The Softer Side of Leadership

 

Issue No. 385 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (May 16, 2018) highlights the “softer side” of leadership—and this challenge: if you actually read some of the sections to your spouse (or a colleague), you are in the right lane. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies).   "Hello Marylou!" Ken Blanchard suggests you read fewer books, but—get this—read a book four times because “…the gap between knowing and doing is probably wider than the gap between ignorance and knowledge.” Today, I’m halfway through my second read of Eugene B. Habecker’s powerful new book, The Softer Side of Leadership: Essential Soft Skills That Transform Leaders and the People They Lead. First read: insightful and helpful. Second read: transformational. (I may run out of adjectives for the third and fourth read!) Remember the toe-tapping Ricky Nelson classic, “Hello Mary Lou?” Click here to listen, but this warning: if you skip this two-minute break—read Chapter 4 first, “Stay Connected to the Heart,” or Chapter 6, “Cultivate Creativity.” Why the "Mary Lou" reference? Gene Habecker invites his wife, Marylou, into several chapters—and Gene’s transparency is so, so refreshing. Example: Reflecting on Frederick Buechner’s insights on how life batters leaders—prompting us to bury our true selves then “live out all the other selves, which we are constantly putting on and taking off like coats and hats against the world’s weather…”—Habecker writes: “…I can remember a very specific situation in which I was so bruised and battered by a particular leadership issue that I had functionally abdicated my presidential leadership assignment to an outside consultant. I remember walking around the block, complaining all the while about this to Marylou. Finally, she looked at me and simply said, ‘You need to go back upstairs and be the president.'” Hello Marylou! Blind spots? Habecker says all leaders have blind spots. The problem: we’re blind to our own blind spots—and that creates frightening situations. He quotes Henri Nouwen in the important chapter, “Welcome Self-Discovery Learning.” Nouwen: “…the house I had finally found had no floors…. It seemed as if a door to my interior life had been opened, a door that had remained locked during my youth and most of my adult life… The interruption…forced me to enter the basement of my soul and look directly at what was hidden there.” So Habecker reflects on one blind spot: busyness. “When Marylou and I were on our last sabbatical, she threatened to give me an ‘F’ in Sabbatical because I found it was very hard to detach from work in the way Nouwen describes…” Hello Marylou! Now here’s a gut check for you (no pun intended). One of the essential soft skills of leaders is addressed in the chapter, “Practice Consistent Fitness Renewal.” The dilemma: so much to do, so little time. Who has time for fitness renewal? Gene and Marylou were discussing John 17:4, “I have brought glory to you here on earth by doing everything you gave me to do.” Habecker notes, “I focused on ‘doing everything,’ and eagerly launched into my speech about needing to be better organized, more productive, and more effective so I could get more done. Frankly, my ‘to-do’ list was already becoming unmanageable. Marylou patiently listened, then she quietly, but importantly, reminded me that I had missed one part of the main teachings of the verse. “She focused on the words, ‘you gave me to do.’ As she explained it, based on this verse and others, our priority work ought to be focused not on everything that could be done, but rather on what God has specifically given or called us to do. And that is the agenda that becomes our priority. Not my agenda, but His agenda.” Hello Marylou! In addition to the “Hello Marylou” interludes, you will deeply appreciate this one-of-a-kind Leadership 401 grad school course on the softer side of leadership (never taught and rarely caught). Habecker’s diligent work is easy-to-read on a challenging-to-live topic:    • Each chapter includes a summary page, “The Chapter Idea.”    • Each chapter concludes with “Putting the Idea to Work.”    • A final “To Summarize” paragraph nails the big ideas. Certain themes will resonate with certain leaders. Some of us are blessed with “Marylou’s” in our lives (thanks, Joanne!) which helps. Maybe a test of your leadership will be if you read the most convicting paragraphs to your spouse or a colleague. Yikes. My favorite think-about topics (during my second read): two questions from Patrick Lencioni; five questions from the HBR article, “Being a Strategic Leader Is About Asking the Right Questions;” charismatic listeners; what the 9/11 Museum missed; self-abandonment vs. self-fulfillment; and this from Simone Weil: “There are only two things that pierce the human heart. One is beauty. The other is affliction.” Habecker’s footnotes invite leaders into a treasury of deep thought about the softer side of leadership from not-so-softies. His quotes from The Seeking Heart, by Fenelon, prompted me to pull out my unread copy and add it to my summer reading list. On difficult circumstances, Fenelon inspires: “The events of life are like a furnace for the heart. All your impurities are melted and your old ways are lost…” Finally, Gene’s chapter on creativity is a whack-on-the-side-of-the-head. Convicting, but inspiring! I’m a big fan of creativity—but it challenged me in new and fun ways. Read about his reluctant visit to the Crayola Experience (now in four cities) when guess who admonished him, “Why are you just standing there watching and observing? Grab some paper, crayons, and start coloring something—anything—and don’t be afraid to color outside the lines.” Hello Marylou! To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Softer Side of Leadership: Essential Soft Skills That Transform Leaders and the People They Lead, by Eugene B. Habecker with Marylou Habecke. (And…thanks to Gene for the advance review copy. The book will be released on May 17, 2018. See the 2024 edition here. Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:  1) In his chapter, “Stay Connected to the Heart,” Habecker writes, “As heart work is done, focus more on asking ‘what’ questions, not just ‘why’ questions. Rather than asking, ‘Why did that happen to me?’ focus more on questions such as, ‘So what can I learn from this situation? How can I grow?’” Share two more “what” questions with us. 2) In the chapter, “Protect Sacred Space and Enable Deep Thinking,” he notes, “If what people experience on the outside, however, is not grounded by some kind of transcendent or spiritual depth on the inside, the leadership persona or façade will be eviscerated the first time an organizational storm is experienced.” What patterns do you have in your life to ensure the presence of sacred space?  Five-Finger Feedback Insights from ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board, by Dan Busby and John Pearson (2019) Order from Amazon “Five-Finger Feedback” is one of the 22 tools and templates I’ve used regularly. At the end of any meeting, ask each participant to rate the effectiveness of the meeting on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 is high), by holding up one to five fingers. You can also survey each participant twice: Question 1: My engagement in this meeting was a _____. Question 2: The overall effectiveness of this meeting was a _____. The workbook includes access to all 22 downloadable templates including: the “Prime Responsibility Chart” (one-page), the “Board’s Annual Self-Assessment Survey,” the “CEO Monthly Dashboard Report,” and the "Rolling 3-Year Strategic Plan Placemat" and more. When you use all 22 of these time-saving solutions, you'll wonder why you didn't discover them sooner.  For more resources, visit the Board Bucket webpage, one of 20 buckets in Mastering the Management Buckets. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations         LESSONS FROM THE NONPROFIT BOARDROOM Dan Busby and John Pearson are authors of the new book, Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom. Order from Amazon and follow the "40 Blogs. 40 Wednesdays."  guest bloggers each week here.  "Do I Still Have Fire in My Belly?" is the eighth in a series of blogs on succession planning, from John Pearson, on the ECFA Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations blog. Read it here. NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon.

