Leadership
Items on leadership and its personal and public implications
Not in Our Time
Thu 12 Apr 2007 • Responses: 6 • by Al Sikes
A culture of short-term thinking has been a useful ally to partisan gridlock.
“Will there not be peace and security in my lifetime?” With those words King Hezekiah comforted himself while setting aside Isaiah’s warnings that his descendants and his kingdom’s wealth would be taken by the Babylonians. Millennia later, a “not in my time” attitude is one of our most formidable cultural and political challenges. Too many seem to say, “tomorrow—leave that to the forecasters” (and chance).
On Wilberforce and the Clapham Group
Fri 23 Feb 2007 by TTF Staff
Here are some books and links for further reading on Wilberforce and his circle. We're pleased to see that the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade is leading to much new publishing activity. Our Entrepreneurs of Life curriculum also has a section on Wilberforce.
Let us know if we missed anything!
Gratitude and Leading in Challenging Times
Sat 18 Nov 2006 • Responses: 4 • by Fred Harburg
“Genuine gratitude in the face of difficulty is the attribute that most distinguishes the great from the good.”
Selfless gratitude—the ability to appreciate the goodness of life while simultaneously feeling deep empathy for the pain and suffering of others—is one of a leader’s most important qualities. Yet the anxieties of a world rife with terrorism, economic uncertainty, illnesses, hunger, and injustice, can choke the lifeblood from one’s sense of gratitude. What’s a leader to do?
In closely observing senior leaders from many different walks of life, I have seen that genuine gratitude in the face of difficulty is an attribute—perhaps the attribute—that most distinguishes the great from the good. There are three reasons gratitude is such an essential quality for men and women who are called to positions of service as leaders. First, gratitude is the key to authentic emotional connection. Second, it is the basis for emotional resilience. Finally, the expression of genuine gratitude unlocks the door to discretionary effort.
The Dynamics of Cultural Change (Part Two)
Thu 09 Nov 2006 • Responses: 1 • by William Edgar
Part Two of Two: The Process of Cultural Transformation
Senior Fellow Bill Edgar talks about the tensions we face as we work and pray for real transformation in people and cultures. In this second of two parts, he discusses strategies for cultural change that are respectful both of God’s will and our own responsibility.
Iraq: Close to a Decision-Point?
Tue 31 Oct 2006 • Responses: 5 • by David Aikman
When you liberate a nation from a tyrannical ruler—in this case Saddam Hussein—without being able to determine its post-dictatorship development, you have the worst of both worlds.
The mid-term US Congressional and Senate elections, only days away, will in some constituencies in the country hinge on the attitude of voters for or against the US administration’s policy on Iraq. The outcome of the forthcoming US presidential election in 2008 may, in turn, become a referendum by the American people on whether they consider the conduct of the war to have been a success or a failure.
Despite partisan differences over strategy and tactics to be used by the US in Iraq, however, there is a surprisingly broad consensus in Washington on what the reality on the ground is.
The Dynamics of Cultural Change
Tue 24 Oct 2006 • Responses: 2 • by William Edgar
Part One of Two: The Possibility of Cultural Transformation
Senior Fellow Bill Edgar talks about the tensions we face as we work and pray for real transformation in people and cultures. In this first of two parts, he discusses a biblical perspective on change that acknowledges both the authority of Jesus and our own responsibility to act. Which of our strategies are wisest and most attuned to the way change actually happens?
Freeing the Slaves of the Market
Fri 08 Sep 2006 • Responses: 3 • by Vigen Guroian
Why (and how) we should teach literature to business students
Dr. Vigen Guroian has concluded that his college is “complicit in producing so-called educated people who are deaf to wisdom, blind to beauty, and incapable of mounting an argument for goodness and truth against evil and falsehood.” In response, he decided this spring to try an experiment with a class of business undergrads, helping them to make the distinction between a truly liberating education and mere training for work, showing them how literature can help make them—and us—more fully human. This is his story.
To Change the World
Wed 03 May 2006 by James Davison Hunter
A fresh perspective on cultural change
In this transcript of our popular 2002 audio Briefing, James Davison Hunter shares a vision for cultural change with with the Trinity Forum Board of Trustees. We live at a time of unprecedented changes and challenges, he argues, but precisely for this reason it is also a time of extraordinary opportunity. In a time like ours—fluid, unstable, volatile—everything is to play for, and we have a real chance to foster a culture that will promote human flourishing.
Control. Fear. Hope.
Mon 24 Apr 2006 by Peter Edman
I just ran across a headline about how many leaders around the world are suffering from low popularity. It reminded me of a favorite book of mine.
Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch has been out for a few years now. It’s one of his Discworld series of fantasy novels, but don’t let that stop you: this is the novel that got critic Michael Dirda to compare Pratchett to Chaucer. The book is that good. What makes it so, at least for me, is the way it helps you think through the limits of leadership and what we can really control. Sometimes things are just complicated.
On Friendship
Mon 28 Nov 2005 by TTF Staff
These are some books we recommend for further reading on the topic of Friendship, the subject of our Reading by Cicero.
- Aelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual Friendship (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1974).
- Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics (books 8 & 9). One of the classic treatments of friendship.
Richard Lamb, The Pursuit of God in the Company of Friends (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2003). An in-depth and practical contemporary handbook on spiritual friendship with annotated bibliography.- C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves (Harvest Books, 1960, 1971).
- Lilian B. Rubin, Just Friends: The Role of Friendship in Our Lives (New York: Harper & Row, 1985). A psychological study.
- Caroline J. Simon, The Disciplined Heart: Love, Destiny, & Imagination (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997). Discusses friendship and other loves in the context of literature and philosophy. Accessible and insightful.
