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The Bible on Leadership: From Moses to Matthew -- Management Lessons for Contemporary Leaders

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I have titled my review "Surprisingly Well Done" because I frankly didn't expect the quality of reading I enjoyed in this book. I'll admit to being a bit jaundiced by one book after another comparing biblical characters and ancient historical figures like Attila the Hun to today's situations and leaders. But, if AMACOM, the publishing division of the American Management Association, is presenting this book, maybe there is some substance in these pages after all.

I opened the book with apprehension, half-expecting a Bible-thumping worship of religious heroes. Surprise! I was captivated right away by the almost conversational tone of the writing that pulled me in. The messages are much more "real," than pushy. The preachiness I feared did not materialize. Instead, lessons were shared on the fundamentals of leadership, with examples from Biblical characters and modern-day corporate and political leaders.

Woolfe is obviously quite conversant with the Bible, its stories, and its lessons. I am not, so I was frankly concerned that I wouldn't have the knowledge to relate to the book's teachings and message. I found that Woolfe described enough about each character and story that I understood. The people cited-Biblical and modern, are used as vehicles for Woolfe to make his points about ten attributes of leaders: honesty and integrity, purpose, kindness and compassion, humility, communication, performance management, team development, courage, justice and fairness, and leadership development.

As you read this book, expect to pause to reflect frequently. It will be a comfortable experience, rather than an unsettling challenge to your morals. Each chapter concludes with Biblical lessons on the theme of the chapter-not religious, Biblical. It's sort of a comparison of management literature from two different eras and not at all intimidating. A good set of reference notes and an index add value to the book.

Commentary: Understandably, this book addresses Judeo-Christian culture-both in its themes and it's content and treatment. It would be interesting to see a set of these books, with similar comparisons to perceived qualities of leaders and the religious literature of the culture that supports the written heritage.

If you are looking for a well-written, easy-to-read, "non-bible-thumping" biblical perspective on leadership that can be applied to today's modern business environment, you have found it.

Each of the ten chapters of this extensively-researched book focused on a different commonly-recognized leadership trait (honesty and integrity, purpose, kindness and compassion, humility, communication, performance management, team development, courage, justice and fairness, leadership development). Within each chapter, inter-related sub-chapters featured many leadership-related vignettes about biblical icons (Jesus, Moses, David, Solomon, etc.) and modern business leaders (Jack Welch (General Electric), Herb Kelleher (Southwest Airlines), Jack Stack (Springfield Remanufacturing), Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (Ben & Jerry's), etc.). The final page of each chapter was a summary listing of the biblical leadership lessons highlighted throughout the chapter.

I am not as great a student of the Bible as the author, and I believe my relative ignorance limited my appreciation of his impressive biblical knowledge and experience. I would have preferred a less ambitious approach with less diverse leadership material and more time spent setting up and presenting the Bible's 'case studies.' Still, the book provided many excellent leadership lessons from the Bible and the current business world that were informative and relevant to leaders at all levels.

Lorin Woolfe does a masterful job of exploring the bible for themes that should have relevance for both today's leaders and those aspiring to climb the proverbial ladder of success. Concentrating on everything from integrity, to team building to exhibiting fairness he explores the old and new testaments for shining examples of truely courageous leadership and draws parallels to modern day figures. In doing so he lends deeper meaning to such issues as finding "purpose", "effective communication" and "humility" in the workplace. It is an inspiring read for anyone yearning to travel his or her path with wisdom and fortitude.

"The Bible," leadership development consultant Lorin Woolfe contends, is the "greatest collection of leadership case studies ever written." He postulates that Biblical tales provide modern managers with "tremendously useful and insightful lessons," because these ancient stories "form some of the major archetypes of our collective consciousness."

This well-researched book is rich with anecdotes from both antiquity and modernity illustrating both good and bad leadership. You'll find King David and Bill Gates; Queen Esther and Anita Roddick; Jesus and Jack Welch.

In drawing parallels between the leadership challenges chronicled in the Bible and those faced by today's leaders, Woolfe concludes that successful leadership, then and now, derives from a set of ten "traits and skills."

THE TEN LEADERSHIP IMPERATIVES
Lorin Woolfe (or his editor) had the good sense and judgment not to do what I'm going to do: Present his ten lessons, as drawn from the Judeo/Christian Bible, in the following cliche manner.

