What are the best leadership books?

Leaders are learners.  And learning means listening to teachers, reading books and articles, and practicing new learnings.  As a ministry leader, one of the topics that I love to read about is the subject of leadership.  Because I love to read these types of books and think that other leaders should also be reading, here is a list of my favorite leadership books.  They are in no particular order, just 20 leadership books that came to mind.

Top 20 Leadership Books

1. Good to Great by Jim Collins

2. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

3. Linchpin by Seth Godin

4. Rework by Jason Fried

5. Start with Why by Simon Sinek

6. Go, Put Your Strengths to Work by Marcus Buckingham

7. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath

8. StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath

9. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin

10. A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink

11. The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni

12. Great by Choice by Jim Collins

13. Choosing to Cheat by Andy Stanley

14. Church Unique by Will Mancini

15. Purple Cow by Seth Godin

16. Deep and Wide by Andy Stanley

17. The War of Art by Steve Pressfield

18. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

19. Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

20. The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry

The Heart of Young and Seasoned Church Workers

If there's one thing that is true for all people called to church work, it's that they have passion not only for God, but for their church.  If you get a group of young church workers talking, chances are you'll hear them talk about what they love about their church and what they hope to change.  As a young church worker, these are some insights that I’d suggest would be helpful for both young and seasoned church workers to know about each other in order to be a healthy team.

[gss-content-box color="gray”]This post is a guest post written by my brother Corey Grunewald. Corey does Graphic Design & Video Editing at Faith Lutheran Church and can be found on the Twitters.[/gss-content-box]

Seasoned Church Workers

Don't be discouraged that those you're in leadership over want to change or shake things up.  They don't believe what your church is doing is all bad, otherwise they wouldn't be there.  The truth is, they want the same thing you want: to lead the congregation to a deeper relationship with Jesus.  They understand that they are trying to change things that you worked a long time to achieve.  They don't want to simply forget the history of their church, but they do want to continue creating history.  They respect what you have done and simply want to continue that process.

They stand on your shoulders as they begin to lead; don’t knock them down.

Young Church Workers

Your leadership was once where you are.  They weren't always the boss and they faced a lot of flack when they were trying to move the church forward.  If you experience a lack of freedom in pushing your church forward, you may be experiencing the protective nature of a leader.  Because they've experienced so much, they want to protect you from the negative things they've encountered. They know the pain of negative feedback and want to help you avoid it.

If there's one thing to remember in changing things in your church it's this: when you try to move your church forward, you're not just asking for a buy in from leadership, but for leadership to take the fall if things don't work out.

If you’re a veteran church worker, what do you wish you could’ve told a younger version of you?  If you’re a young church worker, what would you like to tell a future version of you to make sure to remember?

Creating a Family Culture within the Church

Families can be a bit odd.  They all come in different shapes and sizes and usually have their own inside jokes and memories that have been created over the years.  There is something significant about the relationships in a family.  While friendships may come and go, family often remains.  The relational connection between family members is an important, beautiful, and significant relationships.

As Christians, the same language of family is woven into the way the Bible describes the local church.

Church is family.  And this means that as a family, we might be a bit odd.  We might have our weird traditions or even family members who creep you out a little bit.  But nonetheless, we are family.  We are a family who is there for each other, supporting each other, and encouraging each other as we grow.

Family feels welcome.

When I show up at a family party, I always feel welcome.  Family is excited to see me, my wife, and my kids. We are greeted as we walk in and we immediately have plenty to talk about.  There is no question about how I should act, where I should go, or what is appropriate - it’s family.

Family is welcoming.

Church should feel this way.  Do you feel welcome on a Sunday morning?  Better yet, if you invited your unchurched co-worker, how would they feel?

And it’s okay if they don’t feel like a close family immediately.  It takes in-laws time to adjust to a new family.  The same is true when somebody shows up at our churches; they might take a while to grow close.  But they will never grow close if they never feel welcome in the first place.

Princess Anna said it best when she suggested, “Love is an open door.”

Our churches need to have an open door, welcoming the people of our neighborhoods, communities, and schools and welcoming them to come and join the family.

Family sticks together.

In Lilo and Stitch the phrase gets spoken, "Ohana means family and family means no one gets left behind.”  Calling a group of people family means more than close friends.  Family is a group of people that does life together and is involved in all of the mess of life.

More than any other group of people, I know I can be me when I’m with my family.

Because my family knows the real me. They know the things that make me weird.  They know what gets on my nerves. They know what makes me emotional. They know the stories about what I was like when I grew up. They saw me at my worst. And they’ve been with me at my best.

Family gets involved in all the good and the bad and is present.

