The Rare & Necessary Leader

There are young ones and more seasoned ones. 

They come in all genders – male, female, LQBTQIA. 

They may be brown, white, black, and come from any number of ethnicities and nationalities.

They cover the entire political spectrum and may identify with any socio-economic classification. 

They have differing levels of education. 

What they all have in common is a gift, and that gift makes them outliers among leaders. 

The gift is the capacity to so influence others that they bring about true transformation (as opposed to pseudo-transformation) of people or systems of people - the kind of needful transformation for which life and the world hunger.

This rare and necessary leader may enter a minimally performing organization that has a toxic culture of infighting, backbiting, duplicity, entitlement and the like and bring about not just a changed organization but also an organization that is new.  It is new in its vitality, life-giving culture, and the effectiveness and clarity with which it goes about its mission and achieves its vision.

This rare and necessary leader may be called to a congregation that has been in years of decline, marked by conflict, inward focus, and has a history of chewing up and spitting out pastors who dared to change things; and, yet this leader with the gift and the right spirit is able to midwife the emergence of a new congregation that is vibrant, externally focused, birthing new life to those a part of it and impacting the culture and world around it.

Persons who have been influenced by this leader with the gift often say things like, “I never knew church could be like this,” or “We have totally reordered our lives in light of the gospel, are striving to live intentionally, have discovered that we are exponentially more generous than before, and we love our newfound lives!” 

Who is this rare and necessary leader? 

We know it when we have entered such a leader’s sphere of influence.  We recognize such a rare leader not only in the church, business, and the non-profit world but also in politics and public life. 

Leadership gurus call this particularly gifted one, “The Adaptive Leader.” 

Before going further here, let’s clarify a misperception of the meaning of adaptive leadership.  When many hear the term, “Adaptive Leader,” they presume, “Oh, this is someone who is really adept at adapting to change.”  Though being nimble in adjusting to change is a desired trait in any leader, this is not the gift of the adaptive leader. 

The gift of the adaptive leader is the capacity to facilitate transformation in others, that is, the adaptive leader midwifes the adaptation and embrace of others to change.

In the big picture of things, an adaptive leader then brings about a change of worldviews – a change of paradigms through which people and systems understand themselves.

It facilitates persons abandoning long-held beliefs and strongly-held loyalties in order to be grasped by and give themselves to a new set of loyalties and beliefs.

When Jesus called people to “repent,” he wasn’t asking them to feel bad about themselves. He was asking them to reconstruct their minds – to see things entirely differently because a new day, a kairos time.  God is on the scene. 

Adaptive leadership re-stories people and communities, enabling them, in biblical language, to die to one way of self-understanding with its assumptions and priorities and to rise to a new life.  

Of course, adaptive leadership that is midwifing a change of worldviews, especially those that challenge long-held beliefs or we-have-always-done-it-this-way cultures is a perilous undertaking. 

Ask Galileo, or ask Martin Luther King, Jr, or ask Jesus of Nazareth.  But the drive and passion of an adaptive leader overrides the perils because the change vision is so worthy that failure to achieve the outcome is not an option. 

So, let’s look at five defining traits of this rare and necessary leader:

 

Embodying a conviction of the spirit.

An adaptive leader sees a situation and is so internally convicted that the drive to transform it burns deeply inside.  The one with the gift sees a vision of what is possible and puts one’s own life on the line to achieve it.

The leader is so consumed by the vision that she eats, sleeps, and dreams it.  There is very little reprieve from the consistent dwelling in the vision that needs to be achieved. 

Because others do not share in the same internal burn, the authentic adaptive leader is often misunderstood.  This means that the adaptive leader will find herself to be lonely; yet, the fire within burns. 

Courage.

The adaptive leader needs that internal burn because she or he will almost certainly be attacked by others.

Albert Einstein once said, “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”  The adaptive leader knows that what Einstein calls “the mediocre mind” is incapable of understanding one who refuses to bow down to the status quo and its prejudices. 

It is almost certain in today’s wired world that a bold adaptive leader is going to experience anonymous attacks on social media and sabotage from those most threatened.  But the adaptive leader has grit.

And in the face of nay-sayers, saboteurs, and even those who make up lies to smear the change-agent, the adaptive leader has an internal conversation that says, “Just be big.  Do not get sidetracked.  Don’t lose your focus or drive.” 

Inspiration.

The primary tools of an authentic adaptive leader are vision and inspiration.

The leader is internally inspired and influences transformation through inspiration.  This means that the adaptive leader inspires rather than manipulates people.

The one with the gift leads not by controlling people but by unleashing them.  Choosing transformational leadership over transactional, the leader invests in people rather than manage them, and deploys them as opposed to a quid pro quo employed relationship.  

A Differentiated Self.

The drive and focus of an adaptive leader are so clear that there will certainly be others who will judge the leader as being harsh or arrogant.

Ed Friedman in his manuscript, A Failure of Nerve, delves deeply into this.  The adaptive leader is a human, and humans want to know that they are loved and valued; yet, the adaptive leader is able to differentiate the self and overcome people-pleasing urges because of the drive of the convicted spirit to achieve the sought-after transformation.

Enthusiasm.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” 

Despite the great challenges associate with inspiring and driving change through all the hurdles and pushback, the adaptive leader embodies enthusiasm and a joy that are contagious. 

In Haiti, persons of faith struggling to effect change rise with a song in their hearts, Sa se yon jou grammet la te fѐ.  “This is the day the Lord has made.”  This day – right here, right now – is not a dress rehearsal for another day.  This day is the real thing.  So, let us rejoice and be glad in it!  

To those of you called to lead, knowing the high stakes of this day, be reminded of the words attributed to the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:

I beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called…

In the abiding hope of the empty tomb,