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Thrall, B., McNicol, B., and McElrath, K. (1999). The ascent of a leader: How ordinary relationships develop extraordinary character and influence. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
The authors describe the purpose of this book well in its introduction:
The Ascent of a Leader is about rising above what you can accomplish or become on your own. Whereas many leaders have been trained in how to reach their personal best, this book invites you to a place where talents, titles, politics, and diplomas alone cannot take you.
To rise above and beyond your individual best, you need a certain kind of environment in which to live and work. Such an environment would nurture the integration of heart and hand, work and deed, spirituality and everyday life. It would nourish your relationship with God and kindle your connections with those around you. This environment and the relationships it spawns would help you become more than a leader. They would help you become the kind of leader whom others want to follow.
This kind of leadership is possible because this kind of environment is possible. Indeed, it even exists today in a variety of communities and contexts. This book will help you cultivate such a climate. Wherever this environment infiltrates a culture, a sense of safety and protection pervades. Productivity and creativity blossom. Trust flourishes. And of great significance to leaders and followers everywhere, character matures.
The authors compare the "capacity ladder" with the "character ladder." The rungs of the capacity ladder are:
- Discover what I can do
- Develop my capacities
- Acquire title or position
- Attain individual potential
The rungs of the character ladder are:
- Trust God and others with me
- Choose vulnerability
- Align with truth
- Pay the price
- Discover my destiny
The uprights of the character ladder are "environments of grace" and "relationships of grace." As the leader ascends the character ladder, he or she goes through the processes of humility, submission, obedience, and suffering/maturity.
According to the authors, true success as a leader comes from integrating the two ladders, so that the rungs become:
- Trust God and others with me
- Discover what I can do with God and others
- Choose vulnerability
- Develop my true capacities in team
- Align with truth
- Acquire positions that match who I am
- Pay the price
- Attain God-designed potential
- Discover my destiny
Those who successfully integrate the capacity ladder and character ladder, and therefore ascend as a leader, become the types of leaders that others want to follow.
This book is an excellent reminder that character matters in the development of leaders. This should be required reading for aspiring Christian leaders.
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