It is a myth to think that any group or team needs only one leader. I can anticipate the objections when I say, “But someone has to make the decisions! Someone must give the orders and make things move forward. How will we get anything done without a designated leader to ‘rule them all’ (a quote from the classic The Lord of the Rings that ironically describes the ring that gives unmitigated power to dominate everyone ruthlessly)?” Even leadership guru John Maxwell says, “A team that tries to function like a democracy never gets anything done. The truth is that everyone on a team is important, but not everyone is equal. In the eyes of God, everyone is loved equally, but when it comes to leading the team, somebody needs to step forward (John Maxwell, Seventeen Indisputable Laws of Teamwork, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2001, p. 218-219).
I hate to argue with such a reputable man with much sought-after thought leadership in leadership. But, with all due respect and humility toward John Maxwell, I disagree with his diagnosis here. The world we know now is much more complicated than one solitary leader can comprehend, much less navigate. In military terms, our world is VUCA: volatile, unpredictable, chaotic, and ambiguous. I understand the leadership impulse in such complicated environments for someone to “step forward” and make the decisions to move us forward. However, we have also seen too many highly publicized cases of solitary leaders who fell from great heights because of unchecked power in both secular and sacred environments.
So, what alternatives of leadership do we have available to us when…
- Not everyone on the team thinks the same way? Our teams are increasingly composed of diverse members from vastly different backgrounds.
- Not everyone on the team understands the task in the same way? Team members come to the task with different interests at stake and want to succeed on behalf of their constituents.
- Not a single team member can know everything that needs to be known to accomplish the task?
Nowadays, we are dealing with complex and global contexts where small ripples in one part of the world create tsunamis of impact on the other side. We have to conceptualize models of leadership that eschew the myth of the solitary leader who is positioned to “step forward” at critical decision moments. The world is simply not linear, predictable, or stable. Most of our leadership these days is like stumbling in the dark with our arms out in front of us, trying to gain purchase on each next step. We step forward, learn something, and then dare to risk another step until we finally arrive at some destination (maybe not even the one we thought we were heading to). And we must risk living into those models when they seem counterintuitive to all we’ve been taught.
But what keeps us from stumbling aimlessly in this process? Relationships! Sharing leadership! Dialogue! I agree with Maxwell that democracy is inadequate as a new leadership model for our complex world. We need something beyond tallying votes so that the majority wins the day. The democracy model doesn’t give us more advantages than the solitary leader model. Someone or some group will have to lose their voice in the process for it to move forward. Differences must be suppressed, or worse, oppressed, so that we can find a way forward. No, democracy doesn’t offer us a better alternative for new leadership.
As time-consuming and inefficient as it may sound, the ongoing back-and-forth, ebb-and-flow, day to-day interactions in healthy contexts of relational hospitality are our best hope of navigating the world and meeting our goals. We make sense of the world only when we relate with people from different perspectives, rubbing shoulders with them, telling stories, creating new paradigms, experimenting, reflecting, and even having conflicts with them. Sometimes, this means that I lead; sometimes, others lead. Leadership is more like a dance than a set of specific skills, personality traits, or positions. The dance is necessary to build a team culture that enables us to move together toward our ultimate aims in this world. I call this the creative magic of relationships. And it reflects the glory of God who made us in his image.
Our Triune God is love, relationship, and community in himself. Theologian Michael Reeves stated:
Everything changes when it comes to the Father, Son and Spirit. Here is a God who is not essentially lonely, but who has been loving for all eternity as the Father has loved the Son in the Spirit. Loving others is not a strange or novel thing for this God at all; it is at the root of who he is. Think of God the Father: he is, by his very nature, life-giving. He is a father. One has to wonder if a barren god, who is not a father, is capable of giving life and so birthing a creation. But one can have no such doubts with the Father: for eternity he has been fruitful, potent, vitalizing. For such a God (and only for such a God) it seems very natural and entirely unsurprising that he should bring about more life and so create. (Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith, Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2012, p. 41-42).
Therefore, we are most human when we live in relationships that are essentially creative. Healthy, vibrant, loving relationships between people are creative because they reflect God’s image and his intentions for his human creation. In loving union with God and one another, we tend to the earth and extend God’s good reign over all that he has made.
Leaders that serve the eternal purposes of our creator God for this world he desires to redeem are relational. Human relationships make sense of the world around them and create horizons of new possibilities. In other words, they create cultures with the potential to extend the borders of God’s Kingdom of peace and human flourishing. While the Fall marred the image of God in us and, consequently, our ability to maintain creative relationships that lead to cultures of peace, the fabric of our being is still relational. And God in Christ is seeking to redeem his image in us to restore us to our noble vocation of cultivating creation.
Scripture calls this “new creation” and it is inaugurated in Jesus Christ: “When anyone is in Christ, it is a whole new world. The old things are gone; suddenly, everything is new! All this is from God. Through Christ, God made peace between himself and us. And God gave us the work of bringing people into peace with him” (2 Cor. 5:17-18). What, then, is leadership in this whole new world? What is the nature of leadership that brings people into peace with God?
It is leadership that reflects the character of Christ himself:
Jesus said to them, “The time has come for the Son of Man to receive his glory. I can tell you for sure that a grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die before it can grow and produce many more grains of wheat. If it doesn’t die, it will never be more than a single grain. Those who love the life they have now will lose it. But whoever is willing to give up their life in this world will keep it. They will have eternal life. Whoever wants to serve me must follow me. Yes, my servants must be with me everywhere I am. My Father will give honour to anyone who serves me. (John 12:23-26)
Jesus humbled himself in obedience to God, even to the point of death. And because he did, God gave him the place of highest honor so that all the world will bow before him and call him Lord (Phil. 2:6-11). And the result of his lordship among the people of God:
Think about what we have in Christ: the encouragement he has brought us, the comfort of his love, our sharing in his Spirit and the mercy and kindness he has shown us. If you enjoy these blessings, then do what will make my joy complete: agree with each other, and show your love for each other. Be united in your goals and in the way you think. In whatever you do, don’t let selfishness or pride be your guide. Instead be humble, and honour others more than yourselves. Don’t think about what is good for you but about what is good for others. That’s the way you should think. (Phil 2:1-5)
Leadership that serves in the way Christ served produces the fruit of life-giving relationships. It is marked by God’s blessing: comfort, love, sharing in his Spirit, mercy, kindness, and joy. Leadership in-community is Kingdom leadership: suffering that leads to glory, giving up my own ego needs to give myself to others in self-sacrificing love as reflected in the Godhead. It is welcoming others with gracious hospitality to the table of leadership and sharing power with them so that they can flourish in their gifts and creative geniuses. In this way, the blessing of God falls upon us.
The myth of the single leader says we can’t get anything done if someone doesn’t step up. But it is the path of least resistance. On the other hand, leadership-in-community is where God’s blessing is found. It may demand more of us in terms of self-sacrifice, time, and not always getting our way or what we think we know is best. However, it is the only way that cultures of new creation, those that expand the horizons of mission, are possible.
Do we need a hierarchy? Do we need positions? Yes, but not for the reasons we typically think. Hierarchy facilitates communication, organization of work, and empowerment of people’s gifts and expertise. However, the hierarchy should not replace authentic, organic servanthood in the character of Jesus. To do so is to trade in the joy of sharing a creative mission together for a narrow view of effectiveness. The hierarchy must serve the overarching goal of developing authentic friendships to pursue God’s expanding Kingdom of peace in the places where we live, work, worship, and play.
