Leading through (and from) the Hard Times

October 20, 2020 / Justin Irving / 2 Comments

How do you view hard times in your life? Are they something to avoid at all cost? Something to endure? Something to just get past?

Leaders and Adversity

While it’s only natural to want to avoid or get away from the hard stuff of life, it’s important to recognize the role that such things play in our lives and in the formation of leaders. This might not be the message we want to hear, but it is often the difficulties of our lives—the obstacles, the hardships, the pain, the suffering…the hard stuff—that shape us into who we are as people and as leaders.

This is something my research colleague, Christopher Howard, and I have landed on in two research projects. Through our examination of leaders in the U.S., India, and Germany, we’re seeing significant trends emerging related to the role that obstacles and hardship play in the formation and shaping of leaders and leader resiliency. While everyone faces some sort of hardship in life, from a leadership perspective, these hardships have the capacity to become a training ground for leaders as they develop as people and leaders.

Ancient Wisdom

What we’re discovering through our research of course is not new wisdom. Such insight should come as no surprise for those familiar with the Bible. Consider Paul’s words in Romans 5:3-5.

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.“

From this perspective we can even rejoice in suffering, because suffering is part of a larger story. People of hope…people of character…people of endurance often can look back to find the earlier seeds of adversity in their stories. Such adversity is the soil and the seed from which endurance, character, and hope blossom.

Developing through the Hard Things

Here’s what one of the readers of the purposeinlieadership blog wrote about this theme from his own journey:

“Paradoxically, poverty taught me a lot about personal and professional leadership … being underprivileged but feeling privileged to learn valuable lessons on life and leadership …. being poor in material possessions but rich in leverage-guided intangible assets … finding purpose in life through a purposeless living environment … being hopeful while living in a hope-deprived ecosystem.”

That is powerful perspective. As you consider your own life, your hardships and difficulties might look different. But they are significant as well. These obstacles—pain, difficulty, struggle…the hard stuff—provide a shaping influence on our lives.

Looking at Your Story

In his book entitled Tell Me a Story: The Life-Shaping Power of Our Story, Daniel Taylor presents a case for the power of story by emphasizing how the many-textured stories of our lives, including stories of both joy and hardship, have a profound impact on our lives. Taylor writes:

“The point is not to tell only Pollyanna tales about one’s beginnings. It is to see tales of pain in the context of a larger whole. We should marvel as much that pain coexists with and even stimulates good as we lament pain’s destructive consequences.”

Here again, we might want to just focus on the positive parts of the story, but the hardships and difficulties are part of the larger whole and part of what develops in us the things that matter most.

Resiliency, Character, and Compassion

Understanding what the hard things in life are producing in us can be complex. I certainly don’t want to minimize or make light of anyone’s pain. Hardships, obstacles, suffering, difficulties, and pain run deep. But for some, seeing the fruit that has or may emerge out of the soil of adversity can lead to hope.

So what are the hard things producing? Most clearly from our research thread is an affirmation that hard things are associated with increased resiliency in the lives of leaders. While suffering and hardship may not always result in resilience, it has this developmental potential in our lives. Beyond resiliency, there is good reason to argue for how hardship has the potential for developing both personal character and compassion for others as well. As much as any time in history, people are longing for such leaders—leaders of resilience, character, and compassion.

Taking the Next Steps

So, what are the hard things you’ve faced in life and leadership? While it is understandable that we want to just put these hard things behind us, it may be that the hardest parts in our life stories are providing us with the very resiliency, character, and compassion we need to lead in the days ahead.

As a leader or emerging leader, I encourage you to spend some time exploring with a friend, family member, mentor, or counselor how these parts of your journey may be part of the larger story of what God wants to do in and through your life and leadership. Admittedly, this type of work is not always easy, but there is great potential for courageous leaders who are willing to look at what it means to lead through—and from—the hard stuff of life.

What is Your Next Step in Leadership Training?

June 6, 2016June 5, 2016 / Justin Irving / Leave a comment

Photo Credit: leadership, by nist6dh, Flickr

It is my pleasure to highlight leadership training resources that have just been published.

In partnership with the Logos Mobile Ed team at Faithlife, over the past couple years we have been working on a set of course offerings now available here — Mobile Ed: Ministry Leadership Bundle (4 courses)

As the demands of leadership grow in our day, the importance of thoughtful engagement with leadership training rises with it. Evidenced by the popularity of events such as the Global Leadership Summit, engaging effective leadership practices in the life of the church and beyond is timely and relevant.

