Leadership Reflections

Always borrow from a pessimist – they never expect to get it back! Optimism and resilience are key leadership characteristics.  I read somewhere that you won’t see any statues erected to honour pessimists because, as Helen Keller said, “No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened [...]

In July my 88-year-old father took a cruise by himself on the Queen Mary II and now he  is receiving palliative care.  Things change so quickly, and since my attention is on my dad, I’ll post as I have time.  However, here’s a reflective thought for leaders about what sustains us when at death’s door.  What is sustaining my [...]

Oswald Saunders says in Spiritual Leadership that the prime consideration in selecting kingdom leaders is spirituality.  Any other criteria results in unspiritual administration and ultimately spiritual death for the ministry.   I’ve posted about the public consequences of private spirituality, and now I’d like to suggest one way to keep your leadership spiritual – an annual personal spiritual leadership retreat. Jesus [...]

I think a lot about how a policy board really adds value to an organization.  For all the work it takes to maintain a board, you sure want some value from it.  I want my board members to treasure their time on our board and to feel they have truly made a significant contribution to [...]

While serving as president of the University of Cincinnati, leadership guru Warren Bennis was teaching a course at Harvard’s School of Education when someone asked him, “Do you love being President of the University of Cincinnati?”  After an uncomfortable silence, Warren replied, “I don’t know.”  He wrote about this incident in Managing The Dream:  The [...]