Day: June 14, 2014

Leadership might not be the first thing you think of when you hear Billy Graham’s name, but his role as a leader of leaders has been central to his ministry. Billy Graham’s lifetime of vigorous leadership invites every leader to engage with the same spirit, to consider his example, and to dig, as he did, into the rich resources of leadership literature that resonate with biblical examples, according to Matt Woodley in his book Billy Graham: Leading With Love: 5 Timeless Principles for Effective Leaders.

So what sorts of leadership lessons can we learn from Billy Graham? The author looks at five different aspects of leadership:

• The character of a leader: Early in his ministry, Billy and his team created a written covenant, the Modesto Manifesto, detailing how they were going to deal with temptations.
• The mission of an organization: Billy’s clear focus on his calling has led him to reject good opportunities which were not directly aligned with his mission.
• The importance of teamwork: By finding the right chemistry, Billy led a team which stayed together for decades.
• Common challenges faced by leaders: By offering his critics kindness rather than vengeance, Billy won some powerful allies.
• How faith in God has shaped Billy’s life as a leader: Humble openness made Billy a lifelong learner on the Christian journey.

There is something awkward about books which lionize individual Christians, and I was also slightly uncomfortable about the way the book speaks of Billy Graham in the past tense rather than the present. Nonetheless, the book is filled with many interesting stories from Billy’s life, and there is a great deal of wisdom to be learnt from his experiences.

Living within and loving God’s church requires an experience with God and his amazing grace, but it also requires an intentional decision to forgive and love people who are less than loveable, according to Rob Bentz in his book The Unfinished Church: God’s Broken and Redeemed Work-in-Progress. It demands faithfulness and commitment to God, but it also demands faithfulness and commitment to his people.

Some of the wisdom contained in the book:

• The fact that God would call out a special group of people to love, draw to himself, call his own, shower with unspeakable grace, and then entrust with special roles and responsibilities in his kingdom work is quite astonishing.
• Without a clear recognition of God’s payment on behalf of his people, you and I will not see each other accurately. I won’t see you as God’s sees you—redeemed by the blood of his Son, Jesus.
• The church that Jesus is building is an eclectic, intriguing, quirky, diverse mess of humanity. That’s God’s way.
• Love is the one primary thing that God gave us to represent him. That’s why it’s nothing short of a tragedy when we do it so poorly.
• Genuine biblical encouragement is among the most frequently undervalued and over-assumed experiences of the Christ followers’ journey.
• Service is simply not about me, my happiness, my joy, my status, or my ability to cultivate a heartwarming story that I might one day tell others. At its core, service is about whom I am serving.
• Unity is the result of a great deal of heart-wrenching, God-seeking, others-forgiving effort. Jesus calls us to this immense personal and corporate challenge.

The church has become increasingly marginalized and seen as an irrelevant and outdated institution, even by followers of Jesus. The author makes a passionate defence of the church not as an idealized abstract idea but as the imperfect, complicated, difficult collection of people that it currently is. The book is reasonably short and interesting, but I am not sure how many readers will be willing to step up to the challenge of difficult unity when disposable relationships are so much easier.

Whether you are starting out in professional life or have been part of it for some time, you have a boss and a responsibility to manage him of her like the other resources for which you’re responsible, according to William Smullen in his book Ways and Means of Managing Up: 50 Strategies for Helping You and Your Boss Succeed. The author has had 50 years of experience in managing others, most notably as chief of staff to former US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

My full review of the book is available at my business book reviews website.

Why do you go to work every day, and why travel somewhere at all? Is it necessarily the best place to perform the tasks your organization requires of you? What is the best way to design a workplace? How can flexible and work-from-home arrangements be effective for an organization? These and many similar questions are addressed by Guy Clapperton and Philip Vanhoutte in their book The Smarter Working Manifesto: When, Where and How Do You Work Best?

My full review of the book is available at my business book reviews website.

It turns out that becoming a leader and doing something amazing with your life hinge on what makes you different, not what makes you the same as everyone else, according to Sylvia Hewlett in her book Executive Presence: The Missing-Link Between Merit and Success. Executive presence is a measure of image rather than performance; it is the manner in which you signal to others that you “have what it takes” to be star material.

My full review of the book is available at my business book reviews website.

The idea that the more power one individual leader wields, the more we should be impressed by that leader is an illusion. Where corners are cut because one leader is sure he knows best, problems follow, and they can be on a disastrous scale, according to Archie Brown in his book The Myth of the Strong Leader: Political Leadership in the Modern Age. The book examines the leadership styles of a large range of political leaders including dictators and democratic leaders.

My full review of the book is available at my business book reviews website.