The three-legged leadership stool is the image that drives David T. Olson’s book Discovering Your Leadership Style: The Power of Chemistry, Strategy and Spirituality (IVP). With these three legs of the stool, Olson shows how God can use your abilities and energy to turn you into a more effective leader. He offers solid, practical advice that can help you grow as a leader regardless of your style.
David T. Olson
Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2014
David Olson has created a three-legged stool in Discovering Your Leadership Style to illustrate the pillars of leadership style. The three legs include spirituality (loving God), chemistry (loving people) and strategy (loving the world). For each leg, an Examen exercise is provided to help readers evaluate their development. Following an explanation of each of these three legs, Olson offers six styles of leadership, including sacred, relational, inspirational, building, missional and imaginative. For each of these six styles, the author provides ten commandments and does an intriguing job overlaying spiritual gift mix, personality type (Myers-Briggs), strength domains and intelligences for each. If it is your desire to discover what type of leader you are, how you are meant to lead, or how to grow as a leader, this book will fulfill that desire.