Toy Box Leadership

One of my favorite topics is leadership. I can't read enough about it. Reading books about leadership charges me up and motivates me to take uncomfortable steps toward becoming a better leader. Last night I finished reading another good one.

Toy Box Leadership is by Ron Hunter Jr. and Michael E Waddell and is published by Thomas Nelson. This is another book that was sent to me to review and Ron is a friend of mine. I mention that only to say that Ron has personally invested in me as a leader in the past. He has been an incredible encouragement to me (probably more than he'll ever know). He's not just writing leadership, he's living it!

The basic premise of Toy Box Leadership is that of the object lesson. Ron and Michael take 10 classic toys and use them to teach truly great lessons in leadership. I love this on a lot of different levels. First, I really dig object lessons. I don't think anything else better helps a lesson stick with me. Also, even though it wasn't overly intentional, I felt like this was a book that was equipping me to teach leadership at the same time it was teaching leadership to me.

Many leadership books that are released today take one singular leadership lesson and a build an entire book around that one premise. Toy Box Leadership offers a great overview of leadership with themes ranging from relationships to creativity to endurance. In that sense, TBL is right up there with some of John Maxwell's best books. My personal favorites were the chapters on vision (Slinky Dog - Pull, Then Be Patient), communication (Mr. Potato Head - The Right Face for the Right Place), and efficiency (Rocking Horse - All Show and No Go). It's also worth mentioning that this is a book that actually gets better as you move through it. Another annoying trait of many leadership books is after they've stated their big idea, it's pretty much all downhill from there. I liked that the more I read TBL, the more I wanted to read it.

This is definitely a book I'll be referring back to in the future as I pass leadership lessons on to others. Go get it - it's worth your time!