The Flourishing Culture Podcast Series How To Be An Inspirational Leader October 24, Al Lopus

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1 The Flourishing Culture Podcast Series How To Be An Inspirational Leader October 24, 2016 Al Lopus Al Lopus: I m often asked, What is the primary driver that differentiates healthy, even flourishing, Christian workplaces from others? On today s podcast, I m going to share what we ve discovered from our research. We have found the driver of Inspirational Leadership has the capacity to transform and even accelerate the health of your culture and the effectiveness of your organization. With me today in the studio is today s host, Rachel Large. Rachel produces much of the great content BCWI offers you free online. Rachel, thanks for joining us. Rachel Large: Thanks, Al. I am thrilled to be here again today. You know, we ve talked a lot about how we want this podcast to continually be an informative and relevant source of inspiration for leaders in Christian organizations. To make good on that pledge, today we re going to talk about the primary driver that differentiates a healthy, flourishing Christian workplace from others. Tell us again, Al, what is the one thing leaders can focus on to improve their culture? Al: Inspirational Leadership. As you know, Rachel, from our research with hundreds of Christian organizations, churches, and Christian-owned businesses, we ve discovered there are eight key factors that create a flourishing culture that drives an effective organization. Rachel: Those eight key factors are? Al: Well, they spell FLOURISH. It starts off with Fantastic Teams, Life-giving Work, Outstanding Talent, Uplifting Growth, Rewarding Compensation, Sustainable Strategy, Healthy Communication, and the most important is Inspirational Leadership. It s, if you will, the lead dog of the pack. Rachel: Okay. So, Al, what is Inspirational Leadership, and why is it the most important of these eight factors? Al: Well, we can start off with the dictionary definition, and this is very much the Christian aspect of inspirational. Inspirational is a divine influence or action on a person believed to qualify him or her to Best Christian Workplaces Institute 1

2 receive and communicate sacred revelation. It s a divine influence or action. The second is it s an action or power of moving the intellect or emotions of a person. You know, going back to the Middle Ages, it was seen as somebody receiving or a being breathing or blowing into a human being, almost a spiritual dimension in itself. That s very much inspirational. Secondly, we know what the word leadership means more often. It s a position as a leader of a group or an organization, and it s the power or ability to lead other people (or I like to think of it as also influencing other people). Based on the definitions alone, Inspirational Leadership points to a person who breathes in the divine with position, power, and ability to lead and influence an organization or group. Inspirational Leadership is rooted in the divine in Scripture. Inspirational Leadership helped drive the leadership of, for example, Moses. Let s take him as an example. He significantly experienced a divine influence or action at the burning bush where he received God s sacred revelation. It was clearly a divine influence that moved Moses. He complained about it a little bit, but it moved Moses to intellectually and emotionally face Pharaoh and then faithfully lead the nation of Israel for 40 years. Or the apostle Paul. God got his attention on the road to Damascus where he experienced a divine action that inspired him to change and, as well, lead because he had the influence and ability to lead others. We ve found that Inspirational Leadership is nothing less than the influence of Christ living in and directing a leader to influence an organization, including its culture, to bring about a part of God s kingdom here on earth. Rachel: Okay, so it s interesting to see the combination of these two words: inspirational and leadership. I love the biblical examples you shared, but do you have any contemporary examples of Inspirational Leadership? Al: Well, I do. Yes, your question leads me to a couple of leaders who have been guests on previous podcasts. Recently we ve talked with Doug Mazza. I see Inspirational Leadership with Doug, the president of Joni and Friends. Doug came to faith and was later inspired to join Joni and Friends because of his own disabled son. Doug, in partnership with Joni Eareckson Tada, has exhibited Inspirational Leadership for their ministry and staff culture. You can listen to more of that on our podcast number 59 for the entire story. Also, I see tremendous Inspirational Leadership in Peter Greer, the president and CEO of HOPE International. Peter is doing an inspirational job stewarding that organization as they serve the poorest of the poor around the world. He also knows that to sustain their growth in effectiveness, they must continue to build on their already flourishing culture. Again, we ve talked with Peter. You remember listening to him in podcast number 58. Rachel: Okay, so thanks for helping us see the what of Inspirational Leadership, but why is it the most important among all the eight flourishing factors? Al: Well, that s where research gives us that answer. The reason we do this research, and we ve just done it with more than 100,000 Christian workers we ve surveyed in the past six years, is the bottom Best Christian Workplaces Institute 2

