\u201cWe have become so focused on leading others, we have fundamentally lost the ability to lead ourselves.\u201d1 <\/p>\n
“Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you.”2 <\/p>\n
The Sound of Leadership by Jules Glanzer argues that leadership is not about position or power, but about character and influence. He argues that leaders must be people of integrity who live their lives according to their values. Attempting to lead others without taking heed to ourselves first is just making a lot of noise. Combining sound and leadership theory he draws on his own experiences as well as the wisdom of Scripture to take the reader on an acoustic journey which reframes how we usually think of Leadership. Glanzer\u2019s thinking reminds me of the words of Edwin Friedman, \u201cWhat counts is the leader\u2019s presence and being, not technique and know-how.\u201d3. <\/p>\n
By helping to lead himself well and paying close attention to himself, the leader\u2019s ability to lead will be enhanced by the voices he listens to. Glanzer uses four chapters to emphasize the importance of discerning, hearing, and deciding on which voices to listen to. Ultimately his premise is to listen to God\u2019s voice, the Voice of One. \u201cI firmly believe that kingdom seeking, God honoring, biblically rooted leadership needs to learn how to hear God\u2019s voice. Leaders must lead from a divine center with a heart in tune with the heart of God.\u201d4 <\/p>\n
Since Glanzer believes strongly in listening to the Voice of One, it would have been helpful for him to give a couple of examples on how he feels this is best accomplished. He did talk about how Christ responded to life by getting away in solitude and silence at times, but solitude and silence are weak areas for the Western culture. How does one attend to the heart\u2019s desperate longing for God in the midst of so much religious activity. Ruth Haley Barton said it well, \u201cTo enter into solitude and silence is to take the spiritual life seriously.\u201d5. Entering into solitude and silence will help us to lead ourselves well because we are paying close attention to ourselves. But the emphasis is really on the Voice of One. Maybe our western \u201csound of leadership\u201d can be:<\/p>\n
1.\tWalking in the woods to hear the wind, the leaves or branches crushing beneath our feet.
\n2.\tVisiting a church with stained glass windows to feel the presence and hear the Voice of One speak in silence.
\n3.\tWalking through a cemetery to be reminded of what it means to be dead to the power of sin.
\n4.\tDriving to work in silence thinking about and thanking God for your leadership gifts.
\n5.\tStaying seated and bowing your head on Sunday morning and losing yourself in the presence of God, while everyone else is standing to sing.
\n6.\tVisiting and sitting quietly in the waiting room of an ER or hospital to allow God to remind you of your brokenness and his overwhelming grace that covers your brokenness. <\/p>\n
The above 6 are just a few ways we can enhance our leadership and influence by choosing to be with the One. \u201cHe [Jesus] lived a God-arranged life continually listening to the voice of his Father instructing him on actions he took.\u201d6 Could it be that a God-arranged life is so deep that it can only come from a life that has spent time praying without words?<\/p>\n
After Glanzer spends time pointing the leader to the Voice of One, he talks about the calling of the leader, preparation for leadership, style of the leader, and the leader\u2019s legacy. One of the most profound statements in his book is once again, about the leader\u2019s character, \u201cLeadership is being that results in doing. Who you are determines how you lead. How you lead flows from who you are.\u201d To be this type of leader takes \u201cdoing uncomfortable work.\u201d7 Working on self-awareness is uncomfortable. Spending time in silence with the Voice of One can be uncomfortable. Being aware of how our backstage influences our front stage can be uncomfortable.8 Choosing to do uncomfortable work as part of your leadership style comes from paying close attention to yourself in order to lead others well. <\/p>\n
The book comes to a brilliant crescendo as Glanzer emphasizes a \u201cmagnum opus\u201d which he calls, \u201cone\u2019s greatest piece of work.\u201d9 For him one\u2019s greatest piece of work is multiplication: investing his life in leaders so they can eventually invest in other leaders. \u201cThe best leaders create more leaders.\u201d10 We lead ourselves by paying close attention to ourselves. One way of doing this is spending time in solitude and silence with the One. After this, all those tools and ideas we use to become more effective leaders will help our ministries to thrive because leadership is being that results in doing. This is definitely music to my ears. <\/p>\n
1.\tMichael Brody-Waite, Great Leaders Live Like Drug Addicts, 10.
\n2.\tI Timothy 4:16, (New International Version), 2010.
\n3.\tEdwin H. Friedman, A Failure of Nerve, 18.
\n4.\tJules Glanzer, The Sound of Leadership, 2.
\n5.\tRuth Haley Barton, Invitation to Solitude and Silence, 34.
\n6.\tJules Glanzer, The Sound of Leadership, 30.
\n7.\tMichael Brody-Waite, Great Leaders Live Like Drug Addicts, 103.
\n8.\tSimon Walker, Leading out of Who You Are, 23.
\n9.\tJules Glanzer, The Sound of Leadership, 120.
\n10.\tIbid, 118.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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