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Exemplary Leaders: Genuine and Disciplined
John C. Reynolds
Azusa Pacific University
Contact: jreynolds@apu.edu
July 29, 2006
Abstract
Leadership is in crisis in the world today. If we consider the credibility of leaders in the
corporate, political, and church context, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to identify
exemplary leaders. There is a compelling need to nurture transformational leaders who change
organizations, and change them for the right reasons. We must develop motivated leaders who
have a genuine desire to create the right environment and to lead their organizations toward a
sustainable and significant future. These must be exemplary leaders who know what is required
of them, who are aware of their own strengths, and who then utilize these through self-discipline
and resilience to energize their followers. These must be compelling leaders, who transform
organizations, energizing people to choose to follow them, while remaining true to the mission of
the organization. These must be exemplary, authentic, transformational leaders in our journey of
shaping an exciting and desired future in a changing world.
Prepared for the ACSI Leadership Summit – Summer 2006 in Colorado Springs, CO
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Introduction
Leadership is in crisis. On a daily basis we read of countries having change in leadership.
Data tells us that corporate leaders are changing at the rate of six every business day! The
church, perhaps the oldest organization in the world, is experiencing crisis as leaders fail, not
necessarily for who they are, but in their ability to lead. The successful organization of the 21st
Century will be easily identified through its ability to identify and retain leaders who know and
can practice leadership that is genuine and disciplined. Leaders who people are quick to identify
as exemplary in every way. Our response to this crisis must be the nurturing of genuine and
disciplined leaders.
Leadership is not a title, but an action
- Anonymous
The term “leader” like many other management and corporate terms of the 21st century
has become a commodity. A visit to a local bookstore or an internet search of your favorite
browser will quantify the large amounts of literature available on the subject (For example the
keyword “Leader” on Google will return 888 million references as of July 2006). With these
multiple and abundant resources it is not surprising that there are multiple definitions,
perspectives, models and attributes describing a leader. To begin this discussion on genuine and
disciplined leadership a working definition of who we consider to be a leader might be useful. A
working definition that embraces what I believe to be the key attributes in describing a leader
might read as, “a leader is someone whom I personally choose to follow and trust in fulfilling
a purpose we both believe in.” The essence of this working definition is that as an individual I
must be willing to follow this person as my leader. This by default makes me a follower and this
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term, “follower,” will be used throughout this paper to describe team members, subordinates, or
employees who are required to follow a leader’s direction.
Secondly, leaders do not necessarily have to have authority over me. A manager might,
or a team captain, or a supervisor, but a leader is someone who I have personally identified and
have made a conscious decision or choice to follow. If I do consider my supervisor as a person
that I not only report to but also choose to follow, the outcome will be an extraordinary result in
both performance and effectiveness through the relationship. This concept becomes fundamental
in understanding the transition of a manager to a leader. As a manager, I am not by default the
leader. The leadership role is a privilege that I will need to earn from the people who have been
assigned under my span of care. In many cases, the privilege of being nominated as leader is
earned outside of the normal traditional organizational hierarchy. The “informal” organization
identifies quickly who is leader by position or title, and who are leaders because they are
individuals worthy of following. In most organizations, there are no job titles or job descriptions
for a “leader” - we as individuals determine whom we want to lead us.
In the last decade, Bass (1990) formally introduced a significant difference between
transactional (managers) and transformational leaders. Organizations that are successful and
sustainable develop, recruit and retain not only managers who achieved their goals (transactional
leaders), but managers who in addition inspire and motivate individuals to own the process of
accomplishment in a manner that values and energizes them (transformational leaders).
Transformational leaders are intentional in establishing a relationship with their followers.
The third idea in this definition sets the desired outcome for this relationship. A leader
inspires a follower to achieve a desired future. Being able to articulate this future, motivating the
follower and being successful in achieving the outcome is fundamental to the role of a great
leader. As Jack Welch, retired CEO of GE has been quoted, “The genuine leader is someone who
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can express a vision and then get people to carry it out." What will energize and instill
significance for the follower is the constant reinforcement of the beliefs of the leader, and the
follower, that the outcome is sustainable and of significance. A leader and a follower need to
both have clarity and common expectations of the desired future. A clear and well articulated
shared vision is fundamental in key to inspiring followers to trust and follow leaders with energy
and enthusiasm.
It would seem that with a working definition, good research and all of this knowledge and
information available, the ability to be a successful leader should be a well developed science. A
daily review of the news reminds us that nothing could be further from the truth. As we analyze
the demise of CEO’s political leaders, and in some cases church leaders, it becomes obvious that
there is a growing chasm between knowledge and practice. Followers are searching for, and
expecting more than just leaders who have skills and knowledge. Their expectation is that
leaders need to at least be trustworthy, have integrity, and genuinely believe with the followers in
the mission of the organization. The follower’s expectation is without doubt that today’s leaders
must be genuine and disciplined. Followers are searching for leaders who they can model. The
world is demanding leaders who are exemplary.