3 line is Inspirational Leadership has a significant bearing on the health of an organizational culture and thus its ministry effectiveness. To understand this, think of a Venn diagram with three overlapping circles. The first circle is Christian character. That establishes fruitful, trust-based relationships through the second dimension of personal integrity that contributes to a leader s third dimension of Inspirational Leadership we call operational excellence. Rachel: It s a Venn diagram with three circles. The first is Christian character, the second is personal integrity, and the third is operational excellence. Al: Exactly. It s the combined strength of these three elements that explains why Inspirational Leadership is the primary driver of employee engagement and, thus, flourishing culture. Let me quickly cover all three aspects of Inspirational Leadership. How would that be? Rachel: Sounds great. Let s do it. Al: All right. By Christian character, we mean how a leader s behavior has been transformed by Christ. At the heart of Inspirational Leadership is the observable behaviors that an organization s leadership collectively and individually and how he or she has been transformed by their personal faith in Christ. When we first designed our BCWI Employee Engagement Questionnaire, this was where the newest ground was broken in the science of staff engagement. You know, we faced the question, How do we measure the spiritual dimension of a Christian ministry or organization or even a Christian-owned business? With the help of Christianity Today editors and other Christian leaders we worked with during that time, we began to identify specific questions that would measure an organization s level of spiritual health. Rachel: This is getting interesting. Tell me more about this, Al. Al: You know, questions in the BCWI Employee Engagement Survey reveal four individual spiritual qualities that give us the window into the Christian character and an individual s Christian character and is tied to Inspirational Leadership. The first was that we asked the question, Do leaders in my organization demonstrate the fruit of the Holy Spirit? You know, we know in Galatians 5:22 and 23, it tells us the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Again, it s the fruit. That s one fruit that brings those behaviors. In contrast, after all, who wants to work for an arrogant, self-centered, angry, demeaning, impetuous jerk? Rachel: Not me! Al: Me either! That s one of the key questions we ask. I love Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges when they get to this point in Lead Like Jesus. They point that effective leadership starts on the inside. It s a heart issue. In the secular workplace, people are really reluctant to talk about the heart or heart issues or even Best Christian Workplaces Institute 3

4 character, let alone Christian character. As believers, Christians understand the Holy Spirit lives in us, sealing us as children of God. One of the many roles of the Spirit is the producer of fruit in our lives. He transforms the natural selfcentered acts of the flesh to fruit of the Spirit in the human heart. A senior leader s behavior as defined by the fruit of the Spirit is often the most important litmus test for their staff. You know, Is this leader the real deal or not? It s the outward indicator of a leader s spiritual health, and it s hard to fake over time. Even for the most mature spiritual leaders, being flat-out exhausted is often a recipe for future problems and for a breakdown in the fruit of the Spirit behavior. Leaders also impact their organization as we look at the other three dimensions (I ll just mention those quickly) by demonstrating humility, compassion, putting Christ first in decision-making, and leading the organization to reflect Christ to the world. All of these also contribute to the Christian character aspect of Inspirational Leadership. Rachel: You know, this is so interesting, Al, because I ve actually been studying the fruit of the Spirit in my own personal Bible study time over the past few weeks. One of the biggest things I am learning from this is we can t manufacture this fruit in ourselves. We have to rely on God to develop our relationship with him, and then he will start to produce this fruit in our lives. It seems like you re saying this is also true in our organizations. So if we lead from a place where we re cultivating a relationship with God as the source, then he ll bear this fruit in our leadership as well. Only then can we see our cultures improve. It kind of takes the pressure off if it comes from him and not from ourselves, right? Al: Yeah, that s exactly right. It s spending that time in devotion, prayer, solitude, and silence that allows the Spirit to work in us so we can actually develop this. As you say, it can t be manufactured over a long period of time in anybody s life. You know, we have the pleasure of working with The Navigators, and their president Doug Nuenke definitely demonstrates Inspirational Leadership through his Christian character. Doug talks about this in one of our podcasts (number 48). In The Navigators Engagement Survey, the Christian character items for not only Doug but also their leadership team and leadership across the organization just jumps out on their top 10. Working with Doug and having known Doug and Cary Humphries (who works with us worked with Doug directly as their Chief Operating Officer for four years), what do they do? Well, of course, they make sure they re spending time alone in prayer and solitude and studying the Scripture, memorizing the Scripture. In meetings when a topic comes up, they will challenge each other to, Okay, what Scripture is appropriate for this topic? They ll quote an appropriate Scripture, and they probably have a little note card with that Scripture on it as good Navigators, but yes, they ll quote an appropriate Scripture. They also stop the meeting if they feel inspired by the Holy Spirit to stop the meeting and actually pray as a group over the topic they re talking about. They ll also start and end meetings with prayer (or at Best Christian Workplaces Institute 4

