Leadership is a Relationship by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner

If Jesus had not been able to attract followers, Christianity might never have spread. And it was not just the message that attracted followers; it was the man and his ability to engage with others. This may seem like an obvious point, but it's critical when we're talking about leadership, because the outcome of leadership is a result of the relationship.

Just imagine if Jesus had been the kind of leader the Roman emperors were. Do you really think that over two thousand years later people would be referring to Jesus as a leadership role model? It's not just what he said, it's also how he behaved that makes his story significant in the leadership literature.

Leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow. Sometimes that relationship is one-to-one. Sometimes it's one-to-many. Regardless of the number, in order to thrive in these disquieting times, Christian leaders must master the dynamics of the leadership relationship.

Five strong themes weave together these Christian Reflections on The Leadership Challenge. They give us a deeper appreciation for how faith informs and supports leadership, no matter the context. They also demonstrate that Christian leaders have an important contribution to make to our understanding of the dynamics of the leadership relationship. The five key messages we hear repeated in one form or another by all the contributors are these:

1. Credibility is the foundation of leadership.
2. Leadership is personal.
3. Leaders serve.
4. Leaders sacrifice.
5. Leaders keep hope alive.

CREDIBILITY IS THE FOUNDATION OF LEADERSHIP

If leadership is a relationship, then what is the foundation of that relationship? For over two decades and across six continents, we've asked people what they look for and admire in a leader - in someone whose direction they would willingly follow. The key word in this question is willingly. In all those years, the response has been the same. The most important personal quality people look for and admire in a leader is personal credibility.1 Credibility is the foundation of leadership. If people don't believe in the messenger, they won't believe the message. This finding has been so consistent for over twenty years that we've come to call it The First Law of Leadership.

And what is credibility behaviorally? We've asked this question thousands of times, and the most frequent response we get is, "Do What You Say You Will Do," or DWYSYWD for short.

Embedded in this behavioral description of credibility are two essentials: say and do. Leaders must stand for something, believe in something, and care about something. Then they must act on those ideals.

To become a credible leader, we each have to first determine what's important to us. Each person has to find his or her voice. This point was underscored by every contributor to this volume. No one was ambiguous about his or her beliefs, and no one was timid about talking about them openly.

Of course, voice and values can be expressed in lots of different ways. Each leader in this book is unique. So are you. Voice and values can be expressed by a businessperson, a volunteer, a parent, a teacher, a missionary, a minister, or by anyone in any role. Voice and values can be expressed on a farm, on a mission, in a coffee business, in a charity, in a classroom, in a church, in a home, or in any place where there are other people. They can be expressed Monday through Friday, as well as on Saturday and Sunday. They can be expressed anytime and anywhere there are human needs to be served.

For Christian leaders, of course, one's voice is also part of a choira choir of shared values. Behind the melody there is a beat, and that beat comes from a deeply held set of beliefs about living with integrity, feeding the hungry, serving the poor, aiding the afflicted, and spreading the gospel. It's about doing God's work whatever your calling.

But it's the "do" part of DWYSYWD that seems to elude a lot of would-be leaders and has been forgotten by the fallen ones.

Not too long ago, one of us (Jim) was visiting with David McAllister-Wilson, president of Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. (and a contributor to this book). Accompanying Jim was his mom. While waiting for David to return from a meeting, Mary Bates, David's assistant, brought them each a cup of coffee. Jim reported that as his mom picked up her coffee cup to take a sip, he noticed that inscribed on the side of her cup was a quote that read, "Will the road you're on get you to my place?" - God.

That coffee-cup epiphany in David's office was just one more reminder of how important the credibility lesson is, especially in these disquieting times. The legacy you leave is the life you lead. Will the road you're on get you to God's place? After having read all the stories in this book, there is no question that each leader followed a path that was true to his or her values and that each was behaving in ways consistent with Christian principles. None is perfect, and none is a saint, but all took seriously the "Do What You Say You Will Do" message.

LEADERSHIP IS PERSONAL

Because credibility is the foundation, the individual leading is central to any discussion of exemplary leadership. We cannot engage in any serious discussion of the subject in the purely abstract or conceptual. Leadership is personal. It's not about them; ultimately it's about you and me.