And family is safe regardless of how good the good is and how bad the bad is.

As churches, our desire should be for people to feel the belonging of family.  In our congregations, people need to feel the safety to be themselves.  People need to feel safe to reveal the mess of their lives and let other people in on it. When that happens, people will have the opportunity to stick with people and have the kind of relationships that are important in a church family.

Family is family.

In order for a church to be family, people also have to be made family.  This is important because central to what we do as Christians in our churches is to share with people the message of the Gospel.  We share a message with those who are far from God in hopes that they might be adopted into the family of God.

Feeling like family is not enough for us.  We want them to actually be family.

And in order for them to be family, they need to believe the message that they’ve been made family.

And we can help with that.  We can help them belong to a family as they hear and hopefully in turn believe the message.  We can help them know clearly what our family is all about.  When a guest comes into our house, we help them not get lost in our traditions, values, and beliefs, but instead translate them so they can follow along and feel like they are a part of the family.

And we do this so that they might believe the Good News. Because we don’t want people to just feel like family.  We don’t want people to just stick together.  We don’t want people to just feel welcome.  We want them to actually be made brothers and sisters in Christ.

Thinking Theologically Requires Comfort Socially

Everybody is a theologian, but not everybody is a good one.  And not everybody is interested in having conversations about their theology… especially if it is different than yours.  The problem with this reality is that as Christians we’ve been given a mission to make disciples of all nations and this means engaging people who are far form God with the message of the Gospel.  In order to see those who are far from God become the family of God, they somehow need to hear the Gospel.  And them hearing the Gospel often requires us having earned the right to be heard.

The Gospel can and does work apart from being shared in the midst of relationships.  But most often the Gospel does it works in the context of relationships.  Relationships with family members, coworkers, or neighbors.  The Gospel is most often heard the clearest when it is spoken by someone who cares about the individual, not somebody dropping off a tract as he passes by.

The reason this is true has nothing to do with the theological accuracy of the tract.  The tract may actually clearly present the Gospel.  The problem with the tract is there is no relationship.  There is no conversation.  There is no listening.  There is no engaging in hearing the story of lost person.  And there is no actual love for one another.

In order for people to think theologically, they need to be comfortable socially.

This is true for those who are far from God.  This is even true for those who regularly engage in these type of conversations.  Think about your own life; who do you have the best theological conversations with?  I imagine it is somebody you trust and are willing to have the difficult conversations and ask the hard questions.

In your ministry, are you helping people be comfortable?

I don’t mean be comfortable with the scandalous message of the Gospel.  I don’t mean be comfortable being confronted with their own sin.  I mean comfortable with you.  The cross is often a stumbling block and considered foolish, and I don’t suggest we change that.  But that doesn’t mean you should be the stumbling block.

How do you make somebody comfortable socially:

1. Listen to them. When we have a desire to share the Gospel, we most often immediately think of what we need to say.  And it’s true, we need to say something.  But do not miss the importance of earning the right to be heard.  As we listen to our neighbors, we might actually hear their hurts and pains.

2. Actually care about them.  This isn’t about increasing attendance.  It’s not about improving our bottom line.  It’s about getting to know people.  To hear their hurts and know their families.  To actually love them with no strange attached.

3. Speak their language. It’s amazing how uncomfortable I can get when somebody is talking around me and I have no idea what they are talking about.  If we want people to be comfortable enough in engaging in the conversation, we have to speak a language that they can speak.  This means that some words will need to get explained and translated.

What's that in your hand?

Moses and God just got done having a talk at a bush that was on fire and wouldn’t burn up.  Moses decides to start asking questions about his new mission.  Although he is about to be used to lead the people out of Egypt, he seems a bit reluctant about the whole thing.  Moses asks the question, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me?”

Essentially, "What if they think I’m crazy?"

Then God replies with a fascinating question, “What is that in your hand?”

Moses had a staff in his hand.  Why did God decide to use a staff?  Did he really need the staff?  Did he really even need Moses?  God had a plan to rescue the nation of Israel and he decided that he wasn’t going to do it alone.  He was going to use Moses.  And Moses’ staff.

Five + Two = 5,000

Jesus has drawn a crowd like he often does.  And as evening approaches, the disciples get concerned because there are over 5,000 people that have gathered to hear Jesus and people are getting hungry.

Jesus doesn’t want to send them away, but instead wants to feed them.

The disciples respond, “We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish.”

Five loaves. Two fish. Jesus didn’t need the loaves and the fish to feed the people.  But he chose to.

God again, just like he did with Moses, chose to use the disciples and chose to use ordinary bread and fish to do something miraculous.  He used what was already there, a few pieces of bread and fish, to do something miraculous for the people gathered.

