LeadershipConneXtions

Leadership the Augustine Way

Augustine is one of the towering figures in the history of the church. His contribution to Christianity is incalculable. He strides across the long centuries with his influence.  (Born 354 --  Died 430)
 

Pagan philosopher turned towering theologian; self-centered indulgent narcissist turned sacrificial servant. He became a pastor, bishop, teacher and author whose influence endures today. His conversion changed the world.  (This Wiki Article is good.)
 

Richard Foster gives us a really short list of Augustine's key qualities. These are the three most distinguishing features of his life. ANY ONE OF THEM is worthy, but put the three of them together in synergistic energy and you know why Augustine continues to challenge the followers of Christ today as he did in his own day.

Augustine was a leader of:

• Eloquent communication,
• Brilliant intelligence,
• Passionate spirituality.

 

That's it. Oh sure, he had other things going for him as well… but this was his essence.

I know I would follow that kind of leader!

I think I'd like to be that kind of leader. I did some self-assessment recently, asking - how am I doing on these three qualities? What can I do to grow in each area? 

I recommend this same consideration to you.
 

Brian K. Rice 
Leadership ConneXtions International 
www.lci.typepad.com

 p.s. The Confessions of Augustine is a class of spiritual devotion.

This is well worth your time to work through the dated language, but eternal ideas and themes of faith.

Churchill on Leadership: Live and Lead Joyfully

I believe this fifth and final leadership lesson, identified by Paul Johnson, is the positive opposite of lesson four. And here is Johnson's descriptive quote that finishes what I provided yesterday.

Finally, the absence of hatred left plenty of room for joy in Churchill's life.... He liked to share his joy, and give joy. It must never be forgotten that Churchill was happy with people.... No great leader was ever laughed at, or with, more than Churchill.  

This is Emotionally Healthy, Vitally Optimistic, Resonant, Level Five Leadership when it is at its best. 

Joy. 
Love. 
Peace. 
Hope. 
Gratitude. 
 

When these are the essential qualities in a leader's life, they will then bel imparted to those around them. 

For leaders leak...
leaders imprint...
leaders resonate outward...
leaders influence...
leaders reproduce on the external world, what is in the leader's internal world.  (It is worth re-reading this statement.)
 

Jesus taught us this when he said, "For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks..." (See Matthew 12:33-35 for this verse and its context.)

Jesus was tapping in to the ancient Proverbial Wisdom which exhorts us, "Above all else, guard the heart, for it is the wellspring of life."  (Proverbs 4:23)

There was an extraordinary amount of goodness in the heart of Churchill, and he led a nation, in fact, led a world out of that heart.

Joy (among those qualities listed above) is a wonderful motivator. It is an attractive quality, a compelling one... It dances and skips through the lives of those who surround the leader and it creates an ethos where much is possible. It is one of those gifts, that when given, is not diminished in the life of the giver, but rather increased. 

So, as Paul the Apostle encouraged us, may we learn to rejoice in the Lord always. 

As Jesus the Christ did for us, may we too live and lead for the joy that is set before us.

And if we do, this New Year of 2010 will be a year of Joy to the World, as we lead in the name of the Savior who has come.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

Churchill on Leadership: Don't Waste Your Energy on Meanness

Long before Daniel Goleman taught us the importance of Emotionally Healthy Leadership, Winston Churchill was practicing this as a way of life.

Paul Johnson's words on this are so good I just have to quote them at length. (Churchill, page 164)

Churchill wasted an extraordinarily small amount of his time and emotional energy on the meannesses of life: recrimination, shifting the blame onto others, malice, revenge seeking, dirty tricks, spreading rumors, harboring grudges, waging vendettas. Having fought hard, he washed his hands and went on to the next contest. It is one reason for his success. There is nothing more draining and exhausting than hatred. And malice is bad for the judgment. Churchill loved to forgive and make up... Nothing gave him more pleasure than to replace enmity with friendship, not least with the Germans.

Marvelous words. Striking truths. Beautiful potential for all of us. 

And they are the Fourth Leadership Lesson from Churchill

I am currently studying the life and leadership and spirituality of Ignatius of Loyola. One idea that hit me recently was how Ignatius encouraged the Jesuits to give people the benefit of the doubt. Approach them with grace and generosity, assuming the best of them and wanting the best of them.

In Ignatius, his emphasis on Love and Living a Life of Passionate, Dedicated, Sacrificial Love on behalf of others is not a side note. It is part of the CORE of the Ignatian way.

