Are you the messiah?
“Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?”[1] John, who had proclaimed that Jesus was the Lamb of God, in a dark moment asked, “Are you the Messiah, or should we keep looking?” Human propensity through the ages has been to give agency to a leader who can solve our current dilemma. History is filled with examples of the exchange of power for followership when there is a hope-filled vision for the future. It is the effects and long term outcomes of this power that Dennis Tourish focuses on in his work, The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership.
Transformational leadership has often been described as a person with distinct characteristics and abilities to influence and move a group toward a stated vision usually fueled by a leader’s ambition. Much has been written about organizational mission, vision and values, and the styles and habits of effective leaders who create them. Tourish courageously uses the process of cult making to show the dangers of this “Lone Ranger” type whether servant oriented or narcissistic. He makes clear connections between these cult prophets and other organizational leaders with the nuances, motivations and tendencies of each. His work is well researched and iconoclastic in approach.
Tourish goes against all conventional wisdom of leadership circles propagated in the last forty years when he defines an approach to leadership theory and practices “which have an emancipatory intent” thereby placing “more stress on the promotion of dissent, difference and the facilitation of alternative viewpoints than the achievement of consensus or the promotion of an organizational view wholly originating in the perspectives and values of formal leaders. In turn, followership is conceived in terms of differentiation and alternative positioning, while leadership is seen as those practices that facilitate such creative expression.”[2]
How are these kinds of leaders and followers formed? In adult development a critical aspect of differentiation is personal authority. In adults, if personal authority remains outside of self then we live in a socialized mindset prone to group think and continually hunting a messiah in human form. Tourish puts forth a model that requires personal authority from within. It requires people who have developed in maturity to at least what Robert Keegan defines as a self authoring mind and at best, a self transforming mind:
* Stage 1 — Impulsive mind (early childhood)
* Stage 2 — Imperial mind (adolescence, 6% of adult population)
* Stage 3 — Socialized mind (58% of the adult population)
* Stage 4 — Self-Authoring mind (35% of the adult population)
* Stage 5 — Self-Transforming mind (1% of the adult population)[3]
Self-transformed minds no longer need others to confirm their views and they are able to genuinely engage others’ contribution, dissent and worldview. These are people who lead civil engagement and dialogue well, facilitate healthy debate and offer feedback both positive and negative. It requires leaders who listen even more closely to the negative than the positive and thus ward off the blindedness caused by the constant positive feedback loop. Leaders who facilitate a mosaic of perspectives and have the unique ability to help bring the varying viewpoints together into an action plan created and owned by all.
When considering church leadership today, I wonder if we aren’t reenacting Israel’s failure in I Samuel 8. God makes it clear when Israel demanded a king like everyone else, that it was God they were actually rejecting as their King. Are we doing the same? It is always interesting to me that when Jesus ascended he didn’t appoint a leader from among them. In fact, he cautioned them about their idea of greatness and position. Is Tourish’s model possible and if so could it be that adult development is the vital issue? There really is only one Messiah, the rest of us are better leaders when we are focused followers of him and being conformed to his image, the ultimate stage five adult.
1. Matthew 11:3 (NET)
2. Dennis Tourish, The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership ( New York: Routledge, 2013), page 212.
3. Robert Keegan and Lisa Laskow Lacey, An Everyone Culture (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2016), Kindle Loc. 1075.
*disclaimer: this was written under extreme jet lag, intense cultural engagement and on an iPad so not well formatted under Turbian standards.
About the Author
Tammy Dunahoo
Tammy is a lover of God, her husband, children and grandchildren. She is the V.P. of U.S. Operations/General Supervisor of The Foursquare Church.9 responses to “Are you the messiah?”
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Tammy, Your wisdom and leadership experience always come through your posts. Your statement, “There really is only one Messiah, the rest of us are better leaders when we are focused followers of him and being conformed to his image, the ultimate stage five adult.” is both succinct and an ever useful signpost for church leaders. While I am not particularly a fan of Tourish’s approach and critique, I am passionate about developing leaders who develop leaders utilizing your signpost. Many blessings and I pray you get some rest.
