Becoming a Mentor Leader

History making NFL coach Tony Dungy has given us an excellent leadership book with The Mentor Leader: Secrets to Building People and Teams That Win Consistently. I read this book with a group of leaders and found it to be very useful and insightful.

The key advantage of this book is Coach Dungy’s ability to speak from a coach’s perspective in clear ways that can be easily applied. He uses stories to illustrate key points drawn from his experience as a coach. These stories give insights into the real wins and losses that ultimately led to his success in 2007 becoming the first African American head coach to win the Super Bowl.

At the same time, Coach Dungy covers all the bases of important leadership principles. His specific emphasis is on how to mentor others in order to raise up more leaders. A mentor leader is someone who consistently adds value to other’s lives in order to make their life better.

Each leadership principle is solidified with a biblical foundation that points to how to successfully and consistently add value to people’s lives. This is a key feature that sets this book apart from the so many other leadership books available today. Real leadership isn’t about a title or position. Instead, it’s about the heart of a leader who wants to see the people around him succeed.

Some key highlights are:

• It isn’t a structured program that necessarily makes the difference, rather, the difference is made moment by moment by leaders who care for others.
• Mentor leaders understand that if we lose sight of people, we lose sight of the very purpose of leadership.
• For the mentor leader, life is about the destination and the journey.
• If you’re a leader, people’s lives should be better because of the influence you’ve had along the way.
• Mentor leadership focuses on building people up, building significance into their lives, and building leaders for the next generation.

The end of each chapter includes practical application questions in the form of action steps you can think through on your own or discuss with a small group.

Whether or not you’re a football fan, if you’re interested in growing to your potential as a leader with influence, you’ll enjoy and benefit from this book. If you would like to order The Mentor Leader from Amazon, click here.