Carson Pue: Characteristics of a good leader
Dr. Carson Pue has been investing in Greater Vancouver leaders and many others for 33 years now. He was inspired by Billy Graham’s brother-in-law, Leighton Ford, to commit his life to making a difference in the lives of leaders. The result has been seen through Arrow Leadership, and how it has refined the mission and ministry of over 1,200 leaders. Pue notes: “Leadership is lonely. Many leaders find that their “toolbox” is empty. Many of these leaders need to be loved, to be appreciated, and be reconnected in their inner life with Jesus.” As a mentor of leaders, Pue’s passion is for iron to sharpen iron in a community context: “We’re trying to practice our unique calling in our distinctive context, following how Jesus discipled people. It was a combination of actions and teachings happening at the same time.”
Character is at the heart of good leadership. Too often Pue has found that gifted speakers are not always people of integrity. They get limited support and can be, at the same time, prematurely promoted beyond their level of maturity, resulting in increased potential to fail, dramatically crashing and burning.
With Brenda, his late wife, he formed Quadrant Leadership, based on the sailing metaphor. Both Brenda and Carson were sailors. His passion is to come alongside leaders as they handle the rigours of the open seas, helping them to be led more by Jesus, lead more like Jesus and to lead more to Jesus. Pue has spent years developing leaders in a wide variety of businesses and not-for-profit charity entities. His expertise is in high demand locally and internationally by prestigious organizations, enterprises, and institutions. He has served on boards and with executives at World Vision, Kurumbuka Leadership Solutions Foundation (Rwanda), Trueface (Atlanta), Opportunity International, The Billy Graham Center, YesTV (Toronto), and Troyer Industries (Oil and Gas sector).
Recently, Pue produced a year’s worth of Mentored Podcast with the late Dr. Martin Sanders, founder of Global Leadership Inc. These online podcast sessions have become a robust resource, sharing with its listeners many themes that highlight effective mentoring of leaders.
Pue is the bestselling author of Mentoring Leaders: Wisdom for Developing Calling, Character and Competency. His upcoming book Leading Like a Saint is based on leadership principles from Saint Patrick. Known for his masterful storytelling and innovative leadership style, Pue exposes and equips audiences with many remarkable and fascinating untold stories and principles behind what it takes to be a leader. His interests include sailing, public speaking, reading, music, writing, family and all things Irish! He lives in Vancouver with his second wife, Glenda, and their dog, Murphy. Carson takes great joy in spending time with his three sons, their wives – who he affectionately refers to as his “daughters” – and his seven grandchildren.
Pastor Scott Anderson, Lead Pastor of Lambrick Park Church, Victoria commented: “Carson has been personally influential in the formation, renewal, and encouragement of an extraordinary number of leaders in many sectors (health care, relief and development, business, finance, govt, etc). I think it’s fair to say that the church of Jesus Christ is seeing significant fruit today because of devoted leaders like Carson Pue. I know I am.”
Bob Kuhn, a lawyer, consultant, past president of Trinity Western University and Carson’s longtime friend, recognized the tremendous benefits of Pue’s advice and wisdom when Kuhn asked him to serve on Trinity Western University’s executive leadership team as Special Assistant to the President. While Kuhn sought to lead key growth and creative leadership to the University during the six years of particularly challenging conflict, “Carson was not only a fully grounded, wise and an ideal voice of mission-refinement at TWU, he was strong, caring and totally reliable as he took on roles that required a critical, mission-sensitive but caring skill set. I don’t think I could have taken on the leadership demands of Trinity’s president during those years without him.”
Carson Pue will be speaking at the 39th White Rock/South Surrey Leadership Prayer Breakfast on Friday, Oct 25, 2024, 7 to 9 am at Peace Portal Alliance Church in South Surrey.
Books by Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird include God's Firestarters; Blue Sky, a novel; and For Better, For Worse: Discovering the keys to a Lasting Relationship. Dr Ed’s newest award-winning book The Elisha Code is co-authored with Rev. David Kitz. Earlier books by Dr. Ed include the award-winning Battle for the Soul of Canada, and Restoring Health: Body, Mind, & Spirit.
