{"id":36609,"date":"2024-03-13T16:22:51","date_gmt":"2024-03-13T23:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=36609"},"modified":"2024-03-13T17:10:26","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T00:10:26","slug":"the-power-of-undefended-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-power-of-undefended-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Undefended Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo Credit: Canva<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIn order to become myself I must cease to be what I always thought I wanted to be, and in order to find myself I must go out of myself, and in order to live, I must die.\u201d<\/em> \u2014 Thomas Merton[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

The concept of undefended leadership is new to me. I appreciated how Simon Walker, in his book Leading Out of Who You Are: Discovering the Secret of Undefended Leadership<\/em> creates a persona of the undefended leader as one who is aware of their vulnerabilities, shares their mistakes, and is unguarded in their approach to their team and the world.<\/p>\n

The Undefenders vs. The Defenders<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had an image of a leader who entered a room packed full of teammates wearing heavy armor. They look around the room, remove the armor, and plop down into a seat next to the least likely teammate as if to say, I\u2019m just like you but with a different role. \u201cThe idea of undefended leadership is that we are secured not by our skills and resources but by our attachment to another\u2014one who is big enough not to be overwhelmed by our failures and weaknesses.\u201d [2]<\/a><\/p>\n

This person operates from a posture of trust and authenticity, leading by example, showing their team that it\u2019s safe to be vulnerable, risks are worth taking, and failure is okay. \u201cThe soulful leader pays attention to such inner realities and the questions that they raise rather than ignoring them and continuing the charade or judging himself or herself harshly and thus cutting off the possibility of deeper awareness.\u201d[3] \u00a0<\/a>It’s not about who they are as much as it is that they recognize their own humanity.<\/p>\n

On the opposite spectrum, the Defender tends to operate out of anger, which has a ripple effect on everything they do and everyone they meet, leaving a wake after each lashing. This leader has lost their sense of worth. What lies behind their role has turned dark. In fact, knowing your worth is \u201cnot optional but imperative.\u201d[4]<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

What are Your Defense Mechanisms?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since leadership is often symbolic of control, rooted in a fear of losing grip on power, it\u2019s important to foster an environment of trust instead of building walls to shield themselves because that wall is a fa\u00e7ade for what lurks in the leader\u2019s inner world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

The goal is to dismantle this ideology\u2014to redefine success. Instead, taking responsibility and holding oneself accountable is the more mature stance. The next step is to pay it forward\u2014to help others become more responsible and mature. This \u201cis the primary task of leadership.\u201d\u00a0[6]<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

What Are the Roots of the Defenders and How Deep Do They Go?<\/strong><\/p>\n

They are multifaceted, stemming from past experiences, societal expectations, and competition. Understanding the origins doesn\u2019t absolve a person\u2019s responsibility to rectify their existence. One of the identifiers that Walker mentions is powerlessness.<\/p>\n

That one struck home for me. I have been working on this through Spiritual Direction and therapy. It has been a long journey of undoing and unlearning. Just as Walker describes the Defender\u2019s goal of dividing everyone into a category of safe vs. unsafe, why not nurture my own inner world?[7]<\/em><\/a> That was my aha moment.<\/p>\n

The Freedom to Fail<\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019re allowed to fail? Why, yes. Walker writes about the freedom to fail because society\u2019s view of success sets you up to fail and becomes an emotional trap. He shares a parable of a leader attending a party in their honor, and at the end, when everyone has left, and they are left alone, a voice reassures them that they are not only special but precious. This goes beyond any human relationship. It is Divine and is with you always, nudging you to be courageous\u2014always nurturing the self-sacrifice of the Shaping Ego.[8]<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

How Does This Happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n

By becoming more childlike! Not exactly. Walker’s concept of leading as a child challenges the stereotypes of leadership that are synonymous with adult-like control and dominance. Child-like leaders possess an inquisitive mind, an openness to explore, and the candidness to express themselves, unencumbered by the typical adult constraint of defending their image.<\/p>\n

What about morals? Moral authority does not arise from imposing one’s will but from leading by example. Moral authority is about the consistency between what one says and what one does. This breeds trust and is a catalyst for cultivating relationships based on integrity, and it comes from a leader\u2019s \u201cpersonal struggle and loss.\u201d[9]<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Takeaways<\/strong><\/p>\n

At first, I thought this was going to be a book about servant leadership, but after giving it more thought, it seems that Walker is coining a new term for leadership that evokes vulnerability through trust, strength through leading by example and letting one\u2019s ego take a back seat. The focus is on the community, not the leader.<\/p>\n

With a creative community, the concept of undefended leadership is fundamental. It allows the leader to look like a superhero wearing a cape of kindness, trustworthiness, and humility, and that can breed the magic of collaboration where creativity can be sparked and inspired.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/a>[1]<\/a> Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation<\/em> (New York: New Directions Publishing House, 1972), 47.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[2]<\/a> Simon P. Walker, Leading Out of Who You Are: Discovering the Secret of Undefended Leadership<\/em>, Book 1 of THE UNDEFENDED LEADER Trilogy (Carlisle, UK: Piquant Editions), 132. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[3]<\/a> Ruth Haley Barton. Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry<\/em> (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Press, 2008), Location 201. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[4]<\/a> Simon P. Walker, Leading Out of Who You Are<\/em>, 190.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[5]<\/a> Aung San Suu Kyi,\u00a0Freedom from Fear<\/em> (London: Penguin Books, 1995), a quote from Goodreads, https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/work\/quotes\/102486-freedom-from-fear-and-other-writings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[6]<\/a> Simon P. Walker, Leading Out of Who You Are<\/em>, 195.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[7]<\/a> Ibid., 119.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[8]<\/a> Ibid., 133.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[9]<\/a> Ibid., 20.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn order to become myself I must cease to be what I always thought I wanted to be, and in order to find myself I must go out of myself, and in order to live, I must die.\u201d \u2014 Thomas Merton[1] The concept of undefended leadership is new to me. I appreciated how Simon Walker, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"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":[3119],"class_list":["post-36609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp03-leadership-walker-undefended-leadership","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36609","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\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36609"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36624,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36609\/revisions\/36624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}