I was recently called out by @Handshake20 regarding my whereabouts – online and offline. Offline, you do not see me attending as many events. Online, as you can read from my blog, there have not been as many posts. Partially because of a self-imposed fast on all media on the Sabbath, which has been sporadic and hard to do, but very helpful.

My role with the City of Roanoke was very public and I interacted with a lot of people – all of whom I am grateful to have served. After a stint with Rackspace and now the Director of Undergraduate Career Services for the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech, I have tried to be more laser focused and am trying to learn the word “No”.

I read a great post by Seth Godin and he asked where do great ideas come from. One of his answers was “not from watching TV” and from “reading books”. Here are some books/ideas that have influenced me and may be helpful to others:

• 80/20 Principle – Focus on the 20% that yield 80% of your results. It applies to many aspects of your life.
• 7 Habits – Focus on Quadrant 2 activities like relationship building. Slow is fast and fast is slow.
• Strength Finders – Focus on developing strengths (mine are Activator, Responsibility, Connectedness, Belief and Command). Yours?
• Purple Cow – Focus on the remarkable. It is your most effective marketing strategy.
• Purpose Driven Life – Focus on personal faith and serving others. It’s not about you!
• Next Generation Leader - Focus on leading others and not on the 2% you will unintentionally intimidate and threaten.

Therefore, I am behind on new technologies and the details of social media and out of the loop on local issues. What have I missed? It is more about what I have gained. Thanks for asking @Handshake20.

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes has created a small, but hopefully growing list of athletes who profess Jesus as their Savior. You can follow this Twitter list here.  If you know of others, please add to this list.

It will be interesting tonight to see if Colt McCoy, a believer, will follow Tim Tebow and Sam Bradford as three consecutive Christian quarterbacks to win the Heisman.

To donate or find a FCA group close to you, visit their site.

Lead Like Jesus – Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges

This Christian focused leadership book written by the co-author of The One Minute Manager highlights the ultimate leader – Jesus Christ.  Servant leadership is the key theme of the book and it clearly defines those who live it and those do not through EGO – Edging God Out and Exalting God Only. The first demonstrates a leader whose ego is self-centered and the latter’s ego as selfless.  The book continues to outline the Heart, Head, Hands and Habits of a servant leader. Finally, the book concludes with reasons why Christ’s servant leadership is desired and practical next steps for your leadership style to model that of Jesus. Perhaps the best accolade of this book was made by management guru Patrick Lencioni, “This is without a doubt the most important management book I have ever encountered.”