Individual Courses or the Ministry Leadership Bundle

These Mobile Ed leadership courses may be accessed either as a bundle with discount, or by selecting individual course offerings. The four courses in this bundle are the following:

Over 40 Hours of Instructional Content Made Accessible

Averaging around 10 hours of instructional content in each course, the learning units in the courses are designed to provide relevant leadership content in an accessible manner. As a self-paced learning experience, each unique learning portion is captured in a video that ranges from about 5-10 minutes. This model allows learners to walk through a wealth of content in manageable learning segments.

Here is a quick overview of some of the themes captured in each course.

LD101 — Introducing Ministry Leadership (course available here)

Why leadership? Why Now?
Approaching Leadership from a Christian Perspective
Frameworks for Ministry Leadership
Self-Leadership
Leading Individuals
Leading Teams and Groups
Leading Churches and Organizations
Thoughts on Leading with Purpose

LD102 — The Ministry Leader and the Inner Life (course available here)

The Process of Spiritual Transformation and Essential Features of Self Leadership
Personal Formation: Life Story, Life Calling, Life Values, Life Motivation and Gifts, Spiritual Gifts, Life Passion, and Emotional Maturity
Spiritual Formation: Introduction to Spiritual Disciplines, Holistic Perspective, Eternal Perspective, Divine Perspective, and Joyful Perspective
Pursuing God through the Disciplines of the Mind, Heart, Action, and Community
Leadership and the Centered Life

LD201 — Leading Teams and Groups in Ministry (course available here)

Why Team Leadership?: Team Challenges and Benefits
Biblical and Theological Foundations for Decentralized Leadership
Team Leadership: Cultural Relevance
Team Leadership: Pragmatic Effectiveness
Servant Leadership and the Effectiveness of Teams
Healthy Teams: Driven by 5 Questions
Healthy Leadership: The Role of the Leader and Dimensions of Team Leadership
Healthy Team Contexts

LD202 — Communication and Organizational Leadership (course available here)

Class Focus and Rationale
The Leadership Communication Pyramid
Leadership Communication: Types, Models, and Elements of Communication
Leading Organizational Culture: The Elements of Culture and the Leader at the Intersection
Leading through Organizational Conflict
Leading Visionary Change

Come join me on this leadership training journey, now available through the Logos Mobile Ed Ministry Leadership Bundle.

4 Benefits of Teams

March 9, 2015March 1, 2015 / Justin Irving / 3 Comments

“A group of people with hands joined”, by DG EMPL, Flicker

Teamwork does not come without challenges. I addressed some of these challenges in a recent post (Removing the “I’s” from Your Team).

Teamwork also comes with significant benefits. Here is a quick overview of some of the core benefits I’ve observed in team practice and research.

1. Better Ideas and Increased Insight

You’ve likely heard the proverb, “two minds are better than one.” Such proverbial wisdom points to a key benefit of working in teams. Teams provide a context for idea generation. Teams provide a context for increased insight regarding complex problem solving. Teams provide a place for multiple perspectives to emerge. Teams provide a context for increased creativity as members bounce ideas off of one another. And teams provide a context for more ideas to be generated, which generally leads to better ideas being generated so long as group think is proactively addressed.

2. Increased Courage to Face Challenges

Being alone can be a challenge for some in times of calm, but it can be a major challenge when problems hit. Teams provide a context for facing problems together. Teams provide a context for esprit de corps and feeling that we are in this together. Teams provide a context for the collective group to take bigger risks than individuals. When we are in it together, there is a courage that is infused into the group that many individuals do not experience in isolation. Together, teams are able to face challenges that feel too big for any one individual.

3. The Presence of Peer Support

Because teamwork is done with others, it provides the opportunity for increased peer support. Teams provide a context for improved morale. Teams provide a context for mutual encouragement. Teams provide a context for mutual accountability. Teams provide a context for support, both personal and professional. Teams provide a context for collaboration in working toward task-accomplishment.

4. A Context for Mentoring and Training

Finally, though not exhaustively, teams provide an unique opportunity for organizations to develop younger or newer talent. Teams provide an organic context for leadership development. Teams provide a natural context for modeling preferred organizational behavior. Teams provide a context for either formal or informal mentoring. Rather than providing leadership development and mentoring as a side program, teams provide a natural environment in which emerging team members and leaders can observe and interact with tenured team member and leaders. Teams provide a context for members to be valued, developed, and and released as contributors.

