Leadership by the Good Book: Timeless Principles for Making an Eternal Impact

by David L. Steward, Brandon K. Mann (Primary Contributor)

Leadership by the Good Book will inspire, empower, and equip men and women to lead their businesses, their teams, their ministries, and even their families to greater heights and to have an eternal impact.




For David L. Steward, founder and chairman of World Wide Technology, his philosophy for building a successful business is simple and founded on a Biblical "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve" (Mark 10:45 NIV). As a business leader, he says, the first priority is to serve employees.




Together with Brandon K. Mann, these two leaders distill their wisdom in this field guide for leaders who want to bring respect, integrity, honesty, and trust to the workplace. Steward and Mann draw from personal experiences as well as share insights and examples of how God's Word has informed and influenced their leadership. Each chapter ends with a section titled Your Leadership Learn, Live, Lead, Legacy, which includes self-reflection questions, application of biblical principles, as well as a prayer.

Genres: Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

Published May 12, 2020

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Leadership by the Good Book, David and Brandon has written a book about everything we can learn from the Bible and how it can be applied to leadership. David founded the World Wide Technology (WWT) in 1990 and throughout the book he will explained how he build the company. It has made $12 billion in revenues and this company is the largest African American owned business in the world. The business is ranked one of the highest places to work for on Fortune and Glassdoor. It started with just five employees and has grown into thousands. He takes a different approach to his business and he decided for his company to become his ministry. He explained how they formed a Bible study in their office and they explored topics on how to apply God’s work on teamwork, leadership, and customer service. Brandon revealed how he served as the first executive director as the Biblical Business Training and this nonprofit ministry serves in reaching out and teaching God’s word and showing how to apply it to work. They also revealed how they met and how they formed a partnership together. In the book, some of the topics they covered was, “serve, love, imagine, invest, risk, trust”, and much more. Another helpful thing they shared was the “Leadership Flywheel”. They have created an equation that they use for helping other to develop their business and leadership. These included learn, live, lead, and legacy. Each chapter included discussion questions and a prayer.





One of my favorite topics was how as a company they personally serve others and give back to the community. They have even created a day of giving back. They pay their employees to work elsewhere and let them make a positive difference in their community. He explained how they try as a company to help their employees if they are going through a difficult time such as a financial problem, paying for a funeral, making a tuition payment, and helping pay a medical expense. In the book, they also showed research from America’s Research Group and they found out “61% of Americans trust a company who is active in a community.” They also looked at examples in scriptures and what we can learn about giving. One of the ones they explored was the passage of the Good Samaritan and we can apply a lot of this story to business and how we should conduct our lives.




I would this life changing book to anyone who is ready to learn more about leadership and they are wondering what God’s word has to say about it. I enjoyed how in depth they both went into the topics and how they described how they operate their own business and how they strive to make a difference in their employees lives and customers. I haven’t heard of this company before reading this book. I was deeply impressed with the WWT and how it is run and operated. I connected with how many positive features they give to their employees and I wish every company would do more of showing appreciation to their employees. I appreciated how open David was in opening up about his past and the challenges he faced in starting a business and how he also overcame racism and how God lead him into becoming a leader. I immensely believe if readers will take notes and if leaders will try and lead like Jesus would and apply the principles found in the Bible, we will see many positive changes in companies and the lives of employees.





"I received this book free from the publisher, Faithwords for my honest review.”

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leadership By The Good Book is an inspirational read about leadership. Mr. Steward and Mr. Mann write about the greatest and highest model of a leader: Jesus. The authors take you on the journey they started in creating their own company using Biblical principles as guidance. Biblical teachings are related to several business situations that may arise within an organization. Within these teachings are also the authors’ own examples of trials and lessons learned while creating the phenomenal business they have today.

The authors are transparent in illustrating their hearts for the Lord, their obedience to His Word, and in caring and serving their customers and employees. This is a great read for any leader who is creating an organization and a guide to investing in people.

Happy Reading!


Note: I have received a copy of this book from Hachette Books in exchange for an honest review. #SponsoredByFaithWords

[Csimplot Simplot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book!!!

[Fitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good biblical principles not just for business but for life. The stories are a little monotonous throughout the book.

[Latrice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for Christians who want to be leaders in the Marketplace.

[Jason Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Steward is one of my hometown St Louis' treasures--the founder, former CEO, and Chairman of the Board of Worldwide Technology. WWT enjoys the status of being the largest African American owned private company in the US, as well as the most successful graduate of the Small Business Administration's 8a program. So it goes without saying that Mr Steward is a man to whom any business leader would do well to listen.

His co-author for this book, Brandon Mann, is the founder and Chairman of the Board of Biblical Business Training (BBT), as well as as the Co-founder, managing partner, and CEO of Kingdom Capital, another collaboration with Mr. Steward that serves as a venture arm to invest in companies that will give an ERR--an eternal rate of return.

This book both tells the authors' stories and gives timeless biblical principles for leadership. There are thirty chapters organized around ten major principles:

1) Serve
2) Love
3) Imagine
4) Invest
5) Risk
6) Trust
7) Share
8) Follow
9) Grow
10) Celebrate

The principles are sound, the stories interesting, the foundations strong, and the results at WWT unassailable. An excellent resource on leadership.