By: Kim Sanford on October 24, 2024
What? Humility can be a tricky concept, meaning different things to different people. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary says it means “freedom from pride or arrogance.[1]” However, the Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “having a lowly opinion of oneself.[2]” That’s not exactly the same thing. The authors of Humble Leadership treat humility from a bit narrower perspective.…
By: Jennifer Eckert on October 23, 2024
Let’s be honest. The relationship between faith and economics can get pretty messy, and opinions can vary wildly. Just look at any discussion around the U.S. Presidential elections, and you’ll see what I mean. In this blog, we’ll explore Karl Polanyi’s world to learn how he stumbled upon the big idea that became the backbone…
By: Debbie Owen on October 23, 2024
The American dream: a concept as varied as the individuals who dream it. In his 1931 book, The Epic of America, James Truslow Adams coined the term, “the American dream,” and defined it as, “That dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone.” [1] In her paper,…
By: Todd E Henley on October 23, 2024
In his book Leading Out of Who You Are: Discovering the Secret of Undefended Leadership, Simon Walker exclaims, “Leadership is about who you are, not what you know or what skills you have. Why is this? There are two reasons: leadership is about trust, and it is about power.”1 This definition of leadership instantly…
By: Graham English on October 23, 2024
This week, I was introduced to The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time by Karl Polanyi. Polanyi was an economic anthropologist and economic sociologist who lived through the collapse of a western society after the nineteenth century. He blames this collapse on the myth of the self-regulating market. While it might…
By: Russell Chun on October 22, 2024
“እርስዎች ውስጥ ዝቅተኛ ነው” (irswochi wüst zqṭeñä new),”humility is in short supply” Amharic Part 1: What the Cohort is saying. Part 2: What Edgar and Peter are saying. Part 3: (epilogue) The power of the Minus 1 & Team leadership Geniuses Part 1: What the cohort is saying. Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships,…
By: Glyn Barrett on October 21, 2024
(Image – Maps of Industrial Manchester) Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation, the political and economic origins of our time,[1] first published in 1944, is a seminal work offering an analysis of the economic and social upheavals that accompanied the rise of market capitalism. It is not a natural go-to book for me, but it was…
By: Shela Sullivan on October 21, 2024
What is this book about? I began reading the book, “The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time,” by Karl Polanyi on my flight to Washington DC last month, knowing I would need ample time to mentally digest and process the content. Consequently, articulating my post this week proved difficult. The challenge…
By: Pam Lau on October 21, 2024
The week before we flew to Washington D.C. for our third Doctoral Advance, I was praying about my project while standing in the kitchen willing time to just stand still. With my hands open, I released to God the details of my final project until after October 2. The next day I received a phone…
By: Scott Dickie on October 21, 2024
I love the overall premise of Humble Leadership: that, “leadership is always a relationship, and truly successful leadership thrives in the substrate of high openness and trust.” (1) The book challenges the notion of a superstar leader and non-relational hierarchies within organizations, arguing for a more collaborative, inclusive, open and relational team environment. In this…
By: Jeff Styer on October 21, 2024
I am not an economist and this week’s readings were some of the hardest for me so far. However, as Simone Weil said “students who love God should never say: ‘For my part I like mathematics’; ‘I like French’; ‘I like Greek.’ They should learn to like all these subjects, because all of them develop…
By: Jennifer Vernam on October 21, 2024
Last week a friend invited me to her house to watch a simulcast hosted by Whitworth University with David French, a New York Times columnist.[1] The conversation intended to “help the campus and local community engage in critical thinking and civil discourse in anticipation of the 2024 elections.”[2] I enjoy David French, with his unique…
By: John Fehlen on October 21, 2024
Several years ago, while living and pastoring in Oregon (which I still do), I was invited to speak at a leadership conference hosted at a large church in Washington State. O.K. Now, let me tell you the expanded and more truthful version of that last sentence because I just glossed over the truth to make…
By: Tim Clark on October 21, 2024
In the book Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships, Openness, And Trust by Edgar and Peter Schein the authors repeatedly return to a particular concept: Situational Humility. When I first saw this term, it threw me. It reminded me of the phrase situational ethics, which “takes into account only the particular context of an act…
By: Kally Elliott on October 21, 2024
In the first page of their introduction of their book, Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships, Openness, and Trust, Edgar H. Schein and Peter A. Schein ask, “Would it help to think of leadership not as the “7 Steps” you must take to lead, but as the energy that is shared among members of a…
By: Jenny Dooley on October 21, 2024
Humility seems rare in our current US political environment, western culture, and sadly, at times, among our more public religious leaders. Maybe humble leaders don’t make the news, but they exist. Genuine humility is essential whether one is leading or following. Defining and practicing humility is a challenge. I wonder how false humility has become…
By: Esther Edwards on October 21, 2024
I recently asked my daughters and sons-in-law (all millennials and Gen Z’s) what they would look for in a church and a pastor. Our family message thread was immediately flooded. These were their responses: In a congregation: a small congregation where we could get involved quickly opportunities to grow and be mentored to know the…
By: Cathy Glei on October 21, 2024
As I read this week’s reading of Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships, Openness, and Trust by Edgar Schein and Peter Schein, I made several leadership connections to other texts I have read in the last 2+ years. This is an attempt to highlight some of those connections between the texts. As our world rapidly…
By: Noel Liemam on October 20, 2024
“The Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730’s to the 1980’s,” by D.W. Bebbington and a chapter 2 from Dr. Jason Clark Thesis, titled “Evangelical Anxiety: From Assurance to Providence” are the assigned readings from this blogpost. For me, Bebbington’s is so comprehensive to grasp in and fully understand within the time frame.…
By: Joel Zantingh on October 19, 2024
Assurance, confidence and narrowness of focus all meet each other on the same road leading to ‘success’. Growing up in 20th Century North America was like being in a pressure cooker of success, spurred on by capitalism’s constant call for innovation, and the delivery of the next great artifact, product or solution to peddle to…
