The Bomber Mafia

 

Issue No. 485 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Aug. 19, 2021) highlights the life-altering implications of leadership transitions—with another bestseller from Malcolm Gladwell. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book I wrote with my son, Jason, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned. See Mistake #11 below. The cadet chapel at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs “is a chapel from another universe. It looks like someone lined up a squadron of fighter jets like dominoes with their noses pointed toward the heavens.” The “Mafia Label” Was Not a Compliment  “This isn’t working. You’re out.” Malcolm Gladwell’s page-turner, The Bomber Mafia, is the perfect end-of-summer read. Action! Bombs! Morality! Science! Politics! Leadership! (Did I mention leadership?) And…two very different views of war and how to win wars (Jesus or Satan?). Gladwell writes, “The Bomber Mafia is a case study in how dreams go awry.” He adds, “And at the heart of it all are Haywood Hansell and Curtis LeMay, who squared off in the jungles of Guam. One was sent home. One stayed on, with a result that would lead to the darkest night of the Second World War. Consider their story and ask yourself—What would I have done? Which side would I have been on?” General LeMay informed General Hansell. “This isn’t working. You’re out.” Put yourself in Haywood Hansell’s shoes. “Hansell could stay on if he wished, to be LeMay’s deputy, a notion Hansell considered so insulting that he could barely speak.” Gladwell continues, “The Bomber Mafia is the story of that moment. What led up to it and what happened next—because that change of command reverberates to this day.” The subtitle ignites your curiosity: "A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War." Is your organization facing a leadership change (or putting it off)? This “case study” in command reminded me of David McKenna’s wisdom in Stewards of a Sacred Trust: “Like the ripple effect of a stone tossed into a pond, the CEO’s influence will move in waves through generations. No decision of the board, absolutely no decision, is more profound.” The bestselling author of The Bomber Mafia further elaborates on this “case study in how dreams go awry. And how, when some new, shiny idea drops down from the heavens, it does not land, softly, in our laps. It lands hard, on the ground, and shatters. The story I’m about to tell is not really a war story. Although it mostly takes place in wartime.” Gladwell adds, “It is the story of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer. A band of brothers in central Alabama. A British psychopath. Pyromaniacal chemists in basement labs at Harvard. It’s a story about the messiness of our intentions, because we always forget the mess when we look back.” And…it’s a story about mistake-making and Carl Norden (the genius), a Dutch engineer, educated in Switzerland, who came to America in 1904. Norden “…was a true believer in blank slate, and this reveals his ego. He said, ‘I don’t want to know the mistakes other people made. I don’t want to know what they did right. I’m going to develop what’s right myself.’” And he did. I won’t spoil the story—the true account—of why the invention of the “Norden bombsight” ranks up there with vaccines, fertilizers, and air-conditioning. You’ll have to read it for yourself—all 256 fast-moving pages in The Bomber Mafia. Gladwell talks about his books in this recent interview on CBS Sunday Morning: View Malcolm Gladwell’s 7-minute interview on CBS Sunday Morning. Gladwell, as is his unique style, weaves history, speculation, and observation into another fascinating read. Example from way back: “I remember one congressman being quoted as saying, ‘Why do we have all this controversy over airplanes? Why don’t we just buy one of them and let the services share it?’” And speaking of the military services, Gladwell digresses from his plot to add Carl Builder’s color commentary about what Builder calls “the puzzling and often contradictory behavior of America's military forces.” He adds, “…powerful—and glacially resistant to change—are the entrenched institutions and distinct ‘personalities’  of the three armed services themselves.” Per Gladwell, “Builder argued that you cannot understand how the three main branches of the American military behave and make decisions unless you understand how different their cultures are. And to prove this point, Builder said, just look at the chapels on each of the service academy campuses." Compare the Army and Navy chapels to “…the cadet chapel at the Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs. This is a chapel from another universe. It was finished in 1962, but if I told you that it was finished last month, you would say, ‘Wow, that’s a futuristic building.’ The Air Force chapel looks like someone lined up a squadron of fighter jets like dominoes with their noses pointed toward the heavens. It looks ready to take flight with a magnificent, deafening whoosh. Inside the cathedral, there are more than twenty-four thousand pieces of stained glass, in twenty-four different colors, and at the front, a cross forty-six feet tall and twelve feet wide, with crossbeams that look like propellers. Outside, four fighter jets are jauntily parked, as if some pilots, on a whim, had dropped by for Sunday morning communion.” The Air Force, Carl Builder adds, “is utterly uninterested in heritage and tradition. On the contrary, it wants to be modern.” Thus—the culture war is first fought among the military services, and then on the actual battlefield. (Fascinating.) Why the book title? The leaders of the Air Corps Tactical School were labeled “the Bomber Mafia.” Gladwell elucidates, “Their motto was: Proficimus more irretenti: ‘We make progress unhindered by custom.’” The mafia label “was not intended as a compliment—these were the days of Al Capone and Lucky Luciano and shoot-outs on the streets. But the Air Corps faculty thought the outcast label quite suited them. And it stuck. “Harold George, one of the spiritual leaders of the Bomber Mafia, put it like this: ‘We were highly enthusiastic; we were starting on, like, a crusade…knowing that there were a dozen of us and the only opposition we had was ten thousand officers and the rest of the Army, rest of the Navy.” After you’ve read (or listened to) The Bomber Mafia, watch the movie, Twelve O’Clock High. Gladwell: “It was based on a book written by Beirne Lay, the pilot under LeMay. Twelve O’Clock High starred Gregory Peck as the leader of an attack on a ball-bearing factory. It’s worth watching because it perfectly captures the persistence of the Bomber Mafia’s vision. The men had failed the first time, but it didn’t matter. They would try again. Whatever evidence was slowly gathering about the limitations of the Norden bombsight didn’t faze them. The dream was alive.” View Twelve O’Clock High on Amazon Prime. Twelve O’Clock High is often used in MBA courses (Harvard, etc.). I viewed it the first time in 2007 as a guest in Connie Salio’s course at Biola University’s Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership program. Click here to view Twelve O’Clock High on Amazon Prime (2 hours, 12 minutes). Does your organization have a bold idea? Launching a new program or department—radical or revolutionary? Gladwell’s research will give you the guts to try. He notes, “The Tactical School was a university. An academy. But not many of the faculty had any experience teaching. And the things they were teaching were so new and radical that there weren’t really any textbooks for anyone to study or articles for anyone to read. So they mostly made things up—on the fly, so to speak.  “Lectures quickly turned into seminars, which turned into open discussions, which spilled out into dinner in the evening. That’s what always happens: Conversation starts to seed a revolution. The group starts to wander off in directions in which no one individual could ever have conceived of going all by himself or herself.” Again—no spoiler alerts, but don’t miss these snippets:    • “Obsessives lead us astray sometimes. Can’t see the bigger picture. Serve not just the world’s but also their own narrow interests. But I don’t think we get progress or innovation or joy or beauty without obsessives.”    • The four tenets of the Bomber Mafia doctrine (previously all bombing was done at night, but these revolutionaries tried it in broad daylight with the new invention).    • How “spitballing” (“thought experiments”) before bombers and even bombsights existed—enabled innovation.    • Why Londoners never panicked during the Blitz of 1940-1941, per a government film, “The sign of a great fighter in the ring is, Can he get up from the floor after being knocked down? London does this every morning.”    • Gladwell’s poetry: “…he’s a figure who made a novelist’s fingers itch.” And these:    • On Hansell: “…unflinchingly honest, a little naïve, but fundamentally a romantic, with all that implies.” His first date with Dorothy Rogers: she “found him tiresome. He wrote her every day for the better part of a year. She answered two, maybe three of his letters. They were married in 1932.”    • Curtis LeMay on the easy way to win the war: “…there ain’t no such animal.”    • Why Haywood Hansell “sided with Jesus” on how to end the war. “You should never do evil so that good may come. But LeMay would have thought long and hard about going with Satan. He would have accepted the illegitimate means if they led to what he considered a swift and more advantageous end.” (What’s your view?) Your theology matters. Don’t skip Chapter 9’s shocking report on the bombing of 67 (not a typo) cities before Japan surrendered in August 1945. Would you…authorize those bombings? To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War, by Malcolm Gladwell. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (5 hours, 14 minutes). P.S. Need more war stories to wrap up your summer reading? Check out:    • The Tragedy of Patton: A Soldier's Date With Destiny — Could World War II's Greatest General Have Stopped the Cold War? by Robert Orlando (read my review)    • View the award-winning movie, Silence Patton, directed by Robert Orlando, 2018 (1 hour, 25 minutes) – Click here.    • Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory, by Ben Macintyre (read my review)    • New movie coming in 2022: Operation Mincemeat And…click on these titles to read my reviews of three more Malcolm Gladwell books:      • Talking to Strangers (2020)    • David and Goliath (2013)    • Outliers: The Story of Success (2013) YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) Was it worth it? Was General LeMay’s horrific bombing campaign prudent? (It, perhaps, prevented a U.S. invasion of Japan and more lost lives.) Now imagine that you’re calling the shots. Is a shorter war your highest value? 2) The Norden bombsight had a virtuous goal: precision bombing with minimal civilian casualties. Oops. The opposite happened. What should we be learning from the study of war?       Wow! Counting this issue, John has reviewed four books by Malcolm Gladwell, but he refrained from borrowing any of Gladwell's book titles for the "mistake" book. LOL!  MISTAKE #11 of 25: Traveling Without Preparing Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned In Mistake #11, “Traveling Without Preparing,” John recommends a Malcolm Gladwell bestseller and also confesses, “I was unprepared for the intricacies and nuances of being a global citizen. I should have asked for coaching from experienced goodwill ambassadors.”  He writes, “Now with 59 countries crowding my passport, I realize an empty suitcase is preferable to an empty mind!” So with the help of coaches and just-in-time books, John learned (somewhat!) how to navigate other cultures across the globe. He especially appreciated two books:    • Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell, says that your long-standing assumptions about leadership might need to change, based on a person’s ethnicity. For example, Greeks and Guatemalans are in the top five of the “uncertainty avoidance” countries (high reliance on rules), while Swedes and Jamaicans represent the top-five cultures best able to tolerate ambiguity. (Did John mention he's Swedish?) Read John's review.    • Leading Across Cultures: Effective Ministry and Mission in the Global Church. James E. Plueddemann quotes Joshua Bogunjoko, “Cross-cultural leadership is a school from which you never graduate.”  Must-read: the informative two-page vignettes, “Reflections on Multicultural Leadership.” Read John's review.   Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering-Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. For supplementary resources, click on John's  "Bucket" book and workbook below:                   JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Before you bet the farm on your next marketing blitz—slow down and invite early feedback on your innovation. Explore how to test pilot a campaign first. Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).  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 IMPORTANT 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. OUTLIERS: THE STORY OF SUCCESS MISTAKE #11 Book Recommendation:  Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell, has vast implications for your organization. What should you consider when recruiting new team members? How might your professional development programs need to change based on a person’s ethnicity? (Read my review.)

