004 | LIVE LEAD LOVE & 5F Framework

Speaker A: Welcome to Leadership by Faith, where we believe that leadership starts within and faith is the foundation we stand on. I'm your host, Miya Allen, executive leadership coach, speaker, founder of Lead in Life, and fellow traveler on the journey to leadership Excellence. Each week we'll explore explore how to live by faith, lead with excellence, and love intentionally as we transform how we show up, uh, at home, at work and in our communities. Because when faith and service leads, leadership follows. In today's episode of Leadership by uh, Faith, we're laying the foundation. If you ever wondered what it truly means to integrate your faith with how you live, how you lead, and how you love, uh, this episode is for you. I'm introducing the three pillars that define this journey to leadership excellence. Live, lead, and love. That's Live by faith, lead with excellence, and love the way that God loves. Uh, and I'm also going to walk you through the 5F framework. Faith, fitness, family, finance, and fun. I like to consider this a practical structure to help you examine your foundation and align every area of your life. Because leadership doesn't begin with some position that you hold. It begins with alignment. If you're ready to move from inspiration to intentional growth, stay with me. Let's build your leadership from the inside out. Welcome back to Leadership by Faith, where we put faith and service first and leadership always. I'm Mia Allen and I'm glad that you're joining me again on this journey to leadership excellence. So let's get started. If this is your first time listening, welcome. However, I encourage you to go back and check out the previous episode. It's entitled the Journey Begins. And during that episode, I shared what, what Leadership by Faith is all about. I also shared the three pillars and the 5F, uh, framework that's going to guide our journey to leadership excellence. If you already listened to that episode, you already know this podcast is about integration. It's about integrating your faith with your leadership. Not faith over there in one box and leadership over here in another box, but faith leading and integrating your leadership. Today, we're laying the foundation. I'm going to walk you through the three pillars. Live, lead, and love. And I'm going to walk you through the 5F practical structure that that's going to support these three pillars. So if you're a note taker like I am, go grab something to take notes with. Pen, pencil, paper, iPad, phone, whatever it is. And if it seems a little bit fuzzy to you right now, not to worry, because this is where clarity begins. Let's start with pillar number one. Live before you lead anything. You are living something. What I mean by that is right now, in this very moment, you are living. You're working, you're socializing. Uh, you're in an environment that's made up of your thoughts, your decisions, your actions, your habits, your disciplines. And that may or may not be described as you're living by faith. So let's talk about what living by faith is. Wait, back up. Uh, back up. Before we get to what living by faith is, let's be clear on what living by faith is not. It's not a passive belief. That's what it's not. It is, however, daily alignment with our Creator God. Living by faith is waking up in the morning and thanking God for your life. Walking by faith. Living by faith is asking. Before you put your foot on the ground, before you start going about your day is asking, lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, how do you want me to show up today? Living by faith means your identity is rooted and grounded in Christ, not performance. You're not performing for anyone. Living by faith means your peace is not dependent on the outcome of your day. Because when you're living by faith, you can find peace in the chaos. Living by faith means that your confidence comes from obedience to God and the nudging of the Holy Spirit, not from the applause of people or some group of people. When you live by faith, faith, you stop striving and looking for validation, and you start moving with boldness and conviction. And here's what I know is true. If your private life is chaotic, your leadership life will eventually reflect that chaos. That's why the live pillar comes first. Because right now, we're not living by faith. Maybe Monday we do, but Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday we're not. And maybe on Sunday we do. So we have to literally retrain ourselves to live by faith. And that brings us to our first foundational scripture that's aligned with this live pillar. Yes, we're going to stand on the Word on this journey to leadership, excellence. So the first foundational scripture is Acts 17:28. Acts 17:28, I'm going to read, is through him that we live and function and have our identity. Just as your own poets have said, our lineage comes from him. Now let's talk about pillar number two. Lead. This pillar is about leading with excellence. Leadership is stewardship. It's all about stewardship and influence. Whether you're leading a family, a company, a team, uh, whether you're leading a ministry, leading in a classroom, or you're just leading yourself. When we add excellence to the word leadership, it makes some people a little bit nervous. And I think that's because people hear the word excellence and they think perfection or something very close to it. But excellence isn't perfection. Let me tell you what perfection is. I know because I am, um, a recovering perfectionist. Perfection is tying your identity to what you're trying to achieve. And usually what you're trying to achieve is some unattainable standard because you're in pursuit of a flawless outcome, which is impossible. Again, I know this because I'm a recovering perfectionist. Excellence, on the other hand, think of excellence as continuous improvement. Excellence