How to Lead When You're Not in Charge

by Gary Hamel and Polly LaBarre  |   2:00 PM May 24, 2013

For all of the books (thousands) written on leadership, individuals (millions) who have participated in leadership seminars and dollars (billions) invested in leadership development, too many leadership experts still fail to distinguish between the practice of leadership and the exercise of bureaucratic power.

In order to engage in a conversation about leadership, you have to assume you have no power — that you aren’t “in charge” of anything and that you can’t sanction those who are unwilling to do your bidding. If, given this starting point, you can mobilize others and accomplish amazing things, then you’re a leader. If you can’t, well then, you’re a bureaucrat.

To gain a true leadership advantage, organizations must be filled with individuals who understand how to maximize their own ratio of “accomplishment over authority.” They must believe it’s possible to do something big with a little dab of power. Think, for example, of Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, the world’s largest compendium of knowledge. None of the thousands of individuals who’ve contributed to Wikipedia report to Wales, and yet, as a “social architect,” he built a platform that energized and organized an extraordinary amount of human effort.

What, then, are the attributes of individuals who can inspire others and multiply their impact?

They are seers — individuals who are living in the future, who possess a compelling vision of “what could be.” As human beings, we’re constantly looking forward, and we love to sign on with individuals who are already working on “the next big thing.”

They are contrarians — free of the shackles of conventional wisdom and eager to help others stage a jailbreak. It’s exciting to be around these free-spirited thinkers who liberate us from the status quo and open our minds to new possibilities.

They are architects — adept at building systems that elicit contribution and facilitate collaboration. They leverage social technologies in ways that amplify dissident voices, coalesce communities of passion and unleash the forces of change.

They are mentors — rather than hoarding power, they give it away. Like Mary Parker Follett, the early 20th-century management pioneer, they believe the primary job of a leader is to create more leaders. To this end, they coach, tutor, challenge and encourage.

They are connectors — with a gift for spotting the “combinational chemistry” between ideas and individuals. They help others achieve their dreams by connecting them with sponsors, like-minded peers, and complementary resources.

They are bushwhackers — they clear the trail for new ideas and initiatives by chopping away at the undergrowth of bureaucracy. They’re more committed to doing the right thing than to doing things right.

They are guardians — vigilant defenders of core values and enemies of expediency. Their unflinching commitment to a higher purpose inspires others and encourages them to stand tall for their beliefs.

They are citizens — true activists, their courage to challenge the status quo comes from their abiding commitment to doing as much good as possible for as many as possible. They are other-centered, not self-centered.

Critically, all these roles are rooted in the most potent and admirable human qualities — passion, curiosity, compassion, daring, generosity, accountability and grit. These are the qualities that attract allies and amplify accomplishments. These are the DNA strands of 21st-century leadership. Only by strengthening them can we fully unleash the latent leadership talents that reside in every organization.

That’s why we have launched the Leaders Everywhere Challenge in partnership with HBR and McKinsey & Company. Tell us what your organization is doing to encourage leadership everywhere. How is it working to escape the limits of top-down power structures? What is it doing to equip and energize individuals to exercise their leadership gifts, wherever they are in the organization? How is it nurturing the sort of leaders whom others will want to follow in a post-bureaucratic world? Learn more here.

More blog posts by Gary Hamel and Polly LaBarre

More on: Leadership, Leading teams, Personal effectiveness

GARY HAMEL AND POLLY LABARRE

Gary Hamel is Visiting Professor of Strategic and International Management at the London Business School and Director of the Management Lab. He is also the Innovation Architect at the Management Innovation eXchange (MiX), where he oversees the site's strategic direction. Polly LaBarre is editorial director of the MiX.

From the Harvard Business Review (http://blogs.hbr.org/) via Carey Nieuwhof

5 Warning Signs Your Relationship with God Is Strictly Professional

Pastoralized by Eric McKiddie 

 

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I’m excited to have the opportunity to contribute to a new blog at LifeWay called Pastors Today. It is written bypastors for pastors, and addresses many of the challenges pastors face in ministry.

My first article was posted yesterday: 5 Warning Signs Your Relationship with God Is Strictly Professional:

“Ministry is more than a job. It’s not less than a job, of course. It is what we do to make money to provide for ourselves and our families. That’s what a job is.

