Biblical wisdom: a real compass for the leader.

Biblical wisdom can boast to inform every other field of knowledge, because it is from God the creator of life and existence. This postulate leads us to contend that the field of exegetical research in strategic leadership carries great potential to advance leadership theory and practice in the future. Exegesis helps to dig deep into the Word of God to bring out solid food for the edification of the exegete. When applied to the field of strategic leadership, exegesis becomes a great toll for exploring and explaining the leadership phenomenon.

Duvall and Hays (2012) use the metaphor of a five steps journey to explain the process of biblical exegesis:

Step 1: Grasp the text in their town. What did the text mean to the original audience?

 Step 2: Measure the width of the river to cross. What are the differences between the biblical audience and us?

Step 3: Cross the principlizing bridge. What is the theological principle in this text?

Step 4: Consult the biblical map. How does our theological principle fit with the rest of the Bible?

Step 5: Grasp the text in our town. How should individual Christians today live out the theological principles? (p. 47).

While this simple yet practical method of exegesis can be used for any biblical text, Robbins (2012) formulates another approach that is very original: Socio-rhetorical interpretation.

Socio-rhetorical analysis looks at texts from five different angles: (1)inner texture analysis, (2)inter texture analysis, (3)social and cultural texture analysis, (4)ideological texture analysis, and (5)sacred texture analysis. From each interpretive angle, socio-rhetorical analysis puts several lenses in the exegete’s hands for interpretation. A complete texture analysis through socio-rhetorical analysis may reveal the biblical text as a rich tapestry with several layers of patterns and meanings.

This method has been used to exegete biblical texts and apply their meanings to strategic leadership in rather impressive ways. For example, McCabe (2008) used patterns from repetitive and progressive textures, sensory aesthetic texture, and argumentative texture of John 21, to reveal Jesus as a master implementer of two models of organizational change: Nevi’s (1987) Gestalt cycle of experience and Lewin’s force field theory of change as explained by Schein (1999). This example shows that biblical exegesis has great contributions to make to the advancement of strategic leadership scholarship. And Ayers went on to propose a common language of convergence between theology and leadership.

Indeed Ayers uses sacred texture analysis of the Christological hymn of Philippians 2:5-11 to describe:

1.    The nature and being (the ontology) of God in Christ which is self-emptying

2.    The process and approach (methodology) of God in Christ which is humility and sacrificial centeredness on others

3.    The final purpose(teleology) of God in Christ which is reconciliation and harmony with humanity

The leadership lessons Ayers draws from his applied exegetical analysis for organizations are as follow:

1.    Leaders should be selfless, so that they can create all space needed in their world for the purpose of the organization and for the people of the organization

2.    Leaders should demonstrate humility and service to followers

3.    The consequence of such a leadership approach will be harmonious organizations where no energy is drained in strife and fights

These two examples of applied exegesis demonstrate how leadership and biblical interpretation are strongly intertwined. One may ask why invite the Bible in the science of leadership (Blanchard & Hodges, 2005)? But this question would be similar to Peter asking Jesus on that morning after spending a frustrating fruitless night fishing, as a response to Jesus’ command to let the nets down: “Jesus, we are seasoned professional fishermen. You are a moral and behavioral teacher, why do you dare intrude into such a complex field as fishing to claim to teach us what to do?” Peter rather said “… at your word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:5, New King James Version). The result was a memorable catch.

I am personally challenged to pay special attention to biblical wisdom regarding leadership. I will endeavor to always check with God, what instructions the bible may have for me in my leadership journey before taking action.  Leadership is not a function that is reserved for certain “important” positions in society only; it is an every day journey for any human being who wants to excel in the assignments given to him or her at every moment (Maxwell, 2007). To deepen my personal leadership journey, I will hence systematically use the great skill of sound biblical exegesis learnt from the applied exegesis course this semester as a habit.

 

References

Ayers, M. (2006). Toward a Theology of Leadership. Journal of Biblical Perspectives in Leadership,1(1).3-27.