is learning and growing towards achieving the best possible outcome without it being tied to your identity. The bottom line is leading with excellence is not perfection. Leading with excellence is intentional effort that's, uh, aligned with purpose. And leading with excellence matters because it intertwines with how you show up. Think about this for a minute. If you're leading with excellence, it would look like you communicating clearly and effectively to whomever you're speaking to. Leading with excellence is you following through. Not sometimes, but following through consistently. Leading with excellence looks like you measuring what matters. Leading with excellence means you developing others, teaching others you. Leading with excellence means you show up not only holding yourself accountable, but now you have the courage to hold others accountable. But here's the difference between leading with excellence and not. When we lead with excellence, we. We're not in pursuit of anything to massage our ego. And remember, ego is edging God out. When we lead with excellence, we are not looking for our identity. We don't pursue excellence for our own personal feel good moment. We pursue excellence for one reason and one reason only. Because we represent Christ. And that should change everything. Which brings us to our lead. Foundational scripture. Yes, we're standing on the Word, so write this one down. It's Colossians 3 and 23. Colossians 3 and 23. And I'm going to read it for you. Put your heart and soul into every activity. You do as though you are doing it for the Lord himself, and not merely for others. Love the love pillar. That's pillar number three. Now this pillar. This pillar will transform your leadership from good to great, from great to godly. This pillar. When you get this pillar right, you're on your way. The first thing I'd like to say about love is that it is not a feeling. Yeah, you feel things when you love, but love is not a feeling. It is a action. And more importantly, it is a decision to take an action. You know, you can be disciplined. You can live discipline. You can lead strategically and excellently. But if you don't love well, your influence and the trust others have in you, it will have its limits. Loving the way God loves means a lot of things. But what means to me so much is being patient when you're frustrated, giving grace when someone fails, speaking the truth with love and compassion and kindness, correcting without humiliation. And yes, love also means setting boundaries, but doing it without bitterness. Basically, loving the way God loves is servant leadership in action. Or it could also be called strength under control. But whatever you call it, know that leadership integrated with love leaves people better on purpose. You don't leave someone bruised, beat up, or bullied. You don't bully people. And let me say this very clearly. Love is not weakness or being soft, because I know some of you have been told that that's a lie. Love is not weakness or being soft. Love is restraint. Love is maturity. Love is power submitted to God. And yes, I'm going to read you the love scripture from the Bible, and I want you to write this one down as well. This is our foundational scripture for the love pillar. First Corinthians 13, 4, 8. Where did I put my Bible? Here we go. Here we go. Love is large and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and consistently kind to all. It refuses to be jealous when blessings come to someone else. Love does not brag about one's achievements or inflates its own importance. Love does not traffic in shame and disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honor. Love is not easily irritated or quick to take offense. Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. Love is a safe place of shelter, for it never starts. Stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat. Love never gives up. Uh, love never stops loving. It extends beyond the gift of prophecy, which eventually fades, is more enduring than tongues which will one day fall silent. And love remains long after words of knowledge are forgotten. All right, we've covered our three live, lead, and love. Now let's pivot from the three pillars to the structure that will support these three pillars. I call it the the five Fs, because leadership touches every part of your life. And I believe each of these Fs represent a part of our life. Faith, fitness, family, finance, fun. Let's walk through them briefly. Faith. When we talk about faith, we're talking about faith in God, not faith in yourself. Faith is the cornerstone, is the foundation, is the highest priority, and where everything begins. How you're living is directly aligned to pillar Number one, live and live. And your faith speaks to, I would say asking yourself the question, how is my prayer life? Do I have a prayer life? How is my surrender to God? Do I surrender to God? Am I obedient to God? Do I hear promptings from him and obey immediately? Am I studying the scripture? Do I even open the Bible? You know, the Bible gives us a lot of information and I like to make an acronym of it. BI B L E. Basic Instructions before leaving Earth. Or what I like to say is Basic Instructions before living in Eternity. When we talk about faith, what we're going to be focusing on in this podcast is surrendering our plans, aligning our purpose, and trusting God's direction over our own. Because when faith leads, everything else falls and follows in proper alignment. That brings us to another foundational scripture, which is Hebrews 11:6. Hebrews 11:6 is the foundational scripture for our first F, which is faith. Let me read it to you. And without faith living within us, it would be impossible to please God. For we come to God in faith, knowing that he is real and that he rewards the faith faith of those who passionately seek him. So in this, uh, faith element, what we want to do