The Motive

 

Issue No. 481 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (July 22, 2021) recommends a serious (but also hilarious) book—the latest poke-in-the-ribs from Patrick Lencioni. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book from John Pearson and Jason Pearson, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned. See Mistake #7 below. Order Chick-fil-A milkshakes and host a “Milkshakes and Motives” team meeting. Will you enjoy peach, cookies-and-cream, or chocolate? Why Do You Want to Be a Leader? Best-selling business author Patrick Lencioni’s latest book will shock you. (Don’t skip a page.) He calls for “the end of servant leadership.” And this priority: “If someone were to dive into a stack of my books for the first time, I’d tell them to start with this one.” The Motive: Why So Many Leaders Abdicate Their Most Important Responsibilities is classic Lencioni. The “leadership fable” business story, plus end-of-the-book lessons, has a new twist—and it’s not subtle. The poke-in-the-rib: Why do you want to be a leader? Lencioni: “…the majority of the other books I’ve written focus on how to be a leader: How to run a healthy organization, lead a cohesive team, manage a group of employees.” (All good, right?) But he admits, “However, over the years I’ve come to the realization that some people won’t embrace the instructions I provide because of why they wanted to become a leader in the first place.” And by the way, don’t invite Lencioni to your commencement program! When Lencioni hears a graduation speaker admonish students to “go out into the world and be a leader,” he says he wants to stand up and shout, “No!!! Please don’t be a leader, unless you’re doing it for the right reason, and you probably aren’t!” I’ve read and reviewed my fair share of Lencioni leadership fables—and highly recommended them to others. So would I agree with him that new readers and both emerging and experienced leaders should read The Motive first? I get the importance of “why,” but don’t wanna-be-leaders need a good dose of “how” before they can fully understand the unhealthy “why” motivations they bring to the table?  My suggestion: ask your team members to read The Motive and then huddle over this question. Maybe call the event “Milkshakes and Motives.” No spoiler alert here—because I don’t want to reveal the business story (two CEOs: one healthy, one not so healthy). The story is just 125 pages, including blank pages. The lesson section is just 40 powerful pages.(You can read this over a long lunch at Chick-fil-A—or listen to it in just 2 hours and 37 minutes.)  In the leadership fable, you’ll see two competing motivations for being a leader. If you’re a CEO, does your motivation for being CEO align with how your team views your motivation? Interestingly, writes Lencioni, “As passionately as I feel about all this I almost didn’t write this book because one of my heroes didn’t agree with its premise.”  The hero? Alan Mulally, former CEO at Boeing and Ford, disagreed with a key premise in Lencioni’s book, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business. You’ll love the scuffle between Mulally and Lencioni on pages 129-131 of The Motive. Gratefully, Lencioni did write his twelfth book and (okay, I’ll say it), it’s a must-read. SURGERY AS DRUDGERY? Back in 2012, I picked The Advantage (a helpful summary of his earlier books) as my book-of-the-year. I recently quoted this gut-check wisdom to a leader:   Lencioni says that “bad meetings are the birthplace of unhealthy organizations and good meetings are the origin of cohesion, clarity and communication.”  He adds, “If someone were to offer me one single piece of evidence to evaluate the health of an organization, I would not ask to see its financial statements, review its product line, or even talk to its employees or customers: I would want to observe the leadership team during a meeting.” When discussing “the five omissions” of unhealthy leaders, The Motive enriches Lencioni’s very high view of the importance of well-led meetings—with these memorable metaphors:  “A leader seeing his or her meetings as drudgery would be like a doctor viewing surgery that way. Or a teacher thinking about class lectures that way. Or a quarterback seeing games that way. As I said earlier, meetings are the setting, the arena, the moment when the most important discussions and decisions take place. What could be more important? “Think about it this way. The best place to observe whether a surgeon is good at her job, a teacher is good at his, or a quarterback is good at his, is to watch them during an operation, a class session, or a game, respectively. What is the best place to observe a leader? That’s right—a meeting.” Read the book to learn the other four “omissions”—and then discuss all five topics at your “Milkshakes and Motives” team meeting. (I’ll have the Chick-fil-A peach milkshake please.) The business fable is hilarious at points (with a dose of locker room language) and it’s impossible to read it and not discuss it. Enjoy. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for The Motive: Why So Many Leaders Abdicate Their Most Important Responsibilities, by Patrick M. Lencioni. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (2 hours, 37 minutes). And thanks to Jeff Gerhardt for recently gifting the book to me.  P.S. In addition to The Motive and The Advantage, check out these other books from Patrick Lencioni (after you’re read The Motive!): • Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable...About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business (read my review) • The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues (order from Amazon) • The Five Temptations of a CEO (order from Amazon) • The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: A Fable for Managers (and Their Employees) - (read my review) Note: listen to the books at Libro.fm YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) Patrick Lencioni lists two unhealthy results when “leaders accept the less-than-amazing status of meetings.” Have we ever had an “amazing” team meeting? What’s your guess on the two unhealthy results that occur with “less-than-amazing” meetings? 2) Lencioni defines management: “…the act of aligning people’s actions, behaviors and attitudes with the needs of the organization and making sure that little problems don’t become big ones.” He adds, “Avoiding this is nothing but negligence.” Do you agree with his definition? Do leaders really need to “manage”?     You’d think the new leader of the Christian MANAGEMENT Association (now CLA) could have orchestrated a drama-free move from Illinois to California on time and under budget. Oops!  MISTAKE #7 of 25: Minimizing Murphy’s Law Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned “I was not yet a believer that “If anything can go wrong, it will.” That’s the subtitle of Mistake #7 in the new book by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. Read the story and cringe at John’s cross-country move in 1994! And speaking of cringing…“I cringe when I recall some of the horrendous mistakes I have made during my lifetime,” writes Ted Engstrom. His suggestion: be transparent, keep going, and call your mistakes learning experiences (his italics).  John learned this from Ted: “Experience teaches us to leave room for the unexpected or to isolate ourselves in order to minimize interruptions.”  Click here to read John’s review of The Essential Engstrom: Proven Principles of Leadership, by Ted W. Engstrom (Timothy J. Beals, Editor).    Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering-Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. For supplementary resources, click on John's  "Bucket" book and workbook below:                   JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Patrick Lencioni preaches that CEOs must also be CROs: Chief Reminder Officers—constantly repeating, repeating, repeating the big ideas (strategy, etc.). If no one is listening to your “corporate speak” anymore—and you need some fresh communication tools—contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).  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 IMPORTANT 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 ESSENTIAL ENGSTROM MISTAKE #7 Book Recommendation: The Essential Engstrom: Proven Principles of Leadership, by Ted W. Engstrom (Timothy J. Beals, Editor). Here are three warnings from Engstrom’s Top-10 list. “There’s danger ahead if you… 1) Settle for the status quo, 2) Eliminate creative tensions, and 9) Lose the joy of service.” (Read my review.)

Next Job - Best Job

 

Issue No. 479 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (July 6, 2021) highlights a new street-smart guide for your “Next Job, Best Job.” It’s a must-read—even if you’re not yet in between jobs. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for the new book from John Pearson and Jason Pearson, Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned. See Mistake #5 below. Imagine the chess match...if both the interviewer and the job seeker have read Next Job, Best Job! Avoid Sameness and Nonstarter Resumes In a perfect world, I would pay to be a fly on the wall and watch this job interview scenario: MANAGER: Wow, Joe! Your impressive resume got you past the first obstacle (our HR team). Nicely done! But beware: I just read Next Job, Best Job—so I know all your clever tactics for this 30-minute interview. JOE: Well then…you already know that I’m not your typical “Swiss Army knife”—hedging my bets by listing every job I’ve ever had. And you also know from my cover letter that my experience aligns extremely well with the specific needs you have. I’m guessing that your second quarter hiccup last year was a big challenge for your department? (LOL! I’ve read Next Job, Best Job also!) Really…I’d pay serious money (or at least chip in a generous Starbucks card) to observe the jousting in a job interview where both the interviewer and the candidate were fans of this new truthteller, Next Job, Best Job: A Headhunter's 11 Strategies to Get Hired Now, by Rob Barnett. Trust me. This is not your typical blah, blah, blah, blah bromide. Who should read this hot-off-the-press book?    • You—no matter your job status.    • You—if you’re not in your sweet spot.    • You—because your position might be eliminated in the future.    • You—because you’ll likely move on sooner than you think.    • You—because your HR team probably won’t read this!    • You (even if you’re retired)—because you’ll recommend Next Job, Best Job to dozens of family members, friends, and colleagues seeking your advice. If you’re currently in between jobs again (the author’s label: #iBJA), this is a must-read. And good news! The author feels your pain (he’s been there). Before I give you my “Seven Best” (below), please note this caveat. I had the privilege of leading three national/international associations over 25 years and—no surprise—about a dozen headhunter firms thought I worked for them! (That comes with the territory for association executives.) Some still email or call me: “John, who would you recommend as VP of Operations for XYZ?” Headhunters are a unique breed. Some are even good friends! But… …when they read that Rob Barnett, the author and headhunter, only became a headhunter in 2018—whew!—one’s natural tendency will be to dismiss the book, his ideas, and his 11 strategies. My counsel: don’t.  Perhaps because he’s been on the other side of the desk for decades, and just more recently put out his headhunter shingle, I’ve discerned that the author’s unique background has powered fresh, original thinking, enriched his savviness, and fueled dozens (actually hundreds) of insightful tactics that make this book so worth the read.  Here are my SEVEN BEST for Next Job, Best Job: #1. BEST CHAPTER. “The Perfect 30-Minute Interview” (Chapter 9) is unlike anything I’ve read on navigating your actual interview. Shocker: “…your number one goal in any first job interview isn’t to get hired.” (The goal: score that second interview.) #2. BEST JOB SEARCH REGIMEN. Read the detailed three-page schedule for organizing your daily job hunt routine from 9:00 a.m. to 5:25 p.m. (10:20 a.m.—get off social media! At 10:25 a.m.—“I’m not kidding. Turn your social apps off.”) Did I mention the author could do stand-up comedy? #3. BEST “WHEN TO WALK” ADVICE. When should you reject an offer—and how? The author delivers detailed nuances I’ve never, ever read before. When you say no to a new position—be prepared for four possible reactions from the interviewer, including this (the third version): “I respect your decision. I’m sorry we couldn’t make it work and I hope we stay connected.” Barnett calls this person: “A pro who took it like a pro.” And more good news: perhaps “that relationship can be revived again in another opportunity down the road.” #4. BEST THERAPY. The author won’t let you wallow in your in-between-jobs-again (#iBJA) status, but he’s unusually sensitive to the emotional challenges of being #iBJA. In his twenties, he joined a Tuesday evening group of seekers with Father A.A. Taliaferro, who invited them to join a “secret group” called the Worrier’s Club. Just one requirement: “We would be allowed to worry our heads off, but only for five minutes each day, because worrying accomplishes absolutely nothing.” (Listen to this three-minute excerpt at Libro.) #5. BEST NONSTARTER RESUMES. “Hiring execs want specialists—not generalists,” writes Barnett. “Don’t be a Swiss Army knife.” He lists 12 nonstarter career aspirations that should never see the light of day on your resume or on LinkedIn. Examples:    • Seeking my next career opportunity    • Storyteller    • Creative People Person    • Thought Leader    • Freelancer    • Consultant    • Experienced professional, passionate, dedicated, driven to succeed #6. BEST PROCESS. The author’s “North Star” theme oozes throughout the book and he walks you through a process to find your best job. “Branding yourself with a clear North Star in the headline of your resume and LinkedIn profile defines the role that best reflects your passion, expertise, and experience.”  (Be prepared to toss your current resume and do a major rewrite of your LinkedIn profile.) What does your heart compel you to be and do? Barnett admonishes: “If a company is looking to hire a butcher, saying you’re a butcher, a baker, and a candlestick maker doesn’t give you a leg up. Quite the opposite. You’ll be three times less likely to be hired if you tell everyone that you’re seeking three different jobs.” #7. BEST REBRANDING. Oh, my. The author gives away the store—for just the price of a book. The 37-page chapter, “Marketing Yourself,” is a crash course in your professional rebrand: a new resume, the strongest LinkedIn profile, the perfect headshot, the right wardrobe, a new bio, convincing recommendations, and a killer cover letter. Follow his detailed/detailed counsel and your stale LinkedIn profile will be rescued from “the world’s largest pile of sameness.”  I could go on…but I hope you’ll read the book. In the BEST chapter, Barnett counsels you on how to answer the common interview questions as well as the curveballs that good interviewers will speed your way. One big idea: recruit “preppers” to conduct mock interviews. You must prepare your best answer to: “What’s your dream job?” He also helps you structure a memorable response to “What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?” So…whether you’re interviewing or being interviewed, enjoy this book. Checkmate! One More Caveat: In Next Job, Best Job, the author uses a few “non-church words.” (That’s how Trey Gowdy labels his own occasional word choice! See Gowdy’s recent book on persuasion—also a helpful tool for job seekers.)  