Listen to the commentary Dear Marketplace Friend, I hope you’re enjoying some time for yourself today – with your family and friends – as the last gasps of Summer are enjoyed doing something that refreshes your body and your soul. Are you going back to work tomorrow? “Summer break” is no longer a big deal for people who have clocked-out forever (the classic American […]

Listen to the commentary   It has become a tradition for American presidents to write a personal note to their successor, and to leave that note on the Resolute Desk – in the Oval Office – for them to read as they move into their new digs. I wonder: what would it be like to

Listen to the commentary   It’s an innocuous question, asked with the most quizzical simplicity: “So, what are you doing now?” For decades, I had earned a reputation for being meaningfully engaged in leading The Master’s Program in a coast-to-coast neighborhood of leaders, intent on seeing them unleashed into their unique Kingdom assignments. My mantle

Listen to the commentary Here’s a somber reality that you’ve probably confronted at some time in your believing past: is what you’re reading right now – in the Bible – a source of comfort? or, conviction? There’s a passage in Matthew’s gospel that can sometimes cause pause: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will

Listen to the commentary Talk about “late to the party!” In the era when magazines and printed publications are on the way out, COSTCO is going against the grain: the COSTCO Connection goes out every month to 123 million members across America. Though principally a 100-page advertisement for their products, they lure readers with a

Listen to the commentary Can you keep a secret? How many times every day is that question posed between people who already share a close relationship, but are on the threshold of entering into a virtual contract with the power to either ensure the bond shared forever, or to set in motion the disclosure that

Listen to the commentary Do you have kids?  If you’re a parent, you’ve learned a lot about life through the unavoidable assignment of shepherding them through the young-and-cute stages to the old-enough-to-know-better era when they drive you nuts and make you ponder escape strategies. If the “whose kids are these oddballs?” phase hit you where

Listen to the commentary What time is it? Don’t ask Phil Connors that question: for him, it really didn’t matter. In the 1993 movie Groundhog Day, Phil (played by Bill Murray) was stuck in a strange time loop, repeating the same day, continuously. If life isn’t moving toward some significant future horizon – if every

Listen to the commentary Allow me to import some thinking from leadership in organizational life and apply it to real life. Most people live with either a passive or reactive mindset: passivity resigns leadership to someone else, while reactivity operates with no agenda other than to operate defensively in response to uncontrolled and unforeseen circumstances.

Listen to the commentary   I don’t know when you’ll read this. Maybe you’re sneaking a look at your incoming emails today, during your holiday break; or, perhaps you’ve allowed the pile to grow until Wednesday morning, after the hot-dogs and sparklers wore out their welcome, and we’re connecting mid-week. Here’s the question: is America’s