But pastoral ministry is much more than a job because it can never be separated from the pastor’s personal life. Whatever the opposite of oil and water is, that is the metaphor for the pastor’s personal and professional life.

Because of this vital connection between our life and our ministry, Satan schemes to nudge pastors toward a strictly professional relationship with God. By “strictly professional” I mean the kind of relationship that is exists simply to get a job done, but exhibits little warmth, care, or love away from the task. Think Kobe and Shaq circa 2004.

If our adversary can get our relationship with Jesus on strictly professional terms, he will subtly turn us down a path toward destruction. Since the link between our life, our ministry, and our God is inextricable, it is impossible to serve your church in “on the job” mode for very long. Our ministry will unravel. That’s because our spiritual life already has.

Does your relationship with God serve merely a ministerial function? Are you increasingly disconnected from God in terms of a personal, vibrant relationship?

Here are five signs that your relationship with God is strictly professional.”

Read the rest here.

(Image credit)

While We're On The Topic:

1. My Philosophy of Ministry in 4 Words, Drawn on a Napkin
2. 5 Ways to Imitate John Stott: Tim Keller’s Message at Stott’s Memorial Service
3. The Difference Between Being an Effective Preacher and an Effective Pastor
4. 10 Questions You Better be Ready to Answer at a Pastoral Interview
5. Pastoral Ministry and Strengths-Based Leadership

John Piper's Eight Guidelines for Tough Leadership Decisions

John Piper more from this author »

Desiring God

Date Published: 1/14/2014

The truth is not enough: we need wisdom, prayer and excellence.

I assume in the following that the “Leadership” (board, eldership, pastoral staff, etc.) are of one mind in a shared vision. At Bethlehem Baptist Church, Desiring God, Bethlehem Urban Initiatives, and The Bethlehem Institute, this vision is “We exist to spread a passion for God’s supremacy in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.”

With that assumption, the following guidelines are intended to guide a pastor or elder or director in writing recommendations that will help the Leadership (and, if appropriate, the congregation) understand, approve and act on significant suggested courses of action. I don’t mean that all these guidelines must be followed for every decision the Leadership must make. They apply to more major proposals—the kind that will be costly or will affect many people in important ways or may seem to the Leadership different from an assumed path. In these cases, thorough, careful, Biblical persuasion is needed. The assumption behind these guidelines is that at every point truth is paramount.

1. Pray Without Ceasing.

That is, bathe every part of the process of decision making in prayer. This will be largely invisible in the early stages of dreaming and conceiving if the proposal is coming from one person.

2. Meditate On The Word Of God Day And Night.

The person or group bringing the proposal should be in the Word, ponder all aspects of the proposal from the standpoint of God’s Word, and saturate all thinking and communicating about the proposal with parts of the Word that show the wisdom of the proposal.

3. Gather True Information Related To The Proposal.

Ideas for the future can be mistaken and unwise for several reasons. One of them is lack of relevant information: cost, people to be involved, skills needed, impact on other priorities, possible perceptions and reactions, possible outcomes in-sync with or out-of-sync with the vision.

Gathering this information involves research and imagination. One must put oneself forward into dozens of situations and imagine what the proposed reality will be like in order to have some idea of its implications. These implications are part of the information that must eventually be shared with the Leadership. The more of such information is brought to the table in advance, the more confident the Leadership will be that the proposal is workable and wise.

4. Think Through As Many Implications Of The Proposal As Possible.

This step overlaps with the previous one and adds “thinking” to “gathering.” Thinking requires time and energy and imagination and raw materials of information. It is hard work. It is solitary work. It requires writing, since the connectedness of thoughts are lost if they are not written down. And it requires rewriting, since the first set of connections that one sees must usually be adjusted as other thoughts come to mind. Thinking is analytical, imaginary and constructive.

One must analyze how things will work, how people will think, what costs will be, what skill will be needed, how all these will affect what already exists, and how all of these relate to each other.

All along this process, imagination is required. The most persuasive leader will have the best imagination of what the future will really look like and how everything will relate to everything else. The success of his proposal will hang largely on how well he has used his imagination to foresee the implications of all that he is proposing. The quality of his leadership will be seen partly in that he has already asked and answered the questions the Leadership will have. This does not happen without hard thinking in solitude while writing.

