The Two Things Every Leader Must Do
Healthy Leaders | Issue 43
Welcome to Issue 43 of Healthy Leaders. In this issue, you only need to focus on two things.
Hello friends,
Welcome back to our ongoing conversation on healthy Christian leadership and leader development.1
Leaders must act. Leaders must take risks. Leaders must set vision, align, achieve. Leaders must be strong in Christ. They must be rooted in community, upright in integrity, passionate in calling. They must have the skills necessary to accomplish their goals.
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by it all?
Feeling overwhelmed by all of the responsibilities of being a healthy Christian leader is a natural response, because the work is absolutely bigger than you are! The good news is that we do not operate in our own strength, but out of our inward fellowship with Jesus. The engine of Christian leadership is Jesus.
Knowing this, then, what do we do practically? Every day we are confronted with a million different tasks of varying priority and value. Every day we are given opportunities to invest in relationships and projects and programs. How do we prioritize all of these things as leaders?
Here’s Malcolm with some guidance:
One of the most important things that leaders do is to shape culture. In fact, that is how they lead.
Culture is shared beliefs, values, priorities, attitudes, actions, memories, language. Our culture is “our way.” It is the totality of the patterns of how we as a group do things. Culture is the “software of the mind.”
In addition, culture is like water to a fish — the fish lives in it, breathes it, sleeps it, eats it, and yet he doesn’t even know it exists until he goes into a different environment at which time he suddenly discovers water!
And the prevalent culture at your organization will eat your mission, vision, strategy, and values alive.
This is why, in our training events, we spend significant effort on designing the culture of the training, not only the instruction. We prioritize deep times of worship and prayer, centering our hearts on Christ first and foremost. We create active service opportunities and use practical ways to grow. Everything we do is rooted in relationships defined by encouragement, accountability, and affirmation. Our trainers seek to be healthy leaders themselves because they know that the example they set speaks louder than their words.
Sister M, a believer in East Asia, shared with us about the difference between this sort of healthy culture and the dysfunctional culture she swam in before attending one of our trainings:
I have been a believer since I was very young, mostly living in legalism. Many times, the only reason for me to do ministry was to win the approval of men instead of to please God. I felt so much pressure that my spiritual life was burned out. I was disappointed with the church and with my family, and I lost any direction and purpose in my life.
In the past, I was not willing to think for myself, and I was afraid of challenging myself. But in the training, each of us was given various leading responsibilities. Through these, I myself improved, step by step. Even though I made mistakes, the teacher constantly encouraged me so that I felt secure and was able to try again and again. The program has such a healthy culture, allowing people to make mistakes and building a secure context …. I have learned to lay down my preferences and make sacrifices for the sake of others. Even though it was not easy to do, I was able to experience Jesus’ life in me anew.
What about you?
Moreover, the reality is: leaders are always shaping culture, whether they realize it or not. They are constantly shaping a healthy culture or an unhealthy culture. Culture doesn’t just “happen” — it is shaped.
Whether knowingly or unknowingly, leaders shape organizational culture in four main ways.2
Your Prayer: The power of leaders’ prayer cannot be overstated. Significant change of organizational culture is birthed in deep, sustained prayer. Before a leader can lead any process of change, he must first prayerfully evaluate the situation, asking God for His vision and clear direction (Gal. 6:4; Eph. 5:15).
Your Life: People listen to you, and they also carefully watch what you do. When there is a conflict between these, they will believe your actions before your words. You are the vision statement. Your life is the values statement.
Your Work: Your day-to-day actions and priorities in your church or organization speak volumes to your followers: what you focus on, how you respond to crises, how you deal with people and design the organization.
Your Words: This includes what you teach, how you communicate, how you counsel and coach, what you affirm and celebrate, the stories you tell, and the formal statements you make.
The important thing to recognize is that you are constantly shaping culture — whether or not you realize it — through your own life, in everything you do, in everything you say, in everything you allow. By the way you behave and through what you emphasize, you are always nurturing either a healthy culture or an unhealthy one!
So … how are you going to shape your culture today?
Until next time, we’re with you!
— Chris
Recommended Resources
Book: Building Leaders
Model Brief: The Need for a Broad Culture of Leader Development
Video Course: Shaping a Culture of Generational Succession
For more resources, visit our 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!
This model is from Malcolm Webber’s course How Leaders Shape Organizational Culture.