A review of history repeatedly highlights public and visible leaders who had great
numbers of motivated followers, shared a clear vision but left a legacy of disappointment and
discontent. In addition to these, great leaders of the future will transformational, authentic,
genuine, and disciplined - exemplary leaders.
"Exemplary" is defined by Webster's II, New Riverside Dictionary, Revised Edition, to
mean: "1. Serving as a model. 2. Worthy of imitation : commendable." A genuine and
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disciplined leader will be worthy of imitation, must serve as a model, and will naturally aspire to
be called exemplary by the people who choose to follow them.
“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus”
- Martin Luther King Jr. American Baptist minister and civil rights leader. 1929-1968
We begin this process of unveiling the exemplary leader by discovering the essence of
what a follower might desire of a genuine leader. In order to be a genuine leader there has to be a
true and honest awareness of knowing who you are as a person. This concept of self-awareness
in leadership was popularized by Daniel Goleman in his theory emotional intelligence (EQ) in
the mid 90’s, and many of the following thoughts on self-awareness are developed from
Goleman’s, Working with Emotional Intelligence (Bantam, 1998), and Boyatzis and McKee’s,
Resonant Leadership (HBSP, 2005). Emotional intelligence (sometimes substituted in the
literature with emotional competency) is generally described as two primary areas of
competency, each competency having two domains. (See Figure 1.)
Personal Competency
Social Competency
Self-awareness
Social-awareness
Self-management
Relational management
Figure 1
The ability of a leader to recognize their personal emotions and the related effect or
impact of these emotions on their leadership style is critical. If a leader cannot be genuine with
who they are internally, it is extremely unlikely that they will be able to have a genuine or
trusting relationship externally with their followers. Leaders who have developed this
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competency of self-awareness know the dynamics of the emotions they are feeling and why.
They have developed a fundamental understanding of the links between their personal feelings
and their leadership actions, and most importantly, they recognize how these emotions and
feelings affect their leadership performance.
Genuine leaders have an “internal compass” positioning their personal values and goals
and integrating these into their individual style of leadership. Knowing who they are emotionally
enables them to lead from an internal position of strength. However, the genuine leader is not
only self-aware, but is also socially aware. The genuine leader will always be looking in their
“rearview mirror and seeing the crowd.” A genuine leader is aware of what their community is
feeling and how these emotions are impacting performance and mission.
Socially aware leaders take a proactive interest in the feelings, concerns and perspectives
of those who have chosen to follow them. They are empathetic, know how to listen, how to
develop people, recognize everyone, and generally credit all success to their followers. They
know what it means to serve both their followers and the organization’s stakeholders.
Genuine leaders determine who they are, and how they manage themselves in
relationship with their followers. They know how to be compassionate, exude hope, and promote
significance for both the followers and the organization. Genuine leaders are mindful of what
makes them effective and how to develop a resonant relationship between themselves and their
followers. They are selfless in their leadership. Genuine leaders constantly strive to develop an
environment that enables people to be successful and valued. By being dynamic, persistent,
resilient, resourceful, progressive, trustworthy and constructive, these leaders strengthen the
effectiveness of their organizations and the value of the people working in that organization. On
the contrary, leaders who are not genuine (counterfeit leaders) tend to operate in ways that are
manipulative rather than developmental. These behaviors often include being intimidating,
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coercive, cunning, belligerent, betraying and dogmatic – the psychological opposites of the
winning behaviors of the genuine leader. To know who you are, and who your followers are—
these are hallmarks of a genuine leader.
But to be an exemplary leader, you must be not only genuine but also disciplined in your
leadership style. You not only need to know who you are and who your followers are, but also
how to intentionally manage these personal emotions and the relationships with those who
follow you.
Emotional self-control requires the leader to keep negative, distracting, and disruptive
emotions and impulses in check. Knowing what angers you, or frustrates you and then being able
to manage these emotions as a leader is essential for the disciplined leader. Followers are looking
for consistent and predictable behavior from disciplined leaders. Disciplined leaders are often
characterized as transparent, honest, integrous, and trustworthy through their leadership actions.
They are authentic in understanding not only their individual strengths and limitations, but also
how they portray these to their followers. In being disciplined, they know what it means to
implement their personal and professional goals with excellence. They know that discipline
demands that they create clarity toward a positive future and the glass is always communicated
as “half-full.” Personal emotions are not disguised or ignored they are identified and managed.
An exemplary leader develops a disciplined regiment of reviewing and developing management
strategies that maximize who they are in their aspiration to be an exemplary leader. However
managing who they are personally without considering their relationships with their followers
would be only half the story. If exemplary leaders are to have followers choose to follow them,
there needs to be an intentional and formal relationship between the leader and the follower.
