Kia ora e te whanau
Personal and Leadership Resources
This week, a few articles I’ve found useful
Starting with the occasional article where one feels like one is looking in a mirror.
Is Your Leadership Style Unintentionally Aggressive?
I was in a couple of meetings last week and came away aware that I’d come across fairly strong. While I make attempts to moderate myself, this is not all that unusual for me – it’s been a habit of a lifetime. Usually I catch myself too late, and the ‘damage’ is already done. I could put it down to my Dutch heritage and the open and often combative way I learnt to deal with the world. There are times when I recognise that part of me is sneakily proud of these qualities. Yet I also recognise that they can undermine what I might be wanting to accomplish, and also hurt or irritate people along the way. While I’ve been concerned about the issue, I recognise that I’m a work in progress and it may ultimately be that we don’t get our strengths without our weaknesses.
Anyway, the article can be accessed here: https://www.fastcompany.com/91128935/is-your-leadership-style-unintentionally-aggressive
I’m sure I’ve touched on this next issue before. If I have, apologies. For me, I know my memory leaks a lot and I need reminding – particularly of good stuff.
Neuroscience Says Making a Simple Change to Your Work Day Will Help You Make Smarter Decisions and Be More Productive
This article simply reflects on our daily rhythms and suggests we can use them to our advantage – organising our work so that we’re at our optimum for the time of day. It also helps in implying that perhaps we can stop beating ourselves up for not being able to handle certain tasks quite so well at certain times of the day. I’ve found it both interesting, hopeful and helpful. I hope you might also. The article can be accessed here: https://www.inc-aus.com/jeff-haden/neuroscience-says-making-a-few-simple-changes-to-your-work-day-will-help-you-make-smarter-decisions-be-more-productive.html
For something a little different, here’s an article about Apple and it’s leadership that may seem totally irrelevant to church. But I don’t believe it is.
There’s one way to save Apple from irrelevance, and Tim Cook’s not going to like it
It takes the reader back to the original philosophy of Steve Jobs – it was all about the ‘user experience’. It appears that Apple has moved away from this (again) and put profits and the making of gadgets front and centre. The problem, the author highlights, is that ultimately the company ends up making stuff nobody really wants.
There’s something here for the church. Are we thinking at all about how what we’re offering is being received? Or are we simply carrying on, mostly on autopilot, expecting people to like what we’re dishing up because we’ve always done it, and done it this way.
Obliquely it reminds me of a silent retreat I was on some years ago, where the facilitator asks us to reflect on the question ‘What is it they need?’ and after a day he asked the next question ‘What is it they really need?’
Orientating ourselves away from ourselves toward out intended ‘audience’.
Anyway, the article can be accessed here: https://www.fastcompany.com/91124973/theres-one-way-to-save-apple-from-irrelevance-and-tim-cooks-not-going-to-like-it
Finally, while we’re thinking about Steve Jobs, here’s a nugget from his repertoire
Steve Jobs Said 1 Habit Separates the Doers From the Dreamers
The answer may surprise you – it did me. It was also challenging – because it was against my natural inclination. And also very useful. I’m not going to give the game away – read it for yourself!
Homilies
Trevor Hoggard draws a contrast between the work of the light of God to those who are open to see it, and the darkness of those who would not. He opens with the call of the boy Samuel and the response of the priest Eli in 1 Sam 3:1-10. Then on to Paul’s difficult yet transformative experience of Christ in 2 Cor. 4:1-12. And finally the unwillingness of the religious leaders in Jesus time to acknowledge the grace of God at work in Jesus as we find it in Mk 2:23 – 3:6. Trevor laments the current apparent low expectation within the church of hearing from God and reflecting that where the light shines, the darkness will always fight back. Even a flicker of light is enough. His sermon can be experienced here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy0W1E4nm08
My response to the Gospel text of John 2:23 to 3:6 is titled ‘Beneath the Judgementalism’. Ultimately I land with a question –‘What kind of God is it that your worship?’ It can be experienced here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcHGzKTnb3E