Halftime - Moving From Success to Significance

 

Issue No. 34 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (April 23, 2007) is another book and a bucket for the management library at your organization. Bob Buford wrote, “I truly believe that God uses people in their areas of strength and is unlikely to send us into areas in which we are likely to be amateurs and incompetents.” Plus, this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings. Add in the coffee and donuts, the occasional lunch to thank volunteers, phone and email time—and what is that volunteer team really costing you?  Sometimes, it’s smarter and more cost-effective to hire a minimum wage person to get the job done.  Or is it? (Graphic: ChatGPT)   Moving From Success to Insignificance Joanne and I were shocked—dumbfounded—to recently read a megachurch’s blurb about their senior adult ministry. The church’s four-color brochure and their sophisticated website both had the same message: “We encourage seniors to share their time and expertise by helping others. You can help provide a birthday celebration for foster kids, assemble bulletins for the weekend worship services, or provide a listening ear to others in times of illness, sorrow or need.” Assemble bulletins? That’s significant volunteer work for retired executives, accountants, and sales people—who are in the second half of their life? Someone—quick! Ship a case of Bob Buford’s book to this megachurch!   Clearly Buford’s book deserves a high spot on my Top 100 Books List. Published in 1994, the message is even more important today—because so many younger pastors and parachurch leaders don’t get it. Halftime: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance redefined the “second half of life” for Builders and Boomers. Since you read this eNews, I’m sure you get it. I now challenge you to become a Halftime Evangelist.    Click on the title for the updated version from Amazon: Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance, by Bob Buford (foreword by Jim Collins). Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) Bob Buford (1939-2018) wrote that people in “Halftime” should ask the following questions: What am I really good at? What do I want to do? What is most important to me? What do I want to be remembered for? If my life were absolutely perfect, what would it look like? 2) How effective is your organization, or church, in helping people in the second half of their lives move “from success to significance?” Bob Buford’s life coach asked him a life-changing question, “What’s in the box?” Read Bob’s response. (See the second article in Issue No. 383.) The Real Cost of the Coffee and Donuts: Insights from the Management Buckets Workshop Experience Peter Drucker said there are two kinds of volunteers: paid (your staff) and unpaid (your volunteers). Smart leaders and managers keep a calculator close when evaluating their volunteer programs. Take church bulletin assembly work or your annual volunteer spring cleaning day. The staff person who supervises volunteers has multiple functions: volunteer recruiting, training, supervising, thanking, rewarding, celebrating, record-keeping and volunteer gap-filling.   Add in the coffee and donuts, the occasional lunch to thank volunteers, phone and email time—and what is that volunteer team really costing you?  Sometimes, it’s smarter and more cost-effective to hire a minimum wage person to get the job done.  Other times, the volunteer tasks will build community, relationships and even outreach opportunities—and you’ll have expertise well beyond the experience of your paid staff. Effective leaders know that The Volunteer Bucket often has holes in it.  Evaluate this bucket at least twice a year based on your written goals and objectives and a thoughtful feedback process. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon.

The Presidents Club

 

