In the leadership-coaching world, lists of management principles are everything. After all, how else is a busy executive supposed to remember how to do his job? But when it comes to the ‘my-leadership-list-is-bigger-than-yours’ competition, US pastor and business coach Tim Stevens wins hands down. Here he presents no fewer than 51 principles that will, ‘revolutionize your workplace’.

The principles themselves are little more than business clichés, re-packaged into digestible chunks with folksy chapter headings like ‘Develop Rumble Strips’ (identify professional and personal boundaries), ‘Go Dark’ (switch off your smartphone now and then) and ‘Have Fun’ (take your team to an IMAX movie).

There is nothing new or revolutionary in Stevens’ advice. There is the occasional biblical reference to back up some of the truisms, but this not a Christian leadership book in the mould of Bill Hybels’ Courageous Leadership, even though church leaders are one of Stevens’ target audiences.

JEREMY MOODEY is CEO at Embrace the Middle East