Miscellaneous Thoughts on Leadership

This is not a leadership blog. Not now, and probably not ever. I've reviewed a few books for leaders, and read a few more, but by and large this is not a leadership blog. But the various ideas around leadership and so on that have been floating around the internet recently have piqued my interest. And so in this brief post I just wanted to share a few things I've found particularly helpful recently, and would encourage any leaders who read, to consider.

First up is a post from the man who inspired/challenged me indirectly to get into blogging, back at New Word Alive 2010! Adrian Warnock is a NewFrontiers blogger who I read regularly, and he recently posted a fascinating article entitled "Two Types of Leadership". In this article Warnock looks at two elements of leadership, authority and influence, and how these relate to the different parts of being a leader. Warnock helpfully identifies the ways in which the Internet and social media can be related to authority/influence, and whilst its not a complete way to understand/profile a leader, these two types provide another useful tool for analysis etc. Adrian's closing challenge bears repeating; 

"I do believe that all leaders should exercise at least some authority and at least some influence.  But every leader will be predominantly either an influencer or a director.  

Which are you?"

Another good post I retweeted and am now sharing here is one from pastor and blogger Sam Rainer, "Looking Ahead to 2013: What should the Church expect?", which opens with the bold line "if you do not make assumptions about the future, then you are not leading. Rainer goes on to make five important points, based on his predictions and thinking for the future. If you are involved in leadership, this will be a helpful post. If, like me, you are under leaders, then its a good way of thinking through how you can support them!

I never tire on this blog of reviewing books, and offline reading them. One I finished recently (and will review here in the New Year once I've worked through a bit of a backlog) is "Integrity" by Jonathan Lamb. Lamb, formerly of UCCF and now of the Langham Partnership, has written a superb book on one of the core character components of leadership: Integrity. I found it an incredibly challenging book, but very readable, as Lamb powers through 2 Corinthians, demonstrating the eternal relevance of that epistle. Highly recommended. You can find it on the IVP site here.

The other thing thats vaguely relevant to leadership is a short series of posts I wrote a little while ago, "The Christian Cult of...". One of the posts was about worship leaders, another about preachers, and in both I explored the dangers of leader worship, in the classic style of missing the point. Other posts in that series were about the dangers of bibliolatry, and the Christian Cult of Overseas Mission.

So there you go. Some things that have inspired, challenged, and made me think. And some bits I want to share. Read, enjoy, share as appropriate, and let me know your thoughts and recommendations on the topic of leadership in the comments!