Issue No. 252 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (July 5, 2012) features a formidable, but fun book for your summer reading (or winter reading for my friends in the Southern Hemisphere). This treasure will be on my Top-10 list for 2012. Plus, this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings. (Note: The Presidents Club review also appeared on July 12, 2016.) This massive book, The Presidents Club, is one of 19 featured books in the 2026 series, "250 Years of USA Books," on U.S. Presidents and American History. See the list here. (Graphic: ChatGPT)   The 16-Hour Thank-a-thon! Woody Allen once said, “I took a speed-reading course where you run your finger down the middle of the page and was able to read War and Peace in 20 minutes. It’s about Russia.” Faithful readers of this eNews often ask me if I’m a speed reader.  I’m not. I read with pen in hand and am slowed down even further by reading memorable stuff out loud to my long-suffering wife/listener, Joanne. Speed reading would have helped as I tackled this issue’s 641-page book, The Presidents Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity. While the notes and index are over 100 pages, it still left 527 pages of serious reading. But a speed reader would have missed the juicy morsels, laugh-out-loud humor and the incredible connect-the-dots leadership lessons of recent U.S. presidents. (And Joanne would have missed my constant interruptions.) Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duff, editors at Time, have delivered what they call “the first history of the private relationships among modern American presidents—their backroom deals, rescue missions, secret alliances, and enduring rivalries.” And let me add: the interplay and conflicts between their unique leadership and management styles. Even my readers outside of the U.S. will enjoy this book. This presidential behind-the-scenes read-a-thon starts with “Truman and Hoover: The Return of the Exile” and ends with “Obama and His Club: The Learning Curve.” (I read that chapter first—and I was hooked.) In between, there are 24 chapters with memorable match-ups like “Careful Courtship, Bitter Breakup,” “The Hazing,” “Blood Brothers,” “Two Scorpions in a Bottle” (Johnson and Nixon), “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished” and “The Rascal and the Rebel.” This book is a leadership case study on multiple levels. CEOs in transition (retirement, termination or promotion) will especially appreciate this revealing inside look at the new guy/old guy relationships in the Oval Office. The book will trigger all your emotions (as it did for each president): mad, glad and sad. Here’s a taste:    --George H.W. Bush, commenting on Bill Clinton’s general lack of discipline and long campaign speeches, “A good leader sets priorities—he doesn’t just list.”    --“The most precious commodity of the United States of America is neither the gold bullion in  Fort Knox nor the launch codes in its ballistic missiles. It is the time of the commander in chief: there is only so much of it, and how it is spent shapes pretty much everything else.”    --On Gerald Ford: “Worse, perhaps, even though he had inherited the title, the job was not yet his.”    --Lyndon B. Johnson: “He moved Eisenhower’s portrait to a more prominent position, so that it would be visible in the background of pictures of Johnson greeting various White House guests.”    --Henry Kissinger on Egypt’s president: “Sadat handled four American presidents with consummate psychological skill. He treated Nixon as a great statesman, Ford as a living manifestation of good will, Carter as a missionary almost too decent for the world and Reagan as the benevolent leader of a popular revolution subtly appealing to each man’s conception of himself and gaining the confidence of each.”    --Nixon: “The best politics is poetry, not prose.  Jesse Jackson is a poet. Mario Cuomo is a poet and [Michael] Dukakis is a word processor.”    --Nixon: “It is necessary to struggle, to be embattled, to be knocked down and to have to get up. Renewal. Americans are crazy about renewal.”    --On George H.W. Bush upon losing the election to Bill Clinton: “…at five the next morning [Bush] got out his list of several hundred people he needed to thank and reached for the phone. He got off sixteen hours later.”    --Bush 41 (writing to his sons about Nixon): [per the authors, Bush’s letter is] “as good a psychological profile of Nixon as any that exists. Nixon was a great leader, he told his boys, and a first-rate intellect but also a third-rate person.” Bush added, “He surrounded himself on his personal staff with people unwilling to question the unlovely instincts we all have—and that he has in spades.”    --“History doesn’t repeat itself, Mark Twain said, but it rhymes.”    --Bush 41 offered new perks to the Club, sending National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft to personally visit every former president (Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan). “Scowcroft asked what, now that Bush was president, they might want in the way of regular briefings and other logistical favors. This was self-protection on Bush’s part: he knew that his predecessors could be excellent allies on all sorts of issues; and regular briefings in advance of big decisions could keep them sounding supportive when reporters called.” After Clinton’s election victory, he called on an aging Reagan at his Club office in Los Angeles. The Gipper had two pieces of advice for the young president-elect: 1) Go to Camp David and relax as many weekends as possible, and 2) Learn how to salute! “And so the 81-year-old Reagan proceeded to give the 46-year-old Clinton a private tutorial. The two men stood there in Reagan’s L.A. office, 34 floors above Beverly Hills, perfecting their salutes.” Once in office, Clinton called another Club member, Nixon, to ask how he had structured his daily White House schedule—seeking guidance on how best to use his limited time. And just like in real life (with incoming and outgoing CEOs), the relationships covered the continuum from angry to loving. The unusual friendship between Bush 41 and Clinton, as they teamed up to address the tsunami and Katrina crises, was outside-the-textbook stunning. So much so that at a 2011 Kennedy Center event honoring George H.W. Bush, 27 members of the Bush family assembled for a family portrait and Neil Bush called for Bill Clinton to join the family photo! He did. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for The Presidents Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity, by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duff. Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) The authors note that John F. Kennedy asked Clark Clifford for counsel on how to navigate the transition into the White House. Kennedy’s team, said Clifford, “behaved as though history had begun with them. The new elite did not appear to show much interest in history.” He added, “I regarded this as a form of arrogance.” So…in your next transition, how do you avoid the triple sins of ego, ignorance and arrogance? 2) Eisenhower’s people held rehearsals for Cabinet meetings. Kennedy was restless in long meetings; he hated them.  (But after the Bay of Pigs debacle, he called Eisenhower for advice and changed his approach to meetings.) So…when you inherit a new boss (or board chair), how do you get-up-to-speed on your new leader’s style (and idiosyncrasies)? Life-long Learning Revolution - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit One of the big ideas in Chapter 11 in my book, Mastering the Management Buckets, is to scrutinize our fundraising methodologies not against what works, but against God-honoring principles. To stay aligned with biblical principles and current trends, in what Wes Willmer calls the “revolution in generosity,” requires intentionality in monthly, quarterly and annual doses of life-long learning. So…what is your 12-month learning plan in the Donor Bucket? To create the first step of a life-long learning plan for yourself and your direct reports, download Resource #20.4: "My Annual Professional Development Plan" from the Meetings Bucket webpage and check out other resources at the Donor Bucket webpage. ECFA Blog: “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations” Add your thoughts and comments to John Pearson’s weekly blog posts, including the latest, “The ‘Quieter’ Pool of Board Members” and how to engage the silent types on your board. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon.

