Top Quotes from Mohler's "The Conviction To Lead"

Eric McKiddie gives his favorite quotes from Dr. Mohler's The Conviction To Lead.

1. The importance of leading from conviction

The leadership that really matters is all about conviction. The leader is rightly concerned with everything from strategy and vision to teambuilding, motivation, and delegation, but at the center of the true leader’s heart and mind you will find convictions that drive and determine everything else (p. 24).

2. On the leader’s intuition

Particularly if your decisions are about people, you will often have to become less rational and more intuitional (p. 35).

3. How to draw followers

Passionate leaders driven by passionate beliefs draw passionate followers (p. 51).

4. Communicate constantly

The effective leader communicates so pervasively that it seems second nature, and so intentionally that no strategic opportunity is ever surrendered (p. 91).

5. Leadership and power

There is no escaping power, and there is no way to lead without it. The real issue is what kind of power a leader should possess and how that power is exercised (p. 107).

6. On indecisiveness

Indecisiveness is one of history’s greatest leadership killers (p. 142).

7. Use humor!

We are not called to be comedians or humorists, but the effective leader knows that generous, self-deprecating humor is a gift that leaders can give to the people they serve (p. 150).

8. Use words effectively

Average leaders are satisfied to use average words in an average way. Effective leaders, those who aspire to lasting and extended influence, will learn to use words as arrows fired from a bow, carefully chosen and aimed in order to accomplish a purpose (p. 170).

9. Why you need to lead through an online presence

If you are not present on the Internet, you simply do not exist, as far as anyone under thirty is concerned…[the digital world] is one of the most important arenas of leadership our generation will ever experience. If you are satisfied to lead from the past, stay out of the digital world. If you want to influence the future, brace yourself and get in the fast lane (p. 177). 

10. How to leave a legacy

The wise leader does not try to perpetuate matters of style and taste, or even plans and programs. The leader who aims at a legacy aims to perpetuate conviction (pp. 201-202).