Issue No. 196 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a “Top-10” book pick for 2010—and the year’s not over yet; it’s that good. Don’t skip this one. Buy it, read it and share it with your colleagues. And this reminder, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.
Look-in-the-Mirror Leaders
Some book reviews write themselves. Not this one. I have this holy sense that the subject matter is so important, so timely and so prophetic that I dare not mischaracterize the guts of this profound message.
Author Scott Rodin’s transparency is just the warm-up. “Here is the confession: in my role as a leader, I have been mostly wrong.”
Wrong? How could that be? Rodin has sterling leadership credentials: seminary president, author of five books, Christian Stewardship Association president, consultant to nonprofit ministries, and Ph.D., University of Aberdeen. He knows the leadership literature—and he knows God. He also has laser-like wisdom and courage to target the inappropriate leadership practices of Christian leaders and pastors.
In framing his discussion that Christian leaders are called to be leaders “of no reputation” (re: Henri Nouwen’s call for downward, not upward mobility), Rodin writes:
“Perhaps the hardest place to decrease is in the influence and the power we hold over people and decisions. For this reason we find Christian leaders who are overly directive at best and autocratic at worst. As a result we produce churches and ministries that are rife with learned helplessness. By overestimating our worth we help our people depend on us for everything. And that dependence feeds into our need to be needed, to be the visionary, to be in control. We tell ourselves that the more we lead in this way, the more our leadership is valued and our presence desired. Of course, this is not real leadership but a counterfeit that contributes to our increase and expands our kingdom. This type of leader is an owner-leader.”
The antidote to the owner-leader trap is what Rodin calls the steward leader. He skillfully contrasts the classic leadership styles (servant leadership, great man and charismatic leadership, transactional leadership, transformational leadership, etc.) with his unique and deeply biblical insights on the concept of a steward leader.
“If I could put one Bible verse on the desk of every pastor and every Christian leader in the world, it would be this: ‘If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us’ (1 John 1:8).”
He says that the true steward leader “must be involved in a constant process of self-evaluation and repentance.” He adds, “…the greatest tool for effective steward leaders is a mirror and a group of friends to be sure they are looking into it with clarity and focus.”
Rodin is amazingly refreshing. He promises no set of techniques, no course on “Twelve Steps to Becoming an Effective Steward Leader.” The marching orders are pretty simple: “Obedient and joyful response—that is the only requirement of the steward leader.”
Sometimes an author comes along with new insights and whack-your-head labels that open your eyes (and heart) to deeper truths—life-changing truths. Rodin does that with this book and his convicting message. When you finish the book, you’ll intuitively recognize the chasm between “steward leaders” and “owner-leaders.” You’ll hunger to be a steward leader. You’ll grieve your years as an owner-leader, but you’ll rejoice in God’s generous grace, with mercies new every morning.
Rodin’s immense gift to Christian leaders is clearly one of my Top-10 book picks for 2010. Warning: the first 90 pages build a formidable and important theological case. Hang in there because the remaining pages are practical, prophetic and powerful—and all the more so because of the foundation he built, not with proof texts, but with scriptures that jump off the page with new clarity.
Yikes. This review doesn’t do justice to the book. Forgive me. But please read it. Even better, read it with your colleagues and look in the mirror together.
To order this book from Amazon, click on the graphic below for: The Steward Leader: Transforming People, Organizations and Communities, by R. Scott Rodin.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) Rodin says that “self-confidence, which slowly shuts us off from God, is a sickness. It is actually a sickness unto death. It is an epidemic among leaders; we are too easily swayed into a mode of leadership that is self-serving, self-reliant and self-confident. True steward leaders are rare, and as soon as they believe they are that rare leader, they are already well down the path of self-centeredness.” What’s the antidote to this sickness?
2) Rodin talks about unfolding and molding. “Steward leaders seek to help people unfold the talents and character which God has gifted them.” (Picture the amazing spring unfolding of a blooming flower.) On the other side, “This is in contrast to leaders who try to mold their people into shapes and sizes that best serve the organization in achieving its goals. Owner-leaders must maintain control over their people, and that includes the manipulation required to get them to do what the leader wants. The savviest owner-leaders play on the imbalance in people to their own ends.” What’s our people strategy here? Unfolding or molding?
Poofreading Problems - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit
One of the big ideas in the Printing Bucket, Chapter 19, in Mastering the Management Buckets is that proofreading occurs best after publication!
The buck stopped with me, so it was my mistake. We had outsourced a project to a vendor who would be using their own printer for a quick print run of 10,000 copies. There was one typo in the headline: “Order the audio version of these workshops and encourage your team members to become life-long learner.”
We spotted the typo immediately, circled the word “learner” and faxed it back with the instructions to make “learner” plural.
The vendor followed our instructions perfectly. We received 10,000 copies of the order form with this headline: “Order the audio version of these workshops and encourage your team members to become life-long plural.”
Yikes! It is funny now. Wasn’t then. The irony is that we had a failsafe system in place for proofreading, but we didn’t use it. After all, it was just one typo and we were confident that it would get fixed. Wrong.
One of my favorite Murphy’s Laws is, “Proofreading occurs best after publication.” The brochure is on the press. The website is live. The order form has been mailed. The CD packaging is on the truck. Bingo! Someone spots a typographical error.
Many organizations employ a variety of best practices to catch typos before publication (the preferred sequence!). This week I found a typo in Rodin’s book. It happens to all of us, but there’s a solution: the Printing Purchase Order form, with a sign-off section for your best proofreaders. You can download it at the Management Buckets website.
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