In our staff meeting today, we watched part one of a speech given by Bill George at The Leadership Summit hosted by the Willow Creek Association. George is a professor at Harvard Business School, the former chairman and CEO of Medtronic, and author of two top-selling books on leadership.
George shared that four words summarize the kind of leadership called for in the 21st century: align, empower, serve, collaborate.
- “The first job of any leader is to align people around the mission and values of the organization.”
- “The second job is to empower people to step up and lead.” The goal of a leader is not to gain followers, it is to empower others to lead.
- “The third job is to serve. People are not there to serve us as leaders–we’re there to serve them.”
- “The fourth job is to collaborate. The problems the world faces today are so tough that no single organization can solve them. Great leaders of the future will know how to collaborate between organizations.”
Though obviously lacking an emphasis on character/piety/spirituality, we nonetheless found the four words helpful from a pragmatic aspect as we thought about our leadership in our congregation.
What do you think? What’s right about George’s definition? What’s missing?
