Your Leadership Style Can (and should) Change
Feature by Adrian Dixon
How much have you changed in the last two years?
How much of your livelihood have you had to reimagine over the last two years? Whether it was learning to cook more meals, learning Zoom and the nuances of working from home, preaching to an empty sanctuary, reporting to work while many transitioned to working from home, or reading people’s faces by looking at their eyes, we’ve had to reimagine a lot. Whether it’s an invitation to or being forced to reimagine, good things can come from reimagining. Reimagining leadership is no different.
I’m in the middle of my second term on our conference’s ministerial committee and I’ve always been struck by one of the requests we make of those who are pursuing credentials. The request: Describe your leadership style. Applicants are given four examples/choices that can really be narrowed down to three: Authoritarian/Autocratic, Democratic or Laissez-faire. I remember that request when I was going through the licensing process and wondering why those three options were used as possible descriptions of leadership. It turns out those options are tied to leadership styles proposed in 1939 by a psychologist named Kurt Lewin. One could make a case for why we haven’t updated our understandings of leadership styles (i.e., emotional intelligence as a determinant for successfully leading people), but that’s another conversation for another time.
For Lewin, a person’s leadership style could often be seen in how one makes a decision. Here’s a quick description:
· Authoritarian leaders make all decisions with little to no consultation from others. Decisions are typically final and obedience/adherence to decisions is expected.
· Democratic leaders are participatory in the decision-making process, but also seek to involve others. The desire is collaboration on decision making with the leader bearing the responsibility for the outcome.
· Laissez-faire (i.e., hands off) leaders tend to delegate decision making to subordinates who have a greater expertise or knowledge of a given area.1
For Lewin, he discovered that the Democratic leadership style was the most effective. 1 It doesn’t take much experience in ministry (or life) to realize that one style doesn’t fit every situation. Our roles, the people we serve and work alongside and the situations we’re in often invite us to adjust our leadership styles. I would venture to say that the best leaders are the ones who can adjust their style based on their situation.
Life is constantly changing and the Holy Spirit is constantly doing something new. With that in mind, let’s reimagine leadership styles and live in the freedom of moving in and out of each of these based on the situations we find ourselves in.
Imagine:
· An authoritarian leader who faces a decision in a matter which he has little expertise and he shifts to a more laissez-faire or democratic leadership style by inviting others with that expertise into the decision-making process, thereby relinquishing solo control, perhaps even letting the group of experts make the decision.
· A democratic leader who faces a situation in which a consensus cannot be reached by the group. In fact, conflicting opinions may exist. In this situation, the leader could shift to a more authoritarian leadership model and make a final, unilateral decision.
· A Laissez-faire leader who is facing a project that requires great precision, oversight and attention to detail needs to shift into a more authoritarian leadership style because the leader’s more normal laissez-faire style does not work well for managing such projects.
The COVID pandemic has forced us to question what we want to hold on to and what we need to let go of. The same can be true for how we see leadership. As we emerge into a new season of life and ministry, trust the Holy Spirit’s working in our lives and be willing to reimagine how we’re making decisions and how we’re leading others.
Adrian is married to Shoshannah and together they have three children who are the light of their lives. Adrian is the Founding/Lead Pastor of Northside Community Church in Knightdale, NC and also works full-time at Duke Raleigh Hospital as the Director of Chaplain Services & Education. He’s a graduate of Campbell University, Duke University and the Virginia Theological Seminary. He can be reached at: adixon@acgc.us.
Rev. Adrian Dixon, “Reimagined Leadership,” The Advent Christian Witness, Summer 2022