A book recommendation from Dan Beaulieu:
Lead With Humility: 12 Leadership Lessons from Pope Francis
By Jeffrey A. Krames
Copyright 2014 Amacom
Price: $14.00
Pages: 124 with source notes
12 great lessons from a great leader
Now here is a guy who knows what he’s talking about. No I don’t mean Mr. Krames, although I’m sure he knows what he’s talking about too, I mean Pope Frances the man who has already come a long way in bringing his church into the 21st century.
Drawing on the very practical common sense wisdom and philosophy of the Catholic big guy Krames has put together a book that is both extremely vital as well as pertinent to today’s business and life’s challenges.
Listen to this, and I love this lesson, “Smell like your flock” which of course is a very graphic way of saying be like them, be one of them. We now know enough about Pope Francis who has eschewed all of the pomp and glitter of Papal extravagance to live in a modest apartment and drive in a common everyday call as he practices what he preaches and smells like his flock. This is a great lesson for business managers as well as popes.
Then how about when he says, “don’t change, reinvent.” Yes of course that is the right thing to do. How many times have business managers abandoned a great strategy and started anew? I know people who do this every single year because they do not have the stick-to-it-ness to carry a plan all the way through to success. These are the same ones who embrace anything new, any new theory because they love starting over with a clean slate rather than building on what they have already started thus wasting all of the time and energy they put into last year’s plan. This is an incredibly important lesson.
So then just one more (there are 12 after all) “live on the frontier” which of course means get out there on the front lines, go out where the action is and find out firsthand what is going with your church, or with your company in your case.
There is something neat about being on the same page as the Pope, particularly when he is spot on.
This book also provides some pretty good insight into the Pope himself, who he is, where he comes from and what he is all about.
This book is a good one. Pick it up and read it and oh yes make sure you pass it around as well.
