Lessons in Leadership

David Ross takes over as manager of the Chicago Cubs this season continuing a recent trend in Major League Baseball to hire managers with no prior managerial experience. Ross is making the most of this off season by preparing for his new job. In truth, though, he has been preparing for this job for quite some time.

As this article points out, Ross has been meeting with other successful managers and coaches. As I read this article, two important lessons stood out:

David Ross is a man who knows what he doesn't know. A common trap among leaders is to believe that either have all the answers or need to have all the answers. Ross has clearly been spending time this off season taking inventory of what he knows and in what areas his knowledge is lacking. This healthy sense of self-awareness will pay off in the long run.

David Ross is a man who is willing to seek out help from others. Another common trap among leaders is an unwillingness to seek out advice from other leaders. But Ross exemplifies one of the healthy quality of leaders in that he is continually learning. As part of that process he is intentionally seeking out advice from other successful leaders. That reputation also leads to successful leaders seeking him out too and being more willing to share their knowledge with him.

As a Cubs fan, I am excited about the possibilities that this season and beyond hold for the team. But I am even more excited to see how David Ross develops as a leader not just for his team but as an example for other leaders as well.

Daily Links 4-16-14

In today's edition: protecting your family from pornography, a new song from an old friend, art available for download, and more.

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With the proliferation of pornography on the internet (and elsewhere) it is best to have a plan for how to deal with it as a family. Fortunately, Tim Challies has some terrific advice on how to develop a comprehensive approach to protecting your family.

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How you can spot a leader you can trust. Some good advice. (Hat tip: Trevin Wax)

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Should I go see Noah or not? A frank discussion on how to engage popular culture.

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My friend Annie Parsons (no relation) has written a lovely new song. She's a talented gal. Take a listen below and then leave a comment for her and let her know what you think.



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Everyone knows that Chick-Fil-A has some of the best food around. But here's something you may not know about: the best items featured on their secret menu.

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The stories of 11 incredible acts of courage.

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You can now download over 35,000 images from the National Gallery of Art.

Daily Links 2-11-14

In today's edition: the myself I was yesterday, what Al Mohler and Jay-Z have in common, the most significant spiritual decision, and more.

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What Al Mohler and Jay-Z have in common. You might think not much but they do share one common trait:

Dr. Al Mohler is the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. His interests appear to include: reading, classical music, ties, and world affairs.  

Jay-Z is one of the most prolific rappers of the last decade.  Jay is known for his platinum albums, flashy lyrics, Illuminati allegations, and being a hip-hop mogul. 

Yet, these two men share a common skill.  Although these men have pursued radically different goals, and have vastly different worldviews, these men have the unique ability to raise up leaders. They both share a reputation for identifying promising talent and then putting time, energy, and resources into developing these future leaders with the hope that one day they will go on to do great things. 

Be sure to read the whole thing.

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Timeless time management lessons from Winston Churchill. I'm finding it more and more effective to apply just these sorts of lessons and not allow myself be distracted by the sheer number of things that I have to do.

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Our most significant spiritual decision. We made a similar decision sixteen years ago when our second daughter was born. Although we weren't in the same position as this couple I can heartily agree this was one of the best decisions we ever made.

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A collection of 12 essential quotes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Related: if you haven't read Eric Metaxas' excellent biography Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy you should.

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The Myself I Was Yesterday - Tim Challies on men and friendship:

In my adult life I have been blessed with some dear and intimate friends. I have come to depend on them in some way, to rely on their counsel, to covet their prayers, to savor the times we spend together, to miss them when we are apart—in short, to love them, and to enjoy the very things I was told I should not enjoy.

But it has not come easily. It has taken a commitment from them to push past my defenses and it has taken effort from me to see that this is okay. It has required fighting against the tide, so to speak, bringing truth to bear against old errors. And biblical truth really does counter than ugly nonsense that claims that men shouldn’t have close friendships, that they should not be committed to one another, that they should never say, “I love you.” 

But I have found, and am finding, that friendship is worth the fight. It is worth the fight in finding men with whom I genuinely enjoy spending time and with whom I love to share experiences, but even more, it is worth the fight in finding men who will make me a better man.

