The Conviction to Lead: 25 Principles for Leadership that Matters
“When a leader walks into the room, a passion for truth had better enter with him”
Are you a believer or a leader?
“The problem is that the evangelical Christian world is increasingly divided between groups we might call the Believers and the Leaders.”
In his book The Conviction to Lead, Dr. Mohler seeks to eliminate the dichotomy of what he calls Believers and Leaders amongst Christians. The believers are the faith-filled, theologically minded prayer warriors who are functionally incapable of organizing or planning anything. The leaders are the strategic gurus whose technological devices are all synchronized with reminders, dates, goals, and objectives. Excuse my oversimplification, but I think you probably get the distinction.
Dr. Mohler identifies this as not only an unnecessary distinction but a dangerous and harmful one to the evangelical church. His book is a call to Christians to be deeply convicted while equally professional leaders.
The Conviction to Lead covers 25 principles for leadership that matters. I will reproduce my top five in the order as they appear in The Conviction to Lead.
1. Leading is Believing
“When a leader walks into the room, a passion for truth had better enter with him.”
Before a leader acts, they must actually believe in the purpose of their action. The temptation of leaders is to see progress or activity and be satisfied with movement. But a true leader cannot confuse motion with progress. Action needs to be rooted in conviction.
2. The Passion to Lead
“The passionate leader emphasizes morality and purpose.”
Nothing boils my blood more than an impassionate person in a position of authority. Leading requires passion. Period. If a person is to influence, move, and motivate anyone, then they will need to have a sincere, authentic passion behind their purpose.
3. Leaders are Thinkers
“Our actions may never reach the heights of our thinking, but you can be certain that the quality of your actions will never exceed the quality of your thinking.”
Leaders need to think. They need to spend time thinking. And they need to spend time thinking about the right things! Procrastination, distraction, and misdirection can crush the operating soul of an organization. Instead, leaders must identify the facts critical to their mission success and think deeply and critically about the situation as it really is.
4. Leaders are Readers
“There is no substitute for effective reading when it comes to developing and maintaining the intelligence necessary to lead.”
Read. Simple enough, right? Why then do so many people in leadership positions fail to read?
Jim Mattis says in his book, Call Sign Chaos, “if you haven’t read hundreds of books, learning form others who went before you, you are functionally illiterate.”
5. The Leader as Decision Maker
“Organizations can suffer worse when leaders refuse to make any decision at all.”
I heard this once described as analysis paralysis. This is where a leader analyzes something to the point of paralysis and cannot make a decision. I heard the following phase in the military, “a B-plan now is better than an A-plan later if your dead.” Leaders sometimes have to make difficult decisions. Sometimes these won't be the best decision. But that is the burden of leadership; you have to make a decision.
Overall, I greatly appreciated learning from the principles that have helped Dr. Molher succeed as a leader and fully recommend it to you!
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John Owen came from Welsh descent, was educated at Queens College, and became a renowned Puritan theologian, Oxford professor, and passionate pastor who lived from 1616 to 1683. In 1647, he wrote the exhaustive treatise The Death of Death defending Limited or Definite Atonement against the Arminian view of Universal Atonement or Unlimited Atonement.