LeadershipConneXtions

Dabble Time

I read about this idea some years back, but it really hit home in the book:

Googled: The End of the World as We Know It.

Then, The Idea Hunter elaborated it for me even more and the examples below come from that book.

The idea is simple.

Set aside time every day (if possible) and at least every week for your learning and development and for dabbling around with stuff that is not on your job description! 

Some of the most successful organizations, who are known for creativity know that people need "space" and "time" for the innovative processes to work best. So they build into the work time - dabble time.

The 3M Company lets employees have 20% of their work time (every week) for work that is unrelated to their core job description.

Google gives one day a week to most of its employees for them to follow their personal interests (even if they are far afield of their job description).

Gore-Tex sets aside 1/2 day a week for employees to have "dabble time" when they work on projects entirely of their own choosing.

 

From this kind of time, these companies find some of the greatest creativity, innovation and discovery of new ideas, products and services.

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I see three things at work:

1.  this makes for a highly resonant workplace where employees feel valuded. Emotionally healthy work environments unleash the best in people.

2.  It recognizes learning theory that knows breakthrough ideas often happen when the brain switches gears and works on other tasks. This involves the synergy of multiple disciplines and the cross-fertilization and catalytic power of those disciplines and projects interacting.

3.  And it understands that life long learning is always the wellspring for faithful, fruitful living and working.

Leaders find ways to create dabble time for themselves and their team and organizations.

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So what are you dabbling in lately?
What are your most intriguing learning pathways you are walking?
What is the new idea that is beginning to sprout? 

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Please note that "Dabble Time" is not the same thing as "YabaDabaDo Time" (that is Leadership the Flintstone Way) 

 

Wicked Problems

I was recently introduced to this idea in a nice little book by Keith Grint - Leadership: A Very Short Introduction. This is one of the more than 200 volumes in the Very Short Introduction series published by Oxford. These are very cool little books and you can find all of them on their website.

A "tame problem" is one that may be complicated but we can resolve it through the application of familiar ideas and approaches.

A "wicked problem" has a level of complexity that goes beyond the limits of knowledge and previous methodologies that worked in the past. In fact, wicked problems appear virtually unsolvable and unresolvable. Which is why they are WICKED.

We are seeing Wicked Level Problems everywhere in the world. The current global economic crisis is one such VERY WICKED PROBLEM. This image on complexity is found on this site.

Many years ago, James Emory White wrote a book called, Serious Times. He took the title of his book from a letter written by John Adams to his friend Thomas Jefferson, after the American Revolutionary War was ended. Adams said:

"My friend, you and I have lived in serious times."

Serious times indeed they were and are today.

Do you remember the opening paragraph from A Tale of Two Cities?

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way . . .
(Charles Dickens)

Best of and worst of times indeed they were and indeed they are today.

Serious times, best/worst of times, Wicked Problem times . . . which require leadership far beyond average, considerably better than good, and in fact, great may not be sufficient. Superlative leadership is the need for today.  At all levels. From many, many people. Will we be such leaders?

I think I'll go and pray . . .

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Lord Acton, J.R.R. Tolkien and Jesus on Power

I have to admit, I did get a kick out of this T-shirt. I thought - I have to get one of those! Check it out here.

Leadership is all about the "wielding" of power and authority. Good leadership uses power and authority in ways that are good, beautiful and right. Bad leadership uses power and authority in ways that are harmful, ugly and destructive. 

Lord Acton (1834 - 1902) was a historian and philosopher who provided one of the most significant quotes ever on power.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

That part of the quote we are quite familiar with. However, many of us have not heard what follows.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Great men are almost always bad men.

J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote his magisterial Lord of the Rings trilogy, did this in light of World War II. He had this to say about power.

The proper study of man is anything but man, and the most improper job of any man is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.   Letters #52, Tolkien

Bobby Clinton identified the abuse of power as one of the significant reasons why so many leaders do not finish well. Certainly, in our time, we have seen the misuse and abuse of power. Sometimes it is horrendous and we call those people tyrants and dictators. But such misuse and abuse is all around us. In our politicians at federal, state and local levels, in the financial moguls of Wall Street, in those who lead churches, the educational institutions of our country, the military... nothing int he private or public sector is above the misuse of power.

