Attention must be paid! — Linda Loman (fictional wife of Willie Loman in Death of a Salesman)

It is not a stretch to point fingers at leaders these days. Missing leaders. Bad leaders. Toxic leaders. In every sphere of life. And, as Arthur Miller penned in his most famous work, someone needs to pay attention. So, today, we take up the challenge.

I offer these proofs from recent headlines and stories:

· Bad leadership has destroyed Nigeria, ‘land flowing with milk and honey’

· 2021 — The story of a year in 12 leaders (indicts leadership efforts of: President Biden, Turkey’s Erdogan, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Scotland’s Nicola Sturgeon, China’s Xi Jinping, Angela Merkel from Germany, and of course, Vladimir Putin)

· Mark Driscoll disgraced leader of the Mars Hill Church

· Nancy Pelosi and the congressional machinations to remove her as Speaker of the House

· Fauci — the risks of being in the news everyday for the past 18 months: Hero or Headed to Jail?

· Former White House doctor predicts invoking the 25th Amendment or the resignation of President Biden

· AWOL Texas legislators

The list goes on and on. Books are written about corrupt and inept leaders. Movies. TV series. Rarely do we hear about healthy leaders and their work. Good doesn’t…

Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others. — John Maxwell

Healthy leaders, True North leaders — those committed to authenticity, integrity and excellence — are deeply focused and reliant on, and intentional about the power of empowering their teams. And when you add a Spirit-infused motive to empower, powerful consequences result.

Too heavy-handed with the power word?

Well, for the purposes of this blog, my answer is a resounding, NO!

Here’s why, according to leadership guru Simon Sinek:

Most people think leadership is about being in charge. Most people think leadership…

The glue that holds all relationships together — including the relationship between the leader and the led — is trust. And trust is based on integrity. — Brian Tracy

Trust.

Not sure there is anything more foundational or more crucial for every relationship. Trust or the lack thereof, determines the quality of all human and supernatural relationships in life: spouse, family, friends. God.

I remember years ago I was driving home from a particularly challenging day at work. The screaming match was really quite one-sided since I was the only one in the car. …

My life feels like a test I didn’t study for — anonymous millennial

Remember how our parents’ generation were scared to death of Boomers? Those crazy sex, drug and rock-n-rollers were going to destroy the utopian 50s culture they’d created. Then boomers repeated the generational pattern: we were all deathly afraid the world would end when the millennials began taking over. (Those born between 1980 and 2003.)

And now they are. Taking over.

Did you know that 10,000 Boomers reach retirement age every day? And the entire generation will be off the leadership grid by 2030?

Why all the fear…

Crystal balls. Old Testament prophets. Tea leaves. Late night pizza-induced dreams.

What’s your favorite way to figure out the future and what it holds for you?

· What might have happened had BLOCKBUSTER actually bought Netflix, rather than be being “busted” by them?

· Or had Polaroid realized that “digital” was a real thing? Or for that matter, Kodak?

· Or personal computers overwhelming the mainframe world?

· And, really? Online shopping closing brick and mortar malls around the country.

You get the point. The future for many established churches, companies, universities is far too often unknown to us, and…

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

One of my all-time favorite thoughts. Here’s how it works:

Think: Calvinism vs. Arminianism. Both are true simultaneously.

Think: This is a disaster. Hopeless. But we can find a solution.

Think: Christianity is the only true religion. Others also have truth.

Think: I love the Chicago Bears. I like the Green Bay Packers. NO! That one can’t happen.

Let’s start here. A first-rate intelligence allows True North leaders to…

35,000.

35,000 decisions a day. Experts seem to agree, that number is a realistic estimate of how many choices we make every day of our life. What?

Well, just think about it for a moment — if you did, you just made a decision, right? When you woke up this morning, count how many decisions you made starting with, will I really let that annoying alarm get me out of bed at this moment? Breakfast? Clothes selections?

I once worked for a visionary entrepreneur whose decision-making process worked for him. (Not so sure about the rest of us.) I often…

Two recent conversations have me reconsidering the notion that you’re not leading if you’re not an influencer. Now let’s be candid, even bad leaders — you know, the toxic dysfunctional ones — are influencing others whether they intend to or not.

Back when I was teaching Leadership to graduate students, the accepted number was 800+. That was the presumed number of definitions of leadership, all which incorporated some notion of influence.

Let’s go with this definition to begin our exploration:

Leadership is a process of social influence which maximizes the efforts of others toward the achievement of a goal.

Break…