Research on employee engagement clearly supports this message. Surveys from eighty thousand managers in over four hundred companies reveal that it's the immediate manager who has more influence on employees' engagement with their work than any other single factor - more important, for example, than pay, benefits, or bonuses.2 It's the immediate manager who has the most influence on whether a person voluntarily stays or leaves an organization. In other words, people don't quit their organizations; they quit their leaders. Expand this research to religious institutions and you find similar results. 3 The spiritual commitment of congregational members is driven by their congregational engagement, and that engagement is directly related to the kind of leadership they are getting.

The people featured in this book took leadership personally. They realized that they were called to action, and they seized that opportunity. Whether the challenge found them or they found the challenge, they took personal responsibility for doing something about it. However and wherever you express your values and beliefs, you have to take leadership personally. Seizing the initiative has absolutely nothing to do with position. It's about attitude and action.

Because leadership is personal, it also means that leadership development is self-development. Engineers may have their computers, and painters may have their brushes and canvases, but leaders have only themselves. The instrument of leadership is the self, and the mastery of the art of leadership comes from the mastery of the self.

Self-development is not about stuffing in a whole bunch of new information or trying out the latest technique. It's about leading out of what is already in your soul. It's about liberating the leader within you. It's about setting yourself free.

LEADERS SERVE

It's useful to remember that Jesus was not elected to serve as the formal leader of a movement: "With 51 percent of the popular vote, the winner is Jesus of Nazareth!" Neither did a board of directors get together and select Jesus to be their CEO. He had no formal organizational power to do what he did. He just acted like a leader, and others started to follow and to believe.

In the secular world of leadership, people are so accustomed to saying "leader" and "CEO" in the same breath that they've come to assume the two are equivalent. The same could be said of the church hierarchy. The old command-and-control style of leadership still haunts the corridors of power, and the ghost of ancient practice still has a grip on our psyche. Certainly, CEOs should act like leaders, but the title is not what makes a CEO a leader. Leadership is not about position. It's about practice. Leadership is not conferred. It's earned.

This is another of the consistent messages in this book. Every one of our contributors tells us that leaders serve. We see it in every one of the case examples. Leaders serve a purpose, as do the people who have made it possible for them to lead. 4 They put the guiding principles of the organization ahead of all else and then strive to live by them. They're the first to do what has been agreed upon. The lessons that leadership is a service and that leaders are servants are likely the most significant Christian teachings about the nature of leadership.

The concept of servant leadership has been getting more and more attention lately, but it's not new to the secular leadership literature. Over thirty years ago, Robert Greenleaf pointed out that "the great leader is seen as servant first, and that simple fact is the key to [the leader's] greatness."5 Greenleaf, who had spent thirty years as a senior executive in a Fortune 500 company, devoted the last years of his career reflecting on and writing about leadership. He observed that those people who believed foremost in the concept of service, who were servant leaders, were also the most successful. "The best test of this," Greenleaf observed, is

Do those being served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, not be further deprived? 6

Greenleaf's teachings have gained currency across the globe, and the fact that they continue to resonate in today's world is testimony to the power of his message. Greenleaf addressed his writings to leaders of all faiths, organizations, and nations. He did not intend it for one exclusive audience. Still, the message of leader-as-servant is clearly one that speaks to the heart of every Christian. The contributors to this book would argue that you cannot be a Christian leader unless you see yourself as servant first. There's no choice here. You either are or you aren't. It comes with the territory.

LEADERS SACRIFICE

Another undercurrent of thought that runs through all of these reflective chapters is the message that leaders must give something up in order to get something more significant. They may give up comfort, wealth, security, time, or even personal safety. What they get is the great joy and satisfaction of knowing that others are the beneficiaries of their service.

Leaders are selfless. Leaders sacrifice, and by sacrificing they demonstrate that they're not in it for themselves; instead, they have the interests of others at heart. When leaders accept that they are servants first, then they clearly know where they stand. And it's not at the head of the line.

This is a far cry from superstar executives who negotiate multimillion-dollar deals and then can walk away rich, even when their companies fail. It's a far cry from those in high office who can get away with stuff the rest of us can't. They may be members of the Christian faith, but their behavior says something else.

