Leadership always has consequences. In my conversations with clients yesterday, this was never more evident. The current authority they find themselves under is mostly just bad management, under the guise of leadership. I have been there, drank the water, have the t-shirt, and never want to see that place ever again in my whole life! But what advice do you give folks locked into such a situation? When you are the one doing the advising, THAT type leadership also has consequences, big consequences!
All leadership must take into consideration the impact, scope and scale that said leadership inflicts on the lives of the people living and operating under it. In vocational leadership, it involves compensation, decades of preparation, high emotional involvement, and a persons livelihood and existence. These are high stakes indeed. It is infuriating to see how little thought and care are given to the people caught in these leadershipless actions, how little consideration is given to the sacrifice and service given to an organization, how quickly organizations can move to remove any one of us, when our perceived value is compromised. Life is way more complicated than a simple balance sheet.
“Christian” organizations are the worse, because of Whom we serve. It is demanded of us, a much higher standard of diligence and care and mercy and understanding and commitment to one another. But alas, Christian organizations seem to be the most ruthless, the quickest to pull the trigger in pulling the rug out from under people, the least Christ-like of all in the end. Cynical? Not really, because in my leadership development business, all my clients are Christ-followers, and most of them work for Christian parent organizations, and I see this happen over and over and over again.
When will anyone stand up and say, “enough” and live and build and continue a different organization!? I guess I have.
