Truefaced Chapter Summary

Vitaliy Greben

ML582A-18071

Thrall, Bill, Bruce McNicol, and Ken McElrath. 1999. The Ascent of a Leader: How Ordinary Relationships Develop Extraordinary Character and Influence. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass.

Bill Thrall is Vice Chair and co-author with TrueFaced-Leadership Catalyst since 1995. Prior to joining TrueFaced, Bill founded and pastored the influential church, Open Door Fellowship, for over 20 years. Bruce McNicol is President of TrueFaced, and he has helped establish its foundations (TrueFaced 2015). Ken McElrath is an author, artist, and a serial entrepreneur. He helped launch and develop TrueFaced prior to cofounding several other startups (LinkedIn 2015). All three co-authors have passion to help current and emerging leaders with character and education development. The main thesis of this book is the importance of character,

They present a process of leadership development as a challenging and unpredictable climb, often stable at the bottom and shaky at the top (17). The book illustrates this by contrasting two “ladders”, where the first is the “capacity ladder”. We try to climb this ladder in order to become successful leaders, however, this does not always lead to positive influence that can endure legacy. The second ladder is called the “character ladder”, that emphases on developing integrity and character by creating environments and relationships of grace. Next, the book shows readers how to clime the character ladder by embracing humility, submission, and obedience through trusting God and others with us, choosing vulnerability, and aligning with truth. It turns out that “the climb up the character ladder is a climb toward interdependence” (96). The book closes with examples of people who demonstrated the values found in the previous chapters, and encourages us to take practical steps in becoming a better