John Pearson's Buckets Blog

The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War

Issue No. 485 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights the life-altering implications of leadership transitions—with another bestseller from Malcolm Gladwell. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book I wrote with my son, Jason, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned. See Mistake #11 below.

The cadet chapel at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs “is a chapel from another universe. It looks like someone lined up a squadron of fighter jets like dominoes with their noses pointed toward the heavens.”

The “Mafia Label” Was Not a Compliment

“This isn’t working. You’re out.”

Malcolm Gladwell’s page-turner, The Bomber Mafia, is the perfect end-of-summer read. Action! Bombs! Morality! Science! Politics! Leadership! (Did I mention leadership?) And…two very different views of war and how to win wars (Jesus or Satan?).

Gladwell writes, “The Bomber Mafia is a case study in how dreams go awry.” He adds, “And at the heart of it all are Haywood Hansell and Curtis LeMay, who squared off in the jungles of Guam. One was sent home. One stayed on, with a result that would lead to the darkest night of the Second World War. Consider their story and ask yourself—What would I have done? Which side would I have been on?”

General LeMay informed General Hansell. “This isn’t working. You’re out.” Put yourself in Haywood Hansell’s shoes. “Hansell could stay on if he wished, to be LeMay’s deputy, a notion Hansell considered so insulting that he could barely speak.”

Gladwell continues, “The Bomber Mafia is the story of that moment. What led up to it and what happened next—because that change of command reverberates to this day.” The subtitle ignites your curiosity: "A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War."

Is your organization facing a leadership change (or putting it off)? This “case study” in command reminded me of David McKenna’s wisdom in Stewards of a Sacred Trust: “Like the ripple effect of a stone tossed into a pond, the CEO’s influence will move in waves through generations. No decision of the board, absolutely no decision, is more profound.”

The bestselling author of The Bomber Mafia further elaborates on this “case study in how dreams go awry. And how, when some new, shiny idea drops down from the heavens, it does not land, softly, in our laps. It lands hard, on the ground, and shatters. The story I’m about to tell is not really a war story. Although it mostly takes place in wartime.”

Gladwell adds, “It is the story of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer. A band of brothers in central Alabama. A British psychopath. Pyromaniacal chemists in basement labs at Harvard. It’s a story about the messiness of our intentions, because we always forget the mess when we look back.”

And…it’s a story about mistake-making and Carl Norden (the genius), a Dutch engineer, educated in Switzerland, who came to America in 1904. Norden “…was a true believer in blank slate, and this reveals his ego. He said, ‘I don’t want to know the mistakes other people made. I don’t want to know what they did right. I’m going to develop what’s right myself.’”

And he did. I won’t spoil the story—the true account—of why the invention of the “Norden bombsight” ranks up there with vaccines, fertilizers, and air-conditioning. You’ll have to read it for yourself—all 256 fast-moving pages in The Bomber Mafia. Gladwell talks about his books in this recent interview on CBS Sunday Morning:


View Malcolm Gladwell’s 7-minute interview on CBS Sunday Morning.

Gladwell, as is his unique style, weaves history, speculation, and observation into another fascinating read. Example from way back: “I remember one congressman being quoted as saying, ‘Why do we have all this controversy over airplanes? Why don’t we just buy one of them and let the services share it?’”

And speaking of the military services, Gladwell digresses from his plot to add Carl Builder’s color commentary about what Builder calls “the puzzling and often contradictory behavior of America's military forces.” He adds, “…powerful—and glacially resistant to change—are the entrenched institutions and distinct ‘personalities’ of the three armed services themselves.”

Per Gladwell, “Builder argued that you cannot understand how the three main branches of the American military behave and make decisions unless you understand how different their cultures are. And to prove this point, Builder said, just look at the chapels on each of the service academy campuses.”