Combine this misuse of power with sexual failures and financial problems, stir in generous amounts of hubris, and the recipe for a leader's destruction (and those who follow as well) is there.

For a little Bible study that shows the way of Christ, check out Mark 10:35-45. There Jesus shows the "upward descent" into the Kingdom of God. The leader as servant, the servant leader who becomes a slave to those served, and this servant-slave-leader who gives his live as a sacrifice for the sake of those who follow. In that kind of power, is the redemption of the world.

As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.
(John 20:21)

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

The Incompetent Leader (Kellerman on Bad Leadership)

Dark Side Leadership.

I guess I am always a bit amazed and then perplexed when people reject this idea as significant. I think there are few things more important than this matter. I also tend to be a bit suspicious, thinking that those senior leaders who don't think the darkside is an important theme - hmmm, what are they hiding in their dark corners of life?

Bad Leadership.

This is the book by Barbara Kellerman published in 2004.
OK..Confession time...
The book has been sitting on my shelf for several years!

I pulled it off recently in preparation for a sermon I did on October 24th, from 1 Kings 12 and the fall of King Rehoboam... 

Kellerman says, "Bad leadership is a phenomenon so ubiquitous it's a wonder that our shelves are not heavy with books on the subject" (pp. xv).

Chapter Four is about the incompetent leaders, who in Keller's view, are also ubiquitous (everywhere, all the time, think 24/7). The incompetent leader is one who lacks the "will and the skill" at least in one important area to "sustain effective action."

They may be incompetent because they don't have experience, education, the right strength mix for their seat on the bus... They may lack the necessary instincts, they may lack perspective, intelligence, energy, stamina... They may be stuck in old models... There are lots of reasons why leaders are incompetent.

This department to the right has had quite a bit of bad press complaining about its incompetence. It is only one example of organizational incompetence.

I have often said on this site that the inner world of the leader (heart, character, emotional intelligence, virtue, and so on) is harder to develop than the external skill sets of leadership. While I think that is true, the fact is there are lots of incompetent leaders who just can't get it done.

How about you?
What are your areas of weakness and even incompetency?
How are you hurting the vision and the organization (team, family, etc.) by your incompetency?
What can you do about that incompetency?
What is keeping you from doing what you know you should do?

Marcus Buckingham encourages us to build on our strengths (competencies) and manage around our weaknesses (incompetencies). That is a good strategy to work on.

Click here for a good Dilbert cartoon on this subject.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lcitypepad.com 

 

Leadership - Video Images and Ideas (Mike Johnson)

Here is another video from Mike. It is a compilation of ideas and themes of leadership. You'll find some motivating themes to consider.

 

Mike Johnson  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

Leadership and Solitude by William Deresiewicz

Here is a GREAT essay on leadership by William Deresiewicz.  Here is an extremely short bio.

He gave this as an address to the plebe class at the United States Military Academy at West Point in October of 2009.

I read it in the Spring 2010 American Scholar edition.

 

You can read it in two ways.

One, go to this website for the American Scholar.org.

Or, what I think is better, is to download the article which I have as a PDF. I received permission from the author to do this gratis. I formatted the article so you have a nice right hand column for notes and observations. It is that good that you will want to take some leisurely time to read and reflect on it.

Download Solitude and Leadership

Enjoy.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International  
www.lci.typepad.com

A Few Misc. Thoughts on Leadership

ONE:
Most of the time we are not involved in really spectacular works of leadership. So much of leadership is just the day to day, prosaic, mundane work of dealing with needs, problems, issues, "turning the flywheel" and being motivated to stay the course. This is where commitment and perseverance are needed.

TWO:
While is is great to have a leadership plan in place and to work your plan wisely and well, let's face it - a lot of life and leadership is improvisation. The best leaders are not "all shook up" when they have to depart from the plan and wing there way through an unwelcome challenge, or quickly seize an unexpected opportunity. 
 

THREE:
Defining moments are significant, but many of them are really, more a collection and an accumulation of small decisions which become an aggregation and coalesce into a way of life.  In other words, the small stuff counts, God is in the details, life is the summation of endless experiences. And it all adds up. So, leaders, we can't just wait around for the Really Big Moments,when we think we make a decision that makes the difference. Attend to the daily details.
 

FOUR:
I am as results driven as the next person. I love outcomes and achieving them. Get R Done as a friend of mine says. And yet . . . we must also learn that our values, our beliefs, our convictions, our choices - whether they generate immediate and observable results - they are important and if we live consistently and faithfully according to them - that counts as well.
 

FIVE:
Mentoring others matters. It may be one of the things that matters most of all. The steady and sure personal transfer of your personal resources (your wisdom, experience, love, faith, character, tools, methods and more) to another one who needs them and who will benefit from them. I am becoming more and more convinced that this is the most important work of leadership there is. There may be more significance to your quiet and powerful mentoring relationships than all the really impressive, flashy, shiny stuff you do.  (Just a thought!)
 

SIX:  
It is worth it to pursue life long learning and to pursue excellence in all things. I have had some conversations with some leaders who do neither. They don't have the time for learning. They don't feel comfortable with the ideas of excellence. I think both are richly biblical, woven into the heart of creation and just part of the calling for leadership that finished well. It is worthwhile to remind yourself of this every day.

Brian Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com 

     

The Twice Born, Level 5 Leader

It was Abraham Zaleznik who told us that leaders are "twice born individuals who endure major events that lead to a sense of separateness, or perhaps estrangement from their environments. As a result, they turn inward in order to reemerge with a created rather than an inherited sense of identity" (The Managerial Mystique, 1989).

I wonder how much Jim Collins was informed by Zaleznik's ideas when he described the Level 5 Leader as one who has been through a time of transformation, launched by crisis, failure, religious encounter, an episode or season of suffering . . . ?

In the developmental process of leadership formation, there is much that is mundane, repeated, pushing on in personal growth.

And yet, there is a place for the transformative power of major events, that when we respond to those events with faith, trust, surrender, openness, humility, expectancy, come to the end of our rope and abandon ourselves to (well, in AA it is God as we perceive him, but for Christians) God in Christ -- then we become those twice born leaders.

With the twice born, all things are possible.

You don't schedule a twice born leadership experience for next Thursday from 2:00 - 3:30 in Outlook. But when they come our way, readiness and willingness are crucial.

And these experiences (some of them long lasting ones) will come our way. They are inevitable and when they happen, they are a gift from God.

Brian "gratefully twice-born" Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

Follower-ship: Why Would Anyone Follow You?

Why would anyone follow you? 

There are a lot of answers given to this question.

One of the most stated answers is, because you have power and authority from having a role and a title and they must comply with your power and follow your directives or else there are consequences. While this is one of the most common answers, this is not follower-ship. It is "compliance-ship." Nor is this real leadership. It is dictatorship, whether of mild or soft varieties. After all, a benevolent dictator is still a dictator. I sometimes get smiles from my Latin American friends when I use the phrase benevolent dictator. They have been there and experienced that and the benevolent part is greatly overstated.

A second common answer is the transactional one. People follow you because they get something from following you. You do this for me (provide a service, good, opportunity, etc.) and I'll provide this for you (help, assistance, money, vote, etc.). It is the back scratching approach. 

So much leadership is done at this level. And I'll even say that this is okay. It isn't the best, but it's okay. It tends to have strong leadership and situational follower-ship. It tends to see the follower often jumping the leader "ship" and finding another more desirable leader "ship" to sail on. (Sorry for the terrible pun). 

Sometimes this can degenerate into some messy co-dependency. Then it can get pretty ugly and dysfunctional. 

A third common answer is the charismatic one. People follow you because you "wow" them. Elsewhere on this blogsite, I've written about the dangers of the charismatic leader. This form of leadership is prone to manipulation tactics. It is also a very pervasive approach in our image obsessed culture. In this case, the followers become worshippers and the leaders become demi-gods in status.

In North America, we have preferred our leaders to be larger than life, heroic and good looking when possible.

