a blog by John P. Schuster
The leaders I have been around fall into 3 categories…mentors, nice but neutral, and tormentors. Real mentoring is a high bar: an unwavering faith in people mixed with toughness and wisdom. It is the only real place to shoot for. Tormentors have their own skills: ego-centric and playing a power game they think they understand but don’t. Not the real power. And our friend Hafiz about 900 years ago in Persia said it well: The[…]
Read moreTaking ourselves out of flow and into anxiety The couch is ready for me—the remote just lying there ready for TV action. I can go watch a game, surf some channels, and chill out. I also have a tough book to read and a paper to write and maybe, instead of surfing and zoning out, I will put my head into this taxing book, then sit at a computer and try to write something coherent[…]
Read moreTwo quick thoughts dear friends, Here is a link to a blog I think is worth your following: Meta-Reflections. Dan Pesut is a leaders’ leader in healthcare. He happens to mention my books in this post, the impetus for me linking with him, permanently, but I look forward to whatever he has to say. He is one thoughtful and thought-leading person. He is among the super well read, and I know a lot of well-read[…]
Read moreEvery day we take another step or two, mostly forward, and sometimes sideways, or back. We move into the job more completely, or less so. Into our marriage in a new way, or maybe not. Or move into an encore career, sad to let go of the big ol’ career, or perhaps relieved. We keep moving, aligning as many parts of our poly-phrenic, many-sided selves (schizophrenic is too simple—we are way more than just two)[…]
Read moreHey all, Amazon has a fire sale going on with my book, The Power of Your Past: the art of recalling, reclaiming and recasting. The good news–I get my full royalty…thought you might want some gifts for friends or clients… The link to Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Your-Past-Reclaiming/dp/1605098264 Coach on, answer those calls John
Read moreA few years back, a group with a funky name, Five for Fighting, wrote a piano-based chart topper, 100 Years to Live. The lead singer starts, almost in falsetto: “I’m 15 for a-a moment, caught in between 10 and 20…” Compelling lyrics pull us ahead over the arc of our lives. I can’t get the song out of my head right now, and my new guitar coach, John May, is helping me with the voicings[…]
Read moreI had the privilege of introducing Pam McLean, president of the Hudson Institute, at their annual conference last month when I was MCing. People really loved this quote I used to introduce her, one from James Michener. Pam is a true master at living, so I thought it was appropriate. Masters in the Art of Living draw no distinction between their work and their play, their labor and their leisure their mind and the body[…]
Read morePatricia and I just had an extraordinary experience with prison inmate hospice workers. Oprah has done a powerful documentary on the hospice workers in Angola prison in Louisiana, the largest maximum security prison in the US. The inmates have been educated to provide hospice care for dying inmates (5000, and most will die there—no parole for life sentences in five states). It is redemptive work. Some say the last time they saw someone die is the[…]
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