Shadow is not the opposite of light, but a result of the obstruction of light.  This has become a powerful component of our coaching and understanding of both the best and worst things in the leaders we work with.

Lencioni’s TableGroup talks about strengths and weaknesses of leaders. In order to become a better leader, we need to be aware of what we offer that is of highest contribution and do more of that. We also need to be aware of how the weight of our leadership is most challenging to others, and do...

I used to have the largest partially or completely unread Christian book collection in the world. I had a pretty sizable one in the area of business and leadership as well. I am sure some of you can relate.

There were many.

A subset of them were scanned.

An even smaller subset were actually read.

Almost none of them were actually applied to my life or business and produced much measurable change...

Somewhere along the way, I learned that showing any kind of emotion was a sign of weakness.  An indication that I didn’t have appropriate control over my emotions.  That one brick wrestled loose might bring the whole wall down.  But diving deeply into my faith, building an intimate marriage, and parenting six kids, tapped me into that well-hidden reservoir.

One of the unique things about our family culture is that we host regular family movie nights.  Finding movies that meet our standards for good storytelling, redemptive perspective, and production quality, but...

I’ve helped raise six children.  That is a lot of teaching others to quit saying “no”.  Pretty much every child goes through a season of this.  A recent study by Child Development says that the average 2-3 year-old argues with their parents 20-25 times per hour.

"Kids this age are realizing that they can assert themselves, and arguing with you is one way they gain confidence.”

- John Sargent, MD

Turns out that we don’t only break them of saying “no” during this season, we begin conditioning them to never be comfortable saying it again.  It is no surprise...

Woke this morning at 3:45 with a favorite client as my primary preoccupation.  They found out yesterday that their biggest account that they built their budget around for 2018, just pushed the work they were doing for them out another 12 months.  We’re still in February and they have to completely start over on their plan for the year.  They are understandably concerned...

The Christian life isn’t so much about new things, but simply uncovering what is already true.  Jesus didn’t say, “Behold, I make new things.”, he said…

Behold, I make all things new.

One of our first and most important tasks with the clients we serve is helping them identify the treasure they already possess.  Our culture teaches us to look elsewhere.  The thousands of marketing messages assaulting us every day are set on convincing...

Patrick Lencioni may be one of the most impactful business writers of our day.  While we draw on the wisdom of many in our coaching, he is probably more referenced than any other thought leader.  His Five Dysfunctions of a Team and Advantage are part of the holy canon of most business libraries.  His most recent book, The Ideal Team Player is no exception.

Patrick says that if your company is seriously committed to making teamwork a cultural reality, you need to have team members that possess three key virtues; humility, hunger, and people smarts.  While each person is likely...

Anyone growing up in a divorced home, shipped from parent to parent, experiences a small taste of what it feels like to be orphaned and homeless.  Neither place you lay your head ever feels fully like home and both parent’s attention seems to be seduced by double the distractions.  I would never be so impertinent to suggest that growing up this way even closely compares to the horrors of orphanhood and homelessness, but there are some similarities nonetheless.

Doing life unanchored to a sense of home or stable family has all kinds of unexpected consequences.  You believe that you are meant...

He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.”

Luke is telling the story about one of the interactions Jesus had with the Pharisees.  Outside of sin, the only thing that Jesus repeatedly railed against and seemed to unilaterally hate was legalism and its’ practitioners.  Anyone that tried to justify themselves through adherence to some strict set of rules, but didn’t operate from a truly transformed heart, seemed to really infuriate Him.  Samuel says it this way, “People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

If you keep people at enough of a distance, it is possible to have them not see the real you… for a while.  Those we live with (our families) and those we work with (who get us 40+ hours a week), will eventually see the real person inside.  It doesn’t matter...

My family genealogy tells me that my great-grandparents helped settle the Nordheim/Yorktown area of Texas in the latter part of the 1800’s. They were hearty folks who worked the land in that area for many years. My grandparents migrated to the budding metropolis of Floresville, TX and opened a family grocery. My dad’s life rotated around the family business, but...

