The Leader's Handbook A Christian's Guide to Strategic Leadership

By Justin D. Loyd DSL

Leadership is never easy, and tomorrow's leaders will need to be the very best possible to deal with the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) realities they will awaken to every day. The COVID-19 pandemic has been called by some a black swan event--something extremely rare that only happens once and could not have been foreseen. Meteorology, however, tells us that those once-in-a-lifetime storms are beginning to happen once a decade as the historical patterns seem less relevant with each passing season. Similarly, leaders will need to be more strategic now than ever to deal with challenges ranging from diversity to AI to hybrid work environments. Their ability to synthesize their belief system, cultural experience, and worldview will be necessary as they operate in authenticity and humility at the head of their organizations and strive to leave a legacy and long-lasting impact.

This book offers support to leaders of all seasons and experience levels. No matter where you are in your leadership journey, it can help you with the next step. With an emphasis on blending the science and art of leadership, it provides tools and techniques to help deal with the most difficult leadership challenges. Part coaching manual and part field manual, it combines case studies, philosophy, motivation, and step-by-step instruction in a clear and concise, easy-to-read book that you will reference repeatedly. Pulling examples off the front page of today's new normal while expounding on biblical stories to demonstrate real-world truths, it seeks to draw the leader into a deeper relationship with God and strengthen their call to leadership.

This book is broken down into three sections: "The Past," "The Present," and "The Future." Each of which examines relevant topics on the leader's journey, enabling them to use it as a resource for a specific topic or to read it through for a holistic approach in their own journey. Today's Christian leader was put here on this earth for such a time as this, and this book seeks to provide strategic tools to help them be the leaders that change the world and usher in the kingdom of heaven.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798888518526

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Prologue

Introduction

How to Read This Book

What Is a Strategic Leader

Final Thoughts

The Past

Chapter 1: The Accidental Leader

Three Examples—Moses, Gideon, and Jeremiah

Moses

Gideon

Jeremiah

Leadership Objections

The Leader's Call

For the Journey

Leader's Prayer

Chapter 2: The Strategic Leader

The Leadership Risk

The Strategic Leader—Deconstructed

Purpose

WHY.os

Strategy

Prayer

Sabbath

Moses and Jethro—Exodus 18 (MSG)

The disciples share responsibility—Acts 6:1–6 (MSG)

Spiritual Disciplines

Actions

Inner Circle

Home Circle

Outer Circle

Final Thoughts

For the Journey

Leader's Prayer

The Present

Chapter 3: Defining Leadership

Transformational

Idealized Influence

Inspirational Motivation

Intellectual Stimulation

Individualized Consideration

Servant

Listening

Empathy

Healing

Awareness

Persuasion

Conceptualization

Foresight

Stewardship

Commitment to Growth of the People

Building Community

Adaptive

Technical Challenges

Adaptive Challenges

Technical and Adaptive Challenges

Get on the Balcony

Identify the Adaptive Challenge

Regulate Distress

Maintain Disciplined Attention

Give the Work back to the People

Protect Leadership Voices from Below

Authentic

The Art of Leadership

2023 and Beyond

Self-Awareness

Considerate of Others

A Servant to All

Stimulate and Motivate

Diversify or Die

Final Thoughts

For the Journey

Leader's Prayer

Chapter 4: Strategic Systems

What Are Systems

System Characteristics

Strategic Systems Thinking

Systems Thinking Language

Problem Statements

Variables

Behavior-over-Time (BOT) Graphs

Causal Loop Diagrams (CLD)

Levers

CLD Case Study—Elite Unit Talent Management

Final Thoughts

For the Journey

Leader's Prayer

Chapter 5: Strategic Coaching

Differences

Mentors

Trainers

Consultants

Coaches

Coaching versus Counseling

Strategic Coaching

Investing in a Coach

Final Thoughts

For the Journey

Leader's Prayer

Chapter 6: Strategic Foresight

What Is Foresight?

