Rescue Mission Blog

Book Review: Introvert Advantage

  

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The Introvert Advantage: How to Thrive in an Extrovert World by Marti Olsen Laney (Psy.D)

Many people are under the impression that introverted people are all shy, wallflowers who can't bring themselves to speak in public and don't have many friends.  Not so.  Introverts are charged by the internal world of ideas, impressions and emotions whereas extroverts are energized by the outer world.  Introverts are often public people, outgoing funny, and have great social skills.

The book Introvert Advantage gives a great overview of what it really means to be an introvert and how to successfully navigate relationships, business, leadership and more as an introvert.  It's good stuff and I'd recommend it to those who are curious about the introvert/extrovert differences and those who manage people.

As an introvert myself, but one who loves to be around people and has various leadership roles, I found it affirming and instructive.  Here are a few of my take aways:

1. You gotta be yourself. Society tells most introverts that extroversion is the only way to live, but many people are wired that way and it feels false to them. This book will encourage introverts to understand and be comfortable with who God designed them to be.

"It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing ot be what he is" Erasmus

2. Both Extroverts and Introverts must know their own temperament.  So often the challenge introverts have is that they don't know or plan ways to refuel their energy on a regular basis.  Introverts need to plan and schedule time away from others to think, plan, an refuel.  Knowing yourself and how you best work is part of leading a healthy life.

3.  Introversion and Extroversion are not Yes or No. Many people, including myself in this, are introverts in measures of degress. You can't easily say all introverts are alike or that they're all shy and reclusive.  Don't pigeon hole yourself or others, just be yourself and enjoy others for who they are.

4. Appreciate the differences. Where would life be if we were all the same? It certainly wouldn't be very much fun. Introverts, love and appreciate your outgoing, extrovert brethren. Extroverts, love and appreciate your introvert friends as they're often helping you to really enjoy life to the fullest.

Recommendation: Great book. Take a look at it.

David Curry

When to Give Up On Your Addiction Recovery

  

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How about.... NEVER?

God has a plan and a purpose for your life, don't give up.  

Many people face setbacks, yet overcome in the end...if they don't give up. So NEVER give up.

David Curry

Every Non-Profit Leader's Challenge

  

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Every non-profit leader must decide not only WHAT the organization will do, but also WHAT NOT to do.  That's not as easy as it sounds as usually non-profits are designed to do noble, great work which leads one to logically think, "Let's do more".

Peter Drucker said it this way, "Social sector leaders pride themselves on "doing good" for the world, but to be of maximum service requires a ferocious focus on doing good only if it fits your mission. To do the most good requires saying no to pressures to stray, and the discipline to stop doing what does not fit."

What are you doing that just doesn't fit anymore? What are you doing that you probably shouldn't be doing anymore?

David Curry

Great Non-Profit Teams Encourage Dissent

  

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In our last Rescue Mission Directors meeting we had a discussion on the importance of encouraging the open communication of problems and challenges within our organization.  

It seems so obvious on the surface, but so often managers and teams work hard to cover up problems so that they are not seen by upper management. Unfortunately this only makes the problem worse and guarantees an ugly infection.  While addressing the problem at point of contact isn't usually terminal, by the time hidden problem comes to light, sometimes it's grown into a much bigger problem.

Not only is it important to have an environment of open communication about challenges, but it's also healthy to encourage open dissent.  Peter Drucker said that "non-profit organizations need a healthy atmosphere for dissent if they wish to foster innovation and committment."

Why is it important that people can disagree?

1. The smartest people often think counter-cultural.  If you believe that every one being in agreement is the highest value of your management team, then you will unknowingly force out the strongest strategists and creatives.  

2.  All the big, important problems are complex. When you have difficult challenges, and who doesn't these days, then you need everyone thinking creatively and you can't have that without dissent and disagreement.

3.  You're not always right, in fact you're often wrong. By encouraging others to disagree with you (don't punish dissent, don't bite their heads off and don't shut them out) then you you cover yourself and allow others to catch your mistakes privately, when they are in the incubation stage. If you dont' encourage debate and dissent internally you won't get the bad news that you were wrong until it goes public.  The public doesn't have a vested interest in protecting your feelings, so they'll surely tell you.

