Leadership is HARD
And some days weeks months seasons it’s harder than others.
When I first picked up Glanzer’s The Sound of Leadership, I read it inspectionally and thought, “Great! A quick and easy read!”[1] What I encountered, though, was a helpful tool intersecting not just in a challenging season but in a week full of unique experiences… some of them pointed and painful reminders that leadership is hard sometimes.
Rather than simply applying a quick and easy read, I found myself asking what the sound of leadership looks (err, sounds) like in the midst of a cacophony of disparate conversations:
- A noisy senior leader transition that sometimes feels devoid of kingdom notes.
- Hopeful community leadership conversations with people who might never say or want to say they are Kingdom-minded but nevertheless are “dancing” to Kingdom music in how they chase after justice—especially for those feeling crushed in an environment of fear, hate, and uncertainty.[2]
- Interactions with local government officials as we explore what the health needs of our community are, wondering together how to meet them in a system allergic to risk.
- Celebrations with church families that are experiencing so much transformation as they choose the way of Jesus, they don’t know what to do with it all.
- Heartbreaking discoveries of past practices in my organization that are, at best, unhealthy but more likely toxic to the point of lasting injury.
These weren’t just the competing or conflicting voices of stakeholders but seemed like entirely different worlds that I was trying to inhabit or intersect with, sometimes jumping from one right into another.[3] On the surface, Iwas the only shared element that could be found occupying all of these seemingly discrete worlds. So, what does the sound of leadership sound like there?
I’m not completely sure I yet have an answer, and at the risk of torturing poor Dr. Glanzer’s metaphor to death, I can’t help but wonder if these different worlds aren’t worlds at all, but notes. Notes that at first seem dissonant, cacophonous, even, but where there is an invitation to find the harmony and discern how to embrace or embody them as part of one whole.[4] This isn’t to say I’ve been living a fractured existence (at least I don’t think so), but I find myself wondering out loud what it looks like to move from simple awareness of what is discordant and function as an active agent who helps bring about something euphonious.
To live into that wholeness will require a fresh awareness of the limitations and biases of my own thinking and a willingness to intersect with the biases and limitations of the thinking of others.[5] It will mean being fully present and synthesizing competing truths into the direction of flourishing.[6] It may mean bringing those different worlds or notes together and working diligently to invite the full presence of others so that dissonancedoesn’t become dis-integration.[7] It will also involve risk and inviting others into risk if for no other reason than this kind of integration requires us to trade outrage for authenticity and reflection over performance while choosing to trust.[8]
There’s no space we occupy that isn’t, at some level, desperate for fresh imagination. Glanzer’s book, punctuating other readings from this semester, reminds me that while leadership is hard work, it is also creative work—imaginative, artful, and capable of bringing beauty into broken places. [9] That gives me hope and energy to keep pressing on and pressing in.
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[1] Adler, Mortimer J., and Charles Van Doren. How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading. Revised and Updated, Kindle. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 17.
[2] Glanzer, Jules. The Sound of Leadership: Kingdom Notes to Fine Tine Your Life and Influence. (Plano: Invite Press), 58.
[3] Glanzer, Jules. The Sound of Leadership, 13.
[4] Glazner, Jules. The Sound of Leadership, 71-78.
[5] Duffy, Bobby. Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding. New York: Basic Books, 2019; Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.
[6] Walker, Simon P. Leading out of Who You Are: Discovering the Secret of Undefended Leadership (The Undefeated Leader Trilogy, bk 1). Carlisle: Piquant Editions Limited, 2007.
[7] Friedman, Edwin H. A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix. 10th Anniversary Edition. New York: Church Publishing, 2017.
[8] Haid, Jonathan and Eric Schmidt. “AI Is About to Make Social Media Much More Toxicm” The Atlantic, May 5, 2023, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/05/generative-ai-social-media-integration-dangers-disinformation-addiction/673940/; Haidt, Jonathan and Tobias Rose-Stockwell. “The Dark Psychology of Social Networks: Why it feels like everything is going haywire,” The Atlantic, December 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/social-media-democracy/600763/
[9] Sweet, Leonard, foreword to The Sound of Leadership: Kingdom Notes to Fine Tune Your Life and Influence by Jules Glazner (Plano: Invite Press), xvii-xviii.