Foresight Tools

STEEPLE

Organizational Impact

Individual Impact

Horizon Scanning

Future's Wheel

Conclusion

For the Journey

Leader's Prayer

The Future

Chapter 7: Strategic Succession

Why Does Succession Matter?

King David and Solomon

The Tale of Two Bobs

Case Study—Disney

Succession Planning as Talent Management

Internal vs. External Hires

The Heart Side

Final Thoughts

For the Journey

Leader's Prayer

Chapter 8: Strategic People Investments

Strategic Work Environments

Remote Work Environments

Hybrid Work Environments

Strategic Mental Health

Strategic People Solutions

Final Thoughts

For the Journey

Leader's Prayer

Chapter 9: Strategic Ethical Investments

Leadership and Ethics

Current Ethical Challenges

Diversity and Women

Some Facts

The Ethical Investment

Ecological/Climate Change

Work-Life Balance

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Final Thoughts

For the Journey

Leader's Prayer

Chapter 10: A Strategic Journey

Little Practices = Big Practices

The Overnight Success Fallacy

Dealing with Disappointment

Final Thoughts

For the Journey

Leader's Prayer

About the Author

cover.jpg

The Leader's Handbook A Christian's Guide to Strategic Leadership

Justin D. Loyd, DSL

ISBN 979-8-88851-851-9 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88851-852-6 (Digital)

Copyright © 2023 Justin D. Loyd, DSL

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Dedication

To all those who are everyday leaders: You are the ones who have a light that may be hidden under a bush currently, but you know God has called you to let it shine. This book is written to help you climb to the top of your mountain and shine your light, and while doing so, you can save someone's life.

Keep climbing.

Dr. Justin Loyd

Prologue

Leadership is never easy, and tomorrow's leaders will need to be the very best possible to deal with the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) realities they will awaken to. The COVID-19 pandemic has been called by some a black swan event—something extremely rare that only happens once and could not have been foreseen. Meteorology, however, tells us that those once-in-a-lifetime storms are beginning to happen once a decade as the historical patterns seem less relevant with each passing season. Similarly, leaders will need to be more strategic now than ever to deal with challenges ranging from diversity to AI to hybrid work environments. Their ability to synthesize their belief system, cultural experience, and worldview will be necessary as they operate in authenticity and humility at the head of their organizations and strive to leave a legacy and long-lasting impact.

This book offers support to leaders of all seasons and experience levels. No matter where you are in your leadership journey, it can help you with the next step. With an emphasis on the science and art of leadership, it provides tools and techniques to help deal with the most difficult leadership challenges. Part coaching manual and part field manual, it combines case studies, philosophy, motivation, and step-by-step instruction in a clear and concise, easy-to-read book that you will reference repeatedly. Pulling examples off the front page of today's new normal while expounding on biblical stories to demonstrate real-world truths, it seeks to draw the leader into a deeper relationship with God and strengthen the call to leadership. Today's Christian leader was put here on this earth for such a time as this, and this book seeks to provide strategic tools to help them be the leaders that change the world and usher in the kingdom of heaven.

Introduction

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.

—John Quincy Adams

Leadership is not easy. Three years ago, a pandemic hit the world like it had not been experienced by most of today's leaders. Stories about Ebola, bird flu, and third world outbreaks have been on the news for years. Still, from late 2019 through this book's publishing, the entire world has shared a common struggle against a virus known as COVID-19. Now, with vaccines and boosters available in many parts of the world, leaders struggle to return to some type of normalcy. Organizations seek to find the path to financial profit and employee work-life balance as they rebuild their sphere of influence.

Meanwhile, communities struggle with vaccines, mask mandates, and economic adjustments as various parts of the world have responded to economic headwinds and downturns differently. Governments are striving to respond to the needs of their people, torn between compelling additional behavior in extremes such as Zero COVID policies to herd immunity, practiced in behavior if not in name. Additionally, the people charged with making these decisions, explaining or defending them, and helping navigate their people through them are today's leaders but maybe not tomorrow's.

