From the Mind of MandoRon

This, my friends, is the very happy face of my 6-year-old daughter, Jada. As you can see, she lost her first tooth today. She was concerned that mom and dad would stay up too late and scare away the tooth fairy tonight.

Not too long ago, I stumbled upon the What Leadership Demands blog. Shane Duffey has some great insights on leadership.

I found yesterday’s blog post very challenging. Go read it. It’s fairly short. Then come back for a moment.

Shane posed a question something like this: are we chasing something that looks like God (or remind us of God), or are we chasing God Himself? Are we more interested in the blessings of God or in Godly things than we are in pursuing our relationship with God?

Wow. This summed up something I’ve been realizing about myself lately. I put far more energy into my church than I do into my relationship with God.

Just like the picture above. Are we pursuing a relationship with the One who died on the Cross, or we spending all of our time in the shadow of the Cross?

I need to work hard on that. Do you?

[photo courtesy of Daniel Y. Go]

My boss recently asked me to read “The Leader’s Compass” by Ed Ruggero and Dennis Haley. He is creating a personal leadership philosophy based on the book, and thought it would be easier to present to us if we had read it first.

It’s a good book. Basically a short fable, much like Patrick Lencioni’s books.

Here’s a couple of the key things that reached out and grabbed me:

• Managing is about stuff; leading is about people. I know this, but I have a tendency to forget it. It’s easy to get wrapped up in schedules and processes, and forget about leading the people.
• Leaders need to remain positive, especially in difficult situations. Again, something I’ve been forgetting lately.
• Leaders make their expectations clear to everyone. I’ve recently stepped back into a formal leadership position at work, and I keep forgetting to do this…
• Leaders listen. I get distracted easily when other people are talking.

In my previous department, the VP made his supervisors create a “Leader’s Agenda” which was an explanation of what each person’s core values and leadership principals were. I wasn’t a supervisor, but I thought it would be a good idea to create one for myself.

It’s been two years since I added it to my to-do list…

“The Leader’s Compass” walks you through creating a personal leadership philosophy, and encourages you to share it with everyone around you. This way they understand your expections clearly and can hold you accountable to your philosophy. “Ronnie, you said were going to be a good listener but you look out the window every time we talk…”

I’ve started working on my own personal leadership philosophy. I’ll share it in a few weeks when I’m done.

Have you written down and communicated a personal leadership philosophy? Has your boss ever shared his with you?

I took a lot of great pictures Friday night, so I thought I’d share a few more. You can see the previous post with more pictures here.

Without further adieu…

Big Rob and Darren. Big Rob is easily the coolest guy I’ve ever met.

My favorite thing about this next picture is that Ronald McDonald seems to just be randomly placed in the photo.

Driving the GP Bus. (I think the driver’s name is Sherry.)

A good overall picture of the trailer with the band, the bus, and the GP Army. I notice 2 funny things with this picture. First, Christina is on the trailer posing for the camera. Second, Don and Jan (married) are on opposite ends of the picture with similar stances that scream, “I’m bored. Let’s get this thing moving!” (In their defense, we did sit for nearly an hour after the parade started before we ever moved.)

And a special thanks to Ed for emailing a picture of yours truly: MandoRon. (Nancy I still can’t get your picture to open…, but thanks for trying.)

I stumbled upon this rather odd tribute to Mother’s Day from Neil Greathouse. I thought I was going to be all clever posting this hidden gem from last year. Now I noticed that he posted it on his blog earlier today.

Oh well. It’s still hilarious. My favorite part is the soy sauce. I’m pretty sure that my wife has a secret yearning to drink a whole bottle.