Barack Inc

  

Issue No. 130 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (March 10, 2009) features a hot-off-the-press book detailing how social networking helped Barack Obama capture the U.S. presidency—and what businesses can learn from his strategies. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies). 2026 update! The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago opens on June 19, 2026.   Barack, Inc. is one of the books in the "250 Years of USA Books!" collection posted on John Pearson's Buckets Blog and his Pails in Comparison Blog. Corporate Social Dysfunction That’s right: corporate social dysfunction, or CSD. This week’s authors warn, “Following the Obama-inspired guidelines laid out in this chapter will almost certainly benefit your company, but only if you also strive to overcome a serious business problem we call CSD.” They elaborate on CSD in their chapter, “Be Social: Business Like Politics Is Extremely Personal. “After helping hundreds of leaders think about social technologies, we have found all too many are afflicted with CSD’s primary symptoms—egotism and a reluctance to relinquish control to their communities, be it customers, employees or partners.” Much will be written on the Obama campaign. This early book challenges the old wisdom that government must learn from business (dollar-a-year executives saving the country, etc.).  “What if it turns out that business has more to learn from politics than the other way around?” Yet with just four chapters and 142 pages (plus epilogue and sources), I was still looking for fresh insights after chapter two—and then: Wham! The book delivered. These two business experts/authors site Obama’s use of social technologies as having a “double-whammy effect”—turning “excited individuals into a nationwide crusade.” They add, “Obama capitalized on Internet technologies hardly imagined in the last presidential election—blogs, texting, cell-phone networks, and an entire coast-to-coast grassroots community (My.BarackObama.com). So what’s new?  You’ll have to read the delicious details in this primer on how companies and organizations can leverage social networking (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) to create and connect communities.  It includes fascinating examples from companies that have solved their CDS problems.  Someone on your team must read this, especially chapters three and four. To order from Amazon, click on the title for Barack, Inc. – Winning Business Lessons of the Obama Campaign, by Barry Libert and Rick Faulk.   Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:  1) The authors say that “CSD also infects its victims with the false impression that business is not personal.” On a scale of one to five (five is high), how would you rate the community and personal relationships you have created among your customers, employees or partners? 2) How savvy are your senior team members and board members regarding social networking? Do they use Facebook, Twitter and other ways to connect and communicate? Counting $ and Sheep - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit One of the big ideas in the Budget Bucket, Chapter 15, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is to understand and communicate your cash flow plan. A pumpkin farmer has a very simple cash flow forecast: 11 months of expenses with one month of revenue. Other seasonal businesses are the same. Some churches experience a major drop in tithes and offerings during the summer months. Colleges and universities experience revenue spikes when tuition is due three or four times a year. Rescue missions often receive more donations during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons than at other times.  How do you get there? How do you eat an elephant? Take a bite at a time. If you’re not there yet, be sure that one of your Top-10 corporate goals for this fiscal year is to create cash reserves by year-end of X number of months, with a goal to be at X month’s reserve by X year. Sleep well! For more budget and financial resources, visit the Budget Bucket page of my website and check out the book recommendations and the template for your monthly financial reports cover page—plus an excellent booklet on nonprofit investment policies. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon.  Visit the Board Bucket webpage, one of 20 buckets in Mastering the Management Buckets.

