Theology of Credible Leadership - Lesson 3

Dr. John Johnson
Theology of Credible Leadership
Definitions of Leadership
Lesson Transcription

In this session, I want to now begin to, after some of this foundation we've been building, get into some, of the real core questions that we need to answer. And the very first core question here is, and I'll just, put it over here, is the very issue of definition.   

And that is how do we define, leadership? What does it mean to be a leader? And this, again, is base level, but whenever you read any leadership book, somewhere at least I've found, I gravitate towards somewhere in the beginning to see, okay, how does this person define, a leader? And what I've de I've discovered is that almost every book has its own definition, but it's an important question, none.   

Nonetheless, we have to sort this out. We have to figure it out. Maybe let me give an illustration. When I, moved to the Netherlands to pastor a church, I remember, going up to my study, my books, everything that I owned basically was still, in America, or at least getting ready to go into a container to cross the ocean.   

So there I was at this desk in this Dutch reformed church, without books. And that is, and to a certain extent without any sense of identity, I was just in a sterile office, with empty shelves and sitting at my desk. And I remember a profound wave of just a huge question came over my myself.   

And that is, who am I? Well, what is a pastor? And I realized I'd been doing this for 10 years in my first church and had been largely driven by what people's expectations of me were. I wasn't sure I'd ever really sat down to ask the question, who's the pastor? What does the pastors do?   

I knew some of the things pastors do, but I still didn't have a fundamental idea, a sense of my identity. It led me on about a six month, month project to just go back to Scripture and sort out, what I think of as a theology of pastoral identity. Now, I'm saying that in the same way as a leader, leaders have to do the same thing. We, I think as leaders often have a crisis of identity.   

We have to somewhere come to grips with who we are. What is it God has designed us to be, and therefore what we're called to do, and therefore, what is it? Followers have a rifle expectation of what a leader should be. Because in the same way in the pastoral world, if a leader, in any setting doesn't have a clear definition, a sense of who he or she is, then you're going to just, you're going to fall prey to what people want you to be, expect you to be.   

So, we start with this question then, what are some common definitions? And I've discovered this is not so easy. Defining is a challenge, and part of it has to do, and I already mentioned this with, multiple contexts because each context has in a sense its own definition.   

So there are requirements in one context that sort of defines what a leader is, versus another context. So, some might require more overt leadership. Some might get away just fine with more, a, a leadership that's introvert, introverted.   

So there are multiple contexts. There are, so we've got the complexity of context, and then we have also, the complexity that there are different kinds of leaders. And you begin to understand, again, why leadership is hard to define. So you look at leaders and they all come with different traits, different definitions.   

Some are very charismatic. I go back to John F. Kennedy. His cool and his style and his figure were his credentials that created Camelot, if you will. But the leader just before him, Eisenhower was anything but charismatic. He was more institutional, more bureaucratic. So what defines a leader?   

Well, if you just look at those two examples, it can get confusing. So some leaders are bombastic and polarizing. Others are quieter. Some are more patient willing to listen. Some are lead the charge. Leaders are these complex people. So how do you define a leader? Well, if you just go by traits, that's really hard to define a leader because they're all so different.   

Here was William Manchester who wrote a book on Churchill. I always remember this going back to his book, the Last Lion. Listen to how he defines Churchill, and therefore, think about the challenge of defining leadership. He said of Churchill, this, who was England's most singular statesman, said he was brilliant, a brilliant domineering, intuitive, inconsiderate, self-centered, emotional, generous, ruthless, visionary, mega lo, many, a coal and heroic genius who inspired fear, devotion, rage, and admiration among his peers.   

Good luck trying to define leadership when you just look at his one life. So it's, there are different kinds, different traits.   

There are different times that also, make it a challenge to define, leadership. So there, and then, then there are multiple, multiple definitions should add this here, multiple definitions itself. Now, let me just go back to times for a moment, just that again, different times, let's say war time versus peace, time require a different kind of leadership.   

How do you define leadership? What depends upon if we're in a war or if we're in a period of peace? And then you go to definitions themselves. What makes it hard is because when you look at at, at leadership books, as I mentioned earlier, they almost all have a different, definition of leadership.   