Blanchard, K., & Hodges, P. (2005). Lead like jesus: Lessons from the greatest leadership role model of all times. Nashville, TN: Thomas Neslon.

Duvall, S.J. & Hays, D. J. (2012). Grasping god's word: A hands-on approach to reading, interpreting, and applying the bible [Kindle edition]. Available from www.amazon.com

McCabe, L. (2008). Jesus as Agent of Change: Transformational and Authentic Leadership in John 2. Journal of Biblical Perspectives in Leadership, 2(1) 32-43.

Maxwell, J. C. (2007). The Maxwell leadership bible (2^nd ed.). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

Nevis, E. C. (1987). Organizational consulting: A gestalt approach. New York, NY: Gardner Press.

Robbins, V. K. (1996). Exploring texture of texts: A guide to socio-rhetorical interpretation. New York, NY: Bloomsbury.

Schein, E. H. (1999). Kurt Lewin's Change Theory in the Field and in the Classroom: Notes Toward a Model of Managed Learning. Reflections, 1(1), 59-74. doi:10.1162/152417399570287

Biblical exegesis and leadership practice

Biblical spirituality is a relationship between humans and God, and relationships are usually developed through constant communications. This unique relationship between humans and their creator is not an exception. On a Christian perspective, the primary means used by God to communicate with humans is the Bible. But understanding its message today is a serious challenge for the reader. Indeed, contemporary readers are confronted with several barriers when attempting to access the biblical message. These include the big historical, literary, and cultural gaps that separate us today from the original audience. Petersen (2006) notes: “It is not sufficient to place a Bible in a person's hands with the command, ‘Read it.’ That is quite as foolish as putting a set of car keys in an adolescent's hands,... and saying, ‘Drive it’.” (p. 81) How then can current readers accurately exegete sacred scripture? What is the role of the Holy Spirit in Biblical interpretation, and why would leaders of today gain God’s wisdom through proper exegesis?

A practical approach to Biblical interpretation

Duval and Hays (2012) use a metaphoric picture of a journey, to explain the process of Biblical interpretation. To them, the original Biblical audience lived in “their town”, in a context that is different from ours today in “our town”. The first step in Biblical interpretation is to understand the meaning of God’s message in their town. This will require a good translation of the Bible. Like a laboratory technician using lenses to analyze her samples, the exegete will first scrutinize the text and try to bring out as many elements as possible from it, including significant words, language style, literary and historical context, and theological context. Kostenberg (2012) suggests a “hermeneutical triad” where history, culture and theology are used to understand the text in their town.

This first step ends with a formulation of God’s message in their town. But there is a river of contextual differences between their town and our town. According to the passage that is explored, the river is wide sometimes, and sometimes it is narrow. Based on the meaning of the message in their town and on the differences between the two audiences, the exegete will draw a theological principle that is relevant to both audiences. The theological principle must reflect God’s intent, be in line with the rest of God’s message in the Bible, and relevant to both audiences. The theological principle will help to cross the river of differences between their town and our town. Usually expressed in one or two sentences in the present tense, it is critical to “grasping” God’s message in our town and applying it properly by attempting to answer the question: “How can I respond to God in my situation today?” While the principle is not bound to time or culture or even context, application on its part varies from audience to audience. The application of the principle in our town ends the interpretive journey. One may ask what the role of the Holy Spirit is, if we are to use scientific techniques to interpret the Bible.

Biblical interpretation and the Holy Spirit

We have to acknowledge that understanding God’s instructions is the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told his disciples: “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth…” (John 16:13, Holman Christian Standard Bible) We only need to interpret because God used the human tool, our language, to communicate his will to us. Also, God will never contradict himself; therefore any revelation should be in line with the whole story of his relationship with creation.

Though human intelligence may help us to capture important facts related to Biblical text, the Holy Spirit can open our eyes to certain facts we had never noticed before. Because of the work of the Spirit, certain important details of the text that we had ignored before may draw our attention. While one may argue that Cartesian analysis is not the exclusivity of spirit-led exegetes, life-transforming application may actually be.

