Part 3 – “The End of Absence” (Michael Harris) Book Review

Posted: March 6, 2015 in Quintessential Leadership
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This is very important for us as quintessential leaders and for our teams, so be sure to read this last review on The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection by Michael Harris.

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The Visual InternetThis is the last of a three-part series of reviews that I am writing on The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection written by Michael Harris in 2014.

The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We've Lost in a World of Constant Connection by Michael HarrisIn “Part 1 – ‘The End of Absence (Michael Harris) Book Review,” we looked at the definition of absence and how it relates to our quality of life.

We also discussed how constant connection to technology is eliminating absence from our lives, and in the process, rewiring our brains with dementia-like characteristics. It is a lifestyle dementia that we are consciously creating by choosing to live in a world of constant connection.

We also discussed how the disappearance of absence is also causing the disappearance of our ability to think, to to reason, to plan, to dream, to create, and to innovate. In short, we’re trading the depth of real life, with all its hills and…

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How Understanding Personality Types Helps Quintessential Leaders Build Teams

Posted: March 4, 2015 in General Things about Quintessential Leadership, Quintessential Leadership, Quintessential Leadership is an Art, Team Building & Development
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Why Personality Types Matter When Building TeamsImagine a world in which every other person alive is exactly like you in how they are: thinking, speaking, and doing. With your temperament, your strengths, and your weaknesses. With the same things that can make you irresistibly charming (let’s all, since this is fantasy, go ahead and pretend that we have at least one quality that people find charming about us) and obnoxiously annoying. Everywhere you turn, you see an exact clone of yourself.

Do this sound like a great dream or an awful nightmare?

For me, it’s an awful nightmare. Read the rest of this entry »

Part 2 – “The End of Absence” (Michael Harris) Book Review

Posted: February 27, 2015 in Qualities of a Quintessential Leader, Quintessential Leadership, Team Building & Development
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This is the 2nd part of the review of Michael Harris’ “The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection.”

As quintessential leaders, this not only affects us but the teams we lead. One of our roles as leaders is to model and coach our teams. If we’re constantly connected to technology, then that is the example we are setting for our teams.

And it’s devastatingly detrimental to us and to them.

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information superhighway going gentle into that good nightThis is the second of a three-part series of reviews that I am writing on The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection written by Michael Harris in 2014.

The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We've Lost in a World of Constant Connection by Michael HarrisIn “Part 1 – ‘The End of Absence’ (Michael Harris) Book Review,” we looked at the definition of absence and how it relates to our quality of life.

We discussed how absence gives rise to critical thinking, problem-solving, short-term and long-term planning, concentrated focus, and creativity.

We also discussed the physical, emotional, and mental benefits of absence.

And, finally, we discussed how absence has been eroded by our constant connection to technology to the point that it is virtually extinct in our current society.

We discussed how this has dumbed down society as a whole and how susceptible that makes us to being controlled, manipulated, and deceived by technology.

And, finally, we looked at how much…

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Remembering a Quintessential Leader: UNC Basketball Coach Dean Smith (1931-2015)

Posted: February 23, 2015 in Examples and Analyses of Quintessential Leadership, Qualities of a Quintessential Leader, Quintessential Leadership, Quintessential Leadership is an Art, Team Building & Development
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Coach Dean Smith UNC quintessential leaderCoach Dean Smith, who led the University of North Carolina basketball program for 36 years, died on February 7, 2015 after a long battle with dementia. Throughout his coaching career and his life after coaching, Coach Smith embodied many of the characteristics of quintessential leadership.

He was not a perfect man, but none of us can claim perfection either. There were times when he wasn’t a quintessential leader, just as there are times we are not quintessential leaders.

But when Coach Smith’s life as a whole, both on the basketball court and off, is considered (and that’s the only way to consider anyone’s life, including our own, because no one – including each of us – gets it right every single time), it’s clear that his goal was to be a quintessential leader. And the results of his commitment to that goal are evident to this day.

I grew up in North Carolina. But me being an UNC basketball fan was not a given. My dad got his undergraduate degree from Wake Forest and he taught physical therapy at Duke University and did a year of pre-veterinary schools studies at North Carolina State University. My mom studied medical technology at Duke University, which is where she and my dad met and made their lifelong commitment to each other. Read the rest of this entry »

Part 1 – “The End of Absence” (Michael Harris) Book Review

Posted: February 19, 2015 in Examples and Analyses of Quintessential Leadership, Qualities of a Quintessential Leader, Quintessential Leadership, Quintessential Leadership is an Art
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As quintessential leaders, we need to be aware of how constant connection to digital technology negatively affects us as leaders and the people on the teams we lead.

If we don’t understand what this looks like and how it manifests itself and we don’t find a way to ensure that we have a balance between real life and digital life, then we will not be able to be quintessential leaders. It’s that simple.

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internet going gentle into that good night neurological changesThis is the first of a multipart series of reviews that I will write on The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection written by Michael Harris in 2014.

I have written on the main point of Harris’ book in “Dementia of the Preoccupied: How Multitasking and Being Attached to Technology 24/7 is Creating A Dementia Effect on Society” and “The Quintessential Leader Perspective On the Art – and Beauty – of Silence,” which everybody should take some time now to read.

The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We've Lost in a World of Constant Connection by Michael HarrisI would also highly recommend that everyone read The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection. At about 200 pages, it is completely doable for the shorter attention spans (one of the side effects, as I’ve noted and Harris notes, of a life immersed in digital technology).

Michael Harris and I…

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Hypocrisy, Revisionist History, and Distortion – The Unquintessential Leadership Trifecta

Posted: February 11, 2015 in Examples and Analyses of Lack of Leadership and Unquintessential Leadership, Quintessential Leadership
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distortion of truth unquintessential leaderA couple of things have happened in February 2015 that have really made it obvious how thoroughly entrenched unquintessential leaders are in our society and how few quintessential leaders actually exist.

These two things may look like they are completely unrelated on the surface, but in fact they both underline how extant hypocrisy, revisionist history, and distortion are within the very fabric of our society.

That, to date, no one has looked at the big picture and connected the dots in any of these things to show the trifecta of unquintessential leadership – hypocrisy, revisionist history, and distortion – is a testimony that quintessential leaders are almost nonexistent on this planet. Read the rest of this entry »

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