Six Places Still Open for Emotional Intelligence Lab

Roy Oswald and I invite you to register now for this summer's best leadership development opportunity anywhere. The EQ-HR workshop is an experiential laboratory for improving your emotional intelligence in a safe and supportive small group environment.

The cost is $775, which includes access to the BarOn 360 degree survey on emotional intelligence which you will use confidentially to set your own learning goals around the four areas of emotional intelligence as described by Daniel Goleman.

Most of the time of the workshop is spent in small unstructured groups of about ten with two experienced and wise group facilitators in each group.

See the Louisville Seminary Website, click on the button at the bottom of the Home Page that looks like the banner above, for more information and a link to register online:

http://www.lpts.edu/.

Call me if you want more information. 502-992-9372.

David

Gas Stations as Signs of the Future

This past week I've passed three different gas stations that have taken down their national/international brand signs and put up family names on their stations. With all the bad publicity British Petroleum is getting it makes sense. Do I really want my customers to associate me with oil spills and irresponsible drilling?

I wonder if that's not the wave of the future of churches as well. Some folks are getting disgusted at the big-corporation model of church denominations and are not pleased with the image, either too liberal on the one hand or not liberal enough on the other. I know a lot of pastors who just "keep their heads down" and do local ministry and pay little attention to denominational realities.

Denominations that are not able to serve the needs of local "outlets" will not survive. Congregations that know how to thrive will.

Organizations with Heart

The title of the book, Profit for Life: How Capitalism Excels (Society for Organizational Learning, 2006) by Joseph Bragdon, is misleading--the subtitle gets me quicker: "Living Asset Stewardship." It's about focusing organizational leadership on the living assets--the organization's people and the environment--and allowing the "non-living assets"--the financial ones--serve the living ones.

Today's post is an excerpt from the book on "How to Recognize a Company with Heart."

• an authentic mission, vision, and values that arose spontaneously from within the firm and that strongly appeal to the heart;
• a decentralized, networked organization, based on the principle of subsidiarity, in which employees are trusted to self-organize in their areas of competence and are held accountable;
• a culture of servant leadership, wherein the role of leaders is to serve the professional growth of employees, and employees are treated as precious assets rather than potential costs and liabilities;
• a commitment to continual learning that gives employees permission to experiment and fail in their quest for innovation; and
• a history of prudent fiscal management that reflects an intention to serve humanity in sustainable ways for generations to come.

I'll hold that as a manifesto for church leadership as well. Imagine that coming from the Harvard Business School!