Connections: Love Works

A friend of mine has recently recommended that I take a look at Joel Manby’s new book, Love Works (Zondervan).  He felt it would encourage me in relation to previous blogs having to do with the necessity of relational leadership.  Indeed, it has.

Manby is the CEO of a major entertainment organization, and as the book shows, he has based his entire concept of leadership and organizational culture on—love.  From that word, he has derived seven related principles that guide his life and work.

I commend this book to you if you are a leader.  There’s no doubt about it—-we are in a “leadership revolution.”  Impersonal leadership principles have run their course, and CEO’s are striving to put the “heart and soul” back into things.

We cannot claim to be on the cutting edge if we continue to operate with an excessively regulatory style of leadership, and we can only be viewed as being at cross purposes with God, if we ignore the fruit of the Spirit in our leadership.  If we view our orgnizations like machines, we’ll end up treating people like they are machines.  But God only allows us to treat them like humans.

When it comes to Christian leadership (any leadership, for that matter), we cannot call it “good” unless ethics (love) and effectiveness are conjoined.   We cannot call any leader “good” unless his/her character is undergirding conduct.