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Leadership topic - The Staple Singers

For the week of Christmas, I wanted to feature a group that was mostly Gospel. The Staple Singers were tailor-made for the task…

The Staple Singers were formed by Pops Staples in his living room,  directed with his very basic guitar. They sang for the first time at the Mount Calvary Baptist Church where they were so good, they had 3 encores … of the SAME song – the ONLY song Pops had taught them all the way through 😉 They landed on nighttime radio there in Chicago – which had a clear channel AM radio – so they were heard across the country with their unique family blues/soul/gospel music, and were signed to VeeJay Records, a “race-record” label on the southside of Chicago.

They are the perfect soundtrack for a discussion of Beliefs—where they come from, how you form them, and how important Feedback is to you and others. The last element involves some challenging thinking about Values.

You have them, and express them to the world through your actions. But do you know what they really are? And can you ensure others know them – with or without words? Some amazing Gospel/Soul/Blues music crafted by people who lived out their Beliefs every day… what can we learn from The Staple Singers.

engage your Beliefs

engage your Beliefs

Dec 20, 2021 | , ,

“What do you Believe?” It was a very direct question, from a very direct woman. My wife’s “great aunt” asked me … just as we were leaving from her small apartment. I had been helping her write her memoirs, which turned out to be much more coaching than either of us had anticipated. As she would tell her stories, I would simply listen and try to write as fast I could to record these stories that were amazing, raw, and very engaging. And a question that you should always be ready to engage – actually, what DO you Believe?

Belief management

Belief management

Dec 21, 2021 | , ,

Born only a few years after the Staple Singers started, my home was a constant hub of activity from our Church. I have never asked why, but my parents managed the College Kids group at First United Methodist Church of Richardson, Texas. So many of my basic Beliefs came from this season, it is hard to even remember where things started. Certainly, I have always thought of Church as a fun place – we had big parties both at the house and at Church, and as my Dad would always add, without the need of alcohol to have fun 😉

managing Beliefs

managing Beliefs

Dec 22, 2021 | , ,

Integral to forming and managing my Beliefs was sailing together with The College Kids. Dad’s engineering background, of course, brought him to sailing – one of the most technically challenging sports around, and yet, also the most simple. Can you as a Team organize yourselves and the boat to take advantage of the wind and events to be first across the line. Simple – not easy, as with most discussions of Beliefs. The model we use to talk about it is also from sailing – an Iceberg…

Belief in observing

Belief in observing

Dec 23, 2021 | , ,

Looking back, it is no wonder I have such different Beliefs. Having moved to Tyler in my teen years, we again found a Church home that had a lot of things going on. The big “downtown” church had a gym/roller rink, a large almost Cathedral building, and a very active Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF) group. Mirroring The College Kids we have been discussing, Sunday evenings were started with Vespers, and then dinner and fellowship, with some light lessons to think about. And in the mid 70’s they decided to offer Sex Education – at church…

wonder of Beliefs

wonder of Beliefs

Dec 24, 2021 | , ,

“You are really odd!”. That was the greeting from a fellow coach standing outside of the conference room at Darden Business School. You might think that was a bit harsh, but the wonder is that is a compliment to me. Literally raised to be “different” for as long as I can remember, it is ironic that now I am known as a great connector of people and friends. And the real wonder is that without the early Church’s most radical stance, you wouldn’t be reading this…

executing with Belief

executing with Belief

Dec 25, 2021 | , ,

Before your day gets off to a roaring start of execution, let me say Merry Christmas!! Filled with lots of traditions that come from Beliefs modeled around you, hopefully, yours are as fun as mine are. Our home had a completely separate living room that was divided from the house with a solid sliding door. Thus access was “limited” until we had gotten completely dressed, had a full breakfast, and then Dad would go in and prepare for our entry – with his light bar of Four Thousand watts…

renewing Belief

renewing Belief

Dec 26, 2021 | , ,

My early church experience includes another basic Belief that many find somewhat hard to believe: Fun. For example, on New Year Eve we would always have a party – at the Church. We would have dinner together late as Church family, watch a cheesy family movie (16 mm projected…), and then at Midnight, an old man would walk through the door one way, and another man+ would come back – dressed up as a baby 😉 A bad visual, but characteristic of that group of people that formed my Belief that Fun is needed to renew us…