John Pearson's Buckets Blog

3 New Books on the WHY of Outdoor Ministry

Issue No. 538 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting highlights "the power of camp" and three new books on growing emerging leaders. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for the table of contents to Mastering 100 Must-Read Books (a perfect Christmas gift for a leader/reader).    


Inspire your family members and friends to WORK AT CAMP next summer (or year-round)! CCCA’s Venn Diagram (used by permission) spotlights “Work at Camp” at the center of who you are, your dreams, what you love, and making a difference. Visit FindACampJob.com. 

3 Books: Growing Leaders

Oh, my. It was 53 years ago in the fall of 1969, as a very young camp director in Illinois, that I attended the fourth Christian Camping International Convention at Ridgecrest in North Carolina. Christianity Today reported on that gathering and quoted a camping leader: “You can accomplish more with a kid in one week of camp than in a whole year of Sunday school.”

Now today, the U.S. expression of CCI, Christian Camp & Conference Association, is back at Ridgecrest Conference Center for their National Conference, “Together ’22.” With pent-up demand to leave COVID in the rear view mirror, camping leaders have swarmed the place and the Dec. 5-8 conference is sold out! And still today, “the power of camp” continues to pack a punch. Visit CCCA’s website.

Little did I know during that 1969 conference what God was planning. CCI’s executive director, Ed Oulund, happened to sit across from me in the dining room—and oh, my! Ten years later, I was privileged to build on Oulund’s legacy and serve as CCI/USA’s executive director from 1979 to 1990. (CCI/USA is now called CCCA and Christian camping worldwide is thriving.)

So…in this issue, I’m fanning the flame for this amazing global ministry blessed by God—and urge you and all parents, pastors, educators, business leaders, and college students in search of spouses (I’ll explain below!)…to consider the powerful impact of Christian camps and conference centers. 

Three new books/workbooks were published this year that effectively articulate the why and how of outdoor ministry and leadership development. Do your pastors and church leaders leverage the power of camp? Consider giving your church leaders one or all three of these new books:

[  ] Blueprints: Biblical Designs for Christian Camping—Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, by Dan Bolin



Dan Bolin served 11 years as the International Director of Christian Camping International, plus 25 years at Pine Cove Christian Camps in Texas—so he’s the perfect person to write this treatise on the why of the Christian camping movement. Bolin has inspired and encouraged camping leaders in more than 30 countries and speaks with authority on why “Christian camping is mushrooming around the globe.” 

Bolin notes that “the casual observer wonders, what does it take to be a camp director besides a whistle and a clipboard?” (Yikes! Was I supposed to own a whistle?) Using a thoroughly biblical approach to his thoughtful book, he quotes Henrietta Mears, the founder of Forest Home, who said “Camp is where people make up their minds.” (Watch for my review of Mother of Modern Evangelicalism: The Life and Legacy of Henrietta Mears.)
 
Bolin's book also addresses “the elephant in the room.” He writes that “sympathetic yet patronizing friends from the business world often wonder (sometimes to themselves and sometimes aloud) why can’t this camp be run like a business?” (If I had the proverbial $10 every time I was asked that question…well, you know the rest.) Bolin’s answer is excellent and he quotes Peter Drucker’s response to that question. And LOL...later on in the book, Dan mentions elephants again—but this time camping leaders in Kenya are teaching him!

[  ] Latin American Voices on Leadership: Their Emergence and Growth, by Lisa Marie Anderson-Umaña



In this must-read resource by Lisa Marie Anderson-Umaña—written for all Christian leaders and pastors (and camping leaders especially)—James Plueddemann doesn’t mince words in the foreword. He writes:
 
“Thousands of organizations and schools around the world claim to be ‘producing’ leaders. Huge amounts of money are being spent on training leaders, and when students demonstrate mastering of the content, they are certified as leaders. Dr. Anderson-Umaña undercuts this dangerous assumption. None of the outstanding leaders she interviewed identified a training course as having a significant effect on their growth as a leader.” Yikes!

Plueddemann, the author of Leading Across Cultures, adds, “Toxic self-centered leadership is a curse in the worldwide Church. Dr. Anderson-Umaña’s research demonstrates that healthy servant leaders grow as they learn to serve in the company of other servant leaders.”

Lisa Marie Anderson-Umaña is the Director of Leadership Development for Christian Camping International, Latin America. A missionary for 40 years, Lisa says she “married the culture” (her Honduran husband, Alfredo). A teacher and writer, her curriculum projects have been used by thousands of leaders in 12 Latin American countries.

As part of her research for this workbook, she asked Latin American leaders to share their leadership growth experiences. Anderson-Umaña’s research identified “four specific ways you can co-participate with God to help leaders emerge and grow.” They include:
   • Accompany them
   • Open up spaces for them to serve
   • Create developmental experiences
   • Promote self-leadership from the start of their journey

Research-based, but immensely practical, this workbook features 58 (not a typo!) exercises/questions to help leaders flesh out her findings and the practical next steps. And this warning: “If you’re someone who thinks that leaders can be formed through training courses, you’re in for a surprise!”

The voices of Latin American leaders: remarkable! Example: Adriana, “a pastor of a congregation of almost six-thousand members.” In the section on how to open up spaces for emerging leaders, the author describes the journey of Marcos, who inspired a Catholic priest and a Presbyterian minister to form soccer clubs in “hot” (gang-influenced) barrios.

“Marcos established strict discipline with the teams, charging one dollar if a player committed a foul, five dollars if a player said a bad word, and fifty dollars if a player attacked a referee.” (“We made a lot of money,” he joked!) But the bigger point: Marcos found a way into leadership through a side door, since his denomination insisted, “You must prove yourself first. You are young.”

Preferring direct communication and “giving more weight to the exact words” of others, Lisa learned that her “low-context” culture, as a North American, didn’t always align with the high-context culture of Latin America. One time in Mexico City, at the end of a camp counselor training session, she asked if everyone would be returning for the next session in a week. “Without exception, every single person said yes.” Yet… “No one showed up for the next meeting.” Must-read: Chapter 2, “The Role Culture Plays in Leadership.”

[  ] Leaders Yet Discovered: Experiential Development for Emerging Leaders, by Greg Robinson and Rob Ribbe



Lisa Marie Anderson-Umaña (see above) writes a generous recommendation for Leaders Yet Discovered, noting that “the streams of literature the authors have consulted stretch farther and wider than most of us have time to study and form applicable concepts.” I agree—and I’m grateful for these two leaders who have the intellectual and academic chops to deliver a concise, but comprehensive, leadership book on both the theory and the practice of growing authentic Christian leaders.

You’re probably not leadership material yourself if you can scan these pages and not be drawn deeper into these critical topics. Check out:
   • Pages 21-29: Chapter 3, “Who Am I as a Leader?” details the book’s “leadership identity formation” model—and the progression it follows: Observer (“Leadership is a thing”), Explorer, Performer, Delegator, Developer, and Sage. (This will preach!)
   • Pages 124-125: Two charts on the “Vicious Life Cycle” and the “Virtuous Life Cycle.” Vicious: “Staffing and Operating Budget Cuts: Program offerings cut; remaining staff must work harder to support existing programs.” Virtuous: “Program offerings are supported with the right level of infrastructure.”
 
Plus...see page 134 for the four quadrants chart assessing impact and viability:
   • High Mission Impact/Low Viability: Keep but contain costs
   • High Mission Impact/High Viability: Invest in continuance and growth
   • Low Mission Impact/High Viability: Enhance impact
   • Low Mission Impact/Low Viability: Discontinue or give away
Note: See my related review of Nonprofit Sustainability.

While this book is targeted to Christian camp ministries (with dozens of examples), the authors also suggest a new paradigm for all those working with emerging adults. Greg Robinson is the Associate Professor of Outdoor Leadership Ministries at John Brown University. Rob Ribbe has served at Wheaton College as Executive Director of HoneyRock, Center for Leadership Development since 2000. He’s also a faculty member of the School of Mission, Ministry, and Leadership.

ABOUT THAT MEET-YOUR-SPOUSE-AT-CAMP IDEA! Parents and grandparents: while helping your future leaders pay for college—it can be expensive. If one of your goals is to help them find a future spouse, you may be surprised to learn that serving on the summer staff of a Christian camp or conference center—often leads to special relationships and, sometimes, matrimony! (Just ask any camp director how many wedding gifts he or she purchased in the last five years!) Think about it! For more, visit: FindACampJob.com. 

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Is it time to rethink how emerging leaders become authentic, servant leaders? What’s our plan?
2) Lisa Marie Anderson-Umaña, on opening up spaces for emerging leaders, asks, “Are the voices of those who are crying out to serve, or those whose voices are soft and tentative, being listened to? Does each department or ministry have a system in place to listen to these voices?” What’s our plan?
3) Read the chapter, "The Trucker Driver Was No Match for the Faith-filled Board Chair," about the board chair at SAMBICA in Bellevue, Wash. (from Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom). What's our prayer plan? 

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 2: Books-of-the-Year

Book #9 of 100:
Scaling Up

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #9 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t
Mastering the Rockefeller Habits 2.0
by Verne Harnish

Books #6 through #21 feature 16 books that I named the Book-of-the-Year from 2006 to 2020. The best quote in Book #9 is this one: “Senior leaders know they have succeeded in building an organization that can scale—and is fun to run—when they are the dumbest people in the room!”
   • Read my review.
   • Order from Amazon: Scaling Up
   • Download the 100 Must-Read Books list (from John and Jason Pearson)

My review listed 12 reasons this book is a must-read, including Reason #12: Sloppy Execution! Verne Harnish says if you don’t execute the Rockefeller Habits, “It just means you’ve been leaving massive amounts of money and time on the table. And if you have a killer strategy and/or heroic people willing to work 18-hour days, eight days a week, these will make up for the messes created by sloppy execution and lack of discipline.”

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A WELL-PLANTED FAITH.  What are you growing in the next 30 days? How about your own personal growth? Read Ed McDowell’s devotional guide, A Well-Planted Faith in an Uprooted Culture: A 30-Day Devotional with Guided Journal Entries. Read more on the Pails in Comparison blog.

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Ready to scale up? What's the right-size staffing for your 2023 communications and marketing projects? Full-time staff, part-time staff, or contract help? We can help you think this through. Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

Leadership Not by the Book: 12 Unconventional Principles to Drive Incredible Results

Issue No. 537 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting details the contrarian and unconventional leadership best practices at Hobby Lobby. Stunning, really. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for the table of contents to Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.  


This “CLOSE COUNTS” billboard-sized reminder from David Green, Hobby Lobby’s Founder, is positioned in the warehouse hallway at the company’s campus. Read why “too many choices” will harm your business.

Hobby Lobby’s Leadership Manual

Really? So you’ve been preaching (bragging?) that you lead your company or organization with God-honoring principles? Sure you do. But what happens when you come face-to-face with a company that actually walks its talk? Yikes!

You will be shocked (shocked!) at the contrarian and convicting biblical standards that guide the leadership at Hobby Lobby. Caution! More must-reading ahead: Leadership Not by the Book: 12 Unconventional Principles to Drive Incredible Results, by David Green and Bill High.

I spotlight five books in Part 7, “Contrarian Thinkers,” in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. Stop the presses! Here’s another must-read contrarian book—with 10 contrarian examples:

CONTRARIAN EXAMPLE #1: Deep Generosity, Not PR Giving. The more we read about the implosion of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange, the more we’re stunned. According to The Wall Street Journal, FTX employees “…thought that they were part of this idealistic enterprise because Sam Bankman-Fried was so associated with philanthropy and the movement called Effective Altruism. He pledged to give 1% of the exchanges fee revenue to charity.” One percent is “effective altruism?” (Give me a break! I call that “PR giving.”)
 
Contrast that with Hobby Lobby, now an $8 billion privately-owned company with 1,000 stores and 50,000 employees. They give 50 percent of their profits to nonprofit ministries. According to a 2021 internal report, Hobby Lobby has given to 364 ministries over 25 years. Yet…“The top seven of them have received 80 percent of our funding, which reflects our philosophy of going deep with a few rather than shallow with many.” (And… “We almost never give to a new or failing ministry.”)

CONTRARIAN EXAMPLE #2: Better, Not Best. David Green, CEO and founder, coaches his buyers to focus on “better” not “best.” Why this contrarian approach? “I tell our buyers that we want to be ‘the best at being better.’” That’s where 80 percent of the sales are. “If ‘good’ is the bottom and ‘best’ is the top, we’re in the middle at ‘better.” Note: Hobby Lobby stores have 12 departments, so the corporate office has 12 merchandise managers with about six buyers per team. Why? Each store carries about 100,000 items (30% is seasonal). Imagine!

CONTRARIAN EXAMPLE #3: Simplicity, Not Perfection. Talk about unconventional! This fascinating book by David Green and Bill High delivers a contrarian roadmap for leaders—with 12 principles in 12 short chapters. (Hmmm. Might make a great 2023 staff meeting resource: one principle a month.)

Green has known co-author Bill High, a former attorney, for about 20 years. High’s organization focuses on generosity and donor-advised funds and “consults with families to help them create thriving family legacies and to see lives changed by Jesus.” Read more here. He also emcees Hobby Lobby’s two-day seminars for CEOs and business leaders. High poignantly asks, “What would happen if generosity became less about transactions and more about transformation?”

In Chapter 11, “Choose Simplicity, Not Perfection,” Green explains how he pushes back on decision-making overload. Example: How many nativity sets should they ship to each store for Christmas? The traditional way: in painstaking detail, calculate each store’s numbers. But wait! “Multiply thirty thousand items by one thousand stores and you’ll see we’d saddle ourselves with thirty million decisions every year! No, thank you.” (Ditto their year-round inventory: 70 million decisions every year. “Again, no thanks.”)

So Green countered (no pun intended) with this. At their Oklahoma City campus, a warehouse hallway features a billboard-sized sign in bright white letters:

“Keep it simple. CLOSE COUNTS! 
Too many choices are harmful to business.”

Green notes, “It’s the only sign in our entire complex with my name on it. I want this reminder front and center as all of us go about our workday.” (Brilliant!)

This chapter is must-read and it will help you streamline your leadership and management decision-making process. Every report need not have exact numbers. Close counts. Green’s own style is contrarian (and bare bones—no cell phone and no email!). He reminded me of the contrarian style of the former president of USC. (Read my review.) Green explains, “I operate this way because I want to run a thousand stores one time, not one store a thousand times. To accomplish this feat, I need to keep things simple.”

CONTRARIAN EXAMPLE #4: Stewards, Not Owners. Priceless! When David Green was interviewed by Stuart Varney on Fox Business, Nov. 14, Varney did a double take when he learned Hobby Lobby gave away 50 percent of its profits—and was also closed on Sundays! Plus, the company is controlled by a seven-member trust. Only family members that work at Hobby Lobby receive compensation (no trust fund babies)—and a special committee approves all family member promotions and annual salaries. Contrarian! Click here to view the Fox Business interview.


Watch Stuart Varney on Fox Business do a double take when David Green mentions that Hobby Lobby gives away 50 percent of their profits! Click here.

Why? Green discerned, after a few years of struggling, that God owns the company and “If God owns Hobby Lobby, then how do we operate differently than those who believe they own their business?” Read Chapter 3, “Give the True Owner the Vote,” to learn why “when you’re an owner, wealth can easily become a curse. When you’re a steward, wealth becomes a tool. When family members see themselves as stewards, they don’t feel entitled to wealth. Unlike owners, they know they must earn their income through their labor.” (For more on owner/stewards, read my review of The Steward Leader.)

CONTRARIAN EXAMPLE #5: This Book, Not That Book! While David Green does mention helpful books by Patrick Lencioni and Jim Collins—he’s not a big fan of what is taught at Harvard Business School or the often “conventional” thinking of Harvard Business Review—with one exception. HBR’s “How Winning Organizations Last 100 Years” piqued his interest because the principles align with Hobby Lobby’s vision to impact the next five generations. (Oh, my. I thought I was doing well just to influence my five grandchildren!) 

The HBR article identified the principles of companies that lasted more than 100 years (“Centennials”). They had “three primary elements about both the core and the disruptive edge,” including: a stable purpose, a stable stewardship, and a stable openness. The disruptive edge side of Centennials featured: disruptive experts, disruptive nervousness, and disruptive accidents (their people mingle to share problems and explore opportunities). Would Green be satisfied with 100 years? No! His plan is for 150 years—thus impacting his great-great-great-great grandchildren. (Listen to the three-minute blurb on Libro.fm.) 

Interestingly, Centennials “deliberately open themselves up to invite scrutiny and create pressure” and also “find great things to do and then share them with the world through books, articles and films.” (Memo to Disney's Iger and Chapek: read this HBR article for insights on succession!)

Important! In the book’s epilogue, “Leadership by the Book,” Green emphasizes the “uncommon business practices” adopted by Hobby Lobby and why “Not” is in the book’s title. “As you’ve learned by now, every one of the ingredients in our secret sauce comes straight out of the Bible. In addition, most of the pivotal moments in our history took place after I experienced some divine episode engineered by the Holy Spirit." Don’t skip the first chapter detailing Hobby Lobby’s early days when Green thought of himself as the “Einstein of business!” Once proud and cocky, he was humbled (Daniel 4:37) and burdened in debt. (The company has zero debt today and opens about 50 new stores every year.)

MORE CONTRARIAN, UNCONVENTIONAL WISDOM:
#6. “Stock, Say, Salary.” See the appendix for the unconventional approach to family wealth. No “…family member receives money from Hobby Lobby unless they work for Hobby Lobby.” (See who has the say and who owns the stock. Contrarian!)

#7. The Trio of Three Crucial Traits. “God says he looks with favor on those who are humble, who are contrite in spirit, and who tremble at God’s Word.” (These three keys to divine favor are from Isaiah 66:2.)

#8. “None of Our Competitors Do That!” Whew! In the must-read chapter, “Put Employees First, Not Money,” David Green outlines what that looks like. Hobby Lobby closes their stores at 8 p.m. They are closed on Sunday. Stores are open for just 66 hours per week. The minimum wage is $18.50 per hour. Plus…you won’t believe this: all salaried managerial employees (and their spouses) “have an opportunity to attend a first-class weekend retreat on marriage enrichment, most often a ‘Weekend to Remember’ event hosted by FamilyLife.” Hobby Lobby covers airfare, hotel, and all incidentals. “None of our competitors do that.”

#9. “Defer to Your People, Don’t Just Listen to Them!” Green writes, “Today we hear all the time, ‘Hire people smarter than you,’ which I consider excellent advice. But when I see how some of us lead, I want to ask, ‘If the people you hire are smarter than you, then why don’t you listen to them?’” Read why Green goes beyond listening…to deferring. (Excellent! And this reminds me of Dennis Bakke’s wisdom in Joy at Work and The Decision Maker.)

#10. Anointing Versus Calling. In addition to learning about Green’s wisdom on “The One Thing,” you’ll slam on the brakes—to think and pray about the difference between your purpose and your calling and God’s anointing. He writes, “An anointing is a special, God-given empowering that enables us to serve and honor the Lord in a unique way.” Consequently, Green is also the company’s senior vice president of marketing. I love that and I think more CEOs should align their special anointing from God with their job description. (See Chapter 9, “Remember Your One Thing, Not the Shiny Things.”)

Note: I quote Scott Rodin in an ECFA blog on this topic. Rodin writes, “I know of few Christian leaders today who were anointed before they were appointed.” Think about this!

There’s so much more: stunning answers to prayer, the Post-it Notes decision-making methodology for their giving, Hobby Lobby’s 2021 partnership with others to serve 1,800 Afghan refugees in Oklahoma—plus rules, exceptions to rules, and more. This is another must-read!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Leadership Not by the Book: 12 Unconventional Principles to Drive Incredible Results, by David Green and Bill High. Listen on Libro (5 hours, 36 minutes). Note: Jim Seybert, who narrates this book, is also the author of The One Year Mini for Leaders. (Read my review.) And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Read the section in Chapter 11 on “Close Counts” and why investing time on exact numbers is often counter-productive. Balance this with the decision-making styles of the four social styles (Drivers, Analyticals, Amiables, and Expressives). Drivers believe “any decision is better than no decision.” Analyticals preach, “No decision is better than the wrong decision.” So…how do you honor God-given social styles, while helping your people learn versatility (a key component of social styles)? For more, see Book #51, How to Deal With Annoying People, in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.

2) What other books have you read by company founders/CEOs that relate to your current leadership position? (I’ve recently appreciated books by the founders of Texas Roadhouse, Trader Joe’s, and Chick-fil-A.) Contrast these leadership styles with the "NOT by the book" values at Hobby Lobby.

3) Read these recent WSJ articles about the failed bank, GloriFi, and Tyson's CFO, and then discuss this question: Why does Hobby Lobby invest in marriage enrichment retreats for their store managers? 

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 2: Books-of-the-Year

Book #8 of 100:
Call Sign Chaos

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #8 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead
by Jim Mattis and Bing West

Books #6 through #21 spotlight 16 books that I named the Book-of-the-Year from 2006 to 2020. Book #8 pairs perfectly with Leadership Not by the Book (see above).
• Read my review.
• Order from Amazon: Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead
• Download the 100 Must-Read Books list (from John and Jason Pearson)

General Mattis, former U.S. Secretary of Defense, writes: “If you haven’t read hundreds of books, learning from others who went before you, you are functionally illiterate—you can’t coach and you can’t lead.”

Too busy to read? General Mattis writes that the Commandant of the Marine Corps maintains a list of required reading for every rank. “All Marines read a common set; in addition, sergeants read some books, and colonels read others. Even generals are assigned a new set of books that they must consume. At no rank is a Marine excused from studying.”

And I appreciated his humorous humility: “Memo to young officers: I can appear brilliant if I fight enemy leaders dumber than a bucket of rocks.” (I like the bucket reference!)

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BLIND SPOT!  If…I were a pastor, I would put my current sermon series on pause. Then I’d use my Bible and this hot-off-the-press book from Gallup—with 20 thought-provoking chapters. Read Blind Spot: The Global Rise of Unhappiness and How Leaders Missed It. Read more on the Pails in Comparison blog.

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. What level of communications and marketing do you need: Good, Better, or Best? (Hobby Lobby focuses on “Better.”) You’ll save time and resources when you can accurately define your customer or donor niche. Need help? Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

You Should Write a Book!

Issue No. 536 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting asks if you've preserved your memories and defining moments for future generations? Six ideas on why "You Should Write a Book!" And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my two-part review of Henry Kissinger’s new book, Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy.  


Don’t wait until it’s too late. You should write a book now!

You Should Write a Book!

Looking back, I wished I had asked my grandparents more questions. Learned more about their Swedish heritage. Their defining moments. Their joys. Their mistakes. Their Christian faith. 

I do have a framed black-and-white photo of then U.S. Vice President Richard M. Nixon talking with my Grandpa Carlson (1889-1966) at the Bit of Sweden Restaurant in Portland, Ore. I do remember my grandpa’s hand-written Sunday morning letters to Nixon and President Eisenhower! Oh…to have copies today of those weekly epistles! If only…my grandfather had written a book.

How about you? Are any of those memories and defining moments preserved for you? Perhaps you could still inspire your parents or grandparents to write a book—sharing their hopes and dreams for the next generations. (David Green, the founder of Hobby Lobby, is thinking ahead to five generations: his great-great-great-great-grandchildren.)

In this issue, I’ve curated a collection of sample books and methodologies to inspire you, your family, your colleagues, and maybe your boss—not to write the Great American Novel, but something more personal and meaningful. Enjoy reading how others have blessed the next generations of lifelong learners and listeners. Six ideas and templates:

YOU SHOULD WRITE A BOOK #1: 
Fasten Your Seat Belts!



Some years back, I was in the crowded jetway for a full flight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Next to me was a tired, middle-aged passenger—a double for Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. He was talking to a young, uniformed soldier and as we boarded, he gave this serviceman a poignant benediction:

“Young man, thank you for your service
—and please enjoy yourself.
These years will be the best years of your life.”

