406.2.2 Leadership Formation

Self Skills

Saturday morningWhy are self-skills important?

Which self-skills are important?Handling power

Monday morningFacilitative/empowering leadership

Servant leadership, Self esteemHandling criticism, Vulnerability / accountability

What are your questions on the issue of leadership and

character?Which aspects of the topic

particularly interest or intrigue you?

Forming Systems

Forming People

PERSONAL FORMATION

‘SELF SKILLS’

EngagingLocal

Context

Forming Systems

Forming People

PERSONAL FORMATION

‘SELF SKILLS’

EngagingLocal

Context

Self Skills= personal characteristics, attributes, character traits.

Gradually honed through practice

The goal of leadership is...?

[in the second century] the leadership preoccupation was about the formation of a people who would be socialized into a new society.

Issues of formation in a way of life are vitally important, where the leader is much more like the ancient abbot; today many books on leadership focus more on the leader as a skilful entrepreneur.

Which self-

skills?

Generic traits (self-skills) for

leadership

Traits needed in

our changing cultural

landscape

Traits needed for leading in this ‘spiritual season‘

1. GENERIC LEADERSHIP SELF-SKILLS

An important issueThe relative importance of:Specific ‘technical skills’Style of leadershipGeneric self skills

(character/personality traits)

technical skills

Style of leadership

character/personality traits

GENERIC CHARACTER TRAITS

TrustworthinessAbility to manage conflictPersonal maturityCourage

GENERIC CHARACTER TRAITS

TrustworthinessAbility to manage conflictPersonal maturityCourage

Social Influence Theory (Strong 1968) competent attractive trustworthy

Which self-

skills?

Generic traits (self-skills) for

leadership

Traits needed in

our changing cultural

landscape

Traits needed for leading in this ‘spiritual season‘

Modernity To

postmodernity

Christendom To

post-Christendombut

Post-secular context

‘Massive discontinuous change’ The need for the church to

move back into the community

THE CHANGING CULTURAL

LANDSCAPE

2. SELF SKILLS RELATED TO CULTURAL CHANGE

Which style of leadership best suits the current landscape?

The ‘expert’ leader

The Heroic Leader model

Missional Leadership model

Contextual Leadership

Stable conditions

Predictable change

‘EXPERT’LEADERSHIP

Specific challenge

Bravery needed

HEROIC LEADERSHIP

Discontinuous(unpredictable)

change

Experts deskillHeroes detract MISSIONAL

LEADERSHIP

Particular characteristics needed in our cultural landscape

Handling power

Desiring to serve

Handling criticism

Recovering from failure

Being vulnerable and

accountablePoor self-

image

Which self-

skills?

Generic traits (self-skills) for

leadership

Traits needed in

our changing cultural

landscape

Traits needed for this ‘spiritual season‘

3. SELF SKILLS RELATED TO THE ‘SPIRITUAL SEASON’

Which missional paradigm are we in?

•The apocalyptic early church

•The early Patristic paradigm

•The medieval Roman Catholic missionary paradigm

•The Protestant Reformation paradigm

•The modern Enlightenment paradigm

•The emerging ecumenical paradigm

4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. 5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, ...11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ 12All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’

Language as the carrier of culture Pentecost as a reversal of Babel The Spirit as the bringer of unity The age of the Spirit is the age of

ecumenism (one body and one Spirit... one Lord, one faith, one baptism)

Irenaeus: ‘the Spirit bringing distant tribes to unity and offering to the Father the first fruits of all the nations.’

VATICAN II

‘On the day of Pentecost... was

foreshadowed the union of all peoples in the

catholicity of the faith by means of ...a

church which speaks every language,

understands and embraces all tongues in

clarity, and thus overcomes the dispersion of

Babel.’

Renewal, revival or restoration?

Fr Peter Hocken - Within the Catholic renewal people have

understood that their personal experience is for the sake of the whole church.

The renewal of the whole is the aim, not the fragmentation into parts that consider themselves particularly the beneficiaries of the Spirit.

Divisive, sectarian or elitist attitudes destroy the unity of the Spirit– so which ‘self-skills’ do we need in view of this?

Raniero Cantalamessa: The Mystery of Pentecost The builders of Babel were religious people

Augustine of Hippo got it wrong!

Contrast is between those willing to make a name for God and the desire to make a name for ourselves

Babel ‘is a project of unity born out of the desire for power, fame and arrogance.’

It is this mix of religious quest and personal desire for recognition that is insidious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-5tkirrXRQ

‘The biggest surprise for me occurred when, through reflecting on who the builders of Babel could have been, I discovered unexpectedly and with overwhelming evidence that I – alas – was one of them.’ (15)

The link between unity and mission

What are the challenges in working with others whose ecclesiology, practice and patterns of thought might be quite different from our own?

Which ‘self-skills’ are needed in this time of the outpouring of the Spirit in this ecumenical paradigm?

The link between unity, mission & the character traits (self-skills) this landscape of the Spirit requires

with all humility and gentleness,with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

The unity of the Spirit

HumilityServant

attitude, etc

‘...that the world might

know...’

Summary...Generic traits for any form of leadership –

trustworthiness, attractiveness/friendliness etc

Specific traits important in our cultural landscape – handling power in a ‘suspicious age’, recovering from failure in an age where change and experimentation are needed.

Traits related to our current ‘missional paradigm’ – including humility and the desire to serve others.