Compare the Army and Navy chapels to “…the cadet chapel at the Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs. This is a chapel from another universe. It was finished in 1962, but if I told you that it was finished last month, you would say, ‘Wow, that’s a futuristic building.’ The Air Force chapel looks like someone lined up a squadron of fighter jets like dominoes with their noses pointed toward the heavens. It looks ready to take flight with a magnificent, deafening whoosh. Inside the cathedral, there are more than twenty-four thousand pieces of stained glass, in twenty-four different colors, and at the front, a cross forty-six feet tall and twelve feet wide, with crossbeams that look like propellers. Outside, four fighter jets are jauntily parked, as if some pilots, on a whim, had dropped by for Sunday morning communion.”

The Air Force, Carl Builder adds, “is utterly uninterested in heritage and tradition. On the contrary, it wants to be modern.” Thus—the culture war is first fought among the military services, and then on the actual battlefield. (Fascinating.)

Why the book title? The leaders of the Air Corps Tactical School were labeled “the Bomber Mafia.” Gladwell elucidates, “Their motto was: Proficimus more irretenti: ‘We make progress unhindered by custom.’” The mafia label “was not intended as a compliment—these were the days of Al Capone and Lucky Luciano and shoot-outs on the streets. But the Air Corps faculty thought the outcast label quite suited them. And it stuck.

“Harold George, one of the spiritual leaders of the Bomber Mafia, put it like this: ‘We were highly enthusiastic; we were starting on, like, a crusade…knowing that there were a dozen of us and the only opposition we had was ten thousand officers and the rest of the Army, rest of the Navy.”

After you’ve read (or listened to) The Bomber Mafia, watch the movie, Twelve O’Clock High. Gladwell: “It was based on a book written by Beirne Lay, the pilot under LeMay. Twelve O’Clock High starred Gregory Peck as the leader of an attack on a ball-bearing factory. It’s worth watching because it perfectly captures the persistence of the Bomber Mafia’s vision. The men had failed the first time, but it didn’t matter. They would try again. Whatever evidence was slowly gathering about the limitations of the Norden bombsight didn’t faze them. The dream was alive.”

View Twelve O’Clock High on Amazon Prime.

Twelve O’Clock High is often used in MBA courses (Harvard, etc.). I viewed it the first time in 2007 as a guest in Connie Salio’s course at Biola University’s Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership program. Click here to read my review. Click here to view Twelve O’Clock High on Amazon Prime (2 hours, 12 minutes).

Does your organization have a bold idea? Launching a new program or department—radical or revolutionary? Gladwell’s research will give you the guts to try. He notes, “The Tactical School was a university. An academy. But not many of the faculty had any experience teaching. And the things they were teaching were so new and radical that there weren’t really any textbooks for anyone to study or articles for anyone to read. So they mostly made things up—on the fly, so to speak.

“Lectures quickly turned into seminars, which turned into open discussions, which spilled out into dinner in the evening. That’s what always happens: Conversation starts to seed a revolution. The group starts to wander off in directions in which no one individual could ever have conceived of going all by himself or herself.”

Again—no spoiler alerts, but don’t miss these snippets:
   • “Obsessives lead us astray sometimes. Can’t see the bigger picture. Serve not just the world’s but also their own narrow interests. But I don’t think we get progress or innovation or joy or beauty without obsessives.”
   • The four tenets of the Bomber Mafia doctrine (previously all bombing was done at night, but these revolutionaries tried it in broad daylight with the new invention).
   • How “spitballing” (“thought experiments”) before bombers and even bombsights existed—enabled innovation.
   • Why Londoners never panicked during the Blitz of 1940-1941, per a government film, “The sign of a great fighter in the ring is, Can he get up from the floor after being knocked down? London does this every morning.”
• Gladwell’s poetry: “…he’s a figure who made a novelist’s fingers itch.”

