Issue No. 384 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting recommends a chewable book for your summer reading list on the top 10 leadership conversations in the Bible. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and on this page, check out my Top 10 Book Recommendations of 2017, and my Book-of-the-Year pick.
Chewable Books
Steve Moore, president of nexleader and former president and CEO of Missio Nexus, embarked on a two-year search for leadership gold from Genesis to Revelation. Good news! He struck gold and he’s sharing the loot with us!
The Top 10 Leadership Conversations in the Bible: Practical Insights From Extensive Research on Over 1,000 Biblical Leaders is amazing. Moore’s book lands in my “chewable book” category. I’ll explain.
When Don Parrott recommended Ruth Haley Barton’s book, Strengthening the Leadership of Your Soul, he warned me: “At the end of every chapter, you’ll need to take a long break to pray and reflect on the convicting insights.” He was right. I eventually meditated through the entire book. Whew. I named it my 2009 book-of-the-year. Chewable—but chew slowly.
A Year with Peter Drucker: 52 Weeks of Coaching for Leadership Effectiveness, by Joseph A. Maciariello, is another chewable book. Perhaps you followed along every Monday in 2015, when a Drucker fan/guest writer shared his or her favorite snippet from the week's topic in my blog, Drucker Mondays.
My suggestion: don’t rush through The Top 10 Leadership Conversations in the Bible. Add it to your chewable list.
Disclosure: I fully read every book I review. I don’t scan, skip, or speed-read. I underline, highlight, and write notes (by page number) on the blank pages—as prep for my reviews. But not this book. I sensed I should slow down—not for the review, but for the chew.
Last month, a fellow board member at Christian Community Credit Union, presented our regular lifelong learning segment in the board meeting, “10 Minutes for Governance.” (See Lesson 39 in Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom.) Tom Matlock’s assigned topic was board humility—and he gifted every board member with a copy of Andrew Murray’s 68-page gem, Humility.
So when I joined Steve Moore’s trek for leadership gold, wondering what themes made his Top 10 list of leadership conversations in the Bible—I skipped to “Chapter 8: Humility.” Did I mention—chewable?
• “Pride hides from the consciousness of leaders behind a mask of overconfidence. Overconfidence isn’t just annoying to followers. It is dangerous for leaders.”
• Did you ever read this parenthetical note in Numbers 12:3? “(Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone on the face of the earth.)”
• “I find it easier to admit my lack of patience than my lack of humility.”
There’s more from Moore:
• He references Larry Osborne’s insights: “The journey to accidental Phariseeism begins with a blind spot, not a sin spot.”
• “Busyness is one of the most common ways to reinforce leadership status, so survival and status become symbiotic, to everyone’s detriment. The leader thinks, I must be important or I wouldn’t be so busy.”
• And this insight from Dallas Willard: “God never gives anyone too much to do. We do that to ourselves or we allow others to do it to us.”
Is Your Board a “Zombie Board?”
• “The survival instinct for leaders is automatic. The more our work thrives, the more we want to protect it. That’s why the first expression of groupthink in a nonprofit board is making organizational perpetuity, rather than mission effectiveness, its highest objective. These kinds of nonprofits, even faith-based ones, are like zombies. They can get scary ugly, but they are nearly impossible to revive and hard to kill.”
Pages 130-143 on humility are so, so chewable. Warning! The chapter includes five very convicting questions.
But before you skip to the humility chapter—scan the context, “The Reason and the Research Behind This Book.” Moore identified 1,181 leaders in the Bible (including 108 in the New Testament) and mined for gold with six core questions, including: Who is the leader? Who are the followers? And What is the leadership situation? Each chapter includes a helpful diagram of these elements using Moore’s “Leadership Triangle.” Brilliant!
Join me in chewing through this special book. I will weigh in from time to time later this year, with reflections and/or reviews of other chapters. For now, it’s on my summer vacation reading list. (And thanks to Steve Moore for sending me a review copy.)
To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Top 10 Leadership Conversations in the Bible: Practical Insights From Extensive Research on Over 1,000 Biblical Leaders, by Steve Moore.
P.S. Stock up on summer reading—and delegate your reading—with Eugene Habecker’s hot-off-the-press book (my next review), The Softer Side of Leadership: Essential Soft Skills That Transform Leaders and the People They Lead.
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Steve Moore quotes Elizabeth Elliott: “The best way to find out whether you have a servant’s heart is to see what your reaction is when somebody treats you like one.” Why is it so hard to have a servant’s heart?
2) Moore says that leaders who rarely say, “I was wrong,” or “I don’t know,” should make us nervous. Instead of accepting responsibility for mistakes, “…there is always an explanation, a rationalization, or outright blame. It is the adult version of ‘the dog ate my homework,’ but the stakes are higher.” Discuss!
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22 Tools and Templates (updated in 2019!)
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets
(New in 2019!) ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance: Time-Saving Solutions for Your Board, by Dan Busby and John Pearson, features 22 tools and templates that have been field-tested by hundreds of CEOs and nonprofit board members. These "add-water-and-stir" practical tools will enhance your board's productivity, mission impact, and joy. Each tool has been tested and then tweaked across North America in boardrooms and meeting rooms. Boards especially appreciate the "CEO's 5/15 Monthly Report" template. CEOs all give a thumbs-up to the "Board Member Annual Affirmation Statement."
The workbook includes access to all 22 downloadable templates including: "Ten Minutes for Governance," the "Board Retreat Trend-Spotting Exercise," the "Rolling 3-Year Strategic Plan Placemat" and more. When you use all 22 of these time-saving solutions, you'll wonder why you didn't discover them sooner.
For more resources, visit the Board Bucket webpage and for an index to 22 blogs on the 22 tools, click here.
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