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).

Strike Season

 

Issue No. 688 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Aug. 14, 2026) spotlights the remarkable story of a high school football team playing half the season without their coaches. They coached themselves! It’s a true sports story page-turner. Plus, click here for back issues posted at the new location for John Pearson’s Buckets Blog, including my review of Next Level Leader: Beyond Manager. Beyond Coach. A New Leadership Paradigm for Mission-Driven Organizations. Plus, check out these bite-sized podcasts (7 to 9 minutes)—perfect for your weekly staff meeting.   You’re on the school board—and those testosterone-fueled adolescent football players demand you let them coach themselves during the teachers' union strike. What’s your decision?  (Graphic: ChatGPT)   The Action and Drama—Movie-Worthy! If you love football…this is a must-read. (I couldn’t put the book down.) If you love a page-turning true story…with superb writing and irreverent (yet poignant) moments with coaches, players, dads, moms, teachers, school boards, and Friday night fans…this is a must-read. (Did I mention deep friendships and hilarious nicknames?)   Strike Season: The True Story of a Team That Played on When the Coaches Walked Out by Michael Eck (Aug. 11, 2026)   You’re 16. You’re the quarterback—on the verge of a senior year record-breaking football season at Mount Lebanon High School, near Pittsburgh. Your dad has big plans for you: a full-ride to Notre Dame, his alma mater. What could go wrong? Michael Eck (yep—the author is the QB) delivers a first-person instant replay of the hopes and fears of the Mount Lebanon Blue Devils football squad in that 1979 season. I hope he writes more books because his first book (amazing!) is everything you want in a sports story. But why did the coaches walk out after just two games that fall? Strike Season details the battles between the school board and the teachers' union. And the battles on the field and in the boardroom. Head Coach Art Walker was also a teacher—and a union member.  What would you do, Coach? Pledge your loyalty to a rowdy collection of teenagers (“A bunch of adolescent boys, amped up on testosterone, who prided themselves on not listening to authority?”)—or reluctantly acquiesce to your union, lobbying for greatly-needed increases in teacher pay and benefits? (Most teachers couldn’t even afford to live in Mt. Lebanon.)  I wouldn’t dare ruin the story for you—but just know this: the coaches reluctantly honor the strike and the football team becomes a pawn in the school board vs. union negotiations. Shockingly, QB Eck and his three gutsy teammates (the four co-captains) plead with the school board to allow them to play without coaches. (You read that right!) Yeah! We can coach ourselves. We’ve been playing football together since fifth grade! The season (and our college scholarships) are all on the line. We could go all the way this year. Come on. Have a heart. It will bring the community together. Let us play! What could go wrong? And play they did. The PR on the book calls this gem, “Friday Night Lights meets Lord of the Flies.” It’s actually better than that. View the author’s 2-minute book trailer. Eck was interim CEO of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Village and had a 40-year career on Wall Street. Author Michael Eck carried this true football story in his mind for 50 years. It’s worth the wait! Imagine—these high school jocks coaching themselves!   You’re in the training room (and yes…you’ll read the occasional inappropriate word from their locker room lexicon). You’re in the huddle—and you’re breaking up fights. When you mess up, instead of laps-around-the-track, the punishment is running up a steep hill by the football field. You’re one of the warriors from The Odyssey (they studied it in class!) and you have a nickname like: Swoop, Pecker, Gusto, Sully, Cracker (last name Ritz), and Psycho. (I’m guessing Hollywood is salivating over this book right now.) And you’re at the family dinner table with his parents, three sisters, and two brothers. (Every scene is a case study in the four social styles: Drivers, Analyticals, Amiables, and Expressives). No cell phones or emails in 1979—so communication is not nuanced. It’s often raw. The narrative beautifully captures the emotions of all the warring parties and sibling rivalries. (At a reunion, the brothers asked Coach Walker which Eck brother played on the best team!) You’re also at Mass. The author’s dad (a litigation attorney) was at 6 a.m. mass every morning “like a true ‘everyday Catholic.’” Eck describes a game during