Most of us live our lives full of unspoken anxieties, worries, and fears. Most of the time for most of us these are "First World Problems." Here Richard Rohr through one of Thomas Merton's poems teaches us how to put life, stuff, people, things, and events in the perspective that God would have us put …
Continue reading I find Great Peace in Richard Rohr’s Mediations
"For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for your harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me, if …
Continue reading For my Uncle Pat Shannon who has always given me inspiration and been a rock
This article in the September issue of the Atlantic Monthly by Greg Lukinaoff and Jonathan Haidt, about American Higher Education Campuses, is sadly spot on. Unfortunately, they write it from the perspective of the left and liberals, but the same applies to conservative and particularly religiously conservative students. It is a crisis. I will have …
As a leader you have been faced with this duality and you know it when you see it. The decision! Usually, one would think from the outside things are black or white. You just make the call based on the information at hand. In reality this is rarely true that things are clear. Things are …
Continue reading Leadership Duality Number Five – The Pressure of Leadership Decisions
I have been reading Cohen and March's study on leadership. They studied 46 college and university presidents to discover "leadership effectiveness." Their conclusion: Higher Education leadership is mythological! In an often quoted line they say, "an organization's leader is like being the driver of a skidding car. There is little a leader can do to …
Continue reading Additional Thoughts on The Duality of Leadership: The Agent – Structure Problem
The idea springs on us. The leader is a special person with specific traits, character or maybe a special personality. Yes, that's it! This is what has produced the great leaders of history .... this psychological disposition! But wait! Isn't leadership just a social construction made possible by willing followers, by society, by time and …
Continue reading Dualities of Leadership – Duality Number Three
Mom and Dad Be Happy Laugh Seek joy But sing songs of praise and awe? Time was when we could feel anything But sunset days now draw close And new old sweet and bitter smells Roll up and up and up Circling us and our brows Like a halo Ethereal Crowns Smiles reveal cracks on …
Dr. J. Timothy Cloyd 