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Blog
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The Gift of Work -> Chapter 2: Kingdom Living
Training for kings.From the outside in… practicing habits of healthy living until proficient. From the inside out… becoming increasingly open to the involvement of God in the training process.
Such are the spiritual disciplines: twin and simultaneous trajectories toward becoming the kind of person you were meant to be.
Reflecting on the workplace, it is my stewardship of the life God has given me that determines the character of my presence and contribution there. Hence the power of Heatley’s now obvious, but usually overlooked, linkage between our stewardship within God’s kingdom with the role of kings.How I show up matters.
Whether or not I choose to engage fully—authentically, energetically and creatively—matters.
The choices I make at work improve, restore, and (more…)
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Listen In -> Making Peace With Work #5: Replacing Resentment with Engagement
Are there any options between loving your job and hating it?Is there a way to pause and take notice when resentment starts building?
What’s my alternative if I’m not in a position to quit and move to a different company?
Engage. To show up and take responsibility for my choices.
How do I distinguish between the anger I feel for my low pay and the choices I need to make in order to demonstrate value?
How is resentment a choice that I am making and therefore a choice I can make differently?
Claudia and I discuss these difficult and real aspects of resenting work in this week’s show.
Listen in.
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American Idol Savvy: Cut and Paste Feedback
It’s not uncommon for the judges to give what seems like contradictory feedback.“Don’t mess with the melody” and “Put your own twist on the melody.” “That song was too big for you” and “You played it safe and didn’t stretch yourself.”
The contestants get frustrated, “But you told me last week…”
While I feel some of the judges’ feedback is confusing and contradictory, the contestants’ real problem is their own “cut and paste” response to the feedback.
It’s as if their only goal for the next performance is responding to the judges’ most recent criticism. I call this approach, “cut and paste,” because it (more…)
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Non-Denominational Nonsense
The awkward irony of a non-denominational church is the assumption that we can be more affiliated with all other Christians by affiliating ourselves with no other Christians.
– Karl Edwards
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Loving Monday: A Finger to the Wind
Running with the wind at one’s back can be as delightful as running into the wind can be tortuous.Key to getting where one wants to go then becomes whether one can identify which direction the wind is blowing.
As the new week begins, can you identify which way the wind is blowing in your department?
It can be naive to launch back into your workload as if everything was just as you left it on Friday. It might we wise to start the week off by holding a finger to the air.
Anything from a key player’s bad mood to a deteriorating budget situation can change the context within which you are operating. Failing to notice these issues can cost you serious time, money and energy. Taking a moment to size up the situation before launching back into your routine can be the difference between making a sensitive, nuanced adjustment and suffering a blunt, blind collision.
Take a moment a hold a finger to the air. Which way is the wind blowing where you work?
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Question of the Week
How well does your team know what your priorities for them are?
The Question of the Week is offered to increase awareness of one’s personal leadership practices and encourage experimentation with creative alternatives.
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The Gift of Work -> Chapter 1: Changing Our Minds About Work
I’m going to jump right into the issues raised by Bill Heatley’s The Gift of Work: Spiritual Disciplines for the Workplace without much content summary. So grab your copy and join the fun!Faulty Frames of Reference
Powerful from the get go is his challenge to our basic frame of reference about work as “a daily humiliation.” (p. 24) Such starting assumptions: work is but a necessary evil to pay the bills, TGIF, and working for “the man”—among others—is where we get our equation backwards. It’s as if we suspend our lives while at work in order to make the money we need to finance the lives we want to live while at home. We have to get ourselves dirty in the workplace (read “the world”) in order to serve God and others everywhere else.
Instead of investing, engaging, reflecting and improving, we end up keeping work at arm’s length.
A huge hurdle to becoming open to alternate frames of reference is learning how to identify our own starting assumptions. It can be like asking a blind person why they tripped on the cracked sidewalk. How can I figure out what I’m not seeing if I’m not seeing?
More Ordinary Than You’d Think
I love the way Heatley, almost matter-of-factly, asserts that work is (more…)
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N.T. Wright Offers Insight on “Learning the Language of Life” at Fuller Seminary
For whom does making complex choices come more naturally, the person who has been practicing ahead in a somewhat unnatural manner, or the person who lives from moment to moment, trusting God to be present and helpful more spontaneously?If you want to hear one of the best cases for practicing virtue before you need it, check out this talk N.T. Wright gave at Fuller Seminary on February 27th.
He is one of my favorite thinkers, and it was a thrill to be present for this presentation.
It’s an hour long audio presentation, so grab a cup of coffee, sit back and enjoy! (It’s also a big file, so depending on your connection speed it make take a few moments to begin playing.)
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American Idol Savvy: Simon Dilutes His Brand
Simon Cowell is sabotaging his own distinct brand.Known for his direct but not always sensitive feedback, Simon is increasing his air time with additional antics that are coming at the expense of this powerful “brand.”
His inability to resist throwing barbs while the other judges (particularly Paula) are talking, has the effect of diluting what we like best about Simon… his withering critiques of the contestants.
(All right, his homo-ambiguous sparring with Ryan Seacrest is becoming an Idol staple. But this is the exception that proves the rule.)
The proof comes when Simon wants to give positive feedback. It gets diluted, if not entirely lost. Watch for this.
Disastrous for Simon, in my mind. There’s a lot of power in his positive responses precisely because they are so rare and (previously) so focused. Is he forfeiting his power to influence?
What are your brand distinctives? Are they getting lost by trying to be too many things to too many people? Is it time to refocus, get back to basics, or cut out the side shows? What power are you forfeiting when you dilute your brand?