On Leading Well

Year: 2009

  • Leaders Still Need To Do Stuff

    Saturday morning I enjoyed a 45-minute Skype chat with my good friend David who now lives in the Netherlands. We struck up a friendship over electric guitars in a Singapore music shop a few years ago. Conversations with David never fail to sharpen my insights into life, fatherhood, music and servant leadership.

    David’s the headmaster of a new British school in The Hague. New, as in still-having-the-concrete-poured-and-hiring-my-leadership-team new. David was lamenting the slow pace of progress in construction, and noted that the contractors had plenty of leaders, not enough doers. Stuff simply wasn’t getting done. Too many chiefs, not enough braves. Too many layers of hierarchy….

    This got me thinking about some pioneering efforts that I’ve been a part of. I’ve started a few businesses, pioneered new movements where nothing existed, help plant three churches, and walked into leadership situations that needed a lot of rebuilding. Each scenario had a common theme: the need for lots of hands-on action on the front end.

    Start-ups require a lot of blood, sweat and tears from whoever owns the vision. The trick is to monitor closely how much hands-on servanthood is required to get the plane off the runway and into the air, then to begin giving away leadership as soon as possible to others around us. Otherwise we risk holding on too long, burning ourselves out, and robbing motivation from others.

    There is an art and science to knowing when to shift our leadership style from eyes-on-hands-on to eyes-on-hands-off. And when to shift back, if necessary.

  • You Are What You Read


    Leaders are readers… because leaders must be continual learners. For years I have made it a practice to ask others whom I respect what they are reading, then pick up the best books and glean from them. There is much wisdom to be wrought from others’ insights and experiences. Here is my 2009 Leadership Reading List. These authors have shaped my thinking on how to live well, love well, and lead well.

  • Does This Bother You?

    Timothy Geithner, Obama’s – and America’s – new Treasury Secretary, failed to pay more than $34,000 in taxes, which were dubbed “innocent mistakes or technicalities.”

    Tom Daschle, nominee for Health and Human Services, just cleared up his “stupid mistake” by paying over $100,000 in back taxes and interest due from 2005 -2007.

    God, grant us mercy. Someone once said that people get the leaders they deserve. I say you get what you tolerate. Elected officials who have made these types of “mistakes” in personal management do not bolster my confidence in their ability to oversee $800 billion in financial bailout allocations or new health care plans.

    Rewarding public officials with higher office in spite of their obvious disdain for tax law only accelerates our nation’s credibility crisis.

    The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach…not a lover of money… He must manage his own household well….

    Question for aspiring leaders: Where might I be vulnerable to large or small acts of blatant hypocrisy?