Leadership self-questions

I spend a lot of time reading about, thinking about, and talking about leadership with people. It’s one of the most requested teaching areas at my university. It’s also very difficult to get an effective handle on! Depending on who you talk to, leadership can be some or all of: skills, content, style, relationships, theology, philosophy.  One of the questions all leaders with integrity wrestle with, from time to time, is their own effectiveness. We can be doing everything our favourite leadership guru says, but how do we know if it’s working?

There are some basic ways. I hope you’ve put in place mechanisms for useful feedback (timely, focussed, actionable), though experience suggests that is far more rare in churches and non-profits than it could be. There are various tools and instruments that we can employ that help us uncover our leadership styles and skills. Here I want to suggest three basic gut-check questions that can help point us, relatively quickly, to new paths of insight.

I have to acknowledge that some people don’t like the language of “leadership” for a variety of reasons. For the sake of this conversation, let’s accept as a working definition that if people look to you for direction or guidance then you are a leader. It doesn’t matter what your title is, nor the size or purpose of the group. Like any tool or instrument, the purpose of these questions is not to define or confine you in a particular definition, but to spark further inquiry.  By the way, my favourite definition of leadership, while dated, goes like this: 

"Leadership is an influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes that reflect their mutual purposes.” (Joseph Rost, Leadership for the 21st Century,)

The first question is simple: is anyone following you? Leadership implies followers. Personally, I think that counting the number of followers is of limited value.  In different settings and different situations, more can actually be less. And I know, we could talk about the quality of the followers: names on a list or people who actually show up. All good questions. But at the end of the day, “is anyone following you?”

Then we can ask about the sorts of people who are following you. Do they include people of capacity and influence within the organization? Do you have a relationship of influence with folk who can help implement the real changes that leadership implies? If you find the answer to this question is uncomfortable it may be time to wrestle with whether there’s something amiss with the way you lead OR whether your call, vision, dream, purpose (however you name it) is out of alignment with this context. 

Then we might talk about the people you follow. Who do you look to for inspiration, for guidance, for new ideas, for vision-provoking insights? Our culture can provide a ton of resources for that and you can find influential leaders in many forms and media. That’s good. Too many leaders try and lead without being fed themselves. But these folks aren’t your friends. You don’t really know them and you probably never will. They won’t show up when you need help or when you’re celebrating.  One writer observes

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

How’s that make you feel? So, think about the people who are affecting you personally. Are the people you are closest with consistent with what you believe to be your best purpose? Do you ever look at them as models or mentors?