{"id":22718,"date":"2019-04-12T18:03:02","date_gmt":"2019-04-13T01:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=22718"},"modified":"2019-04-12T18:03:02","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T01:03:02","slug":"daring-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/daring-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Daring Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leadership holds a different meaning for me today than it did a few years ago when I was serving as Director of the American Red Cross, Director of the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission, and finally Director of the Kalamazoo Prayer Center \u2013 all over a 20-year span. Back then, leadership <\/strong>to me meant \u201cexpert of everything, designer and implementor of ALL projects, powerful fund development director, and highly recognized face in the community.\u201d <\/em>I felt that I had to be it all! My internal vision put so much pressure and expectation upon myself. I thought I needed to know it all and make it all happen, because the \u201cball stops here\u201d and I needed that ball to keep rolling \u2013 which I thought was my responsibility. At the time, it was my Type A personality that led me; not my faith in a loving God who was there to guide me down this roadway called LIFE.<\/p>\n

Being a leader<\/em> has a new meaning to me as I\u2019ve moved away from the \u2018needing to get ahead\u2019 phase of my life and settled into my \u2018journey with Christ\u2019 leadership role. As a Chaplain, I don\u2019t see myself as a leader, but instead as a humbled servant. But I believe there is influence in that as well. In a book by Northouse, Leadership Theory and Practice<\/em>, the author describes leadership as a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a<\/strong> common goal<\/strong>.[1]<\/a> I love the author\u2019s use of the word \u201cprocess<\/em>\u201d versus more common terms of leadership (as defined in Oxford Dictionary as \u201cboss, supervisor, and\/or commander.\u201d) Because leadership is not one person, but truly a process towards a means \u2013 it takes working together with others for the goal to be reached.<\/p>\n

I have not viewed myself as a leader over the past few years \u2013 as I have moved from a highly visible community presence position into the role of a chaplain. Yet, I\u2019ve never felt more fulfilled and I am in awe as I see my patients learning and emulating the gifts I bring to them through the Word. There is no competition, no having to prove myself, no fa\u00e7ade. I am just serving them in any way I can to help them find peace and contentment at the end of their life. Missing from this picture are the administrative duties, the company politics, and the weight that leadership generally brings with it. So, am I still a leader in my role as a Chaplain? I will use a looking glass into Brown\u2019s Dare to Lead<\/em> to decide.<\/p>\n

Brown describes a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential.[2]<\/a><\/strong> In Brown\u2019s intro, she explained that the courage to be vulnerable is not about winning or losing, it\u2019s about the courage to show up when you can\u2019t predict or control the outcome.[3]<\/a><\/strong> Living a brave life in difficult circumstances is an important aspect of leadership. In Hospice work, serving individuals who are dying as well as their distraught families can be difficult, as the situation cannot be controlled or predicted. God has got a hold on the final say. But sometimes, just being present for these individuals are all that is needed. And, I suppose, this is where my leadership role comes in \u2013 to influence and help people find their potential during times of loss and pain. As the author notes, daring leaders work to make sure people can be themselves and feel a sense of belonging.[4]<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s book was powerful, as it explored leadership through our values, through being courageous and by learning to rise and take our place in our leadership position. As the author quoted, we fail the minute we let someone else define success for us<\/strong>.[5]<\/a> True leaders must understand what success is to them\u2026and then OWN it!<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Peter Northouse, Leadership Theory and Practice<\/em> (Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications),<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> <\/a>Brene Brown, Dare to Lead: Brave Work, Tough Conversations, and Whole Hearts <\/em>(New York, NY: Random House, 2018), 38.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Brown, Dare to Lead, <\/em>intro.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Brown, Dare to Lead, <\/em>88.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Brown, Dare to Lead, <\/em>144.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leadership holds a different meaning for me today than it did a few years ago when I was serving as Director of the American Red Cross, Director of the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission, and finally Director of the Kalamazoo Prayer Center \u2013 all over a 20-year span. Back then, leadership to me meant \u201cexpert of everything, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"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":[1523],"class_list":["post-22718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lgp9-brown","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22718","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\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22719,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22718\/revisions\/22719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}