Jesus as an Exemplary Leader?

By Even Elias Evardsen and Thomas Bohinc

Jesus has a legacy few can match, and his life can be explored with a lens of leadership.?

This article is from two perspectives on the person of Jesus. One of us writes from a perspective of faith, both of inspiration. We reflect from our individual traditions and insights to co-create a picture of how Jesus can be seen as an embodiment of a leader.

To organize our thoughts, we used The Prometheus Leadership Commons 2.0 (“The Framework”). We discovered that this approach to illustrate the capacities, capabilities, and actions of Jesus helps us understand leaders, in general.

It is fair to address, upfront, that regardless of your faith or practices around Christianity, we see the story of Jesus as a story of a leader and leading. For those of faith, he is more. But for all, he can illustrate three dimensions of leadership: being, knowing, and leading.?

Jesus' Capacity to Be Jesus

The 'Me' of Who We Are

Before his public life, we read the story of Jesus as a boy coming-of-age, studious, and articulate, his personhood culminating in the story of the Temptation in the desert and the Transfiguration - where Jesus came into the self-consciousness of his identity and honed his mindfulness.?

He understood that internal change and learning were painful, that self-discovery and identity were difficult choices, and that acting on your purpose was risky.

Jesus was self-aware, a person of principles like honesty, courage, openness, and kindness. And, a person of inner experience, reflection, and authenticity.?

He understood himself as part of a larger system whose meaning was inter-twined with others.?

Jesus was radically human, with a full connection to his human possibilities and capacities.?

Who he was (the power of his being) inspired contemporaries and future generations.

Our Whole Intelligence

Jesus understood the real world - that there were many systems that test the boundaries of culture, consciousness, intimacy, and immediacy.?

The stories of his actions convey a person who reads a situation and the needs of others effortlessly.?He showed empathy and insight.

He knew his mind, his values, and his priorities intimately enough that he was able to express them effectively and effortlessly.?

He knew the limits of words, even though he was articulate and graceful in language.

He knew that both knowledge and communication were also built with intuition, symbols, metaphors, and action.?

Our Outward Capacity?

Jesus was devoted to his mission, beyond his attention to himself. His commitment to living his truths and his devotion to his purpose took priority over his safety and succeeded from his strength of identity

Jesus was radically courageous, vulnerable, gracious, and generous.?

Jesus committed to empowering each person to discover their own power and their reflection of The Divine.?

His message was always that from shame, personal suffering, or even death the path was open to any person through love, and redemptive relationships; including that we are redemptive for each other.

This is our Capacity to Care,?our Capacity for Good, our Capacity for Love.

Author Footnote

Even:?I've reflected a lot about Jesus' leap of faith (and 'leap of principles') when facing the brutality of humanity, particularly in the days leading up to his crucifixion. I imagine it as being a shocking display to everyone who witnessed it. Not just in the visual and narrative sense, but in this person's refusal to abandon his love for his fellow men even when deprived of all of his dignity and sentenced to death.?

Tom: I saw a religious meme highlighting the idea that Jesus had others in mind when he was on the cross. This is an interesting assumption about a leader's relationship to the outside world, persons, and possibility.?I don't think we know from the accounts of his life what his conscious motivation may have been. But it does seem true that it was not his ego, image, or fame.?

Was he embracing his destiny as an act of self-actualization? There is no way to have first-hand or second-hand accounts, but this is an interesting distinction. The Prometheus Leadership Commons suggests that the more creative stance is beyond self-actualizing.?

Jesus Knew What Was Useful and Good

In The Framework, three domains highlight knowledge and skills as part of a total package for engaging the world.?

Was Jesus a skilled, experienced, and knowledgeable leader?

Experience and Knowledge?

Jesus' immediate contexts reflect a simpler time - dramatically different than ours.?

We notice?the person?in these situations more than the conventions or techniques that we might expect to use today. Stripped of these techniques, his examples deepen our thinking about what is fundamental to human interactions.

Jesus' leadership displays domain knowledge of the time. The Gospels show his knowledge of society, scholarship, cosmic and human nature.

