Between Two Worlds

By John Stott

John Stott was a master preacher and a master writer.  This is his major book on preaching and it is superb.  He does an incredible job by giving a historical sketch of preaching.  Then he follows it with some of the objections to preaching in the modern world. 

(The publishing date is 1982, so it is not current, but it is relevant.)

He then has a superb section on the theological foundations for preaching, followed by a long chapter on preaching in the modern world.

The next chapter has a ringing call to the preacher to be a student, followed by an excellent and yet practical chapter on preparing a sermon.

The last two chapters might be the best of all.  One is on sincerity and earnestness or passion. The second one is on courage and on humility.  He is superb on these topics.

I highly recommend this book.

The Ideal Team Player

By Patrick Lencioni

It is always a significant occasion when Patrick Lencioni writes a new book.  Lencioni, along with Jim Collins, is perhaps one of the two most insightful writers today on leadership and organizational health.  A former Bain consultant who now has his own organization called The Table Group, he has impacted millions through his writings.  This book is about how you find and develop team players.

Lancioni writes that the most valuable quality a person needs to develop in the world of work is how to be a team player.  He then argues that the three essential traits for team players are humble, hungry and smart.  The key issue is how he defines these three terms.  He writes this book in the form of a fable, a true-life story that is quite interesting.  His fables are always good reading.  And then he follows with a final 50 pages explaining the fable in more detail.

He argues that humility is the single greatest and most indispensable attribute of being a team player.  Here are the questions to determine if someone is humble.

Does he genuinely compliment or praise teammates without hesitation?

Does she easily admit when she makes a mistake?

Is he willing to take on lower-level work for the good of the team?

Does she gladly share credit for team accomplishments?

Does he readily acknowledge his weaknesses?

Does she offer and receive apologies graciously?

The second key trait is hungry.  He says that hungry people almost never have to be pushed by a manager to work harder, because they are self-motivated and diligent.  Here are the questions to determine if someone is hungry.

Does he do more than what is required in his own job?

Does she have passion for the “mission” of the team?

Does he feel a sense of personal responsibility for the success of the team?

Is she willing to contribute to and think about work outside of office hours?

Is he willing and eager to take on tedious and challenging tasks whenever necessary?

Does she look for opportunities to contribute outside her area of responsibility?

The word smart can be confusing.  He is not talking about IQ here, but more about emotional intelligence, or people intelligence.  He’s talking about being smart in how you deal with people.  It basically refers to a person’s common sense about people.  Here are the questions to determine if someone is smart about people.

Does he seem to know what teammates are feeling during meetings and interactions?

Does she show empathy to others on the team?

Does he demonstrate an interest in the lives of teammates?

Is she an attentive listener?

Is he aware of how his words and actions impact others on the team?

Is she good at adjusting her behavior and style to fit the nature of a conversation or relationship?

He then describes why you need all three traits, and how problems will arise if you only have two of the three traits.  And how disaster might arise if you only have one or none of the traits.  He talks about how these three traits affect hiring, how you develop these three traits more in your current employees, and how you embed these three values in your organizational culture.

Finally, he connects The Ideal Team Player with his well-known book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.  They go hand in glove.  The Five Dysfunctions focuses on how a group must interact to become a cohesive team, centering in on the essential nature of trust, conflict, commitment, accountability and results.

By contrast, this book focuses more on the individual team member and the traits that make him or her more likely to overcome the dysfunctions that derail teams.

The book is superb.  It is exceedingly practical and relevant.  It is a fascinating read.  However, here is a warning:  Patrick Lencioni is a Christian and I imagine a devout Christian, but he does use earthy language at times in the fable, perhaps to reflect the workplace today.

The Boys in the Boat

By Daniel James Brown

Every once in a while I come across a book that is especially good.  This is one of them. Recently I was speaking with a renowned English professor at Rice University, who is also a big sports fan.  He excitedly told me about a book on rowing, The Boys in the Boat, the true story of nine boys from the University of Washington crew team defeating vaunted East Coast teams in the 1930s and then going on to win Olympic gold at Adolf Hitler’s 1936 Berlin Olympics.  This is a remarkable story.

This is not only the story of an epic quest for the gold medal, it is the story of nine boys coming together and being skillfully melded together as a team.  It is the story of the pain and heartache of the Depression Era American life, and the menace of Nazism rising in 1930s Germany.  It is also the story of the beauty and poetry of rowing, a sport that I have no background in.

The story focuses on one of the nine boys, Joe Rantz, and the difficulties he had growing up.  He lost his mother early.  His step-mother did not treat him well and eventually insisted that he live on his own beginning at age 15.  It is the story of rejection by a family, but yet he never gives up and he works hard to get a college education and to get a decent job.  It is also the story of Joe falling in love with his high school sweetheart and their eventual marriage.

Rowing is apparently a grueling sport.  The UW crew endured tenacious workouts in all kinds of weather in the Pacific Northwest.  They had their ups and downs.  They had their struggles.  But they were relentless in their quest and they eventually brought encouragement not only to their entire university, but to the entire city of Seattle and indeed, the whole country.  This is a superb and riveting tale.

The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis

By Alan Jacobs

This is a biography of C.S. Lewis, more of an intellectual biography than anything, but there is also plenty about his life. The book was published in 2006, but I was not aware of the book until I heard John Piper speaking about it in an old message. It sounded interesting, so I got it. It is superb. It is the best biography of C.S. Lewis that I have read so far. The writer is insightful, candid, honest. He clearly loves Lewis. He is not blind to his faults and weaknesses. He is obviously immersed in Lewis’ writings, including his voluminous letters. Though I have long been a fan of Lewis and I have read his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, as well as two other biographies, that by George Sayer and that by Alister McGrath, I learned much about Lewis that I did not know. Lewis was ever fascinating, and this is a splendid guide to understanding more about his life and thought.

Axiom

By Bill Hybels

This book is superb. Bill Hybels is one of the top leaders in the church in America. This book is a distillation of leadership wisdom, collected over three decades of doing ministry and leading people.

The book contains 76 leadership axioms – principles of leadership – in brief 1-3 page chapters. Some of the axioms are extremely valuable and nearly all of them are helpful.

If you are a leader in the cause of Christ, do yourself a favor and read this book.