I have often quoted the axiom, "a difference between a leader and a follower is PERSPECTIVE. And, a difference between good leaders and better leaders is better perspective." But, perspective is more than a strategic issue. The greatest perspective is actually spiritual, and as such, it calls for the work of the Spirit.

I am fascinated by the ways and reasons we resist change. We don’t just resist changes that are big and scary, we resist change on every level. We laugh at Einstein’s definition of insanity while pretending we don’t live by it every day, “doing what we have always done, expecting different results.” Leader face this [...]

That 40/40 world ended sometime near the end of the last millennium. It was replaced by a world where everyone essentially works as a consultant, a world where job security is only as good as the current project you are working on. It’s a world that requires people to put in however many hours it takes to get the job done. And, now both spouses work in this same environment replete with the anxiety, fatigue, and long hours that come with it.

Because I spend most of my time working with Christian ministry leaders and leadership teams in churches or ministry organizations, I regularly run into teams that have become hospice care centers to the detriment of quality work that needs to be done. However, as I interact with colleagues in the for-profit business world, I frequently [...]

It used to be that the notion of a leader as Lone Ranger was a good thing. Riding in on a white horse to save the day single-handedly is the way great leaders carried themselves. That day is over. Today, leaders that operate today as autocratic individualists are suspect.

How big is the wake behind your "boat?" Do you cut through the waters of life without leaving a mark, or do the waves of your wake reverberate in people long after you are gone? The 5 "C's" of Leadership Capacity are qualities that translate into the breadth and depth of a leader's influence: aka. the wake behind "your boat."

Character-deep leaders understand the relationship between character and competency. While character may be the key to influence, they have also learned to rely on their competencies much like a master-mechanic relies on tools.

There are five consistent attributes critical to a leader’s life-long development. The extent to which a man or woman has cultivated all five is the measure by which they will find the influence of their life growing exponentially.

What were your books of the year? My runner's up for book of the year honors are: Tribes by Seth Godin; and Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Pete Scazzero.

Gandalf…Dumbledore…Yoda… fictional icons of wisdom and in the minds of many the epitome of the perfect mentors. The only thing is, they aren’t real. They are part of the fiction that actually inhibits mentoring.