by Jim Pingel
Kurt Senske’s The CEO and the Board: The Art of Nonprofit Governance as a Competitive Advantage is must read for every Lutheran school administrator, pastor, elder, and anyone essentially engaged in governance of church work or non-profits. The book is not only informative and comprehensive in scope, but written in a highly succinct and precise way. The book is 140 pages, but with the content divided up into 43 chapters, one can read and digest each topic with ease and interest. The book is also user friendly in that you can read it chronologically or you can skip to chapters which may be of greater or immediate interest to your particular context. For example, a few the chapters and topics, which I particularly appreciated, were entitled: “Intentionality,” “The Art of Creating an Effective, Diverse Board,” “The Art of Setting an Effective Agenda,” “Strategic Planning—A Deep Dive,” “Integrity, Self-Care, and Blind Spots,” and “Bringing Our Entire Being to the Table.”
The design and layout of the work will benefit you and your board long after you’ve read it in its entirety. You will be able to quickly find the chapter and topic which may be top of mind for you years into the future. In other words, the book is not only a helpful read but a terrific resource to have on hand.
My last bit of encouragement and praise for the book is not to lose sight of Senske’s crucial subtitle—The Art of Nonprofit Governance as a Competitive Advantage. The lessons and takeaways from this book, if embraced by the CEO/Leader and Board, will be not only a blessing to your organization or school, but help your school to thrive and standout among a world full of competitors. Board governance isn’t always a sexy topic to investigate, but it essential to the health and growth of your school. Senske provides inspiration and best practices to help your school thrive and be good stewards of God’s abundance and grace.
One of the better leadership books published in 2023 is David Noble and Carol Kauffman’s compelling Real-Time Leadership. Most leadership books published by the Harvard Business School focus and promote the “Be. Know. Do” framework for teaching leadership. Noble and Kauffman take particular interest in focusing on the “Be” part of that equation. For example, they note the hundreds of studies which show that intrinsic motivation unlocks performance in remarkable ways. As leaders of Lutheran schools, it’s important that we realize that our team members will operate at peak performance when three key factors—autonomy, relatedness, and competence (ARC)—are engaged and nurtured.
The book is full of research and insights which will benefit you in your leadership role. As head of school, executive director, or principal, for example, you should be aware of the “gorilla effect.” This is the idea that by virtue of your position and title, you are perceived to be more powerful than you may think of yourself. You should not underestimate the impact of your power when you are someone’s boss. The term comes from the idiom: A thousand pound gorilla walks into a bar. Where does it sit? Anywhere it wants to! That’s how many of your team members perceive you—whether you think so or not!
Other practical and useful leadership tips abound. One great way to improve communication with your peeps is to ask the question: “What energizes you the most at work?” Experiment with the grant three wishes approach too. “What are two to three things that I can realistically do right now to make your life better?”
Noble and Kauffman’s research indicates that one doesn’t discover purpose, you uncover it. How can you help your teammates “uncover” their strengths and purpose?
Another interesting reflection piece for me is how rare it is to find someone who can express sincere, spontaneous joy or enthusiasm for another’s success. But this is crucial attribute to look for in your faculty and staff makeup. Marriage research indicates that as damaging it is for a partner not to get support during a difficult time, it’s more damaging when partners don’t celebrate successes together. How is your school doing at celebrating together, spontaneously, and without compulsion?
New leadership books are published daily. This one is worth the time and read—engaging, practical, research-based, and one can help you…in real time.
The “good life” is being able to travel to beautiful San Diego to see your colleagues in Christ and learn something more about leadership and ministry. 😊
The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness, published early in 2023, is a fascinating read. Here’s the crux of it: In the longest scientific study of happiness ever conducted (84 years), the researchers boiled down the key ingredient—good relationships. In fact, the researchers boiled their findings down to this statement: “Good relationships keep us healthier and happier. Period. The frequency and quality of our contact with other people are two major predictors of happiness.”
Perhaps these findings don’t surprise you. But there are other interesting nuggets to digest and contemplate—and how you might apply them to your leadership position and your oversight of school personnel. For example, the researchers noted that “real deep curiosity” about what others are experiencing goes a long way in developing and deepening important relationships. Curiosity opens up conversation and reveals knowledge that we never knew existed. When people know you are curious about them, they feel understood and appreciated. The researchers contend that the crucial step in connecting with others through curiosity is to make sure your communicating your new understanding back to them. This is where lots of magic happens, where the connection between people becomes solid, visible, and meaningful. You are seeing someone for who he or she is. And to be seen is an amazing and affirming thing.
There are several key questions you can ask to hone your curiosity and listening skills: Ask people how they are feeling, what they are thinking. Ask them: How might you feel in their situation? What is one thing you can do for someone today to pay them a little attention?
Another interesting part of the book is their discussion and research on friendship. Friends diminish our perception of hardship—making us perceive adverse events as less stressful than we otherwise might see them—and even when we do experience extreme stress, friends can diminish its impact and duration. We feel the stress, but friends help us manage it. Friends, in short, keep us healthier.
According to the authors, happiness is not something you achieve. That’s a myth. The good life, the fulfilling life, is not a destination, but the path itself, and the people who are walking with you. This book and its research could provide a wonderful discussion opportunity and ongoing dialogue with your team members. How are we doing on our relationships? How can we deepen them so that we not only live the good life, but provide God-pleasing ministry to our students?
The title really describes the content and value of this book quite well. Uncommon Sense Teaching: Practical Insights in Brain Science to Help Students Learn is an essential resource to have and use in your school. If you are looking to seriously enhance and upgrade the teaching and pedagogical practice of your teaching staff, this is one of the most user-friendly and comprehensive books I’ve read. Your Directors of Curriculum and Instruction, Principals, Assistant Principals, Department Chairs, or Heads of School can all use this book as a summer read, book club, or year-long workshop on how to improve instruction and student learning. In addition to sharing the pragmatic and practical best practices of teaching and student learning, one of my favorite parts of the book is how it lays out principles of effective instruction and a wonderfully helpful framework for lesson planning. If your serious about student learning, this is a serious book for you and your team to digest and put into practice.
You can just say Jim Pingel current serves as Dean of the School of Education at Concordia University Wisconsin & Ann Arbor. He can be reached at james.pingel@cuw.edu.