Book Report: The Mentor Leader – Secrets to building people and teams that win consistently by Tony Dungy
Tony Dungy, a previous NFL football player and coach now turned NFL TV broadcaster weaves a powerful narrative on a term called Mentor Leadership recounting through his childhood and examples from interactions with his parents, teachers, and coaches, to college and NFL coaches where he was the recipient, to where he becomes the coach and pours into the lives of his players, assistant coaches and the community in his sphere of influence. In the end, or synopsis, Tony concludes with “if we lead with character, courage and competence; if we cast a compelling vision and inspire people to work passionately to achieve a common mission; if we model the message and recognize the moments when we can make a difference; if we educate, equip, and elevate the people around us, what does it all add up to? It adds value to the lives of others, to make the lives of others better”.
This book really did two important and meaningful things for me. The first is it really forced me to evaluate my sphere of influence at home especially with my children and how I could more purposefully build into their lives especially on the basics of things like honesty, hardwork, teamwork and reliability. I found myself writing letters to my four oldest children, sharing some of these concepts and ideals that I gleaned from the book. But it also caused me to evaluate my sphere of influence here at the camp. One fellow inmate here that I have somewhat befriended is leaving to go back home (halfway house) next week, so I took the opportunity to write him a letter to remind him of the importance of character (and the character I see in him) and how bad company can disrupt good character. He seemed to appreciate the message and the gesture, telling me he had read it twice!
The book also got me to rethink vision, mission and values statement for our natural healthcare office. So I took Tony’s advice and jotted down some ideas on each of these concepts and emailed them to my oldest son and daughter to type out and circulate amongst our current staff, which would help everyone buy in and feel more invested in our movement and service we provide with the “why” behind all of it. I’m excited to see this project completed and reposted through our office, and the renewed focus it will hopefully provide.
I think any time a book can cause this much change, positivity, and inspiration to take action and help improve the lives of others it is a huge win and definitely worth the read.
Finally, Tony also takes the opportunity to point out that 70 percent of the men in prison today grew up without a father figure in their lives. Thankfully I had and continue to have a wonderful father in my life. However it serves as a great reminder that we need strong men to build into the lives of younger men and boys. One such program is called the Mentoring Project created by Donald Miller which has the lofty goal of closing 15 percent of US Prisons, by intentionally mentoring directly and indirectly fatherless young men, especially inner-city African-Americans. Boys and girls without a father at home are five times more likely to end up in poverty situations, be involved in criminal behavior, use drugs or get involved in a teen pregnancy. I feel this is a worthy mission from a worthy read!
