Barnabas File

If we have learned anything from the last two years of pandemic, it is that leadership emerges in response to need and sometimes it is manifested unexpectedly.  Churches and other organizations that have adapted to the challenges of COVID-19 have done so by encouraging and empowering emergent leaders.   I have long been a fan of the leadership model presented by James Kouzes and Barry Posner in their book The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations.   I encourage you to learn more about their model, but one element is essential if your organization is to meet the still undefined challenges of 2022--“Enable Others to Act.”  This is done through fostering collaboration, strengthening others, and creating a climate of trust.  How do we do that? By developing a culture that embodies these actions.   In a recent webinar, Kouzes asked these strategic questions about creating such a culture:   Does ev...

In a recent webinar, Jim Kouzes said, “The question I get most often is: ‘Are leaders born or made?’     My response is always, ‘Yes, every leader is born.’”     He also shared research that indicated the overall percentage of people who have no leadership ability at all is 0.00013 percent!    That comes out to about one person in a million. Kouzes’ perspective is that practically everyone has the ability to become a leader.  He and his collaborator, Barry Posner, have developed a model of leadership development around five fundamentals of becoming a leader: Believe in yourself Aspire to excel Challenge yourself Engage support Practice deliberately The webinar I watched addressed the fourth fundamental--Engage Support.  Kouzes explained that becoming a leader is not a singular pursuit but one that takes place in a community of meaningful relationships.  If you want to develop leaders in your organization, ...