And Daniel Goleman would describe it as Resonant Leadership.

These words and this model provided by Churchill deeply move me, for I do not always rise above the meannesses of life. I do not always handle the criticisms of the naysayers with such grace, I fail often, in giving others the benefit of the doubt and wanting to have the best possible interpretation on them.

I have nursed more than one grudge in my life.
I have ruminated on revenge at time or two.
I have desired the gift of calling fire down from heaven on the recalcitrants in my life.
I have been "dissonant" in my leadership.

And I have seen the soul sickness that slowly grows when I live this way. The disordering of the spirit, the diseasing of the heart. All of this is ill-becoming of any follower of Christ, much less those who would lead in His name. In truth, these are dangerous, deadly powers when they are in the life of a leader.

The only remedy I know for this malady is Grace, lots of Grace and Charity that knows that since much Grace and Charity has been bestowed on me already - how can I do less.

A lessening of meanness and a deepening of love this year...may it be mine and may it be yours.

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

Tomorrow, one more and final post on Churchill's Lessons of Leadership.

Churchill on Leadership: Don't Allow the Negative to Get you Down

Failure.

I hate it. You most likely hate it.

It hurts. It is embarrassing. It is damaging to our fragile egos. 

So we fear failure and play it safe to avoid it at any cost. We have the attitude of Mr. Simpson, "Trying is the first step toward failure."

For all of his accomplishments, Churchill had many, many failures. He made serious and costly mistakes. Some of them were literally "deadly" mistakes that cost many lives. He experienced painful defeats, some which were of the "disaster" level in terms of consequences. He was harshly criticized by his enemies and a fickle British public turned their back on him more than once. He suffered accidents, illnesses and pesonal losses throughout his life.

And what Churchill experienced is pretty much the NORM for life.

This is going to happen to all of us. The further you go in leadership, the higher you rise in responsibility, the greater the range of your influence, the more likely it is that the negative side of life will hit you and hit you hard.

We have a mistaken idea that is we are smart enough, work hard enough, plan well enough and maybe even pray diligently enough, we can avoid the risk and pain, the difficulty and the suffering. That we can bypass on the negative.

Sorry, life doesn't work that way.

No matter what Joel Olsteen says, that is just not how it is. Olsteen's worldview on life is a seriously deficient one and far from the biblical reality. In fact, it is just out of touch with reality period. 

God doesn't promise you a rose garden, he offers a crown of thorns and says follow me. God is not at all bound and constrained to give you flower strewn paths of goodness and comfort, no matter what the Prosperity Teachers say. Instead, he promises to walk with us in the Valleys of Shadow and Death. 

  

IMPORTANT NOTE:  God is never obligated to accommodate Himself to our bad theology or bad spirituality.

Certainly, through wisdom and forethought, we can minimize pain (at times), we can reduce suffering (somewhat), we can avoid the critics (occasionally), and can dance our way past the negativity of hard failure (partially) . . .  but how does that saying go?

The best laid plans of Mice and Leaders go astray!  Or something like that.

Life Happens!
Bad stuff happens!
Failure happens!
Hurt happens!

This is a given.

Will you be ready?
Will you be prepared for the hard stuff?
Or will it undo you when it happens?

This is the Third Leadership Lesson from Churchill's life.

Winston Churchill had the ability to experience the really bad stuff, to feel it, to understand it, to learn from it, and then to let it go and move on. He was able to do so because he had that old fashioned and now, not so common virtue called COURAGE.   And with that courage, he had its cousins of fortitude, resolve and steadiness.

Thick skin and a still tender heart. (He really did have that kind of heart for people.)

And then you add to this, the specifically Christian virtues of faith, hope and trust, that infuse the quality of courage and fortitude and make them ever stronger, better, more beautiful - THEN you have the capacity to Aim High, do the Hard Work and risk Failure and Loss and Negative, Painful Experiences.

Jesus calls those who would lead in his name, to the way of Ruthless Trust and Radical Faith.
There is no other way.

Jesus calls those who would lead in his name to life on the Edge, out in front where it is risky and even dangerous.
There is no other say.

Jesus calls those who would lead in his name to go on a journey, and only as we are on the way, does he tell us where we are going.
There is no other way.

Jesus summons those who would lead in his name to an adventure, an exploration, a mission, an experiment and says faith is required.
There is no other way.

Jesus says that to lead in his way, the gate is narrow, the road is difficult, the cross is the standard, it will be usually hard, at times it will hurt (and hurt bad), the critics and enemies will always be there...
There is no other way.
 

