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Overview
Being a leader involves much more than holding a title. And simply having a leader doesn't ensure success. This reality has never been more prevalent in the church than now, when so many churches are considered to be plateaued or dying.
Pastor and popular blogger, Ron Edmondson believes this is due to a misunderstanding of what leadership is and what it isn't. In his work with hundreds of pastors and churches, the most common need he encounters is the need for more effective leadership in the local church. Seminaries may prepare pastors to preach, just as colleges may prepare teachers to teach, but who prepares pastors to lead?
Simply stated: The church needs better leadership.
In The Mythical Leader, Edmondson exposes some of the most common misunderstandings of leadership, shares stories from his own experiences, and will help church leaders develop healthier patterns to improve their individual leadership.
While most people may have a preliminary understanding of many of these myths, they often are not lived out with a great degree of depth in the life of the church leader. Don't fall prey to these myths! If gone untreated they can be the very thing that prevents a good leader from leading well.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780718089191 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Nelson, Thomas, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 08/15/2017 |
| Pages: | 224 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.70(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
MYTH 1
A Position Will Make Me a Leader
MY FIRST PAID LEADERSHIP ROLE CAME BY DEFAULT. I WAS a full-time college student working in the men's department of a large retail department store. I had been at the store less than two years when my boss suddenly quit. Turnover is high in the retail world, but it seemed even more than normal in this department. Since I was the most tenured person on staff, they made me the new manager.
Looking back, it was probably one of the weaker moments of my leadership journey. I was not at all prepared and made a lot of mistakes.
But it was a huge blessing in my life. I was paying my way through school. The new position gave me some extra money. I moved into a better off-campus apartment, bought nicer clothes, and had better dates.
More so, even though I did not always know what I was doing, it began my professional leadership career. I had previous leadership experience in high school, serving as student body president. But this time I was being paid to lead a group of people.
At twenty years of age, I had basically arrived in the field of leadership.
Are you impressed yet?
If you are not especially impressed, you are in good company with the people I had been challenged to lead.
The store was situated close to a university, so it attracted college students as employees. I remember the first time we had a big sale after I took over the department. Midnight madness sales were popular at that time. We would close for a couple of hours in the late afternoon, cover all our doors with butcher wrap paper to add suspense, then reopen in the evening with significantly marked-down items throughout the store. People would stand in line for hours prior to the sale and scramble to find the bargains as soon as we opened the doors. This type of sale is not as common anymore as people have come to expect bargains daily, either in the store or online. Although it was not quite midnight, it truly was madness. (We later changed these sales to "moonlight madness.")
The men's department was especially busy during these sales. Men, I learned, are often cheap about buying their own clothes, so they are motivated by the perception of dramatically reduced prices. Plus, they seemed to love the idea of chasing a deal.
I scheduled additional staffing for the evening of this first sales event, relying on the advice of others for how many people I should schedule. You can only imagine my disappointment and embarrassment when the doors opened and my grossly understaffed department was f looded with customers. Two employees, both college students, failed to show up to work that night. It was before the days of cell phones, e-mail, or Facebook, and they did not call. I tried calling them but got no response. I was mortified — and angry.
The next day I ran into one of my no-shows on campus. I asked him where he was the night before and why he never called. He told me he had a test and realized he needed to study. He said he meant to call but got distracted. It was not his regularly scheduled day to work, so he assumed he would not be missed.
I stood there wondering how he could justify what he was saying to me. In this moment I realized he did not see me as his boss but rather as another carefree college student. I was his friend, his colleague, his equal. He seemed to think I would understand — he had a test — and could not grasp my frustration. And that made me even more frustrated.
I started working when I was twelve years old. My first job was at a grocery store. I would ride my bike to the store, where I made a dollar an hour, usually working twenty-five to thirty hours a week. We would fill in our time on the back of a bank counter check (ask someone older what those were) and hand it to the cashier to be paid in cash from the register. I was probably naive when it came to working, but I thought my bosses were my bosses. I was to obey them, show them respect, work hard, and try to impress them by giving them more than they asked of me. I know. Silly me, right?
I learned through my moonlight madness experience that a title does not make you a leader. Some people who have been in positions for years actually still believe having a title makes them a leader. They assume people will look up to them, do what they request, and show them a higher level of respect just because of their job title. It is what I thought, but I learned the hard way it simply is not true.
You can take any title you want — president, manager, boss — and demand to be addressed in a particular way — Mr. Boss, sir, Mr. Boss Sir — but your title alone will not change how people view you.
This is especially true if those you are trying to lead have known you prior to your new title. My fellow college students knew me first as a student. Thus, my leadership position did not translate easily for them.
