Prophetic Leadership

"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" — Micah 6:8

Leadership Failure

Corporate leadership tends to be rooted in personal power, fuelled by worker compliance. Leaders control and direct the workforce, driving them forward with promises of rewards and threats of punishment. While such an approach, especially with each new leader, will usually have short term success, creating the illusion of progress, in the longer term the organisation is left with disengaged, demotivated workers producing poor quality work. This self-centered, individualistic and ego-driven approach to leadership lets us down time after time, and yet few seem to learn from the mistakes.

Reassessment

We need a different kind of leader, one who inspires workers through meaning and purpose, leading from a position of love and service—a leader who listens, engages and responds, who breaks down walls and builds community across uncrossable boundaries; we need a leader willing to hold up a mirror to the organisation itself, reflecting its truth, so that those that dwell within can be lifted, as one body, one community. This is servant leadership; this is the way of the prophet.

Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you - pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. — Jeremiah 29.7

The Reflective Leader

The prophets of the Old Testament were consistently able to predict Israel's future, but this was not any kind of supernatural, magical fortune-telling, this was inevitable outcome deduced by cold logic: if this, then that.

Prophets saw the future because they assessed the present with an observer's eye. While most others of the time leaned forward into the moment, into farming, craftsmanship, trade and civic duty, the prophet stepped back to view the bigger picture:

the past and the gift of God's commandments;
the present breaking of each of those commandments;
the future inevitability of falling apart with no civilising structure to hold society together.

This was a simple cause-and-effect calculation. Above all else the prophet had the gift of stillness and reflection. Although warning of the inevitable downfall such a falling away from God would lead to, the prophets also offered the people visions of hope, if they were able to to come back to the path.

And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God. — Amos 9:14-15

A Personal Perspective

I am a Christian, and a long-time student of theology. I am also engaged in the corporate world as a facilitator and teacher. Only connect. I see scripture as a collection of teaching stories, tales for our time. On occasion I have drawn from both the Old and New Testaments to illustrate ideas in the workshops I've offered. This workshop, and its sister, Organisational Awakening take it further, using scripture as a bedrock for understanding both what needs to change in the corporate world, and how we might approach such change. I strongly believe that the stories by and about the Old Testament prophets are just what we need today to shift how we think about work and relationships in the workplace, especially in relation to this particular interaction we have come to call "leadership". I'd like to share my insights and understanding¹ of the prophets in an ongoing effort to effect change for good in the corporate world.

Participation

This workshop is for those holding any kind of management or support worker position, including coaches, scrum masters and mentors. Although teaching from scripture, and being firmly rooted in my faith, this workshop is open to people of all faiths or no faith. While I have no desire to 'secularise' the Bible, participants are of course free to contextualise the work in any way they choose.