By: Greg McMullen on March 14, 2023
Intro Peter Northouse book on Leadership: Theory and Practice is an amazing book on Leadership. After reading this book my head is spinning and I feel as if there is many different ways one can lead. Comparing to the Spiritual Gifts in 1st Corinthians 12 we can come to the conclusion that the most important…
By: Cathy Glei on March 14, 2023
Using Food stamps, gathering government commodities and collecting pop cans for extra funds were just a few of the regular survival strategies in my family. I grew up in a low income family. However, I had two parents who loved God, were devoted to one another and loved their children. My dad, a highly intelligent…
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on March 14, 2023
At the beginning of my second semester at Berkeley, my friend and I were invited to attend a leadership training. We were newly selected leaders of a campus student organization that worked with high school students of color to assist with applying for admission into UC Berkeley and providing retention services after admissions. The training…
By: Kim Sanford on March 14, 2023
“A leader leads people from where they currently are to another place, which at first is unknown to them and can only be imagined.”[1] Moses. Hudson Taylor. Abraham Lincoln. Martin Luther King Jr. Every single one of you as you dream about graduation day in May 2025. What do all these leaders have in common? They…
By: Tim Clark on March 13, 2023
“The showman gives you front row to his heart. The showman prays his heartache will chart. Making a spectacle of falling apart is just the start of the show…” (from the song “The Showman” by U2). The congregation I serve includes actors, musicians, athletes, and other “known” people. Over the years that I’ve pastored here,…
By: John Fehlen on March 13, 2023
Our family is a “Lord of the Rings” family. Some families are more “Harry Potter.” No judgement from me, except that you are wrong, and we are right. There, I said it. Cancel me. When all the kids, and by “kids” I mean grown young adults, are home, and by “home” I mean the place…
By: Jennifer Vernam on March 13, 2023
Reading through Leading Out of Who You Are,[1] the behaviors of the “defended” leader (Staging, Power, and Control) made a lot of sense to me. As did the various shapes of ego which relate to our childhood experiences of trust. Learning about the types of egos, and how they impact our leadership practices set my…
By: Travis Vaughn on March 13, 2023
This past week was one of those weeks where I thought to myself: It would be easier to just be in the background. Maybe even hanging out, for a year or two, on the beach with our twenty-something-year-old kids, “free” from the warp and woof of serving in an organizational leadership role. “Were things really…
By: Noel Liemam on March 12, 2023
Bruce Lee, the Asian American-born actor, was known by many as an amazing martial artist. But not only that, but he was also a profound thinker. “He left behind seven volumes of writings on everything from quantum physics to philosophy” [1]. Mr. Lee developed a martial technique called “jeet kune do,” which resulted from his…
By: Daron George on March 12, 2023
Agarwal’s book provides a comprehensive and insightful exploration of the concept of unconscious bias and its impact on individuals and society. Drawing on insights from neuroscience, psychology, and sociology, Agarwal offers a nuanced analysis of how unconscious bias manifests in various domains, including race, gender, age, and social class. The book is divided into two…
By: Tonette Kellett on March 12, 2023
Sway is a book about biases, conscious and unconscious, but mostly unconscious biases. [1] The author, Pragya Agarwal, is a woman raised in India that later immigrated to the United Kingdom. [2] Being a woman intelligent in mathematics and sciences which is often considered a man’s realm, and also a woman of color, and a…
By: Laura Fleetwood on March 12, 2023
Understanding the forces that shape human behavior is a key element of emotional intelligence, strong relationships and successful leadership. In the book Sway: Unravelling Unconscious Bias, Dr. Pragya Agarwal offers an insightful look at how our behavior is influenced by unconscious bias. Drawing on a wide range of research from psychology to neuroscience, Agarwal shows…
By: Audrey Robinson on March 12, 2023
Pragya Agarwal, in her book, Sway Unraveling Unconscious Bias, explains through research from various disciplines, real stories, and scientific theories the unintentional biases we all experience. Dr. Agarwal demonstrates where the biases come from, how they affect our perspectives and decision-making, and most importantly, why it is necessary to unlearn them. In her book, she…
By: Kristy Newport on March 11, 2023
In a recent Monday Cohort zoom chat, a fellow doctorate student (namely, Greg McMullen) shared one of his tips on writing his blogs. He said that when considering what to write, he lets his ideas “pass through (his) heart” and then begins to organize his ideas around this.[1] Reading Northouse’s Leadership Theory and Practice prompted…
By: Chad McSwain on March 10, 2023
What better way to spend Spring Break than on a college tour. My oldest daughter wanted to visit the University of Oklahoma (OU) and I was all for it, after all these are my people. This is where I grew up and where my family lives. I affectionately refer to this as “the motherland.” The…
By: Caleb Lu on March 10, 2023
There is a Chinese fable by Zhuangzi that I grew up hearing about a frog who lives in the bottom of a deep and narrow well. As other animals come and tell him about the world outside, the frog scoffs at them and knows in his heart that the well is the entire world, there…
By: Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe on March 10, 2023
Pragya, In SWAY, responding to what inspired him to write the book about unconscious bias, said, “What we are seeing around us in most parts of the world is that partisan politics is taking Centre stage, dividing people, and causing rifts and conflicts.”[1] In this post, as in many others, I might have more questions…
By: Dinka Utomo on March 9, 2023
Read deeply. Stay open. Continue to wonder. -Austin Kleon- Impostor syndrome is a familiar experience for me. I’ve noticed that it tends to surface whenever I embark on something significant and meaningful. I vividly recall feeling extremely anxious about homiletics, a subject during my undergraduate studies twenty-three years ago. As part of the curriculum,…
By: Jana Dluehosh on March 9, 2023
Have you ever found yourself floundering? Directionless? Just plain old bored? Well I have a solution for you. Follow these “easy” steps and in no time you’ll have a Doctorate! Thresholds…. Find opportunities to expand your horizons! We often don’t know we are about to encounter a threshold experience, but we will know we have…
By: Adam Harris on March 9, 2023
I don’t watch a lot of movies these days, but several months ago I had some time and felt the urge to watch the new Elvis movie with Austin Butler. Austin ended up winning the Golden Globes Award for Best Actor in his portrayal as the “King of Rock”. I had a new appreciation for…
