How Clergy Learn to Lead: Part 1 - The Natural or Instinctual Leaders
In this section of my series on Leaders and Leadership in the Community of Faith, I look more directly at clergy as leaders by addressing such topics as different types of leaders, leadership styles, and the formation and growth of clergy leaders. I will also be posting a blog on what I look for in a good clergy leader. To get into this topic, I will first share with you what I call the 10-80-10 Principle.
This general rule is based on years of observations while teaching leadership to clergy. The first for me was at The Leadership Training Institute at Evergreen. The second was my nine years as Canon for Mission and Congregational Development which, at its core, was leadership development. Following these experiences is what I observed while doing seminars and consulting with clergy. which I still do. What I observed is that current clergy can be divided into three groups. (Note that these are intuitive guesses)
1. 10% are what I call “Natural or Instinctual Leaders.”
2. About 80%, I call “Teachable Leaders.”
3. The third 10%, I call “Agents or Chaplains.”
In In this blog the first group addressed is Natural Leaders or Instinctual for two reasons. First, they are often held up by themselves and others as the “real” leaders. Second, they dominate much of the discussion today about leadership both in and outside the Church.
This is the way I would describe the Natural Leader. They are mostly intuitive guessers who tend to be dynamic, often charismatic, inspirational, and successful. The majority that I have known are primarily unteachable
If you go to Amazon and search for books on leadership, you will find that almost 50% of the thousands of books on leadership are written by one of these leaders or by a fan of one of these leaders. This is as true about clergy as well as the leaders of other organizations, businesses, and institutions. These books follow a simple premise. It is “I was a successful leader. The proof is that I built a successful, large organization. If you want to be a great leader, you should buy this book, do what I did, lead with my style of leadership. You will then become a successful leader too!"
Let me advise you DO NOT buy one of these books. The premise is faulty. This is not because these leaders were unsuccessful, quite the contrary, because leadership is not just about the leader. It is about the organization, the timing, the style, and the personality of individual leaders. It is also about the context. When a Natural leader finds or creates the right organization and it fits into the right context, it works! They look like examples to follow. Sadly, few have become successful by following their example and advice. If that were possible, there would be a thousand Joel Osteen - like congregations across North America. For us Episcopalians, we would have hundreds of congregations the size of St. Martin’s, Houston, across Church. I could also mention, for older readers, Bill Hybel’s Willow Creek congregation in Chicago.
There are several dynamics that make this style of leadership hard to imitate. The first you have already figured out. You are not that person. Next, you are not leading that organization. Further, you are not leading an organization in their context.
More importantly, an inherent flaw in natural leaders is how little insight they have about their own style and why it works. Add to this, the organization that they use as an example may not work the way they think it does. There is often a gap between what the leader thinks worked and what actually worked.
At the Leadership Training Institute, we ran weeklong teaching events. The teams were made up of the three leaders from our ministry and one from the outside. This outside person was an outstanding parish leader. That guest leader always gave the initial talk “The Power of Vision.” When we had an instinctual leader, the talk was essentially, “I have a vision for ministry. It is this.” Then followed the leader’s own vision and examples came from his parish. Those talks were interesting and often inspirational. The talks could easily have ended with an altar call based on “Commit to this vision and follow me!”
What did the leaders who were like most of the rest of us talk about? They talked about how they discovered God’s vision for the ministry of their congregations and how others could do that. They talked about their failures and what they learned from them. They talked about God’s blessings on the vision. They talked about, how over time, this vision became clear and how they matured. In other words, they helped other leaders learn how to lead better.
Let me end with two observations about these Natural or Instinctual leaders. First, what happens when what they have always done stops working? Mostly, they keep explaining to their followers why it should work. This involves repeating their intentions and not listening to important feedback. They fail to hear from their leaders about the difference between their intentions and what is really happening. There have been some colossal failures by such leaders. This gap between a leader’s intentions and their actual behavior is a topic I will take up again later.
My second observation relates to my statement that they are usually unteachable. It is this. Can an instinctual leader continue to learn and grow? My observation is sometimes yes. While I was Director of The Leadership Training Institute, I worked with such a leader on a proposed cooperative venture in ministry. This involved meeting with that leader and his lay leadership. After talking to his leaders, their instinctual clergy leader would always ask something like this, “How are you feeling about this idea? Or “Are you feeling comfortable with it?”
It was apparent to me that this leader was, in Meyers/Briggs terminology, an ENTJ leader. What struck me was that he would ask such feeling questions. He did not ask what would have been natural to his personality, “What do you think about this idea?” At the end of the visit, I asked him about this. Here is what he told me. “Well Kevin, after being the Rector here for 12 years, I faced a crisis. Finally, I learned that I have to pay attention to my leaders’ feelings. After all, they are not all like me. In fact, few of them are.” Sadly, many instinctual leaders do not learn this valuable lesson, and even if they do, they do not know how to apply that learning.
Let me ask you. Who are the Natural or Instinctual Leaders you have known in the Church?
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