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Leadership in a Flattened World

Orginally published on Monday, August 18, 2008 at 7:18 AM
by Todd Rhoades

Sally Morgenthaler writes in the newest edition of CatalystSpace: What is leadership in an age of unprecedented connectedness? When information is as accessible as the iPhone in your back pocket? When the world no longer needs data brokers, when the word “authority” inspires only suspicion and revolt, and when business, political, and religious icons are deconstructed at the click of a mouse button – what does it really mean to be in charge of anything?

Nothing. Because, in the new and increasingly flattened world, being in charge is an illusion. Being in charge only worked (and marginally so) in a world of slow change; in a predictable universe where information (and thus, power) is ensconced in the hands of a few. But that world is gone. With the rise of the individual (the power of one) and the rise of the tribe (the power of one connected), all bets are off. From the grassroots morph of groups like Al Qaeda to fragmenting retail markets to the small enterprise explosion in India and China, we see the old world of “big and powerful” unraveling.

Still, we hang on to our illusions. We retreat into the old story: leadership as domination and control. We try to deny that human beings are simply wired to push back. And now, we have an unprecedented ability to do so. Now, eighty-year old Uncle Harold can post his very own book review on Amazon.com. Twelve-year-old Jessica can organize a local rally for her favorite presidential candidate. It’s a YouTube, MySpace, FaceBook, blogging world. We have broken the anonymity barrier. I speak. Therefore, I exist.

Continue this fascinating here here at CatalystSpace...

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There are 5 Comments:

Posted by Peter Hamm

Monday, August 18, 2008 at 8:18 AM

Todd,

The last paragraph was poignant, so I thought I’d quote it.

“Leaders, we can do better. If we really want to see God’s work explode, let’s release our strangle-hold on ministry. Let’s be the leaders we were meant to be, not power-mongers and megalomaniacs, but catalysts, guides, midwives, and ship-rudders. Let’s stop trying to convince people we are open, adaptive, and permission giving, and really become all those things - leaders who release people to be the best they can be for God’s kingdom.” Amen, Sally!
Posted by Stewart

Monday, August 18, 2008 at 8:00 PM

Very good thoughts from Sally. One of the big challenges is that different generations and different cultures require different KINDS of leadership. Sometimes I long for the monolithic church. All young adults. All from the same country, denomination, ethnic group. But then I realize that isn’t part of God’s vision. God’s got a universal vision. “Go into ALL the world”.

But how do you lead all these different types of people when you can only be one type of leader? It is a challenge I struggle with daily. What inspires one pew, offends the next!
Posted by

Monday, August 25, 2008 at 8:28 AM

Sally’s wisdom is great...The other side of the leadership coin, though, is that lay people in churches (think Boomers) often think that they can lead better than trained and ordained professionals. For example, Pastors who get leadership degrees and/or administrative degrees in addition to their M.Div’s are often not welcome - they seemingly threaten the stranglehold that wealthy lay people have on running the Board and programming of a church. In my experience, powerfully positioned but spiritually immature or narcisistic lay people often are the real culprits because they play church and give the pastoral staff hell when they come up with a creative idea and the energy and gumption to carry it out.. The only way for a truly creative and young leader to lead a large church is to start one themselves - and that is not an very attractive proposition when you have a wife and young family. Babyboomers have run many churches into the ground because they do not respect pastoral competency (assuming it is there) and pastoral authority (assuming God has set up leadership gifting in local churches. While there are exceptions, it seems that by and large lay people have the kinds of churches they want - run by chaplains who dutifully obey orders from the laity in order to create coutry club churches.
Posted by Find IP Address

Friday, September 05, 2008 at 4:17 PM

Hi! I like your blog even if I can’t read it, you find good stuff - and I can always follow the links. But i Love The Network.
Posted by Get IP Address

Friday, September 05, 2008 at 5:35 PM

Why i got “Akismet thinks your input might be spam, so it will be moderated first.” ?

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Hi... I'm Todd Rhoades. I'm a Christ-follower, husband, father and I love to connect leaders with other leaders. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step on Twitter.