with people and projects: indispensable reads, personal character traits, and apps that I use that are getting it done for me. 

In recent weeks, I have been discussing that necessary gear, tangible or intangible, that is helping me be a more effective leader. I call them my “everyday carry” items for leadership. Part 1 is an ensemble of readings and writings that are making a dent in my thinking. Part 2 articulated four character traits that I deem absolutely essential to “getting it done.”

In part 3 today, I want to share with you four apps that are giving me the ability to manage my day as well as interactions with others. And these apps have both desktop and mobile versions available which give some nice multi-platform functionality.

This post continues the theme of “everyday carry.” If you read my prior post, it is all about those things that we carry with us that we deem as essential and necessary to help us in our day. As an executive pastor, I am all about gaining insights into what can make my day more effective with others. 

In a twist of the term, I wanted to challenge us that there should be an “everyday carry” for us as leaders, those indispensable tangibles or intangibles that make us what we want and need to be as leaders.

In part 2 of my everyday carry for leadership, I want to list four characteristics that have served me well in my almost 30 years of being in various leadership positions.

Have you every heard of the term “everyday carry” or EDC? It has become quite the phenomena. At its most literal meaning, everyday carry refers to those things that you carry everyday with you in your pockets or in your bag.

They are the essentials, the things you check for each time you leave the house, those things that you cannot do without. They speak of what helps you feel prepared, those items of utility that help create a more effective day. In another sense, it has fueled a desire for knowing what other people carry with them that they deem to be a great product. 

Check out everydaycarry.com – it provides some great visuals if you have never been exposed to this concept before.

I definitely have my own set items that I deem to be of the everyday carry variety.

Though other means of communication have evolved, email continues to maintain its traction. And one of the ways as a leader that my email gets utilized is for subscriptions. If I am going to lead well, I have to be reading other’s thoughts.

But not all content subscribed to is worth my while. There are those that I want, like an engaging leadership blog, but there are those that I dislike, like the ones for major discounts on monogrammed coffee mugs. Free cat poster included.

(Sigh) Again? Ok, who signed me up for that?

It’s a noisy world, isn’t it?

And I do not mean the noise that occurs from that which we call progress: transportation, production, and commerce.

No, I am referring to the noise of all the words we hear everyday. As I wait for flights at an airport, there is always this low murmur of hundreds of voices all mingling at once. And not one discernible conversation among all of the voices around me.

I know I am a geek for new products or processes that help me do my job with more energy or more effectiveness. But this one is really working well for me and so I wanted to throw it out to you as my readers.

I recently got me a standup desk.

I recall 30-35 years ago when I was a teen and my dad worked in the concrete construction business. He was a foreman and would travel from job to job to check in on his guys and the progress of their work. I worked a couple of summers and got to ride around with him.

The crews loved him. Beyond his care for them as people, he was super organized in his work. He knew details, remembered conversations, and made things happen. These were also the days before smartphones and task management apps. 

So what did he use? I distinctly remember. 

I get embarrassed over how many times I have to ask a new contact for their name…a second time.

It’s like they just told me their name and by the end of the conversation, I am asking, “So…tell me your name again?” And even then there might be a chance that I struggle to keep that name with me.

Why does that happen?

Routine is nice, but routine can make me too settled in my thinking at times. I am a linear thinker and I enjoy processes. I appreciate practices that help move me to successful thinking or profitable action.

I like systems that work once and then keep working thereafter.

But I never want my thinking to go stale. Regardless of your vocation, stale thinking does not promote God-glorifying action. I believe that is one reason that God gave us creativity – to push the fences of typical thinking to new possibilities and fresh outcomes.

So how many of you identify with this scenario?

I hear about a situation second or third-hand and in listening to the information, my judgement begins to be swayed and I have already made my verdict and issued a decree of “Guilty!” And this is the mindset in which I approach the other person.