To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Next Job, Best Job: A Headhunter's 11 Strategies to Get Hired Now, by Rob Barnett. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (8 hours, 5 minutes). And thanks to Fortier PR for sending me a review copy. YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) Next Job, Best Job suggests (get ready for this!)…you review EVERY contact on your iPhone, plus EVERY friend and follower on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media accounts. Someone may be the perfect connection for you and your Next Job, Best Job.  2) Barnett urges, “Learn all you can about your next company’s social media policies before you start typing a single word.” Why might that be important for job seekers? And…is our organization’s social media policy clear to all insiders?      MISTAKE #5 of 25:  Thinking Leadership Is Learned by Magic Insights from Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned “I missed the memo about focusing on results and SMART goals.” That’s the subtitle of Mistake #5 in the new book by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. John describes the day that his wife, Joanne, rescued him from a low-priority workshop and redirected him to a management workshop led by Olan Hendrix. “That day-long crash course in Management 101 changed my life,” he notes. John writes, “In my early years, you could have rubber-stamped ‘Mistake! Mistake! Mistake!’ over much of my work. My biggest mistake: not understanding the importance and power of SMART goals. And aligned with that mistake (or rather, misaligned)—a frenetic focus on activity instead of results. I learned the hard way—but you can learn the easy way: identify and get buy-in on three to five annual SMART goals and report on them monthly. For Mistake #5, John shares what he learned from Peter Drucker and these two books:    • A Year With Peter Drucker: 52 Weeks of Coaching for Leadership Effectiveness, by Joseph A. Maciariello (Read my review.)    • Drucker & Me: What a Texas Entrepreneur Learned from the Father of Modern Management, by Bob Buford (foreword by Jim Collins) - (Read my review.) Click here to view the list of all 25 mistakes and read the introduction to Mastering-Mistake Making. To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Mastering Mistake-Making: My 25 Memorable Mistakes—And What I Learned (10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning Workbook), by John Pearson with Jason Pearson. For supplementary resources, click on John's  "Bucket" book and workbook below.                      JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are your “Worrier's Club” moments inappropriately focused on your communication strategy? Jason can help you with both therapy and creativity! Contact Pearpod Media (Design, Digital, Marketing, Social).  NEXT ISSUE! MISTAKE #6: Prioritizing Convenience Over Generosity. I failed to inspire and give permission for the staff to call audibles. Order from Amazon.  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 IMPORTANT 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.

Servant of All

 

Issue No. 429 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Feb. 16, 2020) highlights a new take (with a deeper context) on the perilous path to greatness. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my Top-10 books of 2019 and my Book-of-the-Year pick. “To Be Honest…” To be honest…I have this thing about political pundits, CEOs, board members—even colleagues—who, after five minutes or more into a conversation then preface a statement with “Well, to be honest…” (I wonder: Is this now the first time they’re being honest with me?) So—NEWS FLASH!—I’m saying this up front. To be honest, I really wasn’t motivated to read yet another book on servant leadership. We’ve all read them. We know (we know!) we could be and must be better at serving. Yada. Yada. Yada. But (to be honest), because Ralph Enlow’s book, The Leader’s Palette: Seven Primary Colors, was on my Top-10 list for 2013 (and I still quote from it), I was willing to give servant leadership another try. And to be honest, Enlow’s latest book is only 125 pages, with lots of white space. I can speed-read this, I thought. Whoa! Slow down, Pearson. Servant of All checks all of the boxes:    • Convicting.    • Motivational. Quotable.    • Short chapters—long on wisdom.    • Frequently, very, very funny. LOL funny.    • Dramatically changed my thinking on Matthew 18. As I’ve noted before, the measure of a great book is how often I’m reading selections to my wife, Joanne. And get this: Joanne picked it up and read it. Subtitled, “Reframing Greatness and Leadership through the Teachings of Jesus,” the author (his day job is president of the Association for Biblical Higher Education), walks us through the Gospels to pinpoint the fuller and deeper context of what many take out of context: “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” (Mark 9:35) He writes that “some of the people who most often quote this simple and straightforward principle are among the worst violators of its true implications.” He adds, “…the disconnect between precept and practice is because much of our practical, theoretical, and