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Destiny of the Republic - Garfield

 

Issue No. 683 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (June 17, 2026) suggests two books to read this summer or give as gifts for Father's Day. Both are page-turners! Plus, click here for back issues posted at the new location for John Pearson’s Buckets Blog, including my recent review of Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools.  SUMMER READING PICKS! Here’s your monthly edition of “Summer Shorts” with two page-turning books for the beach or the mountains, thanks to bestselling author Candice Millard. (Graphic: ChatGPT)   SUMMER SHORTS: 2 books for Father’s Day or Your Summer Beach Read Looking for a Father’s Day gift? I have two books your dad will love. Looking for a beach read? I have two books you’ll love. (That was easy!) This is the first of three “Summer Shorts” issues this summer and I can’t say enough about my two picks today.  OPTION #1: Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, by Candice Millard (Sept. 20, 2011). Honest—I read half the book to my wife, Joanne, and now we’re watching videos and documentaries about President James Garfield. OPTION #2: The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, by Candice Millard (Oct. 18, 2005). I read this one in February and I couldn’t put it down. And Joanne even told friends to read it and watch the fascinating online interviews of the author. But first…thanks to our friend, Sharon Gullickson, for sending us the Garfield book—and also recommending the Teddy Roosevelt book. I couldn’t resist either book. SPOILER ALERT! From your high school U.S. history classes, you’ll remember that President James A. Garfield, our 20th president, died on September 19, 1881, at age 49—serving just 200 days in office. He survived an assassination attempt—but do you know the rest of the story? He died of a massive infection 80 days after being shot.  (Let’s just mention here that the medical profession back then should have listened to Dr. Joseph Lister preach about the revolutionary antiseptic techniques that were largely disregarded by American doctors. What? Wash our hands and sterilize our instruments?) Candice Millard’s thrilling page-turning book is the perfect read-at-the-beach. We learn more about the wacko, but persuasive assassin, Charles Guiteau. “He had failed at everything he tried, and he had tried nearly everything, from law to ministry to even a free-love commune.” (He even self-published his own book—and skipped town before paying the bill for 1,000 copies!) Millard, a New York Times bestselling author (four bestsellers!), guides us through the hubbub of the Republican convention’s 1880 nominating fiasco in Chicago and explains why—after the 36th ballot—Garfield won the nomination even though he had not been a candidate, nor did he want to be! You’ll read this for fun, but if you have any measure of leadership and management bones in your body—that stuff will jump off the pages.    • President James Garfield, per tradition, endured up to 100 visitors each weekday from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. His response: “Four years of this kind of intellectual dissipation may cripple me for the remainder of my life.” (Did I mention that Garfield was a college president at age 26?)    • When dating, James and Lucretia should have read Chapman’s The 5 Love Languages. “Their courtship was long, awkward, and far more analytical than passionate.” (However, they were blessed with seven children.)    • The author creatively inserts Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) into the story and his remarkable life-saving inventions and attempts to save the President’s life. (Reminder: no Internet back then.) You’ll love the back stories about the invention of the telephone and the letter to his wife, “I am sick of the Telephone.”    • And this scene: Guiteau tracks President Garfield to the church the President attended most Sundays—but chose not to take the shot, and instead shouted out in frustration to the pastor, “What think ye of Christ?” (The President remembered that outburst and wrote in his diary that night that it was “a very stupid sermon on a very great subject.”) OH, MY. Perhaps, for me, the most memorable character in this marathon of presidential pain and patience, was Garfield’s 23-year-old secretary, Joseph Stanley Brown. Loyal. Perceptive. Efficient. Effective. Gatekeeper. Trusted friend of the President. This reminded me of the wisdom I just read last week in the new book, Two Extra Steps: The Unfair Edge Anyone Can Use. Bill Faeth discusses “The single biggest decision in your business. Period.” Brilliant! (Read my review of Two Extra Steps.) So...Father's Day gift? Summer reading list? Both? (I'd go with both.) TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, by Candice Millard (Sept. 20, 2011). Listen on Libro (9 hours, 47 minutes).   