Community Leadership

We've seen the news stories and heard the rumors. Maybe we ourselves have been hurt by a narcissistic church leader. It's easy to throw the term around and diagnose others from afar. But what is narcissism, really? And how does it infiltrate the church?

From Seth Godin, one of the world's most influential business thinkers and bestselling author of This is Marketing, comes an essential guide to thinking strategically in a complex, ever-changing world. This is Strategy is a modern classic that offers perspectives you'll find yourself returning to again and again. Rather than providing step-by-step formulas, Godin offers something more valuable: a new way of seeing and thinking about the challenges you face.

Do the leaders in your company work together towards a common goal? Do they trust one another? Are they accountable not only individually but as a team? These are just a few traits found in community-minded leaders, the kind of leaders essential to grow your organization. With his new book, Community of Leaders, New York Times bestselling author Vince Molinaro breaks down why having a strong leadership culture in your organization is critical, how to build it, and how to sustain it for long term success.

This book is a guide for leaders seeking to build a community, to strengthen the community they already have, or who may not think of themselves as community leaders but who are envisioning a group they hope to create. These communities can be formal, with official memberships and administrations, or informal, tied by shared values and commitments.

Have you experienced a moment when you realized your career wasn’t as secure or fulfilling as you thought it was going to be? Maybe you’ve thought about using your skills to start your own consulting business – but you haven’t had the confidence to go for it. Donald Miller has been consulting and coaching for over two decades. He’s consulted some of the world’s top brands including TOMS Shoes, TREK Bicycles and Tempur Sealy.

Every church, every organization, has experienced them: betrayal, deception, grumbling, envy, exclusion. They make life together difficult and prevent congregations from developing the skills, virtues, and practices they need to nurture sturdy, life-giving communities.

The power of uplift enables any organization to do more with less, beat the competition, and perform better than ever. Leaders who uplift their employees' passions, intellects, and commitments produce remarkable results. Based on original research from a seven-year global study, Uplifting Leadership reveals how leaders from diverse organizations inspired and uplifted their teams' performance.

First published in 2012, Startup Communities became a blueprint for what it takes to build a supportive entrepreneurial community. Now regarded as a classic, the "Boulder Thesis" created and popularized by Feld within the book generated enormous media attention nearly a decade ago.

Leadership in Community is a spiritual formation curriculum designed to provide a theological and practical foundation for Christian leaders committed to the mission of God in a vastly changing world. It engages new or seasoned missional leaders in the foundations of missiology, leadership theory, and leadership practices and tools. The curriculum explores three interrelated themes that build effective missional leadership: the missiology, community, and ethics of missional leadership.

In every position of power lies the potential for life-giving leadership or destructive corruption. Driven by sinful pride or opportunism, many people abuse their God-given influence, harming the ones they’re called to lead and contributing to an intense angst against authority. The answer to bad authority, however, is not no authority, but good authority—the kind that, according to Scripture, causes those under it to flourish. In this compelling guide from 9Marks, Jonathan Leeman shows that authority, done biblically, is not only good, but is essential to human flourishing.

In DBAFD, Milstein asserts that it’s incumbent upon leadership to promote and model strong, meaningful relationships throughout the community. At the basis of all relationships is trust, and while trust can be built through competency, reliability, and intimacy, it is easily destroyed when leaders’ raging egos are manifested too much of the time.

In this audiobook, Megan Hill answers a common question of churchgoers: What's so great about the church? With rich theology and practical direction, Hill encourages and equips both first-time visitors and regular members to delight in being a part of the local church - no matter how messy and ordinary it seems today. It is only when God's people begin to see one another as the Lord sees them that they will truly find a place to belong.

In 2001, when Jacqueline Novogratz founded Acumen, a global community of socially and environmentally responsible partners dedicated to changing the way the world tackles poverty, few had heard of impact investing - Acumen’s practice of “doing well by doing good”. Nineteen years later, there’s been a seismic shift in how corporate boards and other stakeholders evaluate businesses: Impact investment is not only morally defensible, but now also economically advantageous, even necessary.

What do we call each other? It’s a deceptively simple question, because how we refer to one another is how we understand our relationships. Not recognizing the power of our words makes it harder for us to trust and serve one another―to love one another. In More than Christians, Norman Hubbard explores how the early church used common words in uncommon ways to make sense of their relationships with God and with one another. His research and contextualization of the cultural background to the New Testament is as practical for today as it is urgent.

In When the Church Harms God's People, Langberg unveils what she has learned about how churches cause harm and why Christian communities often foster unhealthy leaders who end up hurting rather than protecting God's people. She also offers hope for the future, describing how churches can reflect Christ not just in what they teach but also in how they care for themselves and others.

The Art of Coaching Teams is the manual you never received when you signed on to lead a team. Being a great teacher is one thing, but leading a team, or team development, is an entirely different dynamic. Your successes are public, but so are your failures-and there's no specific rubric or curriculum to give you direction. Team development is an art form, and this book is your how-to guide to doing it effectively. You'll learn the administrative tasks that keep your team on track.

Improve the functioning of your organization. How would you rate the functioning of your organization? Are you completely happy with it or are there aspects that you would like to improve? We all want the time we dedicate to the organizations in which we participate to be as harmonious and productive as possible. Transformative Leadership for Community Organizations gives concrete ideas of how all members can contribute to that goal.

In today’s fast-paced environment, the speed at which communication travels and the resounding calls for police accountability demonstrate a need for purposeful communications embedded in a strategic mindset. When done right, strategic communication can increase transparency, build trust, and encourage active community participation. Chief Cook has distilled over thirty years of experience into timely lessons filled with practical solutions you can begin implementing right away.

What if you discovered a blueprint that could grow your brand’s reputation and loyalty, dramatically reduce customer-service issues, produce content and technology, and cement a powerful, lasting relationship between you and your customers? Harness the power of communities, both inside and outside of your organization, to drive value and revenue, activate your employees’ and customers’ talents, and create a highly engaged, loyal customer base.

In 2015, Inc. magazine recognized Noonday Collection as one of the fastest-growing companies in America. Years earlier, as Jessica Honegger stood at a pawn-shop counter in Austin, Texas, and handed over her grandmother's gold jewelry, her goal was personal: to fund the adoption of her Rwandan son by selling artisan-made jewelry. This first step launched an unexpected side-hustle that would grow into Noonday Collection. She teamed up with her first artisan partner, Jalia, a Ugandan jewelry maker and saw the meaningful impact Noonday brought to Jalia's community.