The Leadership Genius of Jesus: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Business
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A voyage through the business section of your local bookstore can be daunting. You could drown in the sea of books on management and leadership. At the very least the conflicting waves of instruction and advice from one book to the next will toss you back and forth, leaving you confused and disoriented.
Which business guru can steer you to the shores of your promised land? Which leadership trend is in, and which ones are out? If an approach works with one person, does that mean it will work with another?
Don't let the competing voices make things more complicated than they should be. And don't miss the most powerful example of leadership in history: Jesus. His approach was simple, effective, and brilliant. "How much more information do you need?" asks William Beausay II. "The fact is, very little. What you need are passion and heart. Courage and dreams." You'll find those traits in Jesus' life.
The Leadership Genius of Jesus is the lifeboat that will keep you afloat and point the way to fulfilling and dynamic leadership that will impact you and everyone you serve.
William Beausay
William Beausay is a clinical psychotherapist and author of the best-selling Boys!: Shaping Ordinary Boys into Extraordinary Men
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Boys!: Shaping Ordinary Boys into Extraordinary Men Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Girls!: Helping Your Little Girl Become an Extraordinary Woman Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
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The Leadership Genius of Jesus - William Beausay
The
LEADERSHIP
GENIUS OF
JESUS
Ancient
Wisdom
for
Modern
Business
WILLIAM BEAUSAY II
Leadership_Genius_LR_0001_001Copyright © 1997 by William Beausay II
All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Scripture quotations noted NKJV are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.
Scripture quotations noted NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
IS THAT ALL THERE IS? (page 112) by: Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller © 1966, 1969 Jerry Leiber Music, Mike Stoller Music. Copyright renewed. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Beausay, William, 1957–
The leadership genius of Jesus / William Beausay II.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-7852-7165-1 (hc)
1. Christian leadership. 2. Jesus Christ—Leadership.
I. Title.
BV652.1.B377 1998
262'.1—dc21
97–38372
CIP
Printed in the United States of America.
1 2 3 4 5 6 BVG 02 01 00 99 98 97
Contents
Thanks
1. The Power of One
2. Five Leadership Myths
3. Filaments
4. Blind Groping
5. Danger Zones
6. My Leader Board
7. A High-Definition Personality
8. No Paths
9. What Grips You?
10. Titles and Deeds
11. Servant Leadership
12. SWOTs
13. Critics
14. Dangerous People
15. Accountability
16. Make Me Feel Special
17. Preparation
18. Coolness and Conspicuous Courage
19. Deploy Yourself
20. Decision Making
21. Be of Good Cheer!
22. A View from the Top
23. Don’t Redline Your Confidence
24. Scar Stories
25. A Players’ Coach
26. The Glare of the Spotlight
27. The Discipline of Listening
28. The Spirit Is Willing But
29. Future Spotting
30. Make Something Happen
31. Headhunters
32. Planting Seeds
33. Power Bases
34. Calculating Your Net Worth
35. Powerlust
36. "If We Don’t Beat Indiana
37. Pass the Grenades
38. On-the-Job Training
39. Burn the Ships
40. Think Globally
41. Lessons from a Grand National Stock Car
42. Add a Little Pizzazz
43. Jerk Radar
44. Veritas Plateat
45. Be Patient
46. Play
47. Avoid Legal Entanglements
48. If I Could Have Only One Quality
49. Thanklessness
50. Second Thoughts
51. The Cost of Leadership
52. Quitting
53. The 50/20 Rule
54. Butch and Sundance
55. Is That All There Is?
56. Back to the Basics
57. The Blondin Challenge
58. One More Move
59. A Rhetorical Question
Thanks
This book would not be in your hands without the efforts of many great friends. First, thanks to my publisher, Victor Oliver. Everyone should be fortunate enough to spend ten minutes with this man. It would forever alter their perception of excellence in action. Thank you, Vic, for your leadership and direction in this project. Thanks as well to the indispensable and charming Rose Marie Sroufe; Brian Hampton, managing editor of Oliver-Nelson and wordsmith without peer; and the entire supporting cast at Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Special thanks as well to my agent, Sara Fortenberry, my brother and friend, Mike Beausay, Bill Bullard, John Ulmer, Jack Helmer, Gary Brown, Steve Milanowski, and my mom and dad for your friendship, support, insight, and many, many laughs!
To my kids, Jake, Jessie, and Zac: You guys are my passion, and I love you all. Be leaders wherever you go, but above all be like Jesus.
Finally, to Kathi, my fearless leader and best friend, thank you. I love you.
For information on Bill Beausay’s
• speaking availability
• training workshops
• print, audio, video, and software products, call him at
(419) 893-1983
or write him at
P.O. Box 4444
Maumee, OH 43537
or E-mail him at
bbeausay@aol.com
1
The Power of One
One is a powerful number.
Nobody who has seen it will forget a short clip from the movie City Slickers. Curly, the creaky, rawhide-tough cowboy trail boss, is sharing the secret of life with his urban protégé, played by comedian Billy Crystal. After challenging his young client to name the key to life, Curly holds up one finger and stares into Crystal’s eyes.
After a long pause, he squints and croaks simply,
One thing.
Leadership always boils down to singularity: one person doing one thing. Few things in life excite me more than seeing what one person fully committed to one thing can accomplish. Whether it’s great people leading great nations, managers leading teams, teachers leading students, or parents leading homes, remarkable things begin to happen when one person focuses his effort.
Jesus’ style was the epitome of one. Once some Pharisees were hotly contesting his claims to godliness, his wanton disregard for keeping the Sabbath, and his insinuations that they were blind. They made the mistake of questioning him on this.
Can you boil your mission down to one thing?
Jesus’ reply to them was sharp—a perfect illustration of his one thing: The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly
(John 10:10 NKJV).
Jesus’ one thing served him well. His tart comment based on a simple motive pierced to the heart of the Pharisees’ prejudices and misconceptions. Such a simple, beguiling style—focusing on one thing.
What’s your one thing? Do you need to spend some time finding it?
2
Five Leadership Myths
I once knew a man with tremendous leadership potential. He was a salesman for a chemical company, and I needed his help leading a project I was managing. He was perfect: self-motivated, able to focus on tasks, effective with people, a quick problem solver, and a motivator.
There was only one glaring problem: He didn’t believe in himself. The word leadership terrorized him. To him, leadership had transcendent magic to which only a select few people held the elixir. Unfortunately, he believed a suicidal mixture of leadership mythology.
In their wonderful book Leaders, Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus take aim at five key myths many of us have come to believe.
1. Leadership is a rare skill. Nothing could be farther from reality. Literally, wherever two or more are gathered, a leader will emerge. Leadership is always up for grabs, and it’s a common human trait to assume it.
2. Leaders are born, not made. Few real leaders are pedigreed. What generates leadership is a complex human process full of trial and error, victories and defeats, insights, intuitions, and always a dynamic confluence of events. Rarely is it from natural endowment.
Effective leadership is not what you think.
3. Leaders are charismatic. Though charismatic people may be thrust into leadership roles, most of the greatest leaders in history have been quiet, even shy individuals. So are many of the effective everyday leaders in our lives.
4. Leadership exists only at