(Republishing this — still a critical message!)

[I hope some people reading this will be truly ticked off.  I aim to hook a nerve, and yank.] 

We’re desperate for leadership.  

All leadership begins with self-leadership. 

Self-leadership is a function of self-discipline.   

We need self-discipline about our eating, sleep, exercise, and nourishing our minds and hearts.  You already know what is best.  Do that. 

Today, at least in the US, we face a combination of trends which will require a new level of discipline: 

• Infatuation with style over substance.  Style matters, but increasingly passes as a substitute for substance.   
• Ascending post-modern worldviews are dominant in education, corporate leadership, governments.  Fewer people accept the idea of absolute truth.  Dialog about truth is swiftly converted into arguments about power.  Opinion is frequently honored above truth.  
• Diminished context.  Social media largely operates outside complex context.  Subject lines, headlines, text messages, and soundbites are sufficient to reinforce mindsets.  
• Declining trust in most institutions.  This is understandable — many institutions are recognizably corrupt.  
• Large percentage of the population spends hours every day immersed in information streams, weirdly compelled to “keep up.”  
• We swim in abundance of stuff, food, sanitized environments, and information.  Many of us are not handling abundance well. This is proving to be unhealthy.  
• Far more remote work, less time at the work-site.  Distractions abound, peer pressure is physically absent, the benefits of face-to-face social interaction are missed.   

T.S. Eliot captured it well in his “Four Quartets” poems: 

Distracted from distraction by distraction 

Filled with fancies and empty of meaning 

Tumid apathy with no concentration 

Men and bits of paper whirled by the cold wind 

You might be saying, “But not me, Glenn, no, I’m different!”  Are you sure?  Let’s test it out: 

• How do you feel if you sit perfectly still, no sound, no flickering images, for 5 minutes? 
• If you searched and couldn’t find your smartphone for 15 minutes, what’s your panic level? 
• When was the last time you turned off your phone for any length of time while you were awake? 
• If I demanded that you read nothing but books more than 400 years old for a week – no news, no social media, no podcasts – what’s your first reaction? 

Full candor: I fail these tests, too.    

I’m not trying to make a political commentary – these are the trends in our cultural environment, which is where we must exercise our leadership work.  

We’re deeply in this reality.  Yet we have agency.  We can make choices.  

I challenge you to be an intentional leader rather than passively absorbing every aspect of cultural trends.  I challenge you to be a free man or a free woman, rather than a slave to circumstances and circumstantial evidence.  We desperately need leaders who think for themselves, who speak outside echo chambers, who call out bullshit, who love fiercely, who rally people without manipulating them, who command respect from others even as they wrestle with constructive disagreements.  

This level of leadership comes at a price, beginning with your self-discipline.  Practice stepping up and out of the swirls of information and emotion which captivate most people.  Recognize that the statement “Your truth” is actually “truth and your opinion.”  Fast from incessant mindless activity and task completion.  Do something which makes you physically uncomfortable every day – a cold shower, fasting from a meal, sitting in a hard chair, exercising in a new way, studying a difficult subject, talking with people who hold a completely different worldview. Select for quality and depth of information and insights. Invest time in measured reflection and meditation on events; Experience is not the best teacher – evaluated experience is.  Demand context and alternative perspectives.  Demand evidence of truth statements.  Live more generously with people than they might deserve.  Don’t fall in love with the idea of “the people” and then fail to interact with actual flesh-and-blood messy people.  

98% of the people around you may be slaves to their inbox, smart phone, and information as someone-with-an-agenda presents it to them, but purpose to be in the 2% who strive for freedom.  It’s a both-and situation – understand the reality of where the 98% are living, and live differently.  

Pursue this self-discipline and you’ll become the leader that the people in your sphere of influence actually need. Model this self-discipline, and your sphere of influence will increase.  

