Leadership Matters, And It Matters A Lot.
How ordinary people achieve extraordinary results.
What is it that makes some organizations get things done while other ones seem to take forever to accomplish their tasks? Why do some businesses prosper and other languish? Why do some teams work well together while others fall apart under high stress conditions? Why do some churches grow while others slowly shrink?
There are many factors, but a primary factor is leadership. Leadership matters, and it matters a lot.
An article by James Kouzes and Barry Posner at Santa Clara University brings out the results of following what they call the five practices of exemplary leadership. Their statistical analyses of their surveys over the years shows that leaders’ behavior explains about 30 percent of their constituents’ workplace engagement, while personal and organizational characteristics of constituents explain less than 1 percent of constituents’ engagement in, commitment to, and pride in their workplace. Leadership matters.
And here is another result. The authors compared financial performance of some publicly traded companies over a 5-year period. The companies where senior leaders were identified by their constituents as strongly using the five practices of exemplary leadership, compared to companies who didn’t really engage in the five practices, had net income growth that was nearly 18 times higher and stock price growth 3 times higher. Leadership matters.
So what are these five practices of exemplary leadership?
Modeling the way
Inspire a shared vision
Overcome fears and challenges
Enable others to act
Encourage the heart
Modeling the Way
You have heard the saying, “I would rather see a sermon than hear one any day.” Talk is cheap. Your team needs to see you actually walking the walk and modeling the behavior he or she wants to see in the whole team. As a leader you can’t say, “Do as I say, not as I do.” Children follow the behavior of their parents, even when they don’t really like the outcomes. So, too, members of your organization pick up on the values you exude through your behavior, despite what you say. The people in the organization tend to become like their leader.
Inspire a Shared Vision
It is very important that leaders have a vision of their preferred future. If a person cannot visualize what the future, how can they take steps towards achieving it? You know the answer.
But a leader needs to do more than just have a vision. He needs to get his team to own the vision for themselves as well. Exemplary leaders inspire others to embrace their vision of the preferred future so that it is a shared vision that they are all working on together. The vision needs to be a common vision of the whole organization.
Overcome Fears and Challenges
A fear of inadequacy is common to all of us. It is the main challenge of every hero in every story. Does the hero have what it takes to save the girl, to disarm the bomb, and to stop the villain? The guide, the coach, and the leader help their team overcome their own fears of inadequacy. But leaders also have to overcome their own fears.
Kouzes and Posner also point out that overcoming challenges also means leaders are always looking outside of their own organizations for what is new, what is innovative, and how they can grow and improve. Exemplary leaders don’t wait for fate to happen to them. They embrace the challenges and create the future that they have envisioned.
Enable Others to Act
To achieve great outcomes requires a team of people. No one person can achieve great things by himself or herself. There is no place for micromanaging in exemplary leadership. People need training and they need systems and processes that enable them to achieve the desired outcomes. The more each member of the team embraces the shared vision, the more easily they will be able to make decisions and take action that move the team in the right direction.
Encourage the Heart
People don’t want to be taken for granted. People want recognition for their contribution. Exemplary leaders recognize contributions of their team by showing appreciation for individual excellence. Great leaders celebrate the victories of the team and call out the efforts of the individuals on the team that really made a difference. This in itself is a great reward for a teammate.
Applications
So, you may not be a leader yet. But these lessons still apply to you. First, you are a leader in the making. As you grow in character, experience and gain wisdom others will look to you for leadership. And as you perform well in that leadership role, you will be given more responsibility.
Second, you may be interested in joining a different organization, like getting a different job, or joining a different church, or a community group. You want to make a difference and you want to be part of a winning team. How do you know you are joining a team that will be successful? Look at the leadership. The teams that will be successful have leaders who live out the 5 practices of exemplary leadership.
Leadership Example: Pete Carroll
Take the Seattle Seahawks for example. I live in the Pacific Northwest and I have followed the Seahawks over the last several years. Pete Carroll is the head coach and has a leadership philosophy that allows him to consistently build great teams. He did it at the college level from 2001 to 2009, winning 6 bowl games and 2 national championships while at USC. He routinely gets the Seahawks into the playoffs, has been to two Super Bowls, soundly winning the first one and losing the second one by an interception of the go ahead touchdown at the last second.
Last year, the 2022-23 season, many people picked the Seahawks for being a horrible team in a rebuilding year. The last of their talent from their Super Bowl team had left the building. They had just let their star quarterback, Russell Wilson, go in a trade with the Denver Broncos. The Seahawks had two backup quarterbacks in Geno Smith and Drew Lock, who came in the trade. Long story short, the Seahawks had a winning season and made it to the playoffs. Meanwhile, the Denver Broncos and Russell Wilson had a horrible year. Who could have predicted that outcome? Was it just that Geno Smith was great and that Russell Wilson really had a bad year? Or was it the system and processes implemented by Pete Carroll and the leadership at the Seattle Seahawks that really made a difference? What if Geno Smith is hurt and Drew Lock has to start? Is the team doomed? I don’t think so. I’m betting on the coaching and leadership at the Seahawks. Their success was not due just to Russell Wilson, as good as he is. It was Pete Carroll the whole time. And I will continue to expect great things from the Seahawks while Pete Carroll is the coach because of his leadership. Leadership matters and it matters a lot.
