In This Article:
Food for Thought: What do elections tell us about how we practice leadership?
The natural outcome of leadership according to the world
Highlights of leadership according to Jesus
Key Application:
3 steps to leading yourself (first)
It’s Leadership … er, Election Day
Today, we will elect our leaders for the next political term. Elections are a kind of leadership pulse check, giving us a picture of everything from the kind of leaders our society creates to the leadership models we practice and promote. Frankly, what I see is not a healthy prognosis.
This is not a partisan or a platform issue. It’s not even an issue with the specific candidates. It’s an issue of examining how we, as a society, understand and practice leadership.
Consider …
Why does campaigning have to look like demonizing the opposition instead of promoting the merits of our own plan?
Why do we rally more strongly to soundbites and quotes rather than policy and strategy?
Why do we so easily embrace being polarized and divided? Said differently, why do elections never focus on what we have in common?1
Why are we so susceptible to foreign tactics that impact public opinion through (of all things) manipulated social media messaging?
How did we come to believe that politics is a zero sum game, where winning means the other side has to lose?
What may not be clear here is that these results have almost nothing to do with elections, and everything to do with leadership. What’s least evident—yet, ironically, is most revealing—is that a society of leaders would not accept these approaches. That society would recognize what’s in play and choose not to be drawn into these dynamics. It would hold its leaders to higher levels of accountability.
And yet we aren’t.
Ever the optimist, I see this as an opportunity. It’s a diagnosis that we, as a society, have allowed our leadership muscles to atrophy. We’re not embracing our leadership challenges, individually and collectively. We are not raising our kids as leaders. We’re not teaching people how to lead—including the most basic discipline of leading yourself. We don’t talk about leadership, esteem it and cast vision for it. And most pragmatically, we don’t have a model of leadership that we emulate.
The question is, are we willing to invest at every level to choose a different leadership path instead of taking the world’s well-worn path by default? We need good leaders, but good leaders will never come from worldly leadership. Because you can’t make chicken salad out of chicken poop.
The 8 Things Worldly Leadership Can’t Do
The alternative to worldly leadership is Jesus’ approach. Jesus, after all, is the most influential and effective leader that ever walked the planet.
Jesus’ leadership approach is based on humility, which he modeled in giving up eternity and becoming one of us for our sake—not his (Phil 2.5-11). It allows for adopting a servant identity: “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve” (Matt. 20.28).
In contrast, worldly leadership’s foundation is pride: Being the biggest, baddest, richest or most powerful. It is the epitome of a zero sum game: To attain such outcomes means that those who have get more, and those who have not don’t.
Specifically, Jesus’ leadership approach creates eight critical outcomes that worldly leadership approach simply cannot. Let’s explore them …
01 :: Create Authentic Leaders
Authentic leaders lead from their own identity. Here’s what I mean…
You are the only you that will ever exist. So your leadership style will be uniquely yours. You will be able to apply and live out leadership principles in a way that’s unique to you and your gifts. Jesus’ approach to leadership leverages this truth: You were made to lead in a way that no one else can.
Worldly leadership makes this extremely rare, because obtaining power means aligning with the person dispensing power to you. That usually means following their leadership approach. In short, you become a kind of Mini Me, spending energy trying to fit in, keeping the boat steady and implementing their leadership approach—which is not authentic to you.
02 :: Develop Non-Celebrity Leaders
I’ve long believed that Abraham Lincoln—widely considered to be the most effective president in U.S. history—would never get elected in modern times. His personal image alone would have prevented it. Lincoln’s collaborative and inclusive approach also wouldn’t fit into today’s politics.2 He cared more about outcomes and principle than getting the credit. Lincoln (like Jesus) didn’t pursue a celebrity status.
The worldly leadership approach promotes celebrity leadership that is tied to public approval and appeal. In challenging times, it can be disastrous to lead when your sense of purpose is fluid and you’re trying to make people like you.
03 :: Create Servant Leaders
The world’s approach seeks to create top-of-the-food-chain, apex leaders. When the people in your organization exist to serve your interests, you’re much less motivated to identify with them, understand what they’re dealing with and supply what they need to be effective.
Jesus’ model flips the script and puts leaders at the bottom of the food chain. When you see yourself as someone who exists to serve the people in your organization, then your primary motivation is to create an environment in which they can flourish. You’re more willing to do what it takes to meet their needs and to remove barriers that prevent their success.
04 :: Release Leaders
The world’s approach to leadership centralizes authority, where top leaders have to weigh in on decisions. Missional authority is retained by a minority of people, and is only dispensed when it’s deemed necessary.
Jesus’ approach decentralizes authority. It empowers people, giving them the leadership authority and the responsibility for tactical strategy and execution. Their role is established with the expectation of leading as a part of their job description.
05 :: Give Emerging Leaders the Opportunity to Learn Through Failure
The world operates by the Peter principle approach:
Succeed, get promoted.
Succeed again, get promoted again.