It’s helpful to know metrics like these to help you make decisions on projects, priorities, and trends:  

Your “per hour” and “per month” salary and benefits cost to the organization  

The salary and benefits cost for your working teams (and subteams if you have a larger group) per month  

Profit margin of your key products / services  

Your organization’s revenue in a quarter, or for a particular region  

These become proxy values in making estimates.  For example, I recall a VP who listened to a proposal for a big initiative, and thoughtfully asked aloud, “This investment is equal to all our sales in northern Illinois for two years.  What’s the minimal payoff over 3-5 years?”  Several times I had internal clients who wanted “just a few enhancements” to software they only used occasionally.  “Would you pay $12,000 out of your budget for that?” I asked – because I could ballpark the salary estimate of the developer time.  (They wouldn’t.  End of request.)  And you can think about the value of your time when considering how to prioritize your work.  What’s going to be worth 3-10x your salary to your organization?  Do that.  

You should also practice valuing your contributions, especially the indirect but real contributions as a leader.  Consider your long-term influence on the people, rituals, processes, and working culture (the default behaviors and practices) of your organization.    

A useful question to ask:   “What would not have happened without your contribution?”  Follow this with “How do I know?” 

It’s long been understood that animal trails follow the lowest energy route. 

Two other observations from the natural world:

1. Passive movement is along the path of least resistance.  Consider water and electricity.
2. Creatures (from single cells to the most sophisticated animals and plants) respond to gradients.  They move towards water, nutrients, light, attractive pheromones, prey.  They move away from toxins, and predators.  Plants and trees, which have limited movement ability, still respond powerfully to gradients – roots grow towards water and nutrients, and shoots and leaves orient to light.

A large fraction of all creature behavior can be explained by energy conservation, paths of least resistance, and response to gradients.

Consider how many of our worst human impulses are failure to respond in healthy ways to these parameters.  We indulge in known toxins. We ignore signals that others are preying on us.  Instead of gravitating towards the light we cherish the darkness.  We seek out the wrong kinds of stimulation. We burn energy foolishly rather than getting rest and recovery we need. 

It’s a reminder that we need to be taught how to sense and respond to gradients correctly.  We seem deeply wired to ignore them or respond backwards. 

You can apply this to your own situation.  Ask yourself “What gradients am I navigating correctly?  Where am I ignoring the behaviors which let me thrive as I’m designed to?”

The US Constitution made federal law-making hard for good reasons.  Our legislators torque the process into pretzels for their purposes.

A modest proposal for legislation:

No omnibus bills with a large collection of individual items; each item must stand alone for an up and down vote.  Each bill must have fewer words than the US Constitution.  Legislators must attest that they have read each bill before they’re allowed to vote. 

[I hope some people reading this will be truly ticked off.  I aim to hook a nerve, and yank.]

We’re desperate for leadership.

All leadership begins with self-leadership.

Self-leadership is a function of self-discipline. 

We need self-discipline about our eating, sleep, exercise, and nourishing our minds and hearts.  You already know what is best.  Do that.

Today, at least in the US, we face a combination of trends which will require a new level of discipline:

• Infatuation with style over substance.  Style matters, but increasingly passes as a substitute for substance. 
• Ascending post-modern worldviews are dominant in education, corporate leadership, governments.  Fewer people accept the idea of absolute truth.  Dialog about truth is swiftly converted into arguments about power.  Opinion is frequently honored above truth.
• Diminished context.  Social media largely operates outside complex context.  Subject lines, headlines, text messages, and soundbites are sufficient to reinforce mindsets.
• Declining trust in most institutions.  This is understandable — many institutions are recognizably corrupt.
• Large percentage of the population spends hours every day immersed in information streams, weirdly compelled to “keep up.”
• We swim in abundance of stuff, food, sanitized environments, and information.  Many of us are not handling abundance well. This is proving to be unhealthy.
• Far more remote work, less time at the work-site.  Distractions abound, peer pressure is physically absent, the benefits of face-to-face social interaction are missed.  

