A.C. Sanford wants to direct the Super Bowl halftime show.
Recently, you might have seen him act on ABC’s Blackish, and as T-Mobile’s spokesperson.
Currently, he’s a Creative Producer at Reality LA and former Creative Director at FugeCamps.
He earned his B.F.A in Theatre Performance at the University of Central Florida, which comes in handy every time he plays Heads Up!.
A.C. and Stuart have an inspiring conversation regarding A.C.’s perspective on responsibility and leadership, how to lead with excellence while following the way of Jesus, and helping the next generation of leaders be leaders worth following. This is going to be a great listen!
We assume that when opportunity knocks, we must answer the door and embrace whomever or whatever is standing there. Opportunity does not equal obligation. The ability to identify and focus on the few necessary things is a hallmark of great leadership. Don’t allow the many good opportunities to divert your attention from the one opportunity that has the greatest potential. Often, the reason we won’t say no is that we are afraid.
• We fear disappointing people.
• We fear being passed by.
• We fear missing out on a good opportunity.
At some point along the way, every leader must come to grips with the fact that there will always be more opportunities than there is time to pursue them. Refusing to say no eventually robs leaders of their ultimate opportunity— the opportunity to play to their strengths.
When individuals refuse to face reality, we call that denial. Good leaders are willing to face and embrace current reality, regardless of how discouraging or embarrassing it might be. To be that kind of leader, you must be relentless in your quest to know the truth about what is happening around you and make it your habit to root out misinformation and refuse to reward those who deliver it. In doing so, you create a culture that is healthily transparent about what is and what is not taking place.
Leadership does not begin just with vision. It begins with getting people to confront the brutal facts and to act on the implications. (Good to Great)
Facing and embracing current reality is often nasty but always necessary: Nasty, because it may entail acknowledging that you aren’t as far along as you thought you were…. necessary, because you can’t get to where you need to be if you don’t know where you are to begin with.
So do not pretend. Do not turn a blind eye. Do not exaggerate. Do not shoot the bearer of bad news. Do not hide behind achievement. Do not ignore constructive criticism. Do not isolate thyself.
Resolve to be the best version of the leader God created you to be.
Every great accomplishment began as a dream. It is not the most-talented or best-educated leaders who accomplish the most; it is the men or women who refuse to put brackets on their thinking. If you fear your dreams, you will never try anything new. If you fear your dreams, you will never create anything new. If you fear your dreams, you will never give the world anything new. Our fear to dream usually stems from our fear of failure.
You have no idea what hangs in the balance of your decision to act courageously. Environments of uncertainty and fear are fertile soil for the emerging leader.
Throughout the Scriptures, God commands kings and leaders to act courageously. Why? Because the men and women God uses are no strangers to fear.
It’s interesting: at the conclusion of 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says, “Three things will last forever — faith, hope, and love — and the greatest of these is love.” INFLUNSR. speaks a lot about the discipline of planned neglect. It is the practical function of prioritizing, or resolve. It makes complete sense for you and I to begin at the end, to determine what is most important to us and construct our lives in such a way that drives everything toward that determined end. Faith, hope and love are that determined end for Jesus followers. But are those three things — and that one thing — most important to you?
As a leader, do you have a difficult time saying no? What do you need to put on your “not to do” list? Are there areas in your current slate of responsibilities that aren’t going well? Have you faced up to current reality in those areas, or are you pretending? What could be, and possibly should be, in your current areas of responsibility? Has fear kept you from moving forward? What are the unexploited opportunities in your arena of influence? What are you afraid of?
Let’s discuss this in the Circle…
In this Episode’s Version, INFLUNSR. asked you to read the origin story of a statue of a Greek woman standing proudly in the center of Enterprise, Alabama. Its white marble arms stretch high above its head. Braced in the beautiful woman’s hands is a round bowl, atop which is perched… an enormous bug.
Paul told the emerging faith community in Colossae, “Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.” (Colossians 3:16).
The phrase, “Here I raise my Ebenezer” is the beginning of the second verse of an old familiar hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. This hymn, written by Robert Robinson in 1758, stresses the joy of following Jesus and the Jesus follower’s need to rely on the Lord. Robinson chose the phrase, Here I raise my Ebenezer, from 1 Samuel 7:12, because it reminds God’s people how He he delivered Israel from danger.
Chapters 4 through 7 of 1 Samuel describe a series of battles between the Israelites and the Philistines. In an attempt to defeat the Philistines, the Israelites took the ark of the Covenant into battle as a sort of good luck charm. To their anguish, however, the Philistines captured the ark and took it back to their pagan temple. The Scriptures tell us that God then sent plagues upon the Philistines and caused the idol of their god Dagon to fall over on its face. Fearing God, the Philistines sent the ark back to the Israelites, but continued to fight. As they fought more battles, the prophet Samuel led the Israelites as their last judge. As prophet and judge, Samuel offered sacrifices to God, so that when the Philistines approached, God thundered with a great thunder (1 Samuel 7:10). In the confusion that followed, the Israelites soundly defeated the Philistines.
As a reminder of the great victory God gave to Israel, Samuel took a great stone and raised it as a memorial between Mizpeh and Shen. As he raised it he called the name of it Ebenezer (or stone of help), saying, “Up to this point the Lord has helped us!” (1 Samuel 7:12). Whenever the Israelites looked at the stone, they would remember how God had helped them. Unfortunately, the exact site of the stone is unknown today.
