New Memoir About Life in the Controversial Legion of Christ by a Former Member Reveals Insights into the Double Life of Founder Father Marcial Maciel

Press Release

TRUMBULL, Conn., May 26 /PRNewswire/ -- As Vatican-watchers await the appointment of a papal delegate to oversee the Legion of Christ, a new memoir by a former member claims that few Legionaries were aware of the double life led by their founder, the late Father Marcial Maciel.

Driving Straight on Crooked Lines: How an Irishman Found his heart and Nearly Lost his Mind, http://www.drivingstraight.com (ISBN 978-0-9845227-0-5, Trade paperback, 352 pp, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2) provides author Jack Keogh's insights into the inner workings of the Legion of Christ and the intimate thoughts of a former priest who collaborated with the controversial Maciel, the founder of the Mexican congregation.

Keogh, the first Irish-born Legionary to set foot in Mexico, tells how he ultimately came to believe that God does indeed drive straight on the crooked lines of our lives after first nearly losing his mind.

Spanning locations across the globe, Keogh's "gripping story offers realistic insight, told with a subjective, non-judgmental outlook," says Australian writer and editor Cerian Griffiths. "Keogh's sincere narrative, in which he faces many challenges, inspires an attitude of hope for the future. His story is told with candor, a sparkle in the eye, plenty of blarney, and Irish good humor."

Investigative reporter, author and film director Jason Berry, whose recent report on the Legion of Christ's Father Marcial Maciel was published in the National Catholic Reporter says, "I was pulled along by the story of a young Irishman drawn into the world of the Legionaries of Christ, unable to see the raw truth of Father Maciel, coming to the painful realization of Maciel's psychological tyranny as time passed, and having the fortune to leave early enough to make a new life. This is a sad yet, in the final measure, uplifting memoir."

Keogh is Managing Director of Keogh & Associates Consulting, LLC of Trumbull, CT, which advises multinational corporations on leadership and cross-cultural communications. A resident of Fairfield County, CT, Keogh studied in Spain and Italy and is fluent in their languages. Many thousands of people around the globe have attended his presentations.

For more information about Driving Straight on Crooked Lines or to schedule an interview, please contact Jack Keogh at (203) 268-3126 or visit http://www.drivingstraight.com. The book is available on http://www.amazon.com, and http://www.barnesandnoble.com.

Book Cover: http://www.ereleases.com/pic/DrivingStraightonCrookedLines.jpg

CONTACT: Jack Keogh Iveagh Lodge Press Trumbull, CT (203) 268-3126 info@iveaghlodgepress.com


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SOURCE Jack Keogh

Matcing the right hire to the right job: a critical managerial skill

No one can guarantee the performance of a manager or executive appointed to a new position.
The reports and surveys we are constantly bombarded suggest we can safely say most executives make poor promotion and staffing decisions.

Peter F. Drucker repeatedly said:

“In no other area of management would we put up with such miserable performance (as we do in people decisions)...indeed, we need not and should not...Managers making people decisions will never be perfect...But they should come pretty close to batting 1,000, especially because in no other area of management do we know so much..."

I completely agree with the following points taken from Human Resources. Read the full article here.

1) Think through the assignment. Failure to think through the assignment, Drucker observed, was the number-one reason for staffing failures. Put differently, executives making staffing decisions must “match strengths to opportunity.” many times when thinking through the assignment, the necessity for reorganizing the existing organization becomes apparent. The nature of the assignment requires multiple knowledges and a variety of skills impossible to find in one person.

2) Make sure the appointee understands the job.“It is not intuitively obvious to most people that a new and different job requires new and different behavior,” Drucker said. “Most people continue to do what they've done before.”

3) Match The Right New Hire For the Right Job. A successful bus driver, in all likelihood, cannot run the bus company.

Questions to ask:
"What is the task?” “What is the experience and knowledge base required to carry out the task?" "Does the appointee understand the job?"

Creating new opportunities for people involves helping them learn and develop. That's something Keogh & Associates Consulting, LLC specializes in - but that is a topic for another day.

Emotional intelligence and its relationship to transformational leadership

The May, 2010 of the "IE Update" Newsletter provides the following abstract of a research study on Emotional Intelligence. The study refers to the "MSCEIT" one of the instruments that Keogh & Associates Consulting, LLC uses in our approach to team and leadership development.


