Opportunity Leadership
Stop Planning and Start Getting Results
"Opportunity Leadership is grounded in waiting in anticipation for God-given opportunities to develop that mesh seamlessly with our mission, gifting, and capacity—propelling us to destinations that are heavenly ordained.
As a result, we become leaders who hone traits that enable us to become highly sensitive to the wind of God and create an organizational culture that allows us to respond to new opportunities with expediency, adeptness, and energy."
Table of Contents
Part 1: Opportunity Leadership Changes Everything
A New Model for Ministry Leadership
Are You Simply Going Through the Motions?
The Big Idea—Sailboats Versus Powerboats
Sea Legs or Seasickness
Making the Transition to Opportunity Leadership
Part 2: 6 Talents of Opportunity Leaders
Leading Without a Plan Is the Plan
Staying in Your Lane
Making Decisions That Don’t Just Solve the Problem
Getting Out in Front
Practicing Future-Focused Evaluation
Emulating Baseball Managers Instead of Football Coaches
Part 3: 6 Tendencies of Opportunity Leadership Ministries
Embracing Speed
Getting Comfortable with Risk
Flexing for Implementation
Learning to Love Roadblocks
Realigning Focus
Being Like Jesus, Really!
Part 4: Prepare To Be Shocked
I Never Planned . . .
Epilogue: Opportunity Leadership In Action
This is an incredibly important book that flies in the face of almost everything you’ve been taught about the importance of strategic planning. Roger Parrott wants you to forget for a moment all of the tedious and all-consuming planning that leadership gurus want you to do, and cut yourself loose to see and embrace the opportunities right in front of you. It has been said that sometimes “we can’t see the forest for the trees”—but it is also true that sometimes we can’t see the most important “trees” because we are obsessed by the forest. As the CEO of multiple organizations over my career, I can tell you that virtually all of my “breakthrough moments” had little to do with strategic planning and everything to do with looking, listening, and being available to the opportunities God had placed right in front of me. Do yourself a favor and read Opportunity Leadership.
Richard Stearns
President Emeritus, World Vision US
author of Lead Like It Matters to God and The Hole in Our Gospel
"Where do you expect the university to be in five or ten years?” is a question I am asked regularly. That’s a very natural question to ask of any CEO because society expects leaders to have a “vision” for the future. And, we’ve been schooled to believe that we must lavishly articulate that vision in measurable outcomes.
When asked that question, my response is—and this is the absolute blunt answer which I’ve even shared in television news interviews—“I have no idea. But I do know that the best plan we could come up with around conference tables pales in comparison to the plan that God has in store for us.”
