Issue No. 98 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features some pretty good heresies. Some years back, when Don Cousins did a faithfulness/fruitfulness self-assessment, he reluctantly gave himself a two out of nine score. He wrote, “Suddenly I knew: I was about to get pruned.” You absolutely must read his book. And this reminder, check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.
Letting Go of Leadership Heresies
Don Cousins sees leadership from one of the most unique perspectives in North America. After 17 years on the staff of Willow Creek Community Church (including the role of associate pastor), he began consulting with other churches and megachurches in 1992.
So with this year’s media hubbub about Willow Creek (“Bill Hybels Responds to ‘Willow Creek’s Huge Shift’”), you’ll miss the whole story—the important story—if you don’t also read some of the historical context from Cousins, along with his biblical insight and personal reflections on leadership.
In this week’s important book, Cousins thoughtfully attacks leadership heresies and addresses the high price of heresy, the success heresy, the credit heresy and the organizational heresy. His original thinking—steeped in humility and biblical thinking—will get your attention.
To order from Amazon, click on this title: Experiencing LeaderShift: Letting Go of Leadership Heresies. A pastor friend borrowed my book this month and preached on the four questions (four F’s) from the “The Success Heresy” chapter. Cousins asks: 1) Are you being faithful? 2) Are you bearing fruit? 3) Are you fulfilled? 4) Are you making God famous? There’s much, much more. It’s priority reading.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1. Ask yourself the “Four F” questions on faithfulness, fruitfulness, fulfillment and making God famous. How are you doing?
2. Cousins asks, “How do you know you’re being successful?” What’s the measurement in our organization? Are they the right ones?
Your Top-100 Books: Savoring Old Friends - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit
A leader emailed me last week, “I just read Mastering the Management Buckets and will be doing a review on my blog…buying in bulk for our staff, and probably using the book in a class I’ll be teaching (in a West Coast seminary).”
I especially enjoyed the word “bulk.” But whether you buy six or 60 for your team members, be sure to read chapter five. Ball #4 in the Book Bucket says, “Create Your Top-100 Books List: pick your top-3, top-10 and top-100 books.”
This is for extra credit. In a journal or on your computer, begin to assemble your top-100 books list. One rule: You may only list books you have actually read, not read about. I recommend that you list them under the 20 management buckets, though you may have another system that works for you.
I created my top-100 list two years ago and it was a fascinating and joy-filled journey. (Visit the Book Bucket webpage and download your own fill-in-the-blanks Top-100 Book List form and to view my lists.) Once again, I was with old friends. My heart beat fast as I savored the early morning hours I invested in Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God, authored by Henry Blackaby and Claude King. I was reminded again of the savvy organizational chart system from The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber. (I immediately recommended the book to a client.)
TrueFaced: Trust God and Others with Who You Really Are, by the team at Leadership Catalyst, Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol and John Lynch, continues to have an extraordinary ministry in my life and the lives of others. Here’s one of their profound insights: “Performance-obsessed cultures can never promote healing. Rather, they create more wounding.”
You get the idea. Begin with your top-3 and your top-10. You’ll enjoy the journey as you build your top-100 list. Remember that you’ll change over the years and so will your needs and priorities. Don’t hesitate to change your list, but don’t ever eliminate the Management 101 books from your library. Your next hire may never have read Peter Drucker’s The Effective Executive or Ken Blanchard’s The One Minute Manager or Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath.
FALL 2008 WORKSHOP DATES. Join your colleagues at one of our Buckets or Board workshops this fall:
Mastering the Management Buckets Workshop Experience
September 16-17, 2008 (Colorado Springs)
October 14-15, 2008 (Chicago)
November 18-19, 2008 (Orange County, Calif.)
Nonprofit Board Governance Workshop
September 18, 2008 (Colorado Springs)
October 13, 2008 (Chicago)
November 21, 2008 (Orange County, Calif.)
For more details and to download the workshop brochures, visit The Workshop page on the Management Buckets website.
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