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The author of Ecclesiastes reminds us of the value of laboring with others.

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor….
Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.“

– Ecclesiastes 4:9, 12

Though not exhaustive, both Ecclesiastes and the four benefits noted above point us to the benefits that teams provide. What additional benefits have you found in your work with teams?

Leader Resiliency … Face Reality, Find Meaning, Forge a New Path

October 20, 2014January 3, 2016 / Justin Irving / 4 Comments

Photo Credit: Image by Arya Aiai, Flickr

One of my areas of research is examining the role of resiliency in leadership. Here’s a link to an overview of one of my recent academic articles focused on the role that obstacles and resiliency play in the development of leaders (Management Research Review, Vol. 37, Iss. 5, pp.466 – 478).

In our research, we found that a variety of developmental assignments, relationships, experiences, and training were associated with increased levels of leader resiliency. Often, these developmental variables take the form of personal and professional obstacles that build resiliency in leaders.

What is Resiliency

Resiliency is about the capacity to bounce back after difficulty. Resiliency is about the capacity to persist through and overcome diverse challenges in life and leadership.

In this day and age, resiliency is increasingly important for leaders. Our world abounds with uncertainty, and it is individuals and leaders who are able to bounce back and make the best of difficult circumstances who will thrive in the days and years ahead. This is what resiliency is all about—persisting, or even thriving, in the midst of difficulty.

How Resiliency Works

Engaging the theme of How Resilience Works, Diane Couto argues that resilient people possess three defining characteristics.

Resilient People Face Down Reality: “…coolly accept the harsh realities facing them.”
Resilient People Search for Meaning: “…find meaning in terrible times.”
Resilient People Continually Improvise: “…have an uncanny ability to improvise, making do with whatever’s at hand.”

These characteristics are vital for leaders today. Facing down reality means accepting the harsh realities and facts in front of us, but doing so in a way that finds meaning and purpose in the chaos.

The Stockdale Paradox

Jim Collins referred to this tension between facts and faith as “The Stockdale Paradox.” The Stockdale paradox, named after Admiral Jim Stockdale, is based on the observation that those who survived in the most difficult of circumstances (such as prisoners of war) do so by both confronting the most brutal facts of one’s current reality AND retaining faith that one will prevail in the end. It is not merely choosing optimism OR pessimism—it is the experience of embracing BOTH difficult facts along side optimistic hope.

“Brakes Break for a Reason”

My wife took me to a movie last night entitled The Hundred-Foot Journey. It is the story of the Kadam family who left India for a new life in France. As the story unfolds, this new life begins in a French village due to their vehicle breaking down. Overlooking this village, and through the events that follow, the family embraces their reality that “Brakes break for a reason.” Through embracing the reality in front of them, the Kadam family finds meaning in the moment and forges a new and hopeful future for their family.

It was a beautiful movie, and in a simple way depicts this tension between facing down reality and finding meaning in the midst of reality.

Purpose in Leadership

This tension is one of the reasons I’m passionate about “Purpose in Leadership.” Leaders who are able to make sense of the world around them—to find meaning in the face of the mess—often are characterized by a resiliency that allows them and their organizations to thrive in the midst of great difficulty.

Creative Improvisation

This blend of finding meaning in the face of reality sets the stage for Couto’s final observation—the ability to improvise and make do with what is at hand. Resilient leaders face reality from a place of purpose and meaning, and from this place engage the resources around them (human, physical, structural, financial, etc.) to resolutely move forward toward their driving purpose.

Because the future is always being created as we go, leaders learn to improvise along the way. They respond to the needs around them. They collaborate with the people and resources at hand. They find unique and creative pathways forward to accomplish their goals in new ways.

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How are these characteristics of resilient people at work in your life? Are you nurturing this capacity to (1) face reality, (2) find meaning, and (3) forge a path forward through creative improvisation?

A Syllabus for Personal Learning

August 27, 2014January 3, 2016 / Justin Irving / 1 Comment

Photo Credit: Learn Sign, philosophygeek, Flickr

A Syllabus for Personal Learning

I am a professor, so syllabi are a regular part of my life. As we move toward the start of fall semester classes, syllabi are in place and I’m getting ready for the start of a new year.