Thanks Tammy for drawing our attention to the conspicuous decision of our Lord not to appoint a CEO of the early church. I know the Catholics would disagree, but it seems clear to me that even the person they feel holds that title has pushed agency and responsibility to the saints (1 Pet. 2:9).
I grew up in Plymouth Brethren church in which leadership was spread among a set of men. No one, in theory at least, was above another. Now this will serve as a support for Tourish’s view because it was interesting to see that among the deacons, one of them gradually rose to the top position and was a welcomed move.
This style of church polity definitely helps mitigates against a CEO style leadership, but Tourish is right in that it’s difficult to avoid the dark side of it. Many in the church saw this disparaging transformation in this deacon but ignored it because he exemplified all the traditional, charismatic and practical qualities we’ve been socialized to accept as good characteristics of a leader.
All that to say, I’m convinced there isn’t one proper model of leadership that can be considered the best. As Christians, our best model is Jesus of Nazareth and we would be good to let secular leadership theorist know why this is the case.
Tammy – grateful for you. I especially appreciated your last paragraph about our human tendency to want someone else to be the answer, have the answer, make us ‘ok’ – when only Jesus can. And those stages are really interesting – I want to know more. I did a quick evaluation of myself as I have been noticing my pattern of wanting others to approve and sometimes be responsible for the direction of my life. It has greatly lessened over the years because of the love and work of God. I wonder if that is a socialized mind on its way to self-authoring? 🙂
Tammy, you have written a great post and thank you for pointing us to I Samuel 8 Israel model of a leader which effectively is tantamount to rejection of God as The leader. This is a great insight and I must say like Jesus in Mathew 16: 17; “…that fresh and blood has not revealed to you but my Father in heaven”,
Tammy, thank you for your post. I have not heard of these stages of adult development, but I would agree that being fully developed as an adult is what makes good leaders. I can also see where there are areas I need to grow. Leadership is difficult and so is following. Prayerfully we can learn from the things we are reading to become better leaders, ultimately, more like Christ.
I’ve wondered for a while – the last 3 years to be exact – if our country is in a 1 Sam 8 moment. I’ve often thought that the best leaders are the ones who can listen to alternative points of view and mold a middle way through them. It seems that more and more there is value placed on dogmatic purity whether it’s in the church or politics. A leader who is able to listen to both sides is seen as unable to take a stand. I think Tourish makes some great points about how leaders need to be able to find the best path given alternative points of view. I wonder if our country will ever come to understand the truth of this type of leadership.
Thank you Tammy for you carefully crafted sharing on transformational leadership. It is true that Tourish turns the other side of the transformational leadership and calls it “the dark side of transformation’. It is true and we have seen this self styled leaders and lone rangers influecing others and remain in power for long and starts abusing thefollowers. Tourish calls it “cultic influence” and you have referred to this. Thank you for sharing my sister. There is only one messiah.
Excellent, as usual, Tammy. I appreciate your challenge to us to remember who is leading who. I agree that the church is in need of leaders who can rightly posture themselves as both leader and follower. It takes strength to hold the tension…to capture the beauty of what you called the “mosaic of perspectives” while moving the collective forward. I join my prayers with John the Baptist, saying “less of me, more of Him.”
I would love to reach stage 5 when I grow up. 🙂
I appreciate your thoughts Tammy! I think we resonated with a number of the same points. I’ve been wondering about a part of Tourish’s book that you highlighted—that ideal leaders pay more attention to the negative feedback. In recent years as a parent and pastor I’ve been trying to lean into “What are we doing well? How do we build on it?” There is still room for the negative feedback, but it is more of an afterthought or caveat than the focus. The goal is leading through encouragement rather than critique. What about that would have value? What might be some blindspots in this strategy? Genuinely seeking professional feedback here!