The Conviction to Lead: 25 Principles for Leadership That Matters

By Albert Mohler

Change the Way You Think about Leadership

At the age of thirty-three, Dr. Albert Mohler became the youngest president in the 164-year history of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was the driving force behind the school's transformation into a thriving institution with an international reputation characterized by a passionate conviction for truth. In the process he became one of the most important and prominent Christian voices in contemporary culture.

What will it take to transform your leadership?

Effective leaders need more than administrative skills and vision. They need to be able to change the hearts and minds of those they lead. Leadership like this requires passionate beliefs that can stand up to pressure from without and within.

In this updated edition Dr. Mohler has added a new introduction and conclusion based on an additional 10 years of leadership. He has also completely rewritten the chapter "The Digital Leader." The Conviction to Lead will crystallize your convictions while revolutionizing your thinking, your decision-making, your communication, and ultimately, those you lead.

"Dr. Al Mohler has written a book that shakes us up and challenges our thinking.  The Conviction to Lead is poised to become one of the all-time classic works on Christian leadership."--JIM DALY, President - Focus on the Family

"Having rarely thought about leadership, I was hooked from the first chapter--to my complete surprise. This is a powerful book and gracefully written."--FRED BARNES, Executive Editor--The Weekly Standard

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9781493430154

Albert Mohler

Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr. (albertmohler.com) is the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In addition to his presidential duties, he is a professor of Christian theology and hosts two programs: "The Briefing," a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview; and "Thinking in Public," a series of conversations with the day's leading thinkers. Dr. Mohler has authored numerous books, including Tell Me the Storis of Jesus: The Explosive Power of Jesus' Parables; The Gathering Storm: Secularism, Culture, and the Church; The Apostles' Creed: Discovering Authentic Christianity in an Age of Counterfeit; The Prayer that Turns the World Upside Down; and a two-volume commentary on the book of Acts. He served as the General Editor of the Grace and Truth Study Bible. He also serves as the editor of WORLD Opinions, a popular blog and a regular commentary on moral, cultural, and theological issues. Dr. Mohler lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with his wife, Mary.

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© 2012 by R. Albert Mohler Jr.

Published by Bethany House Publishers

Minneapolis, Minnesota

www.bethanyhouse.com

Bethany House Publishers is a division of

Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Ebook edition created 2023

Ebook corrections 10.09.2023

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

This edition published 2023.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

ISBN 978-1-4934-3015-4

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2007

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Baker Publishing Group publications use paper produced from sustainable forestry practices and post-consumer waste whenever possible.

This book is lovingly dedicated to

MARY

Without whom the story would never be told,

And with whom the story is wonderful.

There are chapters yet to be written, and joys yet to be known.

Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life

that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in

life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 9:9

Contents

Cover

Half Title Page    3

Title Page    5

Copyright Page    6

Dedication    7

Introduction to the Second Edition    15

Reaffirming the Call, Understanding the Risks, Aiming for Faithfulness

1. The Conviction to Lead    25

True Leadership Starts With a Purpose, Not a Plan

2. Leading Is Believing    31

The Leader Is Driven by Beliefs That Lead to Action

3. Convictional Intelligence    39

The Leader Develops the Capacity to Think in Convictional Terms and Leads Followers to Do the Same

4. Leadership Is Narrative    47

The Leader Draws Followers Into a Story That Frames All of Life

5. Leaders Understand Worldviews    53

The Leader Shapes the Worldview of Followers

6. The Passion to Lead    61

Passionate Leaders Driven by Passionate Beliefs Draw Passionate Followers

7. Leaders Are Thinkers    69

Leadership Begins When You Learn to Think Like a Leader, and Leadership Is Not Achieved Until Followers Learn to Think as Well

8. Leaders Are Teachers    77

The Effective Leader Is the Master Teacher Within a Learning Organization

9. Leadership Is All About Character    85

Leaders Are Trusted When Their Lives Are in Alignment With Their Convictions

10. Leadership and Credibility    93

Leadership Happens When Character and Competence Are Combined

11. Leaders Are Communicators    101

The Leader’s Most Essential Skill Is the Ability to Communicate . . . Over and Over Again

