I have just been bestowed what I consider to be a great honor! I have been selected to receive the Power of Schmooze Award! This honor is only given by others who have received it, and passed on to other deserving recipients. The Power of Schmooze award was created by Mike at Ordinary Folk and Danielle at Pink Reviews to help “recognize those people that were [are] exceptionally adept at creating relationships with other bloggers by making an effort to be part of a conversation, as opposed to monologue.”

The rules:
If, and only if, you get The Power of Schmooze Award, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think, or have schmoozed you into submission. Link to this post and Mike so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.

Optional:
Proudly display the ‘The Power of Schmooze Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

This honor was passed on to me by Shalene Kearney of Proverbs31WomanWannaBe. She is a great blogger herself, someone who's heart for God I have really come to respect. She tells it how she sees it, and for that reason I know that I am worthy of this award. She would not have passed it on if she didn't really believe in my desire to create community as opposed to a monologue. Thanks Shalene!

So, here is my list:

Leadership Qualities by John Clark
John has several blogs, but this one is the one that I enjoy the most because of the content that is similar in nature to management by God. John is a great blogger, and is very intentional about community.

Prudent Musings by PrudentMusings
This is a great Christian blogger who regularly presents apologetics, philosophy, and cultural conversation. Prudent Musings regularly challenges me, and makes me think about how I view the world around me. He is a great thinker and a great communicator.

Casey's Critical Thinking by Casey Carmical
Casey is another great blogger who regularly makes me think. I really appreciate great thinkers like this, especially in a world that regularly views Christian thinking as weak or unintelligent. The Biblical Worldview is still relevant, intelligent, and has it's place in the world today.

Results Through Integrity by Douglas Ross
This is another blog that is very like-minded with me and my management by God blog. We seem to share a great deal in moral values, and in desire to help each other grow in the field of leadership development. We have worked together in creating a community called leadership 2.0 on Bumpzee, and I look forward to exploring leadership development community with him down the road. While the level of professionalism for his site may not be worthy of reciprocation on this award, I cannot create this list without at least giving him the credit he deserves.

Material Leadership by Ron Hurst
I complete my list by selecting another great leadership blogger. Like Doug's Results blog, Ron has also put together a great resource for leadership development. Based in strong Christian values, he is intentional about becoming a part of a community where "iron sharpens iron". He is also a big part of the search for community that Doug and I are on.


So, there it is. I thought that it was worth the time and effort to pass along this honor in this way, because I believe that it is important for leaders to be intentional about community. In fact, I recommend that anyone reviewing this even brush up on this topic by reviewing the old Build Community post. As leaders we need to seek out opportunities to network with each other, and create a community of friends and resources. We must nurture these relationships, and in that we will discover the true power of them.

Questions to consider:
What are you doing today to nurture your community? If you were selected to receive an award that you had to pass on, who would you select? Why? What are you doing to become a worthy recipient of some award from someone else?

I got this honor when I least expected it. If I can offer an other advise to my readers, be humble and just do the things that you have to do in order to be successful. Today, start with being intentional about community.

Amen!