I wrote Leadership Ethics & Spirituality to offer a practical Christian alternative to the growing variety of books on spirituality and leadership.
Society increasingly appreciates that good leadership often has a spiritual aspect. However, many find it difficult to get a handle on what this really means and how it can affect their lives and workplaces.
Leadership Ethics & Spirituality offers practical answers from a biblical world and life perspective. For the Christian leader, this requires openness to spiritual influences as he lives and acts according to faith and obedience to the transcendent and immanent God of scripture.
a practical Christian alternative to the growing variety of books on spirituality and leadership.
I argue that a leader finds purpose and meaning through humble striving to lead with technical excellence according to a Spirit-led ethic. This is a comprehensive approach. Good leadership requires the leader to seek all three of the following:
- to become technically effective in applying leadership techniques
- to lead according to a sound moral basis
- to live and lead with spiritual-mindedness, being open to guidance according to a spiritual world and life worldview
There are many books on leadership and more are written every day. As leadership expert Joanne Ciulla says, the important focus needs to be on good leadership. She describes a good leader as both effective and ethical. I agree, but write to emphasize that for the Christian, indeed, any spiritually-minded person, leadership also needs to recognize all of reality. He must go beyond the materialist dimension to comprehend the spiritual. Indeed, interest in the spiritual aspects of leadership and ethics is increasing; there is a growing list of books and management experiments seeking to satisfy spiritual concerns. But Leadership Ethics & Spirituality is distinctively different; it seeks to offer practical answers grounded in a credible (theologically, philosophically, and empirically) Christian approach.
My book includes numerous examples of what it means for a Christian to be a good leader. It discusses the attributes of such a leader including his double calling—to faith and to leadership, his commitment to a biblical world and life view, his practice according to sound Christian ethic, and his striving for technical excellence as a leader. My ambition is that this book can help guide spiritually-aware students and practicing leaders as they seek to grow as such good leaders.
The book is not just another handy, step-by-step guide that guarantees leadership success. It is not a cookbook. Instead, it stresses the need to develop the moral character qualities needed by a good leader and offers practical suggestions as to how a person can develop what she needs. Furthermore, it discusses critical questions that a leader faces, offering approaches for their solution.
Of course, a person can practice good leadership without being a professing Christian. Not every Christian senses a call to leadership, and some are not good leaders. And some people seem to lead more easily than others, drawing followers when others do not. But everyone who desires to lead can grow in his or her leadership capability. Even those reluctant to lead can find that they can do so when called upon. I write to encourage every person who desires to grow as a good leader. And while this book is directed primarily toward Christians, it may offer insights and is open to constructive criticism from those of other spiritual traditions and perspectives, as well.
J. Thomas Whetstone
Purchase: http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000641049/Leadership-Ethics–Spirituality.aspx
Leadership Ethics and Spirituality 