I wanted to call your attention to a little commentary on coevolutionary
leadership that I worked up based on a delightful post by Hal Croasmun
some time ago on this list. The commentary is today's installment of a
short reflection I publish each day on an extremely modest (and rather
amateurish) Web site at www.petzinger.com.
As always your reactions most welcome.
cheers,
tom
[Host's Note: After discussion with Tom, and since the piece is short, we
decided to include it here in the msg. ...Rick]
Hal Croasmun, a business consultant in Austin, Texas, once shared a
story with an Internet service I subscribe to called the Learning
Organization list. Croasmun described how his father had just become
the pastor of a church that had voted out its previous two leaders.
The Rev. Croasmun made it his practice to invite a different family
every Sunday to the parsonage for chips and dip, following the church
service. "He spent time just getting to know them," Croasmun
recalled. "Hed also ask what they thought others thought about the
sermon." Each day through the week, the pastor phoned a different
member of the congregation to exchange small talk and inquire what
they had on their minds--their conflicts, their concerns, their
hopes. "Then, on Sunday, his sermons contained all kinds of
references to their situations...He addressed their issues and
concerns without pointing out anyone specifically, but he was always
talking about their lives. And in some way, every sermon became about
them."
And following the sermon, another round of feedback occurred over
another round of chips and dip.
The methods of the Rev. Croasmun say more about leadership than 99%
of the leadership books ever published. The best leaders aim their
flocks nowhere without some sense of where the flock wishes to be
taken. This isnt some cute tautology and isnt meant to be coy. Its
also not an original concept. "The leader guides the group and is at
the same time himself guided by the group," the visionary Mary Parker
Follett wrote in 1918. On another occasion she said, "Authority,
genuine authority, is the outcome of our common life. It does not
come from separating people, from dividing them into two classes:
those who command and those who obey. It comes from the intermingling
of all, of my work fitting into yours and yours into mine."
Please send your comments and criticisms to tom@petzinger.com.
Thanks.
Thomas Petzinger Jr.
tom@petzinger.com
<http://www.petzinger.com/>http://www.petzinger.com
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--"Thomas Petzinger Jr." <tom@petzinger.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>