from Reggie McNeal: Changing Leadership Assumptions

Leaders have always operated out of a set of assumptions that guided their efforts.  The new millennium trends mean that some leadership assumptions have to be altered.

*    from leadership at the top of the enterprise to shared leadership.  The goal is to develop leadership throughout the congregation at every level.

*    from one-time events to ongoing processes.  Leadership once conferred must be developed and coached.  Putting into place these coaching mechanisms and infrastructure is a process-orientation.

*    from individual championships to team victories.  The future belongs to successful teams.

*    from problem solvers to pioneers.  An old paradigm function of leaders was to problem solve, to fix things, to make things work better.  The new era leadership will go into new regions not even well enough known to have created a set of problems.  Apostolic leadership in the new Christian movement were pioneers, not repairmen of Judaism.

*    from unidimensional to paradoxical thinking.  A well chronicled observation of post-modern culture is its ability to hold two ideas, even opposing ideas, in place at once.  Jesus was a master at presenting spiritual truths in paradoxical form to capture the multi-dimensional nature of the insight.  Effective contemporary and future church leaders are going to be able to do the same.

Great Questions for Leaders

Effective leaders know how to ask right questions.  C.K. Prahalad suggests some of these for leaders who want to peer into the future in order to lead more effectively today.  These would be great questions for a leadership retreat in your congregation.

*    Which customers are you serving today?  In 5-10 years?

*    Through what channels do you reach customers today?  In 5-10 years?

*    Who are your competitors today?  In 5-10 years?

*    What skills/capabilities make you competitive today?  In 5-10 years?