1. Thou shalt deal with thine followers with Honesty and Integrity.

2. Thou shalt lead from a clear Purpose.

3. Thou shalt treat all others with Kindness and Compassion.

4. Thou shalt lead with Humility.

5. Thou shalt master effective Communication.

6. Thou shalt effect results by deploying Performance Management for thine colleagues.

7. Thou shalt improve performance of thine operation through Team Development.

8. Thou shalt demonstrate Courage in all thine affairs.

9. Thou shalt deal with all others with Justice and Fairness.

10. Thou shalt assureth continuity by giving priority to Leadership Development.

BLESSED ARE THE LEADERS
To even the most casual student of leadership today, those themes ought ring quite familiar. Looking through the lens of modern leadership theory, one can, not surprisingly, find examples aplenty of these themes in the ancient stories of human shepherds leading their human flocks.

Woolfe's extensive research does a good job of making the case that human nature, or at least the behaviors that are shaped by the West's familiar Judeo/Christian traditions, have remained pretty much the same over the millenia. So the methods that helped (or hindered) a leader's attempts to affect the behaviors of ancient, nomadic, desert-dwelling clans thousands of years ago are quite the same as those that influence contemporary, computerized cube-farm inhabitants. (Though modern leaders -- facing constituents with more choices for the leaders they'd willing follow -- probably tend to emphasize the less harsh end of the consequences spectrum.)

The plethora of examples that Woolfe has mined from both the Good Book and today's business press amply make the case for each lesson the author presents. But too much so. The book often seems to read like: Ancient Anecdote...Ancient Anecdote... Modern Example...Modern Example...

And then for variety: Modern Example...Modern Example...Ancient Anecdote...Ancient Anecdote... Or, alternatively, Ancient Anecdote... Modern Example... Ancient Anecdote... Modern Example...

After a while, it's more tiring than engaging. And occasionally forces itself uncomfortably against the boundaries of analogy. ("In 1991, Larry Bossidy, CEO of Allied Signal, found himself in a position similar to that of Moses. The company lacked purpose, morale was suffering, and the bottom line was showing it.")

The book easily could be half as long, and, in turn, perhaps twice as effective.

Still, for people who are students of leadership or adherents to the Judeo/Christian tradition (or who want to understand the source of its echoes in our modern world), this is a useful, well documented, and instructive work worth having and reviewing.

This is a very straightforward, informative and practical book that uses biblical lessons as jumping off points to illustrate the use of ethics in the (modern) corporate world. I know this book has been recognized and used in many Christian management schools, but personally I care less about the religious aspects than the ethical ones. (And in today's world where we still have people killing in the name of god, I think there's a big distinction.) I frankly don't care if the book gets more people to think about or read the bible, but its lessons for leaders and leadership are right on target.

Woolfe clearly did a lot of research for this book. The number and diversity of stories about different managers and corporations is wonderful, although my personal preference is for those I consider to be among the "socially responsible" leaders: Aaron Feuerstein, who continued to pay employees even after his factory burned down, and Ben & Jerry's who donated 7.5% percentage of profits to charitable causes.

This book is very timely, with stories of Enron and unethical (not to mention illegal) corporate practices just beginning to fade. It should be incorporated into every business school curriculum.

Now, I'd love to see Woolfe do "The Koran on Leadership".....

Excellent, easy to read. Some great wisdom.
Robert Gedaliah
New York

I am always wary of books built around the "lessons" of the Bible, Shakespeare, or any other major source unless I know the author well. Since I have read the Bible, Shakespeare and many other sources, I feel capable of drawing my own conclusions.

This book grabbed my attention after I realized that relatively few people do read the entire Bible these days. It could clearly be a good thing if people learned more about the Bible because they were interested in some other subject.

With that thought in mind, I launched into The Bible on Leadership. I was glad that I did.

Mr. Woolfe does a solid job of drawing on both the old and new testaments to exemplify honesty and integrity, purpose, kindness and compassion, humility, communication, performance management, team development, courage, justice and fairness, and leadership development. To these examples, he adds contemporary business leaders as well. From his small list of modern leaders as exemplars of good practices, you will get a sense of how much we need people to read and apply this book.

