Leaders Are Learners
“Where have all the leaders gone?” This is the question that Annabel Beerel asks echoing Warren Bennie and Time magazine before her, yet it seems as appropriate as ever.[1] Beerel is writing in 2020 at the start of the coronavirus pandemic and observing the lack of leadership being displayed during a time that needs leaders and leadership the most. This is not a new problem, according to Beerel, observing that “true leadership has not been present for many decades, surely since the 1980s.”[2] Why does she think this? Because leadership comes into focus during times of crisis as the crisis exposes the ability of leaders to adapt to constant change. Leading change is a quality that effective leaders must posses if they are going to navigate the world in front of them.
Leadership Defined
This is a very fitting book to end our time together as a cohort and our Doctor of Leadership in Global Perspective journey. Rethinking Leadership: A Critique of Contemporary Theories is an expansive treatment of modern leadership. It is so fitting for our program, I felt as if I was reading a summary of our leadership journey. While the book is covers multiple leadership challenges, it is succinct in the treatment of each topic that makes this a must-have resource in our leadership library.
Beerel begins with a pragmatic definition of leadership: Leaders make a difference. They move people to new places – physically, psychologically, emotionally, spiritually – they they could not have achieved alone.” [3] This is a concise definition of leadership that allows Beerel to observe leadership in multiple contexts, while resonating with most people’s experience of leading and being led. She goes even further in this by defining effective leaders. She states, “Effective leadership is the ability to respond in an adaptive manner to emergent, dynamic, and complex situations.”[4]
Leadership are Learners
Beerel covers numerous important leadership situations such as mindfulness, shadow side, ethics, gender, and leading generations. With this brevity, I want to highlight the way that Beerel describes one of the defining characteristics of a leader in a changing environment: leaders are learners. While defining the reality of leaders, Beerel discusses Dana Zohar’s book, Rewiring the Corporate Brain, which considers how a deeper understanding of modern physics has shed light into the ways our minds work. In doing so, Beerel highlights this observation from Zohar, “She [Zohar] reminds us that the questions we ask determine the answers we get as well as the answers we do not get.”[5] Asking questions determines the path we take and explore in the countless leadership situations we face. I know that the decisions I make are directly related to the information I have and the information I have received, which is directly correlated to how curious I was about the problem.
Transdisciplinary Leadership
This means that the leaders has to go where the questions lead. This will inevitably mean that the leader has to be versed in multiple disciplines. Leadership is not a stay-in-your-lane endeavor. It requires an ease and comfortability getting up to speed in a subject to acquire understanding. Beerel argues that we need an approach that is better than interdisciplinary thinking, we need transdisciplinary thinking. She summarizes this idea by stating that, “It is about have a multi perspective grasp of multiple disciplines as they interact.”[6] This sounds like overlaying maps to me. It’s as if Dr. Jason Swan Clark and Annabel Beerel have shared the way forward as we train and deploy leaders that can navigate off-the-map into new terrain.
Conclusion
I will certainly need to spend more time mining this resource and allowing it shape my leadership. I want to ask even better questions and have my leadership be defined as being a learner. I agree with Beerel, crisis exposes leadership and we need more, better leaders to navigate a rapidly changing culture. This will be a book I return to on many occasions. I liked it.
About the Author
Chad McSwain
Chad is a systematic creative serving in pastoral ministry for nearly 20 years, Chad is a professional question-asker and white-board enthusiast, who enjoys helping people discover their own passions and purpose. A life-long learner, he has a B.A, Philosophy - Univ. Central Oklahoma, M.A Theology - Fuller Seminary, M.Div. Perkins School of Theology at SMU and is pursuing a Doctor of Leadership - George Fox University. He is an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church, currently serving as Lead Pastor of Whitesboro UMC. Chad and his wife, Brandi live in Prosper, Texas along with their three children, two pugs and a chameleon.7 responses to “Leaders Are Learners”
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What a fitting blog to close this program with. Though this leg of our learning journey is over, the journey does not end here. With that being said, is there a subject, book, discipline that you are interested in learning about after graduation? I personally am going to attempt to engage Charles Taylor’s “A Secular Age,” but maybe read some light fiction before diving into that book right after graduation.
Chad – I appreciate the theme you chose for your focus, “leaders are learners.” I’m going to miss that about our DLGP program. How do you think you’ll continue to focus on learning as a leader after graduation?
Chad,
Now you’re talking….
“She [Zohar] reminds us that the questions we ask determine the answers we get as well as the answers we do not get.”[5] Asking questions determines the path we take and explore in the countless leadership situations we face.”
I like how you highlight how leaders are learners and learners are those who ask questions!
I liked this book too and thought it was a good one to end with!
See you May2nd!
Chad –
I’m just dropping a note of appreciation for your leadership. I’ve loved being in the same peer group as you and getting to know you better. Praying the Lord blesses and uses you in mighty ways in your ministry.
Chad,
I agree that this book will definitely be one that I return to in order to learn and refine my skill set.
I believe in being a life-long learner!
What a leadership journey you are on!
Dr. McSwain,
I like how you pulled out Beerel’s advocacy for transdisciplinary thinking in leadership, which goes beyond interdisciplinary approaches to encompass a multi-perspective grasp of multiple disciplines and their interactions.
Keep mining! With honor and excellence and His glory. Great post. You’re so smart. Seriously. Always nail it. You are a great example to so many of us who see Jesus in you.