Welcome to the Reason Newsletter!
“To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.”
Leadership is hard! Most leaders end up in their first people leadership role because of a mix of technical experience, tenure, and charisma. And most of the time, people leadership is a “sink or swim” situation. Very few managers receive formal leadership training, and for those who do, it’s often a one-time (and thus, unlikely to be effective) event. It’s no wonder that most of commonly cited statistics about the effectiveness of leaders are overwhelmingly negative.
Add on top of that - leadership can be confusing. It’s a buzzword-heavy space. What do you need to focus on to be a great leader? Depending on the day of the week, it could be well-being, work-life balance, creativity, innovation, digital transformation, diversity, equity, inclusion (more on those in a future post), authenticity, belonging, empathy, ethics… the list goes on.
So, what am I trying to accomplish with the Reason Talent Newsletter?
Simply put, I believe one of the best ways to learn to lead (or to continue to hone your craft) is to focus on what we know matters. Don’t get whipped around by the newest fad, buzzword, or leadership clickbait article.
Because leadership, as complex as it is, is not a new phenomenon.
There have always been leaders, and there have always been followers.
Don’t repeat the mistakes of history. Learn from those coming back.
So, what can you expect from the Reason Talent Newsletter?Once or twice a month, we’ll share some practical insights that you can use to refine your leadership and drive a stronger culture in your organization. These insights will typically fall in one of four buckets.
Leadership insights from the Bible. The Bible is full of leaders - both good and bad. Whether it’s Noah, Job, Samson, or Jesus, there are hundreds of examples of leadership. We’ll walk through the Bible together, pulling out practical leadership insights along the way.
Talent through the eyes of Jesus. HR and talent management are often considered through the lens of business, but human resources is inherently a human exercise, and we should therefore look at it through a moral lens too. What does Jesus have to say about the latest trends in hiring, conflict management, coaching, promotion, employee engagement, and more?
Nerding out on Leadership. Getting the moral and historical view on leadership is absolutely essential, but it’s also important to stay current. Hundreds of books on leadership are published every week, but they mostly say the same thing. In this section, I’ll take a foundational or trending leadership science article from the top research journals and translate it for you. No academic-ese. No agenda. I’ll cut through the noise for you and tell you what you need to know.
Staying Driven. Leadership is a marathon, not a sprint. You’ve got to stay motivated throughout. We all have different things that energize us, that drive us. In this section, I’ll pull insights from my book, “Driven Not Drained: Discover Your Path to Career Happiness, Effectiveness, and Influence”. This insights will help you understand what drives your own energy, and how to harness that to improve your effectiveness as a leader.
