3 Books for the Young Developing Leader

Last night I was reflecting on the books that really developed my leadership foundation and desire in college. I came up with three books I feel developed my Leadership Perspective. All three books are fairly easy reads and are very insightful in the basic thoughts of leadership. The main reason I chose these books is because they use great illustrations that help a young person remember the books’ main points years down the road. If you have a high school or college student that is a leader or interested in leadership I highly reccommend these books.

– “21 Irrefutale Laws of Leadership” – John Maxwell

– “Habitudes” – Tim Elmore

– “Five Temptations of A CEO” – Peter Lencioni

Learning is Not Just One Way

Liz over at Successful Blog wrote a great article about her learning plan, and while reading it two things stuck to me that I thought seperate a leader from everyone else. Everyone learns but as Liz points out,

most of that learning is passive, a form of response. It comes to us. We don’t seek it out. We might miss it completely as it sits waiting, if we don’t STOP to take notice. When we do, we often need to give it some thought to make what we’ve learned useful, to translate it into a thought that makes sense.

Leaders do not learn passively, but seek it out as Liz writes. Once they have discovered something new they take the time and reflect on it in order to soak it in and apply it to their life context. Most people discover things on accident and then store it in the back of their head before they can fully digest what they have found.

Take advantages of what you learn by fully developing your discoveries.Make learning a two way street where you engaged what you learn, not just a one way process. By doing this, it will lead to new thoughts and finds based off the original learning.

Taking That Blind Step

When I was in Chicago last week with Mark and Katrina, friends of Pam and I, we talked about how many Christian seek security over faith because they are scared to step out. Tonight while I was going through my feed aggregator I came across a good post over at Businesspundit about what rich people worry about the most, being sued and id fraud.

As a child I thought the “American Dream” was to be rich with nice cars and a nice house because that would make me secure and comfortable, but as the article says this does not make you secure. Personally, I believe Christ is the only security we have on this Earth.

Leaders live by faith and not security, understanding the importance of change and innovation. Seeking security is living stagnantly because once there is success with one thing there is no need for change. They juice there success for as long as possible thinking this will make them secure forever until one day everything changes.

Living by faith is taking a blind step forward understanding there is something better ahead even if there are some rough times in the way. Successes come and go but living by faith means continuing forward persevering through the hard times to find the good times.

4 Must Read Posts With A Common Theme

The last couple of days there have been posts from some of my favorite that coincidentally all have the same common theme; humility. I really encourage everyone to look through these posts because they are very powerful. One of the challenges every leader deals with is his/her ego.

– “Success, Authenticity, And All The Things You Aren’t” by Steve Roesler

– “Greater Than Yourself” by Steve Farber

– “A Virtuous Spiral of Giving” by Tariq Khan

– “Larger Purpose” by Jim Stroup

Seventh Edition of the Carnival of Leadership Growth

Welcome to the May 16, 2007 edition of carnival of leadership growth. Thank you for those who contribute to the carnival. The next edition will be posted June 1.

Bill Sheridan presents Lesson at the Light posted at The Freestyle Entrepreneur.

Mr. Besilly presents Who Moved My Cheesecake? posted at Mr. Besilly – One Man’s highway, saying, “After nearly eight years on the job here, you can be assured that I am well seasoned in dealing with sweeping changes in the workplace. I present to you my Top 10 Survival Tips on what not to do during a company merger.”

Charles H. Green presents Corporate Fear and Performance Anxiety posted at Trust Matters, saying, “Most corporate employees live in fear and are afraid to speak up. Does that say something about how we’ve been leading them?”

Debra Moorhead presents Why Affirmations Sometimes Fail posted at Debra Moorhead.com.

Brandon Peele presents Marketing: The Authenticity Fallacy posted at GT.

Annmarie Edwards presents The Case of the Unidentified Crew posted at Online Workforce Training, saying, “The Case of the Unidentified Crew solve the mystery of the question ball that asked “How do you manage projects that are shipped overseas? What if it’s top secret and you heard about it by accident? Billions of dollars are involved. Its the Turkey Brief.” Learn how Mrs. Laughing Pants training crew solve this workforce issue. A typical case.”

Joysoriano.com presents How do you teach an eagle how to fly? posted at www.joysoriano.com, saying, “A story that illustrates how we can soar and achieve our dreams by freeing our minds and believing in our hearts that we have it in us to fly and claim the sky.”

John Wesley presents Top 5 Ways to Build a Wonderful Life posted at Pick the Brain.

Scott Lee presents Thankful Grateful Gratitude posted at Scott Free Thinking.

Stephanie West Allen presents Friday frivolity (and a little wisdom): Why not become a jester? posted at idealawg.

Jack Yoest presents The Queen’s Previous Visit: A lesson in attention to detail posted at Reasoned Audacity, saying, “Attention to detail. The White House got it right this time with the Queen’s visit.