 

But the good news is that he also gives us the courage to embrace it all, to learn from it, to be transformed by it, to let it go and to move on with vital optimism. I think this is a Leadership Lesson that deserves to be on the front burner for many of us in 2010.

Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

Churchill on Leadership: There is No Substitute for Hard Work

Somehow I figured this one in my first year of college and I have lived according to it ever since. 

There is simply no substitute for, no shortcut around, no speedy bypass through HARD WORK. This is the SECOND LEADERSHIP LESSON Paul Johnson talks about in his book - Churchill.

"He's not the sharpest tack in the box." That was a saying my dad would use from time to time, when someone did something pretty stupid. Well to be honest, I wasn't exactly the sharpest tack in the box either. (I don't think my dad ever said that about me, but if he did, it wasn't untrue.) And add years of under-performing, under-studying, under-learning, and I was operating with a real deficit when I went to college.

So it was no surprise that at the end of mid-terms my first semester, I was basically flunking out. Going to several frat parties every week was not exactly helping matters either. To make a long story short, I came to faith in Christ soon after that. I found new hope, vision and confidence that through Christ I could do all things (Philippians 4:13).

And then, I can only say it was by the grace of God, I began to work really hard. I mean really, REALLY hard.  I buckled down with great determination and discipline and said, "I am going to work my way out of this hole I have dug. I may fail, but I am not going to fail because I didn't try."

Let me say it this way. I was not the smartest person in college. There were lots of people who were a lot smarter than I was. But I developed work habits that very few people matched. What I lacked for in intelligence, I made up for in relentless hard work. And that hard work paid off. That hard work changed me internally. The hard work increased my competency and capacity. And in the end, I did really well.

And I still work really hard... a lot.

I work really hard at personal growth. I am an avid life long learner. There are few things as important to me, or as fun, as growing.

I also work really hard at my vocation and doing the best job I can in that vocation.

Paul Johnson said it simply. "There is no substitute for hard work." And the life of Churchill illustrates this magnificently.

Because, Churchill was not the sharpest tack in the box either. If you would have lined Winston up with a group of his peers, he would not have received a single vote on "the Most Likely to Succeed."

But the average Churchill, once he got in touch with his passion and his strengths (even if these strengths were severely under-develoepd), was then relentless in his commitment to do the work necessary to improve and become the very best.

In this matter, he reminds me of another one of my historic mentors - Theodore Roosevelt.   The Rough Rider was another very mediocre person, with many things going against him. But he aimed high as well and then developed an extensive program of personal improvement which he embraced with fierce determination and hard work. And Teddy Roosevelt became one of our greatest presidents ever. 

Roosevelt... Churchill... they show us the way on this.

Aim HIgh.  Absolutely.

But then, Work Hard so you can get there.

To aim high and not work hard is to fall short.

The Apostle Paul said it this way.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them - yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.  1 Corinthians 15:10.

In this passage there is a wondrous balance that is worth a much longer reflection than I can give it at this point. I'll just say, Paul is not a self-made man. He is a grace-made man. Yet that grace made Paul highly responsible, highly disciplined, and willing to work harder than anyone else he knew. I think this is another one of those brilliant BOTH/ANDS of Level Five Leadership.

***************

Here is a "mild" Rant and Rave.

It seems to me, that today, there is a fair amount of lethargy and laziness around today. Or if those words are too strong (which I don't think they are), perhaps we could say, a lackluster work ethic is more appropriate. Half-hearted when it comes to work and discipline. We are weak when it comes to intentionality. We are dissipated in terms of our efforts.

This is NOT a slogan that will take you very far through life.

 

This may be an area where sincere METANOIA or repentance is needed on our part. And a turning toward a life of hard work and focused discipline in the service of a high and worthy aim.

While hard work sustained over time will take you much closer to your goal, it does not guarantee success. What it does guarantee is growth, improvement, more fruit along the way, more satisfaction, an expanding capacity and a greater likelihood of success.

I used the picture of Winston Churchill flashing the VICTORY sign for a reason. His hard work did win the day for England and the Allies in the Second World War.

Finally, two notes . . .

Hard work must be strategic, especially in alignment with your personal strengths, as the life of Churchill shows us.

And hard work must be balanced with rest and recreation, of which Churchill was a master. His hobbies, he conservation of energy, his life rhythms made his intense exertions possible.

****************

It would be well worth your time for personal reflection on how hard you are working and how hard you are willing to work, for personal development and for vocation.

