Unbroken

 

Issue No. 308 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Oct. 2, 2014) suggests a four-step plan for a staff team-building event—built around a “Book-of-the-Quarter” exercise. And...I sneak in a review of a phenomenal biography I read this summer. Plus, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings. -----------------------------------------------------------------------   $50 Fine for Boring Meetings! After 30 years of CEO work, I turned in my keys and credit cards at the end of 2005. I’ll start my tenth year of consulting in three months and, I must say, from what I’ve learned in recent years, there are days I wish I could rewind the video—and get a do-over on my leadership years. For example, I would institute a $50 fine for every boring staff meeting—and I would double the fine for myself if anyone caught me leading an uninspired, ho-hum meeting. Here’s one thing I would do—at least quarterly: deliver a book, article, DVD, or TED Talk as a catalyst for corralling the creativity of the staff. Pearson’s Radical Wall Poster Team-building Exercise: 4 Easy Steps Step 1. Read or Listen to a Book. Distribute Amazon gift cards to every team member, and based on their preferred learning style, inspire them to order the book, audio book, or the Kindle edition of your “Book of the Quarter.” (If they already have the book, or can borrow the book, let them keep the gift card.) My recommendation: Start with a book that doesn’t add to your organization’s “Management-by-Bestseller Syndrome.” (See the Book Bucket chapter in Mastering the Management Buckets.) For example: If your staff, spouse or colleagues think your reading diet is too heavy on leadership and business books, start with a novel or a gripping biography. I got hooked on one this summer, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand. Wow! Unbroken may be on my year-end list of Top-10 books of 2014—and I’m sure, many of my readers have already recommended this amazing book to friends. The movie version of Unbroken (view the trailer), directed by Angelina Jolie, will be released on Christmas Day 2014. (There’s another idea: get the popcorn and show the movie to your staff next year).  On the New York Times bestseller list for three years, this page-turner chronicles the life of Louie Zamperini: tough Italian-American kid, distance runner in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and Army Air Corps bombardier in 1941. After heroically surviving an unprecedented 47 days in an open raft in the Pacific, he was reported missing in action for two years while enduring WWII Japan’s most brutal POW camps. Yet…there’s redemption! While early reports suggest the movie will not include this segment of his life, Zamperini was converted at Billy Graham’s historic Los Angeles evangelistic crusade in 1949 (scheduled for three weeks, but extended to eight weeks). According to the book, his life changed—literally overnight!  “The old life is gone; a new life burgeons!” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (The Message) Good news/bad news. Zamperini was welcomed into heaven on July 2 of this year at age 97, but he will miss the movie premiere on December 25 (easy choice!). He had also been named 2015 grand marshal for the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena, Calif.  He will still be honored, in absentia, as the headliner for the January 1 parade theme, “Inspiring Stories.”  Yikes—I got side-tracked with this stunning story. (You gotta read it!) Step 2. Create a Team-Building Exercise. This is a new version of the ho-hum inspirational wall poster idea—but with a relevant twist. Admit it. Your lunchroom has at least one motivational (ha!) poster. Been there for how many years? So…here’s the drill:    • Pick a word, or phrase, or a concept from the book that will inspire our team. There are zillions in Unbroken: Endurance. Persistence. Discipline. Hope. Faithfulness. Guts. Initiative. Forgiveness. Redemption. Leadership. Servant. More Guts.    • Each team of three or four people will create a poster, a video, an art piece, performance art, a poem—something that describes your emotional experience when reading the book…AND…leverages the unique giftedness and creativity of your team members.    • Our “Show and Tell Day” will be in two weeks. (And if possible, try to invest at least the majority of your time on your day job!!) Step 3. Celebrate Your Team’s Creativity! Inexpensive awards, old trophies from your local thrift store, or gift cards make great gifts to honor the work of your teams on "Show and Tell Day."  Step 4. Plan the Next “Book-of-the-Quarter” Event. Keep it going—and delegate the fun stuff to the Expressives on your team! So…if I were still a CEO and leading a team, I’d work really, really hard to make every single staff meeting both meaningful and memorable.  To order the book (Kindle edition or audio book) from Amazon, click on the title for: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) How many weekly (or otherwise) staff meetings have you attended in your career? What are the ingredients that make some stand out over others? 2) In the chapter, “Running a Meeting," in Rumsfeld’s Rules: Leadership Lessons in Business, Politics, War, and Life, by Donald Rumsfeld, the former CEO and U.S. Secretary of Defense (twice) notes, "The first consideration for meetings is whether to call one at all.” Is the frequency of our staff meetings about right or not? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- WOW Meetings for the 4 Social Styles   Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit In my cycle through the buckets, here’s an insight from the Meetings Bucket, Chapter 20, in Mastering the Management Buckets:    Caution! Routine meetings quickly spiral into boredom and sheer agony.  Each of the four social styles (Analyticals, Drivers, Amiables and Expressives) has different expectations for your meetings.  If you are not a skilled meeting facilitator and you “don’t know yet what you don’t know,” ask two or three people at your next meeting to quietly evaluate the “WOW Factor” of your meeting.  Click here to download the “WOW Factor Checklist (Welcome, Organized, Warm)” and check out the resources and books in the Meetings Bucket.  Here’s just one of the 16 items to evaluate at your next meeting: “The meeting facilitator was prepared and relaxed, ready to greet the first person who arrived.” Rumsfeld again: “As drill sergeants are fond of saying, ‘If you’re five minutes early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, you’re late. If you’re late, you have some explaining to do.’”   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 • John Pearson's Buckets Podcast NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here at John Pearson's Buckets Blog.   ECFA BLOG on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations”  - Add your thoughts to John's latest blog post for boards, "Board Member Getting: It's Time to Demystify Fundraising." PLUS! View the short video on the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series: No. 1: Recruiting Board Members and No. 2: Balancing Board Roles (DVD and Viewing Guides).

Drucker & Me

 

Issue No. 298 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (April 24, 2014) highlights another hot-off-the-press book—this one from Bob Buford about his close friendship with Peter Drucker.  Plus, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff or board meetings.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Bob Buford's T-shirt: 100x  Spoiler Alert!  Drucker & Me, by Bob Buford, is a terrific book—and the depth will surprise and delight you. But first…a disclaimer: I’m a big Drucker fan (see the Drucker Bucket chapter in my book) and I’m indebted to Bob Buford and Fred Smith who invited me to a 1986 summit conference with Peter Drucker (33 of us in the Colorado mountains). That four-day marathon ranks as one of my Top-10 life experiences.  Bob also wrote the foreword to my book, Mastering the Management Buckets. So I’m a tad biased. Buford could have written his new book with Crayolas—and I’d still give it a thumbs-up.  But, gratefully, he excelled again (as he did with Halftime) and delivered an amazing, poignant and powerful account of his annual one-day meetings—and close friendship—with the father of modern management. Imagine! In the foreword to this warm and meaty book, Jim Collins writes, “It is exceptionally well-written and provides a glimpse into the secret sauce of how a truly great teacher can have an impact on the world through a truly great student.” Secret sauce, indeed! If you’re coaching and mentoring a young leader, this book will inspire you. If you’re looking for a coach or mentor, this dynamic duo is your new benchmark. So picture this: Bob Buford, the CEO of a network of cable TV systems, boldly seeks one-on-one management counsel from Peter Drucker, the father of modern management! Bob invites us into the meetings, often in Drucker’s humble home, just walking distance from where the esteemed prof held court at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, Calif.  So listen in: ELBOW BOOKS. Buford learned that Drucker’s most famous book (he wrote 39), The Practice of Management (1954), “was not so much a strategic career move but was characteristically written to meet a need. There were plenty of books out there at the time on individual aspects of running a business—finance, for example, or human resources. Each of them ‘reminded me of a book on human anatomy that would discuss one joint in the body—the elbow, for instance—without even mentioning the arm, let alone the skeleton and musculature,’ Drucker later recalled. The Practice of Management was the first that put it all together.” GOAL SETTING. “In one of our regular meetings, Peter suggested I spend some time thinking about my personal goals—not just for my business but for my life. So the next time we met, I had my list of six goals for my life all set. I was determined to show the professor that I had taken his assignment seriously…” So Bob recited the list and when he read the fifth goal, “…to engender high self-esteem for our son, Ross,” Peter interrupted Bob “rather abruptly.” “‘You can’t make goals for other people!’ he stated with authority. ‘You can only set goals for yourself, which might include how you want to treat Ross. But only he can determine his goals—not you or anyone else.’” PLANNED ABANDONMENT.  Bob learned the concept of “planned abandonment” from Drucker. “It was not unusual for Peter to begin a meeting by saying, ‘Tell me what you’re not doing.’ In other words, not everything you try is going to work out, so what have you decided not to do? What have you quit doing so that you can focus more on those things that will produce results?” AN OBOE PLAYER BECOMING A VIOLINIST? FORGET IT! Bob, with Drucker’s encouragement, launched Leadership Network, a catalyst for the mega-church movement. So he fully understood management in both the marketplace and the nonprofit world. Buford notes, “Peter frequently used the metaphor of a symphony conductor when he talked about management.” “A conductor would never ask an oboe player to play the violin or vice versa. The role of the conductor is to make sure the right people are playing the right instruments so that when the baton comes down, the symphony made great music.” Then Bob confesses, “More than once I have employed a person who performed well in a maintenance role in a large, prestigious organization. It never seems to work out. It is the difference between Special Forces and holding down a Pentagon job.” INTERNAL FOCUS.  You must read Bob’s insights on “How Organizations Die.” Here’s a teaser: “One of the most important lessons Iearned from Peter inevitably, in my view, turned our client-consultant relationship into more of a partnership. That lesson was his conviction that an organization begins to die the day it begins to be run for the benefit of the insiders and not for the benefit of the customers.” Whew! Trust me—this 172-page book (plus an epilogue from Ed Stetzer) is jammed—it’s jammed—with wisdom and use-it-today leadership insights. Remarkably, it’s packaged with an endearing warmth that is missing from business and leadership books. (Again, I’m biased. I really didn’t want the book to end—so I delayed reading the last 40 pages to savor the experience, but ultimately succumbed.  It was a joy to read.) What will surprise you? Even if you’re already a Drucker zealot and deeply appreciate Buford—you’ll be blessed by the deep well of wisdom:    • “…after I finished yet another iteration of what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, he sat silent for a moment and then spoke in a voice that to my ears sounded like the voice of God himself: ‘Your mission, Bob, is to transform the latent energy of American Christianity into active energy.’”    • “We would use their credibility, not ours—we were the platform, not the show. Or as Peter once told me, ‘The fruit of your work grows on other people’s trees.’”    • Drucker: “Build on islands of strength.”    • “I think he knew the tendency of people working with nonprofits to think of themselves as the minor league where good intentions are enough. So he stressed the need to raise the standard of performance in my work with churches and others.”    • “Peter once called me a troublemaker, referring to the Parable of the Sower. ‘You are not satisfied that what you are doing is enough,’ he told me. ‘The Parable of the Sower tells you that you have to produce results of at least four or five fold, if not a hundred fold. It’s a very, very upsetting parable.” So out of Drucker’s insight, Buford summarized his mission. “Upsetting, yes, but it has become the solution to another challenge Peter gave me when he said an individual’s mission statement ought to fit on the front of a T-shirt. I have chosen 100x for my ‘shirt’ because I believe it is my calling to become the ‘good soil’ from which innovative, entrepreneurial church leaders can change the world.” To order from Amazon, click here for Drucker & Me: What a Texas Entrepreneur Learned from the Father of Modern Management, by Bob Buford.   Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) Admiral Ed Allen, captain of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, described Buford’s role this way: “The catapult is what makes the United States Navy work. It is virtually invisible but it gets 60,000 pounds that is a fully loaded F-14 off the deck in about 200 feet. You are not the carrier. You are not the plane. You are not the pilot. You are the catapult that gets the plane airborne.” So…who is the catapult in your organization? 2) What is your organization’s God-given calling: to be the platform or to be the show?  Thanking Givers With Intentionality Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit   In my cycle through the 20 management buckets, this issue features Chapter 11, The Donor Bucket, and this insight from the ECFA 1st Annual Church Stewardship Survey (2014): “Leading churches [as defined by this survey of ECFA-accredited churches] are intentional about thanking givers.”   Example: Leading churches “disciple and engage givers further with meaningful gifts, including inspirational books.” Drucker and Me, or The Daily Drucker, or The Practical Drucker might make the perfect thank you gift to the right donor, at the right time.  For more book recommendations, including Igniting a Life of Generosity, visit the Donor Bucket webpage.      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 • John Pearson's Buckets Podcast NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here at John Pearson's Buckets Blog. ECFA BLOG on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations”   Add your thoughts to John's latest blog post for boards, "Good to Great Governance: Who Cares?" PLUS! View the short video on the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series: No. 1: Recruiting Board Members and No. 2: Balancing Board Roles (DVD and Viewing Guides).