I thought of that moment when reading Ed Sabol’s page-turning narrative from his U.S. Air Force service years (1954-1958). While Sabol had a very meaningful life well beyond those post-high school years (FAA leadership roles, consulting, and more)—you’ll be amazed at the sights, sounds, and serious reflection that this short chronicle delivers. I couldn’t put it down!

A Life In The Day Of: A Strategic Air Command Veteran's Memoirs of The Cold War invites us back to the 1950s. Fasten your seat belts!

• The Flying Coffin. More than 200 crew members “lost their lives in the B-47 and RB-47 by crashing or being shot down by the Soviet Union.” (Your odds: “One in eight airman would not return to base.”)
• SAC. You’re onboard in the cramped quarters of the most modern planes the Air Force used in the 1950s for reconnaissance missions for the Strategic Air Command.
• See the World! Sabol’s passport in his four action-packed years was stamped in Japan, Okinawa, the Marshall Islands, Alaska (not yet a U.S. state!), Turkey, England, and other stops.
• Fill-‘er-Up! Imagine this: gas was 18 cents per gallon in 1955!

Hush. Hush. One dark night in Turkey, Sabol returned to the base with two airmen to finish a project for a morning flight. Yikes! An overzealous guard, protecting the RB-47 planes, fired at Sabol and his buddies! (They survived.) Why? “At three different times during my tenure on this base, Soviet spies dressed in Turkish uniforms were caught on base asking questions related to the U-2 and our RB-47s. They were all caught when they were asked questions that a Turkish military man would have known.”

There’s so much more in this quick-reading book, including almost 100 photos. When you read the last page, you’ll be grateful for the thousands of young men and women who enlisted during those perilous Cold War years. My five grandchildren are now reading this fascinating book because it was written by their other grandfather, Grandpa Ed Sabol. (Thank you for your service, Ed, and thanks for the autographed review copy!)

To order from Amazon, click on the title for A Life In The Day Of: A Strategic Air Command Veteran's Memoirs of The Cold War, by Edward D. Sabol. 
 
YOU SHOULD WRITE A BOOK #2:
And God Did It!


 
Pastor Robert Palmer is now in his 90s and his family is so grateful that he and his wife, Eleanor (1927-2018), wrote this labor of love in 2017 for family members, the legion of church members they served, and pastors everywhere. (Yikes! Being a pastor is tough duty and often involves a moving van or a church member’s pick-up truck!)

Just 140 pages and populated with family photos and memorable stories, Faithful: The Robert & Eleanor Palmer Story is the perfect template for other pastors and ministry leaders who are inspired to write their stories. There are many highlights, including:
• “I was very young—only 18—when I became a pastor. I had so much to learn…”
• His prayer: “I prayed for a wife who could play the piano, sing alto, and love me.” (She did so much more!)
• In 1943, Palmer’s father was the Caretaker/Manager for FA-HO-LO Park—the Assemblies of God camp meeting grounds now called Faholo Conference Center (Faith-Hope-Love). “At that time, we had a 1941 Plymouth. The gas ration board allowed us gas stamps for only 60 gallons of gas. Mother and I drove the whole trip from Kansas…to Grass Lake, Michigan, at 35 miles an hour, and averaged 25 miles per gallon.”

SERMON TOPICS! 
• While pastoring in Galena, Mo., Palmer was bi-vocational and worked at the courthouse—a strategic location for meeting people. The church invited a young evangelist to preach. “There was some interest because some people didn’t believe in women preachers. So, one night she preached on ‘Should a Woman Preach?’”
• He pastored 11 years in Lee’s Summit, Mo. His first Sunday’s sermon title: “Expectations: What You Can Expect From Me, What We Can Expect From You—What We Can Expect From God.” (Brilliant!)
• While pastoring in Ottumwa, Iowa, Palmer hosted the “Happy Hunters.” Charles and Francis Hunter preached on “Divine Healing: Baptism with the Holy Spirit and Deliverance From Smoking.” 

92 BOARD MEETINGS!
• Clearly a lifelong learner, Pastor Palmer attended the “Pastor’s School” in Hammond, Ind., where Jack Hyles was pastor at First Baptist Church. (And yes, Palmer’s church then started a bus ministry with four buses and two vans.)
• Upon retiring in 1992 from their pastorate in Santa Maria, Calif., the Palmers ministered widely to Assemblies of God pastors and churches. He writes, “In one given year, I attended 92 board meetings.” Oh, my!
• Working across the globe in their “retirement” years, they visited almost 50 countries, including Egypt, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Russia, and Ukraine.

What a gift this book is to the next generation of Palmers and Christ-followers. My big take-away? Frequently, throughout these inspiring pages, the memorable stories conclude with one line:

“And God did it.” 

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Faithful: The Robert & Eleanor Palmer Story, by Robert E. Palmer and Eleanor M. Palmer. (And thanks to Paul Palmer for sending me a review copy.)

YOU SHOULD WRITE A BOOK #3:
Grandpa Conversations on Character Traits
 
 

Picture this! A fictional grandfather engages with his twin grandchildren, Nate and Nancy, in a robust conversation that germinates their Top-30 list of character traits. In the process, they learn about the YOUquation toolbox and “the universe’s simplest and most magical secret formula”—and why traits like love, self-respect, control, humor, curiosity, and gratitude are essential for a happy and successful life (What a great exercise with your children or grandchildren!)

The learning is two-way and the twins add a creative wrinkle to “The Serenity Prayer,” retitling it, “The Serenity, Courage & Wisdom Prayer.” That conversation prompted me to search for this toe-tapping number, “The Serenity Prayer Song.”

 
Listen to "The Serenity Prayer Song" (4 minutes).

Bonus Video! By the way, you’ll also appreciate this hilarious/poignant sketch by The Skit Guys, “The Serenity Prayer” (13½ minutes). Click here.

Read the full review here. To order the book from Amazon, click on the title for YOUquation: Living Your Dream—Your Happiness + Your Success, by Thomas M. Dean and  Linda B. Awar. (And thanks to John Moorlach for inspiring Tom Dean to send me a review copy.)

YOU SHOULD WRITE A BOOK #4:
Weekly Emails = Keepsake Book

Last month, The Wall Street Journal featured a “write-your-own-book” process from Storyworth. The headline: “How to Preserve Your Family History, No Awkward Interviews Required. Instead of having to make sense of a recording or spending your weekends digging through public records, try Storyworth, a service that gets your loved one’s memories down in writing.”
 
Storyworth fashions the process “like a conversation.” Step 1: Once a week, choose a question to inspire them to write. Step 2: They'll simply reply with an email, which is shared with you. Step 3: At the end of a year, their stories are bound into a beautiful keepsake book. (Current price for the process and one book: $99.) Visit Storyworth.

YOU SHOULD WRITE A BOOK #5:
“Reach Millions!”

Amazon’s company, Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), promises that you can “self-publish eBooks and paperbacks for free…and reach millions of readers on Amazon.” (Well…maybe not millions.) I’ve self-published on KDP (Mastering Mistake-Making, 100 Must-Read Books, Buckets Workbook, etc.) and it’s fast, free, and easy—even for an old, non-tech guy like me. OK, I did have a little help from my son, Jason.) Visit KDP and view the how-to video here:

 
View the 2-minute video on Kindle Direct Publishing.
 
YOU SHOULD WRITE A BOOK #6:
Fill-in-the-Blanks on 52 Topics!



Here’s the fastest/simplest/niftiest version of passing along your history, wisdom, and faith to the next generation. Our son, Jason Pearson, teamed up with prolific author Doug Fields, to write THIS, as in… “I just want you to know THIS.”

Beautifully designed as a tool (really a treasure) for parents and grandparents to think, write, and then pass along to each child or grandchild—you’ll be prompted to share meaningful messages on 52 topics in this fill-in-the-blanks journal. (Read my review.)

To order from Amazon, click on the title for THIS. 52 Ways to Share Your World With Those You Love, by Jason Pearson and Doug Fields.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) While Steve Macchia has written many books, including his latest, The Discerning Life, he waited until he was 60 to write Legacy: 60 Life Reflections for the Next Generation. Chapter 3, “Mistakes Regretted,” is perfect for sharing with teenagers and helping them to avoid a few of life's pitfalls! So…should you write a book? 
2) Judges 2:10 (MSG) reads, “Eventually that entire generation died and was buried. Then another generation grew up that didn’t know anything of God or the work he had done for Israel.” How are you inspiring the next generation to know God, as described by J.I. Packer? 

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 2: Books-of-the-Year

Book #7 of 100:
Doesn't Hurt to Ask

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #7 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Doesn't Hurt to Ask: Using the Power of Questions to Communicate, Connect, and Persuade 
by Trey Gowdy

Books #6 through #21 feature 16 books that I named the Book-of-the-Year from 2006 to 2020. Trey Gowdy’s book shared the 2020 honors with Book #6.
• Read my review.
• Order from Amazon: Doesn't Hurt to Ask
• Download John’s 100 Must-Read Books list.

Trey Gowdy, who served eight years in the U.S. Congress (2011-2019), confesses, “The mistakes made early in my career were many and largely rooted in two areas: not understanding the dynamics of persuasion and not understanding the nature and characteristics of those I was trying to persuade.”

His book is persuasive, not political. Although Trey Gowdy interjects numerous stories from the House committees he served on (or chaired), including Judiciary, Oversight, Intelligence, and the Select Committee on Benghazi, this book is not political—it’s persuasive, in the same way Rumsfeld’s Rules (Book #69) is not political.

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INSIDE MARINE ONE. The World’s Most Amazing Helicopter. What's not to like about a 10,000-foot view of four U.S. presidents from the cockpit of Marine One, the president's high performance helicopter? Read Inside Marine One: Four U.S. Presidents, One Proud Marine, and the World’s Most Amazing Helicopter and you'll have dozens of quotable facts and fun for impressing your friends. Read more on the Pails in Comparison blog. 

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. OK, you just refreshed your website—but is it persuasive? Your elevator speech: clever and concise—but is it persuasive? Your Rotary Club talk: short and sweet: but is it persuasive? We can help you persuade! Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

One Bold Move a Day: Meaningful Actions Women Can Take to Fulfill Their Leadership and Career Potential

Issue No. 535 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a new book for women on smart career moves. It’s also a wake-up call for men! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my two-part review of Henry Kissinger’s new book, Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy.  


 Is career advancement more challenging for women? Yes…says Shanna Hocking, author of One Bold Move a Day: Meaningful Actions Women Can Take to Fulfill Their Leadership and Career Potential.

Career Counsel for Women:
Must-Read for Men!

What are two of the worst sentences a boss should never use?
• “Can we talk?”
• “Let’s discuss.”

Why? Shanna Hocking coaches bosses to never use these sentences because they are “almost always misunderstood” by staffers. “Always add a second sentence explaining the nature of the discussion so your team members don’t start packing up their offices.”

That’s from the insightful chapter, “Be the Boss Everyone Wants to Work For,” in Hocking’s new book, One Bold Move a Day: Meaningful Actions Women Can Take to Fulfill Their Leadership and Career Potential.

While that’s good counsel, I wondered if a book targeted to women was really needed? Men in the workplace also misunderstand glib comments from their bosses! (Example: I chuckled reading Henry Kissinger’s recent book profiling six leaders, including Nixon. “…Bryce Harlow’s pithy explanation for the Watergate debacle: ‘Some damn fool got into the Oval Office and did what he was told.’” The advice: don't do everything your boss suggests!)

Whoa! The author set me straight! She believes women do have different hurdles in the workplace. So…is this a book for women—or also for men, especially men in boss and supervisory roles? My gut: this is also a must-read for men. And speaking of those hurdles, I’m reminded of another “bold” book published this year, Begin Boldly: How Women Can Reimagine Risk, Embrace Uncertainty & Launch a Brilliant Career, by Christie Hunter Arscott. I titled my review, “Ball and Chain, Barbwire, Tall Grass, Terrain to Conquer, a Wall to Climb Over, and a Swamp To Swim.” Oh, my!
  
I was intrigued by Shanna Hocking’s story because her career path was in philanthropy. She has “20 years of experience raising hundreds of millions of dollars and leading large teams at organizations such as the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Alabama, and Duke University.” Her clients include nonprofits, universities, and family foundations. She keeps an "AttaGirl" folder for notes and accolades, including "the envelope from the first seven-figure charitable gift I closed."

