Publications

Motivational Performance Coaching For Leaders

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BOOKS:

• Just Middle Manager - Next Great Leader
  • Just Middle Manager is traveling to the Celestial City of Influence in hopes to be renamed Next Great Leader. This fable focuses on Carl Jungs Archetypes and provides a unique tool to evaluate, identify and strengthen your leadership style.
  • To read an excerpt from Just Middle Manager - Next Great Leader Click here

• Currently in Development: New Idea - Next Status Quo (This manuscript goes to the publisher in the Spring of 2010. Email us if you would like to be read through the manuscript as a first adopter.)

  • New Idea is traveling to the Celestial City of Tradition in hopes to be renamed Status Quo. This fable focuses on the development of ideas and how they travel through an organization. If you are a dreamer and innovator this book is being developed for you. If you are someone who wants to take your organization beyond the Traditions of the present to the Status Quo of yesterday, this book is being developed for you. If, however, you like things the way they are and you don't want innovation to survive in your organizational culture, this book IS NOT for you! In fact, it is about you and we would rather you not know what we are saying about you.
  • Currently in development stage as David travels on the Harley from Michigan to Myrtle Beach to Maine to Niagara Falls and back to Michigan during the month of July. Stay tuned for more information.
  • For our at large editing staff who wish to add to the development of New Idea - Next Status Quo click here to read it and critique it. (However, remember, David is in the free-flow-writing-stage. Which means the manuscript can change and he could care less if there are typos. You super-editors may not wish to read it in rough draft form).

ARTICLES:

We are currently working on collecting, editing and uploading articles for your interest.

 

Excerpt from Just Middle Manager - Next Great Leader

The following excerpt is taken from the first chapter as Just Middle Manager has a discussion with Leader Innocent about the heavy weight on his back:

 

Innocent had long been leading others with a quiet, yet buoyant, hope for tomorrow.   There were many travelers to Celestial City of Influence that had taken such advice and found their way once again on the right road to a better place. Although there were many a critic who thought Innocent was too Pollyannaish, Innocent thought finding good and seeing hope in all things was an important aspect of any leadership style.  While many would think that leading by inspiration and vision of that which is good is, at times, unrealistic, Innocent thought it not only a good way to view leadership but a pleasant way to be led—for those who are apt to follow.  When others were lost in the dullness of their dilemma, Leader Innocent could offer hope for the bleak, a life ring in the sea of suspicion.   

“Don’t you think that being so ignorant of the conditions at hand is like sticking your head in the proverbial sand? Do you not see this weight I carry?” Just Middle Manager asked.  He did not and could not move from the lumber of his log, but once again, he did feel a small lightening of the load as he mused about Innocent’s speech concerning the treasures to be found in Celestial City of Influence.

“What makes you believe that I am ignorant of the conditions? Or, that I have stuck my head into the sand?”

“Because,” Just Middle Manager said, as he began his answer, “you have neither offered a way for me to release my load nor presented a way to lighten it yourself.”

“Perhaps your load, this burden to discover your leadership style, is heavy because you have missed the power of simple hope and the influence of quiet joy that is offered to all leaders who can see the beauty of innocence in all struggles?” Innocent asked.  “Have you considered such a thought?”

Just Middle Manager was beginning to understand the meaning behind Leader Innocent’s name.  But he continued with his argument and asked, “By what reason do I have hope?  How can a leader offer hope when there is no real solution to the problem?  Although by just talking to you my burden does seem lighter; it is obviously still here, and I sense you are underestimating the difficulty of my state.”

“True, there are those who might believe leading by and through the power of innocence is only a camouflage of hope and not true hope, indeed.  And, yes, the word hope, alone—flying solo—holds little help for those who hold to it.    Yet, the hope we hold is never thought of as a single word, but rather the word finds its strength in the context of what we are hoping for or in.  The burden on your back and in your heart feels a little less grave because you took a moment to think of the blessings waiting you in Celestial City of Influence.  Consider the runner in a marathon:  The runner may lose strength if he or she only listens to the drum beat of their legs as each limb beats out the weight they carry up a sharp incline.  Yet, when the runner thinks about the hope of the finish and the rewards of training, he finds his legs much lighter and, often, the slope in front of him much flatter.  Their hope is found both in the context of the past (their extensive training) and in the framework of the future (the joy at the finish line).  So you see hope is not a camouflage, but the compass pointing toward something practical and real.

“I see your thoughts,” Just Middle Manager said as he reflected on Leader Innocent’s argument.  And, after a brief moment, he added, “If I lose hope as a leader and if I lose the view that things can always work out, I will, in turn, lose my influence over my own motivations.  And, if I lose influence over my own self and have little energy and enthusiasm to lead others to safety or to their desired destination, they too will suffer and be de-energized. That hope is not empty but has its basis in the competency of the past and the splendor of that the future holds. Is that what you are saying?”

“Yes, that sums it up very nicely,” Innocent answered.