Continued from the previous post. The next morning I woke up early to spend an extra bit of time in prayer and meditation. I figured it was a good way to reinforce my conscious decision to surrender the situation to God, and to trust Him completely for the outcome. I had done my best, after all. God knew it, I was sure, and I rested in that. Maybe I had wrapped too much ego into pushing my brilliant solution onto... Read more
(Continued from the previous post) I drove home from work frustrated, tired and spent. My Big Idea had been argued over, stomped on, and dismissed in the course of 30 minutes during a late afternoon conference. Instead of coming out the hero, I lost complete control of the meeting. Usually when I get iced out by a colleague or shot down in a meeting, I will either mope around for a few days, or else I will busy myself planning a... Read more
For the past several weeks, I have been leading a team in a transformational project pivotal to our company’s future. The President himself had entrusted me to navigate the treacherous paths of this new venture: “Everyone else has failed, so why don’t you go and try to figure out this mess,” he said to me one day. My little team spent hours and hours sweating inside a makeshift war room. We schemed up new flowcharts, process designs and org charts. We... Read more
We all run into prickly thickets from time to time as we are charging hard down the path of our careers. Perhaps you are getting dressed down by an irate customer. Or it suddenly dawns on you that you’ve made a huge and costly mistake. Or maybe everyone on the team is now ganging up on your previously brilliant idea. Whatever it is, you know it means trouble. When things are not going so well at work, sometimes God provides a way out:... Read more
When I was nineteen years old, I wanted more than anything else in the world to become a published songwriter. I was passionate, and completely consumed with this idea, believing it was my one and only true calling from God for my life. Of course, now I know that there is another name for that kind of magical thinking: it’s a mental disorder called “Delusions of Grandeur.” Needless to say, the songwriting thing didn’t work out. But thirty years later, here I am sitting in... Read more
A few weeks ago I took my little family into Philadelphia for a day in the big city. We went to a museum, ate dinner at a trendy restaurant, and did some shopping. As we were walking down Walnut Street, my older daughter suddenly stopped us in our tracks. She turned around and blurted out, “We have to find Lush! Please, can we go to Lush? It’s the greatest store! Mom is going to love it!” Lush, it turns out, is a... Read more
So. It’s been a few weeks since the Princeton Leadership and Spirituality event occurred, and by now I am sure many of you are not only wondering how it went, but also if there was ever a real event to begin with. Yes, it was real enough, and I have pictures to prove it. In fact, the PLS event was a smashing success! Over forty participants from all walks of leadership life gathered together for this event on April 11 and 12 at Princeton... Read more
I have spent that past few weeks reading intently through the four Gospels, and finally finished the last one, the Gospel of John. The next morning I went to sit in my Chair of Quiet Meditation like usual and picked up the bible to start reading again. But where to go from here? Those gospel stories were so good! Should I brace myself for the intellectual rigor of the letters of Paul? Enjoy the free form manic-depressive beauty of the Psalms? How about giving the... Read more
A few years back I was advised by a mentor to toughen up, to challenge people more. It was hard news to take, being a life-long consensus builder and a recovering people-pleaser. I liked being nice. I like to be liked. But in business, or in any leadership capacity, we are not called so much to be nice, but to move a team forward to some greater end. Which innevitably means that you will find yourself dealing with some not-so-nice situations,... Read more
Like everyone else, I receive my share of unwelcomed content each day in the email inbox. The digital noise come from all sorts of places: executive education programs, software companies, travel services, consultants, that sort of thing. Everyone wants a piece of me. I usually scan and delete very quickly, because you can tell in the subject line how irrelevant and boring the pitch will be: “Webinar: KPI’s for Customers!” “Last Day to Save $300 on Middle Market Lender’s Panel!” And the ever-crafty, “Did You Get My Email?” So you... Read more
Shrinking the Camel
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