Like many books that attempt to use current examples, you will find yourself faulting some choices (possibly including the references to Jack Stack as being too much, Warren Buffett's possible reinsurance-fraud awareness, Ray Gilmartin's honesty preceding the Vioxx debate, and various other one-time icons who have since fallen from public grace).

As a result, I suggest that you focus on the Biblical leaders and mostly ignore the rest. You will be on sounder ground if you do. If you are primarily looking for modern examples, you will probably be disappointed in this book. There are too few of them, and many good choices are omitted.

Mr. Woolfe writes well and he makes Biblical leaders come to life. If you only strive to emulate one of his many examples, you will be a better leader.

Lorin Woolfe personally emailed me and asked me to look at this book, and instead of commenting on the details, I would like to critique its philosophical base. To do so, I must begin with a review of near recent history, going back to a time when a large sector of Christianity responded to the Enlightenment with what is known as "Protestant Liberalism."

The Enlightenment was a movement that, in part, argued that only the verifiable is true -- meaning that the Bible is invalid in some of its details, and in such cases non-relevant for the rational mind. For example, Enlightenment reason dictates that miracles are beyond the scope of reality, and so an accusation of impracticality and mythology is leveled against the Bible. Protestant Liberalism answered this charge by explaining away the non-rational elements of Scripture; relegating such to the sphere of faith (as opposed to historical fact). My main point is that Protestant Liberalism was (and is) a movement with a goal to make the Bible relevant to the post-Enlightenment world. Unfortunately, in its quest for a Christianity relevant to the rational mind, Protestant Liberalism continued to use the language of orthodox Christianity, hiding the fact that it was redefining the meaning behind the terms; Protestant Liberalism kept the vernacular of Christianity and filled it up with new meaning. So, for example, when a Protestant Liberal thinks of Christmas, despite her confessed belief in Jesus she is not accepting the idea of a historical virgin birth -- she instead is celebrating the shared feeling of faith among those who enjoy the idea of a Jesus (after all, virgins don't give birth, yet Christmas is still a wonderful holiday!). Thus, not willing to give up Christmas, nor willing to accept the notion of miracles, Protestant Liberalism makes Jesus relevant to all comers, and one need not believe that he was actually virgin born to have a valid Christmas faith experience. That's a sketch of Protestant Liberalism.

My point in this historical survey is that the current movement to make the Bible relevant is, at the core, no different than Protestant Liberalism. Books like the one under review here use the words of Christianity, but for far different purposes than the original scriptures intended. The goal of this book, like that of the writings of Protestant Liberals, is to make the Bible relevant (for coaching sports teams, for running businesses, for . . .) and so represents a repackaging of Liberalism. To embrace the precepts of this book, one must buy into the notion that the Bible must be made relevant (with the unstated implication being "else the Bible is not so relevant"). Relevance is a thing unto itself, and is that which most appeals to the modern mind, especially in such areas as running a company, coaching a soccer team, etc. Just as Protestant Liberalism catered to the Enlightenment mind, so books like this cater to the 21st century Leadership-Relevance mind.

Over and against this book, and others like it, is the apostle Paul who assures us that the Bible is foolishness to those who are earthly minded (wise according to the world). The Bible does not work as a manual for leadership, and can not be so reduced.

It is based on this analysis that I can say that Lorin Woolfe has "Americanized" Christianity and fostered a different religion, one which unfortunately uses some of the words as orthodox Christianity.

And now I quote the Scriptures to demonstrate how the world of the Bible is not compatible with the Bible-as-leadership-model that Woolfe envisions. In the following text from Psalm 137:9, the Psalmist is writing about the destruction of Babylon, and says this to them of their demise:

"Happy shall he be, that takes and dashes your little ones against the stones." KJV

I pick this text because it does not fit a modern leadership model -- for which leader among us would advocate satisfaction over the death of little ones? This verse should illustrate how out-of-touch the modern leadership literature is when it tries to make the Bible "relevant." Dashing babies on stones is hardly relevant to any coaching or CEO model I would want to be a part of! So what does Woolfe do when he comes across such modernly-distasteful texts? He does what Protestant Liberalism has always done, he leaves them out of the discussion for the sake of the modern person who finds the text distasteful; he edits the Bible for the sake of reaching the modern need, a need which knows nothing of dashing little ones against stones. My conclusion is that the Psalmist must have missed Woolfe's conference on how to be a good leader, else he never would have written such a horrific psalm.