And these:
   • On Hansell: “…unflinchingly honest, a little naïve, but fundamentally a romantic, with all that implies.” His first date with Dorothy Rogers: she “found him tiresome. He wrote her every day for the better part of a year. She answered two, maybe three of his letters. They were married in 1932.”
   • Curtis LeMay on the easy way to win the war: “…there ain’t no such animal.”
   • Why Haywood Hansell “sided with Jesus” on how to end the war. “You should never do evil so that good may come. But LeMay would have thought long and hard about going with Satan. He would have accepted the illegitimate means if they led to what he considered a swift and more advantageous end.” (What’s your view?)

Your theology matters. Don’t skip Chapter 9’s shocking report on the bombing of 67 (not a typo) cities before Japan surrendered in August 1945. Would you…authorize those bombings?

To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War, by Malcolm Gladwell. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (5 hours, 14 minutes).

P.S. Need more war stories to wrap up your summer reading? Check out:
   • The Tragedy of Patton: A Soldier's Date With Destiny — Could World War II's Greatest General Have Stopped the Cold War? by Robert Orlando (read my review)
   • View the award-winning movie, Silence Patton, directed by Robert Orlando, 2018 (1 hour, 25 minutes) – Click here.
   • Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory, by Ben Macintyre (read my review)
   • New movie coming in 2022: Operation Mincemeat

And…click on these titles to read my reviews of three more Malcolm Gladwell books:
   • Talking to Strangers (2020)
   • David and Goliath (2013)
   • Outliers: The Story of Success (2013)

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Was it worth it? Was General LeMay’s horrific bombing campaign prudent? (It, perhaps, prevented a U.S. invasion of Japan and more lost lives.) Now imagine that you’re calling the shots. Is a shorter war your highest value?
2) The Norden bombsight had a virtuous goal: precision bombing with minimal civilian casualties. Oops. The opposite happened. What should we be learning from the study of war?
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Mistake #11 of 25:
Traveling Without Preparing
Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned, by John Pearson with Jason Pearson

Wow! Counting this issue, John has reviewed four books by Malcolm Gladwell, but he refrained from borrowing any of Gladwell's book titles for the "mistake" book. LOL! 

In Mistake #11, “Traveling Without Preparing,” John recommends a Malcolm Gladwell bestseller and also confesses, “I was unprepared for the intricacies and nuances of being a global citizen. I should have asked for coaching from experienced goodwill ambassadors.”

He writes, “Now with 59 countries crowding my passport, I realize an empty suitcase is preferable to an empty mind!” So with the help of coaches and just-in-time books, John learned (somewhat!) how to navigate other cultures across the globe. He especially appreciated two books:

• Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell, says that your long-standing assumptions about leadership might need to change, based on a person’s ethnicity. For example, Greeks and Guatemalans are in the top five of the “uncertainty avoidance” countries (high reliance on rules), while Swedes and Jamaicans represent the top-five cultures best able to tolerate ambiguity. (Did John mention he’s Swedish?) Read John’s review.

• Leading Across Cultures: Effective Ministry and Mission in the Global Church. James E. Plueddemann quotes Joshua Bogunjoko, “Cross-cultural leadership is a school from which you never graduate.” Must-read: the informative two-page vignettes, “Reflections on Multicultural Leadership.” Read John’s review.

Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Before you bet the farm on your next marketing blitz—slow down and invite early feedback on your innovation. Explore how to test pilot a campaign first. Contact Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

Let Us Prey (Revised Edition): The Plague of Narcissist Pastors

Issue No. 484 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting includes a critical alert about narcissistic leaders (including pastors)—and prevention methods and metaphors. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book I wrote with my son, Jason, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned. See Mistake #10 below.

Narcissistic leaders “are consummate chameleons, able to change their colors effortlessly as they mimic the background of whatever situation they may be in, and that includes their ability to appear compassionate.”

Interview Question: “How Weird Are You?” 

Last year, while locked down in the Pearson Bunker, we began talking about writing the “mistakes” book. The big idea—If I’d Only Read This Book Earlier in My Career, I Could Have Avoided This BIG Leadership Mistake!

