Where Have All the Good Leaders Gone?
Do you ever feel inadequate as a leader? The demands of leadership are real. If you are feeling the heat, you are not alone. Leaders in all endeavors are resigning, burning out, motivating through fear, putting out fires, temporizing, pleading, and trying to avoid the heat. Maybe this is your experience this year, this month, or even today.
In his chapter entitled “Where Have All the Leaders Gone?” Warren Bennis discusses the leadership crisis in North America today:
“Thus, precisely at the time when the trust and credibility of our alleged leaders are at an all-time low and when potential leaders feel most inhibited in exercising their gifts, America most needs leaders... because, of course, as the quality of leaders declines, the quantity of problems escalates. As a person cannot function without a brain, a society cannot function without leaders. And so the decline goes on.”
This demand for effective leadership has also permeated institutions like the Church. “Studies cite that members of the clergy occupy one of the most stressful positions in the American labor force,” states Ted Engstrom in Seizing the Torch, written with Robert C. Larson. “The local church may be the most sophisticated organizational concept in the world,” he continues, “and the most difficult to lead.”
Many in upper-level leadership struggle to be the leader that their organization needs. George Barna addresses this issue for pastoral leadership specifically in Building Effective Lay Leadership Teams, and perhaps you can relate:
“Most pastors neither see themselves as leaders, nor aspire to be leaders. In a national survey of Protestant senior pastors, we asked them to identify their spiritual gifts. Only 12 percent of the pastors — that’s about one out of every eight — said they have the gift of leadership... Our studies have shown that there is a very high level of frustration among most pastors: they went to seminary to learn how to preach and pastor, not how to lead, yet people expect strong, visionary leadership.”
Barna concludes, “An organization can compensate for the absence of many skills and resources, but it cannot overcome the absence of effective leadership.” In other words, some of today’s organizations are filled with executives skilled in administration, building, or teaching, but not leading. Engstrom and Larson describe the church, particularly, as one of the most stressful and demanding institutions. Therefore, effective leadership is paramount to its success. Leading more effectively is a call to all of us.
How does an executive leader meet the demands of leading a staff? What can he or she do to prevent staff tension, rivalry, and constant turnover? How can you and your team more effectively meet the needs of the community and serve people? Here is the key: Develop effective team-based leadership among your staff. More on this to come…