And so, what I found interesting is when you look at some of these, let's say professors of leadership, when they talk about definitions, here are some of their descriptions. So McChrystal's book on leadership notes, that a, a gathering to discuss leadership often begins with the day of argument over the meaning of leadership.   

So now I'm comforted a little bit when I'm going, this is not an easy question. Well, even when leaders gather together, they might argue the whole day over what it means. He says, leadership is often an ill to find loose mosaic of definitions. It's everywhere, and yet it's difficult to pin down. Or Barbara Kellerman of Harvard admits, listen to these words of someone who teaches leadership at one of, our nation's main universities says, quote, when it comes to defining, I avoid such discussions like the plague.   

And no wonder, James mc mcg, McGregor Burns, one of America's preeminent leadership scholars concluded, leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth.   

I just think about this. Here is this course on leadership, and you must be thinking, well, I'm taking this course on leadership, but the instructor himself has no clue what it even means. And I think I have some clues. In fact, I'm going to go on to say, I believe I know the definition of leadership when I look back theologically because it gives me a very centering definition.   

But when I look at leadership in the main from lots of other sources, in fact, here was, I think going back to Kellerman, who notes that there are, as of last count, some 1500 proposals. I'm going to give you a little bit of a flavor of what some of those are, not all 1500 by any means. But what we'll see again, is that leadership is complex, it's multifaceted, it's difficult, to, to define, some of the best writers on leadership, give some of these definitions.   

Here's some examples. Going back to, burns. He says, I define leadership as leaders. So let's think about this. Leadership is is leaders inducing followers to act for certain goals that represent the values and the motivations and the wants and the needs, and the aspirations and the expectations of both leaders and followers.   

Well, that's a lot to just consume right there. In similar fashion, Gary Wills rights leadership is mobilizing others towards a goal shared by leaders and followers.   

That's a much simpler definition. Now, let me just say it again. Leadership is mobilizing others towards a goal that's shared by the leader and the followers. Not just the leader, but the followers themselves. In other words, in his definition, leadership is much more collaborative. One of the most influential writers on leadership, Peter Drucker gave this very concise definition.   

He said, quote, the only definition of a leader is someone who has followers. Are you defining yourself? Do you see yourself definitionally as a leader? Peter Drucker would say, well, then stop for a moment and ask yourself this question. How many are following you? Is anyone following you? If you perceive yourself as gifted with leadership, then there should be people that are willing to say, I'll go where you are going.   

Michael Useem, who, has taught at Wharton, school of Business, gives this very succinct definition. Leadership is the act of making a difference. That seems kind of fuzzy, doesn't it? But, he basically is saying this, who's the leader? The leader is the one who steps into a context and makes the difference.   

Steve Jobs said, the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. That's a great statement. And it gets back to leadership. These, according back to Michael Useem, are the leaders leadership. Here's another one by Warren Benni. Warren Benni, who really wrote one of the earlier books, on leadership.   

Put it this way, leadership is the c capacity to translate vision into reality. Now, this, again, so think you see what I'm showing you is that each one takes a kind of a different tactic, stab at defining leadership in their own words. And there's some commonalities, but some differences. So Benni would say, a leader is someone who's more than a dreamer.   

A that's easy. In a way, a true leader is one who, who shares a dream, has a vision, and turns it into reality. Leonard Sweets, who has written on leadership and vision says, leadership is the art of the future. But Ben would say, no, it's more than that. There has to then be, the reality that it's come together. They're not merely dreamers.   

Leaders are those who are good at execution. So summary, when I looked at all these, many of these definitions, I I look for commonalities. What do these things have in common? What gets to the heart of leader? And I think of leadership as sort of like a, a three, legged stool. And, and so, when I think about leaders, and I think about all these definitions, there's three things that seem, that I think they would all, agree with.   

And that is a, a leader is someone who has followers. So that's basic, that's foundational. A leader is someone who has influence, that is a leader, steps into the room. And just by his sheer presence or her sheer presence influences, and that influence leads to.   

And here's the third one, has direction moves people from A to B, if you will, towards, the, the reality of a dream towards core outcomes. You put all three of these together, and as I've studied leadership, those all three seem to be really central to defining, leadership.   

But what I want to then move to next is to ask this question, so helpful as all of those are, what does theology say in terms of a definition of a leader.