All posts by Jerry Strausbaugh

About Jerry Strausbaugh

I am a husband, dad, and director of a community agency for mental health, housing, and domestic violence shelter. I love to help people be all God created them to be.

The joy (and humor) humor of having daughters.

Faith, Life, The Joy (and humor) of raising girls.

Pixel project 4

I have loved being the dad to three wonderful daughters.

For all my father friends out there, I began to think about all of the questions my 18 year old daughter asks me that I have no answer for. Here is a sample from the week leading up to prom:

Krista: “Is this dress too short?”

Me: “I thought it was a shirt.” (I’m guessing that means it’s too short)

Krista: “Do you think all I need to buy is eyeliner?”

Me: Blank stare.

Krista: “Should I wear heals or wedges?”

Me: “There’s a difference?”

Krista: “Should I wear a kimono over this shirt?”

Me: “Isn’t that Japanese?”

Krista: “Does Wal-Mart sell seamless underwear?”

Me: “I didn’t know they made that.”

 Hang in there dads. Smile and enjoy your girls. They grow up way too fast. Be the kind of dad that they feel they can these kinds of questions to.

 

5 skills every executive must have | Behavioral Healthcare Magazine

Mental Health, Topics in Leadership, Uncategorized
Photo by: ralphbijker
Photo by: ralphbijker

Donna Marbury hit the nail on the head identifying the traits mental health leaders need to embody during this time of transition. Ohio Community Mental Health Centers (CMHC) are going through a period of fundamental change.

In her article she highlights the need for executives to 1) Embrace technology, 2) Encourage program innovation, 3) Be in tune with staff, 4) Understand patient needs, and 5) Have patience.

For Ohio CMHCs, technology is going to be one of the keys to staying relevant. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Ohio Behavioral Health Redesign (BHR) are emphasizing outcomes. Agencies that are stronger  at demonstrating patient improvement will have an edge. Being successful at this means embracing a powerful technology system that makes data easily accessible. Knowing the patients that are  served and how to adapt programming to increase accessibility and help them accomplish their goals will be essential. It also means finding ways to help each patient holistically. The outcomes that the ACA and BHR want to see reflect both physical and mental wellness.

Great clinicians and support personnel make this happen. No director can succeed without excellent staff that works well as a team.    Gary Humble of Pinnacle Partners, who is quoted in the article below says it well, “the infrastructure of the organization—the clinical and administrative pieces—must be in unison.”

There are many articles out there about what it takes to be a leader. If you’re in the behavioral health field, this one is  worth the read.

http://http://www.behavioral.net/article/5-skills-every-executive-must-have

Tomorrow is Easter

Faith, Life, The Church

 

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Tomorrow is Easter. I don’t have a vocabulary adequate enough to describe what the resurrection of Jesus meant for the universe. If you have the time,  listen to the last 10 minutes or so so if this powerful sermon. You’ll get a glimpse of who King Jesus is. If you have 66 minutes to hear the full sermon you’ll hear some transforming truth about prayer, your life, and The King.

Happy Easter. God bless.

Jerry

 

How BIG are your problems?

Faith, Life, Mental Health, The Church, Topics in Leadership, Work
Photo by Frank Wouters
Photo by Frank Wouters

Let’s face it, no matter what role in life you find yourself in, there are times your problems seem much bigger than the resources you have to solve them. If you are like me, when those perilous stretches of time are pressing in I don’t sleep well, I don’t eat well, and  I focus all my thoughts on how big the problems are and on how much power they have over me.   The more I obsess on my difficulties  the more dominance I allow them to have over me.

A few years ago the senior pastor of my church taught me a very powerful truth about problems. The truth is found in this simple phrase that resonates in my mind when difficult circumstances start to seem like they are going to have the upper hand.  My pastor’s words of truth: “If you have a BIG GOD you’ve got small problems; If you have a small god you’ve got BIG PROBLEMS.” This simple phrase helps me move away from emphasizing the power of the predicaments in front of me and helps me focus on the resources I have around me and inside of me.

As leaders when we see the threats in front of us we must reposition our fear and focus on the opportunities and strengths of our organizations. Concentrate on gathering the collective energy and creativity of our staff to find new paths forward. As parents we need to always be looking at our children’s many gifts, talents, and passions rather than their few hang-ups. Doing so helps them grow into their best selves. It also helps them see themselves through the lens of capability rather than inability.

So friends, let’s be real here. Life is hard. Each day brings its share of trouble. But by God’s grace, and by focusing on the resources we have, we can move forward helping our organizations and families be overcomers rather than overcome.

