Healthy Leaders | Issue 21
A leader helps people move.
Welcome to Issue 21 of Healthy Leaders. Last week we put forward a simple definition of leadership. In this issue, we dig down into that definition.
Hello friends,
Welcome back to our ongoing conversation1 on healthy Christian leadership and leader development.
In our last post, we defined leadership as follows: “A leader is someone who helps people move from where they are now to somewhere else.”
Think for a second about what this says about leaders you know, and about yourself as a leader. How are the leaders in your life adding up? If you are a leader yourself, how are you adding up?
Now let’s break down this definition.
It’s striking to think of leaders like Hitler or Stalin as effective, but this is a fact. A good leader, by this definition, is one who moves us from where we are to a better place. Unfortunately, we see many bad leaders in places of authority around the world, even in the church.
One reason we’ve been seeing Christian leaders failing time and again is because they have chosen to manage their image, as opposed to fulfill their responsibility as a leader to bring people to a better place. Wade Mullen, at the 2023 Restore Conference, pointed out:
“That image-centered approach can become a framework, a grid, through which all crises are viewed and through which all decisions are made. And over time, an organization, a community, a culture can become increasingly concerned with covering up abuses, injustices, and all kinds of unethical behavior, for the sake of preserving that positive appearance — to be seen as a place free of those kinds of dark secrets.”
According to Mullens, this “impression management” comes into play when crises hit, and the first thing we need to do in that situation is to “surrender the desire to manage impressions and defend your image.”
“One of the saddest statements I hear sometimes from church leaders is, I didn’t sign up for this. Well, that’s exactly what you signed up for, to serve people in the midst of their suffering.”
Impression management is a primary example of what Malcolm mentioned in the video today: something that serves the leader’s own personal ambitions (reputation), not the people the leader serves. This is abusive leadership, not servant leadership. This is why we seek to build healthy leaders at LeaderSource — not only for their sake, but for the sake of the people they lead.
“I used to think that leadership was just about leading, instructing, and working at my convenience. I never considered that it was building or mentoring others that would take over after me. Now I know that I need to be intentional in becoming a healthy leader and in building others using the 5Cs and 4Ds. I also know that I need to work on my character and be more relational to people in my community.” (leader in Jos, Nigeria)
You too can be a healthy leader, and lead people into better places, into greater power and love in Christ!
Until next time, we’re with you.
— Chris
Recommended Resources
We highly recommend watching the full video from Restore, Responding Well to a Scandal - Wade Mullen.
Abusive Leadership, by Malcolm Webber
For more resources, visit our new website.
Thanks to our friends at Fifty-Four Collective for putting together a comprehensive set of video courses for growing healthy organizations, starting with this series of courses on leadership by Malcolm. We’ll be using some of their videos and some of our own. Be sure to check out what they’re doing!