People Builder’s Community, this morning Gary R. Collins, Ph.D. passed away. We celebrate a life of godliness, love, family, leadership, coaching, teacher, mentor, author and speaker. More information will be provided and published on this blog when available.
Julie H. Collins, 82, of Arlington Heights was born September 19, 1938, in Portland, Oregon, to Donald and Margaret (Hale) Heinz and passed away suddenly September 18, 2021. Julie was the beloved wife of Gary Collins; loving mother of Marilynn (Robert) McAlister and Janice Collins; cherished grandmother of Anthony (Lindsay) Fullman and Colin McAlister; and dear sister of the late Donald Heinz and David Heinz.
Visitation will be Thursday, September 23, 2021, from 4-8 PM at Lauterburg & Oehler Funeral Home, 2000 E. Northwest Highway, Arlington Heights and Friday, September 24 from 10:00 AM until the time of the Funeral Service at 11:00 AM at The Chapel, 431 N. Quentin Road in Palatine. Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to The Alzheimer’s Association (alz.org), 8430 W. Bryn Mawr Avenue, Chicago, IL 60631.
In consideration of the safety of our guests and associates, Lauterburg & Oehler Funeral Home will ask that proper social distancing be practiced and all guests wear face masks at all times. Thank you for your cooperation.
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/arlington-heights-il/julie-collins-10364108
This is a note to you who receive my newsletters every week. Usually each week I share something that comes from what I’ve been reading, often about present trends, leadership, the future, coaching and sometimes counseling. I plan to keep going with this approach.
But a close friend has challenged me to write and reflect on topics some of you might find interesting – sharing from my perspective or maybe about what I know now. So I would like you to engage in a social experiment with me on this blog. If you could select a topic or issue for me to write about in a future People Builder Newsletter post, what would that topic be?
Please click on the comment button below and post two pieces of information: (1) a brief description of the topic that especially interests you, and (2) a suggested title for my post on that topic.
I look forward to hearing from you, maybe today. I might not respond to everybody but you can be sure I will read every comment.
Thanks everybody.
Have you ever seen a company or church mission statement, beautifully framed, hanging on a wall, and ignored by all who walk by? My first coach urged
me to write a mission statement for my life and my career. That was not easy but I got it done and then forgot about it. In an article titled “From Purpose to Impact,” two authors in Harvard Business Review (May, 2014) describe how we can turn our mission statements and purpose-driven goals into reality. “Purpose is increasingly seen as the key to navigating the complex world we face today,” the authors wrote. But “few leaders have a strong sense of their own leadership purpose or a clear plan for translating this into action. As a result, they often fail to achieve their most ambitious professional or personal goals.”
This HBR article is a good description of how coaching can apply in business settings and lead to real change. As you read what follows think how this might apply to churches and their leaders, or to individual career or life directions:
Is this too simple or too obvious? Is it doable for you or your organization? If not, why not? Please comment.
This week the renewal notice came from Harvard Business Review (HBR). Why would a psychologist, coach, counselor or ministry leader subscribe to a business magazine? Because reading contemporary books and magazines is one way I keep up with changes in my field, in leadership and the world where we live. Some HBR articles bore or confuse me. But successful business people must stay abreast of trends in order to survive. I want to know what they are thinking.
An example is the November 2013 issue focused on making decisions. I read the articles on making tough calls, emotional agility, and on avoiding the echo chamber. This is when decisions are made in isolation or when decision makers are surrounded by like-minded people who echo what each other thinks. Much better is what the article calls social exploration in which ideas and perspectives are solicited from a network of sources. “Social explorers…form connections with many different kinds of people and gain exposure to a broad variety of thinking.” One research example concerns traders who had a balance and diversity of ideas in their networks. They had a 30% higher return on their investments. The conclusion: the best decisions rarely come from “deep pondering in isolation.” They happen when people learn from and draw on the diverse experiences and perspectives of others. Do you agree that the God who guides through Scripture also leads through communities?
Then there’s an article titled “Dismantling the Sales Machine.” Last week a friend described the attitudes in his work place. Sales reps are told what to do, required to read scripts to potential clients and monitored on how much they conform. This was big for many years but in an age of educated consumers, especially younger people, there is a much better response to reps who can use their personalities, judgment and creativity to engage callers and answer their questions. “Reps are most likely to succeed when they feel supported rather than directed.” My friend works for a college talking to potential students. When they are treated impersonally will they go elsewhere–where people on the phones are personally knowledgeable, warmer and more engaging?
