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132 pages

English

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While books and articles on leadership abound, most of them are written by "successful" men who look at the world through the lens of a Western business model. The standard for success is based on the bottom line--financial growth in both the personal and corporate realms. This perspective has infected Christian leadership literature as well. In Leadership Reconsidered, Ruth A. Tucker calls for a revised definition--one that abandons the love of power and success for the eternal value of legacy. She challenges the assumption that a leader must by definition have followers, be an extrovert, crave recognition, and dominate others. Instead, legacy encompasses the values of behind-the-scenes influence that are available to everyone and last beyond the grave. This unique and refreshing perspective on leadership is accessible and engaging and will make an impact on anyone who takes it to heart.

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

Christianity

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 décembre 2008
Nombre de lectures	18
EAN13	9781585587803
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0432€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

© 2008 by Ruth A. Tucker
Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakerbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-58558-780-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked TNIV is taken from the Holy Bible, Today’s New International Version™ Copyright © 2001 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.
To Dearest Friend Ann Kelsey for a living legacy of generosity and compassion to those in need far and near through tears and laughter and selfless service
C ONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Introduction
Part I Critiquing Leadership
1. Leadership 620: Introducing the Topic
2. PowerPoint Presentations: Leadership Training Reconsidered
3. The Ladder of Success: Capitalism and Competition Reconsidered
4. Hitler and Thomas the Tank: Bad Leadership Reconsidered
5. God’s CEO: Biblical Leadership Reconsidered
6. Jesus as Model: Servant Leadership Reconsidered
7. Martin Luther King Jr.: The “Great Man” Theory Reconsidered
8. Personality and Power: Charismatic Leadership Reconsidered
9. Girl Scouts and More: Gender and Leadership Reconsidered
10. Where Have All the Followers Gone? Submission and Authority Reconsidered
11. President of the Internet: Life without Leaders Reconsidered
Part II Creating a Legacy
12. Legacy 620: Bequeathing a Personal Legacy
13. Jefferson and Jefferson: Walk Like a Man
14. The Lemon Factor: Good from Bad
15. An Earthkeeping Legacy: Less Is More
16. Smile When I’m Gone: A Legacy of Laughter
17. Tender Mercies: A “Cup of Cold Water” Legacy
18. Free at Last: Epitaphs and Graveyard Reflections
Epilogue
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
Other Books by Ruth A. Tucker
I NTRODUCTION
Text not included because of rights restrictions. [1]