even theological commentary on servant leadership fails to account for all the Bible has to say on the subject.” In the foreword, Barna Group’s David Kinnaman notes, “We have a surplus of Christian leaders who mistake the size of their platform for the impact they are having for Jesus.” We all see it. Who’s the greatest? Check my Twitter followers. What’s your open rate? The first five short chapters address how we misunderstand greatness. To be honest, I underlined most of the book. Example: “For all our talk about servanthood as Christ’s disciples, we just don’t like it when others are granted preference—especially in ways that expose our laxity or pettiness.” By page 57, Enlow has already called “Strike Four” on the disciples. “Are you kidding me?” Enlow asks. Why did Jesus organize an inner circle campout on the mountain top with just three of the disciples? “Nine of the twelve get excluded from the greatest private screening of all time.” I underlined this: “The emotional path between exclusion and resentment  is exceedingly well worn.” I could fill this entire review with quotable quotes—dozens, wonderfully word crafted by Enlow. Plus, dozens more from a few hall of fame servants (is that an oxymoron?). Examples:    • “What enables us to achieve our greatness contains the seeds of our destruction.” (Jim Valvano)    • “If you hug to yourself any resentment against anybody else, you destroy the bridge by which God would come to you.” (Peter Marshall)    • “Humiliation is the beginning of sanctification.” (John Donne)    • “Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.” (H.G. Wells)    • “A journey toward greatness is a journey down, not up.” (Larry Richards)    • “Nothing—it would seem—fuels a crisis more than ambiguity.” (Ralph E. Enlow, Jr.)    • “Not only did Jesus affirm that Simon’s answer was correct, he went way overboard.” (Enlow)    • On Peter: “Often wrong, but never in doubt.” (Enlow) In one setting, writes Enlow, “Matthew 18:15-20 was the go-to Scripture passage for addressing personal conflict on the team.” He describes the setting and then adds, “The frequency with which the passage was applied in an attempt to resolve these offenses became itself a source of irritation.”  Why the confusion over the Matthew 18 principles? Enlow: “One reason for this is that rarely, if ever, is this text recognized to be a continuation of Jesus’ lengthy discourse on greatness.” His insights in chapter 10, “The Pursuit of Greatness,” are worth the price of the book. (To be honest.) How I wish other authors could deliver powerful content in small packages like Servant of All:    • Five probing questions for each chapter (study guide quality)    • Six memorable and alliterative chapter titles in Part 2—perfect for six weekly staff meetings. (Add prayer—and it preaches!)    • Summary “In a Nutshell” sidebars contrasting “Worldly Thinking” versus “Godly Thinking.” Did I mention humor? On forgiveness protocols, when Peter “was looking for a rule that would quantify his moral obligation and validate his righteousness,” you’ll recall Jesus’ answer on how often we must forgive someone: 77 times (some translations say 70 times 7). Per Enlow, here’s how Jesus responded: “Put away your scorecard, Peter. You can’t count that high. In fact, if you’re keeping score on such things at all, it reveals that you have failed to understand what constitutes true greatness…” To be honest—and this is the last time I’ll use that annoying phrase—I will read this book again. Enlow, himself, is amazingly transparent—which is arresting. This is a 10 on the must-read scale. To order from Amazon, click on the title for Servant of All: Reframing Greatness and Leadership through the Teachings of Jesus, by Ralph E. Enlow, Jr. YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) In his conclusion, Ralph Enlow reminds us to pursue the context of Jesus’ teaching on greatness, and writes, “If you have the courage to engage it in this way, you will not come out unscathed.” OK, team—do we have the courage to read this book together? 2) Enlow: “The sort of greatness Jesus has been commending in this passage only comes by means of grace. Gratitude acknowledges and appropriates God’s grace. God’s grace appropriated engenders, in its turn, true greatness.” (Or as Anne Lamott says, “Grace always bats last.”) Do you agree?   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                    JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the extraordinary power of visual media to inspire your members, clients, or customers? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video), including the new book by Jason Pearson and Doug Fields, THIS. 52 Ways to Share Your World With Those You Love. (Read John’s review here.) MORE LESSONS: Effectiveness, Excellence, Elephants! Click here to order More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom, by Dan Busby and John Pearson. Click here to follow the new blog with 40 guest bloggers. ECFA Tools and Templates Blog Click here to read John's blog series on 22 downloadable tools and templates for effective board governance, including a massive time-saving template, Tool #17, a Board Policies Manual. IMPORTANT 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.