On Leading Change and Cleaning House

One of the things that annoyed me to no end about President Obama’s inauguration was how much the media coverage made an intentional effort to repeatedly denounce the past eight years in order to glamorize what the future was going to be with a new Sheriff in town.  It bugged me even more because most of it was unnecessary because of the inherent significance of what that day meant to so many people.

This is not a political post and has nothing to do with who I voted for and why. I bring this up because I thought at the time how it was a classic example of what leaders (and their communities) sometimes do when there is a leadership change.  Many leaders feel compelled to denigrate the past to validate their “chosenness” or greatness or whatever they feel like they need to generate some hope and credibility.  The legacy of previous leaders are thrown under the bus so that leader X can generate an “all-good” feeling about his leadership and the new regime.  It’s like a bulldozer approach to leading change.  You level the house and start over.

Now to be honest…I’ve done this before.  It was a long time ago and I didn’t realize that this was what I was doing or why.  I was young for sure, but really the issue was that I was pretty reactive in my leadership.  I wasn’t able to be secure in what I was leading towards without building up my own sense of wisdom and superior insight at the expense of those who went before me.   The worse I made the inherited conditions out in my own mind, the greater opportunity there was to be significant in my own leadership efforts.  It’s a dangerous leadership illusion.

So I’ve done this before…but it’s also been done to some of my leadership efforts and I’ll tell you this…it really sucks.  It’s a real horrible feeling when you watch stuff you’ve poured your heart and soul into get bulldozed or flushed down the toilet.  Your work and vision can become indirectly the negative example somehow that is to be avoided for the sake of somebody else’s rosy colored vision of the future.

I’m not going to share any bullet points of what leaders should do, but in the last couple of years I have watched a few friends who are leaders or pastors take over significant leadership positions and avoid this great temptation that plagues insecure and reactionary leaders.  I watched from a distance as they affirmed the legacies that they were inheriting, affirmed the people and labor that laid the groundwork for their leadership opportunities, and in general emphasized continuity in the community and mission as opposed to emphasizing discontinuity.

Sometimes discontinuity (i.e. change) needs to be emphasized when there has been a great scandal or moral failure that has undermined the community’s trust to a significant level, but even then there can be a gracious and respectful way of affirming the positive contributions of people that you are following – especially if they had been at it for a long time.  Insecure leaders will be tempted to talk down the past to build themselves up as well as their plans.  It sets almost a kind of Messianic complex.   I really have come to appreciate leaders who are both secure as well as respectful of how they lead change with regard to what they are inheriting.  It’s a cheap short cut to throw others under the bus to build our own sense of importance and significance.  It also exposes much of the underlying character driving the change effort, which no doubt will be exposed over time on a greater level.

If the people we lead are vulnerable to this kind of all good all bad emotional reactivity, then the situation is all the more dangerous.  We’re in a reactionary culture where we are programmed by media to create new heroes just so we can tear them down.  Spiritual and Servant leaders are called to be better than that and demonstrate respect and grace across differences and even in the midst of great disagreement.  All of us leading today need to think about how we lead change – not just as it relates to the strategies and methodologies, but how we live out the Kingdom of God while we do it.  We can be a blessing and build a lot of bridges rather than indirectly curse the past and burn bridges that we don’t need to.

Do you think it’s hard for leaders today to affirm the past and the legacies they inherit?  Do you have any wisdom for leaders who feel tempted to build themselves up in this way?