The Choice

 

Issue No. 297 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (April 13, 2014) highlights a hot-off-the-press book from ECFAPress—and it will rock your presuppositions. Plus, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff or board meetings.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't Read This Book!  You read that right.   Don’t read this book…if you’re good with what Gary Hoag, Scott Rodin and Wes Willmer label “The Common Path.” If “production-driven leadership, expansion-focused strategies, earthly oriented metrics, results-based management, and a utilitarian view of resources” is working out for you—then don’t read this book. Don’t read this book…if you strongly disagree that “defining success may be the most important decision we make as God’s people.” That’s line one, chapter one, in the radical new book, The Choice: The Christ-Centered Pursuit of Kingdom Outcomes (ECFAPress). Don’t read this book…if you’ve drummed all the critical thinking out of your strategic planning and SMART goals process—and have not examined your presuppositions since…well, maybe never.  The authors quote Phil Vischer, founder and former CEO of VeggieTales: “We’re drinking a cocktail that’s a mix of the Protestant work ethic, the American dream, and the gospel. And we’ve intertwined them so completely that we can’t tell them apart anymore. I realized I’m not supposed to be pursuing impact. I’m supposed to be pursuing God. And when I pursue God I will have exactly as much impact as He wants me to have.” Don’t read this book…if you’re not ready to relinquish control. “Let’s consider briefly the relationship between obedience and strategic planning and the temptation to take control. When we follow the common path, we take control, trust ourselves to provide, and enact strategies to try to make things happen. We come up with our own big, hairy, audacious targets and expect God to bless and fund them. However, just because a goal is so big it can only be accomplished if God shows up does not mean it aligns with His will.” Don’t read this book…if your secret sauce for effective leadership includes a clever acronym (plus required reading and obligatory workshops, of course).  If so, don’t even read this next paragraph where the authors describe what God-honoring ministry should look like: “Jesus instructs us to follow Him. When we do, we find 10 marks, or characteristics, from Christ’s earthly ministry that are also evident in the early church….these 10 marks [include] practical formational practices to help us follow the kingdom path.   “If this sounds oversimplified to you, candidly, we think we are the ones who have complicated things. Remember, Jesus recruited ordinary, mostly uneducated people and gave them basic instructions. He used words like ‘follow,’ ‘trust,’ and ‘obey.’ Are we simply meeting those clear requests?” Don’t read this book…if you’re all about growth and (how’s this for a cliché) “getting to the next level”—or if you’ve launched your “Vision 2020 Campaign” (and who hasn’t?) and it’s rooted in cool marketing, but zero spiritual discernment. You probably shouldn’t heed this symptom of the common path: “The underlying assumption is that in order to do our work better, we must do more of it.  Growth is the unexamined presupposition, the driving force in our definition of success.   As a result, strategic plans are written to articulate what more looks like in quantifiable terms.   “On this path leaders tend to overwork high-functioning staff and minimize the role others play because they think they don’t have what it takes to make things happen. While quality may be important, it often must give way to the increased pressure to post ever-growing results.” Don’t read this book…if you’ve chosen the common path versus the kingdom path. (Get it? The Choice.) “On this path success is defined in terms of our obedience to the instructions of Jesus Christ for which He promises eternal rewards. On the kingdom path, we as Christ-followers become less concerned about results that we cannot control because our primary concern is obedience. Our attention shifts from what we are doing for God to what God asks us to do and wants to accomplish in and through us. The former represents results we think we can generate taking the common path; the latter reflects the kingdom outcomes God produces through faithful followers.” So Hoag, Rodin and Willmer suggest we study “five traits that flow from defining success in terms of obedience to the teachings of Jesus”—the kingdom path: Steward Leadership Faithfulness-Focused Strategies Eternity-Oriented Metrics Relationship-Based Management Stewardship View of Resources  Don’t read this book…if you’d rather measure results by how many versus how well.  