SENTINEL WATCH September 8, 2008 Issue

A COMMITMENT TO LEADERSHIP

Frederick R. Andresen

THIS IS THE TIME OF YEAR when so many people around the world are back at work or in school, charging forward, making up for lost time, confronting change, and making decisions. Also, there are all those things you didn't plan on that have just jumped onto your desk uninvited during the summer break. How to manage?

Maybe it's not about management at all, but about leadership. There is a difference, I find. We're all leaders. We may not acknowledge this or even want to, but regardless of our station in life, there's always someone else looking to us for leadership, even if in a small way. And that takes thought and commitment. It's true in the workplace, in school, and certainly in the family.

Steven B. Sample, President of the University of Southern California, wrote in his book The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership (Jossey-Bass, 2003) that while managers are expected to make judgments quickly, for leaders, "judgments as to the truth or falsity of information or the merits of new ideas should be arrived at as slowly and subtly as possible — and in many cases not at all."

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

MULTIPLE FRACTURES HEALED