Category: Self-Improvement

Leadership & Self-Deception

The worst of all deceptions is self-deception. - Plato

April—the month we celebrate “Fool’s Day”—was marked for my study of the Futility of Folly  and Avoiding the Fool.   Since yesterday was “Honesty Day,” it’s a good time to reflect on my post summarizing The (Honest) Truth about Dishonesty.

When I consider folly from a leadership perspective, I’m reminded of a book recommended to me by a former NASA HR Director more than ten years ago: The Arbinger Institute’s Leadership and Self-Deception.

As Amazon points out, “Since its original publication in 2000, Leadership and Self-Deception has become an international word-of-mouth phenomenon (more than 2 million copies have been sold to date). Rather than tapering off, it sells more copies every year. The book’s central insight—that the key to leadership lies not in what we do but in who we are—has proven to have powerful implications not only for organizational leadership but in readers’ personal lives as well.”

Click here to learn more

Are You Practicing the Pause Principle?

Managers assert drive and control to get things done; leaders pause to discover new ways of being and achieving . - Kevin Cashman

This week is our Spring Break in Houston, Texas—a week-long break from school, designed to recharge and refresh before finishing the year strong.  The principle behind Spring Break is consistent with the Biblical Principle of Sabbath.  Last April’s focus—from my year-long study of the Ten Commandments—was on the Fourth Commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”  Check out my posts on Sabbath Rest and Marva Dawn’s Keeping the Sabbath Wholly.

From a leadership perspective, Kevin Cashman urges leaders to step back in order to lead forward.  His 2012 book, The Pause Principle, offers many practical suggestions.

Click here to learn how pause powers performance.