 

(By the way, when a demi-god falls, it is a terrible thing to see. Think Ted Haggard, Jim Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, etc.)

(By the second way, when a demi-god is cultic, it is a tragic thing to see. Think Jonestown, Waco Texas, etc.)

A fourth answer to this is much rarer. It is the transformational approach of leadership and follower-ship. It is the Level Five kind of leading and following. It is the servant leadership form of leading. This is the leadership approach where the leader truly believes she or he exists for the sake of the follower and not the other way around. It is the sacrificial way of leadership. It is the Way of Love.  (One of my favorite transformational leaders is Lincoln. Gandhi, Mother Teresa and above all Jesus are such leaders.)

In this way, people follow you because they know that you love them and they love you for loving them. In their very act of following, they are empowered and transformed into friends, partners, and collaborators. 

May this tribe of leaders and followers increase.

May you and I be numbered among them.

So, may I ask it one more time . . .

Why would anyone follow you?

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Follower-ship Reflections

Many years ago I heard a description of leadership that was amusing and yet right on the mark.

If you think you are leading but no one is following, then you are only taking a walk.

It was Drucker who said that the one thing that all leaders have in common is:  They have followers.

This post (and tomorrow's as well) are on the theme of following, of followership. For you and I are always followers of someone.  And for those of us who lead, followers are part of the package, or we are only taking a walk.

Here is a starting point question or two?

What does healthy "follower-ship" look like?  

We often talk about great leadership, moving from good to great. Let's apply that to "follower-ship." What does Great Follower-ship look like? 

Different kinds of leaders have answered that question in radically different ways. If we borrow (once again) an idea from Jim Collins, we can talk about level 4 followers and level 5 followers.

The Level Four Leader is described as The Expert with 1000 Helpers. So, how will that type of leader define great follower-ship. As great helping of course. As followers who help the leader with the leader's vision.

How does a highly directive, command style leader define great follower-ship. it is obvious! As those who quickly and unquestioningly carry out the directives and commands.

There was a time in my life (and it still echoes today from time to time) when I defined great follower-ship as "agreeing with Brian's leadership, affirming Brian's leadership and assisting with Brian's visionary passion.) I wish I no longer thought or led this way, but some demons are harder to exorcise than others. And some of them come in multitudinous manifestations.

On my really good days as a leader, I prefer partners to followers. I prefer to have colleagues and collaborators. On my really bad days I prefer to have worshippers. Avoid me on the really bad days if you can.

But, let me come back to Follower-ship. And I'll leave you with a few questions and the encouragement to take a few minutes and jot down some answers.

What does healthy, even great, Follower-ship look like? If you had to come up with a list of 4 or 5 of the top descriptive qualities of great Follower-ship, what would you put on that list?

Leaders, in particular, make your list, check it twice and then show it to those who follow you and get some conversations going.

And:  Who are you following and what kind of follower are you?

Tomorrow - Why Would Anyone Follow You?

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

The Charismatic Leader: A Few Thoughts on Personality and Power

The issue of "charismatic" leadership has been an interest of mine for a long time. I should say up front that I am using charismatic in the sense of personality and not a pentecostal spirituality. This is about the quality of charisma... having it or not having it... And if you have it... using it in good ways or bad.

Here is the dictionary definition of charismatic:

possessing an extraordinary ability to attract; a magnetic personality

a personal attractiveness or interestingness that enables you to influence others 

The charismatic leader is that larger than life leader. Charismatic leaders are those who inspire us with the power of their presence. They are the leaders who move us by the magnificence of their words. They are the leaders who persuade us through their personality.  They are the leaders who readily tap into our deepest longings and show us a way forward into their fullness.

All you have to do is think back to the 2008 elections.

In the Democratic Primary, Obama had it and Hillary didn't. Just watch the Saturday Night Live spoofs.

In the Republican Nomination, Palin had it and McCain didn't.

In the Presidential Election, Obama had it and McCain didn't.

President Obama's charisma level is so high, you could genuinely put his picture beside the word (charismatic) in the dictionary.