God sent his Word with intent to enlighten, to heal, to set humanity free, and to bring us back to fellowship with him. According to Petersen (2006), we must explore the Scriptures “in such a way that the Holy Spirit uses them to form Christ in us. We are not interested in knowing more but in becoming more.” (p. 59) And only the Spirit can connect the cognitive impressions of Biblical truths to real life situations, challenge us to grow, and give us the power of inside-out  renewal. It is only here, at the level of application, that exegesis becomes useful to our lives, to our homes, to our companies, and to our communities at large.

Exegesis and Leadership

In essence, leadership is a process whereby a leader mobilizes, equips, and challenges people to give their best in the pursuit of the best future for the organization and for every constituent of the process (Winston & Patterson, 2006). Understanding God’s message to us today is critical to successful leadership for two reasons. First, God is a leader and the Bible is about his leadership practice, including how he led while he lived as a human on earth. Leaders can learn a lot by observing the way God led. Second, God is the creator of humanity and he knows how we behave, therefore the best source of wisdom about human behavior is probably in his Word. In this sense, Biblical exegesis will play a central role in the life of the Christian leader. Petersen notes: “Spiritual leadership, spiritual direction, and spiritual formation require that we tend to the work of the Holy Spirit in our individual and corporate, public and political lives.” (p. 17). With proper understanding and application of the Bible, bosses can become a prophetic voice for their followers for more effective organizational processes.

References

Duvall, J. S. Hays, J. D. (2012). Grasping god's word: A hands-on approach to reading, Interpreting, and applying the bible [Kindle Edition] Available from amazon.com.

Köstenberger, A. J. (2012). Invitation to Biblical Interpretation & the hermeneutical triad: new hermeneutical lenses for a new generation of Bible interpreters. Criswell Theological Review, 10(1), 3-12. Retrieved from http://0-search.ebscohost.com.library.regent.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rfh&AN=ATLA0001916811&site=ehost-live

Peterson, E. H. (2006). Eat this book: A conversation in the art of spiritual reading [Kindle Edition]. Available from Amazon.com

Winston, B. E., & Patterson, K. (2006). An integrative definition of leadership. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 1(2), 6-66.

Leadership in partnerships of equals

One dimension of leadership is about how a leader works with others (Hackman & Johnson, 2009). Initial approaches to leadership focused on individuals at the top of organizational systems having the exclusive power to decide and to direct followers toward implementation. More recent studies view organizations as living systems where knowledge and decision-making are distributed across the company, resulting in more informed decisions (Fletcher & Kaufer, 2003). Fletcher (as cited in Fletcher and Kaufer, 2003) explains that shared leadership is distributed and interdependent, embedded in the nature and process of the leader-follower interactions, and it is a learning process for leaders, for followers, and for organizations as a whole. Some leadership practitioners have gone further to use the term coleadership. To them effective leadership requires that leaders and their lieutenants or co-leaders be valued equally, and that decision-making and credit for success be shared. Why coleadership, and how does it work? Which challenges does it present and which are the pitfalls to avoid for successful coleadership processes?

Why coleadership?

Waddock’s (1989) research on partnerships identified six external forces that draw independent organizations nearer to each others: mandate or legal system, existing networks where useful power and resources are shared, third party with an interest in linking companies, common understanding about how an issue should be tackled in a community, crisis, or visionary individual leadership. These factors can lead individuals and organizations to joined ventures which are headed by teams of leaders and co-leaders rather by solo star leaders. “The old corporate monotheism is … giving way to a more realistic view that acknowledges leaders not as organizational gods but as first among many contributors.” (Heenan & Bennis, 1999) But how does coleadership work?

How does coleadership work?