his junior year during a desperate comeback attempt when he threw the ball for 24 out of 25 plays in the second half. They lost. What more could go wrong? “I was so beat up, my knees refused to bend in church that Sunday and I could not kneel in the pew. My dad thought I was being disrespectful to our Lord, so he sent me to the confessional booth after Mass. The priest had seen the game and told me to say a few Hail Marys and a couple of Our Fathers. On the way out of the booth, he advised me to keep my elbow up when I cocked the ball.” (Everyone gave him pointers! LOL.) The action and drama—movie-worthy. The life lessons (even for the jocks)—stunning. And the family drama—poignant. (This will preach.) I’m reminded of the crowds of dutiful parents and grandparents faithfully showing up at practices and games. Even for those losing seasons. My parents endured high school football games for a zillion years for their five sons who all played football for Queen Anne High School in Seattle (4 years per son X 5 sons X a zillion games!). I played defensive end and center and I have the requisite torn ACL and total knee replacement scars to prove it. Back then, my mom (not the equipment guys) washed her sons' uniforms—always muddy. Eck writes about his football-loving dad: “My path as a player became a core part of my relationship with my father as I struggled to get closer to him.” Really? Football and feelings? The author thanks his wife, Liz. “She was the push and inspiration for going ‘deeper’ on an emotional level than I originally felt comfortable exploring.” Oh, my. At Notre Dame with his dad for a campus visit, Michael Eck see his dad’s photo on a wall—and his boxing accomplishments. Who knew? One of Eck’s three “cherished keepsakes of my parents that I look at almost every day”—a black-and-white photo of his father in a boxing pose. “It hangs prominently in my home gym to remind me of his vigor and the connection we made on that special weekend. It also still makes me wonder what else I do not know about the man who raised me and passed away in 2013.” And this: “He never explained what drove him. I can only guess that he was determined to chase his own dreams. I kick myself for not asking the right questions when I had the chance. To be fair, though, he wasn’t big on opening up and communicating emotionally.” Yikes! So now I’m wondering what I’ve kept hidden from my son, daughter-in-law, and five grandchildren? When I’m gone, what might they wish I had shared with them? Gut check! (Of course, this reminds me of three books: Postcards from PopPop, by Bill Butterworth, Yours Truly: An Obituary Writer's Guide to Telling Your Story, by James R. Hagerty, and Legacy: 60 Life Reflections for the Next Generation, by Stephen A. Macchia.) If this game (review) had gone into overtime, there'd be space to tell you more about: #1. The key role that “bench players” had and can have—especially with soaking-wet uniforms. LOL. (Great companion read: Lessons From the Bench, by Brandon Bakke.) #2. Why one university recruited two Blue Devil teammates as a package deal. Brilliant! #3. Why breaking the rules—sometimes—works out. (Read Chapter 12 and learn who called that play!) #4. Why Eck, equipped with an MBA and marketplace aspirations in the financial sector, noted on his resume that he was a player/coach on his own high school team! #5. The ingenious approach the author employed to explain the strike details—even though a 16-year-old jock was uninterested—as some readers might also be. (Hint: his savvy mother knew his love language.) #6. When the strike ended and the coaches returned (“the sheriff was back in town and it would be his way or the highway”) you’ll attend a master class on how to reassume leadership. Ain’t easy. #7. The poetry. Oh, my. “I would simply step back and admire their work, marveling at the waves of white jerseys clearing gobs of turf for the running backs.” #8. Brilliant! The author’s final play (in the book): a tribute to his teammates—and where they are today. I read every word and every memory those guys recalled. Teammate Anthony “Gusto” Agostinelli (#26), played four years of college ball and served 40 years as a pilot with major airlines. Eck writes:      “Father and son then raised the stakes. If Gusto cracked the starting lineup as a freshman, they wagered, his father would have to give up chain-smoking. The night before his very first game, Gusto called his dad from the team hotel and told him to toss his unfiltered Pall Malls. He had earned a starting role. His father never smoked again.” TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for Strike Season: The True Story of a Team That Played on When the Coaches Walked Out, by Michael Eck. Listen on Libro (5 hours, 40 minutes). And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.     