Years ago I had the pleasure of seeing Dan Allender speak before a group of men. He is unassuming on stage. He does not gesticulate, he does not roam around working the crowd, he does not vary his pitch from a whisper to a shout to prove his point like other pastors do. Instead he sits mildly on a stool, hands in lap, neck craned toward the microphone and yet he is the most engaging, edge-of-your-seat, can't-wait-to-hear-what's-next speaker I have ever seen. He is a masterful storyteller with a dry wit and impeccable comedic timing. He had us rolling in laughter one minute then still in reverent silence the next. Several of the stories and principles he shared with us that day stay with me even years later.
With this memory of him in my mind I gladly borrowed "Leading with a Limp" (2006) from a friend. (by borrow I mean I said to my friend while in his office, "this looks good, can I read it?" as I placed it in my bag over a year ago...sorry Russell, you'll get it back shortly)
Dr. Allender uses his storytelling abilities and adventures as the president of Mars Hill Graduate School to add life experience to the idea of leadership. His premise is that unlike what we see on TV and imagine in our minds the greatest leaders are the ones who fully embrace their weaknesses and are blazingly, unashamedly open about it with their family, staff, friends and colleagues.
He uses a grid that shows the typical challenges of a leader and the typical ineffective responses.
The responses are: Cowardice Rigidity Narcissism Hiding Fatalism
The challenges are
Crisis
Complexity
Betrayal
Loneliness
Weariness
He says that a leader will experience all of these challenges. Depending on the kind of man/woman he is he/she will be tempted to respond to varying degrees of the above mentioned responses. The good leader will consciously choose to respond with the following instead:
Effective solutions: Courage Depth Gratitude Openness Hope
Now imagine all the Bold lettered words in a grid with the responses on the horizontal axis and the challenges on the vertical axis.
Using personal stories and examples from the Bible Dr. Allender takes the reader through the challenges of leadership and shows how we can choose courage over cowardice, depth over rigidty, gratitude over narcissism, openness over hiding and hope over fatalism. I was personally challenged by his insights and admonitions throughout the book and was forced to reflect on myself and my leadership tendencies both as a husband, a father, a friend and a co-worker. Do I respond with courage or cowardice? Do I respond with hope or fatalism?
The book was not a gripping read and some chapters seemed unnecessary, but overall it was an excellent answer to the typical "Be Better, Smarter, Effectiver*, Awesomer* Leader Just By Reading My $20 Book". Allender shows us that God's way is often the opposite of our ways. Rather than looking for appearance he looks for character (Saul/David), rather than looking for results and numbers as criterion for a leader he looks for the meek and mild (Gideon). Rather than defeating Satan as a conquering hero with an army at his back he came as a baby and died a condemnable death. God's ways and means of leading are quite different from ours. Allender's admonition is that we embrace that way, embrace our limp, stop hiding and begin living and leading as God made us, warts and all.
I would say read this, especially if you've read one too many books on leadership and are looking for something different.
(* These are not real words)
With this memory of him in my mind I gladly borrowed "Leading with a Limp" (2006) from a friend. (by borrow I mean I said to my friend while in his office, "this looks good, can I read it?" as I placed it in my bag over a year ago...sorry Russell, you'll get it back shortly)
Dr. Allender uses his storytelling abilities and adventures as the president of Mars Hill Graduate School to add life experience to the idea of leadership. His premise is that unlike what we see on TV and imagine in our minds the greatest leaders are the ones who fully embrace their weaknesses and are blazingly, unashamedly open about it with their family, staff, friends and colleagues.
He uses a grid that shows the typical challenges of a leader and the typical ineffective responses.
The responses are: Cowardice Rigidity Narcissism Hiding Fatalism
The challenges are
Crisis
Complexity
Betrayal
Loneliness
Weariness
He says that a leader will experience all of these challenges. Depending on the kind of man/woman he is he/she will be tempted to respond to varying degrees of the above mentioned responses. The good leader will consciously choose to respond with the following instead:
Effective solutions: Courage Depth Gratitude Openness Hope
Now imagine all the Bold lettered words in a grid with the responses on the horizontal axis and the challenges on the vertical axis.
Using personal stories and examples from the Bible Dr. Allender takes the reader through the challenges of leadership and shows how we can choose courage over cowardice, depth over rigidty, gratitude over narcissism, openness over hiding and hope over fatalism. I was personally challenged by his insights and admonitions throughout the book and was forced to reflect on myself and my leadership tendencies both as a husband, a father, a friend and a co-worker. Do I respond with courage or cowardice? Do I respond with hope or fatalism?
The book was not a gripping read and some chapters seemed unnecessary, but overall it was an excellent answer to the typical "Be Better, Smarter, Effectiver*, Awesomer* Leader Just By Reading My $20 Book". Allender shows us that God's way is often the opposite of our ways. Rather than looking for appearance he looks for character (Saul/David), rather than looking for results and numbers as criterion for a leader he looks for the meek and mild (Gideon). Rather than defeating Satan as a conquering hero with an army at his back he came as a baby and died a condemnable death. God's ways and means of leading are quite different from ours. Allender's admonition is that we embrace that way, embrace our limp, stop hiding and begin living and leading as God made us, warts and all.
I would say read this, especially if you've read one too many books on leadership and are looking for something different.
(* These are not real words)
No comments:
Post a Comment