T.S. Eliot captured it well in his “Four Quartets” poems:

Distracted from distraction by distraction

Filled with fancies and empty of meaning

Tumid apathy with no concentration

Men and bits of paper whirled by the cold wind

You might be saying, “But not me, Glenn, no, I’m different!”  Are you sure?  Let’s test it out:

• How do you feel if you sit perfectly still, no sound, no flickering images, for 5 minutes?
• If you searched and couldn’t find your smartphone for 15 minutes, what’s your panic level?
• When was the last time you turned off your phone for any length of time while you were awake?
• If I demanded that you read nothing but books more than 400 years old for a week – no news, no social media, no podcasts – what’s your first reaction?

Full candor: I fail these tests, too.  

I’m not trying to make a political commentary – these are the trends in our cultural environment, which is where we must exercise our leadership work.

We’re deeply in this reality.  Yet we have agency.  We can make choices.

I challenge you to be an intentional leader rather than passively absorbing every aspect of cultural trends.  I challenge you to be a free man or a free woman, rather than a slave to circumstances and circumstantial evidence.  We desperately need leaders who think for themselves, who speak outside echo chambers, who call out bullshit, who love fiercely, who rally people without manipulating them, who command respect from others even as they wrestle with constructive disagreements.

This level of leadership comes at a price, beginning with your self-discipline.  Practice stepping up and out of the swirls of information and emotion which captivate most people.  Recognize that the statement “Your truth” is actually “truth and your opinion.”  Fast from incessant mindless activity and task completion.  Do something which makes you physically uncomfortable every day – a cold shower, fasting from a meal, sitting in a hard chair, exercising in a new way, studying a difficult subject, talking with people who hold a completely different worldview. Select for quality and depth of information and insights. Invest time in measured reflection and meditation on events; Experience is not the best teacher – evaluated experience is.  Demand context and alternative perspectives.  Demand evidence of truth statements.  Live more generously with people than they might deserve.  Don’t fall in love with the idea of “the people” and then fail to interact with actual flesh-and-blood messy people.

98% of the people around you may be slaves to their inbox, smart phone, and information as someone-with-an-agenda presents it to them, but purpose to be in the 2% who strive for freedom.  It’s a both-and situation – understand the reality of where the 98% are living, and live differently.

Pursue this self-discipline and you’ll become the leader that the people in your sphere of influence actually need. Model this self-discipline, and your sphere of influence will increase.

I’m delighted to introduce my new book Slow to Anger: Recovering Anger as the Gift It’s Meant to Be.

Our world is awash in anger which harms individuals, families, communities, and nations.  Anger is meant to be a gift –the can’t-ignore-it-emotion which signals a gap between what is and what should be.  The problem is that Anger wants to rule you.  This book explores in detail many wrong ideas about anger and describes recommended practices to create space to respond well, discern how to respond, and act with self-control.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of this book are the three dialogs.  These are slightly fictionalized versions of real conversations I’ve had with people battling anger.

• Christopher is a young man in his mid-20’s, struggling to control his temper and angry outbursts.
• Peter is in his mid-50’s, chronically outraged over politics and religion/culture issues.
• Sophie is a recently divorced single mom with a teenage daughter, both angry about their ex-husband/father betraying them.

This is a very personal book for me because I’ve battled anger all my life.  Even if you haven’t struggled with anger, you know someone who does.  There is a way to use Anger as the gift it’s meant to be.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Slow to Anger is structured in three parts:

1. Using Anger as a Gift with the Alert-Discern-Act Model. These are the practical chapters.
2. The Dialogs. These are slightly fictionalized accounts of actual conversations I’d had with people who struggle with anger.
3. A Biblical Study of Anger

The Bible has a LOT to say about Anger.  There is a rich vocabulary, too – 7 Hebrew words and 6 Greek words. 

I learned long ago that the best way to study a topic is to first write down all the questions you have, then go to reliable resources and try to answer those questions.  This is how I create a biblical framework for any theme or concept — study all the Bible says directly and indirectly about a topic with my questions in mind.

