By: Julie O'Hara on January 30, 2025
I fondly recollect the Shape-O toy by Tupperware. Yellow shapes fit through corresponding cutouts in a blue and red pull-apart ball. I remember the satisfaction of putting all the pieces in, the rattling noise, then being able to empty the container and start over. At one time, it must have been difficult to execute…
By: Alex Mwaura on January 30, 2025
The other day, I was reading the “Future of Jobs Report 2025, by the World Economic Forum (WEC) which provides highlights on skills that will be required for the future. Of course, Generative AI featured as a disruptor in different sectors, but I was mostly intrigued by leadership and social influence as a skill that…
By: Debbie Owen on January 30, 2025
“The only constant in life is change.” We know this is true. Our bodies are constantly changing (not always in the ways we want them to), our external circumstances shift, our relationships evolve, and even our perspectives can change over time. In my own experience, I’ve been on a leadership team in three churches that…
By: Jeremiah Gómez on January 30, 2025
And it saved me for ministry. I know that sounds like hyperbole, but it’s true. I was neck-deep in the stuff of a turnaround ministry environment, and I was lost. I was young (with three whole years of vocational ministry under my belt), newly married, and overwhelmed. The little church on the brink of closure…
By: Kari on January 30, 2025
“Don’t let your desire to serve others lead you to burnout like I did.” – An OB-GYN who worked in Asia “I was so busy working for the Lord that I forgot the Lord of the work.” …
By: Betsy on January 30, 2025
When I was four, I hid under the table to avoid being told off and found the tiniest book with a pretty pink and blue watercolour image on the front of it that I can still picture. It was the book of Matthew, and so I read the Bible out loud for the first time…
By: Elysse Burns on January 30, 2025
Four years in the desert have given me a deep appreciation for greenery. I love watching the number of potted plants in my entryway grow, despite the harsh climate. The aloe’s hardiness—thriving with a shallow root system and self-propagating abilities—is incredible. Meanwhile, the fairy lily’s delicate bloom is always a delightful surprise. Despite their resilience,…
By: Darren Banek on January 30, 2025
I had a goal and a plan, and it was all starting to come together. I knew I wanted to internalize this week’s material and write better than last week, hoping that last week’s blog post was slightly better than two weeks ago. All that needed to happen was to start typing out my introductory…
By: David Weston on January 30, 2025
Sir Francis Bacon once posited, explaining his quote above, that “much like the sun’s heat, it has the ability to transform and reveal the underlying qualities of people and things, making them pliable and firm and exposing inherent characteristics.” [1] Tom Comacho’s Book, Mining for Gold: Developing Leaders through Coaching, is a wonderful treatise on…
By: Graham English on January 30, 2025
As we start a new chapter of life and leadership in 2025 and the second half of the DLGP, I am aware of the complexity of leadership in our ever-changing world. Leadership is about context. While there is certainly timeless leadership wisdom, the field of leadership study has evolved significantly, with the recognition that what…
By: Mika Harry on January 30, 2025
I’ve not been a good coach in the past. As a strong one on the enneagram, justice is my word, and doing things “correctly” is my high priority. So, it may be no surprise that I find it incredibly frustrating when someone asks for my advice and then doesn’t do what appears so obviously correct.…
By: Joel Zantingh on January 30, 2025
This week’s foray into Illuminaire: Bringing Life & Light to Leaders Across The World gave me a gift in the phrase, “the journey of becoming” [1]. It was not long ago, in 2021 to 2022, that I was in a major transition in my leadership journey for a year and a half, and what I experienced…
By: Robert Radcliff on January 30, 2025
This week, I read Tom Camacho’s Mining for Gold. It is a primer on coaching to help leaders draw out the God-given talents from their team so people can flourish. I want to extend an idea that Tom Camacho developed in his book that he didn’t fully develop. Camacho says that our Sweet Spot is…
By: Rich on January 29, 2025
I come from a long line of teachers. My grandfather taught languages on the high school and college levels. My dad earned a D.Ed. and was a high school principal. My mom and sister taught elementary school. My sister was born to teach. She taught me to read when I was three. She was five!…
By: Joff Williams on January 29, 2025
“Where we see ordinary people, God sees a rich deposit of gold waiting to be brought forth.” Camacho [1] I enjoy coaching and mentoring. I have had several wonderful people generously share their thoughts, wisdom, and experiences with me. They had helped me seek the Lord in discovering the gold in me, and I wish…
By: Christy on January 29, 2025
Every 8 years, my organization appoints a new executive director, and we are currently walking through this process. Sometimes, this change comes with minimal disruption to organizational direction, and other times it comes with a change of direction, a completely new executive leadership team, and entirely new structures. Thankfully, our board has been pleased with…
By: Michael Hansen on January 29, 2025
I met Pete during my first week at the company. My direct reports and I walked through an assimilation exercise, and I was able to ascertain a few points about their behaviors, backgrounds, and overall company culture. I then transitioned to a series of one-on-one interviews where we dove deeper into their roles, hobbies, family,…
By: Jennifer Eckert on January 29, 2025
I used to have a beautiful chestnut brown pony named Cupcake, with a vibrant star on her forehead and one white sock. She was a mix of a Quarter Horse and a Shetland Pony, perfectly sized for a scrawny kid like me. My mother, a single parent with a modest income, bought her for me…
By: Diane Tuttle on January 29, 2025
A book feels like I have an old friend in my hands. I like the texture, the ability to turn a corner of a page to mark my spot and writing some notes in the margins. Yes, Dr. Jason, I still like to write in my books. Consequently, I was not excited about reading this…
By: Shela Sullivan on January 28, 2025
Karise Hutchinson is a Professor of Leadership and the founder of Illuminaire Leadership, also known as Illuminaire Institute. Hutchinson has dedicated over 20 years to researching, teaching, consulting, and writing about leadership, with the aim to bring life and light to leaders across the globe. Illuminaire Institute uses storytelling to make complex leadership research both…
