He shared in their humanity so that he might free those
who were held in slavery by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15

“How does the resurrection of Jesus transform your understanding and practice of leadership?” If someone asked you this question could you answer it clearly? Think about it for a minute. If this most pivotal event at the core of our faith doesn’t have an impact on how we lead then surely something is wrong. Isn’t it?

Toxic Leaders and the Fear of Death

As I thought about this point, I recalled a fascinating analysis of toxic leadership provided by Jean Lipman-Blumen in her book on toxic leadership. As with other poisonous things, these leaders come in varying degrees of toxicity. Some are mildly poisonous — one might say “not altogether bad” and are found in small domains, offices, churches and ministries. They set unreasonable goals, promote excessive internal competiton, and create cultures of blame. Others rise to the senior ranks of great corporations and lead their companies into disaster. They violate the dignity and rights of others, bend or ignore ethical obligations, and divert resources to elevation of their own grandeur.The worst are among the monsters of history who names have become bywords for evil. Their legacy includes death, fear, and devastation. What all toxic leaders have in common is that they “leave their followers worse off then they found them.” (Read More)

“Never abandon yourselves to despair, for we are the
Easter people and hallelujah is our song.”

It can be interesting to think about what a religious historian one hundred years from now might write about our own time. What would the perspective of history say about the trends of today? What follows is a small attempt to capture a bit of that future history. It has not yet been written, but perhaps someday it could be. So use your imagination when you read what follows.

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An excerpt from John Arthur Hargerston, History of the North American Church in the Early 21st Century (Nashville: Century 22 Publishing, 2134), s.v. “Easter People.”

The Easter People. “Easter People” has been used to describe one of three influential orientations common among evangelicals in the early 21st century. The other two are “Power People” and “Fortress People.”

Power People. The “Power People” movement developed among evangelicals who were determined to oppose erosion of what they believed was a cultural consensus from the 19^th century that incorporated Christian moral principles. Power People understood themselves as an embattled minority fighting to preserve decency, family values, and godly government. They worked to mobilize public outrage, lobby politicians, and pass new laws. Many took on roles as political activists and power brokers. The Power People movement ultimately failed as the surrounding culture counter-moblized, bringing to bear on the issues greater social leverage than the Christian minority could muster. A secondary factor in the movement’s failure was that growing numbers of evangelicals became disillusioned with political battles as a strategy for carrying out the mission of the church. Over time the Power People communities withered as members departed to merge either into the secular culture where power-oriented strategies were more accepted or into one of the other main evangelical movements of the time. (Read More)

Questions are powerful. Getting to the right answer begins with asking the right question. A particularly probing question can press us toward new perspectives, new insights, new methods. A very few questions–just the right questions–can stimulate wide-scale transformation

The Power of a Transformational Question

Robert Quinn relates the experience of consultant Kurt Wright who was working for a huge software project that involved a $100 million dollar contract. 400 hundred engineers were 38 months into a 60-month schedule. The project was slipping behind every month and was now 18 months behind. Worse still, if the project was not on schedule within 10 months, the contract required the company to pay a $30 million penalty. Disaster was 10 months away.

What would you do? Crack the whip and urge people on? Fire the managers responsible for the slippage and hire new ones? Give up?

After many conversations with people involved in the project Wright concluded that he had to change the fundamental “scripts” that were controlling the workers’ assumptions and behaviors. To galvanize everyone’s efforts and establish a new positive vision he concluded that it was necessary to change the underlying question. In short, those 400 engineers and managers needed a new and transformational question. (Read More)

Is there anything a grave marker can teach us about evangelism and love?

The answer is “a lot.” Take a look at the stone below that stands over the grave of Cameron Townsend, the founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Cam’s final message to his followers includes two exhortations. First, “By love serve one another.” Second, “Finish the task.” Notice that serving one another by love comes first and the task second. The order is deliberate, instructive, and biblically accurate. The great task of Bible translation is carried out by the community of believers who love one another.

There is always a temptation to put practical results first, to make “getting the job done” the first priority and then to fit in love for one another when there is time or opportunity. The problem with this approach is that loving one another gets squeezed out in the rush to catch the next flight, to get to the next appointment, to take the next phone call, to answer the next email, and–well–very simply to do “the next thing.”

Commitment to fulfilling the Great Commission can turn into this kind of high-pressured race. Let potential followers who want to gather together for fellowship go elsewhere. We “signed up” to do evangelism and the Great Commission not to love one another. This can even turn into a suspicion of taking time to love one another as if loving one another could become the enemy of the Great Commission.

Love is the hallmark
of authentic evangelism.

In reality the reverse is true. Love is the origin and energy that motivates the Great Commission. God did not take the initiative to reach out to fallen sinners because it was the next item on His divine “to do” list. It was because while we were sinners he loved us (Romans 5.8). It was his “great love” Because of his “great love” with which he loved us, he has made us alive with Christ. The sign for us that we have been saved is that “we love our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3.14). The implication is clear: if you don’t feel great love for the fellow believers around you, then you have little reason to be assured that you are truly in Christ.

(Read More)

There’s a marvelous article in the January issue of Harvard Business Review on “leading from behind” and “leadership as collective genius.” Professor Linda Hill is chair of the Harvard Business School’s High Potential Leadership program and an active researcher in the field of leadership. Leadership in the future, she says, will require “leading from behind” to create environments where people working in teams can contribute their skills for collaborative problem solving and innovation through the joint creativity of diverse teams.

