The important contribution my friend Steve Brown is making in Leading Me is that he shares what you can do, with God’s help, if you actually want to get better at leading yourself. From his life and his experience mentoring hundred of leaders, Steve shares an inventory of actionable key practices every leader should take stock of. Leading Me can help us all, from veteran to newbie leaders, improve in how to better lead ourselves.”
Rev. Dr. Carson Pue, Author of Mentoring Leaders: Wisdom for Developing Calling, Character, and Competency and Mentoring Wisdom: Living and Leading Well
“In the midst of a plethora of leadership theories, Steve illuminates with refreshing clarity the most vital element of all—the ability to lead one’s self. I’m impressed with the very practical ideas that every leader can begin implementing tomorrow morning!”
Don Simmonds, Chairman, Crossroads Media Group
“In Leading Me, Dr. Steve Brown has supplied leaders with a resource that is both personal and practical. This interactive book challenges the reader to truly go deep and explore all aspects of life, not simply the parts that are ‘above the waterline.’ Steve’s transparency in sharing his own journey with self-leadership coupled with his experience committed to training godly leaders will provide you with a wealth of helpful insights.”
Major Jim LaBossiere, Divisional Commander, The Salvation Army, Northern New England Division
“In Leading Me, Steve Brown tackles every leader’s largest challenge, leading the one who ‘looks back in the mirror.’ This book is built on years of working closely with key leaders from around the world. Steve has helped me through many of these key practices and they have been both challenging and liberating. Profound, practical, God-focused. I would highly recommend reading and even more importantly, using Leading Me.”
Rev. Dr. David Overholt, Pastor of Church on the Rock and head of Youth and Family Department at Tyndale Seminary
Dedication
To Arrow leaders across North America and around the world who seek to be led more by, to lead more like and to lead more to Jesus each and every day.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Section 1
Chapter 1—The Starting Place
Chapter 2—A Dashboard for Life
Section 2—8 Key Practices for Leading Me
Chapter 3—Key Practice #1: Growing Your Vision
Chapter 4—Key Practice #2: Unhooking Bungee Cords
Chapter 5—Key Practice #3: Keeping Connected
Chapter 6—Key Practice #4: Taking Care of Me, Part 1
Chapter 7—Key Practice #4: Taking Care of Me, Part 2
Chapter 8—Stewardship and Shalom
Chapter 9—Key Practice #5: Leveraging Your Impact
Chapter 10—Key Practice #6: Managing Your Time
Chapter 11—Key Practice #7: Dealing with Dandelions
Chapter 12—Key Practice #8: Finding Traction Through
Training
Chapter 13—Running with Perseverance
Acknowledgments
Appendix 1—Steps to Crafting a Personal Vision Statement
Endnotes
About the Author
About Arrow Leadership
Foreword
My father kept on a shelf in the garage a wood crate filled with wonders. It was his catch-all for everything: antique door knobs, spools of every size, springs and coils and latches and hinges and ball bearings and sink traps and all manner of electrical paraphernalia. It was my favorite thing. I couldn’t have been happier if I’d been handed a casket of rare jewels. Indeed, what would I do with rare jewels? But this—anything and everything I could ever need was here. Anything I was building or fixing—a bike, go-cart, rocket ship, time machine, bow and arrow, walkie-talkie set—that box had the part.
Only it took some sifting. All those treasures were piled arm’s deep and all mixed together. Sometimes, even knowing that the microscopic screw I needed to fix my sunglasses was in there somewhere, I gave up trying.
That’s a long and strange way to introduce Dr. Steve Brown’s book, Leading Me. Except this: imagine a treasure box for leaders, with everything you could possibly need in it and the whole thing beautifully organized! That’s this book.
It has several features that make it outstanding.
For one, it’s all here. Virtually everything you need to figure out how to flourish in your calling—from good health to a deep soul to rich relationships to loving well and ending well and much else besides—is clearly, logically and winsomely laid out in these pages, bolstered with the latest research and illustrated with vivid story-telling.
For another, it’s unfailingly practical. Dr. Brown cites a wealth of studies and statistics, but not a bit of it is pedantic or academic. Every chapter, every paragraph, every sentence, every word drives toward a single goal: to help you see yourself clearly and lead yourself effectively.
And for yet another, it’s so well told. Dr. Brown is funny, candid, insightful and above all, clear. There is not one phrase in this book that you’ll need to read again to try to decipher, though hundreds of phrases you’ll want to read again and again, just to savour. (And his stories will make great sermon illustrations and are left right there on the table as though he wants you to steal them.)
And lastly (though I could go on), it’s so very honest. The whole thing has the effect of a seasoned combat veteran gathering his troops before a big battle to tell them, lovingly but frankly, the unvarnished truth about what lies ahead and what it’s going to take to survive. Dr. Brown pulls no punches and blows no smoke. The man has been there—he’s a great leader and he leads leaders—and now he has distilled all his hard-won wisdom into these pages.
Simply put, anyone who reads Leading Me and puts its wisdom into practice will go the distance.
I wish I had this book 25 years ago.
I’m grateful I have it now.
And I’m grateful that you have it, too. Well, go on. Open the box. See what wonders are inside. It’s better than a casket of rare jewels. Indeed, it might just save your life.
Mark Buchanan
Author of Your Church is Too Safe
Introduction
Harold “Bus” Brown was my grandfather. He loved to tell stories. He and my grandmother lived in the same home for more than sixty-five years. Over that time, my grandfather collected a lot of stories and shared them with anyone who would listen. My favorite is about the tree in their backyard.
Each summer during my visit to their home my grandpa would take me to the backyard and tell the story. He would point to a hulking poplar tree that towered over the entire backyard and ask, “You see that tree?” The tree was impossible to miss. I’m not sure how tall it was, but from my perspective as a young boy it was beyond huge. I think that was Grandpa’s point.
Then the story began. “When your grandmother and I first moved in, we could have pulled that tree out with just two fingers. Back then it was just a sapling.” It was almost impossible for me to imagine that not too long before this great tree had been so small and fragile.
Grandpa would then point out the lumps and bumps that bulged under the grass across the back lawn. Whatever was growing underneath the lawn had even split the pavement across the road from their home. Grandpa would share that these lumps and bumps were actually the tree’s roots spreading out, seeking nutrients and providing