Even though I know better, I keep reading these leadership books in hopes of finding some magic formula for being a great leader. Maybe there is a step by step process, a check list of some sort, that will not only get me to the head of the (conference) table but will also keep me there because of the magnificent leadership skills I have learned and honed through reading these books.<\/p>\n
Like I said, I know better. I know there is no magic formula, no step-by-step process, nor checklist for leadership. The closest thing I have found to a magic formula in the books we\u2019ve read for class has been to deeply know who you are and Whose you are.<\/p>\n
Friedman talks about self-differentiation,[1]<\/a> Walker says we should be undefended,[2]<\/a> Poole stresses the need for character because, as she writes in her book, Leadersmithing, \u201cit is the very thing that will save you when everything else is stripped away.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n In his book, The Sound of Leadership, Kingdom Notes to Fine Tune Your Life and Influence, Jules Glanzer likens leadership to an acoustical art, a sound experience, the ability to \u201chear and discern the many voices while at the same time calling other voices into a harmonious sound of imagining and creating the future, all the while developing one\u2019s own soundtrack and listening for the voice of God.\u201d[4]<\/a> In chapter seven Glanzer gives us the key to doing this well when he writes, \u201cLeadership is being that results in doing. Who you are determines how you lead. How you lead flows from who you are.\u201d[5]<\/a> While in this chapter he was referring to how our unique personalities, strengths, values, sovereign foundations, events, personal bests, and broken world experiences in life have shaped us into the persons we are today and how who we are is expressed with a set of behavioral tendencies, a leadership personality, and a certain style, in the end, \u201ca leader\u2019s voice, tone, and mood are an expression of his or her inner being.\u201d[6]<\/a> And I think it is the \u201cinner-being\u201d that Glanzer finds most important for leadership.<\/p>\n He continues in this chapter to list characteristics such as integrity, courage, humility stating that they \u201cdemonstrate the basic form for leadership character.\u201d I would argue that these characteristics are also a foundational piece of being self-differentiated and of knowing who you are and Whose you are.<\/p>\n Throughout the book Glanzer ends each chapter with a \u201cKingdom Takeaway\u201d asking the reader questions to consider about how their leadership might best participate in God\u2019s kingdom. Most, if not all, of the questions lead the reader to also consider how she might know herself and God more fully, again, leading the reader to a deeper knowing of who she is and Whose she is.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A few critiques of and encouragement to Glanzer<\/strong><\/p>\n There were several comments made by Glanzer in his book that left me squirming as I think I understood where he was coming from but wanted to challenge him to consider another perspective. One of those comments was made in chapter two when he discussed how during the racial unrest and the COVID pandemic he released a statement on behalf of the college where he served as president. In this statement he claimed the college\u2019s commitment to value all people. Glanzer writes about listening to all voices, to hearing the sounds they make. I wonder if he might have listened more closely to the voices of people of color who rightfully and genuinely are still hurt by the actions of those with white skin. I wonder if those of us with white skin need to listen to the voices of people of color for at least as long as they have been listening to ours before we start making comments that disregard their voices, such as \u201call are welcome.\u201d \u201cAll are welcome\u201d seems innocent, but it is like saying \u201cAll lives matter.\u201d Of course all lives matter, but in keeping with the music analogy, white people have had the solo for too long and now it is time to let people of color sing their song.<\/p>\n The other comment he made was in lifting up the quote from Sam Walton, \u201cOutstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it\u2019s amazing what they can accomplish.\u201d[7]<\/a> While the quote itself is fine, it\u2019s using Sam Walton as an example that gives me pause. Sam Walton was best known for founding Wal-Mart and Sam\u2019s Club. Wal-Mart grew to be the world\u2019s largest corporation by revenue as well as the biggest private employer in the world.[8]<\/a> For a time, Walton was the richest person in the United States. All of this might point to him being a great leader, yet, his most of his employees do not make a living wage.[9]<\/a> Not only this but critiques have been made of Wal-Mart for contributing to sexism, and fundamentalist Christianity in which women are subordinate to men.[10]<\/a> I say all this, not to get into a conversation about Sam Walton but as a critique of Glanzer using Walton as an example of a kingdom leader.<\/p>\n \n \n [1]<\/a> Edwin Friedman, A Failure of Nerve, Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix<\/em>, Church Publishing Incorporated, 2017, 16.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Simon P. Walker,\u00a0Leading Out Of Who You Are: Discovering the Secret of Undefended Leadership<\/em>.\u00a0.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Eve Poole, Leadersmithing<\/em>, Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership<\/em>\u00a0(London\u202f; New York, NY: Bloomsbury Business, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2017), 55.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Jules Glazner, The Sound of Leadership<\/em>, Invite Press (2023), page 29 (Scribd)<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Ibid, 101.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Ibid, 98.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Ibid, 110.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Wikipedia https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sam_Walton<\/p>\n