The Making of a Leader: Recognizing the Lessons and Stages of Leadership Development

I read this book about 6 years ago but I still remember much of it which is astonishing for me. At the time and still today it helped me understand that the Lord uses men much more in the lives of others older in life and we need to not get discouraged if we feel like we're not being productive now. The experiences and knowledge we're gaining now will enable us to be more effective as we're older and I'm still encouraged by it. I think it is a great book for all generations and would recommend it.

I read tons of books on leadership. Most say do this, or that - they really are more people management books. Not this book. It had a huge impact on my life - so much so that I require young pastors I mentor to read it and do the exercises. If you want to see your life as a whole - and then organize around who you are - this is the most significant book on leadership you can read. It's an incredible gift. It requires reflection and honest evaluation though - no easy 1,2,3, steps- no cookie cutter here.

I had to read this book for a seminary class and found that the book has very little to do with Biblical leadership. In this book, leadership is not about humble service, but being the guy up front. I really believe that this book will discourage those that want to serve the church because it will convince them that they have to be CEO material to lead the church.

This book is all about the author's system and contains very little scripture. There is plenty of scripture on leadership which this book completely overlooks.

This is a very helpful and insightful book. I would highly recommend it.

This book contains no surprises. The title tells at the outset that this is a book about the process of making a leader. The writer then goes on to set forth all of the various steps and stages that take place in bringing about this end. As such, the book could be divided into two major sections. First there is the process of making a leader that in which we are given a guided tour through the early, the middle and the final stages of that process. Only in the last two chapters do we focus upon the practical applications of this tour as we view a leadership philosophy and a set of three challenges to pursue as we move along that process.

It seems to me that anyone who is already in a leadership position will be able to use this book primarily as a memento of where he has been, but I found myself wondering whether my reaction would have been any different ten or fifteen years earlier in my own journey. It is a bit like giving lessons for falling in love for the first time; before having gone through the experience you have nothing to relate the lessons to and after you have gone through the experience you have no real need for the lessons.

The central task of leadership is influencing God's people towards God's purposes (203), but this must begin with the leader himself seeing what those purposes are in his own life. A continuing theme in this book is that one ministers out of what one is and that ministry flows out of being. This means that my first great business on earth is the sanctification of my own soul and that a lifestyle of obedience to the Lord will only be taught as it is first caught. The application of this theme is that I as a leader need to focus upon my own spiritual life rather than focusing upon processes or techniques of leadership.

"In a crisis, we are what we really are. How we react in a crisis is often more important than solving our crisis" (Page 173).