Hocking is very transparent about her early days. In my favorite chapter, “Grow as a Leader,” she confesses that moving “From Peer to Supervisor” was challenging. Before you say yes to your next promotion, read this about managing people “who were formerly your peers.” She writes:

“I lived this: in my first big management role, I went—overnight—from being the friend you went out for margaritas with, to being the boss who did your performance evaluations.” She notes that during her interview process, she was repeatedly asked the same question, “How will you handle the transition from peer to manager?” To get ready, she “read every book and article on this topic, attended multiple seminars, and talked to mentors and trusted advisors.”

The result? “In the first week, I realized none of the advice or learning truly prepared me for going from peer to supervisor.”

The book’s title, One Bold Move a Day, is the author’s approach to lifelong learning. What can you do—every day—to move your confidence and your career forward? She suggests big and small steps. The book is practical, not formulaic. 

In the section, “Decision-Making Strategies for Any Situation,” Hocking administers both therapy and strategies. “It’s not overdramatizing to worry about being wrong. Research shows that women are penalized more harshly than men when they make a wrong decision. In one study by Victoria Brescoll at Yale School of Management, women were consistently judged by their failures, even when they received positive evaluations for their leadership.”

Her six strategies on decision-making include: “Coach yourself as you would a friend,” propose three options—not just two, “Acknowledge the role of emotions,” and more. On preparing for mistakes, Hocking writes, “It’s not the falling, but rather the getting back up (which often makes you more determined and focused on learning) that will support you in advancing as a leader.” 

If you are mentoring an early career woman at work or in your family, this is a helpful book to read together. Look for these gems for bosses and team members:
   • “If you’re not sure how to support a working mother, ask her!”
   • When receiving a compliment, say thank you and no more. “That’s it. It’s about time we all remember that ‘Thank you’ is a full sentence.”
   • On “Clarifying Your Purpose,” in the chapter, “Achieving Your Goals,” the author lists seven days of writing prompts. Example for Day 4, “What projects bring you energy?” (This aligns well with Patrick Lencioni’s latest wisdom in The Six Types of Working Genius.)
   • On “Applying for a Job as a Woman,” Hocking writes, “There is one thing I want to tell all women: you don’t have to meet all the qualifications to apply for a job.”
   • “Who will your new boss be?” (Read why this is so, so important.)

The author provides a helpful template—an “About Me” document covering her leadership approach, leadership philosophy, communication styles, and bullet points on “You Get the Best of Me When…” and “What People Misunderstand About Me.” This reminded me of Marshall Goldsmith’s “Memo to Staff: How to Handle Me” from his book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: Discover the 20 Workplace Habits You Need to Break (my 2013 book-of-the-year).
 
Note: I encourage leaders and team members to also keep “The 3 Powerful S’s” on their radar (the four social styles, the 34 Gallup strengths, and spiritual gifts). Download my two-page template, “Weekly Update to My Supervisor,” from the Meetings Bucket. And on communication styles, note whether you and your boss are readers or listeners.

MORE!
   • Imagine if more workplaces adopted Hocking’s helpful “NNTR” subject line for emails: “No Need to Respond.” (See the email template in her book.)
   • Have you ever read three pages on “Office Politics?” (Me neither.)
   • “Authority may get the job done, but you’ll find yourself alone at the finish line.” 
   • For a taste of Shanna Hocking’s coaching wisdom, read her numerous articles for Harvard Business Review, including “What’s Making You Miserable at Work?”

To order from Amazon, click on the title for One Bold Move a Day: Meaningful Actions Women Can Take to Fulfill Their Leadership and Career Potential, by Shanna A. Hocking. Listen on Libro.fm (5 hours, 41 minutes). And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
Does your team need to go deeper on how to enrich your workplace—so both women and men thrive and fulfill their leadership potential? In addition to One Bold Move a Day, delegate your reading (or listening) to team members with these other resources:
[  ] Begin Boldly: How Women Can Reimagine Risk, Embrace Uncertainty & Launch a Brilliant Career, by Christie Hunter Arscott (Read my review.)
[  ] Arrive and Thrive: 7 Impactful Practices for Women Navigating Leadership, by Susan MacKenty Brady, Janet Foutty, and Lynn Perry Wooten (Read my review.)
[  ] Jump: Dare to Do What Scares You in Business and Life, by Kim Perell (Read my review.)
[  ] The Unspoken Rules: Secrets to Starting Your Career Off Right, by Gorick Ng (Read my review.)
[  ] Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…and Maybe the World, by Admiral William H. McRaven (U.S. Navy Retired) - (Read my review.)
[  ] What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: Discover the 20 Workplace Habits You Need to Break (my 2013 book-of-the-year), by Marshall Goldsmith (Read my review.)

Note: If you’re a listener, visit Libro.fm.  

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 2: Books-of-the-Year

Book #6 of 100:
The Advice Trap

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #6 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever
by Michael Bungay Stanier

Books #6 through #21 spotlight 16 books that have been named my Book-of-the-Year (2006 to 2020). I began my review of The Advice Trap with this: “Hello. My name is John and I’m an Advice Monster.”
• Read my review.
• Order from Amazon: The Advice Trap
• Download John’s 100 Must-Read Books list.

If you’re still thinking you’re a great coach—and this would be a great book for everyone else—check out page 43, the “Mix ‘n’ Match Advice Monster Table.” The author says “you can’t tame your Advice Monster until you know what sets it off.” There are 12 types of people who activate your monster persona (pick one!)—coupled with 12 situations (pick one!).
   • My deadly combination: someone who asks me for advice—paired with a “time is short” situation.
   • Yours might be: someone who challenges you—coupled with “they keep making mistakes.”

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WHEN WOMEN LEAD. “No single best way to lead.” Julia Boorstin says "We should throw all our preconceived notions about leadership out the window. There's no single best way to lead..." Read John's review of When Women Lead: What They Achieve, Why They Succeed, and How We Can Learn from Them. Visit the Pails in Comparison blog.

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Are you looking for a new role in communications and marketing? One Bold Move a Day (pages 58-61) suggests you ask four questions before you take that new job. We have more questions you should ask. Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy (Part 2 of 2)

Issue No. 534 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting revisits Henry Kissinger’s new book on six world leaders and six strategies. He says great leaders are either statemen or prophets. Kissinger is 99 this year! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my tribute to Dan Busby (1941-2022) and his legacy of leadership books and baseball books.  


 Margaret Thatcher said Singapore's prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, was “one of the twentieth century’s most accomplished practitioners of statecraft.” Read more in Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy.

PART 2 OF 2: “A Posse of Half-Dedicated Inadequates”

It was challenging to title this review since Henry Kissinger delivered so many great one-liners. Runners-up included:
[  ] “This was no time to go wobbly.”
[  ] “I introduced him, as he asked, simply as a friend from Singapore.”
[  ] "He spent more time in prayer than at the podium."

This is Part 2 of 2 of my review of the expansive book by Henry Kissinger, Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy. Click here to read Part 1 of 2, spotlighting three world leaders and three unique strategies: Konrad Adenauer, Charles de Gaulle, and Richard Nixon.

As I mentioned in my first review, I could have written eight reviews and you wouldn’t tire of Kissinger’s commentary and private conversations with six strategic world leaders:

PART 1 OF 2:
• Introduction: “The Axes of Leadership” (listen to the first 5½ minutes)
• Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of Germany (1949-1963)
• Charles de Gaulle, President of France (1959-1969)
• Richard Nixon, President of the U.S. (1969-1974)
PART 2 OF 2:
• Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt (1970-1981)
• Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore (1959-1990)
• Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the U.K. (1979-1990)
• Conclusion: “The Evolution of Leadership”

So here's a quick look at Kissinger’s analysis of two ideal leadership types: the statesman and the prophet. In this issue: the other three world leaders and their unique strategies. 

PART 2 OF 2: Anwar Sadat, Lee Kuan Yew, Margaret Thatcher

THE STRATEGY OF TRANSCENDENCE
Anwar Sadat (1918-1981), President of Egypt (1970-1981)

Imagine! More than 25 years of Middle East conflict—and you think you can be a peacemaker? Kissinger notes this about Sadat: “The combination of his quietist personality and his friendship with [President Gamal Abdel] Nasser had limited the usual incentives to develop a political base of his own—and he was never a natural politician. He spent more time in reflection, and in a way at prayer, than at the podium.”
   • Kissinger writes of the Israel/Egypt peace process, “Sadat had just finished reading the letter and folding it when an assistant entered the room and whispered something in his ear. Sadat walked over to me and kissed me on both cheeks: ‘They have just signed the disengagement agreement at kilometer 101. I am today taking off my military uniform—I never expect to wear it again except for ceremonial occasions.’”
   • “Of the individuals profiled in this volume, Sadat was the one whose philosophical and moral vision constituted the greatest breakthrough for his time and context.”
   • Oh, my. Sadat spoke joyfully to Kissinger about a planned celebration in Cairo when “the Sinai will come back to us.” He invited Kissinger to attend, but then said, “No, you shouldn’t.” He explained, “It will be too painful for the Israelis to give up this territory. It would hurt the Jewish people too much to see you in Cairo celebrating with us.” So Sadat suggested Kissinger come a month later. Sadly, Sadat was assassinated on 6 October 1981, before that event could occur.

THE STRATEGY OF EXCELLENCE
Lee Kuan Yew (1923-2015), Prime Minister of Singapore (1959-1990)

Raise your hand if you’ve ever read anything about Lee Kuan Yew, who created the powerhouse city-state, Singapore. (Me neither.) His Chinese heritage and his Cambridge University education “gave him exceptional insight into the dynamics of the interaction between East and West—one of the essential fulcrums of history.” Lee Kuan Yew was a guest in Kissinger’s home (in later years). This “inside baseball” chapter about Lee is absolutely fascinating.
   • “When he became leader of independent Singapore in August 1965, he took charge of a country that had never before existed—and hence, in effect, had no political past except as an imperial subject.” Note: Lee visited 50 countries in 1965!
   • “Greening the city became a high priority.” And this: “Singaporeans (or foreigners, for that matter) could be fined for jaywalking, neglecting to flush a toilet or littering. Lee even requested a weekly report on the cleanliness of the restrooms at Changi Airport—which, for many travelers, would provide a first impression of Singapore.”
   • “In the process, he grew into a world statesman and sought-after adviser to the great powers.” Margaret Thatcher called him “one of the twentieth century’s most accomplished practitioners of statecraft.”
   • Singapore became an independent nation in 1965 under Lee’s “strategy of excellence.” By 1973, “Singapore had become the world’s third-largest oil refining hub.”
   • Built on the shoulders of Prime Minister Lee’s leadership, Singapore was ranked as the second-least-corrupt country in the world for 2021 (a place it shares with Norway and Sweden). Note: Denmark, Finland, and New Zealand are tied for first, according to Transparency International. Visit the website to see where your favorite country ranks!
   • Lee often said that Singapore’s territory was “some 224 square miles at low tide,” and “smaller than that of Chicago.” Then 1.9 million people, the 2022 population is 5.9 million.
   • “Lee was respected by leaders of states far more powerful than his own to a unique degree because he furnished insights that enabled them to grasp their own essential challenges.” In a toast to Nixon at a White House dinner in 1973, Lee said,

“We are a very small country placed strategically at the southernmost tip of Asia, and when the elephants are on the rampage, if you are a mouse there and you don’t know the habits of the elephants, it can be a very painful business.”

   • “On his four visits to our weekend house in Connecticut, he would always bring his wife and generally one of his daughters.” And this! “Twice, at his request, I took him to local political events: one, a fundraiser for a congressional candidate; the other, a town-hall meeting. I introduced him, as he asked, simply as a friend from Singapore.” Oh, my!
 