12. Leaders Are Readers    109

When You Find a Leader, You Find a Reader, and for Good Reason

13. The Leader and Power    119

The Faithful Leader Knows That Power Is Never an End in Itself

14. Leaders Are Managers    127

Not All Managers Are Leaders, but All Leaders Are Managers

15. Leaders Are Speakers    135

Leaders Give Voice to Conviction and Mobilize Hearts and Minds With a Message

16. Leadership as Stewardship    145

Leaders Never Lead for Themselves; They Are Stewards in Service of Another

17. The Leader as Decision Maker    153

Organizations Expect Many Things From Leaders, Most of All the Trusted Ability to Decide

18. The Moral Virtues of Leadership    161

Leadership and Morality Are Inseparable

19. The Leader and the Media    169

The Medium Is Not the Message, You Are—and the Leader Must Know How to Deliver That Message

20. The Leader as Writer    179

The Written Word Remains One of the Most Powerful Ways to Lead, so Leaders Write

21. The Digital Leader    187

Leaders Understand That the Digital World Is a Real World—And a Dangerous World—a World in Which They Are Called to Lead

22. The Leader and Time    195

Leaders Know That Time Is the Great Equalizer of Humanity

23. Leadership That Endures    203

The Leader’s Goal Is Not Only to Last but to Endure

24. The Leader and Death    211

Mortality Frames the Horizon of Leadership

25. The Leader’s Legacy    219

In the End, the Leader’s Goal Is to Leave a Lasting Imprint

Ending With Conviction    227

Notes    229

About the Author    235

Back Cover    237

Introduction to the Second Edition

Reaffirming the Call, Understanding the Risks, Aiming for Faithfulness

Leadership has fallen on hard times. In just about every arena of life, leadership has suddenly become more complicated, more contentious, and more controversial. Furthermore, the world in which leadership takes place has become downright chaotic. A pandemic, economic turmoil, an unexpected war in Europe, growing conflict with China, the transformation of Silicon Valley, and the descent of social media into what seems like a swamp are just parts of the vastly changed landscape. Churches, denominations, and Christian institutions have been swept into the maelstrom, and wherever you look, leadership is vastly more difficult than it was just a few years ago.

So, welcome to the adventure. Consider this: If leadership is now more difficult, it is arguably more important than ever. Good leaders make even more of a difference when the going gets tough. There is no question that war and human crises call out the most gifted and committed leaders. This is not a season for the weakhearted and the mildly committed. Given the stakes, there is no opportunity for the tepid or the foolhardy.

There is one and only one thing necessary for leadership, and it is indispensable. That singular thing is conviction—an unshakable hold on certain commitments and definite beliefs that frames all of reality for the leader. It is the hope of instilling those same convictions in those we lead that keeps us in the leadership seat when others would quit and go play golf or find some safe place out of the fray.

Convictional leaders make a difference that outlives them and secure a gain that other leaders cannot even understand. Convictional leaders change how people think and what they believe, and that quality of leadership endures long after the leader has passed from the scene. The changed landscape of today’s leadership challenge does not diminish the need for convictional leadership—it affirms it as absolutely necessary. Why else would the leader commit to such an arduous task? Convictional leadership also brings the great promise that the convictions, once instilled, will be shared with others. Convictional leadership makes a difference at the deepest level, the level of truth and belief. Being a part of making that happen is worth a lifetime of leadership in the trenches.

So, how has the landscape of leadership changed?

What Happened to All the Leadership Conferences?

Some of you are old enough to remember when everyone was talking about leadership. Leadership conferences drew thousands, and an entire leadership industrial complex had emerged. Leadership articles appeared by the day and books almost as often. The word worked its way into just about every sector of the culture, and organizations sent their leaders (or those they hoped might grow into leaders) across the country to meetings and seminars and events. Church leaders and business leaders and titans of organizations and corporations showed up on stage and on screens for big events.

Well, that day is gone. Many of the leaders lost their luster, some by organizational failure and some by moral failure, and the celebrity leaders seemed to disappear. Furthermore, most of the books were, on closer inspection, highly inflated. They began as a good speech or a good article, but they did not have enough compelling material for a book. Others wrote the same book over and over again. That worked, at least for a while. Just putting the word leader or leadership in a book title was enough to drive interest. I don’t advise trying that now.

