Barnabas File

In her book  Leadership Revolution: The Future of Developing Dynamic Leaders , Lori Mazan takes a rather critical approach to mentoring.  She sees it as helpful but only when matched with coaching and of lesser value than coaching: “In a sense, mentoring can encourage looking back, emulating what was previously successful. Coaching is a methodology for looking out ahead and figuring out what's going to be successful next.” She goes on to say, “Mentoring just can't take the place of the kind of transformative development employees can get from coaching.”   Just for clarity, let’s define terms here.  In mentoring, someone (usually an experienced person in the field) shares their knowledge, skills, and experience with another person to help them to progress.  The person being mentored is identified by terms such as “mentee” or “protégé.”   Coaching is   a partnership between coach and client . They are “thought partners.”  Th...

Not matter what your field—ministry, business, not for profit, or education—you always want to be on the lookout for new ideas.  The question is, “Are innovative ideas more likely to come from established participants or from novices?”  According to professor  Amir Goldberg  at Stanford University, we should focus on the fringes for breakthrough ideas. In his research, Goldberg found that prescient thinking—the creation of novel ideas that prove productive-- was more likely to emerge from the fringes of a field. In business, prescient ideas were eight times more likely to emerge from the smallest companies than the largest.  “We’re not saying innovation always comes from the periphery, only that it’s more likely,” Goldberg notes. As investors and business leaders seek the next big idea, Goldberg says “Openness to outsiders and welcoming a diversity of voices is a good place to start.”    For churches and denominations, this means that we shou...