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Some helpful tips for taking control of your e-mail inbox. If you're like me, e-mail can be overwhelming. But applying these tips will help you take control of it rather than it controlling you.

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This is a startup I could support: you design your own guitar and they will build it for you.

Daily Links 1-13-14

Good morning! Here is a collection of links to help start your week off right. In today's edition: Brothers Grimm fairy tales come to life, redesigning World War II London, school wasn't canceled in 1882, and more.

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A neat collection of photographs that make you think you've stepped into one of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales:

Photo by Kilian Schönberger 

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Buyer beware: 17 ways stores make you spend more money. Good stuff to keep in mind while shopping.

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Neat History: how wartime London was redesigned to fool German bombers during World War II.

This lamp post was repainted black and white (among other things) to fool German bomber crews.

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10 pieces of cool Jane Austen swag.

Jane Austen coasters

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A story from Laura Ingalls Wilder's These Happy Golden Years (second to last in the Little House series) proves that we have all gone soft when it comes to dealing with cold weather. (Hat tip: Challies)

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Point-counterpoint: Thom Rainer offers 7 tips for introvert leaders while Ed Stetzer responds with his own 3 tips for extrovert leaders.

Daily Links 11-22-13

Five for Friday: a roundup of links today on writing (plus a bonus recommendation on how to deal with rejection).

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From Brain Pickings: Ernest Hemingway's advice for aspiring young writers. This includes a great excerpt from Ernest Hemingway on Writing. Be sure to scroll to the end of the post for links to more writing advice.

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How to write things the people you lead will want to read. This is a great article including three common mistakes people make and how to fix them.

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Since 2005, the SAT has included an essay section. What's the key to doing well on this part of the test? Make stuff up!

This essay, which was added to the SAT in 2005, counts for approximately 30 percent of a test-taker’s score on the writing section, or nearly one-ninth of one’s total score. That may not seem like much, but with competition for spots at top colleges and universities more fierce than ever, performance on a portion of the test worth around 11 percent of the total could be the difference between Stanford and the second tier. So it’s not surprising that students seek strategies and tips that will help them succeed on the writing exercise. Les Perelman, the recently retired former director of MIT’s Writing Across the Curriculum program, has got a doozy. 

To do well on the essay, he says, the best approach is to just make stuff up. 

“It doesn’t matter if [what you write] is true or not,” says Perelman, who helped create MIT’s writing placement test and has consulted at other top universities on the subject of writing assessments. “In fact, trying to be true will hold you back.” So, for instance, in relaying personal experiences, students who take time attempting to recall an appropriately relatable circumstance from their lives are at a disadvantage, he says. “The best advice is, don’t try to spend time remembering an event,” Perelman adds, “Just make one up. And I’ve heard about students making up all sorts of events, including deaths of parents who really didn’t die.” 

As a result, the SAT is helping us create bad writers.

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A related problem is that college graduates don't know how to write.

Our graduates lack writing skills. While adept at crafting bullet points, they often have difficulty writing in declarative sentences and complete paragraphs – thus impeding the effectiveness of their business communications, including memos, letters, and technical reports. 

A 2004 Conference Board survey of 120 corporations in the Business Roundtable concluded that most companies take written communications into consideration when making their hiring and promotion decisions and implied that many current or prospective employees lack the requisite skills. This conclusion was reinforced by a 2006 Conference Board survey of 431 human resource professionals, which cited writing skills as one of the biggest gaps in workplace readiness. 

Recent graduates also frequently commit basic grammatical errors, such as using an improper pronoun (e.g. “between you and I”) selecting the wrong homonym (e.g. “compliment versus complement”) or employing incorrect diction (e.g. “appraise versus apprise”). Not coincidentally, these kinds of errors are difficult to catch with spell-check. 

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But there is hope. Here are 10 tips how to write less badly.

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As an added bonus, a great quote from Barbara Kingsolver on dealing with rejection:

Daily Links 10-31-13

Catching up with the Robertsons, don't follow your passion, why introverts make good leaders, plus a couple of bonus Halloween links in today's post.

