blogger's progress

 The American author, CEO and teacher Max De Pree famously defined leadership as entailing three tasks; defining reality, becoming a servant and debtor and saying thank you. When I first heard these three I was a little doubtful of the idea of “defining” reality which smacked of something potentially autocratic, individualistic and so open to delusion.

But second thoughts are …. on reflection putting it this way does capture something important. We are so easily and unwittingly focused upon immediate problems that we are in danger of our reality being defined by our problems, and so are likely to be shaped by such problems. That really narrows down our field of vision. In terms of faith, one of the challenges is to be shaped by the story of death and resurrection, the life-giving narrative of Jesus Christ. But it’s easy to slip into different narratives ruling the roost, narratives of problem-solving and “when I’ve sorted out these problems it will all be sorted” approaches which bear little scrutiny.

Coming back to De Pree, whether we’re aware of it or not we are continually making choices about how we interpret and read reality. To speak of leadership “defining” reality can help remind us that what we talk about, what we give our attention to, readily and rapidly becomes our reality. In that case, I suppose leadership involves re-directing our gaze and attention, our talk and our preoccupations where necessary.

I guess one question arising is “what am I paying too much attention to?” and “what am I paying too little attention to?” in terms of defining reality, questions for us in our Christian communities too. The Road to Emmaus is a classic example of how the disciples’ reality on the road is initially defined by the perceived failure of Jesus, and resulting disappointment, broken hopes and some anger. Their refrain “we had hoped” is a refrain we easily use in different contexts, attention being paid to unrealised expectations and frustrated longings. Yet by the end of the conversation with the stranger who walks along with them reality is re-defined in terms of fulfilment not failure, bearing fruit in joy, courage and hope. The Risen Lord re-defines reality for them and they rush to do the same for others. Their attention is focused not on their unrealised expectations but what has been realised and disclosed in and through the story of Jesus’ life death and resurrection. In terms of little picture much is the same – materially, physically, economically and politically the situation of these disciples is still precarious. But everything has changed in terms of big picture, making little picture look very different to them. (Though the polar bear pic is a reminder not to ignore little picture….)

So I go with De Pree’s point  in that leadership does involve attending to big picture and that should include defining reality. I’m just a little nervous of this ‘defining’ being understood as an individualistic enterprise given the possibilities of self-delusion. Maybe it needs couching in terms of occasionally being the courage of an individual speaking out, but this defining of reality might more usually be a prayerful  enterprise emerging out of ‘generative dialogue’ together….needing discipline to stick to the resulting definition too….. 

I know, I know, in danger of death by qualification but gotta defend against a leadership mentality of knights on chargers ……