A SIDE NOTE-

The last several quotes I have used here are from a collection used in Stephen R. Covey's (of Franklin/Covey fame- as in "I stole my management and success techniques from a 200 year old Founding Father who can't sue me!") The 8th Habit. The previous 7 habits were meant to help us all get organized to be fodder for the corporate crunch machine that so many are unfortunate enough to work for. Telling for me is that after each one of these amazing quotes, there is a horrible little diagram of some type of "Success Equation," i.e.- if you do these things then you too can duplicate the success of others. Regardless of questioning why anybody would want to do that, the 8th Habit which according to Covey involves finding your true gifts, passion and voice, should really be about individual inspiration and an expression of the Divine in a beautiful yet uncertain universe that is totally impervious to whatever management paradigm we might foolishly try to overlay on it. Although action is always involved on our parts, it's not about process- or even results. It's about faith unfolding in reality- whatever that might be for each of us. Please put the guru texts down and proceed with your life! That goes double for Ken Blanchard and "Situational Leadership?" While true leadership is a concept which may be displayed in many forms, the essential quality of leading is both eternal and transcendent. Managing only the situation or even the actions totally misses the point of addressing the whole person- a task neither of these fellows seem quite deep enough to handle. What they seem to be best at is managing us out of our money, and their efforts have gone far indeed to re-drive the wedge and enlarge and sharpen the disconnect between productivity and happiness- the main ingredient of real prosperity.