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Leave it to Si Robertson to succinctly state what is wrong with the world: "It ain't gun control we need; it's sin control." He made this statement in a lengthy profile of the Robertson clan of Duck Dynasty fame that appears in the current issue of Men's Journal. The whole article is worth reading. (Hat tip: The Blaze)

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Darius Rucker first hit it big as frontman for Hootie and the Blowfish. But he's gone on to have a successful career in country music, too. The video below is a perfect example of his music. Be sure to watch carefully for some special cameos (and make sure to watch all the way to the end).



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Dilbert creator Scott Adams has some advice on how to be successful: don't follow your passion:

For most people, it's easy to be passionate about things that are working out, and that distorts our impression of the importance of passion. I've been involved in several dozen business ventures over the course of my life, and each one made me excited at the start. You might even call it passion. 

The ones that didn't work out—and that would be most of them—slowly drained my passion as they failed. The few that worked became more exciting as they succeeded. For example, when I invested in a restaurant with an operating partner, my passion was sky high. And on day one, when there was a line of customers down the block, I was even more passionate. In later years, as the business got pummeled, my passion evolved into frustration and annoyance. 

On the other hand, Dilbert started out as just one of many get-rich schemes I was willing to try. When it started to look as if it might be a success, my passion for cartooning increased because I realized it could be my golden ticket. In hindsight, it looks as if the projects that I was most passionate about were also the ones that worked. But objectively, my passion level moved with my success. Success caused passion more than passion caused success.

Hat tip: Lifehacker

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Readers can save the world! Not really, but reading is good for you according to our friends to the north.

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Four things introverts do that make them effective leaders. This is an interesting read. (Hat tip Adrian Warnock)

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Five myths of leadership. I have to admit I have heard every single one of these and thought they were all true. (Hat tip Vicki Whiting)

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It can now be revealed that Disney's Imagineers tested the Haunted Mansion special effects on the night cleaning crew:

Hat tip: Neatorama

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Today marks the 75th anniversary of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast. You can listen to the entire broadcast here. Welles' sign-off was priceless:

"This is Orson Welles, ladies and gentlemen, out of character to assure you that “The War of The Worlds” has no further significance than as the holiday offering it was intended to be. The Mercury Theatre’s own radio version of dressing up in a sheet and jumping out of a bush and saying Boo! Starting now, we couldn’t soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night …so we did the best next thing. We annihiliated the world before your very ears, and utterly destroyed the Columbia Broadcasting System. You will be relieved, I hope, to learn that we didn’t mean it, and that both institutions are still open for business. So goodbye everybody, and remember the terrible lesson you learned tonight. That grinning, glowing, globular invader of your living room is an inhabitant of the pumpkin patch, and if your doorbell rings and nobody’s there, that was no Martian …it’s Halloween!"

Daily Links 10-21-13

Is Paleo just a fad diet, the downfalls of teenagers on social media, the differences between buzzwords and leadership, and more in today's roundup of links.

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Is Paleo just another fad diet or is there something more to it? Speaking from personal experience, Paleo has been a life-changing decision for me. About a year ago I was getting sick all the time. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. My doctor was stumped. Then I finally stumbled across Breaking the Vicious Cycle and started following the guidelines closely. My health changed dramatically and started to lose weight. Paleo is closely related to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and the approaches are similar. Eating Paleo has made a big difference in my life. If you're dealing with digestive issues it's worth a try to see if it will make a difference.

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This week marks the return of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot to the small screen. Of course, Britain gets to see it first. American viewers will have to wait until next year thanks to PBS. To whet your appetite, ITV has posted a trailer on their website. These will be the last four movies in the entire canon.

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Habits of successful people: They start before they feel ready. This is a fascinating article.

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Have you ever looked closely at company logos? They may be trying to tell you something.

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This is a frightening list: seven everyday foods that could kill you. (Hat tip: Food Riot)

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The downside of teenagers being constantly connected to their electronic devices. For what its worth, this is an area where we have treaded carefully with our own daughters.