Tibetan Good Shepherd (Click to Enlarge)

She compares this process to the work of a shepherd. Shepherds lead from the rear of the flock, helping them navigate and creating an environment where the more nimble and agile are able to run ahead so that the others can follow. The task of the leader is to help individuals flourish in their roles, setting boundaries for the flock, and helping to resolve tensions. Leading from behind is particularly important when the goal is to encourage innovation, discovery and implementation of new ideas and processes. Innovation flourishes where leaders both unleash and harness the creativity of the team, Hill says. “You have to create an environment in which” all the participants are “engaged and in which the collective talent of team members is tapped by having everyone take the lead at some point.”

(Read More)

What does it take to be an extraordinarily effective organization? This is the perennial leadership question. There is something different about some organizations, something that helps them outperform others and even exceed their own goals.

In his book, Building the Bridge As You Walk On it, Robert Quinn says that these “extraordinarily positive” organizations can be called highly “productive communities.” In these communities, people find that they can contribute and excel.

What makes highly productive communities different?

During a visit to one extraordinary organization, a group of managers described the impact of several extraordinary people. These were people who had influenced the organization very significantly. They had inspired others to achieve at higher-than-dreamed levels.

“So what do they do?” the researcher asked. Quinn says that there was a long silence. Finally one director said, “That’s the wrong question.”

I like that. To ask first about what they do is to ask the wrong question. That question points us to look for behaviors, techniques, practices, and habits. It’s the dream of everyone concerned about leadership. “Tell me what I need to do!” We want the three-point short-list, the seven-part formula, the 21 irrefutable keys to successful leadership. If we could only find out what these extraordinary people do we could then capture it, teach it, and through imitation gain that same performance advantage for ourselves.

If only!

But if the answer is not what they do, then what is it? Quinn continues the story. After the long pause the director said, “It is not what they do, because each one of them is unique in how they pull it off. It is not about what they do; it is about who they are.”

It’s not what they do.
It’s who they are!

Don’t miss that point! The key to developing and sustaining positive and productive communities lies within. It’s a matter of heart and character, integrity and soul. Organizational excellence tends not to be a function of imitation, Quinn tells us. It’s a function of “origination” that begins within the hearts and minds of people who have a deep inner sense of purpose, integrity, and caring.

(Read More)

It’s an ancient art. An aboriginal elder gathers an audience and begins to tell a story. As the story unfolds his hands move, gestures illustrating and reinforcing the drama of his tale. People listen with rapt attention.

The stories are entertaining–yes–but they are so much more. Through his tales people identify with the heritage of their people, weep over their tragedies, rejoice in their triumphs. The stories capture their dreams and longings, hopes and fears, values they cherish and behaviors they hate.

Great Storytellers are
great “truth tellers”

Some people think storytelling is about fantasy and make believe. But the heart of storytelling is “truth telling” says Peter Guber. It’s a profound observation coming from the man who produced such films as Rainman and The Color Purple and has headed up Sony Pictures, Polygram, and Columbia Pictures. Perhaps only Stephen Spielberg or George Lucas could claim more impressive credentials.

Storytellers become “truth tellers” to their people for in their stories people hear truth about the meaning of their lives. Effective storytellers, Guber believes, master the four truths of storytelling. At the end I’ll add one more of my own.

(Read More)

What does it take to encourage and sustain vibrant spiritual movements? Over the past months we’ve been working to think through these issues from a fresh perspective. Here’s a diagram that gives an overview of what we’ve developed.

A Movement Cycle
(Click to Enlarge)

At the core of the cycle is an experience that we call a “faith adventure.” Faith is at the heart of all Christian living. The Scripture tells us that without faith it’s impossible to please God. Faith must be active, however, and when we take steps of faith with God it really is an adventure. The larger the step of faith, the greater the adventure. Wherever you find a vital spiritual movement, you’ll find people taking adventurous steps of faith.

New birth begins with an act of faith that plants the seed of a new divine life within a person that will then grow and mature. Growth depends on experiencing the work of the Holy Spirit who provides the power to overcome sinful behaviors and to share our faith with others.

If the cycle is to continue, a significant number of believers must learn to multiply themselves spiritually. Each opportunity to share with someone else is a faith adventure all in itself. For greater impact, believers can mobilize together for active strategy development to reach out to the people around them.

Taken together, this process creates vital evangelistic movements. But we must always remember that as much as we need good methods, it’s not technique that makes the difference. At the heart of this process is the great quality of faith, the indispensable mark of an active relationship with God.

Dear Subscriber,

Thank you for your interest in the LeaderLetter. I hope it will prove helpful as you engage others in the difficult, sometimes frustrating, but always fascinating process of leadership.

At the Lead for Impact website you can visit the page that tells you more about me. The brief summary is that I’ve been involved in leadership since my days as a student at the University of Illinois through a term of pastoral leadership and then executive leadership as Executive Vice President of Trinity Western University. Today I serve as Executive Director of Ministries for Power To Change where I work with the leaders of our 15 ministry areas and a staff of almost 500 spread around the globe. During my years at the University I completed a doctoral program in educational leadership at Seattle University.

But that’s me, and in writing this newsletter and blog I’m more interested in sharing thoughts that will be helpful to you. I’d love to have your comments to hear from you. Feel free to send a message to me at guy.saffold@powertochange.org.

I wish you all the best!

Guy