LEADERS ARE RELATIONAL

As a leader you are capable of developing intentional and interpersonal relationships, emphasizing high regard for the well-being and personhood of others.

In his groundbreaking, best-selling book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Robert Putnam[i] warned of the collapse of this vital relational characteristic of our culture. He argued that we Americans have become relationally disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and our societal structures such as school, work, church, and community organizations. Putnam noted that we sign fewer petitions, belong to fewer clubs and organizations, volunteer less, know our neighbors less, and spend less time with our families and friends. He added that more Americans are bowling than ever before, but they are “bowling alone.” Social trust is being destroyed in our culture.

Consequently our personal and professional lives are relationally impoverished. Putnam observed that children today are unhappy, teachers are afraid of their students, crime is increasing, and employers and employees distrust each other. All this, according to Putnam, is because of the recent and rapid decline of the social capital that Alexis de Tocqueville claimed was the distinguishing feature that made America great.

Regrettably leaders seem to have lost sight of this important leadership principle. The relational model of leadership is sorely missing in most popular notions about leadership. Many leadership models warn against building relationships – arguing that productivity will always suffer when relationships are established with co-workers and subordinates. Consequently, 21st century organizations are marked by loneliness and isolation. Technology is replacing social intimacy. More and more people are living alone, working alone, studying alone, and “bowling alone.” There is a significant loss of social capital causing fear, distrust, and insecurity, which leads to loss of effectiveness and productivity.

It doesn’t have to be like this!

Leaders embrace the indispensability of relationships. Effective leadership is built upon and depends upon building intentional relationships with people. Effective leaders seek to influence the ideas, beliefs, conduct, and activities of others moving them together toward a common vision and mission Increased productivity cannot occur unless leaders work at building positive and effective relationships with the people they are leading. Leadership does not take place in isolation. People were not created to be a solo sapiens.

There is an Ethiopian proverb that puts it this way: “Many spiders can hold down a lion.” Members of a team share a common understanding and commitment to the preferred future of the organization. Team members desire to make a difference, to leave an indelible mark in the tapestry of life and the chronicles of mankind. People are better together.

There are a variety of simple and inexpensive ways by which you can intentionally claim and develop your relational leadership capacity. Here are just twenty simple but effective ideas to get you started. I know you will add others to this list:

1. Mentor a new employee
2. Organize a company sports team
3. Attend home parties when invited
4. Ask co-workers and employees for their help and advice – and reciprocate
5. Attend a seminar on team building
6. Say “hello” to your employees and co-workers
7. Host a cookout at your home for your employees
8. Get to know something about all your employees
9. Encourage your employees to host community group meetings on your site
10. Eat lunch in the break room
11. Eat breakfast with your employees
12. Roll up your sleeves and work alongside your employees from time to time.
13. Attend sporting events with your employees
14. Share produce from your garden
15. Host and attend monthly potluck lunches
16. Attend in-house seminars with your employees
17. Acknowledge and recognize special accomplishments and achievements
18. Organize and participate in a fitness program with co-workers and employees
19. Ask to see family photos of your co-workers
20. Attend weddings, baptisms, and funerals

You are inherently relational. You were created by God for intentional and deeply interpersonal relationships. Your personhood and calling as a bearer of God’s image is to be expressed and fleshed out in community – in relationship. Such communal living and working requires the unconditional commitment of your time, talent, and treasure, together with a high regard for the well-being and personhood of others.

Restoring this relational model of leadership to your organization is a strategic response to the isolation and bitter loneliness of those who find themselves “lost” in the midst of urban society. It is your key to effective leadership in the 21st century.

You are a leader.

You are relational.

This is the truth about leadership.

This is The Genesis Principle of Leadership.

Now go out and lead – together.

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PRINT BOOK: http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=978-1-60462-483-0

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[i] Putnam, Robert, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (Simon and Schuster, 2000, New York).

LEADERS ARE MORAL

As a leader you are capable of thoughts and actions that have principled qualities. Hence your interactions and dealings with others can be properly designated as “right” or “wrong.”

A fruitful and fulfilling life is a life lived morally.

But where does moral character come from? Does moral character result from one’s genetic code? Is it acquired from the environment? Is it a product of evolution? Or is moral character the consequence of some sort of social contract?

Morality is none of these things. Moral character finds its origin in God. By nature, God is a moral agent. He always does what is right. When we say, “God is moral,” we are saying that God does what He does because it is, in reality, moral – it is, in reality, the right thing to do.

God created you to be a moral agent. Therefore, you were created to conform to God’s perfect moral character in thought, word, and deed. Moral character is folded into the very fabric of who you are as a human. You were created to be moral. In your heart you have a moral compass inscribed by God. Deep within your conscience is a law which you do not lay upon yourself – which you must obey – ever calling you to do what is good – to avoid evil – to do this – to shun that. Your dignity as a person – as a leader – is in observing this law for by it you will be judged.[i] It is your moral duty to follow and obey your God-given moral conscience—to do, always, what you know, deep down inside, is the absolute right thing to do.

