Recently I was told of a survey that rated CEO’s based on perceptions. It found that leaders who looked the part commanded an average 7% higher pay.
The biblical King Saul was a commanding presence. Yet he was a bad leader - the unfulfilled perceptions were to be a recurring theme of history. His successor, David, was also striking, but Saul tried to kill him, his son subverted him, he had many enemies and his wives scoffed at him. So much for the idea that appearances matter, not that I give much credence to perceptions, given the sheer number of leaders who never lived up to their images.
What made David such a great king was beyond perception. God saw a heart after His own heart. When he fled from cave to cave, he learnt to listen to the voice of His shepherd. He never became great because he looked the part or was some superhero or had all the answers – his prayers suggest vulnerability and a lack of answers. He was a great leader, not because he could command men, although to an extent he did in spite of so many rejections. He became a great leader because he submitted to God.
Moses also had a noble bearing, but he too learnt to sit at the feet of his God. He was not an original thinker – he merely implemented the patterns God showed him on the mount. He was not a natural leader – he was shy, reluctant and of few words. He was not a commanding presence – men often challenged him, throughout his life. Yet he was arguably the greatest man to ever walk the earth (aside from Jesus).
My own sense is that just about all our theories on leadership are speculative and manmade. The key distinction of all great biblical leaders was their stewardship. I might add that our model of manhood is also debatable, for the great biblical men were all shepherds: a form of steward.
Think about it. The modern CEO is appointed to steward shareholder value – that is what he does and, as Jim Collins observed, if he is shy, unassuming and humble that’s okay, as long as he is resolved about what the firm does and doesn’t do – he is the backbone, the gatekeeper, the shepherd. The idea that he must be visionary is moot. Vision is a collective consciousness, distilling from stakeholders and implementers. A good leader needs rather to facilitate a visioning process by building a learning organisation and can achieve more by allowing his followers to participate and engage in that process.
Most of all, a leader will achieve not only by stewarding value effectively, but also by instilling a similar core value in all those who follow him – because if we do what our stakeholders expect us to do, who could want for more. Maybe the church would not have drifted into its secular and commercial wallows if leaders had realized – “this is not our turf”, we are just stewards of “His” kingdom and those He entrusts to us.
My son played rugby for many years and captained a club team, but then we transferred him to a new, monastic school - with 800 boys, 4 teams per grade and far greater competition. He was selected for the C team, but approached it all as one "who knows the game" and "has little to learn". He was really downcast and directionless, until he changed his stance, humbled himself and listened to his coaches. He also diligently applied what they taught him. Within weeks he was being noticed and was promoted last week. The coaches are delighted with him and thanks to their guidance he is also playing a better game - he is progressing because he is stewarding the mandate of his coaches and it is working remarkeably well - a great lesson.
(c) Peter Eleazar @ www.4u2live.net
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