{"id":12546,"date":"2017-03-22T23:40:58","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T06:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=12546"},"modified":"2017-03-22T23:40:58","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T06:40:58","slug":"build-leaders-not-knuckleheads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/build-leaders-not-knuckleheads\/","title":{"rendered":"Build Leaders, Not Knuckleheads"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Leadership\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jam packed with leadership tips, truths, and morsels, “The Art of Leadership” is an obvious choice for classic books on leadership. It’s timeless principles are applicable for leaders as it touches on the heart and spirit of a leader, as well as the head and logic of leadership.<\/p>\n

Leadership tidbits…<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>There were many useful take-aways from this read. Working smarter and not harder is always an intriguing topic for me. The Scanlon Plan gave incentive and ownership to the works, as it exhibited capitalism at its finest. Having a teamwork approach, where the managers are indistinguishable from the workers, speaks to the servant leadership approach. Developing integrity and intimacy in a company spoke to the value of establishing principles while not excluding the person, as strategy came second to people. \u00a0The concept of roving leaders brought to memory faces who lovingly and quietly served behind the scenes in churches I attended; they created successful communities, functioning as the epitome of servant leaders.<\/p>\n

Parenting came to mind when Depree reminded leaders of the responsibility of developing future leaders. Assisting them in developing vision and passion for their lives as they seek to live purposeful lives with efficiency and effectiveness. My dad used to tell me there is nothing that looks worse than an athlete who has all the right gear but has no athletic ability or teamwork skills. He called them “knuckleheads”. Growing up in a lucrative area, my teammates had all the newest and latest athletic gear. When I wanted to play softball, he dug out his baseball mitt from the 1940’s for me to use. It was a relic and should have been in a museum, but I knew it was a\u00a0 moot point arguing for a new glove. I would have to master the sport and show efficiency and effectiveness as a team member and leader if I was to ever get any new gear. Many times I received odd looks at the equipment my dad rustled up for me to use. I remember my brand new $80 glove my dad agreed to buy, and what mattered more than the glove was the “authentic athlete” award that came unspoken from my father. My dad taught me that it isn’t the image of the person that matters but what’s on the inside that matters most, and to use my time and resources to develop my character. Otherwise, I’d be a “knucklehead”.<\/p>\n

Culturally delayed tone…<\/em><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the verbiage, tone, and illustrations in the book were clearly written exclusively for male leaders, thus making it not entirely culturally relevant for today’s leaders. It reinforces the inappropriate perspective that men are the designated leaders and woman are not worth mentioning as leaders or major contributors in society. I questioned how many women or women leaders had influenced Depree, especially when he mentions his father as being an exceptional leader, yet never credits his mother for her leadership ability. Even when he could have mentioned women generously, he unapologetically continued to exclusively highlight male athletes, artists, professors, friends, and leaders.<\/p>\n

As a business woman, it made for a challenging read, for he was speaking in mixed messages; he referred to the importance of being inclusive and everyone having a part, while never even mentioning one female leader, athlete, professor, artist, architect, philosopher, or friend in his illustrations, leadership examples, or personal inspirations. His examples were clear and concrete yet often male-oriented, with terms like: eunuchs, urinals, baseball…none of which are elements in a woman’s world (typically, women play softball versus baseball, a point I repeatedly made to my dad when he called it baseball). The parts women played in the book were usually nameless or side-notes to the story.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, it was difficult to keep translating his writing and it was a distraction to his excellent leadership points. It felt a bit like a good-ol’-boys-club experience, where just the men are invited to the inner circle oblivious to the women standing on their tip-toes trying to find a space in the inner sanctum. It’s a scene that does not need to be reinforced for our young women and men leaders, or validated for our current leaders operating in key leadership positions. Since Depree’s leadership experience and knowledge is extensive and well-respected, I would love to read a book authored by him with more inclusivity of women leaders and their contributions within society and leadership. Despite the author’s gender bias for leaders, it held many exemplary leadership points and it was enjoyable reading about solutions and methods in developing leadership character.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jam packed with leadership tips, truths, and morsels, “The Art of Leadership” is an obvious choice for classic books on leadership. It’s timeless principles are applicable for leaders as it touches on the heart and spirit of a leader, as well as the head and logic of leadership. Leadership tidbits… \u00a0There were many useful take-aways […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[630],"class_list":["post-12546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-depree","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}