Clarke, N. (2010). Emotional intelligence and its relationship to transformational leadership and key project manager competences. Project Management Journal, 41(2), 5-20.

This study examined the effect of Emotional Iintelligence, as assessed using MSCEIT, on several competences (i.e., communication, teamwork, attentiveness, and managing conflict) and transformational leadership after controlling for personality and cognitive ability. Results based on a sample of 67 UK project managers revealed a number of significant correlations between the MSCEIT and the dependent measures. Branch 2 of the MSCEIT (using emotions to facilitate thinking), Branch 3 (understanding emotions), and the overall EI score were all found to positively correlate with the project manager competence of managing conflict. Both the abilities of using emotions and of understanding emotions positively correlated with the project manager competence of teamwork. Using emotions to facilitate thinking was the only EI ability found to have any significant correlations with transformational leadership. Both total EI and branch scores showed minor correlations with personality measures, offering further support for the predominantly independent nature of these two aspects of individual difference.

A strategic approach to Talent Management

According to Michael Fineman and Jodi Starkman of ORC worldwide, the most important thing a company can do to ensure a continuing supply of well-prepared, well-deployed key players is to create a talent culture: an environment in which finding and nurturing talent is considered an important management function.

Fineman and Starkman identify seven essential elements for building a talent culture. They lay the groundwork for translating business strategy to people strategy, create a common understanding of process and vocabulary, and provide the tools managers need to help them implement a coherent, aggressive talent management plan.

1. Deep involvement of senior management
2. Dedication of sufficient time, staff and IT support
3. Breadth and depth of talent reviews.
4. Consistency and Structure.
5. Meaningful Developmental Experiences
6. Motivation and Retention
7. Monitoring the TM Program

Expatriates are not a dying breed

From an article by Sanchia Temkin:

"Expatriates are not a dying breed.. They are still very much part of the business strategies of many companies seeking to expand their activities beyond their homes bases," said Siobhan Cummins, MD for Europe, the Middle East and Africa of ORC Worldwide."

However, expatriate assignments are changing, with assignments lasting only one to three years, instead of much longer, which used to be the norm. Another change is that companies are paring down the assignment package, and are no longer paying large tax-free gratuities upon the completion of an assignment."

Light in the darkness of the soul

Viktor E. Frankl was Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School and Distinguished Professor of Logotherapy at the U.S. International University. He is the founder of what has come to be called the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy (after Freud's psychoanalysis and Adler's individual psychology) -- the school of “logotherapy.”

Born in 1905, Dr. Frankl received the degrees of Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Vienna. During World War II he spent three years at Auschwitz, Dachau and other concentration camps. He died in 1997.

His book "Man's search for meaning" where he describes his ordeal in the concentration camp is a marvelous and uplifting read.

 I’ve just come across a short video snippet of one of his lectures. It lasts four minutes. You can see it here. Dr. Frankl in his charming accent basically says: “If we take man as he is, we'll make him worse. But if we take man as he should be we make him capable of becoming what he can be".  A beautiful and relevant lesson.

The ancients knew well there is indeed light in the darkness of the soul. To get to the truest nature of a human being we have to aim very high. Dr. Frankl suggests that being an idealist is the only way to be a realist.

Value of training

According to Jim Harris in his book The Learning Paradox, a number of issues would begin to appear, if company employees did not receive on-going training. In a down economy – like the one we are currently experiencing – one of the areas that is subject to cutback is training and development. This means, I think, that HR people need to know how to measure the strategic value of training in business terms. Harris suggests the following outcomes when training goes away; I suggest that these outcomes should be the basis of how we measure the value of the training we deliver:

1. Fewer skilled employees
2. Lower-quality work
3. Poor customer service
4. Higher customer turnover
5. Increased marketing costs
6. Slow corporate growth
7. Higher employee turnover
8. Higher recruitment costs
9. Reduced attraction for new employees
10. Increased IT support
11. High informal training costs
12. Increased workload
13. Increased burnout
14. Slow response to bids
15. Slow response to competition
16. Turf battles, office size and politics are valued