Theology of Credible Leadership - Lesson 19

Dr. John Johnson
Theology of Credible Leadership
Power in Leadership (Part 1)
Lesson Transcription

In this, section on our, topic of leadership, I want to talk about power. Power is such a significant part of leadership. It’s whenever we see leaders and leading, there's always somewhere power. But what do we mean by that? And what's good? What's bad? What does theology, have to say about power? These are going to be some of the questions I I want to wrestle with with you.   

Doris Kearns Goodwin, gives a story, one I captured, in my book at the beginning on power that I would like to read. It goes like this. You may, you may in fact recognize who I'm talking about. His political career had an impressive trajectory, taking him from the House of Representatives to the Senate, and eventually to the very pinnacle of political leadership, the presidency.   

As he entered retirement, the stress and the worry were now behind him. No more hectic fundraising responsibilities. No more energy draining political campaigns. No more sleepless nights making policy decisions. No more malicious attacks on his leadership. He could finally sit back and enjoy time on his spacious ranch.   

And why not? There was so much to take pleasure in. He had more money in his portfolio than he could ever spend in his life. His penthouse in nearby Austin was always available as were the half dozen cars fully equipped with telephones and bars if he wanted to play, play on the water, a sailboat, a speedboat we're ready to launch. If he wanted to catch a film, the ranch included a movie theater quip with servants who catered to us every whim.   

He could travel anywhere in the world. And if he wanted company, he had the companionship of an extraordinary wife along with his spirited daughters. And yet, even with all of this, something, something was missing, something was wrong. And because it was, he found little pleasure in the toys he had accumulated. One could not miss the vacant look on his face, the aimless days, and the empty, the emptiness that characterized his soul as one who experienced leadership at the highest levels.   

Lyndon Johnson had lost what so gripped and so enlivened him power in Washington, proximity to power. But now an endless gulf separated him from the levers.   

He was a master at acquiring it and the master in using it. And now that it was gone, life was empty, retirement became for him, a little death. That's power. And that's how power influences and affects leaders in various realms. It's obvious that leaders, once they get a taste of power, have a hard time letting go of power. Or maybe I should say power does not let go of them.   

We look at the political landscape today, and it's no different. People seem to be, in fact, hanging onto power, staying in power far longer than they should, whether it's in the presidency or even in the pulpit. We see there are pastors who somehow power gets ahold of them and they get a grip on power, and they become comfortable with power.   

They become obsessed with power, and the prospect of letting go of this power, well, it just becomes impossible for them. And so they stay on and they stay on, and they stay on way beyond their productive abilities. So that's why it's really important that we talk about power. Leaders can become, as one, put it, willing prisoners of their compulsion to dominate, to gain and hold onto power through virtually any means.   

This lust for power can be this dark impulse, this temptation that every leader faces. And if not confronted, it can create a permanent despotism. It can create, leaders who, I guess we could say really lose their minds. Leadership that then begins to turn into a growing autocracy, a growing dictatorship, a growing tyranny, a growing maybe at the same time, a sense of insecurity of building fences and building walls to somehow keep its grip,  on it so that power stays and is not lost.   

So let's talk about power, and let's talk about the questions that it raises as we think about power.   

Then let's think definitionally for a moment. We've been doing this all along the way, but it's really important that we get some greater precision to some of these mean words we we throw around when it comes to leadership. So what do we mean by power? Power is is a word that is kind of concrete, I guess I one could say. And at the same time, vaporous, it's long lasting, yet power can be fleeting.   

There's a complexity to it that makes it like leadership itself difficult to define. Here are some definitions that I've discovered. It is, when you look at a number of books on power, they suggest that power is the ability, the ability to make something of the world. Power is the ability to change the world. Power is the ability to affect, another person's beliefs or attitudes, or their course of action.   

Powers the capacity to ensure that the outcomes one wishes. And it's also the power and the capacity to prevent those things. One does not wish powers the capacity to get one, to do whatever the leader wants, no matter one's preference. And if necessary in the process, use force, it is as obvious as executive orders.   

Sometimes it can be as subtle as silence maintained to make a point together. All of these definitions tell us something about power. Power is about someone getting their way. Asserting one's will affecting one's plants. What we know is that power has its own rules derived more from reputation than from rank.   

Power tends to be more, derived from persuasion than from direction, more from examples, than from prescription. So these are some ideas and thoughts about what power means. So we talk about power and definition.   

Let's shift and talk about Acquisition. How does a leader get power? There are multiple ways when we think about it. Sometimes power simply comes by rank and position. Simply stepping into a new role, can give one power, a promotion, a name on the door,  a new title.   

