I\u2019ve always felt comfortable leading. From early in my life, I could naturally envision a preferred future, could see obstacles to that future, and then rally others around overcoming challenges to accomplishing that vision. I\u2019ve been professionally serving in some form of leadership for over 35 years, and along the way I picked up a master\u2019s degree in leadership and now, of course, I am working on a leadership doctorate.<\/p>\n
But as much as I am drawn to serve people through leading, I must admit that leadership can be tiring. I\u2019m not quite to the point where I believe that \u201cleadership would be great if it wasn\u2019t for the people\u201d, but there are days when I get close.<\/p>\n
However, most of my life I\u2019ve understood that\u2019s just part of what leadership is. It\u2019s not always fun (though it often is), and if times weren\u2019t difficult, there wouldn\u2019t be a need for a leader to help discern how to get through difficult times.<\/p>\n
That confession aside, I\u2019ve generally felt competent to lead; I can pivot and adjust through different requirements of leadership, and I sleep well at night knowing I\u2019ve done my best and that I can pick up tomorrow where I left off today.<\/p>\n
That is, I felt all of those things until 2020.<\/p>\n
2020 is when everything about leadership changed. Every day I had to deal with a new crisis, or had to face something I\u2019d never experienced, or I had to have answers I wasn\u2019t equipped to get and didn\u2019t know where to turn to find. And when I say every day, I\u2019m not being hyperbolic. Literally every day of 2020 and into 2021 I woke up with the dread of what new challenge might present itself and wondered if I was up for the task.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not kidding when I say there were days when I felt like I knew nothing about leadership, when I couldn\u2019t make a decision to save my (or anyone else\u2019s) life, and when I would have been just fine to quit if God gave me that option.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m embarrassed to say that seemingly overnight I transformed from a comfortable, relatively competent leader to someone who (for the first time in my life) didn\u2019t want to face the day.<\/p>\n
That is a too-long introduction to get to the point of this blog post, which is this: I wish I would have had a book like Rethinking Leadership: A Critique of Contemporary Theories<\/em> at the beginning of 2020, because this book provides essential insights to leading in a season like the one where I almost threw in the towel.<\/p>\n Annabel Beerel wrote her book in the middle of the Pandemic with the unique leadership challenges of that season in mind. She noticed that \u201cwhen Covid-19 struck… few leaders were to be found. Most of them ignored the problem and started pointing fingers at others. China was to blame. The World Health Organization was to blame. The federal Government of the US was to blame. Brexit, you name it, all got thrown into the stew of confusion, denial, bravado, and defensive posturing by those supposedly in charge… then reactivity kicked in.\u201d [1]<\/a><\/p>\n These opening words to her book cut me to the heart. I had a lot of fingers pointed at me in that season. And I pointed a few myself.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not what leadership is. Leadership isn\u2019t reactive but proactive; it\u2019s not accusatory but it takes responsibility. And leaders are perhaps most needed most when an organization, or the world, is on fire. That\u2019s just part of what leadership is. And if we can\u2019t take the heat, perhaps we need to get out of the kitchen.<\/p>\n Beerel tells us why she wrote the book: \u201cWhile many will try to return to the old ways, they will fail. The past is gone. A new world is emerging that requires a whole other level of consciousness. In short, new leaders are needed. This book is about those new leaders and the new leadership required.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n And through the book she examines leadership philosophy, theory, and practice, with an interdisciplinary approach, viewed through the lens of the new leaders and leadership that will be required. It was helpful to review aspects of leadership that I have already encountered in my studies, but with a framework pointing to applying these amid a crisis.<\/p>\n My most valuable takeaway wasn\u2019t something Beerel wrote but a thought that the book inspired in me: I am a leader; God knew I would be leading at such a time as this, and if I am to fulfill my calling, I can\u2019t put my head in the sand or not get out of bed. Instead, I need to learn as much as I can about leading in uncertain times so I can serve people who need authentic, adaptive, transpersonal, and systemic leadership[3]<\/a> when their<\/em> world is falling apart, too.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t say that Rethinking Leadership is going to keep me out of my next leadership crisis, but it\u2019s helpful to know that I own a book that I can reference the next time one comes up.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Annabel Beerel. Rethinking Leadership: A Critique of Contemporary Theories.<\/em> London and New York: Routledge, 2021.<\/p>\n