What is Next?
What is a leader?
Am I a leader?
If I am a leader, what kind of leader am I? Am I a servant-leader like Jesus? Am I a coercive-dominating leader like the President-elect?
In his very well laid out book on different styles and definitions of leadership, Peter Northouse exposits on a variety of leadership dynamics. Using scientific and research-based examples, Northouse expands on the theory of over a dozen different leadership styles. He does reduce the vastness of his research to a simplistic formula for defining leadership. “Despite the multitude of ways in which leadership has been conceptualized, the following components can be identified as central to the phenomenon: (a) Leadership is a process, (b) leadership involves influence, (c) leadership occurs in groups, (d) leadership involves common goals.”[1]
As I read through his book, I could not help but ask myself the question, “Which style am I?” I began to see parts of my own leadership traits in a variety of the chapters. For instance, I found myself drawn to the chapters on leadership and culture as well as leadership and gender. I also found myself in some of the examples of servant leadership and adaptive leadership. Yet, I realized that I do not embody a whole leadership style but rather I find myself taking bits and pieces of different styles and putting them all together.
All through my life I have been told that I was a “natural” leader. Apparently, I had the natural talents and traits of leadership. Northouse defines the trait approach as “an emphasis on identifying the qualities of great persons.”[2] The traits that he identifies as key are intelligence, self-confidence, determination, integrity, and sociability.[3] My own self-confidence would rate myself high on these five areas. I was a leader in school growing up. I was a leader when I managed a restaurant at the age of twenty. I was a leader when I was a paramedic on an ambulance. When I promoted to Fire Captain in my fire department, I was a certain kind of leader. When a fire is raging out of control, it is not the time for a collaborative style of leadership or to implement the path-goal style of leadership.[4] A Fire Captain gives orders, and they are to be implemented.
Then, I moved to Kenya, and began to live among a people group completely different than what I was used to. Fairly quickly, I became team leader and began to lead a multi-cultural team of mostly young single women. My style of leadership had to adapt. I realized that my situation had changed, and I needed to take a situational approach to leading my new team. Northouse defines a situational approach as something that “should change in different group and individual situations.”[5] While my fire crew represented many different nationalities, we maintained a singular culture: the fire department culture. My team in Kenya was comprised of six different nationalities.
Currently, I find myself leading a much smaller team, comprised more of volunteers than employees. Again, my style of leadership has adapted to the new situation. I have been developing followers and focusing on leading from a place of wholeness. In essence, I have spent the last few years developing as an authentic leader. “George suggests that authentic leaders know their ‘True North’.”[6] My ‘True North’ has been getting more and more grounded in Christ and understanding who he has created me to be. In his book on true leadership grounded in Christ, Simon Walker writes, “True leadership is leadership of ourselves and others into this kind of life: embracing our full humanity, discovering what it is to be fully human, to participate fully in the world.”[7]
Walker understands the link between leaders and followers also. While Northouse speaks of the relationship between leader and follower[8] Walker writes, “The leader’s ability to articulate the goal is vision; but the relationship between followers and the goal is movement.”[9] It is the relationship between leader and follower that develops into forward movement. Until that relationship is cared for and developed the lack of forward momentum will be self-evident.
As we enter the half-way point of our doctoral program, I continue to wonder what God has planned next for me. Generally speaking, every five years my leadership has changed, and I have learned to adapt my leadership along the way. I am hitting the five-year point in my current role and am actively seeking out what God might be leading to next. What kind of leadership will I need for my next role? Thankfully, Northouse provides a great resource to dive back into when the time comes.
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[1] Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, Eighth Edition (Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, 2019), 15.
[2] Northouse, 20.
[3] Northouse, 23.
[4] Northouse, 117.
[5] Northouse, 100.
[6] Northouse, 200.
[7] Simon Walker, Leading Out of Who You Are, The Undefended Leader Trilogy 1 (Carlisle, UK: Piquant Editions Ltd., 2007), 154.
[8] Northouse, 293.
[9] Walker, 5.