View the new series, John Pearson's Buckets Podcast, with AI-generated summaries of John's book reviews (short and snappy: just 7 to 9 minutes each).   YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) Who’s your customer? If you're involved with youth groups, schools, camps, campus ministries, or other programs for youth—are your programs targeting the appropriate customer? Author Michael Eck describes five categories of high school students in 1979:      • “The jocks (athletes)      • The freaks (long hair, loose clothing, and disregard for authority)      • The geeks (short hair, tight clothing, and academically inclined)      • The loafers (potheads)      • The car people (muscle heads showcasing their Trans Ams, Chevy Novas, or jacked-up trucks).” 2 ) Read one of these remarkable sports stories. What are five leadership lessons you found?      • Paradise Found: A High School Football Team's Rise from the Ashes, by Bill Plaschke (Read my review.)      • Lessons From the Bench: Unlocking the Impact of Bench Players on Teams and in Organizations, by Brandon H. Bakke (Read my review. View the podcast.)      • The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse, by Tom Verducci. (Read my review. Go Cubs!)      • The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, by Daniel James Brown (Read my review.)       SECOND READS: Fresh Solutions From Classic Books You have changed—and your problems have changed—since you read this the first time! Book #56 of 99: Spiritual Leadership For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #56 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. Spiritual Leadership:  Principles of Excellence for Every Believer  J. Oswald Sanders (Jan. 1, 1967)   My buckets-leaning heart was blessed to know that Oswald Sanders included a chapter on “The Art of Delegation” in this masterpiece on spiritual leadership. He also quotes Harold J. Ockenga, “Read to re-fill the wells of inspiration.” (Sanders notes that Ockenga took a suitcase full of books on his honeymoon! Yikes!)    • Read my review (Issue No. 153, Aug. 26, 2009).    • Order from Amazon.    • Management Bucket #16 of 20: The Delegation Bucket. Enmeshed in Secondary Detail. “There is no virtue in doing more than our fair share of work,” writes J. Oswald Sanders in his oft-quoted classic, Spiritual Leadership. Referencing the delegation counsel from Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, Sanders adds, “Moses could doubtless have done the task better than the 70 men whom he selected, but had he persisted in doing so, he would soon have been only a memory." Sanders cautions that the person who is “in a place of leadership who fails to delegate is enmeshed in a morass of secondary detail that not only overburdens him but deflects him from his primary responsibilities.”   So…what’s the spiritual issue at play in effective delegation? “It is a mistake to assume more duties than we can adequately and satisfactorily discharge,” he warns. “It is good to be able to recognize and accept our own limitations.”  Leaders who have spiritual depth have delegation depth also.   CLICK HERE FOR BOOKS BY JOHN      For more on the Delegation Bucket, read Chapter 16 in Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook, and read why Alec Mackenzie wonders if you might be seriously overpaid! See his “Ten Delegation Questions.” And read the blog, “Great Boards Delegate Their Reading,” from Lesson 38 in Lessons from the Nonprofit Boardroom. 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. Writing Your Story VIEW the AI-generated summary (9 minutes) of the book, Stories of Sheer Pure Grace, by Nancy Nelson, and learn why you should encourage others to write their stories. BONUS! As of today, 25 podcasts (7 to 9 minutes each) are posted here. Perfect life-long learning snippets for your weekly staff meeting. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S REVIEWS ON: Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets   Funny & Tragic I’ve read dozens of books about friendship, accountability, and tough love. But this transparent true story of David Feherty’s battle with addiction—well…I’ll never forget it. Tom Watson’s friendship is stunning. Read my review of Feherty: The Remarkably Funny and Tragic Journey of Golf's David Feherty, by John Feinstein.  Read my review here and more book reviews at the Pails in Comparison Blog. • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations • PODCAST: John Pearson's Buckets Podcast

The Invisible Gorilla

 

Issue No. 325 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (May 13, 2015) recommends the latest resource from ECFA on conflicts of interest. It’s all about elephants and gorillas!   16 Minutes With the Elephant in the Room  Would your nonprofit board, church board—and their leaders—invest 16 minutes to address the elephant in the room—or the 800-pound gorilla?   I’m talking conflicts of interest today and, literally in 16 minutes, a new video from ECFA sheds immeasurable light on a ticklish subject most often addressed in the dark, or at least the boardroom hallway. “Addressing Board and Organizational Conflicts of Interest: Avoiding Trouble, Trouble, Trouble With Related-Party Transactions” is the hot topic in the new ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 3.   Here’s the definition—and a quick gut-check tool:  “A conflict of interest occurs when a person who is responsible for promoting the interest of the ministry, is involved, at the same time, in a competing personal interest.” One way to discern conflicts of interest is to use what Michael Batts calls the “front-page test.” He cautions: “I advise clients to use the ‘front-page test’ as a filter for deciding whether to enter into any transaction that could have a ‘negative spin’ possibility [the appearance of a conflict of interest]. That is, the board should ask the question, ‘Could this transaction or decision be reported by the media in a way that could cause embarrassment or damage to the organization or its leaders?’ If the answer is ‘yes,’ it may be best to avoid the proposed action.” Really? Average-thinking adults (staff or board) can’t sniff out a garden-variety conflict of interest? ECFA President Dan Busby says no! In his new book, Trust, he writes: “A blind man on a galloping horse at midnight could see a related-party transaction problem. But we often can’t see the problem ourselves.  The intensely focused task of leading ministries can make us blind to the obvious and blind to our blindness.” And speaking of gorillas, Busby notes the research by Christopher F. Chabris and Daniel Simons in their fascinating book, The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us. (Spoiler alert! If you have not yet viewed the “basketball passing” video, click here now—before you read further.) ECFA’s Conflicts of Interest Toolbox includes:    --one 16-minute video    --20-page Read-and-Engage Viewing Guide     --Facilitator Guide (with supplementary online resources)—and three facilitation options (30-45 minutes, 1 hour, or a board retreat guide) The DVD (video) and viewing guide address three critical questions: 1. What is a conflict of interest? 2. What are the options when boards are faced with potential conflicts of interest and related-party transactions? 3. Is it ever appropriate to enter into a business transaction with an insider—and, if so, what policies should guide that action? (Note: An “insider” is a board member, key staff, or someone else with substantial influence over the organization.) Before you ignore the elephant in the room (or the invisible gorilla), order these materials today and learn about:    • The 3 Paths for Related-Party Tests    • The 4 Steps for “Insider” Related Party Transactions    • The 7 Questions to Ask Before You Approve a Related-Party Transaction (share the Discernment Worksheet with your board and staff) ECFA reminds leaders that 2 Corinthians 8:20-21 sets the standard for reputational risk—and the two audiences you serve: “We don’t want anyone suspecting us of taking one penny of this money for ourselves. We’re being as careful in our reputation with the public as in our reputation with God.” (MSG) You’ll appreciate the “In-the-Trenches Board Interviews” video segment, “There’s an Elephant in the Room—But Let’s Just Keep the Peace!” Four fictitious board members share their humorous responses to conflicts of interest issues. (For the four viewpoints, read this ECFA governance blog.) Trust me—the video and resources will provide a very appropriate poke-in-the-ribs to keep your conflicts of interest radar tuned in.  Busby notes, “Trusted ministries do not borrow trouble with related-party transactions. These transactions are minimized to avoid even the slightest appearance of impropriety.”   The toolbox highlights four related-party scenarios. Board members and senior staff are asked to respond to each issue: “Is the ministry borrowing trouble?” The scenarios: when an organization purchases insurance from a board member; board approval of a lower-than-market interest rate loan for the top leader; and a policy that authorizes selected staff to use organizational time and resources to author books and media. How would you respond—is your ministry borrowing trouble?  “The only bad question is the one you had, but didn’t ask,” warns John Pellowe. His governance book is highlighted in the Toolbox. “You must be diligent as a director. Make sure that you ask any questions that are on your mind. As the saying goes, the only bad question is the one you had, but didn’t ask. You may think that since you have a banker on your board, you do not need to ask any financial questions because someone else is looking after that. It is your duty to ask these questions anyway. Do not rely on someone else to do your thinking.” To order from ECFA click on this title: ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 3: Addressing Board and Organizational Conflicts of Interest—Avoiding Trouble, Trouble, Trouble With Related–Party Transactions. Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) The viewing guide quotes Best Practices for Effective Boards: “In the long run, only integrity matters. In fact without integrity, there will be no long run.” Could an inadequate response to conflicts of interest in your organization be the sad obstacle to a long run? 2) Has your team viewed the "invisible gorilla" video mentioned above? (There is a short scene in the ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 3 DVD/video that will also surprise you!) Do you agree now that “we are blind to the obvious and blind to our blindness?” Note: I had the privilege of writing the script and materials for this ECFA Toolbox. Having worked with over 100 nonprofit and church boards, I’ve observed that it’s a huge blind spot for many. I urge you to use these materials ASAP—and avoid trouble, trouble, trouble! And…check out Toolbox Series No. 1: Recruiting Board Members, and Toolbox Series No. 2: Balancing Board Roles (The 3 Hats). Click here.   Zealots for Research    As we cycle through the 20 buckets, here is an insight from the Customer Bucket, Chapter 2, in Mastering the Management Buckets. Right at the top—in the Customer Bucket core competency—is this: “We are zealots for researching and understanding our markets.” So if your customer research is more anecdote than actuality, take a fascinating side trip through The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us, by Christopher F. Chabris and Daniel Simons.  The book addresses six everyday illusions:    • The illusion of attention    • The illusion of memory    • The illusion of confidence    • The illusion of knowledge    • The illusion of cause    • The illusion of potential Warning! This hard-to-put-down book will be hard on you—if you’ve based your customer research on the wrong hypotheses, incorrect associations (versus cause), and “change blindness blindness.” I’ll read this book again—maybe three times! For more resources on customers (and governance) visit the Customer Bucket and the Board Bucket webpages.

MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S REVIEWS ON: Amazon  • WEBSITE: Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations • PODCAST: John Pearson's Buckets Podcast   ECFA BLOG on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations” – Add your thoughts and comments to John Pearson’s latest blog, "A Board Prayer: The Least Words, The Least Intensity, The Least Volume." (2026 update: Read the book!) NOTICE! As of Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this blogsite.

My Ideal Bookshelf - Part 2

 

My Ideal Bookshelf - Part 2

Read Part 1 here.

In my review of My Ideal Bookshelf, I asked, “So what’s on your ideal bookshelf?” Today (April 20, 2013) I’m posting the 10 books on my ideal bookshelf:

Cathy and Carl Captured, by Dorothy Johnston
     I received this book in third grade at Elim Baptist Church, Seattle, with this inscription: “To John Pearson for doing very good work in his Sunday School class during the last quarter of 1955. Teacher – Ray Hendrickson”

     At an impressionable age, the Lord used this book and the story about the Oregon Trail missionaries, Narcissa and Marcus Whitman (also a physician), to nudge me about serving in Christian ministry. I treasure this first edition, published by Scripture Press.

The Temptation to Do Good: A Novel, by Peter F. Drucker

     Bob Buford and Fred Smith invited me to one of my Top-10 life experiences—sitting at the feet of Peter Drucker for four days in Estes Park, Colo., with 30 other Christian leaders in August 1986. He signed and gave me this book as a gift. One of my 20 management buckets is the Drucker Bucket.

