{"id":28415,"date":"2022-03-20T09:03:24","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T16:03:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=28415"},"modified":"2022-03-20T09:03:24","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T16:03:24","slug":"a-critical-and-complex-commodity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-critical-and-complex-commodity\/","title":{"rendered":"A critical and complex commodity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northouse\u2019s excellent analysis of leadership in every generation since Aristotle<\/em> highlights the critical nature of this subject[1]<\/a>. Indeed, from the beginning of time, long before Aristotle came on the scene, God demonstrates leadership by initiating creation, modelling character, facilitating change, and influencing many individuals and groups for good. Inspired by God, several individuals continued this trend of showing how significant leadership is by achieving exploits such as conceiving and leading a food security program that helped the whole world escape starvation (Joseph); facilitating freedom for a nation after four centuries of slavery under a super-power (Moses); and communicating the most important message on earth to the then known world (Paul). The high volume of leadership research since the beginning of the twentieth century suggests leadership continues to be a valued commodity[2]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Indeed, as Joseph Campbell shows in The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/em>, every culture has leaders, albeit with a leadership style that best suits the context in which the leader finds himself or herself[3]<\/a>. Like Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, some of these individuals, historical and contemporary, assembled a respectable team of dedicated staff that facilitated remarkable transformation within their context. Today, Singapore is respected as one of the most competitive nations on earth, but it will probably not be what it is today without the critical contribution of Prime Minister Lee.<\/p>\n

In addition to being a critical commodity, leadership is also a complex one. Northouse points out that there are over 200 definitions of leadership, with each emphasizing an element of the concept: traits, behavior, influence, transformation, situation, process and a host of other factors[4]<\/a>. I think it is imperative that there is no one size fits all<\/em> approach to leadership because of the significant difference in contexts and worldviews around the world. Sometimes, even within the same context, a difference in seasons may signal the need for a different type of leadership. During the era spanning the exodus from Egypt to the appointment of King Saul, Israel was led by prophets and priests. But with the introduction of kings, an important leadership shift took place that sometimes resulted in prolonged seasons of idolatry and injustice.<\/p>\n

Within my ministry context among low-income communities in my city, I am not certain what might be the most appropriate leadership style. It seems like what will work best would be a combination of styles. For example, a situation of extreme deprivation and broken relationships seems to call for a combination of transformational and situational leadership, as there is significant need for political leaders dedicated to changing a culture of corruption to one of service delivery. This could tackle widespread hunger, homelessness, poor sanitation facilities and other challenges. Yet the transformation needed goes far beyond addressing material needs. The worldview, cultural values and belief systems also need to change. Otherwise, we run the risk of achieving a transformation that is shallow and temporary. For mindset change to happen, spiritual leaders, educators, and media practitioners actually play a more critical role than political leaders. \u00a0As such a combination of leadership approaches might be best, rather than one single approach. Perhaps this is part of the lesson learnt in combining prophets, priests and kings to lead Israel in Old Testament times. Each might emphasize a different aspect of leadership and ultimately, provide the nation with the right combination of leadership approaches required. Indeed, two heads are better than one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Northouse, Peter, G., Crystal L. Hoyt, Susan E. Kogler Hill, Stefanie Simon. Leadership: Theory and Practice.<\/em> (Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2019), 53.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Northouse et al., Leadership. 33.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces<\/em>. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004). xxvi.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Northouse et al., Leadership, 33.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Northouse\u2019s excellent analysis of leadership in every generation since Aristotle highlights the critical nature of this subject[1]. Indeed, from the beginning of time, long before Aristotle came on the scene, God demonstrates leadership by initiating creation, modelling character, facilitating change, and influencing many individuals and groups for good. Inspired by God, several individuals continued this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"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":[35,2258],"class_list":["post-28415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-leadership","tag-northouse","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28415","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\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28415"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28416,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28415\/revisions\/28416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}