4. Curiousity and Daring Bennis previously talked about four essential competencies—1. engaging others by creating a shared meaning, 2. having a distinctive voice, 3. having integrity, and 4. having adaptive capacity. He now adds to that with four ingredients that constitute an effective leader. The first is a guiding vision. The second is passion. The third is integrity. The fourth is curiousity and daring.
Bennis says, "Leaders wonder about everything, want to learn as much as they can, are willing to take risks, experiment, try new things. They do not worry about failure, but embrace errors, knowing they will learn from them." The ability of a leader to ask questions is not an expression of doubt but an unrelenting unwillingness to accept the status quo as an acceptable answer or solution. This is one of the most telling discriminators between a manager mind and a leader mind. The manager mind wants to control, create predictability, order and prevent the unknown from happening. The leader mind is unwilling to accept today's answer as anything more than a reference guide to tomorrow's unknown challenges. The leader mind knows today's answers are totally inadequate to properly and relevantly respond to tomorrows challenges.
Every good leader has within him the discipline of a manager and every good manager also has the spark of leadership. Leadership is the capacity to influence others. Management is the ability to create order. To be a good leader, you must be disciplined in both.
A manager mind asks "what," the leader mind asks "how" and "why." A successful spiritual leader's curiosity goes below the surface of "nickels and noggins." The successful spiritual leader wants to know how a successful ministry functions successfully. The effective spiritual leader wants to know how they deal with conflict, change, risk, decision making, power struggles and alignment/misalignment issues. They want to know when ministry staff and volunteers are failing to perform effectively, how do they address the issue? How do successful ministry leaders plan for succession, build teams that last and frame, form and influence the culture internally and in the community where they minister. An effective leader is never satisfied with today's answers and is never fully fulfilled--knowing something more and better can be done to make the ministry more effective, more productive, more efficient, more spiritually rooted in their reason for existence.
A successful leader is willing to challenge but not be defient, take risks but not be reckless and ask questions without sowing seeds of doubt. Curiousity and daring; essential ingredients for leaders of influence.
Questions for Reflection: When things in ministry are going well, am I satisfied or challenged?
When things in ministry are not going well do I look for tried and true solutions or am I more inclined to be open for new ideas?
When is the best time to be curious and daring--when things are going well or when faced with challenges. In your experience how has your answer proven to be correct or unsatisfactory?
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