Keep succeeding and getting promoted until you fail, then you get fired.
This creates tentative leaders that hedge their bets.
Jesus’ approach assumes people will fail, because we learn more from failure than we do from success. It encourages entrepreneurialism, and provides built-in mentoring and coaching to safeguard learning and development. This is how we gain wisdom.
06 :: Multiply Leaders
The cumulative effect of outcomes 01 - 05 makes it problematic to create competent leaders at scale. The best you can hope for is adding leaders to the pipeline, which limits the organizational growth. Additionally, the leaders that are added come from a narrow demographic, resulting in a niched, inwardly-focused leadership community that is disconnected from the organization.
Jesus’ approach puts everyone in the leadership pipeline. Every relationship becomes a leadership development exercise. Everyone is a learner, and sees themself as both a leader and a follower—an absolute necessity for leading effectively. Some will demonstrate strong competency and can take on additional responsibility. Since no one’s importance is based on where they are in the org chart, everyone feels satisfied and engaged because they’re making a real contribution.
Multiplication outscales addition. Jesus’ approach multiplies leaders. The world’s approach does not.
07 :: Create a Culture of Mutual Appreciation and Synergistic Collaboration
Jesus lays out five types of leadership functions in Ephesians 4.11:
Catalyzers (Apostles)
Navigators (Prophets)
Promoters (Evangelists)
Cultivators (Shepherds)
Sentinels (Teachers)
All these functions working together create an environment that equips people, prepares them to function in a healthy way and become unified. The secret sauce is the leaderhip’s collaboration, the mutual submission and interdependence. This is what creates leadership synergy.
Worldly leadership does not lend itself to collaboration and mutual deference, which require transparency, vulnerability and trust (this is hard to do when you’re competing against each other). Worldly leadership creates the expectation that leaders must be all-knowing and infallible—which is unachievable for any human not named Jesus.
08 :: Create Unity
The world’s approach leverages power. Power always divides and polarizes. It succeeds through pitting people and groups against each other. It only sees through the lens of “strength” and “weakness” (which are relative evaluations, made in the moment and for the purpose of self-preservation).
Jesus’ approach is that unity is a part of our identity, not just organizationally but socially. We were made—as a species—to be unified and work together.
So … What Can We Actually Do?
There’s lots we can do: gripe and complain, hold our nose and vote for the lesser of two evils, not vote out of spite, or just hope things will turn around eventually.
But remember, hope is not a plan.
Or we can take a different approach and actually change the trajectory of our “unleadership” by engaging everyone as a leader. “What can one person do to change all this,” you might be asking. Plenty. Never underestimate the power behind collective effort.
Here are three things that could have massive impact, if everyone practiced them:
Lead Yourself. Most of the time, leading yourself comes down to 1) keeping an eye on the big picture, 2) embracing any needed changes, 3) getting clarity on your role(s), 4) keeping your attitudes in check, 5) staying motivated and engaged, 6) monitoring your progress, and 7) “love” yourself by practicing self-care and being smart. Do this, and you’ll be in prime position to love others and help them do the same.
Dialog, With Respect. The people who hold a different position aren’t bad people. Learn to ask open-ended questions that lead to dialog. Listen for their frame of reference and clarify areas of common ground. Being respectful earns you the right to communicate your position effectively, and increase the odds that they will actually hear you.
Influence Through Service, Not Power. Leadership is not just telling people what to do because you have more authority or you’re in a higher position in an org chart. Instead of “power,” think of leadership as “influence.” To “serve” means to help them flourish, valuing their interests as important as your own. Use your relational capital to get them to change 1) their perspective, 2) their minds, and ultimately 3) their behavior. Have enough respect—both for yourself and for others—that you don’t have to resort to power.
Some Final Commentary
Honestly, the church has a long way to go in practicing Jesus’ leadership approach. Many Christian leaders and organizations have embraced the world’s power leadership approach—when Jesus told us specifically to avoid it (Matthew 20.25-28). The church has shown a tendency to align itself with political power instead of practicing individual servant leadership. We’re uncomfortable with the level of humility that’s required to drive personal growth and transformation. We’re not confident enough in the Lord to so what servants do: Put ourselves last.
This is a great opportunity. We can drastically change the culture of our society if every follower of Jesus began leading like him, in whatever role God has placed them: CEO, executive, parent, teacher, friend, neighbor … and yes, politician—which may be the most challenging role of all to be a servant leader!
Here’s to praying for our next round of political leaders: May God grant them insight, wisdom and influence to lead well.
Looking for More Leadership Insights?
Check out my book Taking the Lead: What Riding a Bike Can Teach You About Leadership
The exception to this comes in the winner’s speech, where they claim their intent to unify the country … a claim that’s never mentioned again after election day.
Instead of centralizing his power by distancing himself from his political opponents him, he included them. He chose all his fiercest antagonists to be members of his cabinet. It took much time and effort, but his leadership changed them from resentful antagonists to his greatest advocates.