The common path asks, “How do we build more?” while the kingdom path asks, “What are we doing with what we have?” Gulp! Don’t read this either: “This does not mean that production-driven leaders are not obedient, or that steward leaders will not report the results of measured growth and increased impact. The key difference is the force that guides them. We cannot be driven by church growth or ministry expansion and obedience simultaneously. One path will always take priority over the other!” They add, “The key to grasping eternity-oriented metrics is realizing that the quantitative is subservient to the qualitative. Could this be why the modern church has so many professing Christians and so few disciples of Jesus Christ?” Don’t read this book…if, as the authors suggest, you prefer “potholes, unnecessary detours, and rabbit trails of ministry.”  Instead, we must “consider thoughtfully the instructions set forth for us in Scripture. This includes testing the prevailing practices of the world by God’s Word. However, our exploration must not stop there. This knowledge must drive us to make hard decisions, regardless of what others are doing. The common path is named just that because so many are on it. Following Christ requires us to go against the crowd. Making choices is important in the Christian faith.” Don’t read this book…if you enjoy the rat race. But maybe…it’s time to stop the presses, push pause, and lead your team and your board, chapter by chapter, through this powerful poke in the spiritual ribs—until you can align your Big HOLY Audacious Goal, your strategic plan, and your results with God’s path (not yours).” Read this book. It may be the most powerful, course-changing book you will read this year—maybe in the next five years. To order from Amazon, click here for The Choice: The Christ-Centered Pursuit of Kingdom Outcomes, by Gary G. Hoag, R. Scott Rodin, and Wesley K. Willmer   Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) Interesting! This book is not only jammed with dozens and dozens of arresting insights, the authors gently and powerfully remind leaders that Jesus calls us to be “worry-free people.” (Gulp #2!) Why might The Choice between the common path and the kingdom path reduce a leader’s anxiety? 2) The authors say, “When we rely on ourselves for the small stuff we chart a course for trusting in ourselves with bigger issues too.” Be honest: how deep is our trust in the common path versus the kingdom path?  The Most Fun Workplace in the History of the World! Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit   In my cycle through the 20 management buckets, this issue features Chapter 10, The Hoopla! Bucket, and “Rule #3” from Dennis Bakke, the author of Joy at Work and The Decision Maker.  His water cooler wisdom poster reads: “Attempt to create the most fun workplace in the history of the world!” But…before you think party hats, balloons and whoopee cushions, read more in Chapter 10 or visit Bakke’s website. It’s counter-intuitive. And like the Hoopla! Bucket core competency, read why we believe that the right mix of hoopla! honors God.  For more resources, including recommended books, visit the Hoopla! Bucket webpage.      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 • John Pearson's Buckets Podcast NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here at John Pearson's Buckets Blog. ECFA BLOG on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations”   Add your thoughts to John's latest blog post for boards, "Laughter Is an Instant Vacation." PLUS! View the short video on the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series: No. 1: Recruiting Board Members and No. 2: Balancing Board Roles (DVD and Viewing Guides).