Tomorrow, Homer Simpson and Joel Olsteen together with Winston Churchill --- you just know it is going to be a good post.

Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

Churchill on Leadership: Aim High

Nothing ventured, nothing gained,
 Don't be afraid to try,
 So dream big dreams, shoot for the stars,
 And set your standards high.
 

As a young teenager, I found that short poem on a card and I taped it to my bedroom door where it remained for many long years. 

(One Christmas, my dad also bought me a label making "gun" and I had dozens of corny phrases that were stuck to my door as well. Did anyone else ever have one of these?)

The delicious irony of this is that I was as far from the ideals described in that short poem as you could imagine. I was a non-descript, minimally ambitious (okay, somewhat lazy), decidedly average (or slightly below average), satisfied with mediocrity, teenager. I had no dreams, no dominant desires, no direction.

So, why was I drawn to that poem?
Why is that poem forever etched on to my mind. 

I believe it spoke of realities that were deep in my heart and which are deep in the heart of us all. We long for meaning, for purpose, for accomplishment, for challenge, for a worthy reason to get up and go through the day... and then do it again, and again and again.

In the words of the Switchfoot song,

We were meant to live for so much more, but we lost ourselves...

And then life beats us down. We have some failures along the way. We lose some battles. We get hurt. And the next thing we know, the years have slowly morphed into a somewhat routine, tad dreary, certainly boring existence. And we have settled for so much less than what we were meant to be, to do and to have.
 

The FIRST LESSON from Winston Churchill on leadership is AIM HIGH.

While Churchill was born into the privileged elite class of British society, he had a "poor" childhood in terms of emotional connectedness and support from his parents. His father was deeply disappointed with and highly critical of his son Winston. The father was negative and aloof, and his mother was not much better during those formative years. (Later, she would become one of Winston's biggest supporters and advocates.)

Churchill was only average in school and had to go to a "lesser known" school due to his poor performance in studies.

But while in college, Winston discovered what he was good at. And once he discovered what he was good at, once he was alert to his passions and strengths, he developed those gifts (more on that lesson tomorrow) and he AIMED VERY HIGH for what he would seek to do and to accomplish.

Certainly Churchill had personal ambition and personal success as a motivating factor. He had the need to succeed and the need to be known. 

But he also had more altruistic values and deeply held convictions about what was good and true and he devoted his life to the service of those values and convictions.

 
 So he aimed high and soared higher. He sought the hardest assignments if they would pave the way and open the door for future opportunity. He went the extra mile (or kilometer) if that was the way toward his goal. He pursued the positions that would allow him to make the contribution he desired to make, and eventually, he reached the role of Prime Minister of Great Britain. And from that position, Paul Johnson says, he was the single individual most responsible for winning the Second World War. 
 

********************

As I look at my own life, and as I work with many leaders, I think fear of failure and the fear of embarrassment that may come with failure holds many of us back. It causes many of us to aim much lower than what we are called to do, and to settle for being much less than we are called to be.

Instead of shooting for the stars, we have settled in to Comfort Zones where life is manageable and where risk is minimal.

But at a terrible cost.

The cost is the suppressing of our holy longings for purpose and significance. The price we have paid is to miss out on the very opportunities for struggle, growth and development that are necessary for aiming high.

Something inside us years for vocation and calling that is worthy of our best efforts. 

Something inside us values and admires excellence and accomplishments that are noble, inspiriing and contributing of something good to this world.

There is more than a little Don Quixote in all of us who wants to Dream the Impossible Dream and order our lives around the glorious pursuit of that dream.

 

So, I think it is time for us to dream once more. To get out the paper and pen and start scribbling down our ideas and ideals, our longings and desires... to scratch out mission and vision...  to search and muse over our passions..

What do you want to aim for this year?

How high do you want to aim?

How far do you want to go?

Churchill shows us the way of AIMING HIGH.

But aiming high is only the beginning. If you aim high (Lesson One) but do not understand Lesson Two, you are all but guaranteed to fall short of your aim.

So tomorrow, Lesson Two...

Brian K. Rice  
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

Churchill on Leadership: Incredible Lessons From One of the Truly Great Leaders

Back in 1996, when I first met Brian Newman, and we began to have invigorating leadership conversations, Brian talked about historic mentors. I didn't know what that was. So Brian explained the idea to me told me the benefit of finding outstanding leaders or other figures from the past and reading some of the best books about them and by them. As you read, you are looking for the lessons of life and leadership you see displayed in their lives.

