Recently I talked with a senior partner of TAG Consulting, Kurt Andre. Among his many talents, Kurt is a certified Executive Leadership Coach. So I asked him which books on leadership he finds the most helpful. Here are his top 5:
1. Leadership Without Easy Answers by Ronald A. Heifetz
Think for a moment about the mysteries of just one of God's creatures—a whale. These big, beautiful creatures spend 95 percent of their lives in the ocean, one of the deepest and darkest places we know about. And without warning, they pull 30,000 pounds of blubber against gravity and leap out of the water for unexplainable reasons. Some baby whales gain 100 pounds an hour while nursing. The song of a humpback whale, lasting for 10-20 minutes and being repeated for hours at a time, is produced for no apparent reason. Biologists speculate it may be related to mating, but truthfully no is quite sure. The reason they breach is also a mystery. For show? For mating? For fun? There are speculations, but no one really knows why.
Behold them for a second and you feel helpless, out of control; not the terrible kind of helplessness, but the beautiful kind where we feel small and God feels big, and the mysteries of the world are acceptable to be unexplained.
Writer Philip Hoare tried to describe his sense of awe as a huge finback whale swam underneath his ocean vessel:
In that one motion, my entire presence is undermined. I feel, rather than see, this eighty-foot animal swimming below. Knowing it is there tugs at my gut, and something inside makes me want to plunge in and dive with it to some unfathomable depth where no one would ever find us.
Seminary equipped me to do many things, but not to tackle the complex challenges in leading the church. Heifetz distinguishes between problems that can be solved through expertise (technical problems) and problems that require innovative approaches, including preserving a church’s unique identity or code and the consideration of the church’s values (adaptive problems). For the church, an adaptive problem could include engaging a community whose demographic no longer reflects the church, buildings whose structure no longer meet the needs of today’s ministry, or navigating the tension between discipleship and outreach. Heifetz identifies four major strategies of leadership: (1) approach problems as adaptive challenges, and diagnose the situation in light of the values involved; (2) regulate the “heat in the kitchen” caused by confronting issues that increase people’s anxiety, by pacing the congregation through change; (3) focus on what is important versus what others say is important to them, and (4) shift the ownership for problems from the leadership (the pastor or elders/deacons or council) to all those affected by the necessary change.
2. Leadership on the Line, by Marty Linsky and Ronald A. Heifetz
Linsky joins Heifetz and gives practical application, case studies and concrete skills necessary for any leader. Through experimentation and constant adjustment leaders can successfully navigate change by using “adaptive leadership skills”: “Getting on the balcony” (meaning gaining perspective on the situation), engaging all the stakeholders, orchestrating conflict, giving back the work, holding steady, managing one’s own hungers, and staying anchored. An adaptive leader can answer the question of why anyone would choose to lead, and lead from the heart. This is a must-read for any church leader hoping to engage his or her congregation on the journey of transformation.
Read this piece in its entirety at BuildingforMinistry.com.