So, what is right? What standard serves as the reliable basis for informing your conscience? Is there a standard independent of personal beliefs and individual convictions? The conventional wisdom of today’s culture demands that there is no independent, absolute standard by which you can discern what is “right” or “wrong” in every situation. You are to do what you deem is the most appropriate action demanded in each unique situation. It is a matter of “personal choice.” What is “right” or “wrong” for one person may not be “right” or “wrong” for another. Moral standards, then, are relative. What’s more, there is no autonomous basis by which to judge another’s conscience, moral standards, or actions. Each person must choose for himself the “rightness” or “wrongness” of a particular action.

However, in a fallen condition, man’s conscience is inadequate and untrustworthy. Therefore, God was pleased to provide a clear revelation of His moral law in the Holy Scriptures – His inspired, infallible, reliable, and written word. This Word reveals God’s moral standard and will for all of faith and life. Through this word, you can know, utterly and completely, independently of your sin-distorted conscience, what is, in fact, the right thing to do in every circumstance of life. God’s Word, the Bible, is the moral standard given to guide and govern your character. The Holy Scripture is the completely sufficient rule for your faith and daily living. It is the external, absolute, and trustworthy standard created by the perfectly moral God. By it you may know what is right.

The point is this: morality, your moral character, is not formed in a relativistic vacuum. God not only created you as a moral agent, He provided the moral standard by which you can judge the nature of every one of your thoughts and actions. You either trust in God and His moral standards or you are left to trust in your own unbelief. To attempt to make moral choices outside of God’s moral standards is fool hearty and utterly irresponsible.

Effective leaders are moral agents. In other words, leaders do the right things. Leaders cultivate this key leadership attribute by identifying and developing a set of biblically-principled core standards by which they conduct their actions in every leadership role. Truly effective leaders recognize there are standards of conduct that are completely independent of mere human choice.

As a leader, you are a moral agent. Your thoughts and actions are not the reflexive and habitual consequences of the surrounding environment. Your thoughts and actions are not instinctive reactions driven by the genetic code. As a moral agent, you have biblically-principled moral reasons for each and every one of your actions.

A fruitful and fulfilling life is a life lived morally.

You are moral.

You are a leader.

This is the truth about leadership!

This is the Genesis Principle of Leadership.

Now go out and lead!

[i] Pope Paul VI, Gaudium et Spes, n.16, 1965.

DEEP SPIRITED POWER

Is “Mother Teresa” the first name that comes to mind when you think of powerful people? Me neither.

I usually think of people like Alexander the Great, John Wayne, or Bill Gates. Sometimes I think of villainous leaders like Attila the Hun or Joseph Stalin – or even fictional characters like Luke Skywalker, Batman, or Mighty Mouse. Though their motives differ, each character conjures images of people who are rugged, good-looking, tall, wise, wealthy, strong, and powerful.

But – Mother Teresa? Powerful?

Yes! Though she possessed none of the characteristics typically associated with power – male, tall, rugged, strong, wealthy or powerful – Mother Teresa is considered by many to be one of the most powerful people in history. Mother Teresa was female, small in stature, frail, poor, and lived most of her life in obscurity. For over thirty years, she labored in obscurity tending to the needs of the “leasts” of society – the “poorest of the poor.”

Then, following the release of the documentary, “Something Beautiful for God,” and the publication of her own book by that same title, Mother Teresa became an international celebrity. She received numerous awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

In spite of her sudden notoriety, this small, frail, humble leader continued her work among the poor. Mother Teresa died in September 1997, at the age of eighty-seven. She left a rich legacy of powerful leadership by serving the cause of the poor and dying.

Today, the Missionaries of Charity founded by this frail nun is composed of over 4,000 sisters, a brotherhood of over 300 members, 10,000 volunteers, and 610 missions operating numerous hospices, homes, soup kitchens, orphanages, schools, and counseling centers in 123 countries including, intriguingly, the United States of America.

Little wonder that one journalist would say that Mother Teresa, Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, was “one frail nun who moved millions … a one-woman world power for good.” Some even called her a “superhero.” On October 19, 2003, soon after her death, Pope John Paul II beatified Mother Teresa as “Blessed Teresa of Calcutta,” the first major step toward canonization and possible sainthood.

Is Mother Teresa your image of power?

Mother Teresa claimed and cultivated her inherent, God-given power and authority over that which was around her – which God created – as a responsible steward. She lived and labored amidst indescribable poverty, unimaginable disease, and gruesome death. Yet she was obedient to God’s command to be fruitful, to fill the earth, and to subdue the earth by exercising dominion – her created power – over a horrid situation. She obeyed God’s command to exercise dominion using the very attribute God gave her when he created her. Or to put it another way, she emulated the characteristics given to all men and women – given to you – as an image bearer of God by exercising dominion, that is, power, over every square inch of her corner of the world in Calcutta.

This is deep spirited leadership.

Leadership – your leadership – is all about the exercise of created attribute – power. Leadership that transforms people and circumstances is ultimately the result of the proper use of this God-given attribute. Effective leaders possess, cultivate, and make use of their created power. Pittacus (c. 650 – c. 570 BC), one of the seven wise men of ancient Greece, put it this way, “The measure of a man is what he does with power.”

So – how do you measure up? How do you use your power?

You are a leader.

This is the truth about leadership!

This is the Genesis Principle of Leadership.

Now go out and lead!