But should the book highlight my Top-10, Top-50, or Top-100 big leadership mistakes? (Yikes. I have an abundance of examples.) Much too late, I’ve often read a book that would have rescued me in those gut-wrenching situations.

Today’s book would certainly be on that list. Maybe I could have avoided some big leadership mistakes had I read more and understood more about narcissism and Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).

In my work with churches, denominations, and nonprofit ministries, it would have been immensely helpful if I had read Let Us Prey at the front end of my leadership years. While Darrell Puls focuses on “The Plague of Narcissist Pastors And What We Can Do About It” (the subtitle), his book is a Big Wake-Up Call for all ministry leaders, board members and the silent sufferers in the pews and organizations—anywhere and everywhere—where narcissists are doing their damage. Oh, my.

Puls writes from sad experience. He served as a staff pastor under a narcissist. As a church consultant (conflict resolution and more), he’s seen the destructive underbelly of narcissist pastors and, yes, narcissist churches. He notes, “Healthy and unhealthy organizations tend to follow the patterns of their leaders.”

The author makes it clear—he loves the church. He’s a cheerleader for pastors. And he’s not naïve. “We are all narcissists to some degree,” he writes, “and many have observed the increase in narcissistic behavior in our society.” He adds, “Narcissism is a spectrum condition meaning that it goes from the least inclination to full-blown Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).”

Church board members, staff members, and key volunteers—especially—must read Let Us Prey. But any leader or board member (nonprofit or for-profit) will benefit from the author’s thoughtful analysis of narcissists and NPD. It’s impossible to summarize the depth of the issue—and some solutions—in this short review, but these snippets, I pray, will inspire you to read the book.

#1. NPD DEFINED. According to the diagnostic criteria of the American Psychological Association, Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a “pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following…” Page 23 lists nine statements, including these three eye-poppers:
   1. “Has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements).”
   3. “Believes that he or she is ‘special’ and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions).”
   5. “Has a sense of entitlement (i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations).”

As Puls defines NPD, he notes the all-important differences between covert and overt narcissists. (Websites are also helpful including the Mayo Clinic’s description of NPD.)

#2. THE NARCISSIST’S RIVAL: GOD. Puls’ research is vast. The bibliography (14 pages) lists more than 200 books, articles, and resources. He quotes Donald Capps in the publication, Pastoral Psychology, who concludes “with the premise that the most valuable test for extreme narcissism revolves around this question: Does the person in question believe and act as if they are God?” The answer: “…deep inside the true narcissist sees himself as godlike and God as a terrifying rival.”

#3. THE NARCISSIST AS LEADER. “It is our expectation that our pastors will do the work of the Lord rather than be the Lord of the work. The narcissist insists that he is the Lord of the work and all others should serve him.” It gets worse:
   • “The acting ability of the narcissist must not be underestimated or misread. They are consummate chameleons, able to change their colors effortlessly as they mimic the background of whatever situation they may be in, and that includes their ability to appear compassionate. Covert narcissists in particular can mimic compassion for extended periods, but overt narcissists tire of it quickly and are able to mirror empathy only in short swatches.”
   • “…the narcissist pastor will find a way to insert himself into the sermon in a positive way. It may be a statement about how good it is to have self-esteem and how wonderful he feels at knowing that he is a child of God, or it could be subtler in softly proclaiming his own humility, which is in itself a contradiction—he’s proud of his humility.”

#4. THE NARCISSISTIC CHURCH. In Chapter 9, the author identifies characteristics of the narcissistic church: denial, uniqueness, grandiosity, entitlement, paranoia/isolation, lack of empathy, little awareness of external perception, rationalization, and organizational psychosis. The chart on page 167 compares individual narcissism with organizational narcissism in six categories. One key tip-off: watch for superlatives.

This must-read chapter includes this: “One man I know personally talks constantly about how his church is the best, most biblically accurate, friendliest, wealthiest…keep adding superlatives. His own narcissistic needs are met at least in part by being a member of this particular church.”