Frankly — and this is a slightly different subject, but I may as well let you know — I am not a big fan of titles. When we hire someone, we let them create their own title. After we establish a vision for the position, we even let them write their job descriptions. I have learned the title says far less about the person than the person's actions. Your title does not matter. What matters is how you carry out the work you are responsible for doing.
Since my days in retail, however, I have observed this false perception is not limited to inexperienced leaders like I was at the time. I have known people with huge positions whom no one truly follows. They think they are growing in their leadership over time, but really their paychecks are simply getting bigger, and sometimes they even get a bigger or more appealing job title. They may give out orders and command obedience with positional influence, but no one is willingly following their lead. They may be a boss, but I would not call them a leader. People only appear to be following because they need a job.
I wish I were only writing about the business world. I spent most of my career there, and I still feel confident speaking from this perspective. But I am writing about churches too. I am writing about pastors, deacons, elder chairs, and the chairs of the finance, personnel, or pulpit flower committees. It does not matter the church governance or the size of the church; there will be people who believe they have power or authority — that they are leaders — because of their positions.
I was at my first church for a predetermined length of time in a transitional pastor role. Cheryl and I quickly became great friends with the deacon chairman and his family. We had to travel a good distance to the church, so we would find somewhere to crash after the Sunday morning service until the Sunday night service. (Those were long days of ministry.) Often we would find ourselves at this deacon's house. We loved them. Still do.
A few months before our time ended, the deacon chairman and I got into a discussion about a doctrinal issue. It quickly turned pretty intense. Unfortunately, it was in a larger group setting. He asked me a question, I responded, and it went downhill from there. After this one discussion, our relationship was never the same.
I am not sure he had more than a few words to say to me the rest of my time at that church. We were never again invited to their house. We left the church as planned, said good-bye to everyone, including his family, but he never acknowledged our time there. He even summoned me to a called deacons' meeting to offer a formal complaint about a practical issue, of which he had been fully aware and supportive prior to our doctrinal discussion. Thankfully, I had the support of the other deacons, or I would have surely been asked to leave earlier than planned.
What was the reason for the change in our relationship? It was not really a doctrinal issue. There were probably lots of those before this altercation. It was not because of my preaching or my leadership style. He had plenty of experience with those and was always a great encourager to me. It really was not even the words we exchanged.
The reason for the break in our fellowship is that I crossed a sacred line with the one holding the title of deacon chair in the church. I questioned his authority, his power, his position. In this church, no one questioned this position. The one elected to this important role carried the power with the title and, therefore, should have garnered my full support and submission on the issue — whatever the issue might be.
As a new pastor, I learned so many things at this church about leadership and shepherding. I even learned from this deacon chair. As I said, I love him today — we dearly love his family — and I wish things had gone differently. I wish I had initially responded to him differently. Although it may not have made a difference, I wish I'd had the opportunity to see. I certainly learned firsthand, however, that people often assume the power of a title is granted with a position rather than earned by relationship.
As I talk with church leaders every week, it is apparent we have some people attempting positional leadership in our churches. They are strong in title but weak in motivating and managing staff and volunteers. They may chair a committee — perhaps several — but they are not really accomplishing all they could for the kingdom of God. Even if people appear to be doing what they say, they are not really leading people.
KING SAUL VERSUS KING DAVID
We see this myth of positional leaders throughout the Scriptures. Compare, for example, the leadership of King Saul to the leadership of King David.
Saul appeared to let his position get the best of him. He had been given the privilege of being king, but he took things into his own hands, relying on his own wisdom rather than the wisdom of God. Jealousy over David's popularity practically killed Saul and would have several times had it not been for David's character preventing his taking advantage of Saul's vulnerability. Concern over what others thought of him dominated Saul's kingship. Jonathan, his own son, had a hard time defending Saul's honor before David. Though he had everything a king could want — looks, qualities, and pedigree — he ended horribly. "The Lord regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel" (1 Sam. 15:35).
Contrast Saul to David. One of the things I love about David is he did not need a position to lead the people. We are told in Scripture that David was a man after God's own heart (1 Sam. 13:14; Acts 13:22). I believe it is an important point in understanding how David led.
One of my favorite leadership stories is one of David before he assumed the position of king. The story occurs when David was hiding from Saul.
Then they told David, saying, "Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and they are robbing the threshing floors."
Therefore David inquired of the Lord, saying, "Shall I go and attack these Philistines?"
And the Lord said to David, "Go and attack the Philistines, and save Keilah." (1 Sam. 23:1–2)
What does a person after God's own heart do when they see a need they can address but which may be overwhelming? Just as David was sensitive to the plight of his people at the hands of a giant named Goliath, even in hiding, David wanted to protect God's people. Consider his first response.
