Posting here several of the books I’ve read this summer, along with a comment or two about them.  Click the book photo for the Amazon link.  Hope these are helpful!

“Principle of the Path: How to Get From Where You Are To Where You Want to Be,” by Andy Stanley -Direction, not intention determines destination.  If I want to travel from Seattle to Los Angeles by car the best route is I-5.  If I take I-90 eastbound, and sincerely want to go to Los Angeles, intend and believe I’m going to Los Angels, tell others I’m going to Los Angeles, I’ll still end up in Chicago eventually.  Same is true in life, with our finances, with our relationships, and with our spiritual journeys.  Great read.

“Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit,” by Francis Chan – Stimulating and thought provoking reading about the presence of the Holy Spirit within each believer, and how easy it is to live outside of His power, presence, guidance, comfort, etc.  Helpful mini-biographies and specific direction provides insight into how we might reverse that neglect.

“Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God,” by Francis Chan -How amazing is God’s love for YOU?  Read this book, and allow God’s Word and Francis’ insight bring healing, hope, forgiveness and a fresh sense of His love for you.  Francis writes: “Do you recognize the foolishness of seeking fulfillment outside of Him? Do you understand that it’s impossible to please God in any way other than wholehearted surrender? Do you grasp the beauty and deep joy of walking in genuine intimacy with God, our holy Father and Friend? Do you want to see God more than you desire security?”

“The Power of a Whisper:  Hearing God.  Having the Guts To Respond.” by Bill Hybels -I’ve never met an ernest believer that did NOT want to know God’s will or to hear His voice when it concerns security, love, forgiveness, identity, guidance, comfort, and life purpose.  This is an outstanding read with very practical guidelines that will help you cultivate and listen for the ‘whisper,’ discern the truth, and ultimately respond to it.

Beach at Westport, WA

How to impassion and motivate the people that serve with you . . .

• You cannot inspire passion in people if you are not passionate yourself.
  • Your leadership must come from the divine, inner, sacred place.
• You cannot inspire passion in people unless the vision/mission is bigger than you.
• You cannot inspire passion in people if they are not already connected to God.
• You cannot inspire passion in people if they are diluted and filled with false, wrong thoughts.
• You cannot inspire passion in people if you ask them to do something beyond their abilities.
• You cannot inspire passion in people if you think emotion is the same as passion.  It is not.
• Two categories of leaders:  builders and bankers
  • Builders start a fire out of nothing.  Joseph was a builder.  Built in the prison!
  • A banker can stabilize it, maintain it, keep it functioning.
    • People who do what you do compete with you, not complete you.  Building a good team requires that we don’t bring people around us that do the same things we do.  We need to get people who are good at what we are not good at.
• A constituent is people who are for what you are for; confidants are people who are for YOU.
• A comrade is a person who is against what you are against.  They are fighters!

• Authenticity, energy, candor, differentiation
  • Leaders have to be authentic:  don’t be something other than who you are; leaders need to be transparent
  • Anyone can be a whirling dervish, leaders energize the people around them.  Energizing is not hyping them.. But energizing people is about getting them to FEEL the vision, which assumes that the leader already believes in and feels that vision.
  • Candor – speaking the truth; brings speed, less meetings, etc.
  • Differentiation – top 20%; middle 70%; 10% that should be gone (Welch identified and paid employees in this way).  Some companies spend way too much time and money trying to help the 10%.
    • Attitude of the top 20% . . .  Filled with energy, good values, good behavior, no envy, celebrate success in others, they hire great people,  willing to promote and share others, like to see others do well; generous.

• Founder and “Chief Shoe Giver” of TOMS Shoes, Inc.
• Acknowledged as one of today’s most dynamic serial entrepreneurs, Blake Mycoskie launched five successful companies before the age of 30. He is best known as the founder and “chief shoe giver” of TOMS shoes, a for-profit company with a unique social enterprise model that has drawn tremendous media attention. Providing a new pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair sold, they have distributed more than 600,000 pairs of shoes to children around the world to date.
• http://www.toms.com     –    http://www.onedaywithoutshoes.com/
• Great story, great interview.  Check out the websites!
• If you want to create change, you must ask people to help/join you

• His talk is about:  Human Motivation
• Human Beings have a biological drive and also a reward/punishment drive.  We also have a third drive:  purpose, learning, interesting, meaning, inherently fun, about personal development, etc.
• The science of understanding the drives -normally organizations don’t consider the third drive.
• “Effective organizations compensate people in amounts and in ways that allow individuals to forget mostly about compensation—and instead, focus on the work itself.”
• Are we making the wrong assumptions about people?
• Two false assumptions:
  • Human beings are simple machines: if you press the right levers in the right way, they will do what you want them to do.  Absolutely not true.
  • Human beings are blobs, basically passive and inert and respond only to carrots and sticks.  (Our nature is really active and engaged.)
• Three key elements/enduring motivations
  • Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose (AMP)
    • Autonomy- management is a technology from the 1850’s, designed to get compliance.  But we don’t want compliance, we want engagement.  Self-direction leads to engagement!
      • Time, team, task and technique.  Autonomy over those four elements leads to engagement.
        • Try a Fed-Ex day!  20% time (work on what ever you want as long as it is not what you normally do:  gmail was a 20% time project)
    • Mastery- making progress is inherently motivating.  It’s here that you lose a sense of time and self; ‘in the moment,’ sense of flow present.  Mastery is achieved with good feedback for the worker– and each worker should take it into their own hands to assess progress and gain feedback.
    • Purpose- Become animated by something larger than yourself.  Diagnostic tool:  when people talk about your organization, do they use ‘we’ or ‘they?’
• Change happens when I recognize that I can change what I will do tomorrow.

• President and CEO of W.L. Gore & Associates; Innovation Leaders and makers of GORE-TEX® Products
• “We recognize the importance of fostering a work environment where people feel motivated, engaged, and passionate about the work they do.”
• A good company fosters an environment of collaboration.
• Situational hierarchy allows for leadership based upon the situation, arising from where the knowledge is– which allows for greater participation of members of the group.
• Leadership by influence encourages ownership, and assumes that everyone can make an important and significant contribution.
  • Also great power in small teams and in the long view
• “Our model requires leaders to look at their roles differently.  They’re not commanders; they’re not linchpins.  Their job is to make the rest of the organization successful.”
• “You have to look at the values that are embedded in your company:  What behaviors have been rewarded and reinforced over the decades?  Is it a culture that really believes in and encourages individuals?  Does it foster a collaborative spirit?  Does it encourage knowledge sharing?  . . . One of the biggest mistakes an organization can make is to articulate all these great values but then not live up to them.”
• Leaders become leaders because there are people that want to follow them.
  • As a result, leaders need to spend a great deal of time explaining themselves and their decisions.