Leadership Lessons from George Washington and Jesus
This hit close to home. The study of leadership, leaders and what makes them tick has fascinated me for a number of years. I mean, who doesn’t t get excited to hear the latest developments from Apple each time Steve Jobs was on stage and utter his famous words, “… there’s one more thing.” Or learning about Elon Musk’s empire of mass producing electric cars and developing a space program rivaling NASA. These two leaders are models of what popular leadership theories might label as successes.
However, amidst the celebrity status, rock-star personas these kinds of leaders evoke, it is important to be wary of how easy and tempting it is to succumb to failure. This is evidenced in the 2008 global economic collapse in which highly paid CEOs of financial institutions stood at the helm. The Great Recession brought calamity to so many. Men and women who worked hard to save for retirement saw their future disappear overnight. Home owners who should not have qualified for loans foreclosed at alarming rates, causing a ripple effect on the larger national and global economy. It is staggering to think all this happened under the watchful eye of these Ivy League educated men and women. What happened? Was their exclusive, high-priced education deficient? Was ethics not a required course for accountancy majors? Perhaps, but something else might be the cause.
Dennis Tourish in The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership: A Critical Perspective is helpful and makes a startling claim to help students of leadership understand some of its pitfalls. This is a much needed reminder, especially for me as I tend to practice leadership with an exclusive focus on practical results. Tourish points out that even well-meaning leaders fall prey to internal systems which creates an environment of temptation to manipulate company results and incentivizes unwise risk-taking behavior. Experts have argued that this kind of agency “undermines teamwork, encourages a short-term focus and leads people to believe that pay is not related to performance at all but to having the right relationship and an ingratiating personality.”1
Apparently no system of leadership (Authentic Leadership, Servant-Leadership, etc.) is immune from this excess because, according to Tourish, the pull toward “Superman” (ala G.E.’s Jack Welch) stye of leadership is too great to resist. If the leadership style of the Welchs, Jobs and Musks of the world are to be viewed with reservation, who can we look to for a better model worthy of emulation? What qualities in a leader are required when institutional needs and objectives constantly change? There are two individuals that come to mind.
The first is George Washington. According to Sam Walker, author of The Captain Class: A New Theory of Leadership, 2Washington felt responsible and connected with his troops in victory and in defeat. For example, after liberating Boston in 1776 he was reported to have humbly stayed back, sending instead his generals into the jubilant city. In that same battle, and soon after, the British returned with more men and succeeded in flanking the American position. But not before Washington led the evacuation, stayed all night until the last boat departed, saving 9,000 troops. Washington was known for persuading and encouraging his men in battle and appealing to their highest honor.
The second is obvious, our Lord Jesus. He is God Almighty and yet humbled himself to rescue sinful people. He destroyed current models and theories of leadership by setting an example of humility3. Jesus never considered it below his dignity to stoop down to wash other people’s feet. He was present with Martha, Lazarus’ sister, deeply moved to tears upon learning of his death. When Jesus put together his team he chose individuals who already had things in common: fishermen, brothers, etc. This signifies a proactive approach to a relational component of leadership lacking today.
Instead of the traditional view of leadership where a sole agent is responsible for an organization with its attending challenges, Tourish refreshingly offers a better one. In the end he says:
“I advocate a nuanced view of leadership, in which leader agency is acknowledged to exist but in which it is balanced by a view which takes fuller account of the agency of other organizational actors and the degree to which this agency is complicit in the construction of leader agency and action.”4
Based on this assessment, it is not surprising Jesus and Washington are considered to be great leaders because they included others in the process and shared victories as well as defeats. We ought to study them carefully to glean leadership principles to bring organizational vision to reality in a confused world seeking direction.
1 Dennis Tourish, The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership: A Critical Perspective (Hove: Routledge, 2013), 181.
2 Sam Walker, The Two Contagious Behaviors of a Great Boss, The Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2018, , accessed February 07, 2019, https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-two-contagious-behaviors-of-a-great-boss-1537588820.
3 Philippians 2
4 Tourish, The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership: A Critical Perspective, 211.
About the Author
Harry Edwards
Harry is married to Minerva and has the privilege of raising two young men. He is the founder and director of Apologetics.com, Inc., an organization dedicated to defending the truth claims of Christianity on the internet, radio and other related activities. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Christian Education and a Masters of Arts degree in Christian Apologetics from Biola University where he currently works full time as the Associate Director of the graduate programs in Christian Apologetics and Science & Religion. Harry is currently pursuing a DMin (Leadership & Global Perspectives) from George Fox University. He is an active member at Ocean View Baptist Church where he leads an adult Bible study and plays the drums for the praise and worship band. In his spare time, Harry enjoys doing things with his family, i.e., tennis, camping/backpacking, flying RC planes and mentoring others to realize their full potential in the service of our Lord.6 responses to “Leadership Lessons from George Washington and Jesus”
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Harry, Thanks so much for your sterling examples of George Washington and Jesus Christ. As you can tell from my post, I think Tourish was formed by growing up in the Troubles and therefore has confused transformative leadership with manipulative leadership. He has a biased set of lens that is looking for cases that fit his pretext which I think is faulty. My own observation is that a predominant view towards empirical results (i.e., “success”) leads leaders down the shadowy path of the dark side (especially in churches). That is, “if it works” becomes the superior metric instead of “is it right” and “is it best for all”. Our “Handbook on Leadership Theory” provides plenty of constructive alternatives to Tourish’s position. My thoughts and thanks so much for yours.
Thanks for the encouraging words Harry. I took a different approach on my original blog and tried to bring out the positive side of leadership, contra Tourish. I did appreciate the valid warnings of wholly adopting a particular style of leadership for an organization.
I find his solution of “processual” communication/persuasion between leaders and followers, while helpful, too simplistic.
I wonder how he’d evaluate Jesus leadership style and how he avoided the dark side of leadership.
Thanks, Harry. I was recently able to attend the Unconference by The Table Group and Patrick Lencioni. The entire theme was similar to Keegan and Lahey’s Approach to Everyone Culture…a deliberately developmental organization. We heard from Alan Mullaly of Boeing and now Ford, the CEOs of Southwest Airlines and Chick Fil A and others. The common theme that struck me was their personal humility and focus on their people. It was everything, more than profits or customer service and yet both of those are extremely successful and their belief is because they are people focused first.
Thanks for this Tammy. That sounds like a wonderful conference I wish someday I can attend. I love hearing about these examples and I appreciate you mentioning the humble, servant, relational, people-first model of leadership these individuals represent because it challenges me to do the same.
I confess, I used to think someone like a Steve Jobs was the paragon of leadership. Lots of stuff has been written about him, least of which was his tyrannical obsession with perfection. But few ever said anything about his human side. The question that keeps bugging me is, are people willing to sacrifice relationships for material success?
Harry – yes! I needed to read this this week – this was positive, thoughtful, and hope-filled. This was a tough book and needed this. Thank you.
Hi Andrea. Thank you for this and also for your original post. I liked the book because it acted like a mirror. I have to always pray that God gives me humility in my leadership because I know my weakness and I am prone to pride. It’s a powerful reminder for me to always check my motives. Am I the kind of leader that allows dissent? Do I put others’ needs before my own? Am I advancing the organization’s agenda or my own?
I’m just thankful for God’s grace and mercy as he allows me to stumble along in my leadership opportunities.