About the Author
Jeremiah Gómez
I get to be Sarah's husband and Jubilee's and Zechariah's dad. I also get to serve as lead pastor at Trinity Church, a dynamic church in the Midwest where we're diligently seeking to Love God, love others, live sent, and be transformed together in community. I love the privilege of working across differences, championing healing and reconciliation in many forms.6 responses to “Leadership is HARD”
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First of all, 2 points for the use of the word ‘euphonious’. I really do like Dr. Glanzer’s musical theme.
Can I ask about your third bullet point? How is your church working in the public health arena? Are you doing this yourselves or is there a group of churches and possibly non-profits collaborating with government?
Thanks for your response, Rich –
Sometimes the right word is just the right word!
We’re intersecting with public health in a few of ways, and they’re relatively nascent: I serve as the clergy representative for our county’s steering committee for their County Health Assessment andCounty Health Improvement Plan. We have also intersected with the only nonprofit clinic in the area, and are serving as part of a consortium to help people access needed services. I also serve on the steering committe for a community engagement/community organizing group that interacts with a broad range of needs (and their conversations at municipal, county, and state levels). All of those have come about as we’ve asked God to open doors for us to see and interact with the “gaps” in the life of our community; he has provided people of peace to help us have the opporutnities to be part of these conversations.
I appreciate your words that describe leadership; ‘Leadership is hard work, it is also creative work—imaginative, artful, and capable of bringing beauty into broken places.’
I agree completely and am constantly wondering, still, what it is that we need to be doing to help others understand that behind a healthy culture and a healthy organisation is actually leadership. We need to help people see the holy power of leadership to create and facilitate safety, beauty and healing, so that we can help the next generation lead with intention and kindness. My worry is that we could end up with those who seek power to dominate and use others for their own agenda taking leadership positions in places around the globe. What have you found that helps people understand the often hidden work of a leader and realise the value and how have you inspired others to lead?
Betsy –
I share the same concerns, and have encountered “leaders” who appear to be doing the work they do to hold or amass power. The only thing I know to do in my context to do whatever I can to make sure *I* am leading more out of a posture where I want more for people than from them, including in the space of identity and belonging. Within the relationships where I’m investing in developing other leaders, we do a lot of work around vulnerability, identity placement, and the empowerment of others. In those investments, the hidden work of the leader becomes clearer to those being developed (and to the ones doing the developing!). When it comes to identifying new leaders for development and deployment, doing so in a community of discernment has proven invaluable–we’re not batting 1000, but we do seem to be getting better at identifying, empowering, and releasing people who aren’t about what they can build for themselves so much as how they can participate in bringing thriving for others.
I’m reminded that we don’t multiply what we *wish* we were, but what we actually are. So my own inner work, deeping dependence on Holy Spirit, vulnerability, and accountability are all important if we’re going to do this well in the places I serve.
Some days, I wish there was a formula that we could plug in to more effectively do all of this… but I’m glad it’s more organic and relational.
Is there a way you’d invite me to process any of this differently?
Chopin is one of my favorite composers. He has this piece called Sonata No. 2, Op. 35, “Funeral March” especially noting part IV: Finale. When listening to it sounds sort of off, but feels right. They say he acheived a truly atonal song.
It feels like it would be the piece that represents your experiences this week. I think it is a musical expression that probably represents many people’s experiences in leadership. One description of atonal says, “music that does not conform to the system of tonal hierarchies”. That seems fitting for Christ-like leadership. All the voices and should’s and power hierarchies are basically ignored in atonal leadership. The notes are treated equally with no rules of order. It takes a a good listening ear to be attuned to it, and really hear. Just like Glanzer talks about listening for the Voice of One, developing an ear for the Spirit would lead us into atonal, flat leadership.
Jeremiah,
I agree that many days are filled with disparate notes that don’t flow well together or simply don’t add value to the overall piece that the leader is diligently crafting.
Our company is entirely employee-owned, and anyone with more than 3 years of service is fully vested in the ownership program. We are now 2 years into that process, as we were purchased 24 months ago, and I am introducing a different language and composition (sound) around our facility on how that resonates with the support of our HR business partners. Despite being a long-term value-creation opportunity for employee-owners, their definition of an owner and what they interpret or hear can be disparate. Our organization is responsible for leading through that culture shift and how that sounds to all involved. I will ask many questions about my employee base in the next 12 months.
Can you envision yourself leaning into these more challenging moments more creatively, artfully, and imaginatively than you are? As an engineer by degree with two kids (now young adults) who have a heavy appreciation and art presence, I had to shift my ear, thoughts, and, eventually, the design. Will be praying for you.