The Wise Leader
Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2024
By Uli Chi
WHO: Uli Chi, board chair of the Virginia Mason Franciscan Health System; vice chair and senior fellow at the De Pree Center; and a fellow at the Center for Faithful Business at Seattle Pacific University. He also serves on the faculty for Regent College’s MA in leadership, theology and society.
HE SAYS: “If the fear of the Lord leads to wisdom, what might that wisdom look like?”
THE BIG IDEA: This book illuminates the nature of wisdom as fundamentally relational and other-centered.
THE PROGRESSION: Chapters 1 and 2 explore key insights about wisdom from biblical perspectives and how those insights interact with other cultures and traditions. In Chapters 3 through 5, the author looks at how the focus on humility and power are not as incompatible as they might seem—power must always be exercised with humility.
In Chapters 6 and 7, the author discusses key elements of shaping wisdom in leaders. The book concludes with a chapter that provides an understanding that wisdom is a lifelong journey.
“Unlike wisdom that is ultimately about the impersonal use of knowledge and power over others, a Christian vision invites us into a wisdom that is personal and mutual to the core.”
