In “Rare Leadership in the Workplace,” authors Marcus Warner and Jim Wilder unpack RARE as an acronym for how to become a mature leader. The second R stands for “Return to Joy.” Years ago, I asked an employee how she was doing. Although she answered, “Fine,” I could tell she wasn’t fine. Looking into her eyes I said, “How are ...
In “Rare Leadership in the Workplace,” authors Marcus Warner and Jim Wilder unpack RARE as an acronym for how to become a mature leader. The A stands for “Act Like Yourself.” A former boss of mine modeled this quality when a customer began bullying one of our bank employees. My boss stepped in, confronted the customer, and when the argument ...
In “Rare Leadership in the Workplace,” authors Marcus Warner and Jim Wilder unpack RARE as an acronym for how to become a mature leader. The first R stands for “Remain Relational.” While in public accounting, a manager thought I had undermined her authority. Instead of rebuking me personally and appropriately, I was called into the office so a partner and ...
In the book “Rare Leadership in the Workplace,” authors Marcus Warner and Jim Wilder contend that maturity is the core leadership quality. They define maturity as a “collection of skills and habits we develop over time.” When thrust into leadership, our past skills of self-management are important, but incomplete. For now, we are charged with leading others as well. Relationships ...
Do you remember the 1989 movie, “Dead Poet’s Society”? Portraying an English teacher, Robin Williams teaches his students the Latin phrase, “Carpe Diem.” It simply means to seize the day or make the most of the present time. As Biblically principled leaders, it is imperative that we Carpe Diem, but do so with God’s will for the future in mind. ...
One not so positive thing I’ve learned about myself as a leader is that I sometimes procrastinate on the things I don’t want to do. One of those procrastinations involves having difficult conversations with staff. Can you relate? Mark Twain said, “If you ever have to eat a live frog, it’s best done first thing in the morning.” If you ...
Wikipedia defines leadership as “the art of motivating a group of people to act toward achieving a common goal.” Usually that goal is surrounded in selfish gains like success, power and the love of money. Christian leadership is defined as “the act of influencing and or serving others out of Christ’s interests in their lives, so they can accomplish God’s purposes for and ...
As business leaders navigate bringing their people back to the office, it may be hard for businesses to develop a one-size-fits-all policy for remote vs office work. My friend, Paul, collaborates with an architect firm. Paul said, “Many businesses can work remotely, but these architects are collaborating on designing a building. Remote work has been disastrous for them.” Another friend ...
In reading “The Moralist,” a Woodrow Wilson biography, I observed the futility of bluffing. Early during World War I, Germany’s submarines sunk multiple British ships with many Americans on board. President Wilson sent Germany letters and threatened them publicly, but the Germans believed, correctly, Wilson’s words were just a bluff. The Germans became so brazen that they eventually sank nine ...
The theory behind balancing a bank account seemed straightforward in college. But during my first auditing engagement, I worked two weeks trying to reconcile a payroll account. In theory it seemed easy, but with inadequate information it became impossible. When I told the audit partner, we were out of balance $900,000, he said, “Write off the difference. $900,000 is immaterial ...
Equipping Others to Do Work Differently
