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Post-Election 2008: Now What?
Some off-the-cuff musings about the election yesterday… President-elect Obama has promised showers of blessings and a veritable cornucopia of well-being to an unthinking American public, and we bought it. Charisma, charm, and the perception of “appearing Presidential on TV” carried the day. 52% of Americans reacted out of fear and a sense of despair manufactured by…
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In Leadership, Character Matters
http://www.youtube.com/v/VIdbYjmbFzo&hl=en&fs=1′ Somebody emailed me this YouTube link. As shown in some of the comments, many are outraged as to the claims and presentation of the video’s subject. Contrary to many of these claims, both the video and its claims are true. The lady’s name is Jill Stanek (www.jillstanek.com) and she was a nurse at Christ…
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Thoughts on Followership
OBEDIENCE | For the sake of conversation, I share this concept of followership as obedience or submission. This captures both the leadership and the followership of Jesus. Jesus said that the core of his mission was “to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (John 4:34, NIV). In his priestly prayer, Jesus acknowledged…
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Who (Really) Are Followers?
Who and what are followers and how are they really different from leaders? Successful leaders and successful followers share the same basic characteristics: visionary, decisive, communicative, energetic, committed, and responsible. Effective followers possess integrity, have a sense of ownership in the organization, demonstrate versatility and flexibility, and take responsibility for their own involvement1 . However, aren’t…
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Complexity & Leadership
A complex group can be understood as a web of interactions between group members, outside contextual dynamics, and the parameters of the group as its own system. For leadership research, this provides three vantage points of study: member/member interactions, group-as-system/context interactions, and member/context interactions. Complexity suggests that any individual part of a system (a person,…
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Finishing Well
I have previously done some work in my graduate program on the topic of how leaders “finish well.” Finishing well describes how leaders prepare for and engage life after their transition into retirement. Bob Buford, in Finishing Well, calls this stage Life II and observes that finding significance and meaning in Life II is often difficult for leaders, especially…
