Leadership

At a glance, "Leadership" seems to be a vast and complex topic.  Its been the foundation of thousands of studies, hundreds of thousands of articles and more than a few hours in classrooms from MBA's to Seminaries.  Opinions on what leadership is, how to exercise it and how to "fix" it abound.

In 1989, I attended a Pastor's conference at Muskoka Baptist Conference, two hours north of Toronto, ON.  At the time, I was an Associate Pastor in a church in Toronto.

The speaker was the pastor of a growing church in  La Mesa, CA.  I'd never heard of him but I remember one of the first things he said.

I’m at the spring “Get Energized” event for the Dearborn County Chamber of Commerce (that’s Indiana... not Michigan).  It could be entitled “Lessons in Leadership”.

Years ago I purchased a tiny book called "Swanson's Written Rules of Management".  I came across it this week while I was re-arranging some bookshelves.  Bill Swanson was the CEO of Raytheon when he compliled the book.  Rule #32 is one of my favorites.

When you read about new companies, especially in the startup space, one of the topics you’ll see over and over again is this idea of “culture”.  To be sure, it’s an important topic and can be a true distinction (think Uber vs. Lyft).

Two Inc. magazine articles came through my feed this morning and a mashup of the two topics they addressed seems appropriate.

Leaders influence people at every level. Some lead thousands or even millions, others lead one or two. The success of their leadership isn't found in the number of people in their "chain of command", but how they influence those for whom they are responsible.

I had the privilege of delivering the morning keynote at JoomlaDay Chicago this past weekend. I presented the State of the Joomla! Union talk, similar to the one in Sydney last November.