There are many things in my opinion that are overrated.  For example, the Dallas Cowboys for the last fifteen years have been overrated.  I also think self-celebration is overrated.  The abundance of touchdown dances and “look-at-me” reality TV shows are more self-serving than entertaining.

I  would like to begin by asking you an important question: If you were doomed to live the same life over and over again for eternity, would you choose the life you are living now? The question is interesting enough, but I've always thought the point of asking it is really the unspoken, potentially devastating follow up question. That is, if the answer is no, then why are you living the life you are living now? Stop making excuses, and do something about it.

There is nothing intrinsically good about not talking. Yet, it occurs to me that the abundance of words in the world of business today suppresses humanity; inhibits leaders from being fully human. Business battles fraught with internal power struggles and competitive intimidation affirm the lack of genuine listening, and the need, at times, for silence.    

More graduate schools of theology are spending significant research dollars investigating the science of well-being for those who serve as pastors. Two significant camps, the Roman Catholic University of Notre Dame and the United Methodist Duke Divinity School, have provided papers outlining the nature of well-being for those who are in the caring profession.

The companion discipline of silence is solitude. In the ancient world, silence and solitude were acknowledged as the twin disciplines of abstinence.  Solitude creates a space for silence, and silence creates an opportunity for solitude.  

I often field compelling questions faced by today’s leaders such as the Q&A below initiated by Bill Raker, President and CEO of U.S. Federal Credit Union, about the evolution of leadership.