One of the most inspiring moments in the 2001 film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring occurs in the mythical forest of Lothlórien, home to the Galadhrim, a branch of the Elves ruled by Lady Galadriel and Lord Celeborn. The Fellowship of the Ring has arrived in Lothlórien, mourning the apparent loss of the wizard Gandalf the Grey to the demon Balrog in the mines of Moria. The group has endured a grueling journey, fighting fierce enemies and treacherous terrain, to help Frodo carry the Ring of Power to Mordor. There, Frodo plans to destroy it by casting it into the fires of Mount Doom, where it was forged, with the goal of defeating the Dark Lord Sauron, whose evil empire threatens to engulf all of Middle-earth. Now safe in Lothlórien, they have a moment to rest, reflect, and regroup before continuing their journey.
Lady Galadriel speaks privately with Frodo about the monumental task ahead of him. Frodo is understandably discouraged by everything that has happened so far. Frodo says, “I know what I must do, it’s just… I’m afraid to do it.” Galadriel responds, in a climactic moment of foreshadowing hope, “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.” This marks a turning point in the entire story. We see Frodo’s expression shift from defeat to quiet resolve to complete the task entrusted to him as Ringbearer.
Although this moment is touching, there is a problem with it. Galadriel never actually said it! This is additional dialogue added for the movie, but it doesn’t appear in the book. It’s exactly the kind of messaging that sells tickets, though. We love stories of lone rangers who, against all odds, overcome obstacles and achieve victory in the last desperate hour. However, the issue is that this is rarely how goals are reached; it overlooks the contributions of many people who all played a part. In The Fellowship of the Ring, it ignores all the help Frodo received to carry this burden and move forward on his mission.
We must find a more fitting quote from the story to guide us as we reflect on effective leadership. I propose what Gandalf says during the Council of Elrond. Frodo’s uncle Bilbo, who found the Ring of Power in the first place, resigns himself to taking it to Mordor himself. But Gandalf responds to Bilbo, “Of course, my dear Bilbo…. If you had really started this affair, you might be expected to finish it. But you know well enough now that starting is too great a claim for any, and that only a small part is played in great deeds by any hero.”
Gandalf’s words give us a proper vision of leadership. It isn’t about the “great deeds by any hero.” They are just a small part of a larger story. Instead, leadership is about the collective wisdom and efforts of everyone on the team. We’ve been indoctrinated into a leadership culture that highly values the individual leader: their charisma, grit, skills, opinions, celebrity — whatever it might be. We’ve created extensive paradigms and pedagogies for leadership development that focus on setting apart individual leaders from the rest. Some of our more well-known sayings put the individual leader on a pedestal: “Be the Change You Wish to See” (popularized from Gandhi), “It Starts with You,” “Lead from the Front,” “The Power of One,” or “Dare to Lead.” Even the U.S. Army uses slogans like “An Army of One” and “Be All You Can Be,” which would trouble me as a U.S. citizen if that were truly how the army operates!
Leadership’s true power lies in its community dynamic. While individual leaders are crucial and should be developed for greater capacity, their real strength comes from being part of a healthy, collaborative leadership team. Little is achieved by one leader alone. When leaders dialogue, make sense of their environment, discuss issues, collaborate, and even face conflicts, they unlock the true magic of leadership. This creates a vibrant, creative human enterprise that broadens the reach of their shared mission. Therefore, we should view leadership not just as a role for an individual, but as a dynamic process that occurs between people.
Systems theorist and organizational development expert Peter Senge agrees. In his landmark book, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, he states, “People in the business world love heroes. We lavish praise and promotion on those who achieve visible results. But if something goes wrong, we feel intuitively that somebody must have screwed up.” Scapegoating is a tragically common, yet dysfunctional and toxic, organizational pattern that is often embedded in many managerial and human resource policies and procedures. However, Senge argues that organizations are, in reality, complex systems with no such culprits. Organizational members are part of complex systems that influence their perceptions, choices, and behaviors. They act as responsible agents within these systems, but not as entirely independent actors, because their actions are continuously shaped by the structures, dynamics, and relationships that surround them.
Senge demonstrates his point through a social experiment. The Beer Game is a supply chain simulation that illustrates how systemic structures, rather than individual mistakes, influence behavior. Four players representing a retailer, wholesaler, distributor, and factory manage beer orders with limited information, time delays, and no direct communication. Despite rational decisions, small changes in customer demand can ripple through the system, causing wild swings in inventory and backlogs—a phenomenon known as the “bullwhip effect.” The game shows how well-meaning participants acting independently can unintentionally create chaos. Senge uses it to illustrate the core principle of systems thinking: problems often stem from the system’s structure rather than the people within it. The Beer Game emphasizes the importance of shared understanding, transparency, and long-term thinking in solving complex challenges.
