The Axes of Leadership - plus two more insights

650 words ~ a breezy three minutes. If you don’t like the first point, move on to the second. They get shorter as they go.

The following is a sample of the other newsletter I write for key clients – Three Insights a Freebie. It goes out monthly, and I try to keep it short.

As you will see below, I often preview future articles for Church Leader Insider.

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1.??????I was blown away by the introduction of Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy.

The Axes of Leadership

Any society, whatever its political system, is perpetually in transit between a past that forms its memory and a vision of the future that inspires its evolution. Along this route, leadership is indispensable: decisions must be made, trust earned, promises kept, a way forward proposed. Within human institutions- states, religions, armies, companies, schools – leadership is needed to help people reach from where they are to where they have never been and, sometimes can scarcely imagine going. Without leadership, institutions drift, and nations court growing irrelevance and, ultimately, disaster.

Leaders think and act at the intersection of two axes: the first, between the past and the future; the second, between the abiding values and aspirations of those they lead.”

And continuing here of relevance to my own work in Senior Pastor Succession:

“Leadership is most essential during periods of transition, when values and institutions are losing their relevance, and the outlines of a worthy future are in controversy. In such times, leaders are called upon to think creatively and diagnostically: what are the sources of the society’s well-being? Of its decay? Which inheritances from the past should be preserved, and which adapted or discarded? Which objectives deserve commitment, and which prospects must be rejected no matter how tempting? And, at the extreme, is one’s society sufficiently vital and confident to tolerate sacrifice as a waystation to a more fulfilling future?”

As someone that studies leadership in congregations, you can see the parallels. In a future issue of Church Leader Insider, I will cover this topic in more depth.

By the way, the author is Henry Kissinger. The book is an excellent study of leaders and why they made certain decisions based on their nations’ character, context, and needs.

Here is the link to the book.

2.??????You probably saw this Gallup Poll over the summer, but in case you missed it:

“Pundits like to say we are a nation divided between?red and blue, separated along partisan lines over abortion, guns, gender, climate, and economic issues.?In reality, America is a 30-30-40 nation split between partisan diehards on the left and right and a large pool of people who don’t fit into either one of these categories.

According to?Gallup?trend data, no more than 3 in 10 Americans today identify as either a Democrat or Republican, respectively, while roughly 4 in 10 call themselves Independent with equal proportions of these voters leaning Democratic and Republican when forced to choose.”

That commentary comes from “The Liberal Patriot” substack newsletter but captures the data very well.

David French ( a more conservative observer) called it the Red, Blue, and just Tired America. Most Americans are growing tired of artificial divisions.

This idea goes back to another issue to cover in a future Church Leader Insider.?Are we living in communities or tribes?

In the past, large churches were more communities than tribes. Did the pandemic shift that? What are the benefits and liabilities of that thinking?

3.???????An interesting look at how Americans spend daily time and the differences between 2019 and 2021.

Click through that headline to see it.

For pastors – people now spend about 14 minutes a day on religious or spiritual practices, down 4.2 minutes in two years.

What are the implications there?

But look at the other categories too.

Here is the background study the article is based on from the?Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Dave Travis?has advised large church pastors, boards, and staff for over 30 years.?Almost 25 years were with Leadership Network, where he led the large church area and then retired as CEO in 2018.?

Since then, he has worked with dozens of churches and their leaders, helping guide them to solve wicked, sticky challenges through his role as Director of Strategic Counsel to Pastors and Church Boards at Generis.?

He has created multiple processes in that role, including the Pastor Smart Succession Process, Storycrafting for Church Strategy, and Building Better Boards. His latest is the Pastor Legacy Life Plan, a coaching process to help mid-career pastors for their future legacy seasons.?

He has mangled the English language to embarrass his English teacher mother and assemble 11 books, booklets, and e-books. Dozens sold, half dozens read.