Please leave a comment. Tell us how you keep up with trends.
Click on the comment button to see the magazines that I read regularly in order to keep in touch with change.
I have mixed feelings about neuroscience. For decades therapists, coaches, educators, ministry leaders and others (like me) have assumed that change in any field comes from empathic listening, vision casting, goal setting, effective communication, the eradication of painful memories, and maybe thousands of other methods for behavior change. We’ve known that all of this depends on the workings of our brains and neurological systems but we’ve rarely given much serious attention to those biological/neurological issues.
Until now! Emerging developments in neurophysiology have captivated our attention, suggests an article in Psychotherapy Networker (July/August, 2013). “Therapists have become enamored with brain science,” This fascination extends to other areas as well, including ways in which neurological functioning impacts leadership, coaching, music, creativity, education, and even spirituality. The Networker analyzes this “brain craze” and acknowledges the recent strides in neuroscience. But understanding how the brain works does not always translate into the practical side of bringing change.
One Networker article argues that “current neuroscience has yet to translate its findings into effective or practical recipes for therapists.” Findings from the brain-imagery lab haven’t demonstrated any “persuasive direct application of neuroscience to the practice of therapy” or to other means for bringing change.
This may be a debatable conclusion. Other Networker articles describe a few practical change strategies that have emerged from neuroscientific discoveries. But scientific discoveries rarely have practical applications at least in the beginning. At some time in the future neuroscience may help us understand how and why some of our change strategies work. We’ll know why some are ineffective. We will discover new practical strategies for making us more effective therapists, coaches, leaders, spiritual directors and other change agents.
Meanwhile, how do change-makers respond to neuroscience when we lack expertise in this field? As much as possible we keep abreast of what neuroscience is discovering. We encourage younger colleagues to enter one of the neuroscience/neuropsychology fields. We keep refining our skills and knowledge about methods that are proven to work. We stay cautious about using methods that have limited or no evidence-based support. We use the same caution when looking at another fad: the often-unsupported idea that if some method lacks so-called empirical evidence it is of no validity.
These are heavy issues. Please comment.
Inc. is “a magazine for growing companies” but its writers go far beyond business. The April, 3013 issue, for example has several articles on getting more done, citing “new research on how to achieve peak productivity.” Building on this empirical evidence, practical recommendations include the following:
These and other practical, research-based suggestions can be helpful, except when productivity becomes too important. At times the drive for getting things done distracts from other areas in life that may be even more important. These include caring, helping others, building relationships, devotion to families, being still at times and knowing God better (Psalm 46:10). There is value in getting more done unless this slips into compulsive, potentially self-destructive lifestyles. What do you think? Please leave a comment.
Storytelling has become extremely popular among speakers, teachers, preachers and business leaders. According to an advertisement for yet another book on story telling, “Today, many of the most successful companies use storytelling as a leadership tool…. Some forward-thinking business schools have even added storytelling courses to their management curriculum. The reason is simple: stories have the ability to engage an audience the way logic and bullet points alone never could. Whether you are trying to communicate a vision, sell an idea, or inspire commitment, storytelling is a powerful tool…. Whether in a speech or a memo, communicated to one person or a thousand, storytelling is an essential skill for success.”
I see the value of good story telling but good communication involves more than stories. As in past years, last week I attended the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. The speakers were excellent but one told a number of stories and lost the audience in the process. When I found my attention wandering I noticed that four people in the row ahead of me and the people on either side had pulled out their cell phones to check their messages or do texting. In themselves the stories had not been strong enough to pull attention away from the cellular devices that constantly tug even for the attention of professionals at a leadership conference. Stories with no clear purpose are entertaining but not always captivating.
Leslie Leyland Fields is a professor of creative writing who this month published a thought-provoking article in Christianity Today. She is positive about story-telling with its ability to “restore the value of the personal in the face of impersonal science and technology, as well as the gods of our age which privilege reason and fact over the personal and experiential.” But Fields decries, for example, how our efforts to reduce the Bible to a concise story can strip away the richness of God’s narratives with its laments, poetry, proclamations, exhortation, cries of despair or hope, praise and prophesy. Bullet point slides may be out of date but some things cannot be put into story form.
I want to be a great communicator, even in blog writing. But to what extent does this involve or go beyond story? Please comment.
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