Strengths Based Leadership: Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow, by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie

     “While the best leaders are not well-rounded, the best teams are.” I encourage clients constantly to leverage the 3 Powerful S’s: Strengths, Social Styles and Spiritual Gifts. This StrengthsFinder book categorizes the Gallup Organization’s 34 talent themes/strengths into four major categories: Executing, Relationship Building, Influencing, and Strategic Thinking. It is transformational for many teams and boards.

The Messiah: An Oratorio, by George Frideric Handel

     Handel wrote this enduring Christmas oratorio in 1741 in just 24 days. It’s on my ideal bookshelf because in 1984 I bought the score (252 pages, $5.95) and joined the bass section for the “Do-It-Yourself Messiah” at the Norris Cultural Arts Center auditorium in St. Charles, Ill. (Read my story.) Once a very part-time church choir director in my college years, I am still deeply moved by good music and God-honoring lyrics. The Hallelujah Chorus, of course, is on my iTunes list.

The Delicate Art of Dancing With Porcupines: Learning to Appreciate the Finer Points of Others, by Bob Phillips

     The social styles system was (and still is) a game-changer for me. Understanding the four styles (Analytical, Driver, Amiable and Expressive) has enhanced my people skills by at least 500 percent.  I’m a Driver—and any decision is better than no decision. But I need to be versatile (a key social styles concept) with my wife, Joanne, an Analytical who believes that no decision is better than the wrong decision.
     Author Bob Phillips and I learned social styles from Don German. Bob has since written several updated versions of social styles with new titles. Don was gracious enough to write “The People Bucket” chapter in my book, Mastering the Management Buckets. (There...I cleverly worked my own book in.)

15 Minutes Including Q & A: A Plan to Save the World From Lousy Presentations, by Joey Asher

     I read this on a plane enroute to a speaking engagement in 2011. I immediately and dramatically changed my presentation style from that point on, following the author’s wisdom on handling audience questions. Buy an extra copy for your pastor!

The One Year Bible (The Living Bible)

     The Living Bible breathed new life into my Bible reading, but for a Driver like me, the One Year Bible launched a holy habit in 1988 that was both deeply satisfying and wonderfully invigorating.  Copied now by almost every Bible publisher, the folks at Tyndale House Publishers gave us a profound tool with the easy-to-use format of an Old Testament portion, a New Testament portion, a Psalm, and one or more Proverbs every day—thus reading through the entire Bible in a year.
     Here is the Proverbs selection for today, April 20: “A person with good sense is respected; a treacherous person is headed for destruction. Wise people think before they act; fools don’t—and even brag about their foolishness” (Proverbs 13:15-16).

Owning Up: The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to Ask, by Ram Charan

     About half of my consulting work is in nonprofit board governance and Charan’s book is one of my favorites in this arena. Most boards are soft on Question #5: “Does the board own the strategy?” Note: In 2020, I wrote 14 blogs (one blog per question) on this book for ECFA.

Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry, by Ruth Haley Barton

     This was my 2009 book-of-the-year and I reviewed it again in 2010 to keep it on everyone’s front burner. I’ve seen only a handful of books that God has used to dramatically change the game. This is one of them.
     She writes about spiritually discerning God’s voice: “It is also important to involve the right people. One very common leadership mistake is to think that we can take a group of undiscerning individuals and expect them to show up in a leadership setting and all of a sudden become discerning!”

A Diary of Private Prayer: A Devotional Classic, by John Baillie

     Where do I start? I received this deeply encouraging devotional book in 1988 and rarely missed reading the 31 morning prayers, one per day, for 12 years until it was stolen, along with my laptop. (Maybe the thief is reading it now?)
     On the blank facing page to each prayer, I had recorded my travels by date and location, U.S. and worldwide. Combined with the poignant prayers by this Scottish Presbyterian professor, my road warrior diary was both nostalgic and meaningful.

     I bought my replacement prayer book in 2000—a hardback this time—and use it infrequently now (so it doesn’t get stale), but I’ve given dozens away to appreciative friends.