This all indicates that we need to reconsider our approach to leadership. We should not only focus on “leadership inputs” like hiring the right leaders with suitable personalities, skills, experiences, or education. Concentrating solely on these inputs can and often do lead to unfair practices, such as excluding important voices, favoring those who share our viewpoints, or undervaluing diverse styles and perspectives.
We need to focus more on leadership outcomes that will help the organization achieve its mission. According to the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), these outcomes include shared direction, alignment, and commitment. CCL faculty and organizational leadership experts Richard Hughes, Katherine Beatty, and David Dinwoodie define these leadership outcomes as follows in their book Becoming a Strategic Leader: Your Role in Your Organization’s Enduring Success:
- Direction: Everyone in the organization understands the goals, priorities, and plans to reach those goals, and knows that other members see these the same way. There is a shared understanding of why decisions are made and how they connect to the overall goals.
- Alignment: When decisions and tactics across the organization are coordinated, coherent, and consistent with the overall strategy.
- Commitment: The attitude people have toward the strategy. People are committed when they are willing to put in effort beyond what is required to meet their personal goals to support the organization.
When these three elements occur within a team, authentic leadership is present. Therefore, we must carefully consider and strategically invest in the internal organizational environment to support and promote fair leadership practices. This will help move the team toward direction, alignment, and commitment. These include mutual understanding, productive conflict resolution, effective communication, and shared cultural values.
This means we need to focus on what happens within team relationships, not just the individual qualities each person brings. It’s the quality of these relationships that unlocks a team’s ability to explore new missional horizons while fulfilling our deep human desire for meaningful connections and purpose. I argue that the primary role of leaders is not to have all the answers or give all the directives, as seen in traditional leadership styles. Instead, it’s to foster, safeguard, and nurture a cultural environment where team members and dynamics can thrive.
Over the following blogs, I will introduce the Big 10 Culture Killers of Effective Leadership Teams. These are the issues that leaders must closely monitor within their teams. They often undermine a healthy leadership culture, which is necessary to foster direction, alignment, and commitment. Here they are in a nutshell:
- The Soundproof Room: Poor Listening and Communication Habits
When leaders hear but don’t listen, speak but don’t connect. This includes not listening, condescension, arguing instead of seeking to understand others’ perspectives, and failing to ask appreciative inquiry questions.
- Stories That Burn: Toxic Narratives and Reactive Behavior
When unexamined assumptions and reactive scripts torch relationships. Acting on harmful internal stories or assumptions that diminish others instead of seeking clarity and shared understanding. A common tactic here that is very destructive to cultures and people made in the image of God is scapegoating.
- Conflict Without a Compass: Avoidance or Mismanagement of Conflict
When tough conversations become harmful or are avoided altogether. This includes harsh confrontation, lack of explicit conflict norms, poor theology of reconciliation, and absence of due process.
- The Stunted Mirror: Lack of Personal and Collective Growth
When leaders stop growing, but still support or expect others to keep climbing. They create unspoken ceilings and resentment by failing to prioritize personal development, especially as others advance.
- Lone Wolves in Shared Fields: Power Without Community Accountability
When empowerment neglects the “we” behind the “me.” A healthy organizational culture balances individual empowerment with community discernment and decision-making.
- The Compliance Cage: Unhealthy HR Practices
When the human in Human Resources gets lost in the paperwork. An HR function that primarily focuses on protecting the organization and adhering to policy, but lacks a people-first development approach, tends to distract managers from their goals. This unintentionally hinders the organizational mission.
- The Side Door Strategy: End Runs and Undermining Authority
When decisions are made in whispers rather than in the room. Bypassing leadership structures or processes erodes trust and team alignment.
- Feeding the Cobra: Responding Poorly to Toxic Behavior
When bullies are rewarded and boundaries disappear. This inadvertently rewards and empowers bullies through passivity or overcorrects by fighting others’ battles for them.
- Foggy Norms, Frayed Trust: Unclear Expectations and Norms
When professionalism is preached but never practiced or defined. Expecting “professionalism” without defining it leads to confusion and inconsistent accountability.
- The Wisdom Gap: Idealism Without Wise Counsel
When vision floats free of reality and no one dares to tether it. Leading with ungrounded ideals, without the humility to seek wise counsel or remain teachable, narrows vision, stifles creativity and skills, and kills team spirit, limiting both the leadership team and the mission they hope to serve.
Recent reflection on my nearly 30 years of missional leadership experience has led me to conceptualize these Big Ten Culture Killers. Either I have done them to others, or others have done them to me. I believe that addressing each one and removing them from our organizational systems will significantly boost our team’s effectiveness. Stay tuned…