Knowledge and Experience include the practices of learning. Learning-to-learn includes learning from action, experience, reflection, relationships, and with an open mind, heart, and soul. Learning in life is a complement to critical thinking and academic synthesis. Jesus as a teacher - using parables and perspective - stand out in the stories of his life.?Jesus valued understanding and sense-making.

The knowledge includes institutional norms and rules of the cultures that we are operating in. Jesus knew civil and religious organizations and the cultural traditions of the community. Jesus is portrayed as someone who is never taken by surprise by people's reactions and someone who anticipates the actions and reactions of others. Jesus is not a man who is self-absorbed, oblivious, or naive.?

Choices for Exchanges

We have the impression that every interchange with Jesus was tinged with special energy and impression.?

Jesus was an artist in framing truths with metaphors, with the power of creating experiences, and his charismatic persona.??

The contexts of His interactions were sweeping, from dyadic exchanges to larger group constellations. His audience was at hand but also over centuries.

In speech, Jesus was direct and assertive, not equivocating.?He was also always considered (not deferential) in his response.

He may not give quarter to what he saw to be incorrect, but he would always engage the best of the other person.?

He always assumed the possibility of redemption, in Peter as well as Judas.?

When Jesus engaged other people, he engaged their being and potential. He met the eternal in others.

We do not see Jesus engaging across cultures, organizations, or the functions of what we might think of in a modern organization and bureaucratic society. Yet, he did employ two approaches for broad communication.

First, his message was universal - he spoke to everyone when he spoke to one.?

Second, he engaged cross-geography and cultures by virtue of his Apostles who came to the conclusion that the Good News should be shared across these expanses. He literally communicated through his team of followers.?

Choices for Challenges

Jesus seemed to know exactly the situation and to make the choice of how (and if) to take action.?

We are drawn to moments of peace and stability, like in the story of the last supper. This is a time when Jesus' focus was on relationships, principles, and preparing his followers for what would come.?

We are drawn to moments of change, as in the entry into Jerusalem, but also small redemptions in personal exchanges, and the culmination of changes such as The Baptism in the River Jordan

We are drawn to the moments of crisis leading to transformation, as in the money lenders in the Temple, the Temptation in the Desert, and of course the betrayal, arrest, and Crucifixion.?

We can see Jesus in a whole set of contexts; of crisis, transformation, scale, steady-states, and complexity that are included in The Framework.

Author Footnote

Tom:?The Framework recognizes that action is impactful when skillful, but that does not mean the action is complicated or mechanical. Neither does the presence of skill overshadow the role that our mindset, identity, and creative stance take as we choose to engage.

The Gospels' focus is on Jesus as an individual so many stories of his individual action are what we find. The story of his collective knowledge and influence does not stand out. probably because of that larger story's timescale.?

Even:?To me, the main thread through Jesus' timeline is connected to his individual developmental crises and the crisis of humanity at large. At first, His crisis of meaning – Who am I? and What is my calling? Second, at the collective level, the crisis of humanity – What are WE becoming? and How do we treat ourselves, each other, and our world – even God? Third, a crisis in faith – Where do I find the courage to accept my mission??

Jesus Held Big and Small Action

Do any of these things in the Gospels illustrate Jesus in the action of leading?

• He changes the relationship of humankind to the cosmos, and maybe the cosmos itself.
• He works miracles - teachable, assumption disrupting events.
• He explains - stories, parables, etc.
• He personifies charisma and presence - people wanted to know him, and follow him
• He leads by example - acknowledging the less powerful and outcast?
• He admonishes - wrong-doers with courageous authenticity??

Any kind of leading - from transforming our self-awareness, to developing skills, to creating change includes some shift from state A to state B. So, in all actions, there is a sense of progression to a result.?

The Framework includes a pattern of actions that are above the details, as a 'macro-action' that is simply a wider frame for what is going on. These are especially evident when the action is collective vs individual. We can lead with individual actions and lead at a larger scale.?

The Framework's patterns include four core actions (reality, vision, intention, and resolution) which are sustained by two supporting actions (frame and attend).?

Framing

Framing is about selection, preparing, and equipping protagonists for action.?