Leadership in partnerships of equals is about interdependent and complementary contributions. It is characterized by synergy, shared emotions, shared credit for successes and responsibility for failures. It may take the form of leaders jointly occupying the leadership position, or leaders allocating different leadership functions to partakers of the coleadership relationship, or even the form of co-leaders taking turns in assuming the same leadership responsibility (Hackman & Johnson, 2009). But for coleadership to work effectively, certain conditions should be fulfilled.

For coleadership to work smoothly, leaders and co-leaders must operate in an environment of trust, authenticity and abundant communication. Just like a marriage does not succeed simply with a successful wedding but by a sustained process of authentic engagement alongside significant adjustments, coleadership can only be successful if parties commit to a long term dedication to pursue a common objective together (Fons & Maarten, 2012). Also, a safe learning environment where leaders and co-leaders are committed to sincere exchanges and openness to value each others will only increase the quality of decisions at the top of organizations.

According to Eisner and Cohen (2010) Liking each other is another important element for working as partners. They note that strong bounds within the coleadership process create a foxhole, from where leaders and co-leaders can stand, “fighting the world together to achieve something special, fighting their competitors, fighting to protect each other, being friends, and keeping the institution together.” (p. 19) Weak relationships at the top of companies can lead to conflict and to failure. While looking at factors that foster effective coleadership, it is important to equally consider elements that impinge on the coleadership process.

It is worth noting that certain behaviors can seriously undermine the coleadership process. One is pride and self centeredness. Without humility, leaders and co-leaders are unwilling to learn from each others, and they fight for “the spot light”. This negative behavior becomes more toxic when partakers of the coleadership team are from a merger, with the challenge to create a new corporate culture that results from each previous entity’s identity and values. Also, dishonesty is a very dangerous behavior in coleadership. Buffet as cited in Eisner and Cohen (2010) says “You’re looking for three things, generally, in a person [you lead with],… intelligence, energy, and integrity. And if they don’t have the last one, don’t even bother with the first two.” (p.50)

References

Eisner, M. D., Cohen, A. R. (2010). Working together: Why great partnerships succeed . HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

Fletcher, J. K., & Kaufer, K. (2003). Shared leadership. In C. L. Pearce & J. A. Conger (Eds.), Shared leadership: Reframing the hows and whys of leadership (21-47). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Fons T., Maarten N. A. (2012). The Global M&A Tango: How to Reconcile Cultural Differences in Mergers, Acquisitions and Strategic Partnerships (2nd ed.). Human Resource Management International Digest,20 (7), - Available from http://0-www.emeraldinsight.com.library.regent.edu/journals.htm?issn=0967-0734&volume=20&issue=7&articleid=17062351&show=html#sthash.HjQqAUem.dpuf

Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (2009). Leadership: A communication perspective (5th ed.). Waveland Press, Inc.

Heenan, D. A., Bennis, W. (1999). Co-leaders: The power of great partnerships. New York, NY: John Willey & Sons.

Waddock, S. A. (1989). Understanding Social Partnerships: An Evolutionary Model of Partnership Organizations. Administration & Society, 21 (1), 78-100. doi: 10.1177/009539978902100105

Challenges and opportunities of leadership in "the global village"

The world has become a global village. Airplane travels as well as satellite and Internet connectivity have literally changed the way business is done around the planet. The world has become a “global village”. What are the leadership challenges and opportunities presented by the current world, and how can leaders increase their effectiveness in this new context?

Leadership challenges in the global village

One big challenge of leadership in the global village is cultural differences. House, Brodbeck, Chhokar and the GLOBE research program (2007) identified several cultural dimensions that leaders need to understand to be able to operate effectively in a cross cultural context. Unless leaders understand cultural differences of the people they lead, inaccurate meanings will be ascribed to behaviors (Hackman & Johnson, 2009), and incompatible expectations may prevail in the leader-follower relationship. For leaders to succeed in cross cultural contexts, they need to understand cultural differences, and how they impinge on the leadership process.