The leadership conferences and the stacks of new books disappeared (or declined) about the time that big changes reshaped the landscape. Simplistic approaches to the very real challenges of leadership looked pretty useless when things got really complex. Some of the leadership theories were like a high-carb diet. There was a lot of energy at first, but the calories burned up fast. Other theories and approaches worked for a while but couldn’t stand up when the chaos broke out. Conferences and seminars and books really can offer insights and tools and help the leader to think through the issues. But, when the big challenges hit, a few pithy principles don’t amount to much. Convictions do.

You Are Not Imagining the Chaos

Pressed for their most memorable crisis, my guess is that most of today’s leaders would quickly think of the COVID-19 pandemic. That event was unprecedented simply due to its scale. The virus did not just threaten parts of society and sectors of the economy. For a time, the entire society seemed to come to a halt. Schools, businesses, churches, restaurants, airports—all shut down, indefinitely. It was the biggest government-declared economic shutdown in human history. Airport runways instantly became aircraft parking lots. Classrooms stood empty. It was a disaster, but it was also a test.

Even now, the arguments continue. We do not even know the real cost of the shutdown, but it reshaped every major human endeavor. The absence of good leadership just increased the damage by a quantum factor. The organizations that survived had to think fast, work fast, and adjust fast. The pandemic and the shutdown spelled disaster and failure for many enterprises, large and small. Those with leaders who, knowing what the organization had to do, led in rapid change and survived. Some even thrived. But many were left in a wide wake of destruction.

Once again, conviction turned out to be central. Those organizations that were driven by conviction and passion found a way to get the job done. Pastors and church leaders found a way for congregations to meet. Educators found a way to teach students and to get them back into the classroom as fast as possible. Businesses went online and took groceries to the curb. Restaurants put tables outside and acted like outdoor dining was just the latest thing. Parents, with varying degrees of success, tried out teaching middle-school algebra. The rule was clear: Be quick or be dead.

But COVID was just part of the chaos. Businesses had been failing at an accelerated rate since the recession of 2008. COVID killed off many more. Most lastingly, it changed the way many organizations understood and operated their enterprises. Higher education, especially at the graduate level, will never be the same again. The same is true for many other sectors as well.

Conviction did shine through. Consider the church landscape. More conservative churches driven by clearer convictions got back into gatherings for corporate worship. Conservative schools and colleges went back to campuses before others (in some cases, long before others). But recent reports indicate that, in many more liberal denominations, there has been no bounce back from COVID. A very liberal church right down the street from us still acts as though the shutdown is seemingly permanent. My guess is that such an assumption will prove to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The thing to remember is that COVID does not stand alone as a symbol of chaos. We are living in an age of mass disruption. Karl Marx described disruptive change that would transform society. By the middle of the twentieth century, American economists would turn Marx’s communist theory to capitalist advantage, with economists like Joseph Schumpeter describing the gains to the economy through creative destruction. In my lifetime, this is represented by the destruction of the typewriter business by the emergence of the personal computer. Wagon makers had a hard time once the automobile arrived on the scene. Both the automobile and the personal computer led to vast advances and new opportunities.

But what happens when destruction is not creative? We are increasingly confronted with the bare fact of change. It is up to the leader to find a creative and constructive way through it, motivating and inspiring others to follow. Without conviction, the entire enterprise becomes aimless and unneeded. The convictional leader figures out how to guide and inspire an organization in the midst of rapid change. Otherwise, everything falls apart.

The Age of Cynicism

Human eras seem to have moods, and the current cultural mood is not friendly toward leadership. You can see it in the nation’s politics, where there is more than enough cause for cynicism. As the comedienne Lily Tomlin used to say, No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up. But true cynicism is incompatible with Christian truth and fatal for good leadership. A cynical leader is a failure about to happen. Leaders inspire by hope and lead by example and convictional vision. Cynicism kills both the spirit of leadership and its credibility.