Jesus taking the action of framing shows in his strategic preparation of his disciples. It seems (by implication) that Jesus's whole 'public life' was about preparing and framing the future action of his Apostles and his Church.?

Jesus also provides examples of framing as a retrospective activity, which is the lens of "What just happened?". In Mark's Gospel, the story of Jesus preaching from the boat to the crowd is followed by him explaining his parables to the smaller group that is with him afterward.

Attending

In The Framework, attending to self is part of the leaders' practice. "Love thy neighbor as yourself" is a principle that Jesus showed in his compassion for others and that he allowed others to care for him.

Jesus is attentive to his and others' needs. He spends much of his time providing both challenge and support to his disciples, and we have the impression that they were a comfort and support to him.?

Their need for learning is met with patience, questioning, and experiences. Their need for meaning is met with communicating hope, and faith in their ability to grow. Their need for direction is met with speaking up and giving clear feedback.?

Reality - Vision - Intention - Resolution

The Framework's core actions should be familiar to us. To a businessperson, current reality, vision, strategy and objective, and execution to results would be good synonyms.?

To an educator or leader coach, where we are, what we want, how we learn, and have we integrated that learning?

In a small informal context, this sequence might be What is happening? What needs to be done? Will you join me for this? And, of course, Are we there (or not)??

Jesus is not explicit about his vision. It is a bit vague and mysterious. His intention and the resolution of his vision play out in The Ressurection and continue over time.?

But Jesus is able to make the contrast between what is happening now and what will happen in the future. His confident sense of the complex world and his certainty and commitment to its change comes through.?

Jesus is the master of using teachable moments to create understanding.?

Author Footnote

Even: When musing on the impact of Jesus' leadership, I often return to key themes, values, and vision he advocated – and the practices he applied. His leadership has inspired me in different ways and has always been an image in my mind when I've studied leadership as an academic. In my everyday life, I often find myself returning to the simple question: "What would Jesus do?" I often find my answers to circle back to the value of compassion and courage.?

Tom: The Gospels are not too focused on the action of the disciples, no examples (that I recall) of how Jesus led the team in?their?action. That is just not part of the narrative. Rather, we see him portrayed as the charismatic leader or, the traditional patriarchal leader, who is the primary protagonist. That may be a consequence of the narrative and its time slice.

Is Jesus An Exemplary Leader?

In many ways, the answer is yes. The best illustration of a leader is who he was, his presence with others, and his ability to see possibilities beyond expectation. His action-to-results display practice and principles applied to suit the contexts, and from small to large-scale of possibility.

Jesus' mission was sweeping and systemic, so that much of what he seems to be up to is setting the stage for others' actions. He is building experience, knowledge, practices, and relationships leading up to (framing) the main action - ultimately known as his Apostles and The Church.?

In the story of the person of Jesus, we see all of the parts of leaders and leading working, so that the beauty of Jesus' being, the clarity of his consciousness, and the energy of his love are much of the substance brought to the action of leading.

What do you observe about Jesus as a leader?

Let us know in the comments and in the WeLead.Global community.

Is A Framework Useful?

In the process of writing, we became more curious about the whole range of leaders and leading, and about exploring other cases with The Framework. On the whole, following the seven domains was very helpful to see more of Jesus and how he was a leader.?

Just as The Framework would intend, using these structures raised insights that we would otherwise have skipped.?

How did this article come about?

The Prometheus Project sponsors events and experiences for community members and guests. In one session, we asked Who do you know that exemplifies a leader? It was?Even Elias Edvardsen?who chose Jesus Christ as a practical lesson of leadership.?Tom Bohinc?asked to know more about how Even sees Jesus as a leader. From that, we decided to co-write about our shared and contrasting perspectives.?

We used the Writers Garage in the WeLead.Global community as our space for this collaboration. Learn more at?www.WeLead.Global?and?www.ThePrometheusProject.info

The authors

Evan Elias Evardsen?- Artist by heart, teacher/researcher by daytime. Supporting university students' development of 21. century skills.?

Thomas Bohinc?- Committed to structural change through collective understanding, collective influence, and collective ambition for better lives, organizations, and society.?Tom is the founder of The Prometheus Project