Friday, February 8, 2008

Excellence In Leadership


This is a great little book on leadership, drawing principles from the life and work of Nehemiah. Maybe the best thing about it is that it has drawn me into the story of Nehemiah and I think that I will continue to go back to the biblical account as a leadership resource for years to come. I believe that is White’s main goal even beyond his own words and thoughts on the subject.

There are many memorable lessons: the importance of prayer in leadership, Spirit led planning, dealing with opposition, and finishing strong, to name a few. In addition to my own use of the book in the future, I will encourage other leaders to read it, but I think it may be more valuable to the leader with some experience than for the young leader looking for a training manual. My appreciation of the book is much greater now than it probably would have been at the beginning of my leadership journey. I think this is because it is not meant as a comprehensive overview of leadership but more as a reflection on the example of one particular leader and the situation he found himself called to lead in. It is a great book, I highly recommend it. Though short, it’s not a fast read, more like something you drink slowly and enjoy.

2 comments:

Kristi said...

I read that book last summer, mainly during the Mexico trip actually. I remember thinking it would be a quick read and then once I got into it realizing that there was no way you could speed read through it. There are a lot of awesome principles in that book, ones to percolate on for awhile, I highly recommend it as well. It brought on a whole new perspective for me about Nehemiah.

berry said...

yeah, Nehemiah was the man.