THE STRATEGY OF CONVICTION
Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013), Prime Minister of the U.K. (1979-1990)

With the UK so prominent in the news recently (Liz Truss is out and now Rishi Sunak is the new prime minister), you’ll be tempted to read this chapter first—and it’s worth your time. Known as the “Iron Lady,” Thatcher was the first female British prime minister and the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century. Kissinger’s analysis is part history, part leadership-under-the-microscope, and part British Political System 101.
   • Yet, in 1990 when Thatcher’s lack of support was imminent, Kissinger communicated his urgent counsel to Thatcher. He writes, “My suggestion did not find favor: Thatcher believed her duty lay on the world stage,” so Thatcher continued with her planned travel schedule to Northern Ireland and Paris. The result: “Thatcher left the management of her campaign to what may only be described as a posse of half-dedicated inadequates.” Having lost the confidence of her party, she resigned.
   • “General Norman Schwarzkopf spoke for many friends of Britain when he demanded of his British counterpart: ‘What sort of a country have you got there when they sack the Prime Minister halfway through a war?’”
   • Believing that the British people would “recognize the difference between sturdy principles and passing fads,” Thatcher said this in a 1983 interview:

“There would have been no great prophets,
no great philosophers in life, no great things to follow,
if those who propounded their views had gone out and said,
‘Brothers, follow me, I believe in consensus.’”

   • “I like Mr. Gorbachev. We can do business together.” Thatcher introduced that famous remark into the political lexicon after meeting Gorbachev for lunch. But did you know that Konstantin Chernenko (1911-1985) was still the Soviet Union’s head of state in 1984? Strategically, she was building relationships with the likely future leader of the Soviet Union.
   • You think Ukraine is unique? Kissinger’s book was published in July 2022, so he has some late-breaking insights on Ukraine. Thatcher had her fair share of squabbles to resolve: the Falkland Islands, plus Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China. Kissinger describes Thatcher’s leadership as “steadiness” and “steeliness.”
   • There was more on the crisis front: Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. Encouraging George H.W. Bush, Thatcher told him, “This was no time to go wobbly.” Kissinger notes, “The firm tone that Thatcher helped to set during the early days of the conflict was an important factor in the eventual liberation of Kuwait.”
   • While Thatcher was a major player in the historic fall of the Berlin Wall (see Robert Orlando’s documentary and book, The Divine Plan), she “feared that not all the demons of Germany’s past had been exorcized.” Kissinger notes that Napoleon is said to have observed, “To understand a man, look at the world when he was twenty.” Thatcher turned 20 in 1945.

NOTE: In Mastering 100 Must-Read Books, I squeezed in a mention of this Kissinger book while reviewing Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s book, Leaders: Myth and Reality (Book #81). Using the compare-and-contrast methodology from Plutarch’s Lives, he spotlights 13 leaders and contrasts Margaret Thatcher with “Boss” Tweed. (Read my review.)

KISSINGER'S CONCLUSION, "The Evolution of Leadership" (22 pages), is prophetic. All six leaders, he writes, "understood the importance of solitude" for "reading a complex book carefully, and engaging with it critically..." Nixon traveled to San Clemente, Calif. (where I live), for solitude and "deep literacy." Kissinger cautions, "Small wonder that on many contemporary social-media platforms, users are divided into 'followers' and 'influencers'; there are no 'leaders.'"

While I urge you to read Kissinger's fascinating and important book, it would also make a spectacular Christmas gift for a team member, friend, or family member. To order from Amazon, click on the title for Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy, by Henry Kissinger. Listen on Libro (19 hours, 9 minutes). And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy. 



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore (1959-1990), wrote in his 2000 book, From Third World to First: “I discovered early in office that there were few problems confronting me in government that other governments had not met and solved. So I made a practice of finding out who else had met the problem we faced, how they tackled it, and how successful they had been.” Does our team have a plan to discover how like-minded organizations have tackled problems that we’re currently facing?

2) Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt (1970-1981), flew to Israel on Nov. 19, 1977, “to global astonishment.” Kissinger writes, “Sadat’s journey to Jerusalem was that rare occasion in which the mere fact of an event constitutes an interruption of history and thereby transforms the range of the possible.” Does our organization have a BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal, or if you prefer, a Big HOLY Audacious Goal) that would be recognized as an interruption of history?

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 1: How to Read a Book!
Book #5 of 100:
Know Can Do!

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #5 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Know Can Do! Put Your Know-How into Action
by Ken Blanchard, Paul J. Meyer, and Dick Ruhe

“The gap between knowing and doing,” declares one of the characters in this short business story, “is probably wider than the gap between ignorance and knowledge.”
• Read my review.
• Order from Amazon: Know Can Do! Put Your Know-How into Action 
• Download John’s 100 Must-Read Books list.

Ken Blanchard, and his co-authors, deliver the gap solution: the power and practice of repetition, repetition, repetition. Plus, “people should learn less information more often, rather than learn more information less often.”  Read fewer books, they preach, and read them not once, but four times. 

They recommend that you follow-up seminar attendance with a weekly one-hour coaching call for six weeks. There’s much, much more—and this 115-page book is a foundational book that will impact everything you read. It’s a must, must, must-read-read-read-read.

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CONVERTED: THE DATA-DRIVEN WAY TO WIN CUSTOMERS' HEARTS  “How to Ask Questions.” Neil Hoyne, the author of Converted: The Data-Driven Way to Win Customers' Hearts, pleads, “Before you ask a question, ask yourself how you’ll respond based on the answer.” If you’ve already read this book (published in February 2022), Ken Blanchard would urge you to read it again—in fact, read it four times! Read more on the Pails in Comparison blog.

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Have you studied the science of repetition and frequency in communicating your mission and message? (Click here for an HBR article.) Do your customers (and donors) want more messaging or less? How do you know? Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy (Part 1 of 2)

Issue No. 533 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights an expansive book by Henry Kissinger (age 99!) on six world leaders and six studies in world strategy. Profound!  And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my tribute to Dan Busby (1941-2022) and his legacy of leadership books and baseball books.  


POP QUIZ! Identify the six world leaders from Henry Kissinger’s new book, Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy.

PART 1 OF 2: Kissinger on Konrad Adenauer, Charles de Gaulle, and Richard Nixon

Help me out, here! I can’t decide which lead sentence to use for my review of Henry Kissinger’s phenomenal 2022 book, Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy. So pick one: 

[  ] Yikes! Henry Kissinger wrote this 528-page book at age 99. (What are you doing with your life?)
[  ] Maybe…if Liz Truss had consulted with Henry Kissinger (like Margaret Thatcher did), she wouldn’t now own the dubious world record for serving the fewest number of days (49) as the U.K.’s prime minister.
[  ] “The two questions Konrad Adenauer put to me during our final meeting in 1967, three months before his death, have gained new relevance: are any leaders still able to conduct a genuine long-range policy? Is true leadership still possible today?”
[  ] Invest just five minutes and listen to the first two pages of Leadership, by Henry Kissinger, and then discern: Have you ever heard a more eloquent description of leadership? (Click here for the 5½-minute audio on Libro.fm.)
[  ] Breaking News! Perhaps…Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy, by Henry Kissinger, will be my 2022 book-of-the-year.

OK, you’ve selected your favorite lead sentence (thank you)…so what’s the rest of the story? Simply this. Henry Kissinger’s voice at age 99—with his expansive sweep of history, relevancy, and insightful wisdom—is needed now more than perhaps ever before. 

Frankly, I could write eight reviews (eight!) and you wouldn’t tire of Kissinger’s commentary and private conversations with six strategic world leaders:
• Introduction: “The Axes of Leadership” (listen to the first 5½ minutes)
• Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of Germany (1949-1963)
• Charles de Gaulle, President of France (1959-1969)
• Richard Nixon, President of the U.S. (1969-1974)
• Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt (1970-1981)
• Lee Kuan Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore (1959-1990)
• Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the U.K. (1979-1990)
• Conclusion: “The Evolution of Leadership”

Kissinger’s big idea: these six world leaders (none from upper class backgrounds), forged new paths after World War II by leveraging six unique strategies. Five of them had devout religious upbringings and “all were known for their directness and were often tellers of hard truths. They did not entrust the fate of their countries to poll-tested, focus-grouped rhetoric.” To his complaining parliament on the Allies’ terms for a post-war Germany, Adenauer asked, “Who do you think lost the war?”

TWO TYPES OF LEADERS. Kissinger discusses “fortunate societies,” during times of crisis, and that “such times call forth transformational leaders. Their distinction can be categorized into two ideal types: the statesman and the prophet.”

So here's a taste of those two leadership types and six strategies. (Note: While I urge you to read this fascinating and important book, it would also make a spectacular Christmas gift for a friend or family member.)

PART 1 OF 2: Konrad Adenauer, Charles de Gaulle, Richard Nixon

THE STRATEGY OF HUMILITY
Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967), Chancellor of Germany (1949-1963)

Kissinger met with Adenauer about 10 times, including when Kissinger was a consultant to the Kennedy White House. He notes that “by an ironic twist of fate, more than twenty years after fleeing with my family from Nazi Germany,” he participated in the shaping of America’s policy toward Germany, then part of the NATO Alliance. Time magazine honored Adenauer as their 1954 Man of the Year. But imagine the task of bringing a defeated Germany back into the European community.
• HABITS. “As a student at the University of Bonn, he achieved a reputation for commitment through the habit of plunging his feet into a bucket of ice water to overcome the fatigue of late-night studies.”
• HUMILITY. After World War II, “instead of indulging in self-pitying nationalism once again, Germany should seek its future within a unifying Europe. Adenauer was proclaiming a strategy of humility.”

THE STRATEGY OF WILL
Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), President of France (1959-1969)

Do you know the backstory on Charles de Gaulle? (There’s hope for all of us.) Kissinger writes that “…leaders who alter history rarely appear as the endpoint of a linear path.” The “resistance movement” was hardly resisting and not yet a movement at the beginning of World War II, but “…arriving in London with effectively nothing but his uniform and his voice, de Gaulle catapulted himself out of obscurity and into the ranks of world statesmen.” His ultimate goal: “the renewal of the soul of France.” (No small BHAG!)

• BISHOPS. “Occasionally exasperated, Churchill once quipped: ‘Yes, de Gaulle does think he is Joan of Arc, but my…bishops won’t let me burn him.’”
• BOLDNESS. “De Gaulle defined his goals in the visionary mode of the prophet, but his execution was in the mode of the statesman, steely and calculating.”
• BOREDOM. “After ten years in the presidency, de Gaulle had achieved the historical tasks available to him and was left with the management of day-to-day events. But such mundane matters were not what had motivated his legendary journey. Observers began to detect the settling-in of boredom, almost melancholy.”

THE STRATEGY OF EQUILIBRIUM
Richard Nixon (1913-1994), President of U.S. (1969-1974)

Nixon appointed Henry Kissinger as his national security advisor (“the second-highest-ranking presidential appointment not subject to Senate confirmation”). Kissinger also served both Nixon and Gerald Ford as secretary of state from 1973 to 1977. He received the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating a ceasefire in Vietnam. The Nixon chapter runs 80 fascinating pages.

• SECRETS. Under Nixon’s direction, “The first secret meeting between the Nixon White House and Vietnamese officials took place in [the French ambassador to Hanoi Jean] Sainteny’s elegant apartment on the rue de Rivoli. He introduced us to the Vietnamese with the injunction not to break any furniture.”
• SOVIETS. Seeking to align the Soviet Union with U.S. goals for Vietnam, Nixon met with Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin. “Pulling a yellow legal pad from his desk in the Oval Office, Nixon handed it to the ambassador, saying, ‘You’d better take some notes.’”
• SUITS. “Crisis management sometimes produces incongruities.” When Kissinger informed Nixon of Syrian’s invasion of Jordan, the President was bowling in the basement of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. “Characteristically, Nixon was not prepared to manage a crisis in the White House in bowling clothes. He disappeared for a few minutes to change into a business suit to join [Assistant Secretary of State Joe] Sisco and me in the Situation Room.”

Memo to any and all 2024 U.S. presidential candidates (and future UK prime ministers!): Drink deeply from this Kissinger well of wisdom.

Next Blog - PART 2 OF 2: Anwar Sadat, Lee Kuan Yew, Margaret Thatcher
(Stay tuned. Three more strategies/three more leaders.)

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy, by Henry Kissinger. Listen on Libro (19 hours, 9 minutes). And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy. 