#5. PREVENTION. Pastors, CEOs, senior team members, board members—they all come and go. But don’t relax. If you’re not facing a narcissistic challenge today—it could be just around the bend with your next hire. Chapter 12 is jam-packed with practical preventative help—especially for governing board members who must understand “their legal responsibility to protect the church [or organization] as fiduciaries.”

Puls includes 14 interview questions from a business leader, Carl Cadwell, that may help a search committee or supervisor identify narcissistic issues in a candidate. Each question includes a commentary on what to look for. Example:
   • “How do you define success for yourself?” Commentary: “This will quickly bring out desires for prestige, power, recognition, etc.”
   • “On a scale of 1 to 10 how weird are you?” Commentary: “It is not so much the number; it is more seeing how candidates react to a question. Because our whole belief is that everyone is a little weird.”
   • “What is something you believe that nearly no one agrees with you on?” Commentary: “This is an interesting way to get at a sense of isolation, grandiosity, and even paranoia.”

#6. THERAPY. If, like the author, you’ve been trashed by a narcissistic pastor or leader, you’ll find comfort in the therapeutic pages of Let Us Prey. Chapter 10, “Healing the People” is balm for the soul. “You are not at fault if a narcissist pastor has victimized you. You were carefully and intentionally groomed, seduced, and manipulated to reveal some of your greatest hopes, weaknesses, and fears only to have them used against you by someone you trusted.”

UNMASKED! Ironically, if you read this in our current COVID-19 marathon, the latest edition includes powerful, but sad, first-person stories in Chapter 4, “Unmasked.” Note: The revised edition was published in June 2020. The 2017 edition (which I also read) was pulled due to some research inaccuracies. Have I mentioned yet that the 2020 edition is “must-read?”

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Let Us Prey, Revised Edition: The Plague of Narcissist Pastors and What We Can Do About It, by Darrell Puls.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Darrell Puls notes that “while healthy people have a full emotional range of A to Z, the narcissist, while mimicking the full range, only experiences a range of A to B…” He adds, “In fact, most of their projected emotions are an act designed to get what it is they need most: admiration and adulation from others as a means to control them.” Have you—or someone close to you—been the victim of a narcissist? What did you learn?
2) Yes, you have likely made leadership mistakes in the past, but perhaps some doozies could have been avoided with a greater focus on lifelong learning. What book are you reading (or listening to) this month? 
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Learn More About Narcissism
BONUS NOTES (not included in the emailed edition of Your Weekly Staff Meeting)

The core competency in the Culture Bucket affirms, “We strive to create a corporate culture with core values that are crystal clear. We yearn for a God-honoring workplace where grace and trust are alive and well. Because we are human we will always have relational conflicts, so we are zealots about resolving conflict early. We invite those who won’t live out our values to exit. We experience true joy at work.”

To keep your core values relevant, learn more about narcissism—to prevent your team from hiring the wrong leader, recruiting the wrong board member, and misunderstanding or ignoring inappropriate behavior. Check out these resources:

• 14 Staff Meeting Questions. “I’m Not a Narcissist.” Consider using David Russell’s 14 behavior questions at your next staff meeting (test them with a colleague first!). Read here on the Manage2Win Blog.

• The Owner-Pastor Cult. “It’s Time to Confront the Cult of the Owner-Pastor in the Body of Christ,” by Scott Rodin. Read here in The Steward’s Journey Blog.

• Clergy Honesty. According to a Jan. 6, 2020 report, Gallup’s 18th annual survey of honesty and ethical standards indicated that nurses were rated the highest and car salespeople were rated the lowest. But 54% of Americans rated police officers very high or high in the survey (note the date), while only 40% rated clergy very high or high. Read more.

• Get Out of the Box! Click here to read my 2018 review of Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box (Second Edition), by The Arbinger Institute.

• Need Some Inspiration/Encouragement? In the chapter on “Healing the People” in Let Us Prey, Darrell Puls suggests a “T.R.U.T.H.” process. The second T” is for Transforming and he shares an insightful metaphor, “Changing the Wind,” noting the disciples’ method for addressing the problem versus Jesus’ approach in Luke 8. After reading this, I then watched this powerful praise video with Jessy Dixon, “Master, the Tempest Is Raging.” Click here.


View on YouTube: "Master, the Tempest Is Raging"

For more resources and books, visit the Culture Bucket.

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Mistake #10 of 25:
Being “Mr. Nice Guy” vs. “Mr. Truthful Guy”
Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned, by John Pearson with Jason Pearson



Read what John learned from “Power Broker” Margaret Thatcher in Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s book, Leaders: Myth and Reality.

John writes, “My association leadership years didn’t prepare me for consulting. I quickly had to understand the difference between likeability and results. Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of the United Kingdom for 11 years (1979 to 1990) was dubbed the ‘Iron Lady’ by a Soviet journalist—a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.” Leadership: Myth and Reality quotes Thatcher:

“If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.”

It took John a while—and it took some guts—but eventually he discovered that clients appreciated the unvarnished truth. John says he may not have been well-liked when he presented his recommendations, but at least his clients didn’t shoot the messenger! Read Mistake #10 to learn more, including the unique partnership between Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and Pope John Paul II—and what happened when they spoke the truth.

Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. In Mistake #10, we note the “Five Stages of Decline” in organizations (per Jim Collins). To avoid decline, you often need outside help—someone gutsy enough to ask you tough questions. Contact Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

3 Reruns - Best Practices From a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World

Issue No. 483 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a Baptist shout-out to Catholic friends and colleagues with an entertaining film and two powerful books. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book I wrote with my son, Jason, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned. See Mistake #9 below.

Could J.P. Morgan learn leadership principles from a 450-year-old company that changed the world?
 
10 People With No Capital and No Business Plan!

C.S. Lewis wrote, “It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.”

So here are three reruns (not as old as St. Augustine or Thomas Aquinas), but worth your time. And…since I’ve been preaching (and trying to model) reading outside my lane—here’s a born-again Baptist’s three-gun salute to my Catholic friends. Enjoy!

#1. VIDEO: WE HAVE A POPE (2012, English subtitles, 1 hour, 44 minutes)
No spoiler alert is needed because I’ll just set the stage for you. The papal conclave is in session—and balloting has begun. The thunderous murmuring from dozens of cardinals needs no subtitles: “Not me, Lord! Not me!” No one wants the job.

View the trailer for We Have a Pope.

Makes me wonder if, post COVID-19, there will be more or less applications for presidents, prime ministers, popes, governors, and mayors? Leaders needed. Yikes!

Finally, a pope is selected—and that’s when the fun and the soul-searching begin. The reluctant leader is not sure he wants to be pope. (Plan A or Plan B?) He is unprepared, he thinks, for this one-in-a-billion leadership challenge—and the cardinals (still locked in the Vatican, without cell phones) are not much help to their new leader. Yet he had their votes. Hmmm. Plan A or Plan B?

Click here to read my review. To view the video on Amazon Prime, click on the title for We Have a Pope.



#2. BOOK: THE POPE & THE CEO (2011, 152 pages)
Andreas Widmer’s poignant book, The Pope & The CEO: John Paul II's Leadership Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard, is highly relevant to all CEOs, leaders and managers. (Click here to read my review and the must-read story.)

As a young Swiss Guard to the pope, the author observed the back office leadership of Pope John Paul II. Yet later, Widmer failed in business and had to re-learn the simple, but God-honoring papal principles of leadership. It’s a page-turner because the stories are so powerful and practical.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Pope & The CEO: John Paul II's Leadership Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard, by Andreas Widmer.



