Pilgrim Notes

Reflections along the way.

Tag: leadership

Ruling from the Heart

January 14, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Flight into Egypt by He Qi

I’ve decided to cross post the following series on DouglasFloyd.com and at Doug Watching.

Last fall I spoke to several groups on the theme of leadership, power and authority in business, civics, church and family. Instead of using sociology or other social sciences models for leadership, I attempted to think within the framework of Biblica revelation. Starting with a study on Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of Torah, I noticed patterns of contrasting leadership models in the Old and New Testament. For simplification, I focused on the contrast between two Semitic words used for leaders: adon and baal. (For a more complex set of comparison, check out Eugene Peterson’s “Follow the Leader“)  In Hosea 2:16-17, the Lord rejects the name of baal for himself:

16 “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. (Hos 2:16-17)

Why does he reject that name? And what might we learn about lordship, rule and authority by contrasting the two words for lord: adon and baal? That’s what I explored in the talks and what I hope to explore in these blog entries. I am also attempting to record each entry, so you can listen along if you choose (provided I figure out the audio upload part).

As you think about the contrast between adon and baal, look at the picture above by He Qi. Jesus, the Lord Supreme of the Universe, is seen as an infant, relying on frail human parents to escape from the threat of the power-mania of Herod. In the background of the same picture, we see the symbol of Egyptian power and rule, a Great Pyramid. This contrast of Jesus, power in embodied in human form, with Egypt, power embodied in overwhelming images, might help us begin to think about adon and baal in our own realms of power relating to family, business, church and civic spheres.

Mp3 Audio of Adon vs Baal part 1

Getting Your Boss's Attention

January 4, 2007 / / 0 Comments

My wife sent me an interesting suggestion from Quint Studer about communicating with senior leaders. He suggests that when leader ask for updates, they are usually juggling multiple projects at once and are primarily interested in results and outcomes rather than process. If you overload them with process details at first, you may actually lost their attention before you deliver the key points. Here are three tips he gives,

  1. Open with results and outcomes. Make sure you can quantify what you achieved. Good effort is no excuse for lack of results.
  2. Be prepared to explain more. Once a listener has been provided the results, be ready to outline “the how” if asked. This helps the listener know the key steps for success. Great organizations always look for ways to replicate strong results in other departments or take them system wide.
  3. Show calculations if requested. For example, by lowering the left without being treated from 3% to 1%, 554 patients received care that otherwise would not. With an average collection of $276 (554 x $276 = $152,904) an additional revenue of $152, 904 is generated. (Be careful not to overstate results, however, as you risk your credibility.)

She probably sent this to me because I tend to be interested in “why” questions rather than “what” questions. So for example, when I first pushed social computing ideas at JTV, I approached it from why this trend is important and why people long for community while continuing to live in isolation. Needless to say, by the third or fourth sentence, my boss’s lost interest.

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