Category: Book Summaries

My Priorities: Faith, Family, & Fun

Aggie Football Game (9-2014)

During this Week 36 of 2014 (September 1-7), the NIV Leadership Bible focused on Priorities. Check out my last blog post to see the highlights of this week’s devotions.

I’ve blogged before about our family mission statement, which focuses on our priorities of Faith, Family, and Fun. We love, respect, and support one another and enjoy spending time as a family.

Yesterday, we had an opportunity to join more than 100,000 Texas Aggie fans to watch the first football game in the renovated Kyle Field. It was the largest crowd in Texas football history (104,728). That record will fall later this year, I’m sure…but it had to be overwhelming for the visiting Lamar University, as they fell to the #9 ranked Aggies 73-3. Our family enjoyed the Spirit Walk (with the players walking to their locker room—and my boys loved the High-5’s with QB Kenny Hill pictured above!) and the Corps march led by the Texas Aggie Band (the clarinet section is pictured above for Katy). It was a great family experience!

A few weeks back, my mother-in-law gave us the book Experiencing God at Home by Tom & Richard Blackaby. The book provides plenty of lessons for family leadership.

Click here to read more.

Why Do You Do What You Do?

The Why of Work

Tomorrow is Labor Day—a day we take away from work to celebrate the social and economic achievements of American workers. It’s an annual national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

Workers contribute most when they are “engaged” in what they do. In fact, last week I spoke with a group of 25 Senior Managers from the Internal Revenue Service, sharing why NASA is a “Best Place to Work” in the Federal Government. Our formula is relatively simple. Trust our employees by designing policies to the 95% of the population (instead of the 5% who will take advantage of the system); listen to their inputs and perspective; and focus on 2-3 target areas for improvement each year based on the results of the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. The IRS Managers rightly recognized that recipe for success was something they could replicate.

Speaking of employee engagement, recently I finished Dave & Wendy Ulrich’s The Why of Work: How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win. This best-seller is filled with tips you can use to increase engagement and abundance for your employees and teams.

Click here to learn more.