Leadership Tension

Posted on 01. Nov, 2011 by frank in leadership

As a leader I think  tension can be a very healthy thing, especially when you keep it in the right places.  Here is what I mean.  I believe we should always maintain a healthy tension between providing guidance and maintaining control over the people we lead.  Leaders I meet tend to gravitate toward one or the other and it can cause problems when trying to develop quality leaders to a healthy place of independence.

Control

Leaders that focus on control tend to act more as managers than high quality leaders.  They will micro manage their team down to the minute. When I was in my early twenties I actually had a boss that wanted me to report on every 15 minutes of my day and I remember worrying more about my reporting than performing well on the job. When leaders micromanage their teams we become overbearing dictators rather than developers of future leaders.  Our goal should be to reproduce change agents.  People that will make wise choices for our churches and organizations, not a group of followers dependent on marching orders.

There are times that our teams do require us to manage more of the details.  Especially when vision hasn’t been clearly communicated or expectations are misunderstood.  This is where tension must be intentional for the leader.  Paying attention to details to ensure that expectations are met (and often times exceeded) while not smothering the team and stifling development of personnel.

Guidance

Leaders that only focus on guidance find themselves leading teams that may work hard but are often out of alignment with the mission and vision of the church or organization.   This happens because the leader has chosen to delegate responsibility too quickly or not adequately prepared those that follow.  I’ve made this mistake a couple of times in my ministry career and I could have avoided some hurtful conflict had I paid closer attention to my team member and how they were getting the job done.

However, when we live in a healthy place of tension, we can create a balanced approach. In my current role, leading here at Hope Summit, I’ve had to keep our team and myself in a place of healthy tension.  It is especially important for me to acknowledge that there are some great leaders in our congregation that our very capable of leading teams in our church.  However, whenever a new leader (like myself), enters an organization they often bring new vision.  I have to make sure that everyone I lead clearly understands that vision.  Without it, those leaders will continue to lead their teams as they always have.  That can be a problem if they lead out of alignment with the new vision that is being cast by the elders and staff of our church.

Plan Your Tension

So what I propose is that you actually plan your tension.  I have regular meetings with each of our staff, sometimes planned, other times impromptu… I call them focus meetings.  At these meetings I’ll ask them two key questions and offer a challenge that creates tension associated with our vision:

1. What is going well for you right now?

2. What has you frustrated?

3. Challenge that creates tension.

That challenge has to revolve around a piece of the vision for our church.  Let me give you an example…

Our staff and elders agree over the next year we have to create more opportunities for building community at Hope Summit.  A leader that is focused on guidance would simply communicate the need to the team and back off and see what happens.  A leader focused on control would micromanage everyone and every event through the coming year to solve the problem.  Instead of one of these extremes I would suggest living in the sweet spot of tension between the two, actually plan the meeting that creates that tension.  If I was sitting down with our Arts Pastor I would  discuss the challenge during one of our focus meetings and tie it back to our vision by saying, “We’ve been talking about our difficulty with community lately in our church, over the next few Sunday worship services what our some creative ways we can encourage community?”  That question challenges the person I’m leading, provides some guidance, and even some control because it keeps them focused on our vision.

Do you find yourself leading with healthy tension? I’d love to hear your story below!