is go beyond believing that there is a God believing in God. We've got to go beyond that and understand that not only does God exist, but we must trust God. We must trust his character and all of his 8,000 plus promises in the Bible. Let's move to the second fitness. Fitness includes your mental, physical and emotional well being. If you think about it from a physical perspective, your body is a leadership tool. It's a vessel. So your energy matters, your rest matters, your discipline matters. You can't lead well when you're exhausted and depleted. And trust me, four hours of sleep on a consistent basis is not spiritual or wise. It's unsustainable. It's difficult to lead when your health is, is neglected or your emotions are out of balance or you have no idea what emotional intelligence is. Fitness is about caring for your body, caring for your mind and your emotions because they carry the vision that God has given you. So now that I've shared the first step, uh, faith. The second, fitness. These are the two pairs and I want you to think of them, um, as the foundation for how you live your life. Faith gives you direction and alignment. Fitness gives you endurance, stamina and courage so that you can follow the leading and guiding of God together. Faith and fitness, they're the foundation for self leadership. They prepare you to lead yourself well before you ever Try to lead others. That brings us to our fifth foundational scripture. First Corinthians 6, 19, 20. First Corinthians 6, 19,20. I'm going to read it. You. Have you forgotten that your body is now the sacred temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you? You don't belong to yourself any longer. For the gift of God. The Holy Spirit lives inside your sanctuary. You were God's expensive purchase, paid for with tears of blood. So by all means, then, use your body to bring glory to God. Moving on to the third element of our five Fs, which is family aligned with the lead pillar. As you increase in your faith and you strengthen your temple with fitness, your leadership is going to naturally expand to those closest to you. Your family, your friends, your teammates, uh, people in your community. We teach those around us. We don't always know that we're teaching, but we teach those around us. No, not literally, but how we live in our daily lives. We're modeling what it looks like to be grounded or concealed, to have kindness or be compassionate. This family element is about developing and maintaining healthy relationships that create stability and fulfillment while also influencing by being role models. This element will highlight your private faith as your faith is growing, and it'll highlight your personal discipline. And it'll be a public testimony. Your first ministry is at home. Home, meaning those closest to you. How you love them, how you listen to them, how you show up consistently for those who are closest to you. Leadership that wins publicly but fails privately is not leadership at all, and it definitely is not excellence. Think of your family and those closest to you as your training ground for leadership and spiritual maturity. Now this brings us to our next foundational scripture for the family element, which is first Timothy 3, 4, 5 and first Timothy 5 8, first Timothy 3, 45 and first Timothy 5 8. I'm going to read them for you. His heart should be set on guiding his household with wisdom and dignity, bringing up his children to worship with devotion and purity. For if he's unable to properly lead his own household, well, how could he properly lead God's household? Give me a second to locate. First Timothy 5, 8. It reads as follows. For if a believer fails to provide their own relatives when they are in need, they have compromised their convictions of faith and need to be corrected, for they are living worse than the unbelievers. Next is finance, the fourth element of our five Fs, which is also aligned with our, uh, lead pillar. Now, let's be clear. Finance isn't just about money. Yes, it includes money. And it's about managing and being a good steward of the resources God has placed in your hands. Being a good steward with integrity, with wisdom, and with purpose. You know, money stewardship means we have to relinquish the thought that money is all about our identity. It's not that again, would be going with your ego. And remember, ego is edging God out. We have to understand that money stewardship is relinquishing status attached to money or something to be compared to others. Our financial leadership becomes an extension, extension of our spiritual and personal leadership. Because how you handle resources reveals what you truly value. Having financial clarity will reduce your stress. I know it reduces mine. It not only reduces stress, but it increases our freedom to obey God fully. With your resources, it gives you the freedom to tithe accordingly. In this particular 5F element, we're going to explore financial stewardship and wealth building principles, both of which equates to financial freedom. Because let's face it, God wants us to be producers and stewards of wealth, not just consumers. He's blessing us for a reason. And that reason is to be a blessing to others. So that brings us to our seventh foundational scripture, which is Deuteronomy 8:18. And I know you're taking notes, so I'm going to say that again. Deuteronomy 8:18 is our seventh foundational scripture, and it reads as follows. But remember the Lord your God, he gives you the ability to produce wealth. That shows he stands by the terms of the covenant he made with you. He promised it to your people of long ago, and he's still faithful to his covenant today. Our final element of the five five Fs is fun. Fun is also aligned with our love pillar. Yes, fun, fun, fun. You gotta have fun. It is not optional. On this journey to leadership excellence, it is mandatory. You know, when you think of fun, I want you to