Fruitful thinking must also be constructive. That is one must apply one’s mind to construct an integrated whole. It will not do to simply share fragments of an idea with the Leadership. If we want Leadership to affirm our idea for the future, we should bring them a coherent, unified picture of what it looks like. This only happens through constructive thinking. This is often the hardest work. It forces us to do the kind of tough thinking that saves Leadership time and effort.

5. Write The Proposal Including A Coherent And Orderly Presentation Of The Proposal, An Explanation Of It, The Implications And The Rationale.

First, state the proposal clearly and briefly in a few sentences.

Second, explain the proposal. That is, unpack its terms and make sure that it is clear.

Third, spell out the implications: people involved, time commitments, expenses, effects on present practices and people, etc. Foresee and state fairly and answer as many objections as you can.

Fourth, give a compelling rationale that would justify the implications and link the outcomes to the Vision.

6. Give Copies Of This Written Proposal To The Leadership Sufficiently In Advance Of The Meeting At Which It Will Be Considered.

Avoid pressure to act without adequate time for discussion and prayer.

7. Read The Proposal To The Leadership Or Read A Coherent Summary Of Its Key Parts At The Meeting When It Is To Be Discussed.

Most busy people will not have the details in their mind when they come to a meeting and will need to hear the written proposal or a well-prepared summary of it. It is almost always a mistake to try to “talk one’s way through it” as though that would save time. Generally, it does not save time and is harder to follow than a simple reading or a well-prepared summary. In addition, by jumping around in the paper, one often loses the listener who cannot follow. If significant things need to be added to the paper by means of a “walk through,” the written proposal was probably not thorough enough.

8. Seek A Thorough Discussion Of The Proposal With All The Leadership Urged To Participate In The Discussion. Allow The Head Of The Leadership Group To Guide The Discussion To Appropriate Action.

The person bringing the proposal should be a well-prepared advocate, but not usually the leader of the discussion. After the presentation, he should speak when asked questions or given permission but not dominate the discussion. He should encourage the Leadership to give themselves to prayer and the Word in the process.

John Piper

Desiring God

John Piper is the Pastor for Preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and studied at Wheaton College, where he first sensed God's call to enter the ministry. He went on to earn degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary and the University of Munich. For six years he taught Biblical Studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1980 accepted the call to serve as pastor at Bethlehem. John is the author of more than 30 books, and more than 25 years of his preaching and teaching is available free at desiringGod.org. John and his wife, Noel, have four sons, one daughter, and an increasing number of grandchildren.

Source: sermoncentral.com

3 Wrong Roles Pastors Cast for Their Church Members

Pastoralized by Eric McKiddie

 

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Between school plays, little league teams, and numerous other ways, we have all been given roles that we thought were below us. We wanted the leading role, but got curtain duty. We wanted to pitch, but got stuck in right field.
What was that role for you? (Or maybe I’m just speaking for myself.)
Like a director of a play, pastors view all the parts of our church in terms of how they contribute to the whole. Pastors determine what is primary, what is secondary, and what is tertiary. You have to do this if you want to be a good leader.
The problem is when pastors do this to their church members and attenders, too. We have a tendency to cast them for roles based on our concept of our church’s narrative, rather than on the basis God’s grand unfolding narrative for his kingdom.

