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Carly Fiorina gave the commencement address at MIT in 2000, and I was impressed at her clarity and her insight into what constitues leadership today. As a former CEO of Hewlett Packard, Carly knows a thing or two about leadership. The take-away quote for me was as follows:

A leader’s greatest obligation is to make possible an environment… where people can aspire to change the world.
— Carly Fiorina

I had to ask myself, “Do I want to change the world?” Really? Deep down inside? I know I want to change to become a better, more grounded, more mature, more faithful person. But do I want to change the world? That seems to me a mighty undertaking.

As a leader in my church, I think this quote is a genuine challenge. Do I cultivate an environment where the people I lead are inspired, encouraged, and equipped to change the world? I think that I do, but I can be more clear when I express the vision of challenging others to grow to maturity in their faith and to become equipped to serve in ministries of their own.

My dream is honestly to see Christians grow to maturity in their faith and become effective stewards of the message God has passed on to us. It isn’t a business dream - though many Christians are in business, so businesses would be affected. It isn’t a dream that is measured in dollars and cents, but it is still tangible. It is a dream that is critical to the future of our world.

It may seem to some that the business world and the religious world should be kept completely separate. Some might call this separation of church and state - though I would say the original intent was not that church and state be separate, but that the state should never prohibit the free exercise of any religion. I believe that as I grow in maturity in my faith, there are side benefits that the other areas of my life reap, including the business world. Why wouldn’t the business world want to see these benefits?

As I grow in my faith, my character deepens. My leadership in business will always be limited by my depth of character. Look at Enron to see that character matters.

As I grow in my faith, my ability to communicate difficult concepts clearly improves - a skill desparately needed in the business world. Communication is critical in business. I have worked with brilliant co-workers who could not communicate their ideas or strategies in a coherent, non-technical manner - and some who could not communicate without being condescending.

As I grow in my faith, my ability to understand different view points, to stand by my convictions in the face of opposition, and to walk in confident humility will all be strengthened. Each of these are necessary in the business world.

This is the vision I want to pass on to those I lead: we can change the world, both secular and non-secular, by challenging the Christian church to grow to maturity in their faith, which is accomplished by equipping them to be effective servants in ministry.

More of Carly Fiorina’s speeches can be found here.

I haven’t edited our twenty-four week ultrasound yet, so I won’t post the video, but here’s a snapshot of the baby from just a few weeks ago.

Baby Pruett at Twenty-Four Weeks

We also had another ultrasound at thirty weeks - which further confirmed that we’ll have a son very soon!

The difference between a madman and a professional is that a pro does as well as he can within what he has set out to do and a madman does exceptionally well at what he can’t help doing.
–Charles Bukowski

Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself.
— Alexander Graham Bell

I just stumbled on a great resource - learntolead.com. It is packed with free articles on Leadership, Management, Sales, and more.

The articles are brief, which means they don’t try to cram a five paragraph essay into a ten-page paper. I’m still sorting through all the articles I printed for later reading. I’m sure I’ll comment on a few of them as I go.

Here’s a teaser, one article is titled: “Morons, Misfits, and Moochers: The Triple Threat to Your Organization.” Now doesn’t that sound like an interesting read?

I came across an excellent site that is the companion to a book titled, “Second Chair Leaders.” It talks about the challenges we face when we are responsible for leading in an organization, yet not the top leader on the team.

There is a sample article on the site that outlines three paradoxes these “Second Chair Leaders” face:

1. Subordinate-Leader: How do you follow and lead at the same time?

2. Deep-Wide: How do you develop deep expertise in the scope of your project, but maintain a wide “big-picture” view of the organizational goals?

3. Contentment-Dreaming: How do you simultaneously live in contentment with the current direction of the organization and contribute new ideas and dreams to stimulate future growth?

I’m wrestling with these ideas myself and grateful for someone who has articulated these challenges so well. The article on the site is great, but I’m looking at ordering the book once I complete a few on my night stand…

I was in work early today and was sitting so still that the motion detector thought it was time to turn the lights off. The sad thing is it happened at least three times while I was working. Guess it is a signal that I should move around more often when I’m working…

The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.
— Ernest Hemmingway, Farewell to Arms

I don’t know if you’ve seen the new Chevy Impala commercial with all of the antelope surrounding a car, but I had a similar experience this morning as I walked out of my front door to head to work.

I don’t usually leave as early as I did today - it was just a few minutes before six when I left for work - but as I stepped out of my front door and began walking toward my truck, I was surprised to see three large deer staring at me. They were on a small patch of grass about 20 feet by 20 feet just outside our home between me and where I parked my truck. I imagine they were eating the grass and were more startled than I was, but I jingled my keys to let them know I was coming their way. They took a couple of steps backward and kept watching me. Then I began walking toward them, and toward my truck. They backed away and up the slope behind our parking lot where they watched me drive away.

I think what surprised me most was how close they let me get before they ran off. I think if I hadn’t made noise they’d have stayed even longer - I wonder if they are too tame or if they were just that hungry?

I was just about to turn out the lights downstairs and crawl into bed when the phone rang. I answered, figuring it was one of my friends calling to see if I was still awake.

“Hello?” Pause.

“Hello?” Great, a telemarketer, I thought. What telemarketer calls after 9:30 p.m. on a week night?

And then a machine came on. “This is a collect call from …” The guy said his name. “at the Santa Barbara County Jail.”

I almost fell down laughing. I hung up, and made a mental note. Memorize Mom’s phone number in case you have only one phone call some day. I’d hate to blow my one call on a wrong number. Wow.