think about joy. And joy is different from happiness. I know you've heard this before. If you haven't hear me clearly now. Joy is not the same as happiness. Happiness is something that's dependent on your happenings. Joy, on the other hand, is not dependent on what's happening in the moment. As a matter of fact, you could be going through trials and tribulations and still have joy. Joy. Joy is one of the fruits of the spirit, by the way, meaning God has already given us the capacity to have this internal joy which the world cannot give to you through happenings. This element of, uh, fun is all about celebration. It's about having joy with intentional rest. It's about being rejuvenated. It's about balance. It's about laughter. Again, it's about celebration. Joy is strength. Joy is rest, which is obedience. Celebration is like your gratitude in motion. All of these things are a part of having fun. If everything in your life feels heavy, something is wrong, something is out of alignment, a leader who doesn't know how to have joy, how to rest, eventually becomes a leader who gets burned out. Fun reminds us that we're not just called to build and to do and to grind and to do and to do some more and build and grind. No Fun reminds us that we're also called to enjoy what God is building in us and through us. That brings us to our eighth and final foundational scripture, which is Nehemiah 8 and 10. And I know you're writing this down, so I'm going to say it again. Nehemiah 8 and 10. And I'm going to read it. Then Ezra told them, go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, drink and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy to our Lord. And be not grieved and depressed, for the joy of the Lord is your strength and stronghold. We've covered a lot of ground. Here's what I want you to take away. The five Fs. Help you examine your foundation so that you can live, go, lead and love. Live by faith, aligned, uh, with God. Lead effectively with excellence and love intentionally the way that God loves. Now, you don't fix all five Fs at once, and you don't fix all five Fs permanently. It's a journey. It has ebbs and flows. So how do we do this? You assess. What are my opportunities for improvement? Where do I have gaps either in the pillars or in the five Fs? Then you pray. You invite the Holy Spirit on this journey with you, and you have faith that the Holy Spirit is with you. You then adjust. Adjust means exploring, learning, applying, and practicing. And then finally, you grow. And then repeat, assess, pray, adjust, uh, grow, repeat, assess, pray, adjust, uh, and grow. It's that simple, you know, Leadership, excellent excellence is built layer by layer from glory to glory. As we close today, I want to invite you to pause and reflect. Reflect on this question. Where does God want to strengthen you right now? I'm going to repeat it. Where does God want to strengthen you right now? Which of the three pillars feels the strongest right now? Live, lead, or love? Which one feels neglected? Also, think about the five Fs. Uh, which area needs your attention in this Season of your life? Is it your faith? Trusting God more fully? Your fitness? Caring for your mind, your body and your emotions? Or is it your family? Do you need to build, nurture or repair relationships? It could be your finances. Are you being a good steward with the resources God has given you? Or is it your fun? Is there joy in your life? And do you intentionally plan for and enjoy moments that bring you joy? Now don't overthink this because your spirit already knows whatever comes to mind first. That's where you start. That's where God is inviting you to build or rebuild. Remember, you don't need to become someone else to lead well. You need to be your authentic self. You need to be who God created you to be. You need alignment with your creator. You need surrender to God. You need consistency of purpose that's rooted in faith. And that's what we're building here on the journey to leadership excellence. One episode at a time. Let's pray. Father God, thank you for this moment to begin something new. Thank you for reminding us all that true leadership begins with you having faith in you, trusting you, God. Today we surrender our vision, our plans and our goals. We ask you, Lord Jesus, to be the cornerstone and to build the foundation of our lives and integrate it into our leadership. Show us where we're misaligned and your plan and your purpose for our lives. Teach us to live by faith, lead with excellence and love with courage. Align, uh, our Gods, Father. Refine our character and our habits and guard our hearts and give us the discipline to grow intentionally that we may lead others with grace, excellence and joy. Bless every listener on this journey to leadership excellence. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. You're listening to Leadership by Faith with Miye Allen. Thank you for spending this time with me. This episode was about clarity, helping you to understand our three pillars, live, lead, and love. And also the corresponding 5F framework that supports the pillars, which includes faith, fitness, family, finance and fun. If this episode resonated with you, blessed and encouraged you, make sure you leave a review, follow and subscribe. Share it with someone who's ready to grow in faith and leadership. In our next episode, we're going to go deeper into the first Pillar Live. We'll explore what it truly means to live by faith in your daily leadership. Bye for now. Remember, faith and service first. Leadership always. Because when faith and service leads, leadership follows. Until next time, be blessed and keep leading by faith while we journey to leadership excellence together. Uh, oh, yeah. If you would like to connect with me, visit my website@leadinlifellc.com that's leadinlifellc.com the link is in the description of the podcast. I'd love to connect with you M.