5 least start them). Oftentimes when we re seeing the Christian character of an organization falter, we ll encourage leaders just to reinvent or restart the practice of starting meetings in prayer. How does that happen? Well, it happens when the leaders of the organization (the top leader) starts doing that himself or herself. Again, personal leadership and demonstrating these things start at the top. Rachel: Yeah. Those are great examples. After Christian character, the second circle in the Venn diagram of Inspirational Leadership is personal integrity. Tell us about this, Al. Al: You know, personal integrity involves high degrees of fairness, trust, and honesty. I see this personal integrity in a person named Bill Robinson, the president emeritus at Whitworth University and the chairman of Princeton Theological Seminary. Bill is very intentional about his integrity and making trust deposits in his culture, and he has historically. That s what we think of as personal integrity. In Bill s case, he is exceptionally authentic. I mean, he walks his talk. He even breaks the higher ed culture by having people call him by his first name because that s just who he is. It s Bill. It s not Dr. Robinson. He makes trust deposits in his culture continually. In fact, he talked about the time when they had a budget excess. What they did is they provided a bonus to all employees when things were going well. That put a huge trust deposit in the culture. Also in terms of personal authentic integrity, he encouraged his IT department to even check his PC to see what sites he was visiting while traveling just to keep him honest and accountable and to make sure his personal integrity was at the highest level. I have a lot of respect for Bill. He is a great leader and a leader of a Best Christian Workplace. Rachel: Okay, that s wonderful. The third dimension (or circle) in the Inspirational Leadership diagram to go along with Christian character and personal integrity is operational excellence. What s this one about, Al? Al: Well, it speaks for itself. We define operational excellence through the Employee Engagement Survey when employees agree with these statements. Our organization is well-managed (or often means it s well-run). Or, Over the past year, my organization has changed for the better. Or, My organization provides good job security to employees who perform well. Inspirational Leadership includes operational excellence when an organization is well-managed, changed for the better, and where there s job security for performing employees. I might add that Christian organizations are often known as having great visions and great missions, and they sometimes fall down on the importance of operational excellence, but this is a key part (these three dimensions of Inspirational Leadership). We can t overlook operational excellence, and the process that goes into operational excellence in organizations is critically important. Rachel: Yeah, I totally agree with that. It s so much easier as a part of an organization to feel like you know where you re going, and you know what your role is to play in the organization when it s wellrun. That all feeds into Inspirational Leadership for sure. Best Christian Workplaces Institute 5

