Robert H. Thompson says that the fictional characters in his book, The Offsite: A Leadership Challenge Fable, speak to him in his mind: and I believe him.

As Thompson weaves the overbearing burned out salesman, budding young executive, motivational speakers, and even a gardener into his fable based on the seminal The Leadership Challenge by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, he gently guides the reader on a quest to be better than they currently are, not just in leadership but in life.

Thompson writes from his experience as a speaker, workshop leader, executive coach, and one of the founders of The Leadership Challenge Workshop. He incorporates The Leadership Challenge’s highly acclaimed five practices into the lives of everyday people struggling in their sense of leadership identity not to mention their personal lives.

Thompson’s characters invite you to care about them, understand their motivations, their fears, and their uncertainties. As a third-person observer you not only read the conversations: you know their thoughts. While not groundbreaking for fiction, it is revolutionary in the world of leadership.

Numerous times one has heard the methods employed, meetings held, and the outcomes of successful leadership – but how many times have the individual’s innermost thoughts been exposed?

This book could be implemented as a model for churches seeking to help transition their congregations to new models. Churches that seek to move from event-based “attractional” models to service and “externally-focused” models must have lay leaders and staff convinced that a shared vision helps everyone achieve more for the Great Commission.

In application, one realizes that the offsite meeting itself is not the target Thompson is aiming at in his work. Thompson provides a framework for instituting positive change in any leaders’ life at any level in the organization.

In Joe’s transformation (which includes elements similar to the Apostle Paul’s Damascus Road experience) a glimpse is offered that titles mean little for authentic leadership as he steps down from Vice President to a seemingly insignificant role. At this significant moment of transformation, Joe cries out, “Just give me another chance, I’m just a fake. I can see that now” (134).

Whether Aesop or Thompson, fables end with a moral to the story. Thompson teaches that servant leaders who listen and model authenticity find the success everyone else is desperately seeking.

This is a lesson pastors desperately need to hear in multiple formats including the use of fiction to drive home the point. I found this book to be easy to read and hard to put down.

For me this book is the icing on the cake of the excellent The Leadership Challenge and should be read by anyone willing to challenge themselves to greater leadership.