I was in a faculty workshop today that referenced “the power of the syllabus” for personal learning.

What is the purpose of a course syllabus? A well-formatted course syllabus provides an overview of several key learning features such Learning Goals, Learning Resources, and Learning Assignments.

These features may also be helpful for our personal learning.

As you look to the next 6-12 months in your personal learning and development, perhaps it’s time to explore a Personal Learning Syllabus.

Here are a few recommendations as you consider whether a syllabus for life-learning may be helpful for you.

1. Learning Goals

As you think about your personal desires for learning, what are your goals for the next 6-12 months? Goals are often shaped by topics we are interested in pursuing.

Are you interested in learning more about change? Are you interested in learning more about effective leadership practice? Are you interested in focusing on your personal or spiritual formation as a leader?

Whatever these topics are, consider 2-3 learning goals you have for your personal leadership development in the coming 6-12 months. Write these goals down. Keep them in a place that will trigger your learning around these goals.

2. Learning Resources

Based on the goals you identify, what are the tools and learning resources that will assist you? These resources may be books, magazines, journals, key mentoring relationships, relevant blogs, or other learning tools.

As you scan a diverse set of learning resources, what are the 3-5 key learning resources that will best facilitate your engagement around your goals?

3. Learning Assignments and Activities

Finally, in addition to learning goals and learning resources, what learning assignments or activities may contribute toward your learning goals? This may include:

attending conferences, classes, workshops
taking a personal assessment
organizing your thinking into relevant blog posts
journaling or other writing exercises
visiting key people or organizations that provide models of excellence around the leadership or learning themes you are pursuing.

The key is to not leave learning at the level of goals and reading. It includes bringing this reflection to a place of action and implementation. Creative learning assignments and activities provide a context for synthesizing personal learning.

_______________________

So, what are your goals for learning in the coming months? What learning resources and activities will help facilitate progress toward our learning goals?

Perhaps a Personal Learning Syllabus will help to organize your thinking in this area and help you make tangible progress around these goals.

If you end up implementing this idea, please share how it worked for you!

Leadership: A Commitment to Learning

August 23, 2014January 3, 2016 / Justin Irving / 1 Comment

Photo Credit: Learning by Anne Davis, on Flickr

The Cry for Leadership…

In an essay entitled “The Cry for Leadership,” John Gardner notes the following:

“Most men and women go through their lives using no more than a fraction—usually a rather small fraction—of the potentialities within them. The reservoir of unused human talent and energy is vast, and learning to tap that reservoir more effectively is one of the exciting tasks ahead for humankind.”

As someone who is at a mid-career point in my life, leadership, and work, such observations press the question of whether I will:

(1) simply rest on the skills/knowledge I’ve already developed (using the fraction Gardner notes), or will I

(2) aim to continue learning in the second half of my life and professional service of others?

Such a question motivates me as a practitioner-learner. In service of others, I want to commit myself to ongoing learning. Leadership = A Commitment to Learning. If I am committed to the servant leadership values I hold, this commitment leads me to a path of life-long learning. A commitment to leadership translates into a commitment to learning.

As a leader, how are you committing yourself to learning in service of others?

Where Do You Find Your Identity? — Reflections for Leaders

August 23, 2014January 3, 2016 / Justin Irving / 1 Comment

Photo Credit: One Moment in Time: Identity II, Dar’ya Sipyeykina, Flickr

Where do you find your identity as a leader? This is big question.

Does your identity come from what you do? Does it come from the title you possess? Does it come from the position you occupy? Does it come from your relationships? Does it come from present or past accomplishments? Does it come from the reputation of the program or institution you lead? And the list of questions could go on.

Finding a Firm Foundation

One of the books I enjoy coming back to on the topic of leadership is a short book by Henri Nouwen. Entitled In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership, Nouwen provides his take on where identity is wisely grounded. This work provides perspective for those aiming to lead from a place of Christian conviction. Nouwen writes:

“leadership must be rooted in the permanent, intimate relationship with the incarnate Word, Jesus, and they need to find there the source for their words, advice, and guidance…. Dealing with burning issues without being rooted in a deep personal relationship with God easily leads to divisiveness because, before we know it, our sense of self is caught up in our opinion about a given subject.” (emphasis mine).

