Spirited Leaders

Calling All Leaders

How do we recognize a leader? How do we become effective leaders? Why be a leader?

In the early years of my work life, questions like these -- and their answers -- were straightforward. Leading meant promotion, moving up the ladder, recognition, authority, pay raises. It was the world of command and control, structure and roles, tools and techniques, programs and rules. Do a good job and find yourself in a higher slot on the org chart where people HAVE to listen to you. HA! It takes just one run-in with a passive aggressive co-worker to demonstrate that it takes more than title and position to lead others.

Bob Stilger, Co-President of The Berkana Institute, sees a leader as anyone who gets into action to change something ... not someone who maintains order and protects the status quo, but an instigator and a change agent. It's not about where you sit in the organization, but how engaged -- spirited -- you are in the work.

In his June 2005 article Landmarks of Leaders, Stilger describes the common characteristics of leaders he's observed in his international leadership development work. It seems that these hallmarks also describe those who are on a faith journey ... after all, the call to discipleship asks that we get into action to work for change too.

• They work from a sense of true calling
• They journey in the company of others
• They live with a spiritual center
• They demand diversity
• Reflective learning guides their lives
• Their work is filled with ambiguity and uncertainty

Stilger's article asks us to think about how these landmarks are present in our life and work. I also wonder how we -- as leaders -- can create working (and worshiping) environments that encourage and support the presence of these landmarks in ourselves and in others ... how we can create life-giving, not life-sucking, workplaces.

Stop for a moment ... take one action to change one thing ... be a leader.

Just Get Started!

Some ten years ago I was beginning a journey to reclaim my soul. I had traded the adrenaline-rich world of corporate America for independence and entrepreneurship ... and wanted to have more meaning in my work and life, to better live out my faith, and perhaps help others do the same.

One Saturday morning I dropped into a very small discussion group at a local Presbyterian church.  David Miller, a Jaguar-driving former banker turned seminary student, was facilitating a book discussion on faith, business, and ethics. Nods of welcome and understanding were returned when I introduced myself as someone who had left my soul in the parking lot more mornings than I could count. I had found signs of others who wanted to bridge the Sunday-Monday divide -- maybe there's some hope!

Fast forward to May 2007 to a pastoral leadership conference sponsored by the Yale Center for Faith and Culture's Faith as a Way of Life Program. There's David Miller again -- now Executive Director of the Center -- sharing his research and thoughts with pastors, church leaders, and a few businesspeople. Faith at Work is now a "movement" -- even more people are interested in finding ways to integrate faith and work. His evidence: growing numbers of books, articles, discussion groups, workshops. The frustration: it's all happening OUTSIDE the church, perhaps DESPITE the church. David confirms my personal experience and those of many of my clients, colleagues, and friends. The Spirit is at work, but we have to work hard to find support.

On the drive home from Yale, my mind is racing a zillion miles an hour. David talked about the many business people who want to integrate faith and work -- workplace leaders who are starving for gifts of ministry because so many pastors are uncomfortable with business issues. And I'm wondering about ways the church is missing out on gifts of business leaders. There are too many of us who have suffered through go-nowhere church council meetings and worried over the future of our struggling congregations while our workplace leadership skills are disregarded or ignored. Is there a connection between the Sunday/Monday gap and Clergy/Laity divide? Are BOTH businesses and congregations losing out because we aren't working together to strengthen leadership across the board?

Complaining is easy. But ... what positive contributions can I make to this fuzzy situation?

A suggestion came quickly.  I met the person responsible for The Alban Institute's Congregational Resource Guide at the Yale conference, so checked it out when I got home.  Right on top was an interview with Meg Wheatley, an organizational consultant whose work and life I admire and respect. When asked how to move away from hierarchical church models to those that rely on the quality of human relationships, she responds "Just get started and then learn from that experience."

And so here we are -- at the start. Let the conversation begin.