Churches, nonprofits, charitable organizations, and many businesses have faced the challenges of closing their doors, partially opening them, and then fully reopening their buildings. They have found their people not returning, lower donations, and increased basic needs overwhelming the available resources. How does the person in charge manage their responsibilities to the company and their people in these times of stress and increased vulnerability, even as leaders declare the pandemic is over?¹

Even the military has struggled with this. In the US, military members were required to be COVID-19 vaccinated to maintain readiness. For two years, soldiers fought to get exemptions from the vaccine mandate, while many voluntarily or involuntarily were discharged. At the end of 2022, the US budget included a requirement to stop the mandatory vaccination and attempt to reenlist those who had been released or were in the process of being removed.² How does a leader lead the formation of soldiers who may feel they were considered to be disloyal by not getting a vaccine like their fellow soldiers did?

This book is a handbook to help you if you are a leader in today's moment. While I would like nothing more than to tell you to focus on inspiring those you lead, the reality is the world has the greatest need for leaders starting right now. Leadership today and into the future will be possibly the most challenging thing anyone will do. Leaders have always worn multiple hats. However, in 2023 and beyond, leaders will need to utilize hats, roles, skills, and the strength of their character to accomplish daily interactions at levels not seen before.

A leader must be able to coach, mentor, train, and counsel their followers in one-on-one scenarios and group settings. Leaders will need to help plan long-term goal accomplishment that is individually tailored to the person and fits the organization's overall direction. They will be called on to serve as a consultant, and project manager, engage in cross-cultural key leader engagements, and serve as the de facto voice of their organization to the external world. This will all be considered a day's work, and they will be expected to get up and do it again the next day.

In addition, the environment of a leader is constantly changing. In-person, online via teleconferencing, with and without AI, and a hybrid of all three are part of the promise of work tomorrow. Leaders will have to develop and provide resources to teams that are more diverse and come from a wider array of cultures than ever before. They will also be expected to support the company in social media interactions and personal behavior that is representative of the company culture. This may even include the car you drive and the type of bags you carry your groceries in. For many leaders, these requirements can get overwhelming, fast.

Thankfully, you do not have to do it alone. This book will include resources, tools, formulas, and practical hands-on ways to think about leadership and, more importantly, ways to implement it. Like many leadership books, there will be case studies and quotes. Unlike many leadership books, other leadership tools (not just the author's) will turn this into a handbook or toolbox to help you succeed.

How to Read This Book

This book is divided into three sections: Past, Present, and Future. You can read it from front to back. You can feel free to skip around and read the sections individually. Or if you have a pressing need, you can go to that chapter directly. Although each chapter is separate, they do reference and build on concepts discussed in other chapters. Where that occurs, it is referenced in the notes section. This enables the book to work together or separately. Each chapter strives to provide you with tools for reflection and also practical tools for implementation immediately.

The Past, chapters 1 and 2, begins with you. You were a leader of yourself long before you became a leader of others. You may not have realized it, but many of today's actions are tied to yesterday's behaviors. Think butterfly effect, but in your life.³ As a result of that experience, trauma, or interaction, you treat people a certain way and say things that affect your leadership. Leadership is too challenging to do without a purpose and a clear why, and together we will take a trip back to understand where it started and why you have this role.

The Present, chapters 3 through 6, deals with modern leadership tools. There are many, but each chapter deals with a tool specifically helpful to organizational leaders who want to strategically impact their teams. Chapter 3 deals with leadership and whether it is art, science, or both. It also introduces the role of ethics in leadership, which will be dealt with more fully in chapter 9.

Chapters 4, 5, and 6 deal with three tools today's leader can use to understand tomorrow. Chapter 4 details systems, helping one to understand the tools and levers available to bring about change. Chapter 5 looks at coaching. Coaching may be the most important tool a leader can have because, appropriately done, it frees you from the responsibility of making all the decisions and empowers your team to execute. Chapter 6 deals with foresight, which is as close to seeing into the future as possible. Because it is a method, you do not have to worry about stars being aligned, crystal balls, or horoscopes. You can reproduce the results on your own anytime.