But the entire culture is increasingly cynical, and challenges like the pandemic only fuel deeper cynicism. Sadly, this cynicism and suspicion is showing up even in many Christian contexts. Church members and others seem to suspect that something lies behind a leader’s words, plans, and concerns. Some of this is fueled by the media, far more by social media. I will deal with the transformation of social media in a later chapter. It is enough here to underline the reality that the leader, any leader, is now far more likely to face suspicion and cynical responses from those we are called to lead.

Thankfully, there is more to our experience than cynicism, and this is especially true when the leader has established stable credibility with those we lead. But the cynical attitude is just in the air we breathe these days and always close at hand. The Christian leader must name the problem for what it is, and make clear that an organization, and this is especially true of a congregation, can only operate if cynicism is kept in check and called out for what it is.

The Succession Crisis

One of the adages of old is that there is no success without a successor. That, by the way, has been the central obsession of hereditary monarchies throughout the ages. It must always be on the mind of leaders today, but the chaos of the season has not made the succession challenge any easier. Consider two very relevant examples from recent American corporate experience.

First, consider the Disney empire. Robert (Bob) Iger was chief executive officer of the Walt Disney Company from 2005 to 2020 and built a reputation as a high-performing CEO who expanded the iconic company’s value and reach. I count myself among the critics of Disney as a company, but Iger certainly met and exceeded shareholder expectations. He chose Bob Chapek as his successor, announcing that he would remain connected to the company as executive chairman. Chapek made decisions that Iger did not like, made deals and decisions that some questioned, and shareholders registered their own concerns. Late in 2022, Chapek was out and Iger was back. So much for that succession.

Something similar had taken place with the leadership transition at Proctor & Gamble, the giant consumer product manufacturer. A. G. Lafley was a titanic figure in American business, serving as CEO from 2000 to 2009. His chosen successor was Robert A. (Bob) McDonald, but the storyline was similar to Disney. By 2013, McDonald was out, and Lafley was back in as CEO, serving until 2015. Of course, this kind of pattern cannot last forever, particularly in the leadership suite.

In these two cases, a duo of the most powerful executives in America blew the succession and blew it so badly they had to return to the job themselves. Both situations are complicated to be sure, but the uncomplicated fact is that the succession failed.

But for the biggest argument about corporate succession issues, just bring up GE. Jack Welch emerged from incredibly tough internal competition to become CEO of General Electric in 1981. Welch had risen to the top only after climbing through GE’s notorious 29 levels of management and leadership. GE, which traces its roots all the way back to Thomas Edison, was one of the central pillars of American business. In 1981 it was, to cite one business historian, the largest diversified industrial company in the country. Jack Welch became the ultimate celebrity CEO, known for ruthless acquisitions and endless energy. He was the CEO of total commitment to GE, he multiplied GE’s net worth, and by 1999, Fortune had ranked Welch manager of the century. He had a lead role in choosing Jeff Immelt as his successor. Immelt would stay at the helm of GE for more than a decade, but Welch would declare that the succession was a failure. GE entered a nosedive and, within just two decades, would be reduced to a shadow of its former magnitude.

The succession failures in the business world fascinate us, but similar failures appear throughout other organizations, institutions, and churches. Clearly, our leadership development system is broken. This seems to be as true in the institutional sector as in corporations. By my reckoning, many congregations are doing measurably better than others in the development of leaders, and we need to ask why and how.

Clearly, experience and leadership culture do make a difference. Most of the titanic corporate leaders had passed through their own company’s leadership machine. Just think of General Electric’s 29 levels of advancement. That kind of structure, similar to what happens in the leadership ranks of the military, reinforces a common culture, rewards achievement, and weeds out those who, rank by rank, are not chosen for advancement. Corporate America seems to have forgotten what works. Chief executives often arrive at a major corporation with little knowledge of its culture and history. It is no wonder that so many fail. The same is common in higher education. As the average tenure in office goes down, effectiveness and institutional health go down with it.

Many churches are doing far better in the task of identifying, preparing, and deploying new leaders. They are raising up leaders and creating communities of leadership development where young men are encouraged, guided, and nurtured in church leadership, and both men and women are put to work in needed tasks. Networks of churches and pastors, both formal and informal, make a huge difference. Sustained efforts like this take