I was hooked.

Over the last 10-12 years I have read over 100 biographies and autobiographies. I love this kind of reading because I love stories. I love personal stories. I enjoy history and when I can learn about history by reading about those who lived in some of the eventful seasons of the past, that is a bonus. I am passionate about leadership. Yes I read the books on theory, but to be able to read about leadership as it is being learned and displayed in the life of an individual leading in one of the challenging seasons of history, that is another bonus.

In our conversation many years ago, Brian told me about some of his historic mentors and one in particular was Winston Churchill. The few things he told me about what he had learned from Churchill motivated me enough to pick up a book about Churchill and he was right. What an incredible, LARGER THAN LIFE individual.

Over the years I have read several books about Churchill. So, in December, when I heard historian and author, Paul Johnson, doing an interview on NPR about his new book on Churchill, I stopped what I was doing and gave my full attention to the interview.

It was a great interview and it ended with Johnson talking about several of Churchill's best qualities that made him a great leader. I said, I've got to get that book. I did. And I read it on Saturday when we had our BIG December snowstorm.

The book is a very good book for several reasons.

First, it is short (very short by Churchill biography standards) and so it is accessible for most people.

Second, it is written by one of the great historians of modern times, Paul Johnson, who really knows the context of the 20th century and World Wars One and Two. 

Third, Johnson is a good author who gives us the essential Churchill, wading through the mountains of material about Churchill and by Churchill, winnowing out the essence, and writing about it in an enjoyable fashion.

Fourth, Johnson understands leadership and he weaves throughout his book, the leadership ideas and contributions of Churchill.

Fifth, Churchill had a magnificent sense of humor, and Johnson has a good one as well. Humor is splashed throughout the book.

The final, short chapter alone was worth the book. Johnson (pictured) gives what he thinks are the Five Greatest Leadership Lessons to be learned from the life of Winston Churchill. So, for the next five days, I am going to take one leadership lesson a day and blog about those lessons.

I think this will be a great way to jump start some of your own leadership journey and learning for the new year. There are some great lessons from Churchill.

Brian K. Rice
Leadership ConneXtions International
www.lci.typepad.com

Historic Mentors (With a Special Focus for Women Leaders)

A great way to learn about leadership is to read about and study the lives of great leaders. Today, we have no end of opportunities to do this.

Bobby Clinton calls this "historic mentoring" where we are guided by our reflections on the lives of these people indirectly. We learn from them "at-a-distance." They may be far removed from us  (I like to read about past American presidents). They may be current (Bush or Obama). They may be biblical figures (Moses, David, Esther) or from the history of the church (Wilberforce, Luther). They may be from the world of business (Jack Welch) or sports (Tony Dungy).

And for women leaders, there is a good list of great women leaders to learn from. In the past, I have recommended books on Queen Elizabeth, Mother Teresa, Esther (the biblical figure), Joan of Arc, Catherine Booth (Salvation Army), Amy Carmichael (served in India), and Dorothy Day (profound worker for social justice).

If you want a nice introduction to a good variety of women who have made major contributions to the church and mission, read Ruth Tucker's Daughters of the Church.

In the world of business, I recently came across an outstanding women leader through a review of her autobiography. It is Katherine Graham and the book is Personal History. After her husband died, Katherine took over the leadership of the Washington Post Company which had divisions devoted to the newspaper industry, TV and radio stations across the nation.  And Time Magazine.

In her book, you will discover a woman of stellar character, commendable skills, an avid life-long learner, and at the same time, a very real person who worked hard on her weaknesses and insecurities.

Women - find some of the best historic woman leaders you can and read good books about them.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Courage: Luther and the German Princes Show the Way

I recently re-watched a great movie, Luther, starring Joseph Fiennes as Luther. I was a huge fan of Luther and read quite a few books on Luther and on the German Reformation.

So naturally, when this movie came out I had to watch it. My recent "view" was my fourth or fifth and it never gets old. While I am not a Luther scholar, since I've read a fair amount on Luther, it is my sense that the movie is quite accurate. I think Luther was such a dynamic character that the screen writers didn't have to invent too much stuff to make his story interesting!

There are two scenes especially, where courage is exemplified. First, when Luther stood before the Assembly of Roman authorities at the Diet of Worms (not a menu option, just referring to a meeting at the town of Worms, Germany). And when faced with excommunication and death, he uttered his famous words, "Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me." Luther knew he was signing his own death warrant with these courageous words.