Learning from Presidential Leadership for Non-Profit Leaders.

  

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Throughout my adult life I've studied and read history about the lives and leadership of our Presidents.  While I've not read about all the presidents, I've certainly read biographies on all the modern Presidents from Teddy Roosevelt until the present day, reading multiple biographies on most.  Then I've punctuated the past generations presidents by reading biographies of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Jackson, and many of Lincoln.  Those that I've not read entire biographies on, I've read surveys of their presidencies and the highlights of their leadership.

In my travels I've also been blessed to see presidential libraries, the homes of some of the presidents and many historical sites. 

As such, I've come to have a few favorites, which aren't based on political persuasion so much as my appreciation of the difficulty of the decision's they made, in the time in which they lived. And with the impact they had on the country.  

Here are just a couple:

Abraham Lincoln: Certainly I'm not alone in this, and the sheer number of books written about Lincoln and his irreplaceable role in our countries history attests to the fact that he was our greatest president.  In the past I've written about why I love Lincoln, which you can read here, but with every book I read about him I'm more impressed with the way he stood up under the pressure he was facing, and while he was a man of his generation, how he did the right thing even though it was against the current.  Even while doing that, he kept our country from breaking into two separate countries, which was a very real possibility at the time. 

Teddy Roosevelt: Having just read the third part of Edmund Morris's trilogy on the life of TR, I feel like I know a lot about this president.  There's much to admire.  In particular, I really enjoy the liveliness with which he conducted himself.  He wasn't sleep-walking through life, not before the presidency, certainly not during his time in office, nor afterward.  He lived life to the fullest. I encourage people to read about this life, you won't be bored.

Eisenhower: For me, Eisenhower is fun to read about because of the unique way he developed into a world-class leader, from a late bloomer and low-acheiver relatively speaking.  When he was forty, he was convinced his career was going nowhere, but within a short term of years he was the most powerful military man in the world during WWII and then President of the United States.  He was also a master manager, in the way that only a general could be I suppose and developed a great ease with command that was developed under incredible pressure. Very interesting man.

While the first three presidents were Republicans, I've got lots of Democratic presidents that I admire as well. I loved reading David McCullouch's book on Truman, who was a president that I really admired both for the way with which he lead, but also for the way in which he lead rather selflessly.  

There are lots of great books on Kennedy, who is inspiring in the way that he captured the imagination of his generation, which is a big part of leadership.  

Woodrow Wilson is also a very consequential and interesting president, whom I find lots to admire.  Although, since I'm a die hard Teddy Roosevelt fan, I can't quite get really excited about. (all TR fans understand that)

Who are the presidents you enjoy learning about and why? 

David Curry

What Shakespeare Could Teach Non-Profit Leaders

  

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Shakespeares plays have had an enormous impact on art for generations, but perhaps his biggest impact was on our language itself.  Many people don't realize that Shakespeare is credited with coining over 1700 of the words we commonly use in our language today.  Before he used them, they just weren't part of our vocabulary.

How did he do it? Sometimes he made them up out of whole cloth, other times he added two existing words together to add a new or slightly better meaning.  Often he would make nouns into verbs or verbs into adjectives.  He was taking creative license to build the meaning of his plays and scripts using whatever raw tools the language gave him and, when there wasn't any current tool to use, creating new literary tools/words.

In the same way, non-profit leaders need to be creating healthy organizations using whatever tools they have available to them, and when there just doesn't seem to be the right answer readily available, sitting down and trying to create solutions that no one else has tried before.

Undoubtedly this was a rough discipline for Shakespeare, but then he did make his mark through his work. If we hope to do so, we'll have to do the hard, creative labor to make the world a better place by creating new, creative ways to reach those we serve by modifying, changing, morphing, and imagining new and better ways to help others.

David Curry

Prioritizing a Priority for Non-Profit Leaders

  

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People in general have trouble with priorities. Many people don't prioritize, some talk about priorities but couldn't articulate them if asked, and some know their priorities...but their priorities never seem to get put first in reality.

