Many people have taken their shot at this, but this is what I was thinking today about what makes a good meeting. Always ask yourself “What can uniquely be accomplished by us being together?” Don’t allow anything on the agenda that can be accomplished another way. Five elements of a good meeting: Engage your hands: […]
Archive | Leadership
4 principles for responding to negative feedback
If you are not ever receiving negative feedback about what you are doing you have a problem. You are either not trying anything risky or people aren’t invested enough to care about what you are doing. So we must have a plan for how to attend to negative feedback. Four principles for responding to negative […]
Remedy must match the diagnosis
According to Mrs Linn at the Oaks Academy there are three reasons why kids don’t do what they are asked to do. Ignorance: they don’t actually know how to do what they were asked to do. Remedy: Information or education. Weakness: they know what they are supposed to do but they just can’t get themselves to […]
Believe in me
Do you perform better or worse when people around you show you that they believe in you? Do you want the people around you to perform their best in their chosen endeavor? Do you communicate, with sincerity, to the people around you that you believe in them? What do you need to do differently to […]
Don’t Avoid. Be Brief.
I ran into a friend of mine who has had a terrible summer. Not everyone knows about the heartbreak in her life but I know she thinks about it endlessly. I saw her at Starbucks and gave her a hug and quietly said “I heard (the news) and I want you to know that Annie […]
Doing what you are uniquely created to do.
The Indianapolis YL staff used to meet weekly and each week we would do an activity we called “3 Giveaways.” Everyone had to get out their to do list and find three things to give away that week. The rule was that only one could go to the office administrator. We wanted to develop this […]
Heartbreak v Disappointment
*Heartbroken for someone is a fair emotion. Disappointed in someone is not a fair emotion. Heartbroken for someone is primarily concerned with the other. Disappointed in someone is primarily concerned with self. People can feel the difference. It is appropriate for us to care enough about people to be heartbroken over them living outside […]
Genuine
genuine |ˈjenyo͞oin| truly what something is said to be; authentic: One of the best parts of my current role in Young Life is that I get to work with folks in small towns, suburbs and urban settings. I get to work with high school students, college students, parents, administrators, CEO’s, YL staff. I get […]
Precision and creativity are not mutually exclusive.
When I was headed to college I didn’t own any CD’s and my friends didn’t think this was okay so they gave me two CD’s to give me some credibility- Nirvana Unplugged and Pearl Jam “Ten.” Still today I listen to sports talk radio (almost) exclusively. Annie on the other hand loves music and loves […]
Who you are not what you know
I was a social work major in college and most of my professors were burned out former therapists who were capping off their careers in the classroom. After Dr Schneider used the last hour of my last class plugging his electric guitar into his amp and playing cover songs for us he said, “Here’s the […]