No doubt, if you've been reading much of this blog, you know that I believe that the Bible is the ultimate truth and to search out it's meaning is the deeper than we can imagine.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-9 is the epitome of this truth yet depth.

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.....what gain has the worker from his toil?"

This is an excellent verse for keeping one in check while trying to stay in-the-box.

Here is what some of what the old guys have to say about these verses:

Gregory of Nazianzus - at all times you should be engaged upon the work of your salvation, because every time is suitable for a life pleasing to God.

Basil the Great - for prayer and psalmody, however, as also, indeed, for some other duties, every hour is suitable, that, while our hands are busy at their tasks, we may praise God sometimes with our tongue; or, if not, with our heart....thus in the midst of our workbwe can fulfill the duty of prayer, giving thanks to him who has granted strength to our hands for performing our tasks and cleverness to our minds for acquiring knowledge, and for having provided the materials, both that which is in the instruments we use and that which forms the matter of the arts in which we may be engaged, praying that the work of our hands may be directed toward its goal, the good please of God.

Managing Tightly

Thanks Brandon Dady for the Good-to-Great reminder: "the moment you feel the need to tightly manage someone, you've made a hiring mistake."

Courageous Follower: Taking Action

A leader leading leader is not the only one leading. A leader leading leader attracts people that follow and lead well and empowers both to take action.

Courageous Follower: pg 35 - "leaders want their staff to assume more responsibilty, initiate ideas, and take action of their own."

Some positive examples this week of a leader leading leader; Curtis staying after me for a meeting (it took 2 tries to get me in the meeting) about settings on a new piece of software that we're trying to implement, Jamie going beyond her normal responsibilities to get a problem fixed, and Austen developing a new market awareness program.

This is type of work that energizes a leader and leave him refreshed at the end of a hard day instead of worn down.

We must all learn to do the job we're hired to do and accept that the job is not all laid out on a policy or a checklist. We have to think and take action; ask questions, insure we have the knowledge and keep asking ourselves and others questions until we do.

Don't be the weakest link, take action and be a leader leading leader.

Follow well.

Teamwork and THE Box

Learning to work in the Box is not easy. All of us want something we don't have and have to be reminded to be content.

Content. Contentment. Not something we normally think of in a positive way. But, working in the box, succeeding in the box, is about being content that that you have to do with what you have. And succeeding with it.

Let's take the team I have to work with right now. I'm content with this team and it is maybe best team I've ever had. Everyone is focusing on their job duties, accepting responsibily, and striving to do their best with what we have.

Our industry is in a state of turmoil. At best, it is deep in paranioa and it should be with the results of the past few years. Defaults are at all time high and losses continue to mount.

I salute people like Carrie Hartwell, Kelley McCutcheon, Kandy Dinkins, Natalie Gaston, and Austen Smith that continue to come to work everyday and plug away at what is thrown at them.

Own Your Own Role as Followers

"It's wonderful that Henry Ford built Ford Motor Co., but so did the other 3 million people working with Henry Ford. So, yes, we all greatly need to own our own role as followers."

Ira Chaleff @ http://www.exe-coach.com/follow.htm

Deception

I read Ludlum's "The Bourne Deception" today and was struck by the author's (Van Lustbader) story line. Maybe not the story line itself as much as his sub-line; the real deception.

From Pages 128 and 129: "Human beings, it became clear to him, thrived on lies; they needed them in order to survive, be happy, even. Because the truth is often unpleasant, and people didn't care about that. Furthermore, it didn't suit many of them. They'd much rather lie to themselves, have those around them to lie to them to perserve the illusion of beauty. Realty wasn't pretty, that wasn'tthe truth."

Ponder that a bit.

There is more of this throughout this sometimes hard to follow read. Hard to follow because of the multiple plots that come together in the end. Sort of.

Though my intent was to just escape into a good novel this weekend, I really wanted it to be one that I couldn't remember when asked what I did this weekend. For sure something I wasn't looking for a pen to underline. Instead, I've been pondering how Van Lustbader's connectivity with deception, truth, and lies fits so well into my inside the box theory.

Think about it! Thriving on lies, thinking you/we have to lie to be happy or even survive is because we/they/you have to live outside the box we're all in. You/we don't want what we have, or rather, we want it, but more. You want something better

It goes all the way back to Genesis 3.

To that end.

What is difficult about Teamwork?

LinkedIn Discussion: Linked 2 Leadership: "What is difficult about Teamwork?"

Too much hope and not enough smart trust; people that aren't willing, or unable to have good conflict; leadership is unable to get real commitment; team members aren't willing to hold others accountable, nor be held accountable; desired results aren't continuously being cast and re-cast.

But, if I had to put it in 10 words or less, 'uncommon agendas that lead to bad behavior and poor results.'"