Darryl's Blog
The leadership that we need
Ron Heifetz describes the leadership we usually look for, compared to the leadership we really need, in Leadership Without Easy Answers:
In a crisis we tend to look for the wrong kind of leadership. We call for someone with answers, decision, strength, and a map of the future, someone who knows where we ought to be going - in short, someone who can make hard problems simple. But problems...are not [always] simple. Instead of looking for saviors, we should be calling for leadership that will challenge us to face problems for which there are no simple, painless solutions - problems that require us to learn new ways.
We have many such problems...Making progress on these problems demands not just someone who provides answers from on high but changes in our attitudes, behavior, and values. To meet challenges such as these, we need a different idea of leadership and a new social contract that promote our adaptive capacities, rather than inappropriate expectations of authority.
Another Heifetz quote I wrote down today:
Imagine the differences in behavior between leaders who operate with the idea that "leadership means influencing the organization to follow the leader’s vision" and those who operate with the idea that "leadership means influencing the organization to face its problems and live into its opportunities."
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"...Making progress on these problems demands not just someone who provides answers from on high but changes in our attitudes, behavior, and values..."
Sounds strangely like Transformation to me.
Now there's a concept! (Imagine if it took hold in His Body.)
:~)
We must challenge people not to be sticks-in-the-mud.
stick-in-the-mud (stĭk'ĭn-THə-mŭd')
One who lacks initiative, imagination, or enthusiasm.
People have turned to leaders to come up with the ideas and solutions to their problems. This is the fatal flaw in people. They look for easy answers to their problems.
Leaders are people too. They have problems. They are flawed. Look to politicians as examples. George W. Bush for example has involved the USA in a war they will never win.
When we look to our leaders to solve all of our problems we will end up in more trouble. It is the blind leading the blind.
Leaders must challenge people to think for themselves and discuss with others possible solutions.
"But they, our forefathers, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and did not obey your commands. They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them"
Nehemiah 9:16-18
Freedom in Christ
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
Galations 5:1-3
Hi. I want to subscribe to the comments feeds of all of your blogs. Please help me. :)
If I comment on one of your blogs, and I probably will because I like what you have to say, I want to see if you or someone else responds to my comment. And since you have four blogs, and since I am subscribed to a couple of hundred feeds in Google reader, and since I'll likely comment on more than one post, I can't come back to check for responses. But if you let me in on your comments feeds, I can be notified if someone responds. :)
You look exceedingly tech-savvy, so I'm betting you can probably track down the native comments feeds that your blogs provide, give those URLs to feedburner, and modify the templates of your blogs to automatically notify my web browser about the existence of the new burned feeds. :) But if you're willing to do that for me but don't know how, I'd love to help, because it would help me get more involved in your blog, and would probably help other readers as well.