Tuesday, September 09, 2014
What is the key to Leadership?
What
is the Key to Leadership? Honestly, based on my experiences in 2013 and 2014, I
now have an answer but it isn’t what you are probably expecting to hear. I would urge anyone seeking instruction on leadership to
look first to the Bible before any of the self-help books that have been
written. I'm going to share my
answer at the end of this blog. But first, I have a few observations.
I've been reading a lot of content recently about
leadership and leading change. I often get to the end of the article or book
feeling a little empty. I mean there are good points and observations but
seldom a "hard and fast" rule and never a silver bullet that works in
all situations. At least I’m not finding a solution in books or one-day classes.
Books and conferences provide good principles and take away sentences that make
people feel good but normally they are things that are difficult to do on your
own or in your own power. Most of us have constraints on what we can do either
due to finances, supervisors, or other time demands on our life.
SIMPLE ANSWERS
Take Bill Hybel's book "Simplify" for example.
From the cover of the book: "When we spend our lives doing things that
keep us busy but don’t really matter, we sacrifice the things that do. ... If
you crave a simpler life anchored by the priorities that matter most, roll up
your sleeves: Simplified living requires more than just cleaning out your
closets or reorganizing your desk drawer. It requires uncluttering your soul.
By eradicating the stuff that leaves your spirit drained, you can stop doing
what doesn’t matter—and start doing what does."
Hybels basically says we must live with "margin"
in our lives so we can respond to needs when they arise but also have time to
rest. Well, that is easy to say if you are the CEO of a very large organization
with lots of staff doing work you tell them to do, hired help at your house,
and grown children. Sort of reminds me of politicians who tell us "I feel
your pain, I understand your needs," and then they leave the rally in a
limo with a speakers check for $500,000 and go back to an $18 million dollar
home with a maid. They don’t understand the challenges my wife and I face with
both of us working jobs that are more than 9 to 5 jobs just to make ends meet,
teenage children that are busy with activities and need us to drive them around
and help with homework, all while juggling church and family responsibilities
that are important. Giving as advice to “simplify” is, well, a little too
simple.
I’ll
admit that living with “margin” is a great goal but when your child needs to be
driven to band practice and you have to wait to pick him up after school and
you are the only person available to do that … your “margin” gets eaten up
sitting in your car. Typically, I spend that type of “margin” time thinking
about things I need to get done and expanding my “to do” list.
SECULAR OPTIONS
Then
there are plenty of secular leadership programs and books that talk about
leading change, leading people, and rallying people to pull together as a team.
The marketing for these leadership events sound like a silver bullet. Here is a
recent example I received by email: “Using experiential learning exercises as a
metaphor for what it takes to lead a high performing team, this professional
development workshop will help you explore the interpersonal and organizational
advantages of working together. You will leave the class understanding the need
for organizational change, able to identify leadership strategies that create a
thriving culture for change, better able to adopt and accept change, able to
understand the needs of those faced with adopting change, and equipped to use
communication strategies that create awareness, acceptance, adopting and
advocacy of change initiatives.” Whew, I’ll be ready to change the world after
this class!
As
with any conference or program, there are many fine examples of training that
has helped and you can even find people who will give you a success story or
two about their leadership success. But often times, these success stories come
at the expense of a wife and/or children. They also often have a lot of “I” in
them and statements that suggest that if you can just dream it work hard
enough, it will happen.
THE KEY TO LEADERSHIP
Let
me suggest that there is really only one thing that matters more than all of
the other studies and suggestions: prayer to enlist God’s help. That is it.
That is the key to leadership.
Without
it, we are just people tossing around ideas and theories that sometimes work
but often do not. We can have good ideas of course. We can even find success
that merits patting ourselves on the back (and allowing others to do the same).
But the fact is, God is the author of our successes. God sees the big picture,
God knows what is coming next and God does speak to us (through the Holy
Spirit).
I
discovered this past year while serving my church in a leadership role that
every team presents a different challenge. No list of ideas for building consensus
in a team or even running focused meetings works in every situation. In fact, I
found that when I was more dependent on God and less dependent on me, things
worked out better. Therefore, I should add that a second key to plugging in to
prayer and allowing God to take the lead is humility. We have to admit we don’t
have the answers and we have to admit that we need God’s help. We have to admit
that we can’t and shouldn’t make decisions based solely on our own muscle or
brain power.
Without
prayer, without seeking God in leadership moments, we are just like a squirrel
gathering nuts in the fall. We scurry around, hides nuts, bury nuts and eat
nuts in a flurry of activity but lacking foresight in regards to what winter
has in store, unable to influence any of it, and really unable to impact it.
Yes, as a leader we do have to do the work and get others to join in the fun but
if we are not humble and seeking God in prayer, we are just wasting our time.