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Note: Play the 5 ½-minute audio from Kissinger’s introduction on leadership and then ask your team this question. Kissinger says that leaders must have courage and character. “Courage summons virtue in the moment of decision; character reinforces fidelity to values over an extended period.” What else must leaders have?
2) Kissinger writes that those close to Charles de Gaulle “began to detect the settling-in of boredom…” Have you noticed this in some leaders—or even in yourself after X years in the same position? What should you do? (Note: Perhaps read The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team. Too bad Lencioni wasn’t yet writing books during Charles de Gaulle’s era!)

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 1: How to Read a Book!
Book #4 of 100:
Besides the Bible: 100 Books that Have, Should, or Will Create Christian Culture

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #4 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Besides the Bible:
100 Books that Have, Should, or Will Create Christian Culture
by Dan Gibson, John Pattison, and Jordan Green

I’m a sucker for book lists, such as Book #3 of 100 which featured a list of 100 business books. Today’s Book #4 highlights 100 faith-based books—with a few surprises.
• Read my review.
• Order from Amazon: Besides the Bible: 100 Books that Have, Should, or Will Create Christian Culture 
• Download John’s 100 Must-Read Books list.

The list of books in Besides the Bible spans the centuries and culture:
• Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe
• The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence
• The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• The Apocrypha
• The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom
• A New Kind of Christian, by Brian McLaren
• Blue Like Jazz, by Donald Miller
• The God Trilogy, by Timothy Keller

I was delighted they included one of my all-time favorites, Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson (see my Book #91). Are you reading profitably? I appreciate this quotation from Orison S. Marden on “Intention, Attention and Retention” (noted by Charlie “Tremendous” Jones):

“To read profitably one must keep these three things in mind: intention, attention, and retention. It is worth noting that the word retention comes from the Latin retces, a net. Nets are made so that the smaller and worthless fishes may slip through the meshes. So the mind trained to retention allows trivial things to escape and holds in memory only things of greater importance.” 

 

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THE UNICORN WITHIN: HOW COMPANIES CAN CREATE GAME-CHANGING VENTURES AT STARTUP SPEED Launch in Just 12 Weeks! I was very skeptical of Linda K. Yates’ claim that a large corporation could harness the entrepreneurs in their company to launch a new product, program, or service in just three months. Then…I read The Unicorn Within. It’s very compelling. Read more on the Pails in Comparison blog.

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Many of our clients have leveraged books and eBooks to creatively communicate their mission and stories. If you have a book idea, we can help you from concept to publishing to high impact promotion. Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

Angel for Higher

Issue No. 532 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features the true story of a dad’s two greatest fears—and how Angels for Higher, an extraordinary faith-based nonprofit, popped out of this family’s poignant journey. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my tribute to Dan Busby (1941-2022) and his legacy of leadership books and baseball books.  



“He’s a boy!” Those words marked the happiest moment of Robert Hendershot’s life. But five minutes later…

“What I Feared Has Come Upon Me”

Picture this scene. Trevor Hendershot is interviewing for his first job—and it’s in Major League Baseball! The Los Angeles Angels are hiring an “Angel Team Store Greeter” at Anaheim Stadium. It was a long shot for Trevor, but he was game. And the anticipated 15-minute interview was just rounding second base after almost an hour.

Would Trevor make the cut? Eddie, the store manager, looked over Trevor’s very thin resume (retail training at Trader Joe’s and Walgreens in a “transition” program). So Eddie told Trevor:

“Frankly, I can teach almost anyone how to stock, face products, and do go-backs. That would be simple enough.” Eddie continued, “However, I know from my years in the retail business that there a few things I cannot teach—things like natural friendliness, a cheerful disposition and an engaging personality . . . all wrapped around a beautiful smile. And you, Trevor, have all of that and more! Our first home game is against the Kansas City Royals on Friday, April 6. Can you be there?”

You just gotta read this inspiring, true story! Angel for Higher, by Robert Hendershot with Trevor, captures this homerun moment in 2012—and you won’t believe what’s happened in the last 10 years (actually the last 32+ years).

Robert Hendershot, Trevor’s dad, identifies with Job’s story in the Old Testament. Chapter 1 in Angel for Higher is titled, “What I Feared Has Come Upon Me” (see Job 3:25a). Chapter 2 continues Hendershot’s losing streak (or is it?), “What I Dreaded Has Happened to Me” (see Job 3:25b).

Oh, my. Along with the eye-popping, amazing, and inspiring true stories (and laugh-out-loud humor), you’ll wonder—have you ever met a more transparent author? Gutsy. Honest. 

Robert Hendershot struggled with two huge fears. He admits: “I was forced to at last acknowledge that I’d definitely become the alcoholic I’d always feared becoming; that there wasn’t any person, place, or thing that could save me; and that suicide offered itself as the only possible solution to the nightmare of my miserable existence.”

His second fear: “I had all these hopes and dreams that our child would be everything I never was in life: a great leader, a tremendous athlete, a skilled musician, an outstanding scholar. At the very least, I hoped that our child would be happy and content with who he or she was in life and not have to resort to alcohol or drugs in order to feel comfortable in his or her own skin.”

The happiest moment of his life? It was on May 4, 1990, when the doctor announced “He’s a boy!” Trevor’s parents, Robert and Melissa, were joyful.

But five minutes later—“by far one of the saddest moments of my life” writes Robert—the doctor asked, “Do you know what Down syndrome is?”

And thus you’re drawn into this powerful, powerful story. (I read half the book to my wife, Joanne, and she’s recommended the book to others.) You can’t put it down.

Robert Hendershot writes that Angel for Higher “…seeks to explain how synergizing the lessons I learned from my struggles with alcoholism together with the challenges of raising my son with Down syndrome resulted in tremendous blessings, not only in Trevor’s life and mine…” but also in the lives of his wife, Melissa, and Trevor’s younger two brothers and their wives. 

Trevor is now 32. And since that successful interview in 2012 to serve as the Angel Team Store Greeter, he has also welcomed thousands of sports fans to Anaheim Stadium and other venues including the National Hockey League’s Anaheim Ducks, the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams, and the University of Southern California’s Trojans. Trevor is “an ‘Angel for Higher’ if you will.”

But…wait. Read the rest of the story. Robert Hendershot was convicted when he listened to a men’s retreat speaker who said, “Consider what breaks your heart, because that’s where God is calling you into ministry.”

This reminded me of Frederick Buechner’s inspiring insight: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

So in 2018, the Hendershots launched a faith-based nonprofit, Angels for Higher, “to inspire, encourage and help many more sports teams and university campuses to hire many more individuals with Down syndrome.” 

The hope: “AfH was formed with the hope that the lives of many more pre-born babies with Down syndrome would be saved by changing the public perception of young adults with Down syndrome through their employment as Greeters in public venues.”

To learn more, view this short video highlighting the work of Angels for Higher.


Click here to view this 2½-minute video featuring Trevor and the inspiring work of Angels for Higher. 

Today, Angels for Higher is gracing an amazing number of sports venues across the country—and still growing. Those teams have hired extraordinary greeters (Angels for Higher/Hire—get it?). Visit their “Success Stories” pages to view short clips from the Golden State Warriors, Chicago Cubs (my favorite!), Ohio State University, Notre Dame, Tennessee Titans, Chicago Bears, San Francisco 49ers, and more. And read this Associated Press article.
 
I won’t spoil the fun for you—because, wonderfully, Robert Hendershot can take a serious story and make it both poignant and hilarious (often on the same page). 

Read the book to learn:
   • Why Trevor...loved his high school classmates so much, that even though he was bullied at first, the students elected him Homecoming King. (Read his hilarious question to his dad!).
   • Why Trevor...initially refused to provide a sample for his drug test. (Hilarious!)
   • About...Trevor’s impromptu song at a weekend men’s retreat (“for five excruciatingly painful minutes,” writes Robert) and why Trevor and his dad reversed their early morning check-out plans. 

With a confessional—yet redemptive—tone, Hendershot winds in and out and back into his AA journey, and puts flesh on the bones of one of the 12-step mandates—making amends. In Chapter 3, “Even More Undignified Than This,” Robert faced a dilemma on how to communicate his new heart and mission to Trevor. “I knew I had to come up with a way of making a more earnest apology to him through my actions (known in twelve-step programs as a living amends) because actions do speak louder than words.”

So—get this! Robert observed that Trevor always cracked up watching a video of the Three Stooges. In one favorite scene, one Stooge hurts his foot and is painfully hopping around, another (for comedic effect) is doing a slow, Cossack-style dance, while the third Stooge claps and chants, “Hey! Hey! Hey!” You will not believe what Trevor’s dad humbled himself to do every morning with Trevor at his bus stop. 

Funny? Yes! Life lessons for the rest of us? Oh, my!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Angel for Higher, by Robert Hendershot with Trevor.

 
NOTE: To go deeper on how you, your church, and your colleagues might better understand recovery programs, I recommend the 2021 book, Why Can't Church Be More Like an AA Meeting? And Other Questions Christians Ask About Recovery, by Stephen R. Haynes. The author quotes a blogger, “Perhaps if we renamed our congregations ‘Sinners Anonymous’ or ‘First Church of Sinners,’ he writes, this would assist us in making them feel more like AA.” (Read my review.)

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Robert Hendershot was challenged to “consider what breaks your heart, because that’s where God is calling you into ministry.” So…what breaks your heart?
2) If you work or volunteer in an organization or ministry where the obstacles and challenges often outweigh the “success stories,” perhaps you need an inspiring dose of God’s miracle stories—like Robert and Trevor. Who, on our team, should read this book and report on it?

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 1: How to Read a Book!
Book #3 of 100:
The 100 Best Business Books of All Time

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #3 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Your “Leaders Are Readers Champion” can suggest this format: a five-minute summary and then one or two questions for a five-minute discussion. (See the study guide in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.) Your team will love Book #3:

The 100 Best Business Books of All Time
What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You
by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten

I read and reviewed this book in 2009 and I suppose it influenced me to create my own list of 100 must-read books (but not limited to just business books).
• Read John’s review.
• Order The 100 Best Business Books of All Time from Amazon.
• Download John’s 100 Must-Read Books list.

The co-authors are like fine surgeons in the art of reviewing business books. As of 2009, I had read 21 of the 100 books. I was familiar with another 25—and had always wanted to read about half of those. So the value of this book, for me, is having at my fingertips a two-page morsel on each of the 54 books I’ve never read. If your favorite book is missing, you can recommend it on their website like I did. 

Each book summary includes a memorable quote in big, bold type. Example from The Balanced Scorecard: 

     “If you can’t measure it,
      you can’t manage it.”

Just reading the summary of The Effective Executive, by Peter Drucker (one of my personal Top-20 books), gave me new insights and a new one-liner: 

     “Effective executives 
      solve problems once.” 
 

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WHY CAN’T CHURCH BE MORE LIKE AN AA MEETING? "First Church of Sinners!" Author Stephen R. Haynes quotes blogger R. Brad White who calls AA a place of “healing, support, encouragement, and accountability.” He wonders why “this description does not apply to more churches. Perhaps if we renamed our congregations ‘Sinners Anonymous’ or ‘First Church of Sinners,’ he writes, this would assist us in making them feel more like AA.” Read more on the Pails in Comparison blog.

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Many of our clients have leveraged books and eBooks to creatively communicate their mission and stories. If you have a book idea, we can help you from concept to publishing to high impact promotion. Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

Dan Busby’s Legacy of Books

Issue No. 531 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights the immense legacy of nonprofit books and resources available today because of the vision of Dan Busby (1941-2022). We miss him.  And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my review of Dan Busby’s new book, Before and After Jackie Robinson. Will the Dodgers face the Yankees in the 2022 World Series?


Dan Busby (1941-2022) authored more than 70 editions of 14 different books—nine of them written when he was in his 70s, including Trust: The Firm Foundation for Kingdom Fruitfulness.

Dan Busby’s Board Books & Baseball Books! 

Many leaders and readers of Your Weekly Staff Meeting have graciously reached out to me upon hearing the sad news that my close friend, Dan Busby, lost his battle to cancer on Sept. 28, 2022. He was 81. Heaven’s gain! (Read ECFA’s tribute here.)

