The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make

In a month focused on the Discipline of Confession, I thought it was appropriate to take a look at Hans Finzel’s book The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make. (Check out my previous post of his book The Top Ten Leadership Commandments here.)

As Finzel put it, “Leadership can be dangerous. The greater our sphere of leadership influence, the higher our impact on the world around us. And the more people we lead, the greater the potential damage caused through our poor decisions and actions. This is one of the sobering realities we must face when we accept the mantle of leadership.”

Few prepare themselves or volunteer for leadership.  In fact, most people fall into leadership more by accident than by design.

The average leader faces at least five problems in learning to lead.  Today’s leaders:

  1. Replicate the poor leadership habits they have observed in others.
  2. Often lack basic skills for common leadership demands.
  3. Lack good models and mentoring.
  4. Lack formal training in leadership.
  5. Suffer confusion over the conflict between secular and biblical leadership values.

Leaders have incredible power for good or ill in people’s lives. A few control the destiny of many. The privilege of leadership is a high calling…and an adventure!

Click here for more from Hans Finzel

Read the Bible Today!

Every year on September 6th, “National Read a Book Day” is observed to encourage us to take a break and get reading.  When I think of reading and choosing just one book, I can’t help but encourage reading the Bible.

The first time I read the Bible cover-to-cover was John Maxwell’s The Leadership Bible, where Maxwell intersperses leadership themes, principles, and stories throughout Scripture.  For some of the content, he used his 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (which I covered as part of a series in 2015) and his 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader (which was also covered as part of a series in 2015—you can see links to those on the right hand side of the page). 

It is fascinating to learn how many leadership lessons you can learn from the pages of Scripture.

So, today, take some time to sit back, relax, and get lost in the Bible!  Or…if you want a quick read, check out my summary of John Maxwell’s Life-Changing Lessons from Leaders in Scripture.

Click here for Maxwell’s 21 Leadership Issues in the Bible