“Who is in charge here?” is a demand question often heard from someone who wants to enter an organization and provide either leadership or management. When spoken loudly and with an anger edge it can mean that if no one else is in charge here then they are taking over.
Early in the presidency of Ronald Reagan we came to know this as the Alexander Haig Syndrome. Remember? He declared he was in charge at the White House after the shooting of Reagan.
Within organizations there is also a frequent call for greater accountability and supervision. People must be called upon to follow the plan, do their part, do it right, and do it now.
While these words reinforce a demand or control form of management, at their worst this is a form of management that does not trust leadership unless they are the leaders. In congregations they want to reimage the leadership in their image.
Many times over my lifetime of working with congregations I have heard stories of laypersons with a demand and command mindset who try to tell the pastor and staff how they must do their job. They may even throw in a little “or else” talk.
One type of these people are laypersons who sometime during the decade of their 50s discovered they were not going to get to where they thought they deserved to get in their career, and became angry. They could not make the organization they worked for recognize their genius, or someone else was chosen for that key role they thought they deserved.
Over the years they could not make their organization follow their demands and commands, but they sure could make their congregation stand up and listen. They felt they had power there. The congregation would have to listen.
The challenge is that congregations are the perfect place where the visionary leadership initiated by God and championed by leaders needs to be respected and followed. Management needs to be accountable to visionary leadership rather than visionary leadership being accountable to management. Particularly angry management.
Here are three vision insights that suggest a focus on management’s accountability to visionary leadership in congregations. The first 64 insights about congregational vision are contained in the posts found here.
Vision Insight 65: Vision is about leadership rather than management. Management should be accountable to visionary leadership.
Visionary leadership should take the initiative. Management is actually accountable to visionary leadership rather than visionary leadership being accountable to management.
Too few management people see it this way, which is why so many congregations have what would be called a low ceiling. This means they want a controllable environment and not a lot of changes. Yet, when the Holy Spirit is inspiring leaders, and they understand their initiating role in helping the congregation see vision, then they need a place where there is no ceiling and innovation is unlimited in the long-term.
Vision Insight 66: When visionary leadership is not present in a congregation, it creates a vacuum into which management rushes.
Management is the heaviest thing in congregations, and knows how to throw its weight around. It knows how to takeover. When management is given an opening it rushes into the vacuum created by the lack of vision.
At times the ability of management to takeover is a good thing. If leadership is weak and directionless, congregations may need management to rush in and do something. Almost anything. But is should be temporary until vision can mount up with wings as eagles, and soar with faith.
Vision Insight 67: Living into vision is not about a checklist of tasks but a map for a scavenger hunt that moves from experience to experience.
It is important to not turn vision into a left-brained operational plan focused on tasks to accomplish. Vision is more a right-brained adventure that feels the presence and leadership of God. It is a journey. It follows its God-given values.
It tells stories. It has meaningful interaction within the fellowship of the congregation, in its community context, or among the demographic groups with whom it ministers. It seeks to do its part to make the world more loving and just.
Many models of long-term and strategic planning have actions, implementation, or operational plans that involve a checklist of actions or tactics to be completed. When completed they are checked off as finished. They are about output. This is management.
Vision when expressed in a plan that is strategic in nature is about impact. When a portion of the plan or story is completed then evaluation is called for. Recast the vision and the strategy that supports it. Move forward beyond the initial horizon to new horizons now visualized. This is leadership.
This is the 23rd in a series of posts on congregational vision. To see all the posts go here. The next blog post in this series is entitled, “Neither bigger barns nor towers of Babel produce congregational vision.”