Category: Brady’s Experiences

I Am #Blessed

#Blessed

To celebrate our church’s 40th Anniversary (University Baptist Church), our Senior Pastor developed a 40-week sermon series based on the Ten Commandments—covering each commandment for 4 weeks. The Tenth Commandment says, “Thou shalt not covet.” Or as Eugene Peterson puts it in The Message, “No lusting after your neighbor’s house—or wife or servant or maid or ox or donkey. Don’t set your heart on anything that is your neighbor’s” (Exodus 20:17). Our Pastor noted that covetousness is checked by contentment and thankfulness. In fact, the way out of covetousness is to learn contentment…which brings us to Thanksgiving 2014.

I am reminded of the old hymn, “Count Your Blessings”, which was written by Johnson Oatman in 1897—based on 1 Thessalonians 5:18, which says, “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” The refrain of the song says:  Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God hath done!

So, that’s what I’ve done in the following page…tallied my blessings from 2014. And like Alexander’s big brother says in the movie Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, I am #Blessed!

Click here to learn more.

Brady’s 20 Years of Double-Loop Learning

Learner - Strengths Finder Pin

As I reflected on this week’s devotions of “Double-Loop Learning,” it struck me that I’ve done a lot of that over the course of my career. According to Gallup’s “StrengthsFinder”, one of my key strengths is “Learner”—I love to learn!  And I love the learning process, so I often reflect on what I’ve learned from a situation or an experience. Over the past 20 years, I’ve kept the notes I prepared as part of my performance evaluation discussions with my supervisors. As a result, I’m able to see growth over time…

At NASA when someone is promoted to a key position, we often write a short bio of their past accomplishments and experiences. Invariably, we talk about them holding “progressively more responsible leadership roles.” I’ve been fortunate throughout my career to do just that…steadily progress from one position to the next in a way where I could be successful. I’ve seen other leaders skip levels of management—and unfortunately, they prove they aren’t ready for the role they have. Generally, I fault the organization—and not the individual leader—for such a failure.

To follow my 20 year journey of “Double-Loop Learning,” click here.