#3. BOOK: HEROIC LEADERSHIP (2003, 336 pages)

Chris Lowney, the author of Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World, writes: “What often passes for leadership today is a shallow substitution of technique for substance.” This is a book with substance—plus laugh-out-loud humor. Click here to read my full review.

Lowney turned in his Jesuit name badge on a Friday. On Monday, he clocked in at J.P. Morgan. Named a managing director of this huge investment banking firm while still in his 30s, he held senior positions with them in New York, Tokyo, Singapore, and London.

Bemused and amused by the proliferation of leadership lesson books (Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun, to name just one), Lowney responded. “I was intrigued by what sixteenth-century priests might teach us twenty-first century sophisticates about leadership and about coping with complex, changing environments.”

I know. I know. I recommend a “must-read” book in every issue of Your Weekly Staff Meeting. But, this one really is a five-star must-read. “Obedience issues in an uninterrupted life of heroic deeds and heroic virtues,” writes Lowney. When’s the last time you rubbed shoulders with a truly heroic leader?

The Company of Jesus (the Jesuits) was founded in 1540 by “ten men with no capital and no business plan.” Yet within a generation, they built the world’s most influential company of its kind. In 10 years, with no experience, they launched 30 colleges. “Instead of talking about leadership, they lived it.” Founder Ignatius of Loyola trained every recruit to lead. Jesuits believe that self-leadership emanates from four unique values: 1) self-awareness, 2) ingenuity, 3) love, and 4) heroism.

If you salivate at the chance to lead people through complexity, build global teams, control out-of-control growth, mediate turf battles, cultivate wealthy donors, and enforce rigorous hiring standards—you’ll feast on this gourmet book. (And to check your motives on why you want to lead, read Patrick Lencioni’s 2020 book, The Motive.)

Chris Lowney’s real world experience keeps it honest. His delicious and dry wit embarrassed me multiple times in 2008 while reading the book at 30,000 feet. The laugh-out-loud moments were frequent!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Heroic Leadership: Best Practices From a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World, by Chris Lowney.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) The Jesuits coached Chris Lowney on how to spot leaders. He writes, “…looking for leaders while focusing on the wrong skills is a hit-or-miss proposition—like picking future opera stars by examining their golf swings.” How do we identify, coach, and mentor emerging leaders in our organization?

2) After serving as a Swiss guard to Pope John Paul II, Andreas Widmer jumped into the business world—but it didn’t go well at first. He confesses to numerous personnel disasters. “My most painful mistakes in business,” he wrote, involved prioritizing tasks over people. Thinking back to his Vatican days, Widmer observed how an effective leader must be “a synchronizer of talent.” How effective are we at identifying task/people mismatches—and then addressing them early?

3) To go deeper on Ignatius of Loyola, look over Father Darrin Merlino’s shoulder in his recent book, 30 Days Unplugged: How a Catholic Priest Turned Off His iPhone and Took a Call From God. Discuss: Is it possible that the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius—if taken seriously—can help “10 men with no capital and no business plan?” Why or why not?
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Mistake #9 of 25:
Fibbing…to Fit My Fiction
Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned, by John Pearson with Jason Pearson


Clayton Christensen writes that telling the truth "100 percent of the time is easier than 98 percent of the time."

Every mistake in this new workbook by John and his son, Jason, is paired with a relevant book recommendation. Noting the time he “fibbed” a response to Francis Schaeffer, the eminent evangelical theologian, John wishes Clayton Christensen (1952-2020) had written his book years earlier!

How Will You Measure Your Life includes Christensen’s wisdom on always telling the truth and acting with integrity, “100 percent of the time is easier than 98 percent of the time.” John’s mistake:

“I was raised with the core value, ‘Honesty is the best policy.’ My heart has been to honor God with this practice every day. But regretfully that day—lying won and honesty lost.” Read Mistake #9 to see what John learned.

Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson.
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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. When you view We Have a Pope, you experience again the power of film to tell a powerful story (even with subtitles). For ideas and insights on telling your powerful story, contact Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
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