But perhaps not on her last visit here with George H. W. Bush. Your Business Blogger received the following from Alert Reader Bob Morrison,”

Erek Ostrowski presents Ease Up and Don?t Swing So Hard! posted at Verve Coaching, saying, “When I’m out to produce a result that’s both far-reaching and accurate in aim, my first inclination is to wind up and swing with as much force as possible. Ironically, this almost never produces the intended result.”

John Wesley presents Balancing the Future and the Present posted at Pick the Brain.

CA presents Business life lesson – You are your attitude posted at Atlantic Canada’s Small Business Blog, saying, “Attitude is more important than skills, talent, experience, education or intelligence. Attitude determines your perception – towards yourself and towards others. Attitude determines if your business succeeds or fails – and that’s applicable to your life too.”

edithyeung presents Brian Tracy Live Seminar Review posted at Edith Yeung.Com: Dream. Think. Act..

Cade Krueger presents Visions of Excitement posted at Write To Right.

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Gen Y in the Workplace

Back in October I was on the Engaging Brand Podcast talking about what I and other people my age looked for in an employer. I came across this article from CNN that talks about what Gen Y is looking for in a career and some of what I wanted and what the article says others my age want are similiar.

The reason I took the job I am in now is because of their focus on work/personal balance and their strong vision they had. One of the things I did not want to get sucked into was working consistently 60+ hours a week and miss out in all that life truly has to offer.

They’re ambitious, they’re demanding and they question everything, so if there isn’t a good reason for that long commute or late night, don’t expect them to do it. When it comes to loyalty, the companies they work for are last on their list – behind their families, their friends, their communities, their co-workers and, of course, themselves.

“I had a conversation with the CFO of a big company in New York,” says Tamara Erickson, co-author of the 2006 book “Workforce Crisis,” “and he said, ‘I can’t find anyone to hire who’s willing to work 60 hours a week. Can you talk to them?’ And I said, ‘Why don’t I start by talking to you? What they’re really telling you is that they’re sorry it takes you so long to get your work done.'”

Upon graduation, it turned out that a lot of Gen Yers hadn’t learned much about struggle or sacrifice. As the first of them began to graduate from college in the late 1990s, the average educational debt soared to over $19,000 for new grads, and many Yers went to the only place they knew they’d be safe: home.

Gen Yers still respond most of all to money. There’s no fooling them about it; they’re so connected that it’s not unusual for them to know what every major company in a given field is offering. And they don’t want to be given short shrift – hence the frightening tales of 22-year-olds making six-figure salary requests for their first jobs. One could chalk that up to their materialism and party-people mentality, but author Erickson has a different take. “They have to get some money flowing because they have a lot of debt to pay,” she says.

To get noticed by Gen Yers, a company also has to have what they call a “vision.” They aren’t impressed by mission statements, but they are looking for attributes that indicate shared values: affinity groups, flat hierarchies, divestment from the more notorious dictatorial regimes.

While Gen Yers will work a 60-hour week if they have to – and might even do so happily if they’re paid enough to make the most of their precious downtime – they don’t want that to be a way of life.

Personal Responsibility – What We Can Learn From A Baseball Player

Today on Curt Schilling’s Blog, he apologized in this post for comments he made about Barry Bonds alleged use of steroids yesterday in an interview. Most people would have apologized that they were “misquoted” or they were “pressured” to say something they didn’t really want to. Unlike everyone else Schilling, veteran pitcher for Boston Red Sox, apologized for saying something very irresponsible. I would encourage everyone to go over to read his post because he shows understanding what he did, the effects it had on others, and take responsibility on it.

Everyone has days and events in life they’d love to push the rewind button on, yesterday was one of those days. Regardless of my opinions, thoughts and beliefs on anything Barry Bonds it was absolutely irresponsible and wrong to say what I did. I don’t think it’s within anyone’s right to say the things I said yesterday and affect other peoples lives in that way.

I’d love to tell you I was ambushed, misquoted, misinterpreted, something other than what it was, but I wasn’t.

Great Example of Using Influence and Power

I came across this article through Steve Rubel’s Daily Links, and it is a great article about Tony Dungy and Steve Irsay, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts. Both are amazing role models on how to be great stewards of the of power and influence they have been granted.

Drive by philanthropist.

This is just like Jim Irsay. Nobody would ever know it, but he’s always reaching out to people in need. He never seeks credit for this stuff, in fact he never mentions it. Sometimes he reaches out and writes big checks for people in need. Sometimes he reaches out to call people who have written letters to him. Either way, this is how he operates. He realizes that he has a responsibility to use the position he has been given to help others. And when he sees someone in need and feels his heart moved, he takes action.

Irsay and the Colts are an amazing example how influence and character from the top can quickly affect everyone in the organization. If we could find more leaders like Irsay and Dungy in this world we would not have to worry about anymore corporate scandals.