Laurie Beth Jones - Jesus, CEO (25th Anniversary Edition): Using Ancient Wisdom for Visionary Leadership

Perhaps you have heard about the Alpha management stylethe one based on the masculine, authoritative use of power.

Perhaps you have also heard about the Beta management stylethe one based on the feminine, cooperative use of power.

In this book I will introduce what I call the Omega management stylethe style that incorporates and enhances them both.

Jesus, CEO: Using Ancient Wisdom for Visionary Leadership is based on three simple premises:

1. One person trained twelve human beings who went on to so influence the world that time itself is now recorded as being before ( B.C. ) or after ( A.D. ) his existence.

2. This person worked with a staff that was totally human and not divine a staff that in spite of illiteracy, questionable backgrounds, fractious feelings, and momentary cowardice went on to accomplish the tasks he trained them to do. They did this for one main reasonto be with him again.

3. His leadership style was intended to be put to use by any of us.

The idea of Jesus as a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) came to me twenty years ago when I was living in the mountains. It struck me at the time that Jesus had many feminine values in management and that his approach with his staff often ran counter to other management styles and techniques I had both witnessed and experienced. As I started my own advertising agency ten years later and began to encounter businesses on many different levels, I was dismayed to find countless homeless people in corporations. I too often saw invaluable human energy and intelligence untapped and underutilized. I saw multiple examples of corporate abuse, neglect, and violence. I decided to write this book to help turn the tide and to empower people in all layers of leadership to re-view the divine excellence in themselves and in those they serve.

I also found it disturbing that nearly all leadership and management books are written by men. Yet women are the fastest-growing segment of business owners in this country. USA Today recently reported that soon women will employ more people than all the Fortune 500 companies combined. Similarly, nearly 80 percent of all businesses in the United States employ twenty people or less. Clearly, small groups of people led by innovative leaders and managers make up the strength, and hope, of this nation. With the business world changing so rapidly and so drastically, it seemed to me that we need creative and innovative role models now more than ever before. I believe the world is crying out for leaders whose goals are to build up, not to tear down; to nurture, not to exploit; to undergird and enhance, rather than to dominate. Jesus as a leader struck me as the noblest of them all.

I believe Jesus Omega management style incorporates and transcends the best of the Alpha (masculine) and Beta (feminine) leadership styles, because by harnessing spiritual energy, each of us, female and male, can become the empowered leaders that the next millennium will require.

To those who are looking for tips on how to make a fast buck or get a quick management fix, this book will have little or no relevance. I am searching for people who are willing to plant the fields that lead to the harvest and who recognize that the workplace, where most of us spend the greater part of our lives, is indeed very holy and fertile ground.