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    Joseph Lalonde

    Joseph Lalonde is the owner of JMLalonde.com. He shares leadership insights from movies, extreme sports, and life experiences.

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    Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Cry Macho

    A Reel Leadership Article

    Cry Macho is the new Clint Eastwood movie. It stars Clint as cowboy Mike Milo. He’s old and well past his prime in the cowboy circuit.

    Due to a favor owed to rodeo promoter Howard Polk (Dwight Yoakam), Mike agrees to go to Mexico to pick up Howard’s estranged son, Rafo (Eduardo Minett). The journey is slow but touching. It shows growth between the hurting Mike and the distrusting Rafo. In the end, the story concludes on a bittersweet note.

    Clint Eastwood in Cry Macho

    There’s nothing unexpected in Cry Macho. It is a typical, aging Clint Eastwood movie. That’s not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination. The movie is engaging and enduring.

    Today, we’re going to look at the leadership lessons in Cry Macho. We’re going to see how Clint’s latest flick can help us become a better leader.

     Read more...

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    The Hard Work Of Leadership

    From the outside world, leadership can look easy. People may see leaders as having the cush job. They get a corner office, they don’t have set office hours, or they get to make all the rules.

    These things sound great. Sometimes, they are. But the people looking at leadership from the outside in miss so much more that goes on in leadership.

    They miss the hard work.

    The Hard Work Of Leadership

    What does that mean? Is there really hard work for leaders? You betcha.

    The hard work of leadership includes:  Read more...

    • Deciding how to let a potential candidate down
    • Working longer hours because you are unwilling to settle for good when you want the best
    • Listening to a family who has lost a loved one
    • Trying to figure out how to make a financial shortfall work this month
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    5 Questions Leaders Should Ask

    Leaders are comfortable asking questions. They know the more questions they ask, the better the answer will be.

    Why, then, are so many leaders reluctant to ask questions? This reluctance to ask questions comes from our upbringing.

    African American woman looking up, as if pondering something important

    Photo by Tachina Lee

    The older we got, the less comfortable people became with us asking questions.

    That’s the opposite direction we should have gone. We should have been encouraged to ask questions. You should encourage those you lead to ask questions.

    Today, we’re going to look at 5 questions leaders should ask.

    5 Questions Leaders Should Ask

    1. Why?

    Why is a great question to ask. So often we go to other questions such as “How can we get this done?” or “When will we have time to accomplish this?”

    Why is a different question? Why allows us to see the reasoning behind what we’re doing.  Read more...

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    Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Dynasty Warriors

    I was a huge fan of the Playstation 2 video game Dynasty Warriors 2. Hearing that Netflix had released a movie based on the series, my interest was piqued. I was excited to watch a video game from my youth transition to a live-action movie.

    Dynasty Warriors began with an epic battle. Sadly, it ended with a whimper. My desire for a massive, large-scale battle didn’t materialize. My wife even walked away from the movie.

    Eekkk.

    Still from Dynasty Warriors movie. Warrior in a heroic pose.

    This doesn’t mean that there’s nothing to learn from the movie. There is. There is always something we can learn from a movie, even a movie we don’t enjoy.

    Sadly, Dynasty Warriors was a movie I did not enjoy. Still, I painfully watched the 2-hour long movie so I could bring you the leadership lessons from Dynasty Warriors.

    I hope you’re happy.

     Read more...

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    What Do You Have To Offer?

    Do you know what you have to offer? Have you even considered the possibility YOU have something to offer?

    We all have something to offer. Not all of us are offering what we have.

    The Gateway Church in Spring Lake, Mi picks an organization to support every year. Last year, we focused heavily on Team World Vision and bringing clean water to those in need.

    This year, our focus has shifted. We’ve begun to lean in heavily and focus our efforts on garnering support for Project Rescue. Project Rescue is a great organization with a great mission.

    They exist to rescue and restore victims of sexual slavery through the love and power of God.

    That’s pretty awesome if you ask me.

    For Team World Vision, we asked our congregation to move their feet to raise money for clean water. This year, we did something different. We empowered our people (youth and children included!) to do something impactful.  Read more...