Chapter 1: The Conviction to Lead: True Leadership Starts with a Purpose, Not a Plan
Albert Mohler’s goal is to “change the the way you think abut leadership” (15). This being a repeat reading for me, looking back, I can say he did change my view. I first read this book as early as 2018 and it has been influential in my life ever since. He marks out at the beginning that there is a difference between leaders and managers. Later he will show how they are still related. At this point he gives a short survey of the history of leaders and mangers in 20th century America. He also points out how there was even a resistance against “leaders” by anti-leader movements; which ironically still need leaders (these anti-leader movements are clearly related to Marxist’s ideals).
Mohler makes a perceptive distinction between “Believers” and “Leaders.” Here he notes that Believers (not to he confused with Christian belivers) have something to believe in but are often hindered when they are unable to lead anyone in that direction. Meanwhile, Leaders are passionate but they fail when they have no moral compass or overarching convictions to guide their leadership objectives. “They are masters of change and organization transformation, but they lack a center of gravity in truth” (19-20). This leads to fatigue. Mohler intends to bond together right conviction and right action.
One of the strengths of Mohler’s starting point is that a leader does not need to become the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or the pastor of a megachurch to be a successful leader.
This post is part of a larger series of posts. Each post is a short reflection on a chapter of The Conviction to Lead: 25 Principles for Leadership that Matters by Albert Mohler (ISBN 978-0-7642-1004-4).
Musica Theologica 