What is your five loaves and two fish?  What is that in your hand?

God is in the business of using ordinary people and ordinary gifts and doing something miraculous.  So what is it that you have that God will use to do something incredible?

Leading When You're Not in Charge

If you are a leader, you want to lead.  You have ideas of how your ministry, your congregation, or your organization should be led and would love to see those things happen.

Even if you are not the guy in charge.  That’s what makes you a leader.

You are passionate about the place you work, the calling you have, and you want to move the vision forward.  But what do you do when you aren’t the lead guy?  How do you influence your organization when you aren’t the person in charge?

Because we can’t all be on the top of the org chart.

And if we can’t all be on the top, for the person in charge, it is important that great leaders are scattered all throughout the organization.  Any organization, especially a church, needs to have great leaders throughout the entire organization.  Our churches need leaders who are passionate about the mission and vision of the congregation and lead from within their own spheres of influence.

A good leader doesn’t necessarily have to have the highest position in the organization, he simply hast to lead from wherever he is positioned.

How to Lead from Below

Note: I am far from an expert at this, but am just sharing some of the things I have been taught, have observed in others, or have tried myself. 

Leverage influence over a position.

Relational influence is more valuable than a position on a org chart any day.  Positional authority seeks to get people to listen and obey commands.  Relational influence gets a team on board with the direction the team needs to go.

People simply react more enthusiastically to being enlisted in a common cause than they do to being ordered around. And getting people to act on their own to achieve the goals you have in mind is far more effective than having them only react to your direction. - Wall Street Journal

While you may not be in a position of authority in your congregation, the most valuable tool you have as a leader is not your position.  Regardless of where you fall in the org chart, if you have relationships with those you work with, you have an opportunity to lead.

Lead with honor and respect.

The fastest way to lose the support of the leader who is authority over you is to dishonor or disrespect his authority.  This might seem obvious, but when there are disagreements or division, this becomes all the more important.  If you want to earn the right to be heard by the leader in authority over you, you have to have honor and respect for that leader.

There is no doubt that as a leader, you will disagree with other leaders in your organization.

In fact it would be surprising to me if a Senior Leader in any organization had a staff that 100% agreed with his decisions all the time.  And if that were the case, I would be very skeptical of working in an organization that created robots that blindly support every decision of their Senior Leader.

Since you will likely disagree with something, the question then becomes how do you disagree well?

Andy Stanley says, “Support publicly; challenge privately.”  And when you support them, mean it.  And when you challenge them privately, really listen.  And admit when you’re wrong.

Be incredible.

Want to gain influence with those you work for?  Do your job well.  Don’t just meet the requirement, do it exceedingly well.  Don’t just serve those in your ministry, be the best servant you can possibly be.  Don’t just preach a sermon, preach the best sermon you know how.  Don’t just provide pastoral care to those you counsel, give them your full and undivided attention.

Seth Godin said, “The leader is the leader because he did something remarkable."

What are some other ways you have found helpful when leading from below?

Catalyst 2012 | Simon Sinek

Simon Sinek did a small session during Catalyst 2012 as he explored the idea what it means to use inspiration to lead people.  As leaders you can either manipulate people into following you, buying your product, or attending your event or you can inspire people.  Manipulation works; eventually, if you price a product low enough people will use it because it's cheap.  But manipulation does not breed loyalty or trust.  What if instead of manipulation we used inspiration?  Simon gave a similar talk at TED that I highly recommend watching to understand what he talked about.

Catalyst 2012 Notes

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For the last couple of years, I have had the opportunity to head to Atlanta, Georgia for the Catalyst Conference to learn from some of the best teachers, pastors, and communicators in the world of leadership. Each year I have been overwhelmed with the the things that I have learned and have enjoyed sharing some of the notes from the sessions. During the conference this post will serve as a table of contents for the notes that I take so check back often to see what notes I have for you to read.

Conference Notes

Session 1: Andy Stanley

Session 2: Patrick Lencioni

Session 3: Perry Noble

Session 8: Simon Sinek (Short Talk)

Level 5 Leaders

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I've be re-reading Good to Great by Jim Collins again.  The insights made by Jim Collins describing what separates a good organization from a great one are incredible.  Collins notes in the early chapters of the book that great organizations are run by level 5 leaders and create a culture of level 5 leadership within their team, while good organizations have excellent level 4 leaders.  A Level 5 leader is a leader that combines humility and an enduring will.  While we commonly think of great leaders as being ambitious, charismatic, and innovative, the truth is the best leaders are humble, want to stay out of the spotlight, always give credit to their team, and take the blame when things go wrong.