6 Al: You know, it reminds me. I m on the board of a hospital here in Seattle. The way they focus on operational excellence is by following the Toyota Production System, which is a very detailed process to take waste out of processes. They analyze their process. They take waste out of the process that reduces the cost and improves the quality. They re very focused on that. I d like to see more Christian organizations focused on being well-run in that regard and really be champions of operational excellence. Rachel: Yeah, for sure. That just makes you want to jump on board with the mission and just drop in and do your part and help see it all come to fulfillment. Al: Yep. Rachel: Having worked with more than 800 ministry organizations, churches, and Christian-owned companies, you have to have more than one favorite illustration of Inspirational Leadership truly at work. Based on what you ve shared, this would be a leader whose Christian character, personal integrity, and talents, skills, and experience in operational excellence continually come together in that sweet spot of where those three overlapping circles cross. Al: Well, you won t believe it, Rachel, but I actually have a spreadsheet of highest Inspirational Leadership scores for the past three years or so of nearly 500 different organizations. I could mention Stan Dobbs, the leader of Apartment Life and Lionheart Christian Academy, or Dan Dupee and Vince Burens of CCO, a campus ministry highlighted in Pittsburgh. I ve already mentioned Peter Greer of HOPE International, but perhaps the best-known leader with a larger staff is Bill Hybels and the leadership of the Willow Creek Community Church. Bill and his team have long been known for their operational excellence, and they have been laser-focused as well on building and maintaining high levels of trust and integrity while demonstrating Christian character in that church. Their staff confirms it every year in their Staff Engagement Survey. Rachel: Well, Al, this has been such a helpful discussion of Inspirational Leadership, how to lead our organizations out of the overflow of our walk with Christ and, in doing so, our team members feel valued and appreciated, and our organizations can then more effectively carry out our missions. Let s recap. Inspirational Leadership comes together in three dimensions of Christian character, personal integrity, and operational excellence. You ve mentioned so many leaders over the course of the podcast, and we ll put links to all those episodes in our show notes as well. These really put a face on the critical importance of how Inspirational Leadership really drives a healthy culture. In our remaining moments, give us three quick glimpses of where Inspirational Leadership might already be at work in a top leader, a lead pastor, or a senior leadership team. Al: Yeah, great question, Rachel. This is a really good question for our listeners to reflect on as well about their own organization. Let me give a few ideas of where Inspirational Leadership may be at work already in your organization, in your ministry, in your church, in your Christian-owned business. Best Christian Workplaces Institute 6

7 I think of organizations where leaders are deeply faithful and personally reflect the characteristics of Christ, servant leaders who seek feedback and are self-aware, emotionally healthy leaders who encourage their teams to personally grow in their relationship with Christ. I think of organizations where their values are clearly articulated and regularly communicated, not just words on the wall, where people are encouraged to receive feedback from their peers on how they are living out their values such as integrity and trust. I think of organizations where organizational excellence and process improvement is evident in their everyday work and honored, where competence is valued and developed so the organization runs smoothly and relationships are strengthened, not damaged in the process. I think of organizations where leaders see their role as shepherds of God s flock that s under their care, starting with their staff. Idealistically, I see organizations where outsiders are attracted to and inspired to be part of the work because they see and experience truth and love in action, an organization that truly reflects Christ to the world. When I sit back and visualize where Inspirational Leadership may already be at work, these are the kinds of things that come to mind. There are visions I have in my own mind. There are hopes I have that organizations would act in this way. Some of our listeners might think this is wishful thinking and not realistic, but I m here to tell you these things are actually happening. As I ve mentioned, not only are they happening, but also they re regular occurrences in many Christian organizations, churches, and Christian-owned businesses where Inspirational Leadership is forging a healthy, flourishing workplace culture. Rachel: Well, thanks for sharing this vision, Al. I think these are some great benchmarks to hold ourselves accountable to. As a final bookend to our discussion, give us one final thought you d like to leave with our listeners. Al: Proverbs 27 tells us we should know the condition of our flocks and give attention to our herds (Proverbs 27:23). Again, I ll mention Ken Blanchard teaches this in Lead Like Jesus where he says, Servant leaders seek feedback. This is what I see leaders do that create flourishing cultures. Certainly listening to your stakeholders is important and where we spend a lot of time, but the key to Inspirational Leadership is also creating a space where the disciplines allow you to listen to God and, through prayer and solitude, see your own behavior transformed to reflect the love of Christ to others. Rachel: If that s not inspiring, I don t know what is, Al. Thanks again for sharing your wisdom with us today. Al: Thank you very much, Rachel. Rachel: To our listeners, thank you for listening to the Flourishing Culture Podcast. Join us next week for another one-on-one interview with a respected Christian leader. Until then, let s work together so Christian organizations everywhere keep setting the standard as the best, most effective places to work Best Christian Workplaces Institute 7

8 in the world. This is Rachel Large reminding you that your leadership is a gift to live out today and every day. We ll see you again soon on the Flourishing Culture Podcast. Best Christian Workplaces Institute 8