Nouwen: Leadership
“It is the compassionate authority that empowers, encourages, calls forth hidden gifts, and enables great things to happen. True spiritual authorities are located in the point of an upside-down triangle, supporting and holding into the light everyone they offer their leadership to.”—Henri Nouwen in Bread for the Journey (HarperSanFrancisco, 1997).
The upside-down triangle. What a brilliant image for leadership, a leadership that supports, empowers, and encourages those being led. I have a spiritual friend who tells me that his senior warden explained it another way: “You have to let them know that you care before you show them what you know.” How true this is in any kind of relationship or ministry. This is one of the models Jesus gives us. I think I have encountered a handful of leaders in my lifetime who fit this description. It is a rare form of leadership. It is servant leadership.
Just recently I cried with another friend, Ann, as we shared the struggles of trying to lead through practicing this leadership style. When we use it, often we are called a “weak sister.” This type of leadership is counter cultural. We can find ourselves met with resistance at almost every turn.
Even if we ourselves have not been a servant leader in the past, there is still time to change. When we are given the chance, we can try to live it. We can share our experience with other spiritual friends and support each other. It is a leadership model that is not powered by our ego—or by as little ego as possible.
Parker Palmer identifies this form of leadership in Let Your Life Speak (Jossey-Bass, 1999). These leaders are not insecure about their own identity, depriving others of their autonomy to buttress or support their own. The identity of these leaders does not depend on the role they play or the power over others it gives them.
May we pray to become this kind of servant leader, and that we will be led to role models and mentors who also embody it.
Advent is a good time to review our leadership style.
Joanna joannaseibert.com