To Be a Friend

 

Issue No. 296 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (April 9, 2014) highlights a hot-off-the-press book on friendship from Jerry and Mary White. They quote Virginia Woolf, “Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I go to my friends.” Plus, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff or board meetings.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Friendship Is Unnecessary  One of my favorite eNews readers (yes, I have favorites) emailed me some hilarious feedback recently. Here’s a line from this nonprofit CEO’s note: “Well this email may be a surprise to you as I forwarded the latest Your Weekly Staff Meeting to a friend of mine (which excludes nearly every person who has served on a board over me, past, present and likely future—but I digress)…” I laughed-out-loud and then thought about the board members I’ve served with—and, gratefully, my mind quickly landed on a former board chair, Jerry White, who is still a friend! Jerry chaired the CMA board (now Christian Leadership Alliance) and his day job was president of The Navigators. So how’s this for timing? Jerry and Mary White have just written a heart-warming little book on friendship—and it’s so good, and so helpful, you’ll want to order extra copies. I have seven reasons why you’ll appreciate To Be a Friend: Building Deep and Lasting Relationships. Reason No. 1: Maybe your friendships need a tune-up or a celebration. Be honest here—when’s the last time you’ve read a book on building deep and lasting friendships? Maybe never? In just 150 pages, the Whites tripled my understanding about the richness and diversities of true friendship. Generously, they open the curtain on their friendships—and let us in on the fun, the sadness, and their memorable stories, many told on themselves (LOL!).    Reason No. 2: More than 40 PowerPoint-worthy quotations! The Whites walk like they talk—and they write like they walk. To Be a Friend is packed with gems, plus over 40 poignant quotations on friendship, including:    • “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…. It has no survival value. Rather, it is one of those things that give value to survival.” (C.S. Lewis)    • “It seems to me that trying to live without friends is like milking a bear to get cream for your morning coffee. It is a whole lot of trouble and then not worth much after you get it.” (Zora Neale Hurston)    • And this from Milton Berle on friends who make you laugh: “Laughter is an instant vacation.” Reason No. 3: Compelling chapter titles—too tempting not to read! I especially loved the fresh insights from these seasoned saints on “Virtuous Friendship,” “Broken or Damaged Friendships,” and “The Lego Factor: Building Close Friendships.” In their chapter, “How Much Does Friendship Cost?” the Whites deliver a gut-checker insight: “Have you ever looked at your caller ID as you received a phone call and thought, I just don’t have time or energy to talk to that person right now? and then let the call go to voice mail? You’re not alone. Everyone has done this at some time. On the other hand, we immediately answer the call from certain people, even if it is 2:00 a.m. Both calls bear a cost to us, but the difference in response is the depth and commitment of the relationship.” Reason No. 4: Not all friendships are created equal. Whew! That’s a relief! The Whites estimate “that a person makes between 500 to 1,500 acquaintances in a year.” Not every acquaintance becomes a friend—so the authors suggest we think about the four circles of friendship: Acquaintances Casual Friends Close Friends Intimate (Best) Friends Quoting George MacDonald, “Few delights can equal the presence of one whom we trust utterly,” Jerry and Mary beautifully describe and define intimate friendships: “These friends are rare and few in number. They are the people we trust most deeply, share with most intimately, and depend on most strongly. They bring zest to our lives, and we cherish them for a lifetime. We estimate that people will have only three to five best friends over a lifetime. This is not a rule, just an observation.” Reason No. 5: You’ll think differently, and more seriously, about friendships. “Each of our friends has contributed to the person we have become. We are a product of our families, our times, and our geographical roots. But friends mark us in profound ways. They alter our thinking, actions, desires, and ambitions, for good and for bad.” Yikes! Reason No. 6: Creative, thoughtful, humorous and God-honoring insights. At conferences, if Jerry and/or Mary were leading workshops, I’d be there—irrespective of the subject. Wisdom oozed.  Ditto their books and ditto this one. Prolific authors, the Whites always deliver pass-along, teachable content and Christ-centered thinking. Examples: The Joseph Road: Choices That Determine Your Destiny; Rules to Live By: 52 Principles for a Better Life; and Harsh Grief, Gentle Hope.  Reason No. 7: The Book Cover!  The eye-catching cover (see below) just begs for an honored place on your desk or your coffee table. Never has a book cover so perfectly described a book: To Be a Friend.  