No Christmas Story? We haven’t really talked about the Christmas story proper yet. There are four gospels in the Bible. Gospel means “good news.” Four different authors give the good news from their four different perspectives, each to a different audience. Each of them touch on Christ’s birth. Except one. Matthew gives a genealogy of Jesus and introduces us to …
Horn Sections Make Rock Better: Victoria
I love the Kinks’ studio version, but this quicker live version is a lot of fun. I almost named my daughter Victoria.
Want to be attractive to Google? Learn to wrestle.
This Washington Post article from a few years back has always impressed me. Short version: Technology and STEM-oriented Google researched its employee performance. It turns out technology and STEM were not what their stars had in common. Instead, it was soft skills. The article goes on to talk about a second study that further confirmed the finding by looking at …
Want fulfilling work? Take naming seriously.
Made to Work I was sitting across the desk of a man who had worked his way up in a corporation to be managing partner. He ran one of the company’s locations, had a minority stake and participated in leadership’s inner circle. He was facing retirement. And he was not happy about it. He had done well for himself and …
Updating on Changes vs. Explaining the Changes
I’ve shared this before, but it’s worth sharing again as organizations anticipate the changes they want to make for 2021. From the Harvard Business Review: “Don’t Just Tell Employees Organizational Changes Are Coming–Explain Why.” Are you telling your employees what’s on the horizon? Are you explaining why those changes are coming? What gets in the way of those two activities? …
THIRD SUNDAY: The Candle of Joy
The Wait It’s called Gaudete Sunday, after the first Latin word spoken in the liturgy: Rejoice! Here’s a Christmas carol for the occasion. The translation of the chorus: Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born Of the virgin Mary Rejoice! Quite a contrast from the lyrics of the most traditional Advent hymn: O come, O come Emmanuel To ransom captive Israel That …
Horn Sections Make Rock Better: Sledgehammer
When I was a kid, my mom tossed out, “Yuppies are just hippies who grew up and got jobs.” If she’s right, this would be their cynical anthem. It also features one of the most iconic videos of the 1980s (from the studio that later brought us Wallace & Gromit). Surely this is one of the greatest albums of the …
Emotional Intelligence primer
This is a lovely summary of Daniel Goleman’s seminal work on Emotional Intelligence. It starts with what and who, then moves into why, EI matters. Great quotes from the book are listed at the bottom. I’m posting it here because it’s good stuff … and also because it ties in directly to our current podcast series on “The Lost Tools …
Is “How are you?” a bad question?
CNBC published an article with a bit of clickbait: “Stop asking ‘how are you?’ Harvard researchers say this is what successful people do when making small talk.” Despite all the ads on the page, the article has some good points on how to converse with small talk. Here’s an overarching principle worth memorizing: If you can figure out a place …
SECOND SUNDAY: The Candle of Hope
Dark Is the Night An unkind social media post. Disrobing in a photo exchange. Arranging a meeting that results in addiction, or pregnancy. After 14 years of working with teens at my church, I have learned one thing: If they are going to have regrets, it will be because of something done online, after midnight. Any shock at their “online …