Twenty years ago, whilst in the process of having my calling for ordained Baptist ministry tested, I was asked by a key interviewer if I was a man in a skirt.
This week-end we saw a woman in a skirt take the most prominent role in the Baptist Union of Great Britain.
If this rate of change continues, I wonder if in another twenty years we might see man in a skirt in a position of Baptist leadership? ;-)
This is a painting by the artist Magritte which I was first introduced to by Stuart Murray Williams and which I now steal regularly! It is a picture that all leaders would find worth pondering. Here are some questions to help you reflect on your own role as a prophetic, entrepreneurial or creative leader:
Ponder…reflect…give thanks…imagine…pray…do something…
(Copy of post originally on www.dontbesheep.com )
Copy of post originally written for Don’t Be Sheep
During the last few weeks I have had several conversations with emerging leaders who are beginning to reflect on the impact leadership is having on them. They are reflecting on questions about what friendship looks like when you are a leader, or how to cope when everyone seems to only want to talk to you when they want something, or how you cope when the buck stops with you and you have to take responsibility for making the call.
There is no denying that there is a cost to leadership – there are issues to be reflected on and worked through and to not do so can leave us with shaky foundations.
But leadership can also be great fun! As leaders our task is not only to ‘manage’ things and troubleshoot, but to envision, to draw forward, to push boundaries, to create, to imagine how things could be better. I love the work of the guys at www.thefuntheory.com. They believe that you can change peoples’ behaviour for the better by making it more fun. As a leader is this something I can employ as I seek to inspire and change peoples’ behaviour? How much fun is allowed in your place of leadership? Can you instigate more?
JK
I get daily meditations via e-mail from the Henri Nouwen Society each day which I regularly find very thought-provoking. I think they have potential to inspire people of faith or none.
I was particularly struck by this morning’s one which says this:
Overcoming Our Mood Swings
Are we condemned to be passive victims of our moods? Must we simply say: “I feel great today” or “I feel awful today,” and require others to live with our moods?
Although it is very hard to control our moods, we can gradually overcome them by living a well-disciplined spiritual life. This can prevent us from acting out of our moods. We might not “feel” like getting up in the morning because we “feel” that life is not worth living, that nobody loves us, and that our work is boring. But if we get up anyhow, to spend some time reading the Gospels, praying the Psalms, and thanking God for a new day, our moods may lose their power over us.
It struck me that managing our moods is a real character-trait of a mature person and a sign perhaps of a potential leader. A leader may not feel like taking responsibility, or may not feel like leading at all, but instead of giving in to those moods they choose to overcome them. A leader may feel like moaning about someone, may feel like passing on privileged information they have been entrusted with, or feel like using their influence to exert inappropriate power over someone, but a mature person, particularly one who is seeking to exhibit characteristics modelled by Jesus, chooses to shun these temptations.
If you are increasingly managing to manage you moods you are maturing and could well be the kind of person others would like as a leader. No-one really finds it easy to like someone whose moods swing unpredictably all the time, so if you are increasingly less able to manage your moods, perhaps some time looking at a leader you admire and seeing how they cope with their moods might help. For me, exploring what moods Jesus must have encountered and how he dealt with them never ceases to humble me and inspire me.