Another challenge of leadership in the global village it the hybrid workplace, where some team members work from the same physical location while others contribute to the team from other locations. Ocker, Huang, Benbunan-Fisher & Hiltz (2011) found that leadership dynamics and team effectiveness are affected in hybrid teams with relatively high distance (geography, time, and/or culture). Other research works have evidenced a change in ethical behaviors (Hancock, Thom-Santelli, & Ritchie as cited in Thompson, 2008) and increased potential for conflict when team members’ interactions are not face-to-face (Kankanhalli, Tan, & Kwok-Kee, 2006). Effective leaders must setup organizational structures and processes that can address these challenges. Fortunately, the global village does not only present challenges, it also provides new opportunities for leadership.

Leadership opportunities in the global village

A powerful leadership advantage provided by the global village is the potential for expansion. Increased communications and e-communications have broadened the potential scope of companies’ operations. E-commerce allows companies to sell their products to people from everywhere in the world without having to go through the complexities of physical expansion. High-tech manufacturing companies, and many other businesses deliver and/or maintain their products via the web and the satellite.

Another opportunity given by the global village is the significant knowledge advantage when there is diversity in work teams (Ratcheva, 2008). According to Johns and Gratton (2013), the flexibility offered by the development of virtual work teams can increase performance if used wisely. Smart leaders explore the new opportunities offered by the global village, increase knowledge, reduce turnover, and explore new expansion possibilities.

References

Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (2009). Leadership: A communication perspective (5th ed.). Waveland Press, Inc.

House, R. J., Brodbeck, F. C., Chhokar, J., & Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness Research, P. (2007). Culture and leadership across the world : The GLOBE book of in-depth studies of 25 societies. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Johns, T., & Gratton, L. (2013). The Third Wave Of Virtual Work. Harvard Business Review, 91(1), 66-73.

Kankanhalli, A., Tan, B. Y., & Kwok-Kee, W. (2006). Conflict and Performance in Global Virtual Teams. Journal Of Management Information Systems, 23(3), 237-274

Ocker, R., Huang, H., Benbunan-Fich, R., & Hiltz, S. (2011). Leadership Dynamics in Partially Distributed Teams: an Exploratory Study of the Effects of Configuration and Distance. Group Decision & Negotiation, 20(3), 273-292. doi:10.1007/s10726-009-9180-z

Ratcheva, V. (2008). The knowledge advantage of virtual teams -- processes supporting knowledge synergy. Journal Of General Management, 33(3), 53-67.

Thompson, L. L. (200). Organizational behavior today. Upper Saddle River, New York, NY: Pearson Education.

How are leadership and communication linked?

Discerning and consistently choosing the right direction to go in one’s various roles can be called self leadership. Haggai defines group leadership as "the discipline of deliberately exerting special influence within a group to move it toward goals of beneficial permanence that fulfill the group's real needs." (Haggai, 2009). Leadership can be described as a bipolar function in which there is a direction setter on one side, and a direction follower on the other. Hackman and Jonhson ( 2009) note that leaders must create and aptly use shared symbols like words, stories, rituals, etc; that carry specific meaning.

Ongoing mutual influence between leaders and followers is at the heart of leadership.  If a leader fails to create and consistently use a communication system that clearly explains the expectations and aspirations of the organization at every level, performance will significantly suffer. Baldoni (2003) notes that this failure of communication is actually failure in leadership. How can a team align and synchronize its effort if no clear direction is given to team members? How can a community be healthy and strong if no one creates and shares the common dreams for which the members want to live? It is obvious that for a group to be effective, leaders must develop an ability to create clear and unequivocal messages (Torsten, 2007), while they also help their followers to understand and respond to the signals they receive.

References

Baldoni, J. (2003). Great communication secrets of great leaders. New York: Mc Graw Hill.

Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (2009). Leadership: a communication perspective (5th ed.). Waveland Press, Inc.

Haggai, J. E. (2009). The influential leader: 12 steps to igniting visionary decision making. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest house publishers.

Torsten, M. (2007). What makes a good leader & how might the performance of leaders be measured. Munich: GRIN Publishing GmbH.