A conversation for young leaders
Listen in on an interview with Tony Morgan. Tony is a writer, consultant and leadership guru. Check out his blog here and his book, Killing Cockroaches here.
Be sure to sign up for the next Backstage Leadership class starting in January. Get to ask questions to great leaders like Mark Batterson, Dan Cathy, Ken Blanchard and Mike Foster.Click here for more info.
Here is a quick list of things I’m thankful for. In no particular order.
My amazing wife. I have a house. I have a car that runs. I have food to eat. I have a phone that rings now. My silver Mac. My sins are forgiven. I have awesome parents. I have awesome in laws. My beautiful nieces and nephews. I can read. I’m healthy. The Office. Backstage Leadership. Dreams. Great friends. My older, shorter brother. Chick-fil-A. Freedom. Our country. Those in the military. Clemson Football. Clemson Basketball. Mentors. My library. Getting an A on a Theology paper. My grandparents. Fried turkey. Mint Chocolate Chip milk shakes. TOMs. V-necks. My Taylor 414CE. Missionaries. Great preachers. Church Planters. Chuck Colson. Hulu. Amazon.com. Moleskine. The Word. and many, many, many other things. Happy Thanksgiving.
The past week has been crazy for some friends of mine. Through extremely weird and ironic circumstances, their attempt to bring radical integrity to leaders changed courses when Zondervan pulled Deadly Viper off the book shelves. I don’t want to get into he said she said stuff, but I guess there were issues on both sides of the story. But, here’s the cool part. Mike and Jud have also been working on the other side of the equation of radical integrity which is radical grace. They want those that fail (and yes, we all fail) to receive radical grace.
I think there are some amazing lessons that can be learned through this and be sure to check out the letter from Mike below. One of those lessons is that God is always in control. I think its hysterical that Mike could be called racist or demeaning when he cares so much about lifting others up. But I also have that much more respect for him that he didn’t lash out, he waited and trusted in God. God is in control even when it seems like things are spinning the other way. Second lesson, leading is hard and you will get knocked down. Thankful Mike and Jud got back up.
Mike has been an amazing influence on me and I am thankful for that friendship. Mike was the very first person to commit to speaking for Backstage Leadership. He has believed in me and encouraged me and I want you to help me do the same for him. Below is a note from Mike on how to help with his new project People of the Second Chance. Thanks Mike.
We’re looking for a few people to join our communications and creativity team. This is a volunteer position, but has lots of perks! You’ll get to help shape the ministry with your ideas, energy and creativity. Plus you’ll get to join all the learning sessions with Mark Batterson, Ken Blanchard, Dan Cathy and more.
If you are interested, fill out this form and we’ll be in touch:
Here’s an interview with Kyle, who has been a part of 2 huge new start ups and has some great insight. His first project was launching a new TV station, that’s right, a TV station called Halogen. Its available to 13 million people across the US. The second start up is a really cool project called Help-Portrait. What started as a little ideas has spread to thousands of people. On 12/12/09, thousands of photographers across country are taking portraits of people who can’t afford it for free. Its a very simple idea of love and compassion. Listen in as Kyle talks about these projects.
Be sure to sign up for the next Backstage Leadership class starting in January. Get to ask questions to great leaders like Mark Batterson, Dan Cathy, Ken Blanchard and Mike Foster.
Having a brief interview with Tony Morgan. He is a cockroach killing, leadership, strategy, web 2.0 guru. Post your any questions you’d like answered here. Should be a fun time.
This past week, my wife and some friends went to the Cirque de Soleil. If you are unfamiliar with the show, its a high intensity, acrobatic, crazy body contortions show. As we watched people fly through the air and land on small beams or flipping on the trapeze to be caught by the next guy, I could not stop thinking about how crucial everyone is to the success of the program.
This was one of the best illustrations of trust in a team I’ve ever seen. One of the stunts was six guys. 4 guys held two balance beams on their shoulders while the other two did crazy jumps and flips…and yes, landing back on the balance beam. For the grand finale of the stunt, one guy jumped incredibly high (I’d estimate 18 feet in the air) and did 3 flips, but he didn’t go straight up. He moved to our left a few feet so the two guys holding the balance beam on their shoulders had to move over and place the beam exactly in the landing pattern of his feet. It was unbelievable. (Look at 51 seconds on the video to see what I mean)
My next thought was:
