Favorite Books of Faith

March 9, 2012 in Book Review, Faith, Life with 8 Comments

A few weeks ago a fellow blogger invited me to participate in a favorite faith books meme. Imagine my surprise having never heard of a meme. For those of you, like me, a meme is, “an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.” Thank you Wikipedia for that definition.

Bloggers definitely are a culture that is full of…ideas. You probably thought I was going somewhere else with that one, didn’t you?

However, I have found that sharing great books and ideas with other like-minded people is powerfully fun. Especially other believers who represent many Christian traditions. The power behind the meme is a person’s ability to track back and see a list of great books from many sources. I recommend you visit Cinhosa’s blog and his post, here.

Let’s face it – I read a lot, and overtime accumulated lots of favorites. It was a difficult task to narrow down my choices to simply three books. So I decided to cheat and mention that the Bible is my favorite book. The following “other” books are ones that I read over and over. The goal of a meme is to get more and more people involved. Please leave your top three books in the comment section or decide to keep this meme going on your blog. I would enjoy hearing about the books that have influenced you spiritually.

 

The Imitation of Christ  -  Thomas A Kempis

Have you ever desired more God in your life? The Imitation of Christ provides readers a strong example of a pure and Holy Christian walk. Touching on many specific subjects you can feel the connectedness Thomas a Kempis felt with Jesus and his deeper understanding of spiritual truths. This book is great for daily meditations and an inspirational example of a man walking closely with Christ and in harmony with those around him.

Renovation of the Heart – Dallas Willard

Dallas Willard is famous for his accessible no-nonsense look at the Christian faith.  This book will take a person on a deep spiritual journey and help one form a strong spiritual base from which to build.  Having said that, this is not a beginners book to the Christian faith.  Don’t be intimidated by Mr. Willard’s deep thinking it simply takes time and thought to process the concepts of putting on the Character of Christ.  It’s worth every minute drawing closer to Christ.

Beautiful Outlaw – John Eldredge

John addresses the personality of  Christ like I have never read before.  For me, this revelation of Christ is absolutely riveting.  To take time out to study the personality of Jesus and know him this way will change you.  It changed me ,as I fell more and more in love with  God.   You can watch John talk about his book on a previous post of Beautiful Outlaw here.

 

So what are your top three books of faith?

 

 

Lollipop Leadership – Really?

March 6, 2012 in Faith, Leadership, Life with 0 Comments

Drew Dudley does an excellent job in this TED.com video. I thought that it would be worth while to share with you for several reasons. He masterfully weaves a yarn that leaves us face to face with the reminder that everyday leadership matters. I love how he dispels the myth that leaders somehow need to be larger than life. Drew also places a strong emphasis on “lollipop moments”, which sounds a little wimpy, but in reality is anything but wimpy.

A lollipop moment would be a simple moment where you impact someone around you for good. He does a masterly job of confirming an idea that I have always maintained.

Everyone is a leader – Yes, I said it – YOU are a leader!

Some are extremely strong leaders and others, fairly weak. I think the difference is in a person’s willingness to accept this fact. If you, believe you’re a leader you will act like one. No matter the case, everyone is leading something – like it or not. The more I study the art of leadership the more I realize that intentionality oftentimes defines the difference between success and failure at the art of influence.

As a Christian this revelation is even more crucial. The reason is that you are leading in two different places at once. You are leading in the “here-and-now” and in “eternity.” –  Call me crazy but this seems like a big deal.

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The Coaching Minute

March 2, 2012 in Leadership, Life, Production with 0 Comments

You and your team have survived this economic tidal wave and gotten better not bitter in the process.  Congratulations!

Now what?

In this Coaching Minute, I tackle the question, how should a leader respond when the rains of success begin to blow in? In this short video segment, I make three recommendations that will allow you to continue your momentum and maintain organizational integrity.

My recommendations are:

  • Maintain Character – Remembering who you are and where you came from helps you to keep true to the company you have become. There are times when an organization’s character is stretched. It’s in a season of drought or a season of booming growth. How you respond in either season is critical to your overall success.
  • Improve Competency – The idea is that your success will never out grow your leadership maturity. Invest in leadership or stop growing.
  • Care More – you must “out-care” your competition in every aspect of your business. If you care more than your competition, you will produce better results 100% of the time.

 

What would you add to this list to make sure you’re ready to transition when the rains of success begin pouring?

Confessions of a Public Speaker – Scott Berkun

February 28, 2012 in Book Review, Leadership, Life with 6 Comments

Public speaking is one of those things that people fear the most. So they tell me. My first opportunity to speak to a large corporate crowd happened in 1998. Our firm had just created a new product and service offering. With only a small 6 month trial period, I stood in the basement of a large retail chain’s corporate headquarters. Stood there prepared to deliver a top-notch roll out to all the Executive level leaders and store Managers affiliated with the company.

There were only a few hundred in attendance, but it felt like thousands.

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