Next Generation Leader - A Book Review
Are leadership books worth reading? I think so. Lots of pastors look down on any reading that’s not biblical- theological. I’ve found great insights from many of the books I’ve read on leadership. Most recently I’ve read the Next Generation Leader. The focus of the book is around five issues: competence, courage, clarity, coaching and character. Of these five issues the most helpful for me were clarity and character. By Clarity Stanley means that we don’t always need to know what the “right” answer is, but we must be clear about what we are asking others to do. Vagueness in leadership can be paralyzing. This challenged me as a leader to be clear as I lead with the staff, leadership and the entire church. I’ve already been praying about just what I can do to be clear in my leadership. The second chapter that struck me was the chapter on character. Interestingly, Stanley points out that often a leader’s ability will take him past his character. He notes that many times we have the ability to bring success to an organization without being biblical. (By the way the first chapter of Deep Change another popular leadership book by Robert Quinn, inadvertently points out the same thing when he notes that the majority of businesses with deep change couldn’t be used as examples because they actually had to break state laws to institute the change). We expect pastors to lead with principle but even pastors are tempted to take short-cuts. These can be short-cuts in dealing with relationships or short-cuts in handling meetings to bigger issues of finances etc. Regardless, what a leader must decide is what success really looks like. Usually, as Stanley points out, to maintain character a leader must slow down and take a much more complicated path than someone willing to do whatever it takes to “get ahead”. This issue matters to me. My character matters. By character I mean who I am before God. I care about pleasing God and so in all I do, with every decision I make, I want God to say “good job”. Stanley helped remind me to review everything I do and who I am because my goal is to not only grow the Kingdom but to allow God to grow and impact my life. The Next Generation Leader is a great, easy read for anyone who wants to grow as a leader.
Eddie
Jn 3:30