So in this issue, I’d like to spotlight and remind you of the immense legacy Dan left for leaders and readers. As a CPA, then a denominational CFO, Dan served ECFA (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability) for 30 years as a volunteer, senior staff member, and then president from 2008 until his retirement in 2020. He was ECFA’s sixth (and to date, longest-serving) president.


Click here to view the video recording of the one-hour Memorial Service for Dan Busby, Oct. 21, 2022, from the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

ECFA’s tribute noted that by his retirement from ECFA, Dan “had authored or co-authored more than 70 editions of 14 different books—nine of them written when in his 70s. He also published many ECFA eBooks.” I’m spotlighting five books below, including four that I had the huge privilege of co-authoring with Dan.

[  ] Trust: The Firm Foundation for Kingdom Fruitfulness, by Dan Busby (2015)
• Read more.
• Order from Amazon.

In the opening chapter, Dan describes “The Low-Trust Penalty.” In low-trust organizations, Busby warned, you’ll see:
   • Internal dissension. “Without trust, the office dissension machine runs at full speed—and divides a ministry against itself.”
   • Disengagement. Staff work in silos and “they shift from joyful service to turf protection.”
   • Turnover. “When trust is low, turnover is disproportionately high—ministries lose the people they least want to lose.”
   • Fraud. “Low trust encourages a small theft; if they don’t get caught, they may take it to the next level.”

The quotations are numerous and memorable—click here for 100 trust quotes for your PowerPoints, speaking notes, coffee break conversations, and tweets, including this from Richard Blackaby: “Our problem as leaders is we do everything we know to do. That’s not enough. We need to do everything God wants us to do.”

[  ] Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: 40 Insights for Better Board Meetings (2nd Edition), by Dan Busby and John Pearson (2018). Lesson 1 asks, “Would you trust a surgeon who stopped learning? How about a board member who stopped learning?” 
• Read more.
• Order from Amazon.
• Read the 40 guest blogs.

[  ] More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom: Effectiveness, Excellence, Elephants! by Dan Busby and John Pearson (2019). In Lesson 39, we quoted Donald Rumsfeld, “Meetings are a good place to discover whether an organization might be suffering from groupthink. If everyone in the room seems convinced of the brilliance of an idea, it may be a sign that the organization would benefit from more dissent and debate.”
• Read more.
• Order from Amazon.
• Read the 40 guest blogs.

[  ] Lessons From the Church Boardroom: 40 Insights for Exceptional Governance (2nd Edition), by Dan Busby and John Pearson (2019). Lesson 3, “Guarding Your Pastor’s Soul,” quotes Andrew Murray: “Humility is the only soil in which the graces take root; the lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure.” 
• Read more.
• Order from Amazon.
• Read the 40 guest blogs.
• View the short videos.

[  ] ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board, by Dan Busby and John Pearson (2019). To introduce the 22 tools, we quoted Peter Drucker: “Although I don’t know a single for-profit business that is well managed as a few of the nonprofits, the great majority of the nonprofits can be graded a ‘C’ at best. Not for lack of effort; most of them work very hard. But for lack of focus, and for lack of tool competence.”
• Read more.
• Order from Amazon.
• Read the 22 descriptive blogs.
• Download the tools and templates.

2 More From Dan Busby—The Baseball “Ticketologist!”

Like all great leaders, Dan Busby also enjoyed hobbies and interests outside of his demanding leadership roles. (Donald Rumsfeld wrote, “I lean toward people who have lives outside of work—an interesting hobby, perhaps, or fluency in a foreign language, for example.”)

Dan's friends described him as a baseball “ticketologist” because of his research, stunning ticket collection, and authorship of books about baseball tickets. I’ve reviewed two of his baseball books.

[  ] Before and After Jackie Robinson, A Story of the Brooklyn Dodgers Told Through the Lens of Tickets and Passes, by Dan Busby (August 2022). Just barely, the Lord gave Dan time to finish this 400-page full-color gem before his homegoing. Noting the colorful history of  the Brooklyn Dodgers (including rare photos and even rarer baseball tickets), only Dan Busby could also carve out 10 leadership principles (with commentary) in a book about baseball! It’s the perfect coffee table book for your office or home.
• Read more.
• Order from Amazon.
• View the short YouTube videos.

[  ] Before and After Babe Ruth: A Story of the New York Yankees Told Through the Lens of Tickets and Passes, by Dan Busby (2018). In the 1950s, Dan began collecting World Series programs (the mail order company attached actual World Series tickets!). Inspired, Dan upped his game and in 1962 began collecting opening day tickets from every major league baseball team. He often consulted with the National Baseball Hall of Fame concerning memorabilia acquisitions. I've told friends, “Dan was in a league of his own—he was a walking Wikipedia!” You’ll love this book on the Yankees.
• Read more.
• Order from Amazon.
• View the short YouTube videos.

ONLINE MEMORIAL SERVICE. Join Dan’s family and friends on Oct. 21, 2022, for the online memorial service, where along with Gary Hoag and Steve McVey, I will also have the privilege of sharing some brief comments about my very special friend.

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 1: How to Read a Book!
Book #2 of 100:
My Ideal Bookshelf

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #2 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Your “Leaders Are Readers Champion” can suggest this format: a five-minute summary and then one or two questions for a five-minute discussion. (See the study guide in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.) Your team will love Book #2:

My Ideal Bookshelf
by Thessaly La Force and Jane Mount

The book’s big idea: invite over 100 leading cultural figures (Malcolm Gladwell, James Patterson, and others) “to share the books that matter to them most; books that define their dreams and ambitions and in many cases helped them find their way in the world.”
• Read John’s review.
• Order My Ideal Bookshelf from Amazon.
• Download the 100 Must-Read Books list.

The authors quote David Sedaris: “Tobias Wolff is America’s greatest short-story writer. Sometimes I meet ministers, and I always say to them, ‘If I had a church, I’d read a Tobias Wolff story every week, and then I’d say to people, “Go home.”’ There’s nothing else you would need to say. Every story is a manual on how to be a good person, but without ever being preachy. They’re deeply moral stories; the best of them read like parables.”

NOTE: See Part 11 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. “Hall of Fame Sports Stories” features reviews of five sports books including Dan Busby’s Before and After Babe Ruth. Busby’s latest, Before and After Jackie Robinson, is included in the “Index to Bonus Books,” a curated list of 91 additional books you can read—once you complete the 100 Must-Read Books! 

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CHURCH & NONPROFIT FINANCIAL GUIDES Do you know the “10 Biggest Tax and Financial Mistakes Made by Churches and Nonprofits?” Read ECFA’s 2022 Church & Nonprofit Tax & Financial Guide, and the 2022 Minister's Tax & Financial Guide, both by Michael Martin. The nonprofit guide also includes a list of "10 Must-Read Lessons…” and "10 More Must-Read Lessons…” for board members—featuring content from the Busby and Pearson books. Read more on the Pails in Comparison blog. 

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. We had the very special privilege of designing book covers for Dan Busby and ECFA, including the Trust book and four board governance books. We also produced the videos and designed the read-and-engage viewer guides for the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 1, 2, and 3. Do you need some video or design ideas? Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team

Issue No. 530 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting spotlights Patrick Lencioni’s new book, The 6 Types of Working Genius. Yes! You’re a genius! His book will help you avoid frustration at work, home, and church. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my review of Dan Busby’s new book, Before and After Jackie Robinson. 


Patrick Lencioni believes that “too many people are frustrated and unfilled in their work.” His new book has solutions!

Do We Really Need Another Assessment? YES!

Breaking News! You’re invited to have lunch with Lencioni! 
Sept. 27, Tuesday 12 noon PT (3 p.m. ET)

Bestselling organizational health guru Patrick Lencioni’s new book is available tomorrow! It’s another must-read: The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team.

So schedule lunch with Lencioni! Just register for the “Working Genius Book Launch Event” with Patrick Lencioni. (Well actually, it’s online and you’ll need to bring your own lunch—but, trust me, the event, the book, and the assessment could be transformational for you and your team.) Click here.

4 OPTIONS FOR ELIMINATING WORK FRUSTRATIONS!
[  ] Option 1: Read this review.
[  ] Option 2: Skip the review and click on the 4-minute video (below).
[  ] Option 3: Enjoy an online lunch with Lencioni (Sept. 27, Tues. noon PT)
[  ] Option 4: Lunch-on-your-own! Read the book and/or listen to the book (4 hours).

If you picked Option 1, keep reading.
You will love this hilarious story, told in the classic Lencioni business fable format. (Really, it’s hilarious!)
• It’s extremely helpful—three stages of work and six types of working genius. (Yes! Look in the mirror and repeat after me, “I’m a genius! But…I’m not a genius in all six types.”)
• It’s eye-opening—you will quickly understand why you and your team members are often frustrated with work projects.
• It’s transformational—when you learn what brings you joy and when you should say “no.” And…the Working Genius model is applicable to work, home, and church.

NOT ANOTHER ASSESSMENT! I must admit, I was skeptical.

Really, Lencioni?
The world needs another assessment?
Really?

I’m a big fan of what I call “The 3 Powerful S’s.” I’ve learned and leveraged the 4 social styles, the 34 strengths, and the 23 or more spiritual gifts. (Read more.) Then (oops!), I added one more S: self-awareness and social-awareness (EQ). OK…to be honest…I included a fifth assessment in my new book, Mastering 100 Must-Read Books (See Part 9, “Five Powerful Assessments.”)

True. Assessments can be helpful—but, as I’ve mentioned before, it’s the rare person that can remember their own assessment results. I’ve tested this in workshops with over 1,000 leaders, managers, and board members over 20 years. It’s only cost me less than 20 Starbucks gift cards. (Sad, actually.)

But…I’m betting that The 6 Types of Working Genius book, and the 10-minute assessment, will change the global organizational health landscape. This is not hype—it’s hallelujah! 

To view an overview of The 6 Types of Working Genius, here’s Patrick Lencioni with his short-and-sweet descriptions of the three stages of work and the six types of genius (4 minutes). Click here.


Amazing! Lencioni can summarize his new book in just 3 minutes and 52 seconds! Click here.

Lencioni says there are three stages of work: Ideation, Activation, and Implementation—and that staff meetings often go off the rails because there’s no clarity on which stage is being discussed. The three stages pair with the 6 types of Working Genius:
   • IDEATION: Wonder and Invention
   • ACTIVATION: Discernment and Galvanizing
   • IMPLEMENTATION: Enablement and Tenacity

The book and the website deliver crisp definitions and—gratefully—the theory is outgunned by the humor. This is the funniest book I’ve read all year! (Lencioni’s 2021 book, The Motive, had perfect-timing humor. But this book is hilarious!)

Lencioni’s quick-reading story follows a small team’s aha moment when they discover transformational insights about their personalities and their productivity. The book (and the assessment) will help you discover:
   • Your Working Genius—the two activities that give you “joy, energy, and passion.”
   • Your Working Competency—the two activities we can do “fairly well, perhaps even very well”—yet “we will eventually grow weary if we are not allowed to exercise our true geniuses.”
   • Your Working Frustration—you probably already know these two, but if a good portion of your work is here, “…we are bound to experience misery at work, and ultimately, struggle or even fail.”

I plan to inspire one of my granddaughters to take the assessment. She's a part-time team member at a local coffee shop and I'll enjoy watching her in action with her team members! (And speaking of coffee, don’t skip the metaphors describing how the three categories are like a coffee thermos, a regular coffee cup, and a cup that has a hole its bottom!)

Last week, a friend who is just changing jobs (I’ll call him “Joe”), shared his assessment results (a customized 18-page report):
   • Joe’s areas of Working Genius: Invention and Galvanizing
   • Joe’s areas of Working Competency: Wonder and Discernment
   • Joe’s areas of Working Frustration: Enablement and Tenacity

Note to Joe’s new boss! If you’re looking for Joe to bring a project to the finish line (Tenacity), he may be frustrated. (Read the book to learn how to reconfigure his role so it leverages his areas of Working Genius.)