Another thing that we've consistently found in our research is that people want leaders who are inspiring, upbeat, and energetic. People want leaders with passion. When we think of a passionate person, we think of someone with lots of enthusiasm, excitement, and zeal for their cause. All of this is accurate. But there is more to this word.

When you look up passion in the etymological dictionary, you see that it comes from the Greek word for pain and suffering! 7

A passionate person is someone who suffers. A compassionate person is someone who suffers with others. When we point this out to our students and clients, they quickly get it. It becomes clearer and clearer to them that the leaders who are the most admired are those who have suffered the most, who have sacrificed the most.

This may sound like a very harsh standard to set, but that's not our decision. That was the decision of Christ himself. He made the ultimate sacrifice. Now, we're not prescribing that you carry a cross or wear a crown of thorns to prove you're a good leader. But we are definitely suggesting that leadership requires a willingness to make personal sacrifices for the sake of a higher purpose.

There's a very positive consequence to selfless action. When leaders are selfless and humble, people are much more inclined to trust them. Putting others first - and meaning it - will earn you more credibility than if you try to place yourself at the head of the line.

LEADERS KEEP HOPE ALIVE

We're only a few years into this new millennium, and we've already experienced extremely disquieting economic, political, and social upheavals. The forecasts are still pretty gloomy. But just because the clouds have obscured the view doesn't mean there is no sun. That's how exemplary leaders see it, anyway. When you review the cases in this book, you'll see an abundance of adversity in each situation. It could have discouraged our leaders from continuing their quests. But they weren't; instead, they kept hope alive.

Christian leaders know that service and sacrifice are redemptive. They know that there is a deeper reward when you make sacrifices for the sake of a higher purpose and in service of others. They know that a potent antidote to the increased cynicism and stresses of our time is renewed faith in human capacity and an intensely optimistic belief that together we will overcome.

Leaders keep hope alive. They keep hope alive by demonstrating the courage of their convictions. They keep hope alive by painting positive images of the future. They keep hope alive by taking charge of change. They keep hope alive by trusting the abilities of others. They keep hope alive by recognizing the dedication of others as they get extraordinary things done.

Hope is attitude in action. It enables people to mobilize their healing and their achieving powers. It helps them to transcend the difficulties of today and envision the potentialities of tomorrow. Hope enables people to find the will and the way to aspire to greatness. Hope is testimony to the power of the human spirit. Leadership is often a struggle, and the only way to thrive is to keep hope alive.

In the final analysis, there is no shortage of opportunities to lead. There is no shortage of opportunities to make a difference in the world - be that world your family, neighborhood, congregation, school, or corporation. Challenge is the opportunity for greatness, and leaders seize these opportunities to make a difference.

The most significant contributions leaders make are not to today's bottom line but to the long-term development of people and institutions that adapt, prosper, and grow. The next time you say to yourself, "Why don't they do something about this?" look in the mirror. Ask the person you see, "Why don't you do something about this?"

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Excerpted from Christian Reflections of the Leadership Challenge edited by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner (Jossey-Bass 2004). Used with permission.

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Notes

1. For a current summary of our research on credibility, see J. M. Kouzes and B. Z. Posner, The Leadership Challenge (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002), 23-39. Also see J. M. Kouzes and B. Z. Posner, Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003).
2. M. Buckingham and C. Coffman, First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), 34.
3. For more on The Gallup Organization's research on religion and values, visit www.gallup.com. See especially, A. L. Winseman's, The Driving Factor Behind Spiritual Health, The Gallup Tuesday Briefing, July 9, 2002.
4. See Kouzes and Posner, Credibility, 183-217.
5. R. K. Greenleaf, Servant Leadership: A Journey Into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness (New York: Paulist Press, 1977), 1. For extensive information on the life and writings of R. K. Greenleaf, contact The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership on the Web at www.greenleaf.org. Interested readers may also enjoy J. A. Autry's The Servant Leader: How to Build a Creative Team, Develop Morale, and Improve Bottom-Line Performance (Roseville, Calif.: Prima Publishing, 2001).
6. Greenleaf, Servant Leadership, 13-14.
7. E. Partridge, Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English (New York: Macmillan, 1977), 75.

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Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner are award-winning authors and the developers of the Leadership Practices Inventory questionnaire.