How does Pete Carrol practice the five practices of exemplary leadership?
Modeling the way: Pete hustles up and down the sideline. He loves to have fun at his practices and enjoys working with the young men. He really enjoys going to work, and so his team does, too.
Inspire a shared vision: All NFL coaches want to win the Super Bowl. Pete Carroll does, too, but he makes sure that it is the vision of his whole team, that they set their own goals and own the vision themselves. He helps them achieve their vision, not his.
Overcome fears and challenges: Pete Carrol does a great job helping his team overcome their own fears, to embrace the challenge before them, and helps them take steps towards victory. Practices and game prep are designed to help players overcome their own fears and be equipped to handle the unanticipated challenges they will face.
Enables others to act: Pete Carrol shines here. He finds ways to implement the unique talents of his players and makes the scheme of play to fit his players, instead of just finding players to fit his method of play. He looks to his players to be leaders on the team as well. He finds a way to bring out the most potential in his players.
Encourage the heart: The locker room talks after the games show the celebration that Pete Carroll does with his players. He celebrates their victories, not his. If a play call goes badly, he takes the blame. But the wins belong to the players. He believes in them, builds them up, empowers them to play at their highest potential, and celebrates the victories with them.
Peter Carroll does much more than just these five practices of exemplary leadership. But if we can consistently get these practices to be our own, our teams will also shine and achieve extraordinary outcomes, even though we are really just ordinary people.
Leadership Example: Nehemiah
OK. The Pete Carroll example is from our day. He is still alive and leading. Here is another example from ancient days, just to point out that these five practices of exemplary leadership transcend culture and time. (And because in my way through the Bible I was reading it recently and it is fresh in my mind.)
Nehemiah held a high trusted government position under King Artaxerxes of the Persian empire around 444 BC. The fact that Jerusalem was still in ruins was painful to him. He was given permission to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the city walls by King Artaxerxes and remained there 12 years. Rebuilding the city wall was not a one-man job. Though it was Nehemiah’s vision, it was a task way beyond the ability of one man. He needed to lead others to get it done.
Here is how Nehemiah implemented the five practices of exemplary leadership:
Modeling the way: Nehemiah invested his own time and energy into the wall project. Instead of living comfortably in the Persian empire he risked a great deal to go to Jerusalem.
Inspire a shared vision: The stones for the wall were there, the people who were to build the wall were there, and the rest of the materials could be quickly acquired. So, why did no one else rebuild the wall before Nehemiah got there? Vision. Someone needed to step up and say, “Let’s rebuild the wall!” And the leaders in Jerusalem got on board with Nehemiah’s vision right away. Nehemiah didn’t proceed without sharing his vision for the work with others. He didn’t do any more than just survey the mess before he talked to the leaders and got everyone on board with his vision.
Overcome fears and challenges: Besides his own fears of inadequacy, there was opposition to the wall rebuilding project from the surrounding people groups, who probably were taking advantage of Jerusalem’s broken-down defenses. Sanballat and Tobiah are mentioned as leaders of the opposition, mentioned in Nehemiah chapter 4. They conspired to bring an army up to cause a ruckus in Jerusalem and disrupt the plans to rebuild the wall. Nehemiah came up with a plan to counteract their threats, so that all the workmen were armed even while working and half of the men worked while the other half stood guard lest they be taken by surprise. Nehemiah encouraged them and said, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the great and awesome Lord, and fight on behalf of your brothers, your sons your daughters, your wives and your families!” This plan worked great and their strong defense prevented an attack.
Enable others to act: Nehemiah chapter 3 lists all of the families who worked at building the wall, setting gates and bars around the entire city. Each group worked by their house in their district of the city. Nehemiah couldn’t have possibly been the lone supervisor over this whole effort, nor was he even the most skilled person at building walls. But he built a team that acted together. And it is recorded that they rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem in just 52 days! This incredible feat was only possible because Nehemiah inspired them all to work with a willing heart and enabled them to work without hindrance.
Encourage the heart: When the wall was finished there was a great celebration to dedicate the wall, as described in Nehemiah chapter 12. They had 2 large choirs go around the wall and convene together in the temple. It is recorded that there was great rejoicing and that the noise could be heard from far away, for God had given them great joy.
So, what is the conclusion? Leadership matters, and it matters a lot. An exemplary leader can help a group of quite ordinary people accomplish extraordinary tasks. From our two examples you can see that it was true in ancient times and is still true in our day and age. Certainly, there is more that can be said about leadership, but if we can incorporate these five practices into the way we think and act, then our families, churches, civic organizations, sports teams, and businesses will be not only be more effective, but will also be a joy to be a part of. And this is another way to build True Wealth.