I have always admired lifelong
learners. These are people who are
anxious to learn a better way to do something, practice it, and share that
learning. Bob Dale is one of those
people. Bob has been a hero of mine for a number of years. As a church leader, professor, denominational
executive, and coach, he has shown what it means to be a lifelong learner. He has also been willing to share what he has
learned with others.
The latest example of this is
Growing Agile Leaders: Coaching Leaders to Move with Sure-Footedness in a Seismic World, a book that provides insights
for leaders who hunger for leadership agility and for those who are “thought
partners” or coaches for these motivated leaders.
I asked Bob if he would respond
to some questions suggested by the book, and he was gracious enough to do so and
allow me to present these to a larger audience.
Here is my first question and Bob’s answer.
When did you discover that you
had to become an agile leader?
I admit I’ve been a slow and “as
needed” learner about agile leadership. But,
reviewing my life, I can identify three times---one cultural, one theological,
and one psychological---when I had to gain new agility if I wanted to thrive as
a leader.
First, I went to college in the
wake of Sputnik. I was part of that
eager generation who wanted to beat the Russians to the moon. I made a painful discovery during my freshman
year at the University of Missouri---I had an agricultural mindset from my
childhood culture, and I was expected to live and lead in a scientific
world. I was an alien---a person who would
struggle to survive in such a strange world.
I may have traveled less than two hundred miles from my Ozark mountain
home to the campus, but I’d crossed over into a totally different universe with
an unfamiliar industrial mindset. It was
a huge stretch to bridge cultures and ways of thinking. I realized if I didn’t learn to move with
sure-footedness in this foreign land, I’d flounder.
Second, in my fifties, I finally
saw God’s church is a living, adapting community. It was a theological insight that reoriented
my leadership. Through my earlier
industrial prism, I’d seen congregations as “well-oiled machines.” Then, I realized God’s miracle of germination
and gift of harvest call on me to sow seeds and nurture life in His living
communities. Believing and leading
organically gave me a solid faith toehold for agile leadership.
Third, at
sixty, I entered a “deadline decade.”
With retirement and other major life changes looming up, I enlisted a
coach to help me map my future. I invested
emotions in three arenas---connections, creativity, and coaching---and they
gave me a new sense of traction. These
basic psychological markers continue to serve as my north star.
Those realizations are in the past, but I’m
sure I have discoveries about agile leadership in my future as well.
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