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10 differences between buzzwords and leadership:

On several occasions when teaching, I’ve noted the difference between buzzwords and leadership. In fact, I think that a key facet of leadership is knowing the difference between a strategy and a collection of buzzwords. In the corporate world, there are a multitude of buzzwords (and phrases) that need to fall out of existence. And, yes, I’m an offending party on several of these.

Hat tip: Justin Taylor

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I find to-do lists are really helpful in managing my day to day tasks. Here's a fascinating history of the to-do list and how to make them work better for you.

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This is fun: A list of 25 movies that you might not know were based on books.(Hat tip: Book Riot)

Daily Links 10-15-13

The sound of Hitchcock, the effect of pornography on the brain, dealing with critics, how to make your own candy corn and more in today's roundup of links.

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When most people think of Alfred Hitchcock's films, they think about his visual style. But he also thought a lot about how a picture should sound in order to build suspense and drama in his films.

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New research shows the effect that pornography has on the brain:

As William M. Struthers of Wheaton College explains, “Men seem to be wired in such a way that pornography hijacks the proper functioning of their brains and has a long-lasting effect on their thoughts and lives.”

Struthers is a psychologist with a background in neuroscience and a teaching concentration in the biological bases of human behavior. In Wired for Intimacy: How Pornography Hijacks the Male Brain, Struthers presents key insights from neuroscience that go a long way toward explaining why pornography is such a temptation for the male mind.

“The simplest explanation for why men view pornography (or solicit prostitutes) is that they are driven to seek out sexual intimacy,” he explains. The urge for sexual intimacy is God-given and essential to the male, he acknowledges, but it is easily misdirected. Men are tempted to seek “a shortcut to sexual pleasure via pornography,” and now find this shortcut easily accessed.

In a fallen world, pornography becomes more than a distraction and a distortion of God’s intention for human sexuality. It comes as an addictive poison.

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Thanks to Alton Brown you can make your own candy corn.

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A handy guide for home maintenance. There are a lot of great tips in this list and several things I had never even considered that I needed to do.

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Dealing with critics is always difficult. Here are some helpful tips on how to do it.

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25 great quotes on leadership.

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Some recommended books for would-be writers.

Daily LInks 10-1-13

Accidental food inventions, the myth of seeker-sensitive worship, The War of the Worlds, and more in today's roundup of links.

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15 Delicious Foods That Were Invented By Mistake (via Food Riot)

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David Walker on the myth of "seeker-sensitive worship"

There are legitimate “seekers” of the Truth out there, but when it comes to musical worship, we’ve defined “seeker” as someone who wants a show, who we don’t want to offend. We do this in an attempt to lead them to make a decision for Jesus through our musical worship simply being the holster for the message.

Somehow, we’ve watered down our expression of worship in order to give them a sport to spectate instead of an expression that leads them to participate. Whether you're attractional, missional, in-between, charismatic, liturgical...and the list goes on...the Church has got to start processing through the worship of our King and the people the Church would define as seekers.

Hat tip: Worship Ideas

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Context matters a great deal when studying the Bible as this sermon from 1 Timothy 2:1-15 rightly points out. (Hat tip: Mollie Hemingway)

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Dispelling common misconceptions non-homeschool parents have about parents who homeschool.

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In 1938, Orson Welles terrified the nation with his radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds. You can hear the whole broadcast here.

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According to Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Madddon, Ben Zobrist "lacks chrome". It's a good example of what leadership should look like.

Hat tip: Chailles

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Friday Tweet Roundup 8-23-13

Happy Friday everyone!  I continue to be amazed at what I find on Twitter. Here is a roundup of this week's links. Please follow me on Twitter if you are so inclined.

About three years prior to writing 1984, George Orwell wrote a letter detailing the theories that would shape the novel.

This is a great question: "What will be the cost to the church if young men continue to give themselves to pornography?"

Settling the important questions: when grilling is it better to marinade or rub? Go for the rub. Related: my favorite way to prepare steaks only involves using salt and pepper.

I didn't really understand the appeal of Duck Dynasty until I saw a couple of episodes. Here's an explanation as to why it's so popular (and that's a good thing). It's become one of our favorite shows.