Then, right at the end of the movie, the German Princes take their stand at Augsburg and refuse to give into the demands of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, for them to give allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church. These men, young and old, said they would not and that they would rather die first. One by one they knelt bowed their head in submission to death by beheading.

Of course Charles V caved in to their courage and the Augsburg Confession was produced. Read here for more on the Augsburg Confession.

These stories of courage are astonishing. For in the West, we live in a time when spiritual and moral courage like that is waning. The steel of courge is no longer so strong in the metal of our character.

Can you imagine yourself being that devoted to the cause of Christ that you are willing to die, to offer your very life as a stance?

Wow!

It has launched some reflections and searching on my own level of courage.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

Taking Jesus Seriously: Dorothy Day

In his book, the New Monasticism, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove had a fascinating and beautiful description of Dorothy Day by author Robert Coles

"She was always taking Jesus as seriously as possible."

Dorothy Day was many things.  She was a:

leader

teacher

social activist/visionary

prolific author

and a woman of deep, spirituality.

In significant ways, she integrated the many different streams of living water that Richard Foster describes in his book by that title.

For the women leaders who visit this site, one of the challenges you face is to discover women who can mentor you. One way to do that is to find historic mentors and allow them to mentor you through their writings.

I'd like to recommend Dorothy Day be a woman you consider as a historic mentor. I am far from an expert on her life, but here are a few thoughts to assist you in finding good resources.

Here is a blogsite devoted to Dorothy Day. You can check it out.

It is almost always worthwhile to do a quick visit to Wikipedia to see what resources are there. So, check out their article. 

You'll have to do a little surfing to figure out some of the better books, but I'll recommend one that I haven't read, but which has been recommended to me and which I am going to get.

Dorothy Day: A Radical Devotion by Robert Coles

Blessings on your journey to find women leaders to learn from.

If any of you choose Dorothy Day as a historic mentor, let me know what you find useful from her life and writings.

Brian Rice

Leadership ConneXtions International

The Power of Biographies (Amazing Grace by Eric Metaxes)

I've had several encounters with Gordon MacDonald over the years. He was a professor at  Gordon-Conwell, one of the favorites I might add. I heard him speak at conferences. Our church, Living Word, has been privileged to have Gordon with us on several occasions.

And, I was fortunate to have Gordon MacDonald as a professor for a  D.Min. course I had at  Bethel Seminary. The course was The Private Life of the Public Person. In preparation for that course, we had to read several biographies. And during the course, Gordon emphasized the importance of regular reading of the best biographies for the formation of our inner life.

I mentioned in a previous blog (see this post) that 2008 is a year when I am doing a lot of leadership work in the area of historic mentors and the insights to be learned from great leaders.

I have just finished Amazing Grace by Eric Metaxas and I can say that reading this book was almost a spiritual experience. I cannot begin to communicate the motivation that Wilberforce was for me to be passionate about Christ and passionate about the cause of Christ. Wilberforce had a mission and calling that were incredibly beyond his reach, yet by God's grace, he was sustained in a lifetime of "battle" to fulfill that calling.

Metaxas writes with such skill and feeling that the reader easily moves into the story of Wilberforce.

I am grateful for his contribution to the world of excellent biographies. Reading his book and watching the movie are a powerful tandem.

Brian Rice

Historic Mentors: Cyrus the Great

Xenophon's Cyrus the Great: The Arts of Leadership and War, edited by Larry Hedrick.

This was one of the books I read while on the flight to South Africa. I saw it while browsing in Borders when I was looking for a few books to take to Tony Nzanzah.

I knew next to nothing about this warrior, general, emperor and leader until I read this book. It is a significant modernization of Xenophon's classic on Cyrus. It is the story (retold in the first person) of Cyrus' rise to fame and power.

Cyrus the Great was the leader who merged the two empires of the Medes and the Persians into one empire that challenged and conqueored the Babylonians.

Was Cyrus a good leader? Well, the Persians called him - Father. The Babylonians called him - Liberator. The Greeks said he was the - Law-Giver. And the Jews referred to him as "Anointed of the Lord" (see Isaiah 45 for how God raised up Cyrus to, among other things, liberate his people who were in Babylonian captivity. Cyrus was the one who freed the Hebrew people and allowed them to return home).

Here is a "brief" list of things that impressed me about Cyrus as I read the book.

ONE:  He was a deeply moral leader. Character, ethics, doing what was just and good for others was in his DNA.