The Future is about the things we know must happen. We know that people eventually leave the organization, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, and organizations should have a plan for that. Chapter 7 discusses succession, while chapter 8 focuses on the power of the environment and the challenges associated with the various generations a leader has to lead daily.

Chapter 9 looks at ethics more fully because leadership without ethics makes a person a dictator. Here we raise the importance of strategic ethical investments into today's problems. Setting the foundation today equips organizations for tomorrow. It also looks at future challenges for leaders who create defining moments that arise in equally right situations. Chapter 10 finishes with a look at some of the similarities leaders share on the journey of leadership.

Each chapter is meant to be a short reference that can provide insight, stimulate innovation, and be referenced as a starting point for solving problems. A case study or practical example is intended to provide a way to see it work in real life to stimulate ideas. Coaching questions to assist your journey are included at the end of each chapter. In addition, some chapters present step-by-step instructions to implement the technique or tool it discusses. Other chapters help frame the issues, offering a perspective for making change. Too often, leadership books talk about what and why but not the actual how. This book strives to balance both, providing practical and theoretical help for leaders.

My hope for this book is that it will become a dog-eared, highlighted, stained, underlined, and scribbled-on reference that you can return to whenever you need to. It does not contain all the leadership answers; honestly, any book saying it does is not telling the truth. What I hope it does for you is provide an updated reference point, post most of the COVID pandemic, and help you be the best leader you can be when the next pandemic or tomorrow's unexpected challenges arise.

Leadership is hard. If no one has told you. It can be a thankless job requiring much forward thinking and strategy. It also requires innovation, personal development, humility, vulnerability, and in the end, peace with this truth. You will make unpopular decisions that might not be appreciated or understood until you are gone. It could be asked why anyone would ever want to be a leader. That question alone prompts chapter 1, The Accidental Leader, and answering it is a part of why this book is a strategic leadership handbook.

What Is a Strategic Leader

Let's finish this chapter with a story on strategy. As an Army soldier, I was introduced to the idea of having a plan from my first days in basic training. Drill sergeants instructed us on the importance of standing a certain way—hands at my side or behind my back. Speaking a certain way—not at all or RGR, Drill Sergeant in a loud voice. And how to move a certain way—at full speed. Over the course of our twelve weeks of basic training and additional two months of One Station Unit Training (OSUT), we were developed into those Army leaders who took instructions, made plans, and gave the instructions necessary to accomplish the task.

Around week 4 of basic training, we began leadership positions. My drill sergeant walked by my bunk on a Friday afternoon and tossed the platoon sergeant rank on my bed. He did not toss squad leader ranks on the bunks of anyone else before he left for the day. For those who do not have military experience, think of the platoon sergeant as the CEO. The squad leaders are all the other necessary leaders for the organization's daily success—CFO, COO, CTO, HR manager, etc. So without those people in a large organization, the CEO would probably go insane trying to answer all the questions, manage all the problems, and move people from place to place.

I assume this without having been a CEO of a major corporation without help. I believe this because that weekend's experience of trying to move sixty trainees around the various locations, maintain accountability, deal with their issues, respond to drill sergeant requests, make fire rosters, and keep a level of sanity was borderline impossible. We had to march from the barracks to the chow hall and everywhere else that weekend, and I was responsible for marching them. I had to maintain the number of personnel at any given time. I had to know everyone's whereabouts and solve issues that arose, such as who got to use the washers first.

I had to liaison with the other leaders in other platoons to plan Monday's PT session and order of movements. Then come back and disseminate that information to everyone. By the time Monday arrived, I was more than ready to stop being the leader, but instead, I got assigned my four squad leaders and left in charge until the end of the week when we all changed over.

I later asked my drill sergeant why he had left me in charge that first weekend without help. He pointed out that I was older (twenty-four) than most of the soldiers but also