In his excellent book Lead Like It Matters to God: Values-Driven Leadership in a Success-Driven World, a book I feel should be required reading for Christian leaders, former World Vision President Richard Stearns writes that he believes that God is far more concerned about how a leader leads than he is about the success that leader delivers. The book is about why he believes the values Christian leaders embrace are more important than the success they achieve. He tells us that while our culture rewards success, God’s bottom line is faithfulness.
In the book, Stearns writes about seventeen values and leadership qualities that he believes are essential for a Christian leader to embody: surrender, sacrifice, trust, love, excellence, humility, integrity, vision, courage, generosity, perseverance, forgiveness, self-awareness, balance, humor, encouragement, and listening.
He believes that leaders who embrace these characteristics will lift not only their own performance but also the performance of their teams. Stearns writes with authority, having been a successful CEO at Parker Brothers and then Lenox, before being called to World Vision. Continue reading →