From long and painful history, we know that charisma is both incredible asset and a millstone liability. Marshall Young says, "(There is) the danger that charismatic leaders become dangerously egotistical and convinced of their own omnipotence.

Ira Chaleff in The Courageous Followers says, "Dynamic leaders are the spark, the flame that ignites action. With vision, they generate and focus power . . . In their passion, their expansiveness, their drive, dynamic leaders are prone to excess: a deal too large, a bottom line too important, a cause too righteous, an image too pure, a lifestyle too rich, an enemy too hated, a bridge too far."  She uses the word dynamic where I would use the word charismatic.

The twist on the charismatic leader is that today we live in a media driven, celebrity culture. In such a culture, the charismatic leader is only a step or two away from charismatic, celebrity leader.

In the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Leaders, Stephen Covey describes the shift that took place after World War Two as we began to move away from a character ethic based leadership to a personality cult based leadership.

Covey says, "Success became more a function of personality, of public image, of attitudes and behaviors, skills and techniques that lubricate the public image."

This is the state of the Leadership Union today. I've had conversations with friends about the prevalence of this exact same situation being present in the evangelical and more broadly conservative church.

Whether it is the mega church of modernity or post-modernity, (Willow Creek or Mars Hill, Bill Hybels or Rob Bell) we like our leaders larger than life, enormously gifted, passionate communicators, and to be honest, if they are good looking, than that is one more bonus.

Great orators, fascinating personalities, confident visionaries, and heck, even throw in a quirk or two, and that is the recipe for charismatic success in the world of Christianity.

And I, for one, don't see this changing anytime in the near future.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Important Note:  I am not saying that a charismatic leader cannot have strong, substantial character. Nor am I saying that any of the individuals pictured or mentioned are lacking in character. They may be, but I am not saying they are. 

The Study of Leadership (levels of books)

One of the things that makes this blogsite a bit of a challenge is that we have a diverse group of readers. There are readers who are friends and connected to me because I am a pastor.  There are readers who are colleagues in the ministry and are interested in leadership (etc.). And there are a number of readers whose main ministry or vocation is that of developing leaders.

This particular post is written especially for the latter group but I hope it is of interest to everyone.

Here is a little scheme that I use to categorize books on leadership.

FIRST:  The simplest level of books on leadership are the popular treatments. Think John Maxwell, Andy Stanley, or Patrick Lencioni. They are "how to" books. They are inspirational and motivational, They are practical, simple, and anecdotal. They contain lists of attributes. Five qualities of great teams, the six secrets to vision casting, the seven dwarfs and how to motivate them. These books have their place, but to be honest, after you've read half a dozen of them, you start to think, "Haven't I read this already?" The authors are often pastors or well known practitioners who are on the speaking circuit. Maxwell's Developing the Leader Within You may have been the first book I read on leadership! It grabbed my attention, fired me up and launched me on the journey. But, this is the starting point. And so many of the people we seek to develop as leaders, this is the kind of book that is most accessible to them. So you should have some of your favorites to recommend for them.

SECOND:  Then there are leadership biographies. This has become a popular genre of books. It is an examination of leadership by a study of a particular leader's life (or a company or organization). The general approach is for the author to identify ahead of time leadership qualities and principles and then go looking for them in the life of the leader or organization being studied. These qualities and principles are then illustrated. These books are fun.  They give concrete illustration of theory through the life and practice of a person or an organization. I read a number of these books every year. For the most part, they are not instructional for me, but serve mainly to motivate me to work smarter and harder at what I already know. The authors are often, either professional writers - biographers, historians, or someone afflicated with the leader or organization.  Shackleton's Way is one of my all time favorites and the one on Roosevelt I read this year and really enjoyed it. What is nice about this is that it is relatively easy to find a book that is in the area of someone's interest. For example, there are books written by sports coaches, by businessmen, by historians, by military personnel, by educators all looking at someone in their field who was a leader. So there are lots of options. You should be ready to offer some of the best.