Three ways NOT to cast your church members and attenders

1. Extras
Extras don’t affect the storyline at all. They add motion to the scenery. They are props.
Is that how you view visitors? Is that how you view people who don’t serve or lead?
In the drama that God has written for human history, there are no extras. Everyone is wrapped in a narrative of their own. The fact that God wrote their story gives it dignity and purpose.
Your job as a pastor is to learn whether and how Jesus has become the main character of everyone in your church. If your church is too big for that, then you need to facilitate it through your elders, small groups, an assimilation process, etc. You are, after all, responsible for the care of their soul (Heb. 13:17).
2. Flat Characters
Flat characters play a bigger part than extras – they get lines! But they are only there for the main characters to play off of. Flat characters serve the development of the main characters, but don’t develop themselves. Their role is subservient to the role of the more important people.
Who do you view as flat characters? Your administrative staff? Your A/V team? Longtime members who have hung around but haven’t gotten very involved?
No church has flat characters. Everyone has pain and joy, hopes and dreams. Everyone is on some path of character development: they are either being hardened or softened to the things of God. Whatever direction they are heading, as pastors, we need to guide each of them with the gospel. To think of them as flat is to view your individual sheep as a mere means to your goals for your church.
3. Caricatures
Caricatures are main characters who are not well-rounded. They are either good or bad. They fit a given personality type and never divert from it. If you need an example, think of the entire cast of Downton Abbey.
Pastors are susceptible to viewing members of their church in such a black and white fashion. You might not be able to imagine it, but that member you have regular conflict with has a good side. He loves God. He desires things that bring him glory. On the other side of the coin, your strong leaders who have served so faithfully have the potential to stumble egregiously. Not temptation has seized us except what is common to man.
I’ve known pastors who have committed adultery and I’ve known hard-hearted people who have been changed by the power of the gospel. Sometimes even the worst curmudgeon stops complaining! We need to shepherd our church knowing that anything can happen at any time, while praying for the good surprises and praying against the bad.

The goal: view everyone as a character

The best stories are filled with characters. Characters play integral roles in the story. Characters develop and grow through the conflict they face. All characters have propensity for good and bad, though they certainly lean harder in one of those directions than the other.
But we all, as a default position, view ourselves as the main character of our story. This is why pastoral ministry exists! We need to point to the true main character, Jesus. Our job is to pray and preach toward the end that everyone who comes into our church receives him, no matter how central – or not – they may seem at first glance.

(Image credit)

While We're On The Topic:

1. How to Do Accountability in Your Small Group, Even If There Are Visitors
2. My Philosophy of Ministry in 4 Words, Drawn on a Napkin
3. 5 Ways to Imitate John Stott: Tim Keller’s Message at Stott’s Memorial Service
4. 6 Types of Leaders Who Stunt Your Church’s Growth
5. 7 Prayer Lists You Already Have

Good Leadership Is Going to Cost You

by Ron Edmondson

Cheap leadership is never good leadership.

Leadership is expensive. Costly. Cheap leadership is never good leadership.

Here are seven high costs of good leadership:

1. Personal agenda.

Good leaders give up their personal desires for the good of others, the team or the organization.

2. Control.

What you control, you limit. Good leaders give freedom and flexibility to others in how they accomplish the predetermined goals and objectives.

3. Popularity.

Leading well is no guarantee a leader will be popular. In fact, there will be times where the opposite is more true. Leaders take people through change. Change is almost never initially popular.

4. Comfort.

If you are leading well, you don’t often get to lead “comfortably.” You get to wrestle with messiness and awkwardness and push through conflict and difficulty. It’s for a noble purpose, but it isn’t easy.

5. Fear.

Good leadership goes into the unknown. That’s often scary. Even the best leaders are anxious at times about what is next.

6. Loneliness.

I believe every leader should surround themselves with other leaders. We should be vulnerable enough to let others speak into our lives. But there will be days when a leader has to stand alone. Others won’t immediately understand. On those days, the quality of strength in a leader is revealed. This one should never be intentional, but when you are leading change … when it involves risk and unknowns … this will often be, for a season, a significant cost.

7. Outcome.

We follow worthy visions. We create measurable goals and objectives. We discipline for the tasks ahead. We don’t, however, get to script the way people respond, how times change or how the future unfolds.

As leaders, we should consider whether or not we are willing to pay the price for good leadership. It’s not cheap!

I’ve identified seven costs of leadership. Help me identify a few more.
What costs of leadership have you discovered?  

Ron Edmondson is a pastor and church leader passionate about planting churches, helping established churches thrive, and assisting pastors and those in ministry think through leadership, strategy and life. Ron has over 20 years business experience, mostly as a self-employed business owner, and he's been helping church grow vocationally for over 10 years.More from Ron Edmondson or visit Ron at www.ronedmondson.com
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Source: churchleaders.com

7 of the Hardest People to Lead

by Ron Edmondson

I've learned not to be surprised at what people you are trying to lead may say or do.

Someone asked me recently, "Who has been the most difficult person you’ve had to lead?" That’s a great question. As a leader for over a quarter of a century (wow, that sounds old), I’ve experienced just about everything you can imagine in leading people.