There’s so much more in this fast-reading book:
• A fascinating example of the six types of genius at work in a church committee meeting! (Meet “Mrs. Church Lady!”)
• How working in your God-given area of genius will dramatically improve your team’s work and your organization’s morale.
• Why “cultural fit” is a big factor—if a team member is currently in the “Frustration” area.
• The four kinds of work conversations: brainstorming, decision-making, launch, and status review and problem-solving (aligned with the six types).
• Genius Gaps: what happens when your team has a lack of Wonder, or a lack of Invention, etc. (Brilliant—and just three pages.)
• Why when you’re working at the wrong elevation of a project, you’ll need a barf bag!
• How the 6 Types of Working Genius will improve engagement and employee retention. (That alone is worth the price of the book.)

Bottom Line: Do we really need another assessment? YES!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team, by Patrick M. Lencioni. Listen on Libro (4 hours, 11 minutes).


NOTE: To take the 10-minute “Working Genius” assessment (not included with the book), visit the website where you can also view a sample report, listen to Lencioni explain the genius model, and listen to the podcasts.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) When hiring new people, the CEO in the story leveraged the six types of Working Genius to focus on the skills needed for each position and then identified them in the people they interviewed. The result? “…we’d never hire again without using the six types.” How does your organization ensure that the people you’re hiring will not be assigned to roles that align with their areas of Working Frustration?  

2) Sure, everyone assumes when you’re new on a team, you have to do the grunt work and pay your dues—before you’re assigned meaningful work. Pushing back—with very strong words (!!)—the CEO changed the culture with this: “What I mean is that people paying dues is ********. Especially if it means doing things they’re not good at in order to prove that they’re worthy of doing what they’re great at. . . . Does that make any sense?” What’s the culture in your organization? Are your new hires doing work that aligns with their areas of Working Genius?

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Mastering 100 Must-Read Books - Part 1: How to Read a Book!
Book #1 of 100:
The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life

For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by spotlighting Book #1 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. 

Your “Leaders Are Readers Champion” can suggest this format: a five-minute summary and then one or two questions for a five-minute discussion. (See the study guide in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books.) Your team will love Book #1:

The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life:
How to Get More Books in Your Life and More Life from Your Books,
by Steve Leveen

The author asks, “When should you give up on a book?” He writes, “A few years ago I gave up on Crime and Punishment. I found it not enough crime and too much punishment.” Generally, Leveen votes for the 50-page rule: “…if you don’t like it after fifty pages, close the book and move on.”
   • Read John’s review.
   • Order The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life.
   • Download the 100 Must-Read Books list.

NOTE: Don’t miss Part 3 in Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. “The Mount Rushmore of Leadership Legends (Patrick Lencioni)” features reviews of four books by Lencioni (Books #22-25). Also featured is Book #15, The Advantage, by Lencioni, which John named his 2012 book-of-the-year. 

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How to Work a Room! Have you ever read a book on how to work a room? Guy Kawasaki suggests you “buy this book if you want to be a savvy socializer,” and adds, “buy a second one for a shy friend!” Read How to Work a Room, 25th Anniversary Edition: The Ultimate Guide to Making Lasting Connections—in Person and Online, by Susan RoAne. Read John’s review on the Pails in Comparison blog.

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PEARPOD | TELLING YOUR STORY. Does your communication team have the right mix of Wonder, Invention, Discernment, Galvanizing, Enablement, and Tenacity? We can help you assess. Contact Jason Pearson at Pearpod (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.

Mastering 100 Must-Read Books

Issue No. 529 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting announces a new book from the “Son and Pearson” team of Jason and John, Mastering 100 Must-Read Books: Brief Book Reviews on Leadership, Management, Governance, and Life. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies), click here for over 500 book reviews, and click here for my review of Dan Busby’s new book, Before and After Jackie Robinson. 

Read the “Q & A With Son and Pearson” as Jason pokes his Dad, “Another book? Another forest?” See their list of 100 Must-Read Books here.

Q & A With Son & Pearson on 100 Must-Read Books

Listen in on the conversation that I had recently with my son, Jason, about our new book, Mastering 100 Must-Read Books: Brief Book Reviews on Leadership, Management, Governance, and Life. 

Jason: So, Dad…we wrote our Mastering Mistake-Making book during the COVID marathon in 2021. And now in 2022, another book? (Another forest? 405 pages?) Way to go, but how are you coming on cleaning out the garage? Wasn’t that your High Priority Project after the Mistakes book?

John: LOL. Um. Er. Ahem. The garage is my next project. But…this book was already written (kinda) and so I just had to pull it together, get your ideas/edits/deletes…and endure some gut-wrenching decisions (which 100 books to include—and which books wouldn’t make the cut)—and presto! Another book.

Jason: If my math is correct at publication time, you’ve reviewed over 529 books since 2006—so you’re saying it was challenging to narrow your list down to just 100 Must-Read Books?

John: Exactly! Many books become like old friends. Even now I can remember helpful insights and best practices from many, many books. “That counsel was so, so helpful—how can that book be excluded from my Top-100 list?” Halfway through the selection process, I seriously thought of re-titling this book, “200 Must-Read Books!”

Jason: I get it. You love books. But…can I be honest with you, Dad? I can’t possibly read (or listen to) all of the books that you think I should read! I mean, seriously! I have a day job, a wife, and a family of five teenagers. I do listen to books—but even 100 must-read books would be a daunting challenge! 



John: I know, I know—and, maybe, you’ve just articulated why I’m hoping Mastering 100 Must-Read Books will be so helpful to many leaders and managers. I’ve selected my list—but my hope is that readers and leaders will be inspired to select their Top-100 Books list. I appreciate the wisdom in my Book #1, The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life:

“Do not set out to live a well-read life 
but rather your well-read life. 
No one can be well-read using someone else’s reading list.”

Jason: That makes sense. I certainly have some books that would qualify for my “100 Must-Read Books.” Many of those, definitely, would not be on your list!

John: Let me guess. You’ve quoted Marshall McLuhan since you could talk! “The medium is the message” and “We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.” But…until you caught my typo in the book’s introduction, I had no idea that his 1967 book was actually titled, The Medium Is the Massage. And until I recently read his bio, I had no idea that his mother was a Baptist Sunday School teacher and his father was a Methodist—but McLuhan converted to Catholicism by reading G.K. Chesterton.

Jason: Good guess—I appreciate McLuhan. Another book on my Top-100 list would be A Whack on the Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative, by Roger von Oech.
 
John: Ah, yes! I remember! That book that was an automatic entry in every paper you wrote in high school! Your one-man crusade to educate teachers about right brain/left brain students was inspiring!

Jason: You were inspired—but most of my teachers (except one) were annoyed! But you should mention more about the two kinds of libraries every person should have. That inspired me. And Melinda and I are trying to inspire our five teenagers (although two of our voracious readers actually inspire us!).

John: Good idea! Steve Leveen is the creative author of The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life: How to Get More Books in Your Life and More Life from Your Books (see Book #1). He recommends a very simple—but profound—approach to building your library:
   • The Library of Candidates - Based on your List of Candidates
   • The Living Library - Your library of well-read friends
   • The Gift of Empty Shelves - “Like an open road, they hold the promise of your future examined life.”

Jason: So, I know your “Living Library” has over 500 “well-read friends.” How many books are on your “Library of Candidates” shelves?

John: Are you asking how often the Amazon driver shows up at our house? (LOL!) Actually, I’m over-blessed with friends, publishers, and publicists who send me a constant supply of books for my “Library of Candidates” shelves. And no—I have not yet given myself the “gift of empty shelves”—but that’s an aspirational goal this year (after I tidy up the garage).

Jason: I noticed that you organized Mastering 100-Must Read Books into 18 parts—and you seem to cover the waterfront from “The Mount Rushmore of Leadership Legends” to contrarian thinkers, to classics…then assessments, and sports stories…and then an interesting collection, “In Search of Global Perspectives.” Do you have a Top-1 favorite book?

John: Nice try, Jason—but I have way too many friends/authors who I would disappoint if I singled out just one book—including the books you’ve authored! I’ve already lost some friends by not including their books in the Top-100. Please tell them I’m sorry…but if they were better writers… (No, don’t say that!).

Jason: If I had to guess, I was wondering if Book #78, Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory, might be in the running for your favorite book—since you recently saw the 2022 movie starring Colin Firth. I was also intrigued with your five picks in the section, “Leadership & Management at War.” Or maybe J.I. Packer’s classic, Knowing God, in the “Feeble Faith and Flabby Worship” section? 

John: Both books are good guesses and worthy picks on my short list of favorite books. But I’d also have to mention the quartet of books in “The Final Four” section (#97 to #100), especially the 2022 gem from Steve Machia, The Discerning Life. And, as you know, we had no deadline for this book—and that was a problem, because readers will see I kept adding “Bonus Books” as sidebars. Really, some incredible books arrived in the last half of 2022, and I’ve included some of them—such as Henry Kissinger’s new book—in the “Index to Bonus Books.”

Jason: Some of my clients at Pearpod have asked me to recommend books for their board members, the CEO, and even new employees in their first management positions. What do you recommend?

John: That's really the motivation behind Mastering 100 Must-Read Books. In the study guide (in the appendix) I list seven ideas for all-staff meetings and department team meetings, including:

   [  ] 10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning at Every Staff Meeting: To banish boredom at your weekly staff meeting (or department meeting), feature “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning.” You’ll increase staff engagement and enrich the leadership and management competencies of your team members. At every staff meeting, invite one team member to prepare in advance to spotlight one of the Top-100 books. Over just one year of weekly staff meetings, you’ll introduce about 50 books (and insights) to your team.
   [  ] New Team Members: Browse through this book and pick five books that you have not read, including one book that your supervisor (or CEO) wants you to read. If the books are not on our resource shelf, go ahead and buy them, underline them, and write your name and date in the front of the book—and note your favorite chapter and why.
   [  ] First-Time Managers: Look over the list of books by “The Mount Rushmore of Leadership Legends” (Patrick Lencioni, Jim Collins, Ken Blanchard, and Peter Drucker) and read at least one book by each author, including one book your CEO recommends from those lists. Follow the same instructions (per above) for noting your insights.
   [  ] Experienced CEOs and Senior Team Members: You’ve probably coached and mentored others, using some of these books, over the years. But lifelong learners know that, as Ken Blanchard and C.S. Lewis recommend, there is great value in re-reading a book twice or even three or four times. 

Jason: You’re saying that the discipline of investing just 10 minutes per week on lifelong learning at your staff meeting will expose every team member to leadership and management insights—and, perhaps, make the organization more effective? And…that many of these books will be on the organization’s resource shelf so team members can go deeper?

John: Bingo! Hopefully, leaders have recruited and hired self-motivated team members who are already lifelong learners. They don’t need carrots or sticks—but it’s always fun to throw in a few hoopla! ideas. See the Hoopla! chapter in Mastering the Management Buckets, Book #94. That chapter recommends a book, The Carrot Principle, which features 125 staff recognition ideas. I encourage managers to recognize staff members who model lifelong learning.

Jason: Anything else…before leaders and readers jump into Mastering 100 Must-Read Books?

John: Maybe just one thing. When veteran leaders (who are in the “Leaders of Leaders” category) scan this book, I’d encourage them to review my “Books-of-the-Year” picks (Books #6 to #21 and #99 and #100). Those gems are especially helpful books/reminders for experienced leaders—and also helpful tools when they are coaching and mentoring others. 

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering 100 Must-Read Books: Brief Book Reviews on Leadership, Management, Governance, and Life (405 pages), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. To download the table of contents (listing all 100 books), visit the book’s webpage here.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Pop Quiz! Name five books that would be on your “100 Must-Read Books” list.  
2) Many teams have a designated “Leaders Are Readers Champion.” This person will order Mastering 100 Must-Read Books and then inspire one team member (rotating leadership at each staff meeting) to prepare a “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” segment—featuring one of the 100 books. (Idea: Offer a generous Amazon gift card to inspire your “volunteer” champion!) 

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Preach It! Read Blind Spot: The Global Rise of Unhappiness and How Leaders Missed It, by Jon Clifton, CEO of Gallup. See John’s review on the Pails in Comparison blog—and why Pearson notes, “If…I were a pastor, I would put my current sermon series on pause. Then I’d use my Bible and this hot-off-the-press book from Gallup—with 20 thought-provoking chapters.” 

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JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Wondering what book will inspire your communications team? We have recommendations! Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers. 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. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. 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.