Category: Book Summaries

Leadership 101 for White Men: How to Work Successfully with Black Colleagues & Customers

Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021.  Last year, I summarized Annette Gordon-Reed’s book On Juneteenth. 

This year, I’m taking a different angle.  Ten years ago when I was Deputy HR Director at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, we were exploring ways to improve diversity & inclusion. After benchmarking with some leaders in diversity training—including Lockheed-Martin and Georgia Power—we focused on two organizations:  White Men as Full Diversity Partners (whose approach is summarized here) and Chuck Shelton’s GreatHeart Consulting.  In fact, Shelton conducted a 1-day class on “Engaging the Majority Culture” that was very enlightening.

While we ultimately went with White Men as Full Diversity Partners (refer to my Diversity & Inclusion Incompetency for some additional history), I was intrigued by Chuck Shelton and his approach.

Click here for a summary of Shelton’s book Leadership 101 for White Men: How to Work Successfully with Black Colleagues & Customers

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

In the late-1990’s Willow Creek Community Church Pastor John Ortberg once called his mentor, Dallas Willard, and asked him what he needed to do to become the “me I want to be”?  Willard answered, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”

Ortberg points out that hurry involves an excessive haste or a state of urgency. It is associated with words such as hurl, hurdle, hurly-burly (meaning “uproar”), and hurricane. It is defined as a “state of frantic effort one falls into in response to inadequacy, fear, and guilt.” The simple essence of hurry is too much to do!

We should take it as our aim to live our lives entirely without hurry. We should form a clear intention to live without hurry. One day at a time, starting today.

The average iPhone user touches his or her phone 2,617 times a day. By way of contrast, the psalmist said, “I have set the LORD always before me” (Psalm 16:8). What would your life be like if God touched your mind as frequently as you touch your phone?

The apostle Paul wrote, “[Make] the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16).

Ortberg urges, “Take a deep breath. Put your cell phone away. Let your heart slow down. Let God take care of the world.”

Let’s turn to John Mark Comer for his advice on how to stay emotionally healthy and spiritually alive in the chaos of our modern world.

Click here for a summary of Comer’s The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry