I was delighted when I was sent a free copy of Barack, Inc.: Winning Business Lessons of the Obama Campaign to review. Not just because I voted for him, but because this is a book about how to sell change, major change, to strangers and in doing so turn them into a community of supporters. That̵...

Last week I wrote about both the need and approaches for management to communicate bad news openly and honestly. Wes Ball commented on the need to keep employees involved, which is what I was planning to talk about today. The language of employee involvement keeps changing, so if you want to do more...

Another day, another leadership book. I sometimes wonder how far around the earth they would stretch if laid end to end. Most have viable lessons, useable by everyone, not just the person running the show. Many of the attitudes, actions and lessons learned and offered are similar, but each seeks a t...

Dan McCarthy writes a great blog over at Great Leadership; we don’t always agree, but I always learn something from reading him. He recently wrote one with which I disagree, but I see the same topic over and over, so I thought I’d offer up my two cents on the it. The post lists “st...

This week the plan is to post some thoughts on my new schedule. As I stated last semester (I’m the son of teachers, I’m married to a teacher, I am a minister to students- I think in semesters) I was stretched a little thin. The problem wasn’t that I felt overloaded. The problem was...

America’s Best Leaders 2008 is a collaboration between U.S.News & World Report and the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. These leaders were selected by a committee of academic, government, business, and nonprofit leaders. The co...

Di c k k S c o g g i n s     My early thinking on apostleship was shaped by Watchman Nee, who made a distinction between the Church and the Work – two distinct entities with distinct spheres.  The Church is called to subdue the land, bringing the full weight of the gospel to bear...

On a post over at Managing Leadership, Wally Bock left a great comment that’s germane to my recent posts and to the notion that the idea of ‘leadership’ has been corrupted by the leadership business and the media. Wally said, “…people prefer magical thinking to accounta...

Recent bibliographic suggestions, offered by Pletch, the BIC Atlantic Conference Church Planting Coach. Me to We, by Alan Nelson. Explores the nature of becoming an empowering pastor and an equipping congregation. Helps us move from “going it alone” to embracing partnership. This is a qu...

I recently attended a consultation in Johannesburg, together with about 450 Christian leaders from across South Africa.  As I was leaving to have lunch, 2 young men approached me, asking if they could have lunch with me.  They said they wanted to ask me about something I had said in passin...