Marian McPartland, hostess of NPR's Piano Jazz passed away this week at 95. An appreciation of her remarkable career.

A young man gets stranded at the airport with no money and nothing to eat. What one restaurant did really shows what great customer service is all about.

Legendary Disney songwriters Richard Sherman and Alan Menken recently appeared in concert together at the D23 Expo and it was as magical as you would expect it to be.

The late Elmore Leonard had some great rules for writers.

Baseball's National Hall of Fame should be about those who played the game with honor. This is an interesting case for one such player who is not currently enshrined in the Hall (but should be).

A 911 operator comes to a bride's rescue. Then they become friends.

15 companies that started out selling something else than what they became famous for.

TIME finally reports on a story that a lot of parents already know about: Public schools are hostile to boys.

It's always tough when you're facing the prospect of leaving your church. Here are 10 questions you should ask yourself if you're considering such a step. It's a serious decision and is worth careful thought and prayer.

What Disney taught one person about leadership.

According to Dr. Albert Mohler, the antidote to anemic worship is expository preaching.

An American POW's prized gold ring returns home after he gave it away for food during World War II.

Los Angeles Dodgers' pitching ace Clayton Kershaw would rather talk about what he's doing off the field. Key quote: "Kershaw said he wants to be known as a Christian who happens to play baseball, not as a baseball player who happens to be a Christian."

There are some that say e-books will be the death of the publishing industry. But one publisher is starting to reward customers with free e-book copies of physical books that they buy. This makes sense to me. Amazon had already done this with CDs purchased through their site so it makes sense that publishers will want to do the same.

From Art of Manliness, five traits of true leadership.

Five habits of highly effective communicators.

How to go from being a good leader to a great manager.

This is amazing: historical black and white photographs are colorized. The results are incredible.

A brief history of everyone's favorite summertime memory: the ice cream truck.

The plucky investigative reporter who got herself committed to an insane asylum. On purpose.

Did you know before she became a famous television chef Julia Child was a spy? The stories of five unlikely spies.

Let's call this your bookstore bucket list. 16 bookstores to see before you die. Judging by the pictures, I'd say they were right.

An interesting interview with the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Convention, Russell Moore. His observations on the role of Christians in culture today are right on the mark.

That's it. Have a great weekend.

Friday Tweet Recap 8-2-13

Here's a roundup of links of interest from my Twitter feed from the past week for your weekend enjoyment:

The U. K. is taking steps to block pornography on the Internet. Should the U. S. do the same?

Last week I proposed stiffer penalties for PED use in baseball. According to this article, some players are on board with the idea.

A heartwarming profile of life in the village of Cooperstown.

Modesty is the new sexy. It's not about wardrobe. "Modesty has to flow from the wellspring of our selves."

This is a great story: A golfer withdraws from a tournament that he's leading forfeiting a potential $1 million dollar payday to be with his wife who is giving birth.

Why guys love Kate Middleton. (Hint: it's not just because she's attractive)

Think you couldn't homeschool? Read this confession of a reluctant homeschool mom.

This is a useful article: An Introvert's Guide to Introverts.

More on Introverts: Justin Lathrop reviews Susan Cain's excellent book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking and makes some good points on why introverts make great leaders. I'm just about finished reading Cain's book and it is a terrific read.

Among CIA museum’s prizes, an American love letter on Hitler’s stationery.

This is cool: A one sentence summary of each of Screwtape's letters.

It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World - The Greatest Slapstick Comedy Ever? You bet!

If you're reading this, it's already too late. 

That's it. Have a great weekend.

Leadership

In a time of crisis, the public expects its leader to be able to step up and, well, lead. A lot has been written on President Obama's failure to lead during the Gulf Oil Spill crisis and much of that criticism is well-founded. But the first step in leading during a crisis is to recognize that you have a crisis to begin with. This got me thinking about a scene from one of my favorite movies, Apollo 13, in which flight director Gene Kranz (played perfectly by Ed Harris) sets the tone for management of the crisis right from the outset:



Kranz would several times throughout the rescue effort have to focus his people on the fundamental problems facing them. He was the one who coined the phrase "Failure is not an option" and made that his team's slogan. He also focused his team on the goal which was getting the astronauts home and didn't get caught up in assigning blame for the accident. He knew there would plenty of time to sort that out later on.