Suddenly one has shifted from a place with relatively little power to maybe in a moment, great power, power comes. We also know by the accumulation of knowledge, knowledge seems to lead to power. As we noted earlier with James Baker, who worked in the highest levels of government in Washington DC he was,  a master of power.   

In fact, a book, entitled, the Man Who Ran Washington, that itself in the title tells you here was a man of immense power. But how did he acquire this power? As we saw earlier, a lot of it was, his intense intentionality to know things, to be the smartest person in the room in a sense.   

And by smartest meaning, not because he had the greatest intellect, but it's because he accumulated the data the knowledge, prior preparation. This is what was, this is what was ingrained in him, I believe, by his father who said, prior preparation prevents poor performance. Prior preparation prevents poor performance. And so whenever he came into any meeting, any committee, any, any staff, whatever gathering he was in, he determined to be the one with the greatest knowledge.   

And over time in all of this, he gained great, great power,  in a capital where currency is power. So how do we get power? We get it by ranked position. Sometimes we get it by knowledge. Some people get their power by the amassing of wealth and resources.   

Power tends to increase as leaders amass possessions that give these, give the leader a certain leverage to get things done, to get one's way to threaten those who oppose, which helps to explain. Sometimes when we look at politics, for example, why it is that so many seem to even bend the rules to get all of the money and wealth they can, because it's not so much just so they can have material.   

It's not just about greed. It really goes back to the fact that it's all part of this quest to accumulate power. Power sometimes comes simply by the sheer strength of one's will. Some leaders gain power by determination and ambition, and it often plays there for a, a role in their life of giving them the, the, the, the will, the power to accomplish what they they want.   

It becomes a leader's lust if they are not careful. Isaacson's, latest book on Elon Musk is really a story about a man accumulating power along the way. Power by sheer force, by sheer will, a lot of that having to go back to his early childhood where he had a father who really didn't believe in him, who assumed he would never amount to really much of anything.   

His story Isaacson tells us, here is this great man of great power today. But it all started with him often being bullied on the playground. And, it's David Brooks, in fact, who recently wrote an article about Elon Musk making the point that here is this man head of Tesla, SpaceX, all of its accomplishments.   

But it goes back again, as David Brooks assesses his life to a father who believed he was, worthless classmates who bullied, all creating this potential for deep insecurity, but led in a way to this obsession to have power.   

This grandiose sense, as Brooks puts it, to feel one is indispensable to the human race. A bit like de Steve Jobs, who then out of these obscure backgrounds came to great power, have come to great power and sometimes make their workplaces,  an absolute nightmare. So how does one acquire power?   

Sometimes it's just sheer willpower. And one who just somehow lives to rule the playground. And so they use their ambitious desires that over time, then begin to lead them to become coercive, enact, purchase, manipulate information, divide potential rivals, exercise downright terror.   

Sometimes power comes just because people are really very effective at deal making. We go back to Lyndon Johnson, Robert Carroll, who's written a number of biographies about Lyndon Johnson, traced this about him, that in the Senate as a majority leader, he was really good at making deals.   

Sometimes people amass power by just, they just know how to network. They know how to connect, they know what to exchange,  to maybe come out in a way that is advantageous. They learn how to use the levers of power they see through this political frame as we talked about Bowman and deal talk about, and they see the landscape and they know how to use it. So let's talk then about advantages.   

So definition, acquisition advantages, It's advantages that helps us to understand while the why there is this passion to acquire power. Because with power, any of us know in leadership with power, we can do things that if we were powerless, we couldn't do.   

Power enables a leader to lead. Let's just put it simply in a very base form, because it's true. If one has no power, one is not a leader with power. Someone therefore then can direct with power. Someone walks into a room and does influence with power. Someone can then give a direction and point people in which people then, want to follow.   

Without power, leadership is next to impossible to carry out. Power enables, a leader to make and keep promises, acquire and use wealth, obtain and transform organizations behind all of those things is power. Power enables leaders to be decisive. Without power, it's hard to, to make decisions, but as one's power increases, one has this ability to be even more decisive At the table, power gives a leader the ability to accomplish initiatives, to see goals and challenges and, and achieve and get to outcomes.   

How does one get there? It's largely through power. The power to achieve purposes, the power to master the environment, the power to take control of a meeting or take control of a gathering, take control of other people's lives.   