When Identity is Too Closely Aligned with our Opinions, Plans, and Performance

This final phrase in the Nouwen quote provides a significant warning for leaders. While it is important to have passion and conviction behind our ideas and opinions, there is also a danger when our “sense of self is caught up in our opinion about a given subject.” When this happens, we become quite difficult for others to work with. When this happens, a critique of our ideas quickly gets translated as a critique of us personally. When this happens, it becomes very difficult to receive insight and perspective from others.

A Positive Alternative for Identity

At this point in Nouwen’s comments, he continues on with a healthy alternative. Rather than having our identities defined by our opinions, or programs, or initiatives, Nouwen calls us to look to God as the most stable source of all to find our grounding and identity. He writes:

“But when we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain flexible without being relativistic, convinced without being rigid, willing to confront without being offensive, gentle and forgiving without being soft, and true witness without being manipulative.”

A Community Securely Rooted

These are the type of people with whom I want to work. This is the type of person I want to be. I desire to engage in rigorous discussion of unique perspectives and not have questions of my ideas viewed as personal attacks. When we are a people “securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life,” rich and deep community flourishes in such contexts. Having my identity rooted in this place helps me to serve others without overly personalizing my or their opinions and agendas in the process.

C.S. Lewis on Empowerment — Exploring Leadership Development

August 16, 2014January 3, 2016 / Justin Irving / 1 Comment

Photo Credit: C. S. Lewis, Sigurdur Jonsson, Flickr

Empowerment is vital for effective leadership. It is core to most of our relationships…from teaching, to parenting, to leading.

Leading People to Not Need Us

In discussing love and giving, C.S. Lewis implicitly engages the practice of empowerment. Lewis writes:

“The proper aim of giving is to put the recipient in a state where he no longer needs our gift. We feed children in order that they may soon be able to feed themselves; we teach them in order that they may soon not need our teaching.”

Celebrating Growth toward Independence

This principle is not only essential for effective parenting or teaching, it is also essential for effective leading. It raises a heart-searching question for us as leaders: Are we leading our people to dependency on our leadership, or are we leading them to a place of independence and interdependence?

Recognizing Leader Struggles Along the Way

Organizational leaders who hunger for power and position will have difficulty leading followers to a place of independence. Organizational leaders who struggle with personal insecurity will struggle to free followers to this place as well.

Secure and follower-focused leaders recognize that it is a win for both their followers and their organizations to create pathways where leaders may be both developed and empowered for service.

Finding the Reward of Empowerment

Lewis continues to press his argument:

“Thus a heavy task is laid upon the Gift-love. It must work towards its own abdication. We must aim at making ourselves superfluous. The hour when we can say ‘They need me no longer’ should be our reward.”

All too often, our saying “they need me no longer” is viewed as a threat rather than a reward. But true love—love that holds the importance of others and their goals alongside our own goals—will lead in such a way that both leader and follower values, goals, aspirations, and dreams may be pursued.

Developing and Deploying Emerging Leaders

In reality, leaders who get the concept of developing and deploying their people do not work themselves out of a job, for such leaders are constantly creating new opportunities for new developing leaders. Great leaders create space for others to flourish. Great leaders identify potential, develop this potential, and release this potential into new roles and opportunities.

Leadership development does not need to be a zero sum game. Thriving organizations and entrepreneurial communities benefit from a regular flow of developed and empowered leaders released into new opportunities.

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How are you wired as a leader around these themes? Do you tend to hold onto authority over others, or are you wired to identify, develop, and release talent in the cause of your organization’s mission? Great leaders empower their people!

The Priority of Potential — Spotting Talent for our Organizations

August 11, 2014January 3, 2016 / Justin Irving / Leave a comment

Photo Credit: Potential!, by Miles Goodhew, Flickr

In a previous post I highlighted 8 Core Leadership Abilities. In the same HBR article, Claudio Fernández-Aráoz engages the important theme of how to spot talent in the 21^st century.

A History of Talent Searching

Over the centuries and years, diverse approaches have emerged for identifying leadership and managerial talent. Fernández-Aráoz identifies this progression around four movements:

Focus on Physical Attributes — Those who were fittest, healthiest, and strongest.

Focus on Intelligence and Experience — Those who were the most intelligent, most experienced, and those with the best past performance.

Focus on Testing for Competencies— Those who possess the right set of characteristics and skills associated with predicted job performance.

Focus on Potential — Those who are ready to engage the VUCA environment of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.

