Book Review: Lead Like Jesus by Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges
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The title alone of this book is enticing for those interested in living the life of Jesus on a day-to-day basis. I mean, who wouldn’t want to know the divine secrets of leading people like Jesus? The first page of rave reviews from the likes of Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, Max Lucado, and John Maxwell is also persuading to purchase this book. Through the nudging of a friend (my monthly accountability partner), I was drawn to its contents. So I purchased it to be my book-of-the-month to read awhile back.
You may be familiar with Ken Blanchard as the author of the mega-selling book The One Minute Manager. He was and remains one of the most sought after business motivational speakers in the world. What’s interesting is he was a non-believer until he was befriended by Bill Hybels, the pastor of Willow Creek Church in Chicago. Bill led him to the cross and Ken became a changed man overnight. He was given a bible by Bill and after a weekend of reading and studying it, he became amazed at the parallels between business leadership and the way Jesus led his disciples. His excitement resulted in his partnering with Phil Hodges and the writing of this book.
As you might imagine, the content of this book wraps itself around the servant leadership qualities of Jesus. Ken packages it around four venues: heart, head, hands and habits (you would think he was Baptist with that type of alliteration!).
The idea of leading others begins in the heart and must be void of any self-interest or self-motivation. All reasons for leading must eventually lead to pleasing the heart of God. After the heart is set on righteousness, the head seeks the will of God by sharing a vision, goals, methods and values. These must be effectively shared with the groups one is leading. After the head has set the vision the hands go about working the planned vision with the team. Servant leadership, by its very nature, requires getting dirty with others in accomplishing a task. Ken shares many tried-and-true methods of working with a team and leads the reader on how to make these methods habits in their life. They are all good, proven to be effective, and powerful when motivated by Scripture.
Overall, the book has great content. However, it shouldn’t take 260 pages to share that content. The style of writing is at times boring and repetitive. For that reason, I give it a 3.0 out of 5.0. I would still highly recommend it as a nice gift for a church or business leader friend.
This book can be purchased from our Affiliate Christianbook Distributors at the link below. In addition to the version I read, there is now an updated version called Lead Like Jesus Revisited and also Lead Like Jesus for Churches.
Publisher’s Description:
Lead Like Jesus: Lessons from the Greatest Leadership Role Model of All Time
By Ken Blanchard & Phil Hodges
Develop your leadership skills 365 days a year with a one-page devotional by leadership experts Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges. In this Lead Like Jesus devotional, they show you how to focus your head, hands, and habits on Jesus. Hardcover.
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