THIRD: There is another category of books that are more substantial studies and explorations of a particular leadership theme. These books look at more then lists of qualities and characteristics. They look at processes, they examine various approaches to the topic and assess those approaches. You'll find such books on leading change, team building processes, approaches to decision making, strategic leadership, women in leadership . . . think of a leadership topic and there has been a book written on it that falls into this category. Many of the books listed on our Core Leadership Book Reading List fall into this category. This is probably the category in which I read the most leadership books on any given year. The authors are either researchers, consultants or professors, with an occasional top level practitioner thrown in. I have read or re-read a number of books on emerging leadership paradigms this year. Their books range from the moderate level of difficulty to downright challenging to read.

FOURTH:  Leadership Theory:  If you are a leader who thinks a lot about leadership, or if you are a mentor of leaders and you want to have a more in-depth understanding of leadership, or if you must do some teaching on leadership, then it is worth your while to work through some of the more substantial works on leadership in the years to come. Even if you study one or two of these books a year - it is worth your while. But, you'll need time to work through these volumes. They go to the essence of leadership and ask the key questions. Think complicated, a bit dry (but not always), thick volumes (in most cases), and densely packed with references to the key literature. I am recently finished  Transforming Leadership by James MacGregor Burns. 25% of the book was references and endnotes.The authors are definitely the academics.

Here is one book I'd recommend in this category.

Bass & Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership:  Theory, Research and mangerial Applications by Bernard Bass.  About 1000 pages of dense reading. But every developer of leaders should read one book like this in their lifetime. Just to punish yourself...

There are other books in this genre... but this is one that I have worked through. It is encyclopedic in its scope and introduces ideas that you would just not think of.

Brian Rice

Anticipating my time with good leaders

I leave tomorrow morning for four days in Los Angeles. I will there mainly to attend the "Clinton Gathering" hosted by Leader BreakThru and the Clinton Institute. The Gathering is an annual two-day event in which Bobby Clinton, professor of leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary, brings together 40-50 leaders he has mentored over the past few decades.

For me this is one of the richest experiences of my year, when I get to rub shoulders with servant leaders serving in a myriad of ministry and corporate contexts. It is challenging, reassuring, inspiring, and practical all at the same time.

I will report from the Clinton Gathering over the next few days. Stay tuned.

- Brian Newman

The Leadership Crisis (Some Stats)

I often talk about the leadership crisis when I teach on leadership. It is an introductory way to get people interested in what I am about to say. The leadership crisis means several things:

It means we don't have enough leaders.

It means we don't have enough trained leaders.

It means we have too many of the "wrong kind" of leader.

It means we have too few "reproducing" leaders.

Type in leadership crisis in your web browser and see what you come up with. There is a crisis of leadership in Africa, among blacks, in our school systems, in the British government, in the Hague, in Pakistan...I could probably list everything if I searched through the one million plus websites that are talking about the leadership crisis.

The Corporte Executive Board of the Corporate Leadership Council did a study to assess the potential of rising talent in an organization. Here is what they found.

97% of organizations reported significant leadership gaps.

40% of those organizations said their leadership deficiencies were acute.

74% of organizations said their leadership gap has a modest or significant negative impact on their bottom line.

59% said that failures of externally hired executives is a significant problem.

50% said that failures of internally promoted leaders is a significant problem.

Not only are there huge leadership needs and deficiencies that negatively affect organzations, but over half of all the emerging leaders being hired (i.e. the future of the organizatin) don't make it.

What does your church or parachurch or organization do to develop the leaders you have? Because the bottom line is that good leaders will be very hard to find and keep. We have to develop them (life long) if our organizations are going to be successful (bear much fruit that lasts).

Developing leaders who then develop other leaders is at the heart of Leadership ConneXtions International. If we can help you in any way, get in touch with us.

Brian Rice

Healthy Brains (Thoughts on Stress and Memory)

The May 2008 HBR had an interview with brain expert, John Medina, who is the author of Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work. (I enjoyed this interview so much I went out and bought the book. I haven't had time to read it yet, but I will this summer.)

Here are a few interesting ideas from that interview (The Science of Thinking Smarter).