I once had an employee call in sick because her snake was peeling. And the snake got depressed when he shed. She needed to be home to comfort the snake. That was a new one … and a story for another time … but I’ve learned not to be surprised at what people you are trying to lead may say or do.

I’ve also learned some people are easier to lead than others. Often personalities, experiences and preferences negatively impact a person’s ability to be led effectively.

Here are 7 of the hardest people to lead:

Know it all – It’s difficult to lead someone who won’t listen, because they don’t think they have a need for what you have to say. They think they know more than you…and everyone else. They may or may not, but it makes them very hard to lead.

Gifted leaders - Don’t misunderstand this one. I don’t mean they try to be difficult. They just bring higher expectations for those who try to lead them. I have had some very successful retired pastors in my churches. I love having them … but they keep me on my toes! (And, that’s a good thing.)

Hyper-critical – When someone is always negative it becomes difficult to lead them, mostly because they zap the motivation from you to do so. They never have anything positive to add to the team, the glass is always have empty, and the sky is always about to fall. Draining.

Wounded – Wounded people are more resistant to being led to something new until they heal. I’ve had staff members who came to our church injured. I knew before I could effectively lead them I had to help them heal from their past.

Insecure – Those who lack self-confidence are harder to lead, because they are hesitant to take a risk. The best leadership involves delegation. It’s people who assume responsibility for a task. Insecure people will usually only move when they are given specific tasks to complete. And, while good leaders encourage followers, insecure people need constant feedback and assurance, which can be exceptionally time demanding for leaders.

Traditionalist – This may not be the right word, perhaps risk-averse would be better, but leadership always involve change. Always. Without change there is no need for leadership. So, those who cling so tightly to the past are harder to lead to something new. There is nothing wrong with tradition or with enjoying the memories of the past. It’s when someone’s love of our history prevents them from embracing their future that it becomes difficult leading them.

Myself – The hardest person to lead is almost always the leaders. If leaders could always perform as we’d have others perform, we’d be better leaders. In fact, most of us would be excellent leaders.

I’m sure I missed some. The fact is everyone can be difficult to lead at times and during seasons. It’s what makes leadership fun, right? Seriously, all of these scenarios and types of people serve a role. Whether or not they prove to be a good fit for your team, they sharpen our skills of leadership.

Ron Edmondson is a pastor and church leader passionate about planting churches, helping established churches thrive, and assisting pastors and those in ministry think through leadership, strategy and life. Ron has over 20 years business experience, mostly as a self-employed business owner, and he's been helping church grow vocationally for over 10 years.More from Ron Edmondson or visit Ron at www.ronedmondson.com
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Source: churchleaders.com

SAM STORMS|

What I Wish I'd Known: Reflections on Nearly 40 Years of Pastoral Ministry

What follows has been adapted from a brief talk I delivered to the Oklahoma chapter of The Gospel Coalition on October 2. Here are 10 things I wish I'd known when I first started out as a pastor.

1. I wish I'd known that people who disagree with me on doctrines I hold dearly can often love God and pursue his glory with as much, and in some cases more, fervency than I do. The sort of intellectual pride that fuels such delusions can be devastating to ministry and will invariably undermine any efforts at broader Christian unity across denominational lines.

2. I wish I'd known about the inevitable frustration that comes when you put your trust in what you think are good reasons why people should remain loyal to your ministry and present in your church. I wish I'd been prepared for the feelings of betrayal and disillusionment that came when people in whom I'd personally invested so much love, time, and energy simply walked away, often with the most insubstantial and flimsiest of excuses.

3. I wish I'd known how deeply and incessantly many (most?) people suffer. Having been raised in a truly functional family in which everyone knew Christ and loved one another, I was largely oblivious to the pain endured by most people who've never known that blessing. For too many years I naively assumed that if I wasn't hurting, neither were they. I wish I'd realized the pulpit isn't a place to hide from the problems and pain of one's congregation; it's a place to address, commiserate with, and apply God's Word to them.

