{"id":29334,"date":"2022-11-01T18:54:04","date_gmt":"2022-11-02T01:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29334"},"modified":"2022-11-01T18:54:04","modified_gmt":"2022-11-02T01:54:04","slug":"a-better-metric-for-strong-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-better-metric-for-strong-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"A Better Metric for Strong Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhy is <\/span>he<\/span><\/i> seen as a leader?\u201d This was on my mind often when this ministry leader at the megachurch I worked at came to mind. The staff culture possessed a great emphasis on \u201cleadership.\u201d A \u201cstrong\u201d leader was taken seriously and had a future within the organization. This particular ministry leader, we\u2019ll call him Kevin, baffled me. Why? Because no one on his team liked him. He was arrogant, driven, results-oriented, abrasive, and had a talent for burning through staff members under him. But he was a high performer. He got results. He was a leader according to some. Confused? So was I.<\/span><\/p>\n

Simon Walker, author of <\/span>Leading out of Who You Are<\/span><\/i>[1]<\/i><\/b>, highlights that despite the plethora of examples of people who made an impact through strength and power, this is not the whole story of leadership. Leadership being solely about strength and power is a myth. Yes, there are the likes of Genghis Khans and Alexander the Great who shook humanity and shaped the trajectory of history. But then there are those who, Walker would argue, made a greater impact. Those who chose a different way of leadership \u2013 the path of weakness and releasing power, such as Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, and Jesus of Nazareth.<\/span><\/p>\n

The world of the American Megachurch is guilty of largely taking its leadership cues from the meritocratic business world.<\/span>[2]<\/span> When numerical results are the sole metric of success, how many bodies an individual gathers into a room becomes prioritized above all. Charisma covers a multitude of sins. The insidious virus of narcissism crouches at the church\u2019s doorstep.<\/span>[3]<\/span><\/p>\n

But the business world is not completely oblivious to the flaw of prioritizing \u201cstrength\u201d over character. Dr. Tim Irwin used a former CEO of Home Depot as an example of power-wielding leadership \u2013 Bob Nardelli. Nardelli \u201cseemed bent on motivating people by fear and control.\u201d<\/span>[4]<\/span> Though he took a position of strength and power, he eventually failed as a leader. As Irwin writes, \u201cWhile no one will argue that Nardelli is highly capable, he will likely not fulfill his potential as a leader until he learns what all great leaders know: greatness does not result from competence only; it flows from an inspired workforce who trusts the character of its leader.\u201d<\/span>[5]<\/span> In the words of Walker, \u201cLeadership is about who you are, not what you know or what skills you have.\u201d<\/span>[6]<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are four key qualities Irwin focuses on as essential for immunity from leadership failure. They are authenticity, self-management, humility, and courage.<\/span>[7]<\/span> Bravado is not the sign of strength in the business world. Humility is the key ingredient. Jim Collins famously shed light on this in his business classic <\/span>Good to Great<\/span><\/i>.<\/span>[8]<\/span> Through researching companies that went from good to great \u2013 the first key component Collins found was the kind of CEOs at such organizations. He found these leaders to possess \u201cextreme personal humility with intense professional will.\u201d<\/span>[9]\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kevin may have been effective in getting results. But he does not fit this definition of a strong leader. He was arrogant, and humility is a sign of strong leadership. The business world is catching on to this. Maybe the megachurch can too. Though my understanding of strong leadership was marred, nowadays it is reoriented around Jesus and his example of meekness. Walker reminds us that those who leave the greatest impact in the world are those who use deliberate acts of self-sacrifice and weakness. They are those who have the integrity to lead with moral authority. They lead by example by leading out of who they are.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/span> Simon P. Walker, <\/span>Leading out of Who You Are: Discovering the Secret of Undefended Leadership<\/span><\/i>, The Undefended Leader Trilogy. 1 (Carlisle: Piquant, 2007).<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/span> Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer, <\/span>A Church Called Tov: Forming a Goodness Culture That Resists Abuses of Power and Promotes Healing<\/span><\/i> (Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, 2020), 203.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]<\/span> This is highlighted in Chuck DeGroat, <\/span>When Narcissism Comes to Church: Healing Your Community From Emotional and Spiritual Abuse<\/span><\/i> (Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP, 2020).<\/span><\/p>\n

[4]<\/span> Tim Irwin, <\/span>Derailed: Five Lessons Learned from Catastrophic Failures of Leadership (NelsonFree)<\/span><\/i> (HarperCollins Leadership, 2012), 30.<\/span><\/p>\n

[5]<\/span> Ibid. 35.<\/span><\/p>\n

[6]<\/span> Walker, <\/span>Leading out of Who You Are, 5<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

[7]<\/span> Irwin, <\/span>Derailed, 17<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

[8]<\/span> James C. Collins, <\/span>Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap–and Others Don\u2019t<\/span><\/i>, 1st ed (New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2001).<\/span><\/p>\n

[9]<\/span> Ibid. 21.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhy is he seen as a leader?\u201d This was on my mind often when this ministry leader at the megachurch I worked at came to mind. The staff culture possessed a great emphasis on \u201cleadership.\u201d A \u201cstrong\u201d leader was taken seriously and had a future within the organization. This particular ministry leader, we\u2019ll call him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"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":[2007,2428,35,1760,1718],"class_list":["post-29334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp","tag-home-depot","tag-leadership","tag-megachurch","tag-walker","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29334","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\/152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29335,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29334\/revisions\/29335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}