ONE: Stress hurts the brain. Our brains were hard wired to handle acute stress. Acute stress is stress that lasts a few minutes. A tiger wants to eat you. Your brain moves into acute stress. The stress soon ends. Either you get away or you get eaten. Either way, your brain moves out of the stress state. The brain is wired for stress that spikes, launches a flight or fight response, and then subsides. Today we deal with chronic stress. Our stress levels are raised for days and even weeks or longer.  The brain IS NOT WIRED to endure chronic stress and when it has to - it hurts the brain!  Ouch. That explains some things for me.

TWO: Prolonged levels of stress cause certain hormones (glucocorticoids) to hang around the brain too long. These hormones actually damage the webbings between brain cells which hold memory and diminish learning processes (math and language in particular) and affect both short and long term memory capacity.  Ouch again! Some forgetfulness is because we are too stressed out.

THREE:  On memory - here is a great quote from Medina: "The brain isn't interesed in reality; its interested in survival. So it will change the perception of reality to stay in a survival mode. . . The brain is not a recording device. . . Human memory can very easily be modified." Think about this in terms of your "intense fellowship with your spouse about the details of what exactly happened four years ago on that day when...

FOUR: For long term memory, you will need to continually re-expose yourself to information. In other words - you don't remember stuff easily. If you are a teacher of any sort, especially speaking to large groups, here is the significance. PEOPLE WILL NOT REMEMBER WHAT YOU SAY! You have to find ways to repeatedly say what you want them to remember.

FIVE:  Your brain is like a muscle. It needs EXERCISED! The more activity you give your brain (i.e. read, think, reflect, assess, imagine, dream, argue, debate, etc.), the more your brain grows. Your brain can grow until the day you die. Medina says: "We are life long learners. That's excellent news indeed." I agree. Life long learning is one of our passions at Leadership ConneXtions.

For more stuff by Medina go to:  www.johnmedina.com.

Brian Rice

Smart Leaders, Healthy Brains, Funny Cartoons

I have a "layman's interest" in brain physiology. When Gardner talks about the Third Grade Mind, he is referring to the fact that on so many issues, most of us have the perspective and knowledge on that subject, equivalent to a third grader.

Well, probably when it comes to brain physiology, I am working with a Third Grade Mind. But that has never kept me quiet before, so why should I start being sensible now?

Left brain - right brain stuff:  I love it.

Neurons, synapses, encoding processes:  Cryptic but intriguing.

Brain injury:  May it never happen to you or me, but it is fascinating.

Brain malfunctions (like the man who mistook his wife for the hat rack): Say what? (This is actually the name of a book,or close to the title!)

Male brain - Female brain:  (Be sure to see the cartoons at the bottom of this post. I apologize ahead of time for those who are "offended".)

My wife Becky knows this stuff well. When she was teaching in the psychology department at Utica (SUNY), she taught a course on the physiology of the brain. Her library has a bunch of books on the subject.

Well, some recent issues of Harvard Business Review had articles on the brain (and leadership) and they were great reading.

We talk about healthy bodies. We should also talk about healthy brains. If you want a healthy brain, then according to Roderick Gilkey and Clint Kilts (Cognitive Fitness, HBR, Nov 2007), there are four thingsyou should pay attention to.

ONE:  Make sure you are having a diverse and varied amount of experiences. New experiences activate neurons that accelerate learning. Learn a new skill. Put yourself into a situation that is new. Allow yourself to be surprised with things that are not normal. It stimulates the brain.

TWO:  Play a lot!  Play energizes the pre-frontal cortext part of the brain that is most highly evolved and it stimulates mental imagery and memory. You can also read humorous books. Laugh. Enjoy a good joke and even a bad pun. Role play.

By the way, I, along with my good friend Gordon Carpenter, have become a BIG FAN of  the comic strip Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis. I recently went out and bought a few collections of his cartoons and while I never got quite to the "hysterical level of laughter," I was darn close.  (p.s.  Humor is a very personal thing. A very close, unnamed friend of mine, who taught physiology of the brain at Utica, does not find Pastis so funny!)  :-)

THREE: Search for patterns. This is a left brain activity. When the brain has to search through the environment and discern and create meaning from huge amounts of data, learning is going on. The authors say, listen to different viewpoints, read books you would not normally read, visit places you would not normally go, learn new vocabularly words and as you do this you are expanding your "conceptual warehouse" and stimulating your mind to search for patterns with the new data.   But it cannot be an occasional experience, it must be a consistent process.

