I think a lot about learning. I suppose that is because learning is central to what I do as a professor. I wonder how people learn. I am intrigued by the different levels of learning. There is superficial learning that is easy because it does not challenge our core assumptions.…
In this series of posts, I have been taking us through Marquardt and Berger’s eight competencies of an effective global leader for the 21st century and comparing them to what we know about the life of Jesus Christ. The purpose has been to get us to look at Jesus not…
Though it may sound strange to modern ears, the business world has witnessed a growing interest in spirituality in the workplace. Thus Marquardt and Berger list “Spirituality” as one of the qualities of a successful global leader. They write: Many cutting-edge leaders are helping their companies set off on spiritual…
Another characteristic that Marquardt and Berger associate with successful global leadership is what they call a “global mindset.” According to them, these leaders display certain behaviors and outlooks that help them rise above other leaders. One of those outlooks is that they have a “unifying global vision” (v. 19). Did…
In his classic book, Servant Leadership, Robert Greenleaf stated that servant leadership “begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead” (p. 434). Greenleaf was writing to the organizational world of late twentieth century. In his view…
In today’s post, I want to review a book I read a long time ago but recently reviewed to refresh my memory of its contents. Leighton Ford wrote Transforming Leadership: Jesus’ Way of Creating Vision, Shaping Values and Empowering Change 27 years ago. The book is still a worthwhile read,…
I don’t know about you, but I experience a tinge of skepticism when I hear about an upcoming “motivational seminar” or about someone who is said to be “a great motivational speaker.” I know folk who have come away from such events feeling their lives had changed for the better.…
At the root of leadership is influence. Leaders want to influence others and they are good at it. Persuasion is one way that leaders exercise that influence. Persuasion will always involve a combination of three factors: emotion, character, and logic. Emotion has to do with how the person feels about…
At the heart of how I define leadership is change. All leadership is about being an agent of change. While organizations need someone to maintain a smooth running operation, by itself this is not leadership. Leaders see problems and want to solve them. They see possibilities and want to achieve…
The field of Leadership Studies is obscured by “experts” who claim to have discovered the “essence” of leadership. You can check this out for yourself by doing a Google search on the phrase “the essence of leadership.” I came up with 436,000 hits. Such claims often come couched in terms…
