Thoughts on leadership

At a recent conference at which I served on a panel on leadership, the panelists were asked to provide opening comments about our thinking on the topic (my friend Margaret Marcuson also served on that panel. You can read her comments here). Here are the thoughts I shared at the start of our panel discussion and Q&A:

Leadership is a function of one’s position in a relationship system, and it is mediated by two things: context and self.

My observation is that many people ascribe to leadership things that are neither essential nor necessary for effectiveness, like personality, charisma, competence, skills, intelligence, or a particular “style” of leadership. Few of us seem to appreciate that the nature of the context of the system one is in will influence leadership more than any other factor. This is because, first, leadership is always situated—it does not exist apart from its context. And, second, leadership is about the function the system requires of the person in the position of leader.

A family requires functions of its leader that are different than that of the person in the leader position in a congregation or a corporation, for example. Furthermore, the context of a particular system requires different functions of the leader at different times and under different circumstances. In a family, the function of parenting (parents are the “leaders” in a family system) is different when children are young than when they are teenagers. Parental leadership functions are different when the family is stable than when it is in crisis. And a congregation of seventy members in its formation and formatting stage needs a particular function of its pastoral leader than does a congregation of 300 in its prime lifespan stage (for more on leadership functions related to congregational lifespan and size/style see The Hidden Lives of Congregations).

The second component that mediates leadership functioning is the Self of the leader. By “self” we don’t mean things like personality. Rather, we mean his or her sense of identity, capacity for self-definition (stating values, beliefs, and opinions), but more to the point: the leader’s capacity to self-differentiate as the leader of the system (fulfilling the function and roles of the leader while staying connected to the system). Being a self in the position of leader also requires the capacity to acquire and practice those things uniquely important to that function, like, providing vision, practicing courage, and cultivating imagination.

In my remarks I said that there is one important thing to remember about leadership, and that is: you can only lead the willing. This is why staying connected is critical to effectiveness. The nature and quality of your relationship will determine who moves toward you and with you, and ultimately, will facilitate people’s capacity to follow.