250 YEARS! With apologies to my Southern Hemisphere readers, I realize it’s not summer there and you may have little interest in two books about U.S. history. So you’ll forgive me if I add one more note: On July 4, 2026, the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary. This milestone—officially known as the Semiquincentennial—is being commemorated over several years. Maybe—to do your fair share of celebrating—you should read at least one book about a U.S. president? (See my “250 Years” collection of books over at the Pails in Comparison Blog.) OPTION #2: The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, by Candice Millard (Oct. 18, 2005). My recommendation—don’t pick between these two powerful books. Read them both! Option #2, another New York Times bestseller, spotlights President Teddy Roosevelt’s adventurous side—after he lost the election running for a third term in 1912. (After serving two terms, from 1901 to 1909, previously serving six months as vice president under William McKinley, Roosevelt became president after McKinley's assassination in 1901.) After those eight years, Roosevelt watched from the sidelines for four years and was extremely disappointed in President Taft's tenure (1909-1913). So he ran for a third term (it was constitutional then), but was deeply humiliated when he lost to Woodrow Wilson. So—it was time to get out of Dodge and go somewhere…but where? Teddy Roosevelt “set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon in Brazil." (You read that right.) Yikes! You will not believe this incredible journey: preparation (or lack of it), organization, team recruitment, food (or lack of it), hardships and danger (plenty)...but, no more spoiler alerts. I couldn’t resist—trekking along with Teddy (well, figuratively), I noted dozens of leadership and management axioms aligned with my 20 management buckets system. Read my full review over at the Pails in Comparsion blog. Plus—if you’re joining me on the “250 Years” marathon—see my list of books about U.S. presidents, chief-of-staff gatekeepers, and more. TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey, by Candice Millard (Oct. 18, 2005). Listen on Libro (12 hours, 20 minutes). Read my review.   YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) Each chapter in the Garfield book begins with an insightful quotation from our 20th U.S. president. Example: “I have sometimes thought that we cannot know any man thoroughly well while he is in perfect health. As the ebb-tide discloses the real lines of the shore and the bed of the sea, so feebleness, sickness, and pain bring out the real character of a man.” QUESTION: Do you agree? 2) What’s your favorite book—and why—on U.S. presidents or U.S. history (or your home country’s history)? P.S. Need to “cool off” this summer? Here’s another great read: In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette, by Hampton Sides. (Recommended by Jim West.)       SECOND READS: Fresh Solutions From Classic Books You have changed—and your problems have changed—since you read this the first time! Book #51 of 99: The Treasure Principle For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #51 of 99 in our series, “Second Reads.” The big idea: REREAD TO LEAD! Discover how your favorite books (and articles) still have more to teach you and the people you’re coaching and mentoring. The Treasure Principle:  Unlocking the Secret of Joyful Giving by Randy Alcorn (Oct. 9, 2001)   Some ill-informed nonprofit leaders assume the right direct mail technique or heart-tugging project will move non-donors into the donor circle. But there’s a key spiritual principle at play that is often ignored: generous giving flows when a person truly understands how money affects his or her own heart. Randy Alcorn writes, “God prospers me not to raise my standard of living, but to raise my standard of giving.”    • Read my review (Issue No. 26, Feb. 26, 2007)     • Order from Amazon (revised and updated).    • Management Bucket #11 of 20: The Donor Bucket Imagine! This book has sold more than two million copies. (Read why one church distributed 14,000 copies to attenders!) Randy Alcorn doesn’t hold back. See Question #31 in his book: “Five minutes after I die, what will I wish I had given away while I still had the chance?”  Oh, my! View this poignant Instagram reel of Randy Alcorn sharing what his wife said to him prior to her entering Heaven's gates.   CLICK HERE FOR BOOKS BY JOHN      For more on inspiring givers, read Chapter 14, “The Board Bucket,” in Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook, and also read Mistake #3, “Recruiting Unqualified Board Members & Not Dating Board Prospects Before Proposing Marriage,” in The 8 Big Mistakes to Avoid With Your Nonprofit Board. NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon. Stoppage Time! Watching the 2026 World Cup reminded me about “stoppage time” and this crazy idea I posted during the 2018 World Cup games. What if your board chair instituted stoppage time at your next board meeting? Read more at ECFA’s “Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations” blog.  MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations “The Single Biggest Decision in Your Business. Period.”  In this new book, entrepreneur Bill Faeth describes the mistakes he made before landing on the “single biggest decision” you must make in your business or organization. Read my review of Two Extra Steps: The Unfair Edge Anyone Can Use. See more book reviews at the the Pails in Comparison Blog.