Upside-Down Leadership: Rethinking Influence and Success Paperback – Illustrated, June 5, 2012

The way we usually measure success is by charts that show an upward trend or by membership increasing or by building larger buildings. But author Taylor Field suggests in his book Upside Down Leadership that perhaps our measures have been wrong - or upside down. Perhaps we should look at how Jesus led - by choosing the underdogs, the misfits, as His disciples instead of choosing the honor students from the Rabbinical school; by having dinner with the down and outs, by touching people deemed "unclean" by society. Perhaps WE need to hang out with the "wrong" people sometimes and measure our success, not by numbers, but by changed lives- even if we don't see any immediate reward. This was a very thought-provoking, insightful book. Highly recommended for any leader, especially church leaders!

Mr. Field really throws you off at the beginning. He uses historical figures and thoughts from well-renowned thinkers to uproot many of the "leadership principles" that I learned in business school. It was not until half way through the book that I really started to get it. Mr. Field supplements these well-known leadership principles with Biblical "anti-principals" that open our eyes to the tensions that exists between principles and anti-principles, both of which can be equally true. For example, we are taught to "think big," but Mr. Field reminds us that there are times when we need to "think small." He supports this idea with countless examples of how it was thinking small that yielded profound results, even if it happened over decades or generations.I highly recommend this book. It is an excellent read and is guaranteed to provoke you to thought.

Thank you for opening my eyes. In this book l found out that serving is not a cookie cutter way ,always doing the same thing and getting the same results. I know know that it's time to stop fighting the urge to be different, God is showing me what to do, regardless of how others tell me what will and won't work. Thank you again for the changes that are coming.

I have known Taylor Field for many years and worked alongside him for 16 years. He lives what this book is all about and "it works"!!!! Biblical principals to live by no matter what "role" you have in your life. It is well worth the read.

What a great book for living the life God has planned for us!

I received this book as an uncorrected, unformatted digital proof, so some of what I say here, will probably be reflective of that format, and I'll assume many of the issues I came across due to grammatical, typographical, and clarity concerns have been resolved. Unfortunately, the nature of publishing these days proves that assumption inaccurate but still, I'll offer the benefit of the doubt and try to overlook that aspect of the book.Now, onto the content itself... Upside-Down Leadership attempts to apply the counter-cultural teachings of Jesus to leadership principles. There are a number of quotable points throughout the book that I highlighted in my Kindle and the overarching thesis is hard to argue with from a Christian perspective. The truth of the matter is that Jesus did teach a different method, ultimately a different perspective on life. Success in God's Kingdom means something entirely different than success in this world.Field's principles do read as counterintuitive, especially against the backdrop of most modern leadership guidelines. For instance, "Think inside the box" and "Get off the cutting edge," two concepts that run full in the face of conventional wisdom. In a world that praises constant motion, continuous grasping for the next rung, and the endless search for the "next big thing," Field encourages us to stand still, take a deep breathe, and be content with what we have. All of which, I agree with, but these principles only make sense in the context of eternity.Overall, I largely agree with the book's thesis, though I will caution, it's presented more conceptually than practically. And, at least my version took some significant concentration to bridge the gaps where editing was absent (at times, it felt as though I was <em>reading</em> the book upside down), so I imagine some of that remains. It's still a good book to read and ponder.-from trudatmusic[dot]com[slash]raw