In writing a book review, Ambrose Bierce once said, “The covers of this book are too far apart.” Not this one! To order from Amazon, click here for To Be a Friend: Building Deep and Lasting Relationships, by Jerry and Mary White. YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) “Most of us are unknowingly selfish when it comes to friendship,” say the authors in their chapter on “Virtuous Friendship.” Here’s a discussion topic from the book: “[Discuss] the instances in which you have practiced virtuous friendship or been the recipient of a virtuous friendship.”  2) The Whites quote Walter Winchell’s poignant line, “A friend is one who walks in when others walk out.” So…here at work, are you that kind of friend to at least one person? A Perfect Match? No Way! Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit   In my cycle through the 20 management buckets, this issue features Chapter 9, The Team Bucket, and this reminder from page 208 of my 2013 book-of-the-year, “You’re not managing you!”  One key to effective management is to fine-tune your leadership style to each person on your team (few think like you). According to the “Strengths” gurus, Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton, “Very few people share your signature themes (in fact, there are over 35 million possible combinations of the top-five [of the 34 StrengthsFinder talent themes], so the chances of your meeting your perfect match are infinitesimal.)” That’s less than a dozen people in all of North America! As King David said, “You are fearfully and wonderfully made.” For more on the StrengthsFinder assessment, valued by more than 10 million people worldwide, visit the Team Bucket webpage.      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 • John Pearson's Buckets Podcast NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here at John Pearson's Buckets Blog.   ECFA BLOG on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations”   Add your thoughts to John's latest blog post for boards, "Benchmarks for a Perfect Board Member." PLUS! View the short video on the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series: No. 1: Recruiting Board Members and No. 2: Balancing Board Roles (DVD and Viewing Guides).

Boards That Lead

 

Issue No. 295 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (March 28, 2014) highlights a must-read new book on governance—with 18 cautionary checklists for CEOs and board members. Yikes! As we’ve seen this week, boards can create or destroy value. Plus, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff or board meetings.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Fumbling CEOs & Executive Overassurance The latest hot-off-the-press governance book warns, “Like neutrinos and Higgs bosons, early signs of faltering chief executives are often hard to detect.” The co-authors of Boards That Lead add, “Most chief executives are constitutionally optimistic, and since by definition their role is to surmount challenges, the tenor they bring into the boardroom is likely to be relentlessly upbeat.  Taking executive overassurance into account will aid directors in detecting nascent troubles ahead, but it is only one piece of a very complicated puzzle.” That’s the first paragraph of Chapter 8, “Spotting, Catching, or Exiting a Falling CEO,” in this excellent book that delivers three big take-aways for board members. They’re summarized in the arresting subtitle:    “When to Take Charge,     When to Partner, and     When to Stay Out of the Way.” “From our several decades of witnessing more than fourscore fumbling CEOs,” they write, “we have noted that, in virtually every case, warning signals were noticed early by at least one or two directors but were commonly not shared with directors. We learned of the indications in real time because alarmed board members privately disclosed their rising qualms about the CEO in our work with them.  “The concerned directors were nonetheless hesitant—no surprise—to get the ball rolling.  After all, they had helped pick the top executive, and they realized that a forced exit could be not only a career-ender for the executive but also a reputation-killer for themselves. Perhaps most inhibiting of all, they knew that the CEO often retained avid defenders among the other directors.” What should board members do? “…it is useful for directors to keep a weather eye on early signs of executive deficits.  Assuming that the company’s central idea has been well formulated in the boardroom [Editor’s Note: You must read more on this—it’s worth the price of the book.], three embryonic indicators, if ignored too long, often mushroom into far more:    • lack of strategy    • failure to execute, and    • wrong people calls.” Oh, my! Just when you thought you were knowledgeable in governance, along comes a 219-page poke-in-the-ribs, plus an incredible 40-page section with 18 checklists for board members, a bonus chapter on “Trends in Director Monitoring and Leading,” a director evaluation worksheet, and six golden pages on “Division of Responsibilities Between the Board Leader and the CEO.” Boards That Lead is a timely must-read for directors of both corporate boards and nonprofit boards.  In the past six months (including this week) we’ve seen three high profile Christian nonprofit organizations on the Internet front page (and wishing they were not)—all three for different reasons—but the negative news was all prompted by board actions.  