One of the favorite films of my children’s earlier years is a Disney film called Brother Bear.  It is full of talking animals, Indian mysticism, and a diverse group of characters finding and appreciating their authentic identity.

Two characters with really no other role in the movie than to be comic relief, are a couple of rams. They not only endlessly slam their racks together but also believe that the echo from their screaming “shut up” across a canyon is actually the answer of another animal.  Idiotic, right?  Fits for a children’s movie.

Sadly, I found I was living a very similar experience.  As an institutional investor...

There is a great inspirational video that talks about the sense of overwhelm that most of us live in and contrasts it with the life of Jesus.  The church has co-opted our Western culture sensibility that says doing more is always better.  The more hours I spend in ministry to others and the more people I interact with, the better.

Ironically, Jesus, our example of how we are to live as men and women, took a completely different tack.  He said…

“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.” 

- Norm McLean

These iconic closing lines from A River Runs Through It are some of the most haunting in a film.  It is nearly matched by the opening line of the book by the same name…

The reality is that the first thing we understood about our true Father, came from how we knew our earthly one.  If God is the same “yesterday, today, and forever,” then the fact that we all seem to know Him differently must point to the unique experience we have had with Him and our particular perspective of Him.  MacDonald and many others believe that how we knew our father (or other significant male role model in our early life) was the greatest determinant of that perspective.

There is obviously a little of a chicken-or-egg conundrum here.  How we know Him

We are all a by-product of the lives we have lived up to this point.  I left a very dysfunctional home and decided to take a path 180 degrees from everything I had ever known up to the point of my salvation in college.  It wasn’t until I was married that I realized that the muscle memory of my life experiences would inexplicably and without intention, show up in my everyday life.

One of the beautiful opportunities of our walk with God is that all of those experiences, even the worst ones, can be redeemed.  As they are redeemed...

Dan Pink is an extraordinary researcher and expositor on business motivation and leadership.  His best selling book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and the resulting animation that summarized the book were a revolution to me while transitioning from a banking career to business coaching.

His contention that autonomy, mastery, and purpose were greater motivators than money for most people in most positions, helped me solidify many of my core convictions about leadership.  Clarifying roles, developing people, and wrapping our work in a transcendent purpose is actually the pathway to much more successful enterprises.  His “science” proved that...

Running backs and quarterbacks know that while they get most of the glory and the compensation, they wouldn’t be experiencing that success if it weren’t for the offensive linemen that protected them and made room for them to do their work.  Gift giving to offensive linemen by the more notable stars of the teams has become legendary.  

Here are some of the more notorious gifts...

The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed.

The other aphorism that comes to mind is “having skin in the game.”  We are talking about a level of commitment that looks more like ownership.  Continuing on with Lencioni’s “Five Dysfunctions of a Team, the third is lack of commitment.

Absence of trust

Fear of conflict

Lack of commitment

The ability to trust that being honest or vulnerable is okay leads to the opportunity for healthy conflict.  Voicing even dissenting opinions in an appropriate way without fear leads to better solutions and the ability to commit to decisions...

Most companies we interview as potential clients mention the lack of accountability as the root of their problems.  It likely is, but we believe that accountability is a result and a deliverable.  If you haven’t addressed the first three dysfunctions of a team…

Absence of trust

Fear of conflict

Lack of commitment

…then the fourth, avoidance of accountability, is typically a natural byproduct.  Accountability occurs naturally when trust has been established, open

“I feel like they are genuinely interested in hearing my opinion.  And because I trust and respect them, even when they decide differently from the way I wanted, I can support the decision.”

That quote came from an employee I was interviewing at a member company.  He was helping us determine what was truly unique about this company.  He feels free and even invited to offer his opinion.  Because they genuinely are interested and sometimes factor his ideas into the solutions, he is okay even when it doesn’t go his way.  How good is that?

If we can solve that first issue of trust we talked about in the last post, we can move onto the next dysfunction of a team, fear of conflict.  Turns out...