Book Review Assignment

Leadership and Management training with Mr Lee Chee Loi

By Benjamin Yap

Relational Leadership: A Biblical Model for Influence and Service. Walter C. Wright.
InterVarsity Press, 2009. 275 pp.

The subtitle of the book aptly describes the author’s intention throughout this book. The
author expounds, primarily, a portion of scripture throughout the book and supports his
observations with ample anecdotes of experiences and quotes gleaned from books he had
previously read.

The main portion scripture in question is from the epistle of Jude, verses 12 and 13. Through
Wright’s exegesis of this scripture, 5 principles were drawn out which he explained at length
in 5 chapters. However, one chapter prior to these 5 is devoted to laying the foundations on
the theology of servant leadership.

The author argues, successfully, that the kind of leader one becomes is predicated on his/her
values and belief system, and those values are hinged upon the God s/he choose to follow.1
In grounding leadership in God, it inevitably leads to the person of Jesus Christ 2 and thus the
main idea which I would like to highlight in this review: that leadership is a relationship of
influence.3

A new paradigm: influence

The author introduces a new paradigm on leadership: that all of leadership hangs on the
concept of influence in the context of relationships.4 My prior understanding of leadership is
that it is merely a role where one is delegated or slips into by virtue of necessity. And because
I viewed it as a role, it is compartmentalised in my mind and I slip out of it as easily as I slip
into it. Not unlike putting on a hat.

Leadership as a role
Furthermore, the concept of a ‘role’ without the foundation of a relationship makes
legitimate qualities of leadership such as authority and various influence types5 seem
offensive. This is most easily observed in my prior experience in leading a team of teachers in
the Upper Secondary department of Dignity for Children Foundation.

With this flawed concept in mind, I intended, with good intentions, to influence a team of
teachers to produce quality lessons so that our students may benefit from our work. And as
in any work environment, there were moments where work was not completed and I held
them accountable to it. However, because my relationship with them was, at best, superficial
the correction was not taken too kindly. This led to incidents which further affected our
relationship as colleagues.

1
Pg 31, Relational Leadership, 2009
2
Pg 32, Relational Leadership, 2009
3
Pg 43, Relational Leadership, 2009
4
‘referential power’, pg 50, Relational Leadership, 2009
5
Gary Yukl’s influence types, pg 46, Relational Leadership, 2009
In hindsight, I should have spent more time building those relationships and getting to know
them from multiple perspectives6 so that I could ‘anticipate crises and able to give more
effective support’7 to my team. This would have helped mitigate or even remove certain
prejudices which I held on to regarding each team member. My failure in building a
relationship with my team resulted in my failure to influence them, which is the primary way
to inspire action as put forward by the author throughout the book.

Leadership as productivity
I also thought that leadership is primarily concerned with the accomplishment of tasks; i.e. a
leader is one who is productive: with my Executive Director, Petrina being a prime example.
It was once communicated to me that ‘a leader should be task-oriented’ and ‘need to be living
in the future’ as far as tasks and calendar goes. I have strived and failed at this countless times.
Subsequently, I started thinking that I am not ‘leadership material’.

Two colleagues of mine: Rebecca and Natalie are people who are given leadership roles
because they have proven themselves productive by being task-oriented. Rightfully so, I
thought. However, the author puts forward a slightly different emphasis on what is required
of a leader. Not productivity per se: but influence. Productivity is a given, but it takes influence
for someone to be able to inspire action in others. It takes influence to be able to rally a
demotivated team against an insurmountable challenge. It takes influence to be able to cast
a vision for an organisation and excite a chorus of yeses to an impossible dream through a
compelling scenario.8

Otherwise, one risks being merely like a college professor; having all the right answers and
knowhow but failing to influence any student. To support this, I can only speak from my
experience of working under a productive, task-oriented supervisor. Although she tried very
much to build her relationship with the team, she was not very successful in building a strong
bond with the team. Consequently, ill feelings began piling up against her when accountability
is demanded and eventually resulted in a rather toxic environment to work in (however, in all
fairness, there were one or two challenging personalities she had to manage in the
department and that added to the problem).

