Journal of Sacred Work

   Some people spark such hope in our hearts that even a glance at a picture of them brings instant joy. That is what happens when I see this image of my wife and daughter on my son's porch. 

   As an executive coach I challenge leaders with this question: What is the impact of your presence on others? When you "round" in your hospitals, does energy go up, down or sideways?

   Leaders set the tone. Hope or fear? Confidence or chaos?

   Radical Loving Leadership means taking care of the people who take care of people by being "tough-minded and tender-hearted."*

    Some leaders disagree. "I want my staff to fear me," the CNO at Baptist Hospital told me when I arrived as CEO. "Otherwise, they won't obey me."

   "We can't build a caring culture by scaring caregivers," I told her. She quit.   

   This story is why I feel so strongly about America's leadership. We cannot be a great and loving nation with a bullying Presidential candidate who arrogantly threatens that only he can save what he calls "our failing nation." 

   Policy aside, choosing hope and love matter. Our top-ranked Presidents: Roosevelt, Reagan, Clinton, Obama raised America's energy. Trump, now ranked our worst President, lowered it. Every Presidential expert now ranks Trump as our worst President.

   Lincoln preached "malice toward none."  The former President preaches malice toward all.

   Vice President Harris champions peace and progress. Trump promises chaos and doom. 

   He calls his opponent a "mentally ill, radical Communist," while preaching the odd idea that democracy needs him as "a dictator on day one." His disastrous resume of bankruptcies, felonies and fraud convictions features dangerous election denialism.  He tells women, "I am your protector" thinking they will overlook his own predator's record of serial sexual assaults. 

  How can we tell when Trump is lying? Every time his lips are moving. 

  Do we really want more chaos from a new President bent on revenge? Another "January 6"? Or someone who will lead us forward? 

  I admire and respect people that lift us up. Like that pair of women above do.

-Erie Chapman

*Martin Luther King