I recently read a very good book on the leadership of Dwight Eisenhower, the American general in charge of all allied forces for the D-Day invasion and eventual defeat of Nazi Germany. Here is one of Ike’s quotes from the most massive military operation ever planned: “Plans are nothing. Planning is everything.” What does that […]
Warren Buffett calls it your circle of competence. You can’t do everything. In fact, you can’t do most things. And you can only do a few things very well. What you do very well is a competency. Most of us have at least several competencies. With a lot of focused work and learning, we can […]
The other week, Brian Newman and I had a wide ranging conversation on leadership. One of our conversation points was on the crisis of leadership. In this short video, Brian and I talk about the four elements that, together, make up the current Leadership Crisis. We’ll be publishing more conversations on leadership in the coming […]
Mother Teresa is one of my favorite leaders. She was a remarkable woman in many ways. Her way of quiet, strong, persevering leadership for the sake of the least resourced people in India (and around the world) reminds me of Jesus’ manifesto in Luke 4:18-19. Here is a prayer of Mother Teresa. I think it […]
Leadership is like an elephant. It’s big. You can look at it from many vantage points. As you look at it, you see many different aspects of leadership. This is why there are so many definitions of leadership. While the essence of all leadership is the use of power and authority, there are additional ways […]
How the Mighty Fall. That is the name of a book by Jim Collins on what pride does to leaders and their organizations. It is a tagline for what is going on with Willow Creek and Bill Hybels, the founding and former senior pastor. This is a longer post. It is not one I wanted […]
Moises Naim, former editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy, scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the executive director of the World Bank, tells us how power is changing. A number of people asked me about the ideas from The End of Power by Moises Naim. At the first and third services, I read a few […]
Good leadership matters a great deal, to God and to others. 6 Sunday morning messages on Leading, Loving, and Serving in the Way of Jesus. 40 days of conversations with you on a most important theme. In 40 days, you can learn a great deal. In 40 days, you can experience a lot of change. […]
Here are some words from one of the most extraordinary leaders in the history of the United States of America. They are just as true for our times as they were for his. “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the story present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must […]
Have you ever been asked, “What really makes you tick?” Sometimes I deflect the question by making a joke: “Well, my heart makes me tick. That’s why we call it a ticker! But then I get serious and truly consider the question, because it is an important one. Maybe the most important one. So here […]