Board service is not for the weak of heart. If you’re leading a board, on a board, or considering board service, you’ll want to read Chapter 3, “Recruit Directors Who Build Value.” The co-authors, including Ram Charan, author of Owning Up: The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to Ask, are big on questions.  This chapter asks eight mission-critical questions of prospective board members, including: “Will the candidate be ready to stand tall and engage constructively when vital issues are on the line, the stakes and stress are high, and leadership of the company becomes even more essential?” “Root Out Dysfunction” is Chapter 4’s theme. “In our experience, as many as half of Fortune 500 companies have one or two dysfunctional directors.” The authors identify three types: • “Some see themselves as the smartest person in the room. •  Others seek recognition. •  Others are frustrated would-be CEOs.” They add, “Whatever their personal motives, they tend to micromanage or take boardroom discussions down dark alleys. We have seen a director interrupt the first five minutes of a CEO’s boardroom presentation and sour the mood of both board and management for the remainder of the day. The result is to impair, even negate, a board’s capacity to lead the firm. As in any group, a dysfunctional member can sabotage the entire team.” The authors recommend six personal qualities to look for in a board leader (often the board chair in nonprofit circles): 1) Executive experience, 2) Respect and confidence, 3) Collaboration and restraint, 4) Personal bonding, 5) Personal comfort, and 6) Resilience. Again—not for the weak-hearted. Board leaders (or board chairs) “can anticipate at least one major crisis during their tenures.”  Under the “personal comfort” commentary, they share this wisdom: “Yet another factor defining the board leader is a sense of comfort in one’s own skin and place in life, with nothing yet to prove or still to achieve, most often the product of a long and successful career as a corporate leader in one’s own right—no coveting of the chief executive’s office, no longing for operational control.” Learning boards will discover vast insights and practical next steps:    • Boards should ask new CEOs to draft a succession plan immediately (and the annual self-assessment should measure progress).    • Caution! Leaders can change dramatically when they get the brass ring.    • Nothing can make up for the wrong choice of CEO.    • Ten principles for finding the right CEO (Warning: “Review outside consultants carefully to prevent conflicts of interest.”)    • In risk management, why quantification alone is a false crutch.    • The value of a one-pager with agenda/decision highlights sent before every meeting    • The learned art of what to feed to the board    • How to coach new board members to stay at the right “altitude” in board meetings    • How to get maximum value from an advisory council or board (They quote Roger Kenny who says advisory boards are “like the Marines: They get you on the beach.”) And then this PowerPoint-worthy wisdom: “Execution is where management starts and the board stops.” Oh, my. There is sooooo much more I’d like to add—but I must stop. This is a 2014 Book-of-the-Year contender, and it’s only March. Enjoy! To order from Amazon, click here for Boards That Lead: When to Take Charge, When to Partner, and When to Stay Out of the Way, by Ram Charan, Dennis Carey and Michael Useem.    Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) In Chapter 11 the authors present two real-life case studies: one board created value, the other destroyed valued. “It was as if the board had embraced Will Roger’s famous dictum, 'If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can’t it get us out?'" Can you think of a board that either created or destroyed value? 2) In Checklist 12: “Retaining, Reviving or Relieving the Chief Executive,” the authors ask “Are performance metrics and severance terms well in place before advancing toward dismissal?”  How about your organization—is the answer to that question in writing in your Board Policies Manual? "Permission-to-Play" Values Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit In my cycle through the 20 management buckets, this issue features Chapter 8, The Culture Bucket, and this reminder: If your staff and board can’t recite, from memory, your core values—then they can’t live them out. For a reminder on the four kinds of values (as described by Patrick Lencioni), read his Harvard Business Review article, “Make Your Values Mean Something.” What many organizations describe as “core values,” Lencioni says are merely “permission-to-play” values and are not unique to your organization. For more on values, read Lencioni’s book, The Advantage.       NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here at John Pearson's Buckets 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 • John Pearson's Buckets Podcast ECFA BLOG on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations”   Add your thoughts to John's latest blog post for boards, "The Empty Chair Syndrome."  PLUS! View the short video on the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series: No. 1: Recruiting Board Members and No. 2: Balancing Board Roles (DVD and Viewing Guides).