The Tragedy of Leadership Today

In recent days and weeks, I have watched with a mixture of horror and disbelief as once-great organizations have engaged in self-destructive behavior that threatens their very existence, harms the people they claim to serve, and, most grievously, brings discredit to the One in whose name they minister.

It reminds me of those massive chain-reaction

crashes on an Interstate during a storm. Drivers

fail to recognize the dangerous conditions

around them, continue at full speed, and neglect

to act with the caution and responsibility the

circumstances demand. The result is a devastating pileup that leaves destruction in its

wake—much of it entirely preventable.

Sadly, in every case, the reasons behind these failures were entirely predictable and, with even a measure of wisdom and common sense, completely avoidable. The tragedy is that both wisdom and common sense seem to be in short supply in today's world of leadership—including ministry leadership.

Why Do Failures Continue to Mount?                                                                     

​I have an entire six-foot bookcase filled with volumes on organizational leadership and related subjects. I have little doubt that many of the leaders of these organizations are familiar with the principles found in those books. Yet the failures continue to mount. Why?

It is not because those in leadership are unintelligent. Nor is it because they lack access to sound teaching or resources on effective leadership. In my observation, the root of poor leadership lies deeper than a lack of knowledge. It is ultimately a matter of the heart.

In his insightful book, The Motive: A Leadership Fable, Patrick Lencioni captures that reality with this observation: “At the most fundamental level, there are only two motives that drive people to become a leader:

• First, they want to serve others to do whatever is necessary to bring about something good for the people they lead.  They understand that sacrifice and suffering are inevitable in this pursuit and that serving others is the only valid motivation for leadership.

• The second basic reason why people choose to be a leader – the all-too-common but invalid one – is that they want to be rewarded.  They see leadership as the prize for years of hard work and are drawn by its trappings: attention, status, power, money.

The Pitfalls of Leadership                                                                                        

​What has interested me as I have observed leaders in Kingdom work over the years is that most begin with the first motivation in mind. Yet, over time, something often changes. Their hearts gradually shift.                                                                                                                                  

I suspect there are many reasons for this change. Leading well is hard work, and the rewards often seem inadequate compared to the effort required. Faithful leadership is too often taken for granted, especially after years of consistent service. As time passes, it becomes easy for leaders to begin asking themselves, Does anyone really care? Is anyone paying attention? Does anyone truly understand the price I’m paying for what I do for them?

Those questions can quietly take root in the heart. And when they do, they become an insidious trap for anyone in leadership.

There are other pitfalls awaiting those who seek to pursue this thing we call leadership.  I am well acquainted with most of them: pride, power, and a desire to control.  Often those in leadership believe they know a better way forward and in many cases they are right.  Leadership, however, requires an enormous amount of patience and humility, both of which are often in short supply especially in younger leaders but not uncommon in even the most experienced.  In those cases, leaders can tend to run rough-shod over anyone who appears to be thwarting the leader’s efforts to achieve a particular goal.

Sadly, those and other issues such as a failure to deepen knowledge or to sharpen skills or to seek wisdom (a sign of pride), often play a role in the disasters that far too often unfold in organizations.  And while it is all too common it is also so unnecessary. 

So, What Can Be Done?                                                                                            How can we eliminate the wrong motive and replace it with the righteous motive? Here are some of the thoughts I often share when teaching on the topic.

• First, as a good colleague of mine, Mike Sligh, would often say to his leadership team, “We will go forward on our knees or we will fall on our faces.”  And one of the first elements of that prayer is to ask our Father to reveal to us our pride, our biases, our blind spots and our failure to continue looking for the “second” right answer.  Then we need to pray for the willingness to challenge our assumptions and to listen with care to others in the room.  That isn’t easy to do and will require true humility.  Something that seems to be in shorter supply in our current time.

• Second, we must be willing to do the hard work of creating clarity around what is truly important.  And then when we have done so be willing periodically to revisit the decisions we must make in light of what we have decided is most important.  To accomplish that goal it is necessary to answer the following questions:

• Why do we exist?  That is the purpose question.

• What must we do?  That is the mission question.  What must we do in response to the purpose God has given us to pursue.

• What must shape our efforts?  What beliefs and values must we apply to our every effort? 

• What are we hoping to achieve?  Answering this question focuses our efforts and provides a means for evaluating the impact of those efforts.

• What is non-negotiable?  What must we never violate in pursuit of our mission?  And then we must ask, “Why are the non-negotiables actually non-negotiable?”  That is a question we must periodically re-visit.

• Who will we ask to join us in these efforts?  What character, what gifts, what knowledge, what skills, what depth of passion are essential for those on our team.

• How will we hold one-another accountable to what we have agreed to accomplish and how can we best accomplish our mission with integrity?

None of what I’ve identified above is easy to do.  To answer those above questions takes more than a weekend.  We will need to wrestle with lots of questions. Then we will need to continually monitor our efforts and make necessary adjustments if we hope to stay on course.  And as noted above none of this will occur without genuine humility and a constant pursuit of wisdom.  As James reminds us: “If any of you lacks wisdom let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach.”  (see also Proverbs 2 and 18)

The need is great, thus the effort worthwhile.  The enemy delights in our confusion and pride.  Let us pray diligently to avoid the fate of those who refuse to truly seek the wisdom our Lord so freely offers.