Blessings,

Jerry

 

 

 

Moving through the stressful times as a leader

Faith, Mental Health, Topics in Leadership, Work

Slieve League Cliffs Ireland

Anyone in a leadership role has felt it. That sense of crushing pressure compressing  on you by difficult circumstances. The pressure may be coming from internal or external forces. It may be complex and multifaceted.   Either way, as the primary decision maker and problem solver for an organization,  you feel the stress. We leaders respond to the pressure in different ways depending on our personalities or the make-up of our character.  Some of us get angry and aggressive. Others get distant and distracted. Some get sick. Yet some of us, on good days, find a way to move through the stress and remain hopeful. The pressures and circumstances pushing on us stay the same, but we were able to see them differently. We see them as transient and manageable instead of fixed and intolerable.

If the stressors remain the same then what is it that allows a leader to handle the pressures more adaptively? The answer is in finding coping skills equal to the forces pushing on us. When I have the opportunity to speak to aspiring leaders I often tell them I have to take three kinds of medication to handle the pressures of my job. The medications I take are 1) regular exercise (usually running, 2) journaling, and 3) prayer/meditation. I find that when I am taking my medication regularly the very large, powerful, and frightening problems aren’t as daunting.  It also seems that the greater the strength of the stress, the more I have to rely on my medication. When things are rough, I need more exercise,  journaling,  prayer, and meditation.

If you are a leader who is feeling overwhelmed and discouraged by the trials and difficulties in your job, try looking for some helpful medicine. I know leaders who paint, draw, write, run, do yoga, martial arts, meditate, pray, or participate in a drum circle.  If you take the remedy regularly your problems may look much more solvable and your stress may feel much more tolerable.

God bless,

Jerry

What to Do When You Get Discouraged

Faith, Life, Topics in Leadership, Work

image

It doesn’t matter what kind of a leadership role you are in whether it be parent, pastor, agency director  or something else, discouragement can overtake you. Sometimes it overwhelms you.  Usually when I am feeling down about my role at work or home it leads to a place of isolation, fatigue, and over-focusing on what’s wrong.  I replay, “what I should have done.” For me the way out of the land of discouragement usually involves a little break, time with people who care about me, meditating on age old truths (I find in the Bible), and physical exercise.  In this linked article Rick Warren does a nice job of describing how leaders get discouraged and some thought provoking ideas on bouncing back.   http://pastors.com/gods-word-is-the-cure-for-discouraged-leaders/

The power of relationship.

Life, Mental Health, Topics in Leadership
Photo by Wandering Angel
Photo by Wandering Angel

This article by David Covington does an excellent job pointing out the importance of relationship and personal connection to our well-being.   For each of us to know that we matter, that our work and life have meaning,  and that we are part  of a community makes all the difference. For children to know this encourages resilient lives, for spouses to know this encourages strong and stable marriages, and for employees to know this encourages great organizations.

http://davidwcovington.com/2016/01/07/the-bugs-and-the-bees-mental-health-really-matters-for-all-of-us/

Some thoughts about God, creation, and people as image bearers.

Faith, Life
NASA
NASA

The other morning I saw the most beautiful  red sun I had seen in a while. It was perfectly round and swollen like it was ready to burst its powerful energy all across the sky . It made me think, “Now here is a clue that there is a creator.  No one could make that. Something so perfect could not be random.”

My thoughts then wandered  to what it means in Scripture when it says we are created in the image of God? Does humankind really reflect the image of the God who spoke that beautiful sun into existence? Does being created in the image of God  mean we have the ability to create?

Though the Creator informs us we are made “in his image”, we are not able to to create like he does; however, we are able to co-create with him. We do this in many ways. The way most reflecting us as image bearers is through the act of making another human. Each gender reflecting aspects of the creator join together, “becoming one flesh” to produce another human. In no other way do we reflect God’s image than in the act of co-creating life. There are also other ways we, as image bearers,  create new things. Though we cannot make the sun, we can create an image of one  by painting a picture of a sunrise. We do not control the events that occur in people’s lives but we can use our imagination and create a story or a play that tells about the life events of others. We cannot make the birds or produce their beautiful songs but we can write music. Because of God’s creative power we can write poetry, build a house, or design a city. In all of these ways  we share the capacity to make beautiful things just like the one of whose image we bear

So reader… write a poem, paint a picture, make up a story, design a machine, finish that book. By doing so you are joining the creator in adding to his marvelous universe.

 

 

 

Do you ever feel like your solution just created more problems?

Uncategorized
Photo by: ralphbijker
Photo by: ralphbijker

Reading the article below reminds me of how often as a leader I see the applicability of Newton’s Third Law to systems, organizations,  and societies. I have learned, often the hard way, that every decision has consequences that the decider can’t control. This article also provides an example of the reality that the multiplicity of forces driving human are complex and personal…which is probably why solutions often create new problems.

Flash – Refugee crisis tests Sweden’s lofty aim of ‘equality for all’ – France 24
http://m.france24.com/en/20151127-refugee-crisis-tests-swedens-lofty-aim-equality-all?ns_campaign=reseaux_sociaux&ns_source=twitter&ns_mchannel=social&ns_linkname=editorial&aef_campaign_ref=partage_aef&aef_campaign_date=2015-11-27&dlvrit=65413