Two important things to know.
1 – I am reading what I want now that I am done with seminary.
2 – I keep winning books online and getting the chance to share them with my sphere of influence. So you are reaping the harvest.
I encountered Steve Saccone’s book, Relational Intelligence, this way (via an online giveaway). I have heard Steve via the Mosaic Podcast and at the Awaken Conference. He serves in LA as a part of Mosaic, where he develops young leaders and some of my friends have worked under his leadership.
This is Steve’s first book and it speaks into an often unexplored area of leadership. Steve begins with the reality that many leaders accomplish their goals at the cost of their relationships with those they lead. A leader can show productivity, passion, imagination, and resourcefulness, but he or she can be relationally dumb in interacting with others. I have so many experiences with leaders in the church that knew the Bible well and had seminary degrees but lacked basic people skills that made their work difficult.
Some of my favorite nuggets from the book:
-In the past, authority and credibility were built on status, power or position, but in today’s world it’s built on power and trust. To be relationally intelligent, we must shift from a positional authority mind-set to the crucial mind-set of relational authority.
-Leaders treat people as a commodity. (OUCH!)
-When we love people well, we become the proof of God.
-Many leaders deflect responsibility and accountability instead of
absorbing it.
-We all have a little bit of Michael Scott in us.
-To be a person is to have a story to tell. (Isak Dinesen)
-If we want to be relational geniuses, we must learn to capitalize on moment’s when we see people’s values being lived out.
I could list so many great ideas here, but I think Steve makes his goal possible here by the content and context of this book. I think you and I can become more sensitive to our intuition and more aware of the people around us. I think we can develop new habits that are reflective of core values that remind us to value the people we are serving with, not just the task we are bound together in. In this process, “leaders realize that the more people they bring with them, the more powerful the effect they can have on changing the future and making the world a better place.”
As the African proverb states, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, bring others with you.”
Great book, Steve!