What's the matter?  

Priorities are not just abstract ideas, priorities must be reflected in your daily schedule.  In my own life, I often think of exercise and self-care as a priority, but it's irregularly put into my schedule. Apparently, it's not a priority (it should be).

Don't kid yourself, make something a priority and then schedule time for it.

Non-profit leaders, what's the number one priority for your organization? A recent study I saw suggested money/fundraising was the number one concern of non-profit CEO's. Is this priority reflected in your schedule? Are you spending time on those things which absolutely MUST get done? 

What keeps us from putting our self-stated priorities into our daily schedules? Let me know what you think.

David Curry

Things I'm Learning

  

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It's been some time since I've had a chance to share a few of the many resources that I've been reading, viewing and experiencing that are influencing my thinking on leadership, management, inspiration and more.  It's not because I've not been reading, but rather it's due to the fact that I've just not been excited about any books to the point where I'd recommend them.  This probably isn't even a reflection so much of the content, as if could be that I've probably read too many of the types of books of late.  At any rate, here's a few things I think you'd find interesting.

Scrabble for Ipad

This one is just for fun, but I highly recommend Scrabble for the Ipad. It's fun to see a company figure out how to make their old games, new and fun for the next generation.  Basic idea: Ipad is the scrabble board, everyone uses their smartphone scrabble app as their tile rack. It's fun, easy and cool.  Never in a million years could I get my boys to play Scrabble with a board, but they love this game.  A++++.

Monocle Magazine. A european briefing on global affairs, business, culture and design, this magazine is always full of interesting perspectives on the world at large.  Not all of it is golden and it has a european take on the world you might not agree with, but this is one of the rare magazines which is going against the flow of dropping circulation of magazines and is actually flourishing. There's a reason for it, it's good and interesting.  In a world economy where Newsweek sells for $1, it's worth studying the handful of cases where a magazine is making money and asking, "why?".  

Chasing Stars: The Myth of Talent and the Portability of Performance. By Boris Groyburg

This book seeks to answer the question "Are those who excel in the workplace free agents with highly portable skills, or is their performance primarily driven by the adept use of the resources of the organization in which they thrive?"  Most people think that they could do their jobs anywhere, but this study shows that environment matters bigtime.  Who might want to read this? Anyone who is ever tempted to try to hire a A+ player from another team/company and expect that person to perform to the same level on your team.  Might not happen, unless you understand what makes people excel. Good book.

What are some things you've been learning, reading, doing that I might find interesting?

David Curry

LOVE YOUR JOB?

  

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People sometimes say they LOVE their job, which I understand is sometimes used as a 'catch-all' phrase to describe something you enjoy, appreciate, get excited about.  Thinking about it, I'm quite sure I've said it before myself.  

There are many keys to loving your job, but perhaps the first key is that you shouldn't LOVE your job, but rather, LOVE the people who you work with, the people you work for, the people who allow you to do the work, the people who support it, the people who buy your work, the people who defend your work, the people who appreciate your work, the people who promote your work and so on.

If you love the people, the appreciation for the job comes naturally.

David Curry

Rewards of Being Green

  

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There are many intangible benefits to doing the right thing environmentally.  You get the satisfaction of knowing you're making the world a little cleaner, a bit more sustainable, that you're being considerate of future generations.  But sometimes it's a little more difficult to make a connection to the tangible benefits of being green.  

That's why the Rescue Mission is launching a new initiative within our own walls to find ways to reward others for Being Green.  

To Help Make it Fun and Rewarding, we are offering FREE KINDLES to the work group, what we're calling a GREEN TEAM, that comes up with the best, most cost-effective idea on how the Rescue Mission can save environmental resources like energy, water, or reduce garbage.

WATCH fun video to give you and your group a few ideas on the little ways that we can make a big difference in saving resources and the environment at the same time.

We're all about making the most of every resource we have here at the Rescue Mission, every dollar and every kilowatt, to make sure that we are helping as many people as we can.

David Curry