{"id":29660,"date":"2022-11-26T14:48:45","date_gmt":"2022-11-26T22:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29660"},"modified":"2022-11-26T14:48:45","modified_gmt":"2022-11-26T22:48:45","slug":"overcoming-leadership-bankruptcy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/overcoming-leadership-bankruptcy\/","title":{"rendered":"Overcoming Leadership Bankruptcy"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are living in a time of \u201cleadership bankruptcy,\u201d therefore, there has never been a greater opportunity for leaders to step up and claim their position.[1]<\/a> Bankruptcy is an unfortunate reality for many corporations and the responsibility frequently rests in the hands of leadership. Leadership can \u201cmake-or-break\u201d an organization and I would argue that it is more important than the product or service itself. \u00a0Eve Poole is an expert in the area of analyzing leadership and is well-known for her leadership at Hult International Business School after working for the Deloitte Consulting capital markets practice and Church Commissioners for England.[2]<\/a> \u00a0Poole\u2019s insights from her book Leadersmithing<\/em>,<\/em> Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership<\/em>, <\/em>reminded me of how important it is to continue to refine my leadership skills so the organizations and people I lead (myself included) never fall victim to any type of bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

Bankruptcy is more than the inability to balance debts that are owed. Bankruptcy is the \u201cabsence, or completely lacking in the quality or value\u201d of something.[3]<\/a> This word was circulating in my head while reading Poole\u2019s book although it is nowhere to be found in her text. The phrase \u201cleadership bankruptcy\u201d was extremely impactful for me in Cape Town, and the practical insights Poole offers are crucial to combat this leadership epidemic we are currently living in. \u00a0This type of bankruptcy has nothing to do with financial metrics and it is disheartening to witness the lack of people stepping up, or worse, the wrong people leading individuals in vital roles such as a pastor. \u00a0In my current role, I have a front-row seat to the worst display of leadership I\u2019ve ever witnessed. I struggle daily to keep my mouth shut, offer support, fill in the gaps behind the scenes, and watch our senior \u201cpastor\u201d swoop in for ninety minutes or less once a month to take the credit for everyone else\u2019s hard work.<\/p>\n

In his defense, there are more moving parts in his organization than my department sees. For more than a year I assumed the other areas in our congregation were balanced and content; however, I am now fielding a lot of complaints from individuals and I\u2019m noticing attendance, motivation, and morale dwindling. The common denominator is the lack of leadership in the church organization that rents space from my ministry. I am also a member of this church and serve daily however, I\u2019m struggling with how to handle this awkward situation that I\u2019m not sure our senior pastor even sees. \u00a0I have respectfully brought a few topics to his attention (and others) however, I feel like Netflix making an offer to acquire Blockbuster and getting laughed out of the meeting. Perhaps they just don\u2019t see it. Maybe they just don\u2019t care. Either is fine in the right context I suppose but I can\u2019t keep pretending there isn\u2019t an elephant in the room. I also care about them and want them to succeed but how can they if they refuse to put forth the necessary effort?<\/p>\n

In the book Leadersmithing<\/em>,<\/em> Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership<\/em>, <\/em>Eve Poole offers a unique perspective on leadership and provides strategies for improving and refining the necessary skills to be an effective leader. I\u2019m considering recommending this book and a few others to the church leadership however, the problem is not going to be fixed from a book, they have to want it and experience it. This book served as a great reminder to me to lead in the now and refine my skills through the \u201cright experiences.\u201d[4]<\/a> Leaders must have anticipatory thinking, foresight, expertise, and communication to lead a group into the unknown.[5]<\/a> Poole claims that developing leadership skills is not limited to age or achievements, although leadership is undoubtedly not for everyone.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, the bankruptcy of a willing church leader is the easiest to fix. I\u2019ve noticed through experience, prayer, and discernment that there is a serious lack of education and experience in our church leadership. I believe there is serious room for improvement and a lot of the problems can be resolved with God\u2019s help. According to Poole, a good leader must be grounded in theory, have the confidence to lead into the unknown, and execute with authority. John quotes Jesus on this subject in his gospel, \u201cYou did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you.\u201d[6]<\/a> All of these skills and examples will improve with practice and effort and I pray that I can be a bridge that leads through example and humble patience instead of harsh discontent and frustration. Poole insists on building one’s confidence to become a better leader which according to her argument, confidence is developed through character.[7]<\/a> I have witnessed this side of leadership and have dramatically changed my attitude in this category of leadership in recent years. She insists on the importance of having a strengthened character which she relates to the process as mastery act similar to training muscle memory.[8]<\/a> Character is crucial as it helps in future-proofing one’s craft in the leadership dynamic. Poole explains the meaning of leadersmithing, which she claims to be about craft, mastery, and the willpower of apprenticeship that helps in upgrading one’s skill and ability to perform, which gives people the power to keep rising in control as a quality leader.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Cape Town, Seminary Advance \u201cbuzz word.\u201d<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> www.evepoole.com<\/a><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Oxford Languages, \u201cbankruptcy.\u201d<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Poole, Eve. Leadersmithing, 10<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Cultural Leadership Lecture, Dr. Karen Tremper<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> John 15:16<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Poole, Leadersmithing, 39<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Ibid, 56<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Ibid., 70<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are living in a time of \u201cleadership bankruptcy,\u201d therefore, there has never been a greater opportunity for leaders to step up and claim their position.[1] Bankruptcy is an unfortunate reality for many corporations and the responsibility frequently rests in the hands of leadership. Leadership can \u201cmake-or-break\u201d an organization and I would argue that it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"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":[2309],"tags":[2091,2090],"class_list":["post-29660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership","tag-leadersmithing","tag-poole","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29660","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\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29661,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29660\/revisions\/29661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}