{"id":27873,"date":"2021-11-03T12:50:01","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T19:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=27873"},"modified":"2021-11-03T12:50:01","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T19:50:01","slug":"this-is-your-brain-on-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/this-is-your-brain-on-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is Your Brain on Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fable, \u201cPrince and the Sheep,\u201d a young royal took leadership after his father\u2019s death. Drought, disease, and enemies decimated the land. The young prince escaped the danger and met his childhood friend, the king of a neighboring kingdom. His friend gave the prince one hundred sheep that he promptly lost to wolves. His second request for help secured fifty sheep that also succumbed to preying wolves. A third request resulted in only twenty-five sheep gifted. The prince felt that there would be no more sheep given if he lost this allotment. He studied how wolves attack, added extra fences, and placed guards all around. After a few years, the herd grew into one thousand sheep. After sharing the growth, the king granted the prince a whole state over which to rule. The prince asked, \u201cWhy did you not give me the state to rule when I first came to you for help?\u201d The friend king answered, \u201cFirst time when you came to me for help, your mindset was like you were born and bred to be a leader, but the truth was you were far from it. You might have been born in wealth, pride, and power, but you have never been properly educated and trained to lead your people. So, when I gave you the herd, I was waiting for you to learn how to manage and lead others. Dear friend, now I believe you are ready to lead others!\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

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The fable illustrates the premise of Eve Poole\u2019s \u201cLeadersmithing,\u201d namely that C-suite leadership (CEO, CFO, CIO) growth and effectiveness results from specific practiced behaviors in real-life, ideally stressful, situations. Part 1 of the book details the theory behind the premise. Leaders are not born; they are made.[2]<\/a> More specifically, real leaders acquire the needed skills through the forge of trials. Poole lists seventeen leadership behaviors she calls \u201ccritical incidents.\u201d Practicing those critical incidents before they arise in real-time creates a template in the brain, a \u201cmuscle memory,\u201d that allows greater efficacy in the time of the actual event. Drawing heavily on neurobiology, Poole describes the evolutionary development of survival responses occurring when one comes under stress. The brain stores threats as templates for future demands involving survival. Commenting on experiments measuring learning specifically under stress, Poole states, \u201c\u2026we discovered that the simulation both accelerates learning and extends the shelf-life of that learning by embedding it deep in the emotional memory.\u201d[3]<\/a> Put under stress, people learn faster, create memories that last, aiding future leadership effectiveness.<\/p>\n

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Part 2 of the book applies the theory, giving practical ways to form leadership behaviors necessary for effectiveness at the top levels. The metaphor of a deck of cards assists in identifying fifty-two weeks\u2019 worth of apprenticed activities for leadership growth or \u201cvertical development.\u201d The second part of the book proves useful as a personal leadership development plan.<\/p>\n

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Poole\u2019s premise relates significantly to my NPO. The church needs to develop digital natives (Millennials and Gen Z) into leaders for the next generation. Sure, but what best constitutes leadership growth? Speaking generally, the Western evangelical church emphasizes content (i.e. information or knowledge) as the growth goal and the measure of maturity. In my own experience, many people occupy seats in church classrooms for decades but put minimal knowledge gained into practice. Christians know more than they do yet often yearn to learn another new thing. In addition, I believe the Western church overemphasizes the gift of teaching and underemphasizes the gift of leadership. The Western church does lack content, but the need for intentional redemptive action often goes wanting. Have we substituted the valuable ingredient of knowledge as the \u201cwin\u201d rather than the application that moves reality to be \u201con earth as it is in heaven?\u201d A central tenet of my NPO asserts that learning happens best experientially. Future church leaders will be formed best in real-life experiences, not classrooms.<\/p>\n

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In a TEDx talk, Eve Poole, a theology graduate from Durham University, quotes Romans 5: 3-5, \u201c\u2026we\u00a0rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering\u00a0produces endurance,\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>and\u00a0hope does not put us to shame\u2026\u201d[4]<\/a> (ESV) Peril, struggle, and trials produce positive qualities not developed any other way. I agree with her supposition. I took a typical educational route toward ministry in my own leadership journey, including three years of seminary. During those years, I learned a lot of great information and ministry skills. My first year in ministry became a condensed, crash course about the realities of pastoring in the real world. Many of those lessons came the hard way, through stress, confrontation, and mistakes. I learned a lot that still serves me well. I believe Ms. Poole would say, \u201cI told you so!\u201d<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> K. Manikandan, \u201c3 Inspiring Short Stories about Leadership you Should Read to Be a Better manager,\u201d August 21, 2021 https:\/\/winnersstory.com\/short-stories-leadership-1\/<\/a>, accessed November 2, 2021.<\/p>\n

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[2]<\/a> Eve Poole, Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership <\/em>(London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc., 2017), 2.<\/p>\n

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[3]<\/a> Ibid., 38.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Eve Poole, \u201cLeadersmithing,\u201d TEDxDurhamUniversity, April 12, 2017 https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=73L1613KDnw<\/a>, accessed November 3, 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the fable, \u201cPrince and the Sheep,\u201d a young royal took leadership after his father\u2019s death. Drought, disease, and enemies decimated the land. The young prince escaped the danger and met his childhood friend, the king of a neighboring kingdom. His friend gave the prince one hundred sheep that he promptly lost to wolves. His […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"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":[2091,2090],"class_list":["post-27873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-leadersmithing","tag-poole","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27873","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\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27874,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27873\/revisions\/27874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}