Here was my Anger question list:

●             Is anger always wrong? (sinful)

●             What is the difference between feeling anger and responding in anger?

●             If God is pure and holy, what prompts His anger?

●             Why was Jesus angry at the money-changers and some of the Pharisees, but not at Roman soldiers flogging him and crucifying him?

●             Why is anger a common attribute of humans in all times and all cultures?

●             Should we expect to move beyond all anger as God does His slow work of making us more like Jesus?

●             What are good/righteous reasons to be angry, and what are not?

●             Can the energy from anger be used righteously?

●             What distinguishes anger from rage and hate?

●             How do anger and fear fit together?

●             How can we fulfill the command “be angry and do not sin”? (Ephesians 4:26)

●             Is anger just an emotion to be managed, or does it have a purpose?

●             Why is anger so powerful and controlling?

●             What are the best ways to keep anger in check?

●             Why has anger been so much with me all my life?

●             Are some people more predisposed to be angry?

●             Does anger have any role in a mature Christian’s life?

●             Is anger ever the appropriate response to personal attacks?

●             Is there ever a time when anger is useful in serving others?

●             If we’re truly made in the image of God, and God sometimes gets angry, then is anger a part of our image as God-crafted humans, or is it a result of the Fall?

●             Do anger and freedom have anything in common?

●             How does anger affect friendship, trust, mission, focus, and fear?

●             Does my anger need to be eliminated or sanctified?

●             Did my kids inherit my anger?  Did I inherit it through my parents?

●             What would this world be like if anger didn’t exist?

●             Is anger ever justified against enemies?

●             How can I be free of the anger that wants to rule me?

●             Is anger ever praiseworthy?

●             Is it enough to be good at managing my anger most of the time?

Slow to Anger will give you some answers to these questions.

Recommended Christian books, in no particular order:

The Institutes of Christian Religion (John Calvin)

Sermons of John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, and Charles Spurgeon

Celebration of Discipline (Richard Foster)

Watch Your Walk (Richard Baxter)

Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis)

Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices (Thomas Brooks)

In Search of Guidance (Dallas Willard)

City of God (Augustine of Hippo)

Knowing God (J.I. Packer)

My Utmost for His Highest (Oswald Chambers)

The Pursuit of God (A.W. Tozer)

Spiritual Leadership (J. Oswald Sanders)

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes (Kenneth Bailey)

Cost of Discipleship (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

The Imitation of Christ (Thomas a Kempis)

With Christ in the School of Prayer (Andrew Murray)

The Pilgrim’s Progress (John Bunyan)

The Reason for God (Tim Keller)

The Divine Conspiracy (Dallas Willard)

The Practice of the Presence of God (Brother Lawrence)

Communion with God (John Owen)

Here are questions I’ve asked people in the past few months which tend to make them uncomfortable:

“So what?”

“Do you ever change your mind when presented with new information?”  (My friend Mike asks a nice variation on this: “Tell me about the last time you changed your mind about something important.”)

“How do you define ‘white’ and ‘black’ in a multinational company?  What if I decide today to identify as a black woman?”

“Will this matter to you in 3 or 30 years?”

“If it doesn’t matter how much money the government prints, why bother to collect taxes?”

“When was the last time screaming at someone persuaded them to love you more?”

“Are the forces that drove cycles of ice ages and glacial retreats still at work today?”

“Why do stories about sea level rise in Boston never mention sea level falls in Oslo?”  (The North American land mass is sinking; there are other areas in the world where the earth is uplifting.)

“What is the difference between loving humanity and loving unlovely individuals?”

“What are you willing to sacrifice in this situation? Your pride, perhaps?”

“Where the line between community safety (or integrity) and individual liberty?”

“What are we shocked at behaviors which are endemic in human history?”

“Why not make the minimum wage one million dollars per year?”

“Does this situation deserve unrestrained fear?”