Power is what enables a leader to keep the order and keep things from turning into chaos and anarchy without power, one loses one's voice, and it's really hard to accomplish little. That's why in transitions, for example, to become a lame duck, that is, you have announced or it's clear that, your position is terminating or you're retiring, or you're being released in what little time you have left in the organization.   

Shifting to a lame duck,  role is to shift to a role. Without power and without power, it's impossible to lead. So power is really important.   

Jeffrey Peffer, I mention who teaches leadership at Stanford, has written a book on power. And he makes this, he makes this, he gives, I should say this, council claim power and do not do anything to give it away. That's part of his summary, conclusion at the end.   

But even Machia Valley warned against the mindless reach for power. The power is we'll see,  comes with a real price. We, we need to be careful to pursue power, but as some would counsel, always be suspicious of power, because while power has its advantages, many we have just noted, it has its disadvantages.   

And so let's talk about some of those. When we think about disadvantages, here are some, some of the liabilities of power that come to mind. Power can become an obsession. If we're not careful, something that we have, we have acquired and we're beginning to get, maybe used to, and we're beginning to exercise, it be can begin to get its grip on us.   

It can begin to become an obsession. I go back to Barbara Kellerman, who teaches leadership at Harvard, who's written this book. I've mentioned leaders who Lust. And her first chapter is on power. And she talks about the fact that there are leaders, many leaders who this becomes their obsession.   

That their lust, they become fixed on acquiring it. They give everything to holding onto it. It can begin to dominate their every move to find how they measure themselves and how they measure others. Power can become this desire. However, that's never, never really fulfilled. There is this truth. The more you acquire it, the more you want it grows with eating, so to speak.   

It creates its own thirst for more. And leaders who lust Kellerman, Kellerman makes this interesting observation that leaders who begin to become more and more obsessed with power and power gets more and more of its grip on them. They come to a place in their lives where it's, they can never say, well, that's enough. I've got enough power. In fact, it does just the opposite.   

The more one gets a taste for power, thirst for power, it, it just creates a greater appetite, a greater thirst. It's why then we see a lot of leaders eventually go off the rails. So power can become an obsession, and that's a huge liability. The second thing, in terms of liability, disadvantages, that power has this way of corrupting. We're familiar with that phrase, power corrupts.   

And we know it's true. There are numerous examples. While power is essential to leadership, more often than not, power over time begins to distort and pervert leadership. And we see this at every level, whether it's military examples or corporate examples, political examples, or all over the place.   

But even in the religious world, we see pastors who rise, their ministries rise. There's amazing growth. Their churches go way beyond expectation. And with all of that, the power of the pastor increases to a place, to a level where, again, it's impossible for him to let go. Or it begins to distort and corrupt his own sense of self-importance.   

And eventually, leaders, as they tend to do, become drunk with power, power tends to cause leaders to lose their inhibitions. They start to act really like fools believe that the rules no longer apply. They begin to act more out of impulse rather than out of measured order. Reading a recent book, as I've noted by Gary Wills on, appropriately entitled the Kennedy Imprisonment.   

He knows that Kennedy, who became, in love with power, thought he could break free of all the normal constraints and restraints. I've seen this sometimes closer even in ministry. Pastors get full of themselves, get a, they get, obsessed with power and, and they start getting out of their lanes, and they start believing that certain rules no longer apply to them.   

And so back to Kennedy, he bypassed channels of command and tradition. He rarely met with his cabinet. He rarely sat down with Congress. Somehow in his obsession, because of his love, his affection for power, he felt he was above it all. There was no internal check, and it led to a number of disastrous decisions.   

Rather than suspect power as he should have, he fell in love with it. Power in this corrupting way can also create this, this illusion, delusion maybe is another word here. This illusion of reality. It can do dilute a leader with a false sense of security. Leaders build a wall of mirrors around themselves, and they start to ignore the voices that are trying to speak some sense into their lives.   

Rather than recruit people's opinions, they are more interested in manipulating people's opinions. Power also begins to, in this corrupting way, begins to twist and disfigure becomes all about them. And it's all about how they can each night make the news, get their soundbite in.   

Once at the top, leaders can ship from preservers of justice to instruments, of justice. This is all part of the corruption and power can create. Therefore, then the sense of entitlement. Leaders overstep their bounds. They demand what is not theirs. They believe they're entitled to take what they want. One thinks in scripture of Ahab enables field absent of values like compassion, trust, openness, responsibility.   

Naked power can be unadulterated, brutal, and arbitrary in its application. Just as Lord Acton warrant. The attempt at total control does not merely corrupt. It debilitates, it undoes itself.