Showing results by author "Kent Hill" in All Categories

You never dreamed being the boss would be so hard. You're caught in a web of conflicting expectations from your subordinates, from those above you, and from your peers and customers. You're not alone. As Harvard Business School's Linda Hill and manager and executive Kent Lineback reveal in Being the Boss, becoming an effective manager is a painful, difficult journey. It requires trial and error, endless effort, and slowly acquired personal insight. Many managers never complete the journey and instead just learn how to get by. At worst, they become terrible bosses.

Preeminent leadership scholar Linda Hill, along with former Pixar tech wizard Greg Brandeau, MIT researcher Emily Truelove, and Being the Boss coauthor Kent Lineback, found among leaders a widely shared, and mistaken, assumption: that a "good" leader in all other respects would also be an effective leader of innovation. The truth is, leading innovation takes a distinctive kind of leadership, one that unleashes and harnesses the "collective genius" of the people in the organization.

You never dreamed being the boss would be so hard. You're caught in a web of conflicting expectations from subordinates, your supervisor, peers, and customers. You're not alone. Packed with compelling stories and practical guidance, Being the Boss is an indispensable guide for not only first-time managers but all managers seeking to master the most daunting challenges of leadership.

In a quartet of tribute tales from theses authors that both idolize and have recently encountered Hank's works, the voice of the poet laureate of the gutter is restored, so that once more the good duker can take a swing.

In a savage kingdom plagued by monsters and murderous armies, there are but heroes few. One such hero - the last of a race of barbarians and mighty warriors - soon finds himself at the center of a blood feud and an ensuing great chase across the lands. He must seek discover an ancient power with which he can battle a brutal king so that harmony might once more be restored to the realm. This is a tale from the heady days of high adventure - a tale of action, lust, intrigue, swords, sorcery, and spectacle.

So the guy who wrote about smut peddling aliens and barbarians and all that good shit writes poetry, as it turns out. With an eclectic mix of greasy, cheesy, salty, and sweet, Kent Hill brings his unique spin to poetic verse. With musings on aging action heroes, zombies, giant robots, vengeful clowns, goat-killing trolls, and toilet humour, Hill leaves no stone unturned in this rambling odyssey with words that rhyme. Come check it out...if you have the time.

Imagine being liquid enough to fool around with the building blocks of life just to create a park full of zombies to cash in on the general public's infatuation with the undead. Now imagine, as it often does, something going wrong with that concept and zombies ruining the world for everybody. Next, imagine dinosaurs returning to prominence in a Planet of the Apes-type scenario and evolving so they fill all the roles we humans did before the fall of the species. So our story begins. A group of dino-commandos are sent in to uncover the fate of their missing colleagues....

Enter a world that is the ultimate valentine to those cheap and cheesy sci-fi/fantasy flicks from the 80s - a world with hot chicks, blind cyclopean wizards with bad attitudes, swamp zombies, purple cannibalistic aliens, talking gambling mutants that will cook you breakfast, hover-bikes, a gigantic ghost warrior, a ninja, a recently divorced and suicidal sorcerer, dragons, a cyborg demon and borrowed movie dialogue.

Hercules, the legendary son of Zeus, has beaten all the monsters in the universe. In doing so, he has garnered enormous amounts of fame and fortune. Retiring to his island getaway, he is content to bask in his celebrity and do as little as possible. That is until a new monster comes to earth looking for trouble, Zeus and his brothers get booted out of Olympus, and the squad of showboats Herc left behind to handle the publicity are annihilated. Hercules is forced to get back into the fight, only to discover there is something missing, said something being his supernatural strength.

Things that bite are pretty common in the land down under. A predator could be lurking behind every tree, inside every shadow. It is, however, a horrible new menace that threatens the serenity of the vast, sunburnt country: washed inland on a wave of toxic waste, mixed with great white sharks and sleazy topless waitresses. The outback is dry and boring at the best of times...but now, it really bites!

Every cheap little barbarian movie deserves a sequel. But abiding by the laws of straight-to-video sword and sorcery, the sequel doesn’t always continue the story. They’re crazier, funny, and often far removed from the mythology laid down by the film which preceded them. So, in keeping with this formula comes Sword Dude 2. The continuing adventures of the hero also known as the Dude of Swords. He’s back, by popular demand, fighting, killing, playing it cool, and saving the girl in this phantasmagoric romp into realms fantastic.

The dilapidated shanty stood at the end of a trail birthed from the undergrowth by the feet of travelers numerous. Buck Lightningfast and his girl Sugarplum were two of the many. The lady was draped over Lightningfast's shoulders, screaming and kicking in nothing but his Superman t-shirt and her panties and she was toting a carry bag in which she carried little but her toothbrush and other toiletries.

In search of the ferocious truth, some would call trying to channel the spirit of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson a fool’s errand. But these are desperate times. So settle in for this trilogy of uppers, downers, screamers, laughers from John Bruni (Tales of Questionable Taste), Kent Hill (Hercules with a Shotgun) and Kevin Candela (Weedeaters: The Complete Acropalypse) as they bring you just what the doctor ordered.

When a writer, down on his luck, takes an assignment as a reporter for a small-town newspaper he figures life couldn't get much worse or mundane, being that the town in which he is to reside is on one of those fabled roads that are seldom crossed...even by folks that are lost. But the town of Gabyvale is about to get interesting. Interesting enough to write home about.

Kent Hill presents a double whammy, a double feature, one part heart and one part laughs. Necropolis Tryst begins your listening experience with a tale close to life, full of laughs, love, and tragedy. His over-the-top style comes back to earth in this coming of age that shows Hill is not only a madman, cracking jokes at whirlwind speed, but he is fully human, a romantic and poet. And once you are nice and wet, dip into the genre-splicing parody fest "Zombie Park". A wild and bizarre ride through a kaleidoscope of movies that include Predator, Aliens, and of course, Jurassic Park. Why get one? Rejoice dear listener, in thy double feature.

YOU'RE THE BOSS.... NOW WHAT! GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR EMPLOYEES WITH THESE 3 INDISPENSIBLE GUIDES. One of the biggest challenges for new managers is how to get the best out of each of their team members so they achieve superior results - and make you, the new manager, look good!

Here is where the saga ends and the legend begins...You may not remember the glorious age of VHS, but that is not a prerequisite. As has been the custom in compiling these anthologies, the crème de la crème of authors and filmmakers who both lived and thrived during the period in question, like the Avengers assembled to bring you this - the last dance.

John Bruni, Kevin Candela, and Kent Hill reteam for a second adventure, roaring down the Hunter S. Thompson highway to Gonzo nirvana. Following the success of the trio's The Doctor Is...In!, this group of humble seekers reignites Thompson's joint and takes you to places real and otherwise...as per the Doctor's orders. This second amazing tribute to the man who epitomized rebelliousness seeks once again to bring Hunter back from the grave for yet another wild adventure while fearing and loathing in the dissection of the American dream.

Having filed for divorce from the man of her mother’s dreams, Kate Sinclair returns to Captain’s Point in search of a new beginning, preferably in the arms of the man she met during the course of her brother Jack’s wedding and immediately recognized as the love of her life. Ill-prepared for life in the real world, she must navigate her way through its pitfalls, surrounded by support of family and new friends, as she struggles to secure both a fresh start and true love.

Listen to Shawna and Dan live every week as they squeeze every last drop of inspiration out of the Sunday teaching. Join them for discussion, Q&A and practical application of the most recent sermon.You can email questions to musecast@whchurch.org.