Relational management must always include the ability to be an inspirational leader, the
desire to influence appropriately, the love of developing potential in others, the delight in being a
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change agent, and the skills of reconciliation, conflict management, networking, and
collaboration. The leadership model I most favor for coaching leaders in the discipline of
exemplary leadership is that developed by Kouzes and Posner through their exceptional book,
The leadership Challenge. (Jossey-Bass, 1994). The model identifies five leadership practices of
exemplary leaders. (1) Model the way, (2) Inspire a shared vision, (3) Challenge the process, (4)
Enable others to act, and (5) Encourage the heart.
Leadership is a process ordinary people use when they are bringing forth the best in
themselves and others. Leadership is everyone’s business.
-
Christian reflections on the Leadership Challenge, Edited by Kouzes and Posner
Leadership in the modern organization is primarily centered on the process of change.
Exemplary leaders are first and foremost agents of change. This requires an extraordinary
amount of discipline to ensure that followers feel that there is significance to their role in the
organization and through change the organization and their contribution is sustainable for the
future. The five leadership practices in the Leadership Challenge provide a sound starting point
for a disciplined approach to managing the relationship between themselves and their followers.
1.
Model the Way
Every leader lives in the proverbial “fish bowl.” Followers watch how leaders behave,
how they communicate, what they say, and can quote them (normally out of context).
Followers expect disciplined leaders to “walk the talk.” It is critical for disciplined leaders to
identify behaviors and attitudes that they want to manifest and to model these strategically
and intentionally. Leaders set the example on how to behave, manage their professional lives,
react to crisis, use verbal communications, and what questions they choose to ask. To model
naturally and intentionally requires that the leader knows clearly what their guiding
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principles and values are. Creating a message through behavior, attitude, and communication
(both verbal and written) gives substance to these values and principles. Being visible, telling
stories and intentionally communicating what you believe (values and culture), and your
vision of the future (vision and mission) sets and maintains the climate and morale of the
follower. A disciplined leader recognizes that every action, communication, or inquiry will
be considered the norm and will set the standard for the behavior of the follower.
2.
Inspire a shared vision
Leaders by definition are expected to identify and communicate the future of the
following group. Leadership is not the status quo, but is a call to a new and desired future.
The disciplined leader develops communication, and behavior that is intentional in reiterating
this desired future. A successful vision is a shared one. Ownership of the desired future of
both the leader and the follower will result in harmony and a successful outcome.
Developing a shared vision that excites and energizes followers by maximizing their beliefs
and passion moves a shared vision to an “inspired vision.” An inspired shared vision gets
followers energized; it creates personal significance for their contribution in attaining the
vision.
3.
Challenge the process
If the map to the desired future of the organization is already developed, leaders are
somewhat redundant. Disciplined leaders continually search for application that innovate and
positively improves the organization and its ability to be successful. Genuine leaders are
motivated to a new future by what is good for the follower. Their motivation to change is
selfless, they know that to challenge the process with integrity their ego needs to b e left at
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the door. Exemplary leaders seldom challenge processes with just their own understanding of
the issue. Listening and recognizing others good ideas and then championing these ideas is
their contribution and leadership of the change process. Disciplined leaders lead change.
Challenging the process and leading change does not always lead to success. The risk of
failure in new thinking is always a potential outcome. A leader who is able to take risks, fail,
and to personally take ownership for the failure without blame on the follower is a hallmark
of an exemplary leader. Few great changes and innovations in history were without failure.
To give credit freely but to take failure personally creates an environment of trust,
transparency, and integrity in the leader-follower relationship. However, continual failure
will not support the exemplary leader for very long. Exemplary leaders are learners; they
manage and apply knowledge as they learn from these experiences. Every failed experience
must be a learning opportunity.
4.
Enable others to act
The assumption we have made is that exemplary leadership a genuine and discipline
relationship between a follower and a leader. Leadership is not a solo activity. Motivating,
energizing, empowering, and creating an environment for followers to be successful is a
discipline that exemplary leaders both develop and implement. Creating an environment
where people feel able to be successful and significant is critical for exemplary leadership.
Perhaps the single measure of success in this discipline of leadership is the number of
followers who emerge as leaders themselves through the opportunities the exemplary leader
intentionally develops in enabling followers to be successful.
5.
Encourage the heart
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Perhaps the most popular discipline missing from the portfolio of an exemplary leader is that
of encouraging the follower. Creating a culture of recognition, encouragement, and
celebration and then implementing this culture with sincerity and intention often falls in the
shadow of the leader’s busyness. Visible gratitude and recognition and the quiet word or
action of personal thanks gets people to lift their heads and to move forward.