But David's men said to him, "Look, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?" (1 Sam. 23:3)
David had the humility to go to God for wisdom. Keep in mind David was not yet serving as king. He did not have a king's army. In fact, do you remember who David had as his army? "Everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him. So he became captain over them. And there were about four hundred men with him" (1 Sam. 22:2). David had a bunch of misfits surrounding him. They were probably street fighters, but they were likely no match for the trained, battle-ready, heavily armored armies he would fight.
But here is why I love this story. Do you notice what David did? Apparently he consulted with his forces. After he spoke with God, he went to his troops. He may have even asked their opinion, because he certainly appears to have allowed it. As much as obedience is critical to being a good soldier, we certainly know how they felt. And so did David. David's men had continually been loyal to him. He could have used his position as their leader and demanded they go. After all, he had already heard from the Lord.
But David was not a positional leader. He did not need a title for his style of leadership. David was a relational leader. He allowed people to speak into his life, even those he was trying to lead. He was respectful of those trying to follow him.
But go through the rest of the story with me. How did David respond once he knew how his team felt about the potential mission?
Once again David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered him:
"Go down to Keilah. For I will deliver the Philistines into your hand." And David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines, struck them with a mighty blow, and took away their livestock. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. (1 Sam. 23:4-5)
We can learn a lot about life and leadership from David in this story. Instead of demanding loyalty, David went back to the Lord and inquired again. It appears his men did not question him further. David was not a people-pleaser or a people-controller. He was a leader. He was decisive. He was strong, but he was willing to allow his people to be a part of his leadership. He did not try to protect his position. He recognized that people need to be a part of decisions affecting them and the best decisions are made through collaboration. As David built relationships, he found people who willingly followed him.
THE PROBLEM
The problem when people assume others are following a position or a title is they make decisions that negatively impact others, mostly without even knowing it. The "boss has ruled" mentality has injured many people over the years, including people in the church. Rather than building a consensus of opinion, the person with the highest rank makes the call. They pass rules down through the organizational chart as mandates rather than collaborate with their people to make the best decisions for everyone. And the results are usually damaging to the team and others.
Knowing this to be true, when I arrived at a historic, traditional church that needed revitalization, as much as I knew we needed to make some changes, I did not make any major moves in the first year. And when we made what I was told would be the biggest change of all — switching our service times — we took a year to do it. We started the process by soliciting the input of two dozen people who represented every age group in the church. Unlike David, I did not have a clear mandate from God to change the services, so I made it clear we would not move forward without a consensus and buy-in from the people. I knew it would be important to the success of the new time.
A PERSONAL EXAMPLE
Here's an example of how positional leadership plays out in a normal work situation. It may seem silly, but I learned a lot from it. I learned from many of my mistakes in my early days of leadership, but I also learned some things by watching others attempt to lead.
One of my roles in my first retail leadership position was to order the basic items for my department, making sure we always stocked the regular sellers. One of those items was a collar extender. (I do not know if those are used anymore, and I never used one, but basically it was a metal button with a hook that attached to the collar button to accommodate a larger neck than the shirt was made for. A man could still wear a shirt that technically no longer fit him. You know you wanted to know this.) Anyway, we normally kept a couple of boxes in stock. Each box contained a dozen extenders. When we sold out a box, I would order another box. They were not fast sellers, so it did not happen often.
One day we were down to our last box, so I placed an order. But instead of ordering one box of twelve, I incorrectly ordered twelve boxes, which was pretty much enough extenders for a few decades — or maybe more.
I had made a mistake. I did not realize my mistake until the order arrived and the receiving room opened the case of extenders. A senior manager happened to be in there when the mistake was discovered. Lucky me!
How did management — those people with bigger titles than mine — handle the mistake? Well, it was not by using good leadership principles, as I have come to learn.
The morning after the arrival of the case of extenders, a memo was sent to all area managers and every department: "From now on, all orders will need to be signed by a supervisor prior to completion."
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Mythical Leader"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Ron Edmondson.
Excerpted by permission of Thomas Nelson.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction xvii
Myth 1 A Position Will Make Me a Leader 1
Myth 2 If I Am Not Hearing Anyone Complain, Everyone Must Be Happy 25
Myth 3 I Can Lead Everyone the Same Way 47
Myth 4 Leadership and Management Are the Same Thing 77
Myth 5 Being the Leader Makes Me Popular 109
Myth 6 Leaders Must Have Charisma and Be Extroverts 141
Myth 7 Leaders Accomplish by Controlling Others 165
Notes 195
About the Author 198