FOUR:  Seek novelty and innovation. The right brain is the exploratory part which is dedicated to discovery. Learning a new language is right brain. Later this new knowledge "migrates" over to the left brain where it is organized and encoded. The right brain is about language acquisition and the left brain is about language expression.

Sad personal note:  When it comes to language, apparently my right brain and left brain are in cohoots... for I find it hard to learn and hard to express Espanol!  Sorry Omar.

Botton line:  The more you learn the better you become at learning. The more you learn, the healthier your brain becomes.

Brian Rice

Epaphroditus (weird name, obscure leader, honored collaborator with Paul)

Something that I picked up years ago from Bobby Clinton was that the study of biblical leaders is well worth doing. Over the years, I have done major studies on the "big leaders" in the Bible. I have spent months studying these leaders - Moses, Joshua, Saul (as a bad example), David, Nehemiah, Daniel, Esther, TImothy (to name a few).

But every now and then I turn to more obscure leaders. Epaphroditus is one of those little remembered leaders in the Bible. I've attached a pdf for you with some verses about Epaphroditus.

Download Epaphroditus.pdf

Print it out and do a little leadership bible study on Epaphroditus. It will be an encouraging study for you.

Brian Rice

Leadership is not the Same Thing as Power (more from Burns)

I want to give you a slightly longer statement from Burns. It is extremely important for Christian leaders to think about this stuff. In fact, one of the things that is a little disappointing to me is that I find so few Christian authors (who are experts on leadership) writing about this theme.

Before you read on, just take a look at the images of these leaders. Hopefully you know who each one is. Now, think about how each of these leaders uses or misuses power and authority. Think about the nature of power and authority as they are exercised by these leaders.  (By the way, sorry if these pictures do not line up when the blogsite posts them.)

Now, here are the words from Burns:

(There are) two themes . . .

One is that we do not really know just what leadership is. Why are the leaders not leading? . . . One reason, I fear, is that many of us don't have the faintest concept of what leadership is all about . . . The nature of leadership is very imperfectly understood, John Gardner observes, and many of the public statements about it are utter nonsense.

The other theme is the need for moral, uplifting, transcending leadership, a leadership of large ideas, broad direction, strong commitment . . .

The calls for leadership, the uncertainties as to just what is is, the ambivalent attitudes toward moral leadership and principled leaders - all these, I think, reflect deep ambiguity and confusion over the place of leadership in political life - at least in the democracies where leaders are expected to lead the people while the people are suppose to follow the leaders.

The confusion will continue as long as we fail to distinguish leadership from brute power, leadership from propaganda, leadership from manipulation, leadership from pandering, leadership from coercion.

Leadership ConneXtions spends a lot of time helping leaders unpack and understand the biblical perspectives on power and authority and how good, wise, and healthy leaders use power and authority.

In a world where dysfunctional, toxic, narcissistic leaders abound, there we will find the abuse of power and authority and the absence of authentic biblical leadership.

It is probably a bit naive for me to just ask - So how are you doing on this power thing? Sometimes I don't know how I am doing on the "power thing." Still, it is worth trying to probe and self-assess.

Brian Rice

Studying leadership (humility, complexity and mystery)

To study leadership, there are so many different fields of inquiry that contribute to our understanding.

We can look at leadership and leadership development through the lens of history, psychology, sociology, political science, spirituality, theology and philosophy. Each of these domains is a different source of insight. Not only is discplined study needed to learn the insights from a particular discipline, but then a synthesizing approach is needed that can integrate them together.

When it comes to exploring the dynamic complexity of leadership development, Burns reminds us, "A sense of humility, complexity and mystery are useful intellectual checks."

I still recommend C. Michael Thompson's book - The Congruent Life: Following the Inward Path to Fulfilling Work and Inspired Leadership, since it is one of the best works of synthesis and integration.

Brian Rice