“Encouragement is a curiously serious business,” says Kouzes and Posner in Leadership is a
Relationship (Jossey-Boss, 2003), “it is how leaders visibly and behaviorally link rewards
with performance.” Disciplined and genuine leaders do this with authenticity and sincerity.
They know that this is the life-blood of a thriving and healthy community of followers.
Exemplary leaders are both genuine and disciplined. Exemplary leaders exhibit a sincere and
genuine understanding of who they are as individuals and through this self awareness how they
relate with sincerity to their followers.
An Exemplary Leader is someone who . . .
is resilient
has no ego
is self-aware and can manage this knowledge
can motivate followers to the successful achievement of outcomes
instills significance to the people and organizations to sustainability
we choose to follow without reservation
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Christ-Centered Exemplary Leaders
Christians are called to be exemplary leaders with the perfect model of Jesus Christ.
Although this paper has identified the characteristics of exemplary leaders from a practical
perspective, it would be shortsighted not to discuss what it means to be an Exemplary Christian
leader. Jesus quotes Leviticus 19:18 in response to a question on how to inherit eternal life (Luke
10:27). Christ’s response is simple, powerful, and illustrative. “Love your neighbor as yourself”.
Is there instruction in this response with what we have discussed as the primary elements of
exemplary leadership, to be self-aware, that is to be self-controlled, to know your followers, and
to manage the relationship with them? The following figure might explain the relationship more
visibly:
Personal (self)
Social (followers)
Genuine
Love themselves/Self Aware
Love their neighbor/Follower
Disciplined
Intentionally manage
Systematically manage their
themselves
relationships
Figure 2
Christ-centered exemplary leaders have in many ways been provided the perfect
leadership model, love yourself, and love your neighbor. Tracking the leadership journey of
Simon Peter illustrates a model of an exemplary leader in process. A quick study of Peter as the
leader of the apostles in the gospels, to the mature leader of the church as read in the Acts of
Apostles, to the enabling leader writing the letters of Peter is a remarkable lesson in
transformational and exemplary leadership.
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Peter as a follower of Christ rode a rollercoaster of learning in his journey to leadership.
He was obviously genuine in his love for Jesus (Luke 9:10), but actions show that he was
undisciplined in his relationship with Christ (Luke 22:57). He was a man struggling to identify
his emotions and manage them. Christ uses a simple meal on the shores of the Sea of Galilee to
reinstate Peter firstly as a disciple, and secondly as a leader by commanding him to a discipline
of relating to Christ’s lambs and sheep (what we would call followers). Through the Acts of the
Apostles, we see the development of a new genuine and disciplined leader. A leader who is
called (Acts 1:15), a powerful communicator (Acts 2:15), a leader with a vision (Acts 2:38), a
leader with a knowledge and understanding of why he leads (Acts 4:8), a change agent (Acts 10),
and a leader sure of his calling (Acts 12:11). Peter’s value in modeling exemplary leadership
fortunately does not end with his leadership in Acts.
In Peter’s letters to the elect he reminds us to “prepare our minds for action, be selfcontrolled” (I Peter 2:13), to “show proper respect to everyone” (I Peter 2:15), to be “shepherds
of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because
you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it
over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.” (I Peter 5:2-5). What great
coaching for the exemplary leader! Shepherds, caring, serving, not greedy, not lording it over
others, being called trustees of our followers, by being examples, by being called to exemplary
leadership that is centered around who God called each of us leaders to be. Peter’s life as a
follower and a leader is an inspirational model of who we are called to be as leaders today. So,
are you ready to be an exemplary leader, are you ready for your followers to say, “Lead and I
will follow”?
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The Final Question
Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones recently published “Why should anyone be led by you?—
what it takes to be an authentic leader.” (HBSP, 2006). They summarize authentic leadership as
three principles of leaders: (1) being sensitive to situations in the community (social awareness),
(2) leadership being non-hierarchical, and (3) leadership being relational (relationship
management). The new learning from their perspective to our discussion is the emerging role and
expectations of the follower. Followers now demand genuine and disciplined leaders, followers
need to feel significant, followers seek a sense of excitement, and followers desperately want to
feel part of a community. Followers, as the book title suggests, will ask the question repeatedly,
“Why should anyone be led by you?” Exemplary leaders, I believe, could start each day with that
question in their minds. Fundamentally, how am I going to manage myself and my relationship
with my followers so that at the end of this day the follower answers, “I want to be led by you—
you are genuine and disciplined, you are an exemplary leader to me.”
Leadership is not a simple formula. It is too easy to draw four squares, measure ourselves
in several key areas, and conclude that we are there. Our leadership journey is measured through
our ability to be genuine about who we are, and who we are called to lead. To be disciplined in
managing our individual wants and needs in a selfless manner with our followers in the pursuit
of the common goal. We are all called to be exemplary leaders.
Here is a trustworthy saying: “If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a
noble task.” (I Timothy 3:1).
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