By: Esther Edwards on January 11, 2023
“As you shuffle through hundreds of notes and a dozen lines of thought, you start feeling that you’re…spiraling down into a black hole of confusion, paralyzed by what seems to be an increasingly complex and ultimately unmanageable task.”[1] [2] Ah, yes. The black hole. I am there. If I am honest, the black hole…
By: Andy Hale on January 11, 2023
“Should I mark this as a sick day,” the office administrator of the church I was serving asked me. “No, ma’am. I’m writing a Bible study at the coffee shop this morning. Afterward, I’m going to one of the church’s student’s basketball games this afternoon,” I replied. However, she insisted that I was not in…
By: Eric Basye on January 10, 2023
Written in the height of the pandemic, Gustavo Razzetti, founder and CEO of Fearless Culture, wrote Remote, Not Distant. As an author, speaker, and leadership consultant who has served many companies and nonprofits worldwide, this leadership book is a timely read on many fronts. Razzetti’s opening line says, Welcome to the beginning of the end…
By: Caleb Lu on January 10, 2023
I found Daniel Lieberman and Michael Long’s The Molecule of More to be both thought provoking in the way it portrayed the role of dopamine in a wide range of human behaviors and simultaneously reckless in the way it presented studies to back their claims. Lieberman and Long’s explanation of dopamine activity as an indicator…
By: David Beavis on January 10, 2023
How do people change? This is a question that has fascinated, and borderline haunted me over the years of pastoring people. Whether they be students, young adults, or parents, I often catch myself wondering “Will you ever grow up?” Now, admittedly, this can come from a misplaced, self-righteous frustration with people (such is the crucible…
By: Becca Hald on January 9, 2023
David Eagleman, PhD. wrote of The Molecule of More, “Lieberman and Long tell the epic saga of dopamine as a page-turner that you simply can’t put down.”[1] A page turner about science? That did not seem likely to me, but as I started perusing the book, I found it to be true. I worked hard…
By: Kristy Newport on January 9, 2023
In Daniel Lieberman’s book The Molecule of More, the power of dopamine is described, particularly how it affects the human brain and human behavior. Lieberman does an incredible job at providing his readers with research on how adults respond to dopamine. He defines dopamine as “the pleasure of anticipation– the possibility of something unfamiliar and…
By: Greg McMullen on January 8, 2023
In school as a child and teen, these were the words I heard the most “bigger, stronger, faster.” This seemed to be the main focus of football players in the program I grew up in. From 6th grade on, we met before school, during school, and after our sport we pumped iron, we ran, we…
By: Mary Kamau on January 4, 2023
Leadership is described as influencing people towards a specific objective. Moses had the task of leading the Israelites from Egypt to the promised land but had to get through many challenges. Despite the many miracles that God performed for the children of Israel, they would forget so soon and rebel against Moses and sabotage his…
By: Mary Kamau on January 3, 2023
Winston Churchill is quoted as saying, “I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober, but you will still be ugly.” While this statement was mean to whomever it was meant for, it resonates with what misguided religion does, It is far better to be drunk with alcohol than religion because…
By: Audrey Robinson on December 16, 2022
In his book Tempered Resilience, Tod Bolsinger explains the leadership development process using the analogy of steel being tempered due to blacksmithing. Bolsinger uses the metaphor to describe what is needed today for leaders to grow into the type of person who can be “resilient and adaptive in order to cut through the resistance and…
By: Chad McSwain on December 13, 2022
There is an incredible amount of vulnerability in being exposed, as well as the elation that you are not alone. It is a comfort and joy when you encounter someone who describes your lived experience and how you felt about it, only to learn that is exactly how others have felt too. That is the…
By: Sara Taylor Lattimore on December 12, 2022
Earlier this year I had the privilege of meeting the author Tod Bolsinger at a conference. I have ready his books and have worked with leaders who are advocates and practitioners of adaptive leadership. As I sat and listened to his workshop. I began to understand more fully the empowering nature of leading this way…
By: Laura Fleetwood on December 11, 2022
The book that had the greatest personal impact on my leadership journey this semester was Tempered Resilience by Tod Bolsinger. The brilliance of Bolsinger’s work was that he used the metaphor of a blacksmith shaping and molding hot steel into a new tool and related it to the journey of a leader being formed by…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on December 8, 2022
Throughout history, strong leaders have benefited from adaptive leadership skills that equip them to navigate our ever-changing world and unique societal contexts. Not only do adaptive leaders possess the qualities needed to negotiate change, themselves, but they possess the crucial qualities needed to prepare and encourage other people to navigate complex challenges and thrive in…
By: Becca Hald on December 8, 2022
“The most important part of Christmas is the first six letters.” This quote was on the bottom of a devotional page a friend gave me in college and I think of it every year. C H R I S T The most important part of Christmas is Christ. That is what came to mind when…
By: Jonathan Lee on December 8, 2022
John H. McWhorter, the author of Woke Racism, is a professor at Columbia University who teaches linguistics, American studies, and music history. He has published over twenty books over the years and in this book, Woke Racism, McWhorter argues the idea of new racial movements around the phrase Third Wave of Antiracism and the Elect.…
By: Elmarie Parker on December 8, 2022
John McWhorter teaches, writes, and more recently gives many interviews. He teaches at Columbia University on subjects ranging from linguistics to music history to American studies. In “Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America,”[1] McWhorter writes a book classified as American history development and status since the Emancipation, but it is anything…
By: Tonette Kellett on December 8, 2022
A resilient leader is “grounded, teachable, attuned, adaptable, and tenacious.” [1] This is according to Tempered Resilience written by Tod Bolsinger. In the book, the author uses the image of blacksmithing to represent the process of becoming a resilient leader. [2] He outlines the process in six steps. I will take a look at these…
By: Troy Rappold on December 8, 2022
Well known linguist, podcaster, and Columbia University professor John McWhorter authored Woke Racism in 2021. His audience is for both black and white Americans who have become confused about the “woke” movement in America. The movement has grown and taken on multiple facets and McWhorter tries to dispel the false impressions and at the same…