About the Author
Adam Cheney
I grew up in California, spent five years living along the beautiful coast of Kenya and now find myself working with refugees in the snow crusted tundra of Minnesota. My wife and I have seven children, four of whom have been adopted. I spend my time drinking lots of coffee, working in my garden, and baking sourdough bread.14 responses to “What is Next?”
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Adam, Thank you for this reminder: “Until [the relationship between the leader and followers] is cared for and developed, the lack of forward momentum will be self-evident.” I have a real-time situation where I need to apply this. As you anticipate your next five-year leadership path, what do you dream it will look like?
Kari,
If only I had the answer to this and knew the future. I would both know what to do and also which crypto currency to invest in.
I just finished writing my syntopical essay and I am in a point of transition. I don’t know the transition but I do know I am shifting directions a bit.
Thanks so much Adam. I love hearing your personal stories of life and leadership. How has your understanding of leadership evolved through different seasons of your life, and how do you see that shaping the kind of leader you aspire to be in the next stage of your journey?
Glyn,
I see the next stage of leadership for me really focusing on team leadership. I think that a team leadership style will be well suited for me as I realize there are many things that I might be good at but equally as many that I am not.
Hi Adam, Your posts always show me something different and for that I am thankful. Specifically, articulating that leadership must adapt in different circumstances is so true, and now that you say it I can start to see how that is true in my career path but also within my current context. Even with modifying for your setting, do you fine that one type would be a “default” that if you were not paying attention you would naturally fall back to?
Diane,
It is easy for me to default back to a more authoritarian style of leadership. The fire department roots run deep in me. This is how I developed as a leader and so it is easy to go back to it. Just ask my kids when I ask them gently (or tell them not so gently) to do their chores on Saturday morning.
Hi Adam, I really appreciated how you highlighted the different seasons of your leadership journey and emphasized the importance of adaptability. That insight resonates deeply because it reflects the inherent challenge of defining leadership—each situation demands something unique. At the same time, I completely agree that staying grounded in your ‘True North’ is essential for balancing adaptability with authenticity.
I’m curious, have you ever experienced a moment as a leader when you struggled to locate your ‘True North’? How did you navigate that challenge and find your way back on track?
Elysse,
I left Kenya fairly burnt out. I had experienced numerous difficulties and suffering. I had a lot of deconstructing to do of my own faith and journey. I never really lost my true north as I realized it is only helpful to deconstruct if I am going to reconstruct. However, I have struggled to step fully back into leadership. I realize that I am now much more ready to do so again.
Adam, you do a good job of capturing the ever-changing nature of leadership and the importance of adapting styles to fit diverse contexts and teams. As you consider the next stage in your leadership journey, what insights from Northouse’s exploration of leadership styles and Walker’s emphasis on “True North” are most important for discerning your future direction?
Chad,
I wish that I knew my future direction. I just wrote half of my essay on this…
Yet, I think that being grounded in Christ, keeping focused on him and being willing to step into the mess is how I am going about doing it. I also think it is important to allow others to see the backstage. For instance, whenever I get ugly emails from people and it calls for a response, I always bcc a friend the email and my response. I do this to hold myself accountable to the way I respond to people.
Love this Adam! I’m wondering, what does it mean to you to lead from a place of wholeness? What does that look like?
Debbie,
Over the last few years, after coming home from Kenya, I was a broken leader. Sure, I have still been leading but I have been leading from a place of hurt and difficulty. After some time, I have realized that I am no longer in that same place but rather I am in a healthier place, spiritually and mentally. So, am I whole? I’m not sure but I am surely more whole than I was before.
Great post Adam. Thanks for modeling the “evolution of a leader” in the various roles and vocations God has cultivated leadership in you. What sort of evaluative questions or tools have you used in adapting your leadership, or has it just come naturally to you?
Ryan,
This must be where the leadership traits come in. I have not used tools, but rather it has been a more natural progression. I think when I went from the fire department to a team in Kenya I realized that there were two very different groups of people who respond to direction and criticism very differently.