{"id":20322,"date":"2018-11-15T10:28:58","date_gmt":"2018-11-15T18:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=20322"},"modified":"2018-11-15T10:34:00","modified_gmt":"2018-11-15T18:34:00","slug":"leadership-emulsification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/leadership-emulsification\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership & Emulsification"},"content":{"rendered":"

There were several \u2018ways in\u2019 to this week\u2019s text for me. Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice <\/em>is a welcome addition to my personal library as it provides a dense overview of leadership as an academic discipline. I found the sections on hard and soft power and identity-based leader development especially helpful. But I was intrigued most when the authors gave an overview of section five entitled: \u2018The Development of Leaders: Knowing, Doing and Being.\u2019[1]<\/a>Woah.<\/p>\n

Did they know my own struggle and story? Did these academic researchers know how painful it has been for me to include \u2018being\u2019 along with all my \u2018doing\u2019? And how I am now deeply convinced these things are irretrievably connected and essential for any leadership challenge?<\/p>\n

I tired some time ago of my approach of one-dimensional, formulaic leadership development, which seemed to overemphasize doing without paying proper attention to being or knowing. But this was not always so. I cannot delve into all the ways my strong preference for doing was cemented in formative, developmental years but suffice it to say that is complex. Even without forces from my Pentecostal church heritage, home dynamics, or American cultural values, my own personality brings enough inclination. As an enneagram three type (achiever), we experience the world as a place that only values people for what they do and accomplish and not for who they are.[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

I was encouraged to read that \u2018<\/em>In contrast to knowing and doing, scholars who focus on \u201cbeing\u201d highlight that leadership is perhaps more importantly a matter of developing the identity of a leader\u2014a self-concept that enables someone to think of himself or herself as a leader and to interact with the world from that identity or sense of being.\u2019[3]<\/strong><\/a><\/em>\u00a0Yes. This is helpful for my personal research insofar as it raises the connection between these things, not that it answers where our identity or sense of being originates from. But I am grateful that at least some scholars assert how critical the inner world of leaders are and how much suffering there is when we fail to attend to it.<\/p>\n

I continue to contemplate on an illustration Dr. Jason Clark offered during a lecture in Hong Kong. He posited that we should see being and doing as an emulsion that once whipped together could not be separated. I have found that it is wasteful of precious energy to attempt to compartmentalize them and it is better to receive them both into our lives. Surely the solution is not to cut out or necessarily decrease the doing \u2013 what would that even mean or look like? How long can one just \u2018be\u2019? In contrast though, and considered much less in general, how long can one just \u2018do\u2019?<\/p>\n

\"Related<\/p>\n

I have wondered for some time if contemplatives have more to teach the modern, evangelical leadership community. They have certainly taught me. But I had to find them on my own due to my pain and later in life than I would have liked. And definitely later in life than I want for the generations behind me. Do they know something about deep rest, reflecting on the love of God and daily examination of the human heart, with its mixed motives, that profoundly impacts our leadership? I think so.<\/p>\n

And while I struggle to articulate and unpack this pivotal shift for me, I know deeply that leadership was not sustainable for me with its excessive emphasis on doing and lack of space and respect for knowing and being. I need it all and I desire the emulsification process to continue. But for emulsification to work, it needs more than one ingredient. And I will probably have to pay attention to this recipe for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n

It has been helpful to now understand that contemplation and self-reflection does not lead to inaction or laziness. It actually leads to better, healthier action and less unexamined reactions.[4]<\/a> Perhaps academia is recognizing this as well? \u2018The willingness and capacity for individuals to be self-reflective\u2026must also be recognized as crucial to the development of leaders. Indeed, developing this capacity for disciplined and honest self-reflection may be essential.\u2019[5]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

I conclude with a quote from Evelyn Underhill, an early nineteenth century mystic, that I have been sitting with for a couple of weeks:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe mostly spend [our] lives conjugating three verbs: to Want, to Have, and to Do… forgetting that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance, except so far as they are transcended by and included in, the fundamental verb, to Be.\u201d[6]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

I am optimistic about the future of church leadership development especially as we make space for knowing and being, alongside all our doing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a>Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana, Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice (Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2014).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>Cron, Ian, writer. “Part 1: Don Miller on Directing Your New Story (Enneagram 3) [S02-014].” In\u00a0Typology<\/em>. November 1, 2018.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>Khurana and Nohria, Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice<\/em>, 21.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a>Rohr, Richard.\u00a0Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self<\/em>. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2013, 71.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a>Khurana and Nohria, Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice<\/em>, 22.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a>Underhill, Evelyn.\u00a0Spiritual Life<\/em>. Place of Publication Not Identified: Martino Fine Books, 2013.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There were several \u2018ways in\u2019 to this week\u2019s text for me. Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice is a welcome addition to my personal library as it provides a dense overview of leadership as an academic discipline. I found the sections on hard and soft power and identity-based leader development especially helpful. But I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[410],"class_list":["post-20322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-nohria-and-khurana","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20322"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20335,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20322\/revisions\/20335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}