When we sing, Here I raise my Ebenezer, we are poetically quoting Samuel, who raised the Ebenezer stone to remind the Israelites of God’s help for them in their time of trouble. The words fit well with the sentiment expressed in the hymn:
Come Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me ever to adore Thee, may I still Thy goodness prove,
While the hope of endless glory fills my heart with joy and love.
Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I’ve come;
And I hope by Thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home.
What has been a boll weevil — that thing, that event, that person or place — that God has used to move you toward something greater? When is the last time you remembered what God has done for you? Is there a need for you to raise your own Ebenezer as a way to always keep the faithfulness of God in the forefront of your mind? Because if you fail to remember how faithful God has been to you in the past, you certainly won’t factor Him into your future.
Let’s dive into this in the Circle…
We asked you to watch The Tragedy of MacBeth. Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand star in Joel Coen’s bold and fierce adaptation; a tale of murder, madness, ambition, and wrathful cunning. Power-hungry Macbeth sets his sights on the Scottish throne after receiving a prophecy from three witches.
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a dramatization of the psychological repercussions of unbridled ambition. The play’s main themes — loyalty, guilt, innocence, and fate — all deal with the central idea of ambition and its consequences. Similarly, Shakespeare uses imagery and symbolism to illustrate the concepts of innocence and guilt.
Macbeth’s ambition is his tragic flaw. Devoid of any morality, it ultimately causes Macbeth’s downfall. Two factors stoke the flames of his ambition: the prophecy of the Three Witches, who claim that not only will he be thane of Cawdor, but also king, and even more so the attitude of his wife, who taunts his assertiveness and manhood and actually stage-directs her husband’s actions.
Macbeth’s ambition, however, soon spirals out of control. He feels that his power is threatened to a point where it can only be preserved through murdering his suspected enemies. Eventually, ambition causes both Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s undoing. He is defeated in battle and decapitated by Macduff, while Lady Macbeth succumbs to insanity and commits suicide.
Matthew 23:12 records Jesus saying, “… those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” The phrase given here could be read as a proverb: Those who seek prestige will find shame, and those who seek humility will find honor. This is more than a simple command from Jesus to be humble. It is a reminder that God works to humble those who try to exalt themselves, and at the same time, God works to lift up—to honor—those who intentionally serve others with a humble spirit.
How do you monitor and balance ambition and humility personally? Why is humility such a critical value of being a leader worth following?
Let’s discuss this in the Circle…
We asked you to read the USA Today article How Did Martin Luther King Jr. Day Become a Federal Holiday? Here’s the History.
On the third Monday of January every year, the federal government closes up shop for a day to honor civil rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. — who was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. But the road to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was fraught. It didn’t become a federal holiday until 1986, nearly 20 years after it was introduced to Congress, per the King Center. Even then, it faced an upward battle for all states to recognize the holiday, only getting nationally recognized in 2000.
How do you personally balance the indisputable impact of Dr. King’s life and mission with the reality that every person’s life and history is wrought with inconsistencies and faults? How does this relate to your own life and legacy?
Let’s discuss this in the Circle…
We asked you to read Dr. Martin Luther King’s A Letter From a Birmingham Jail.
In August 1963 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and sent to jail for protesting segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. After reading an open letter from eight white clergymen in the local newspaper criticizing him and his fellow activists, MLK decided he might as well write back to let them know what was on his mind.
How did Martin Luther King, Jr., make the decision to go to jail? Why did King decided to write the letter? What role did his wife, Coretta Scott King, play while King was in jail? Read the Statement by Alabama Clergymen about the protest. What are the main arguments of the statement? How do we, as a society, define an unjust law and which strategies are most successful in changing that law? If we are able to abolish legal injustice will it also result in abolishing social injustice?
Time to dive into this in the Circle…
We asked you to watch Adam Grant’s TED Talk Are You a Giver or a Taker?
In every organization, there are three basic kinds of people: givers, takers and matchers. Organizational psychologist Adam Grant breaks down these personalities and offers simple strategies to promote a culture of generosity and keep self-serving employees from taking more than their share.
Which of these four combinations best describes you as a leader: Are you an agreeable giver? A disagreeable taker? A disagreeable giver? Or an agreeable taker?
Let’s discuss this in the Circle…
We asked you to watch a TED Talk animation by Brendan Constantine titled The Opposites Game.
A classroom erupts into a war of words as students grapple with a seemingly simple prompt: what is the opposite of a gun? This animation is part of the TED-Ed series, “There’s a Poem for That,” which features animated interpretations of poems both old and new that give language to some of life’s biggest feelings.
Brendan Constantine describes the experience of teaching antonyms to kids — translating each word of Dickinson’s famed “My life had stood a loaded gun,” verse into opposites. He concludes his poem by saying, “The opposite of a gun is wherever you point it.” What are your thoughts about this? A bit deeper and more reflective than normal, but what do you think?
Let’s dive into this in the Circle…
Disclaimer:
INFLUNSR’s mission is to fuel the next generation of leaders worth following and to help students learn how to think, not what to think. Any articles posted and questions asked are intended for that sole purpose.