“What would be risk-free in a universe where the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is true?”

“I’m intrigued with the idea of insisting leadership teams be representative and inclusive. Would that extend to a balance of liberals and conservatives, say, in college faculty?  Whites and Asians in the NBA?”

“Do you care who gets the credit for this good thing?”

“What questions are we now not allowed to ask, and why not?”

I ask these questions not to be snarky or clever, but with a genuine intent of exploring ideas.  The point of questions like these is to challenge overly simplistic assumptions.  Questions are useful to sustain conversation.

Notice in many of these questions I’m hoping to help people explore a limiting principle. How do you know when you’ve gone too far?  Where do you draw a line, and why?   People with agency – the ability to make decisions – need intelligent and wise frameworks to decide on limiting principles.  The Ten Commandments, for example, are a set of limiting principles. 

I wrote this in response to some questions about my writing work… but the concepts apply well to all leadership work. 

People have asked how I can be such a prolific writer and reader.  The simplest answer is “It’s a choice followed by corresponding action.”  The truth is that I have multiple writing projects sitting partially done, and struggle constantly to finish and publish my writing.

Here are things which help me:

• Deadlines and commitments.  I have committed to this newsletter weekly, three LeaderLearning messages weekly, two blog posts weekly, and at least 3 posts on LinkedIn daily.  I’ve forced myself to create deadlines for publishing some of the Anger and 300 years book content via email on a schedule.
• Assume that everything you encounter is fuel for pondering, cross-connecting, prayerful meditation, topics to write about and teach about.   Capture thoughts and inspiration as quickly as possible because they have the same vapor pressure as gasoline on a sidewalk in July sun.  There may be “nothing new under the sun,” but there are things which are new for you and the people in your sphere of influence!
• Put myself in good company of smart and savvy observers and story-sharers – in person, via books, podcasts, films, etc.  This is food and fuel for your creative process. Invest your limited time and attention where it will yield higher returns.
• Always have a book handy.  You’ve probably noticed how many people, given a few spare seconds, whip out their smartphone.  Do that with books instead.
• Extract quality from quantity.  Don’t expect brilliance in a first draft of a sentence or book.  As best you can, squelch the self-editor which wants to work as you write – then unleash the editor’s power in the next stage.  No gem emerged from the ground cut and polished.  As I write this sentence, I have a “for newsletter content” document which is 121 pages long and hopefully no one will ever see 3/4ths of it!
• Walk!  It’s amazing how much clarity and coalescing happens in your mind when you walk.  Charles Dickens, incredibly prolific, walked the streets of London 2-4 hours daily.

I’ve been describing the reading and writing lifestyle.  Consider how much of what I’ve described here is the same for creatives, organizational leaders, and thoughtful observers of life.

It’s helpful to know metrics like these to help you make decisions on projects, priorities, and trends: 

Your “per hour” and “per month” salary and benefits cost to the organization 

The salary and benefits cost for your working teams (and subteams if you have a larger group) per month 

Profit margin of your key products / services 

Your organization’s revenue in a quarter, or for a particular region 

These become proxy values in making estimates.  For example, I recall a VP who listened to a proposal for a big initiative, and thoughtfully asked aloud, “This investment is equal to all our sales in northern Illinois for two years.  What’s the minimal payoff over 3-5 years?”  Several times I had internal clients who wanted “just a few enhancements” to software they only used occasionally.  “Would you pay $12,000 out of your budget for that?” I asked – because I could ballpark the salary estimate of the developer time.  (They wouldn’t.  End of request.)  And you can think about the value of your time when considering how to prioritize your work.  What’s going to be worth 3-10x your salary to your organization?  Do that. 

You should also practice valuing your contributions, especially the indirect but real contributions as a leader.  Consider your long-term influence on the people, rituals, processes, and working culture (the default behaviors and practices) of your organization.   

A useful question to ask: 

“What would not have happened without your contribution?”  Follow this with “How do I know?”