The Benedictine Rule of Leadership: Classic Management Secrets You Can Use Today

The Benedictine Rule of Leadership: Classic Management Secrets You Can Use Today Craig S. Galbraith, Ph.D. and Oliver Galbraith, III, Ph.D Date: 01 February, 2004   —   $9.95   —   Book product page Rating:

Summary

Galbraith and Galbraith have taken the administration aspects of the Rule of St. Benedict and outlined them in the modern context that applies to business or ministry today.  The Rule of St. Benedict has provided the basic leadership text for thousands of organizations for almost fifteen centuries.  This rule has influenced the modern banking system, how we preserve ancient documents and the great medieval universities that serve as a model for universities here in the United States.  The Benedictine rule was used to design modern hospitals as well as the rules for treating noncombatants in war.

Assessment of the author’s thesis and presentation

The authors feel that the rule of Benedict was a masterpiece of leadership principals. This rule deals with the internal working of organizations, focusing on proper management, motivation and organization of daily work.   The rule outlines universal leadership principles that apply in all settings.  The authors concentrated on the organizational parts of the Rule and left out the spiritual development aspects.  The goal of this text was to “distill the basic principles of leadership ingrained in Benedict’s rule” and present them within a modern context.

The book is divided into three major parts:

I.The Rule of Fraternity, Lessons for designing your organization.

Thoughts on how to organize a team for success instead of failure.

II. The Rule of Group Chemistry, Lessons for molding your team.

                        How to develop a team that is cohesive and productive.

III. The Rule of Empowerment, Lessons for honing yourself.

                        How to lead with respect and develop new leaders.

A description of one new learning that I will incorporate into my ministry.

This book talks about Ethics because it is the job of the leader to balance the desires of individuals and the imperatives of organizational action.  On page 49-51 there is a section entitled, Ten Steps Toward an Ethics-Based Organization. These steps remind me of the Rick Warren book The Purpose Driven Life. A church should have ethics and know what those ethics are.  It is unfortunate that many churches forget their mission and the very reason they are in existence. According to the Rule, the ethical values should be made explicate within the body of mission and vision statements. Our church has a flowery meaningless mission statement and I hope to lead them in defining an accurate one.

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