Productivity and ‘task-oriented-ness’ alone is not enough to lead a team. It is excellent for
managing a team, but leading requires a different quality: influence.

Leadership as influence
With those two illustrations, I reflect on Jesus as an example of a leader with influence. He
lead not with a display of miracle and the splendid, but with a relationship built upon a
hopeful articulation of vision and strength of character. Having grounded his life in a study of
the scriptures from a very young age, he lived a blameless life as a carpenter. When he began
preaching in Capernaum after being baptised by John, he inspired a vision for a better future
in the hearts of his listeners: the Kingdom of Heaven.9

6
‘Multiplexity’, pg 33, The Relational Manager, 2009
7
Pg 33, The Relational Manager, 2009
8
Pg 123, Relational Leadership, 2009
9
Matthew 4:17
Soon after, he began calling his disciples unto him; beginning with Peter and Andrew. Having
heard about Jesus, and possibly sat through one of his sermons in the synagogues, they left
everything at the drop of a hat and followed Jesus. It is important to realise here that they
willingly chose to follow Jesus at his beckoning. I believe this is as what Walter Wright said,
‘Leadership is a relationship of influence with a purpose, perceived by those who choose to
follow.’10

Jesus influenced the disciples by giving them dignity, hope and meaning to their existence.11
I think the author aptly described what Jesus accomplished with the apostles in this
paragraph:

This is empowering leadership: one person using his or her position in the
marketplace to serve and nurture another, one person empowering a
follower to accept responsibility for the rest of his life, one person seeing in
another the potential to be more than is visible today and committing himself
or herself to the development of that potential (emphasis mine).12

A relational leader does not only leverage on his relationship to accomplish tasks but also
takes the opportunity to build up his team with the intention of wanting them to be all that
God intends for them to be.

Conclusion
It is crucial to note that there is nothing inherently wrong with viewing leadership as a role or
being measured by productivity. However, without the foundation of a caring relationship
that is grounded in scriptures, the two is not effective in influencing others. It is in the context
of a nourishing and caring relationship where team members can be inspired to action
towards a common goal through the strength of character of a leader. In such a circumstance,
one chooses to be a follower regardless of the direction or purpose.13 Thus organisations
invest considerable resources on team building excursions and training to encourage team
members to bond.

On the other hand, the danger of this is when one views a relational approach to leadership
as a means to emotionally manipulate a person on the pretext of friendship. This is
stereotypical of corporate environment where it is a ‘dog eat dog’ world. Whether or not
accurate, the temptation is real. Thus the need for the relational leader to be centered in a
relationship with Jesus Christ. While Jesus called the disciples to accomplish the will of the
Heavenly Father, he did not coerce or manipulate them into action. In fact, they were free to
desert him (as many did at one point when Jesus preached on being the bread of life) and
betray him. God values our freedom as much as he does our love. A relational leader would
also value the freedom of a team member to ‘do as he please’ while relying on the strength

10
Pg 26, Relational Leadership, 2009
11
Pg 44, Relational Leadership, 2009
12
Pg 65, Relational Leadership, 2009
13
Pg 45, Relational Leadership, 2009
of the relationship to influence transformation and action in an organisation. Borrowing from
George MacDonald14: It is the slow and unencouraging way of the Lord.

14
Pg 77, As quoted by Phillip Yancey in The Jesus I Never Knew, 1995
Bibliography

Wright W.C. Relational Leadership: A Biblical Model for Influence and Service. InterVarsity
Press: 2009.

Schluter M. & Lee D.J. The Relational Manager: Transform Your Workplace and Your Life.
Great Britain: Lion Hudson, 2009 (first edition).

Yancey P. The Jesus I Never Knew. Malaysia: PVM Harvest Resources, 1995.