By: Cathy Glei on March 1, 2023
Leaders make a lot of decisions. After reading Thinking, Fast and Slow by the economist, psychologist and professor, Dr. David Kahneman, not only are a lot of decisions made on a daily basis but my decision making process involves the interplay of two systems. System one is the automatic system that acts without conscious…
By: Kim Sanford on February 28, 2023
My younger son is freakishly good at making mental connections. Since he was little, he’s been surprising us by blurting out the most random and absolutely on-point knowledge. We used to ask him, “How did you know that, Zachary?” Or “Who told you that?” and he would say in his high-pitched 3-year-old voice, “My BRAIN…
By: John Fehlen on February 27, 2023
Nobel Prize recipient, Daniel Kahneman’s landmark book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” has been in publication since 2011. This groundbreaking work explores the two systems that drive the way we think. Simply put (as if!), System 1 is fast and emotional, while System 2 is slower and more logical (Kahneman, 20). For over 12 years, since…
By: Dinka Utomo on February 25, 2023
“Someone who has clarity about his or her own life goals…, and therefore, be able to take stands at the risk of displeasing” -Edwin H. Friedman- Being a leader who leads sincerely is not easier than being a leader who only wants to seek his own security. During my vicariate tenure for two…
By: Tim Clark on February 23, 2023
I’m going to start this post with a confession. As I was reading A Failure of Nerve, Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix [1]by Edwin H. Friedman, I thought about the people at church who approach me after a sermon and ask, “have you been reading my mail?” Most often I have no clue what…
By: Jana Dluehosh on February 23, 2023
The Time that is Given to us. The Lord of the Rings, honestly one of most favorite movies. Bet you thought I was going to say book didn’t you. I’ve tried many times to read the book and only get to the end of book one and I’m done. I get exhausted trying to figure…
By: Adam Harris on February 23, 2023
Tennessee, my home state, was the setting for the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial” where the theory of evolution was debated as whether this subject was appropriate to be taught to students in school. Many in the early 1900’s believed this theory directly contradicted the creation story found in Scripture. Since then, more Abrahamic faiths have…
By: Mathieu Yuill on February 22, 2023
Many people have been quoted as saying versions of this, but Maya Angelou is probably the most recognizable person to have said “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” She said it in 2003 which was only…
By: Cathy Glei on February 22, 2023
What is going on? I have never witnessed so much anxiety in children as I have in the last five years. Previously in my role as a Kindergarten teacher, I witnessed so many children who came to school with so much fear and anxiety and I often wondered “what is going on?” Children, as early…
By: Todd E Henley on February 22, 2023
The vagus nerve is the longest nerve of the autonomic nervous system and is one of the most important nerves in the body. The vagus nerve helps to regulate many critical aspects of human physiology, including the heart rate, blood pressure, sweating, digestion, and even speaking. When a person has an argument, series struggle, or…
By: Kim Sanford on February 20, 2023
Edwin Friedman writes in A Failure of Nerve : Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix , “The notion that an entity can modify surrounding relationships through its presence rather than its forcefulness, moreover, is not unknown to science. Catalysts function that way, for example.”[i] Friedman emphasizes leading by presence, by virtue of who…
By: John Fehlen on February 20, 2023
Every once and awhile a book surfaces “for such a time as this.” The content is a prophetic punch in the face. Such is the case with “A Failure of Nerve” by Edwin H. Friedman. I remember feeling this many years ago with Mark Senter’s “The Coming Revolution in Youth Ministry”[1] and more recently with…
By: Dinka Utomo on February 17, 2023
“Leaders are made, not born” -Eve Poole- Introduction Leadership could be said to be a skill that has existed since the beginning of human civilization and continues to be relevant today. It has long been a scientific field that is studied and applied to various aspects of human life. Knowledge of leadership and its developments,…
By: Jana Dluehosh on February 16, 2023
Master; Mastery: How does one become master? Leadersmithing by Eve Poole brings in many examples of types of work and how one becomes master of one’s vocation. Most of her examples have to do with craftmanship, and how over time one becomes a master by first becoming an apprentice. (More on apprenticing later). In our…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on February 16, 2023
Leadership Early in my career, I led a large team of seasoned professionals. They were all much older than I was and many were in their last chapter of their professional career. I had a brand spanking new Degree (the ink was barely dry), big ideas, loads of energy, and an ego larger than life.…
By: Adam Harris on February 16, 2023
Several years ago I won a trip to Las Vegas for hitting my quarterly goals at a previous company. When we arrived we had one rule. We could not pay for anything. That was a fun rule to keep. Part of this agreement meant we got an allowance to play at the tables. I tried…
By: Esther Edwards on February 16, 2023
In past years, as one would observe a strong-willed child, the comment would often be made, “Well, he/she will make a great leader someday!” In other words, a strong will equals the ability to lead. In leadership circles, we often equate good leadership with numerical followership. “They must be an amazing pastor since their church…
By: Todd E Henley on February 16, 2023
Leadership” is a word which is much used nowadays, in many walks of life: politics, business, sports, education, the military, and even the church. According to Eve Poole in this fascinating book, the very use of the word is problematic. It implies a mysterious quality that people either have or don’t have. Instead, she coins…
By: Mathieu Yuill on February 15, 2023
When beginning my Masters journey in leadership and management, a colleague of mine asked me if you can actually learn leadership and if so, how does one teach it. It gave me pause – actually – it gave me great pause as I had never even pondered the question, “Can leadership be taught?” I was…
By: Jenny Dooley on February 14, 2023
Reading Leadersmithing, by Eve Poole took me down memory lane and sent me to my basement storage room searching for copies of Aesop’s Fables and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The mere mention of these books brought back delightful memories of reading these stories to my children and sobering moments of clarity about myself and…