TWO:  He was a profoundly humble man who had relentless determination to become the greatest emperor of his time (and he succeeded). In Jim Collins' language, he was a Level Five Leader.

THREE:  He imprinted his values on everyone around him. He inspired his friends, officers and troops to live for and attain the same ideals that guided Cyrus. He succeeded.

FOUR:  The welfare of his people was his greatest concern and he paid a great deal to insure their wellbeing.

FIVE:  He resisted the perks and privileges that were normally due a leader of his stature. He wanted the "common soldier" to know that Cyrus was one of them and endured the same hardships they did.

SIX:  He had a capacity to inspire and sustain loyalty that was unbelievable. His officers and troops would risk everything for him. He did this because he genuinely loved people (and they knew it).

SEVEN: He was creative and innovative in his leadership and war-craft.

EIGHT: He was loaded with courage in the face of great odds.

NINE: He was committed to being fully self-aware and he spent time in reflection on his actions and motives.

TEN:  It seems that Cyrus was a "God-seeker" who had embrace monotheism of a sort. Perhaps he was even influenced by the Hebrew faith!

This book is an easy read and a good read.  I found it very inspiring.

If you need any more motivation to get it, here is what Peter Drucker says about the original work by Xenophon.  "Still the best book on leadership."  Hedrick's new edition makes it even more accessible.

Brian Rice

Historical Mentors - Theordore Roosevelt

Years ago, Brian Newman introduced me to Bobby Clinton's concept of historical mentors. A historical mentor is someone from the past who influences you through their writings and your reflections on their writings. Over the years I have picked a number of different  people to use as historical mentors.

As I was thinking about picking a historical mentor for 2008, I decided not to focus on any one person, but to read quite a few biographies. That was one reason why I read Paul Johnson's - HEROES. I wanted to get some ideas for historical mentors for this year.

One name came to mind quickly. Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt. I recently read a very intriguing story about his approach to learning and personal development. That hooked me.

I recently read two books about Roosevelt. One was a biography which was interesting. Lion in the White House: A Life of Theodore Roosevelt by Aida Donald.

But the other one was great. It fits into the genre of books that I call leadership biographies. That means, the book looks at issues of leadership but does so through the lens of historical, biographical material about the individual. So, get a copy of Theodore Roosevelt on leadership: Executive Lessons From the Bully Pulpit, by James Strock.

Here are five reasons why:

1. You'll learn about the importance of highly intentional life long learning and what it can do for you.
2. You'll learn about how a determination to do the right thing (and to succeed in doing the right thing) in spite of virtually impossible circumstances, will sustain your leadership.
3. You'll learn about and have a great illustration of the importance of becoming a great communicator.
4. You'll learn about a leader who was not only a great leader, but a great family man.
5. You'll come away with about 100 great quotes by Roosevelt.

Brian Rice

The Leader as Hero

HEROES!

Probably the image below comes to mind.

But this popular TV show (as interesting as it is) is not the heroes that I am referring to.

Paul Johnson has written many books which I have enjoyed. Heroes is one of his recent ones. In this book, Johnson looks at 30 heroes divided into about 13 different categories. There are a number of individuals who are quite unexpected and there are many who are expected but delightfully discussed.

Some of my favorites in this book are:  Henry V, Sir Thomas Moore, Queen Elizabeth, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Churchill. One that was very unexpected but very enjoyable was the intellectual hero - Wittgenstein! I also enjoyed reading his thoughts on Ronald Reagan who had enormous deficiencies, but was able to stay focused on that small number of things he did very well. I also liked his words on John Paul

This is not the place to cover this "rabbit trail point" but I find myself wondering if the leader as HERO is a valid biblical metaphor for us to use? With that said, I'll go on and tell you the four criteria that Johnson says are the ways to recognize heroes.

1. They think everything through with absolute independence and view the current consensus with suspicion.
2. Once their mind is made up, they act with decisiveness, resoluteness and consistency.
3. They ignore and reject everything the media says about them.
4. Finally, they act with great personal courage at all times, regardless of the consequences to themselves.

Interesting list of qualities . . .

What do you thing?

And how heroic are you?

Brian Rice

Bonhoeffer on Visionary Dreaming

One book I read while in Paraguay a few weeks ago was Under the Radar: A Conversation on Spiritual Leadership by Douglas Webster. I am always interested in the question of spiritual leadership and servant leadership and what it looks like in theory and in practice. So I was interested in this little book.