T he understanding of leadership, as Time illustrates by choosing Putin as the 2007 Person of the Year, parallels my own understanding. Whether good or bad, Putin is above all a leader—a leader with followers. His place at the table of world affairs owes nothing to popular leadership training forums. Although “he is a believer and often reads from the Bible,” there is no evidence that he has derived his leadership principles from Scripture. However, when asked what role faith plays in leadership, he responded: “First and foremost, we should be governed by common sense. But common sense should be based on moral principles first. And it is not possible today to have morality separated from religious values.” [2] Religious values or not, Putin wields power in biblical proportions, and in many respects he could be compared more readily with Moses than could an American president.
Putin’s role in stabilizing Russia fits well into the “Great Man” theory. He is a leader for whom power trumps personality. “He is charmless yet adored by his nation. He took a country in chaos and remade it in his own image: tough, aggrieved, defiant.” [3] American standards, we must remember, are not the only measures of a “great man.” Only time will define his legacy, and then primarily by the Russian people.
In some respects, Putin illustrates a lingering need in the twenty-first century for old-fashioned authoritarian leadership. His effort to bring stability to a vast, unwieldy population requires leadership that is very different from that which is called for in an old and stable constitutional democracy that eschews domineering figureheads. We too easily judge him by our own standards—unless we have glimpsed what Russia was before he came to power. I stayed in Moscow for a week on a research assignment in 1998 when the country was in the midst of a protracted financial crisis. Jobs and savings and social services were in serious jeopardy. The faces in the crowded Underground and on the streets were as cold and gray as were the buildings and landscape and weather. Signs of happiness were almost nonexistent, and as I searched the expressions, I saw far more hopelessness than anger. Enter Vladimir Putin. Today a visitor to Moscow sees color and neon lights and packed eateries—and hope.
Jonathan Steele of the Guardian sums up Putin’s ongoing legacy:
What, then, is Putin’s legacy? Stability and growth, for starters. After the chaos of the 90s, highlighted by Yeltsin’s attack on the Russian parliament with tanks in 1993 and the collapse of almost every bank in 1998, Putin has delivered political calm and a 7% annual rate of growth. Inequalities have increased and many of the new rich are grotesquely crass and cruel, but not all the Kremlin’s vast revenues from oil and gas have gone into private pockets or are being hoarded in the government’s “stabilisation fund.” Enough has gone into modernising schools and hospitals so that people notice a difference. Overall living standards are up. The second Chechen war, the major blight on Putin’s record, is almost over. [4]
However one assesses Putin’s leadership, it is anything but a contrived fantasy that arises out of institutes and seminars and PowerPoint presentations. How he attained his powerful position of influence is far more in the realm of mystery than in the realm of manufactured programs. To imagine that following steps leading from point A to point B produces a Putin is preposterous.
Imagine instead a world without all the leadership trappings: books and websites and courses and institutes and seminars. What if leadership were not cheap? What if it were something that could not be bought and sold? What if the rewards for leadership had nothing to do with financial gain or prestige? What if what mattered most was legacy? Indeed, apart from a crisis or a critical turn of events, is leadership even necessary?
I will explore these issues in the chapters that follow. They are drawn from two classes I taught on the subject of leadership. Part 1 of the book represents the first time I taught the course, and part 2, the second time—though there is inevitable overlapping.
Part 1 challenges much of the conventional wisdom on leadership. Some of the questions are old and are already largely dismissed as anachronistic in leadership literature; others have never really been asked. Are leaders born rather than made? Is leadership inherently good, or is it really a neutral concept? Is the Bible a guide for leadership? Is Jesus the premier example? Is servant leadership a misnomer? Is the “Great Man” theory of leadership valid? What do personality and charisma have to do with leadership? Are women more suited to leadership roles than men? Is contrived leadership better than no leadership at all? Can leaderless organizations or groups function effectively?
In part 2, we find that the matter of legacy raises a different set of questions that calls us to create more than to critique. We must keep in mind that legacy, no less than leadership, can be contrived. Here we consider legacy in an era of change and how it pertains to ordinary individuals, not just to presidents and popes. We recognize that less is often more and that a seemingly inconsequential act can have a profound effect. We contemplate such diverse topics as laughter and earthkeeping and epitaphs—all with legacy in mind. Along the way we have an eye on calculating our own legacy footprint.
It was not until I began calculating my carbon footprint that I seriously began to recognize how my lifestyle was adversely impacting an already fragile planet. That carbon footprint consciousness prompted me to contemplate my legacy footprint and to wonder what I would leave behind that would be of lasting value.
What we leave behind when we die is a legacy footprint. It is made up of the sum total of good and bad deeds weighed in the balance. This is not a wheelbarrow of works that gets us through the Pearly Gates. It is what is left behind—the footprint of our lives. Christians are so often programmed to think in terms of faith over works—salvation by faith alone. Legacy, however, forces us to think in terms of works over faith. If faith is our ticket to heaven (albeit, oversimplified), works are what we leave behind, the stuff of our legacy—the stuff we hope will rate that seal of approval: Well done, good and faithful servant.

1
L EADERSHIP 620
Introducing the Topic
I t was a warm, sultry August in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I had prepared well for a course I was teaching first time around, Leadership 620. After previewing dozens of books and hundreds of articles, I had chosen two texts and twenty-five articles that I listed on the syllabus as required reading spread out through the short two-week term. The seminary students in my class were all preparing for ministry careers and were eager to gain knowledge on how they might become effective leaders. Although I had never had any formal leadership training myself, I had been teaching and writing in related fields for most of two decades, particularly from a historical perspective. As an introductory course, this was not rocket science. I was a competent teacher, and whatever expertise I lacked I made up for in my teaching style. Parker Palmer was my guide.
The Courage to Teach
In his book The Courage to Teach , Palmer challenges teachers to live their topics and to be more concerned with the questions than the answers. He counsels the teacher to avoid arrogance and certainty—to “be patient toward all