Why Potential

In the VUCA world of increased volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, there are new demands on prospective talent. Fernández-Aráoz discusses the factors of globalization, demographic shifts, and challenges to the talent development pipeline. The talent development pipeline is significantly stretched due to increased competition in this changing environment of the 21st century. These factors are forcing organizations to focus on identifying potential (not just track-records of success), and then developing and retaining this talent in the years ahead.

What to Look for When Looking for Potential

So, how is potential spotted? What qualities are the hallmarks of such potential? Fernández-Aráoz identifies the following hallmarks for spotting talent and potential in the 21st century:

Motivation — “…a fierce commitment to excel in the pursuit of unselfish goals.”

Curiosity — “…a penchant for seeking out new experiences, knowledge, and candid feedback and an openness to learning and change.”

Insight — “…the ability to gather and make sense of information that suggests new possibilities.”

Engagement — “…a knack for using emotion and logic to communicate a persuasive vision and connect with people.”

Determination — “…the wherewithal to fight for difficult goals despite challenges and to bounce back from adversity.”

How to Develop those with Potential

Because spotting potential is quickly becoming the new norm, developing this potential talent in our organizations is becoming the highest priority. How are motivation, curiosity, insight, engagement, and determination built upon so that individuals with potential translate into individuals with performance?

Fernández-Aráoz identifies the priority of stretch development. On this point Fernández-Aráoz notes, “when it comes to developing executives for future leadership assignments, we’re constantly striving to find the optimal level of discomfort in the next role or project, because that’s where the most learning happens.” Finding stretching assignments, where those with potential don’t immediately have all the answers, is one of the chief pathways in moving individuals from potential to performance.

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How are you identifying potential around you? How are you developing this potential into performance?

Why I Blog: Fostering Healthy Leadership

August 8, 2014January 3, 2016 / Justin Irving / Leave a comment

Photo Credit: Be the Change, Feggy Art, Flickr

“Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth.”
– James MacGregor Burns

James MacGregor Burns’ quote resonates with most of our experiences. We see leadership occurring all around us, but rarely take time to reflect in a systematic way on what makes this leadership helpful or unhelpful—effective or ineffective. Further complicating our observations, at times we see people leading well who have no formal positions of leadership within our organizations, and at other times we see people in positions of leadership who really are not providing the necessary leadership direction for our organizations as we move into the future.

Lingering Questions

And so we come back to Burns’ comments: Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth. But must it be this way? Is leadership simply a mysterious reality? Is it something that we simply know when it is going well or poorly, but will never really understand what makes it work? Or might we be able to provide some basic descriptions of the form and shape of good, helpful, and effective leadership? Might we be able to get at some minimum factors that characterize both what helpful leaders and leadership look like?

Leadership Can Be Learned

Part of my vocational calling is providing thoughtful responses to such questions. I believe leadership can be described and studied. I believe it can be learned. Not every person is wired to be a capital “L” Leader. However, just about everyone embedded in an organization, group, or family can grow in and learn how to positively influence and guide the people around them.

This is the heart behind why I’ve started blogging at purposeinleadership.com. Although I’ve been observing leaders in action most of my life, I’ve spent the last 15 years in focused study on the topic through various degree programs, organizational roles, research agendas, and teaching opportunities. I want to start sharing some of these lessons learned with a wider audience.

A Passion for Ridding the World of Bad Leadership

Harvard Business Review’s editorial mission is “to rid the world of bad management.” I have a similar passion in the area of leadership. Though I won’t be able to personally rid the world of bad leadership, I’d love to make a dent in this ambitious agenda. I want to spread a message…

…that leadership is more about serving others than being served,
…that people are the priority even in profit-driven sectors,
…that leaders need to create organizations and societies that are not only productive, but also are fit for human beings,
…that purpose in leadership is of central importance,
…that leadership is vital in organizations that create value for those they serve,
…that people will endure great hardship and sacrifice when they believe in what they are doing and feel their work and leadership has meaning and purpose,
…that leaders have a God-given responsibility to care for the people they lead,
…that core leadership characteristics and behaviors can be described,
…that leadership is vital in working toward human flourishing in organizations and societies.

Thanks for Joining Me in this Pursuit

Although I don’t believe that everything rises or falls on leadership, I do believe that the pursuit of effective and healthy models of leadership is a first-order priority in our day.

Thanks for joining me on this journey toward good, helpful, and effective leadership. Our organizations and the people we serve as leaders deserve our very best!