So…that’s my Top-10 list. What’s on your ideal bookshelf? (Note: For my latest list of books I've reviewed, visit the Book Bucket.)

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My Ideal Bookshelf

 

Issue No. 275 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (April 19, 2013) urges you to set aside your iPhones and iPads and enjoy a tactile browsing experience with a spectacular coffee table book. Plus, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- What's on your "ideal bookcase?" (Here's my ideal bookcase.) My Ideal Bookshelf (as of 2013) What a brilliant idea! And how will you leverage this idea with your team at work, your family and friends, your small group and your social media followers? The co-creators of My Ideal Bookshelf have served up a unique coffee table book that, at least momentarily, is more compelling than YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. The idea: invite over 100 leading cultural figures “to share the books that matter to them most; books that define their dreams and ambitions and in many cases helped them find their way in the world.” So, for example, Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers, The Tipping Point and other books, shares 12 books that have influenced him.  His next book is about crime, so he acquired 150 books on the subject. Gladwell writes, “I haven’t read them all, and I won’t. Some of them I’ll just look at. But that’s the fun part. It’s an excuse to go on Amazon. The problem is, of course, that eventually you have to stop yourself.  Otherwise you’ll collect books forever. But these books are markers for ideas that I’m interested in. That’s why it’s so important to have physical books.      "When I see my bookshelf expanding,      it gives me the illusion      that my brain is expanding, too.” Across the page from Gladwell’s book journey commentary is an original painting of his ideal bookshelf—showcasing the book spines creatively sorted by color and size. Amazingly, artist Jane Mount created 100 original paintings for this impressive work. You cannot resist browsing this book! Hmmm. I wonder what’s on Atul Gawande’s bookshelf? Have I read any of his favorites? Another writer, Andrew Sean Greer, confesses that he steals ideas from other books and “I have finally forgiven myself for not reading everything in the entire world.” A chef and writer, Gabrielle Hamilton (one of the few to include a Bible, the King James Version), writes, “I think all of these books give the reader permission to break the rules.” Then referencing Jackson Pollock and e.e. cummings, she adds, “You can’t start out using all lowercase letters and no punctuation. You have to know all the rules first. Then you can play.” Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing, was one of pro skateboarder Tony Hawk’s picks. His theme—the importance of perseverance. An illustrator and artist, Oliver Jeffers, opens his profile with this: “I picked all of these books because I think you should always judge a book by its cover—or its spine, in this case.” The mega writer James Patterson crammed 18 picks onto his ideal bookshelf. His profile enlightened: “For better or worse, I get right into the story. It’s like that rule of real estate, ‘Location, location, location,’ except for me it’s ‘Story, story, story.’ I think it’d be disastrous if everyone wrote the way I do. But I think it’s good that somebody does.” The challenge was too overwhelming for Francine Prose, a writer, to pick her ideal bookshelf because “there are a gazillion bookshelves in my house.” So she picked her all-Chekhov shelf. That was interesting, but more so her commentary about the difference between short-story writers and novelists (and baggy writing). “But then I remember that Chekhov wrote six hundred stories. And that he died at the young age of forty-four. David Gates asked this about Charles Dickens, but you could ask it about Chekhov, too: ‘Was he a Martian?’ He was not from this planet.” “Sometimes I meet ministers, and I always say to them,” writes David Sedaris (a writer),       “’If I had a church,      I’d read a Tobias Wolff story every week,      and then I’d say to people, “Go home.”’  There’s nothing else you would need to say. Every story is a manual on how to be a good person, but without ever being preachy. They’re deeply moral stories; the best of them read like parables.” I bought My Ideal Bookshelf when it was published last November and I’ve savored this morsel, page-by-page, over many insightful evenings. Some closing thoughts:    • I love books and I’m in good company.    • Whew! I’ve hardly read anything! Where did I miss that one?    • Click here to see the books on my ideal bookcase (Part 2). TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for My ideal Bookshelf. Read "John's Ideal Bookshelf" here.