4. I wish I'd known the life-changing truth of Zephaniah 3:17 long before Dennis Jernigan introduced me to it. I'm honored when people thank me for writing a particular book with comments such as "This was very helpful" or "You enabled me to see this truth in a new light," or something similar. But of only one book, The Singing God, have people said, "This changed my life." This isn't some vain attempt to sell more books, but a reminder that most Christians (including pastors) are convinced God is either angry or disgusted with them, or both. I wish I'd known earlier how much he enjoys singing over them (and over me).

5. I wish I'd known how much people's response to me would affect my wife. For many years I falsely assumed her skin was as thick as mine. Regardless of a woman's personality, only rarely will she suffer less than him from criticism directed his way.

6. I wish I'd known how vital it is to understand yourself and to be both realistic and humble regarding what you find. Don't be afraid to be an introvert or extrovert (or some mix of the two). Be willing to take steps to compensate for your weaknesses by surrounding yourself with people unlike you, who make up for your deficiencies and challenge you in healthy ways to be honest about what you can and cannot do.

7. I wish I'd known it's possible to be a thoroughly biblical complementarian and to include women in virtually every area of ministry in the local church. In my early years in ministry, I was largely governed by the fear that to permit women into any form of ministry was to cross an imaginary biblical boundary—even though the Bible never imposes any such restriction on their involvement. I tended to make unwarranted applications by extrapolating from explicit principles something either absent or unneccesary. Aside from senior governmental authority in the local church (the role of elder) and the primary responsibility to expound and apply Scripture, is there anything the Bible clearly says is off-limits to females? Trust me, men, we need them far more than we know.

8. I wish I'd known it was okay to talk about money. Don't be afraid to talk about money. Just be sure you're humble and biblical and don't do it with a view to a salary increase for yourself (unless you genuinely and desperately need one). For far too many years I allowed my disdain for prosperity gospel advocates to silence my voice on the importance of financial stewardship in Christian growth and maturity. I didn't formulate a strategy for calling people to lifelong financial generosity without sounding self-serving.

9. I wish I'd known about the delusion of so-called confidentiality. Pity the man who puts his confidence in confidentiality. You can and must control the information that comes to you, but you can never control the information that comes from you. Once information is out and in the hands of others, never assume it will remain there, notwithstanding their most vigorous promises of silence. Be cautious and discerning about to whom you promise confidentiality, under which conditions (it's rarely if ever unconditional), and in regard to what issues and/or individuals. "Sam, you don't appear to have much trust in human nature, do you?" It's not that I don't trust human nature. I'm actually quite terrified of it! What I trust is Scripture's teaching about human nature.

10. I wish I'd known about the destructive effects of insecurity in a pastor. This is less because I've struggled with it and more due to its effect I've seen in others. Why is insecurity so damaging?

• Insecurity makes it difficult to acknowledge and appreciate the accomplishments of others on staff (or in the congregation). In other words, the personally insecure pastor is often incapable of offering genuine encouragement to others. Their success becomes a threat to him, his authority, and his status in the eyes of the people. Thus if you're insecure you likely won't pray for others to flourish.

• Insecurity will lead a pastor to encourage and support and praise another pastor only insofar as the latter serves the former's agenda and doesn't detract from his image.

• An insecure pastor will likely resent the praise or affirmation other staff members receive from the people at large.

• For the insecure pastor, constructive criticism is not received well, but is perceived as a threat or outright rejection.

• Because the insecure pastor is incapable of acknowledging personal failure or lack of knowledge, he's often unteachable. He will resist those who genuinely seek to help him or bring him information or insights he lacks. His spiritual growth is therefore stunted.

• The insecure pastor is typically heavy-handed in his dealings with others.

• The insecure pastor is often controlling and given to micromanagement.

• The insecure pastor rarely empowers or authorizes others to undertake tasks for which they're especially qualified and gifted. He won't release others but rather restrict them.

• The insecure pastor is often given to outbursts of anger.

• At its core, insecurity is the fruit of pride.

In summary, and at its core, insecurity results from not believing the gospel. The antidote to feelings of insecurity, then, is the rock-solid realization that one's value and worth are in the hands of God, not others, and that our identity expresses who we are in Christ. Only as we deepen our grasp of his sacrificial love for us will we find the liberating confidence to affirm and support others without fearing their successes or threats.

Sam Storms is lead pastor for preaching and vision at Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Source: The Gospel Coalition