President Obama could learn a thing or to from Gene Kranz. Perhaps if he had handled the oil spill the same way Kranz handled the explosion aboard Apollo 13 there would be a lot less oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico.

The (In)Experience Factor

During the primaries and the general election campaign last year, the most potent argument made for not supporting Barack Obama was his lack of experience. He had never managed anything. He did not have any leadership experience. And with only two years in the U. S. Senate, he lacked sufficient knowledge of how the legislative process worked in Washington. In other words, he didn't know how to lead or to govern. Although the debate over Obamacare is far from over, this fatal weakness has been laid open for all to see in the debacle over how health care reform has been handled so far.

President Obama's first mistake was that he did not lay out a vision for what health care reform should look like. He relied on the same nonspecific campaign rhetoric that led to victory last November in the election when talking about health care reform. He had convinced the public something needed to be done about health care but he hadn't made the case for specific steps that needed to be taken. Even his New York Times op-ed doesn't contain a single tangible proposal on how he will achieve the reform goals he wants to meet. By contrast, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey laid out a very sensible proposal for reform in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week. The President could have taken a cue from someone like Mr. Mackey by providing specific proposals of what to accomplish with reform legislation.

The President's second mistake was not practicing what he preached when it came to bipartisanship. At the beginning of this debate, President Obama made it clear he wanted support for healthcare reform to be bipartisan. But instead of bringing Republicans into the process of drafting the reform legislation, he outsourced the writing of the bill to Nancy Pelosi and the House Democratic caucus. As a result, he got a bill that was chock full of goodies for their liberal supporters and controversial proposals that no one in their right mind could defend. The President then squandered precious political capital having to play defense on issues such as "death panels" and single-payer programs and flip-flops on the public option.

Now the President finds himself in a bind. His approval ratings are plummeting. The public is growing skeptical about whether they can trust him on this issue. Getting Republicans to come to the table at this point seems unlikely. Despite having supermajorities in both houses of Congress, he probably won't be able to get anything passed anytime soon as he can't keep his own party in line.

So what does the President do? Is it time to hit the reset button as some have suggested? You can't erase the past but you can move forward, can't you?

The first step for the President will be the most difficult. He has to come out and publicly admit that he has made mistakes in how he has handled health care reform. He then has to tell Congress to start over from scratch. He should bring leaders from both parties together and lay out a plan of what he wants to accomplish and be willing to listen to and incorporate ideas from both parties. There are an abundance of proposals being tossed about. The President needs to be willing to cull through them and working with Congress incorporate the best of them.

President Obama has a difficult task ahead. If health care reform is to be enacted it's going to require him to do something he hasn't had to do nor has the experience to do: be a leader. The chances of reform being enacted are directly tied to his ability to demonstrate leadership. If the President's plan does fail he has no one to blame but himself.

Missing: Bold Leadership

This week I've had the privilege to preview a new series that will debut on the Discovery Channel on Sunday, June 8th entitled When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions (click here to read my review). The six part series traces the first fifty years of NASA's missions to explore outer space.

While watching the series I was struck by how we no longer consider the exploration of space as something that is important for our country to invest in. It does not seem to hold the same interest for us as a nation as it did when I was a kid growing up in the late 60's and early 70's. Perhaps that is because we don't have bold leadership any longer in Washington.

On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space by piloting his Mercury spacecraft on a twenty minute sub-orbital flight. A little less than three weeks later, President John F. Kennedy declares before a joint session of Congress that the United States will land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. At the time, many in the space program thought Kennedy was crazy to make such a suggestion. But as audacious as his boast may have been, he inspired thousands of individuals associated with the program to work harder to ensure that his goal was met.

President Kennedy said it best in another famous speech that he made about why we must explore space:

We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.

We need a leader who is willing to challenge us to do hard things.