Overall, I was disappointed by it and don't recommend it. Webster has legitimate concerns, but he has no real hermeneutic or engagement with culture in a way other than to become DUALISTIC. So he offers simple solutions and moralizing that is uninspiring.

There are some good moments in the book. One of them was when he uses a quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer on the issue of vision. Here is that quote, and Webster's thoughts about it:

Every visionary scheme not linked to the Bible comes from the devil, who is often masquerading as a talented marketer. Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it bluntly, "God hates visionary dreaming. It makes the dreamer proud and pretentious." His warning admonished us to reconsiderour dreams for the church and our lives to see whether they are in line with the biblical experience.

Webster gives numerous stories of flawed, failed pastoral leadership that had its origins in the leader building their own kingdom according to the values of the world. This is one of Bobby Clinton's TOP SIX REASONS why leaders don't finish well. The problem of PRIDE as it applies to vision.

This is one of the reasons why self-awareness is so important for leaders. The only caveat is that the very ones who need it (self-awareness) the most are the ones most incapable of having it.  (Goleman has good insight on this in his book - Primal Leadership).

Brian Rice

Wins, Losses, and Lessons

Wins, Losses and Lessons is the autobiogrpahy by Lou Holtz. I read most of it on my way back from the Miami airport. It was a great book. What did I like about it?

• His story of very humble beginnings.
• His emphasis on the importance of character!
• His emphasis on the value of being responsible and doing hard work!
• His emphasis on teamwork!
• His emphasis on how important faith was to him!
• His emphasis on how God works in unusual ways that we don't see when we are in the midst of some hard times!
• His emphasis on excellence and always doing the best you can with what you have (and going out to get more if you need it).

I usually read leadership autobiographies for motivation and inspiration rather than for large amounts of information. That was exactly what I got. I came back fired up for hard work and the pursuit of excellence.

Brian Rice

John F. Kennedy on Leadership

One of my recent reads was John F. Kennedy on Leadership: The Lessons and Legacy of a President by John Barnes. This book falls into the genre of what I like to call "leadership biography." That is, taking a look at leadership principles by illumining and illustrating them from the example of a historic figure.

I'll admit up front that I knew very little about JFK other than the basics of his presidency (The Bay of Pigs/Cuban missle crisis fiasco, the nuclear arms race, the cold war, the civil rights movement, etc.).

Here were three things I came away with from the book.

1.  JFK was not a natural born leader like many say he was. He worked hard at becoming a leader. Hard work pays off.   (See a previous post on determination.)

2.  He was not initially a good communicator but instead, worked hard at learning how to communicate. Chapters five and six are devoted to this theme and they are great chapters.  JFK became the first, modern, TV communicator. Not all communicators are leaders, but great leaders are at least good communicators. If you are not naturally gifted at communicating, JFK's example provides encouragement.

3.  He had serious faults and failings. He had an unrestrained sexual appetite that he gratified without hesitation with movie stars, White House secretaries, wives of colleagues, and prostitues. He had an enormous pride. And his home life (social base) was a mess. SEX, PRIDE, SOCIAL BASE ISSUES. Three of the six reasons why leader's don't finish well. It would have been interesting to see how JFK would have finished if he had not been assassinated.

If you like reading leadership biographies, this was a good one.

Brian Rice

Amazing Grace & Amazing Leadership

Many years ago Brian Newman introduced me to the concept of "historical mentors" which he had learned from Bobby Clinton.

Since then I have had a number of these historical mentors and accessed the lessons of life, faith and leadership from reading good biographies on them.

One leader that I have been interested in for some time, and have read a little about, is now the subject of a new movie! William Wilberforce is being brought to life on the big screen in the movie Amazing Grace!

The life of Wilberforce is a rich source of leadership lessons. In Wilberforce, we see the depth of character, the power of vision and a life committed to a great purpose, the results of long-suffering and perseverance, a profound faith and a thorough integration of faith into his vocation as a public official.

With all the attention to Wilberforce in light of this new movie, you might want to access him as a historical mentor for 2007.

For more thoughts on Wilberforce, click on the link below.

Download eric_metaxas_author_of_amazing_grace.pdf

Brian Rice

Historical Mentoring

If you have a few minutes check out this link to Bobby Clinton's website. No, Bobby is NOT the brother of Bill. Bobby is a professor of leadership at Fuller Seminary and influenced our thinking in LCI quite a bit.

Bobby has an article/letter on the home page of his site about historical mentoring. I have found that most leaders do not know much about this concept. It's worth considering.