Abstract
How can lay leaders live out their faith at work with integrity and sensitivity that reflects a thorough yet uncomplicated understanding of their gifts, talents, and place in the church and in the world? For this chapter, I will define marketplace leadership as the ability to positively influence others in matters of faith and work in the context of a nonreligious organization. Ultimately marketplace leadership should not just be about having a positive impact on an organization in terms of organizational goals but also about being a positive influence on others in their own journeys to bring spirituality into reality. Seven aspects of the secret of leadership success are presented: (1) spiritual, (2) scriptural, (3) solidarity, (4) serve, (5) sustainable, (6) situational, and (7) strategic.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Rex Davenport, “Faith at Work,” in T+D Training and Development, December 2005.
- 2.
- 3.
Obviously there are such churches, but they were not in my sample, and the ones that focus on this can truly be said to be few.
- 4.
Robert Wuthnow, God and Mammon in America, (New York: Free press, 1994), pp. 55–56.
- 5.
Ibid., 77.
- 6.
Robert Wuthnow, Crisis in the Churches: Spiritual Malaise Fiscal Woe, (Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 93–98.
- 7.
Laura Nash and Scotty McLennan, Church on Sunday, Work on Monday: The Challenge of Fusing Christian Values with Business Life, (Jossey-Bass, 2001), p. 141.
- 8.
Ibid., 153.
- 9.
See Mark Walker, A Comparison Study of Protestants in the Workplace; What Effect does a Church Workplace Ministry have on Protestant Workers’ Job Satisfaction, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, and Organizational commitment within Certain Faith Integration Types?; Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA, 2005.
- 10.
L.R. Brittel, Leadership: The Key to Management Success, (New York: Franklin Watts, 1984), p. 12
- 11.
A. Bryman, Leadership and Organizations, (London: Routeledge & Kegan Paul, 1986), p. 12.
- 12.
Ronald A. Heifetz, Leadership Without Easy Answers, Harvard University Press, 1994.
- 13.
Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky, Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leadering, Harvard Business School Press, 2002.
- 14.
Hermalin is an example of another scholar who distinguishes between leadership and authority. See Benjamin E. Hermalin, “Toward an Economic Theory of Leadership: Leading by Example,” in The American Economic Review, Volume 88(5), pp. 1188–1206.
- 15.
Heifetz: 1994, 49–66.
- 16.
Ibid., 22.
- 17.
Another noteworthy work that addresses how leadership is not a matter of positional authority and how one can navigate the potential conflict between influential change agent and positional authority is Debra E. Meyerson, Tempered Radicals: How Everyday Leaders Inspire Change at Work, (Harvard Business School Press, 2003).
- 18.
Joseph C. Rost, Leadership for the Twenty-First Century, (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1991), p. 102.
- 19.
Ibid., 109.
- 20.
Peter G. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice, (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 1997), p. 3.
- 21.
Cited in Nash and McLennan: 2001, p. 3.
- 22.
There are many possible interpretations for what it means to be created in the image of God. Of course, we cannot explore them all. For our purposes we will focus on this likely implication, namely, that humans were created to imitate God in many respects and particularly through work.
- 23.
Gen. 1:28 says, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” It should be noted that to subdue and rule the earth does not imply domination and control as has been many times understood. The directive is more along the lines of managing and caring for creation. Gen. 2:15 says that God placed man in the garden to work it and take care of it. This is perhaps a better wording in English of the original intent. All references and citations from the Bible are taken from the New International Version (NIV).
- 24.
Psalm 8 is a psalm of David that connects God’s work in creation with human’s responsibility to care for creation.
- 25.
Karl Marx, “The Grundrisse” in Gilbert C. Meilaender (ed.), Working: Its Meaning and Its Limits (University of Notre Dame Press, 2000), p. 29. Marx says, “‘Thou shalt labour by the sweat of thy brow!’ was Jehovah’s curse that he bestowed upon Adam. A. Smith conceives of labour as such a curse.”
- 26.
This is not to suggest that God is no longer at work. The proper perspective is that we work with and for God, meaning we partner with God in our work but also to an extent we are independent and responsible for our work. This is best expressed in Gen. 2:19. It states that God formed the creatures (God’s independent work), brought them to Adam for him to name (partnership God working with Adam), and then Adam naming the animals (Adam’s independent work). This is a picture for how God works with us and we work with him in sustaining creation.
- 27.
This is not to say that there are not some weariness and dreariness aspects to work. It is natural at times that work will not seem so spiritual. While writing this chapter I became aware that I had a flat tire and spent a couple of hours changing the tire, going to get it fixed, etc. This did not feel like a spiritual exercise, especially since I more enjoy writing about other people doing such things instead of actually doing it. Nevertheless in the middle of the endeavor, I realized that what I was doing was spiritual, and this helped me adapt my attitude and appreciate the experience even if it is not exactly the way I prefer to spend my mornings.
- 28.
Gen. 1:28, 2:5–8, 15. We are to fill, subdue, rule, work, and care for creation.
- 29.
Gen. 2:15, 15. God told Adam to till the land; this strongly implies the development and use of tools.
- 30.
Gen. 1:28–30, 2:9. The plants were good for food. Humans were to work with creation to produce food.
- 31.
Gen. 2:9. The trees were pleasing to the eye.
- 32.
Gen. 2:18. Eve becomes Adam’s helper. Unfortunately, this has been sometimes taken to mean that Eve and therefore women are somehow inferior to men. However, if Adam was superior, why did he need Eve to help him? In a sense Eve was sent to “rescue” him from his situation. The proper paradigm seems to be one of partnership. Martin Luther had it right when he said that God made woman from the side of man and not from the head so she would rule over him and not from his feet so he would trample on her. The inequality among the genders was a later and infelicitous development.
- 33.
Gen. 2:19–20. God and Adam worked together in the naming of the animals.
- 34.
Gen. 1:31–2:3. God declared his work very good and rested.
- 35.
Rom. 15:20.
- 36.
1 Thess. 2:9; 2 Thess. 3:7, 8.
- 37.
Paul states quite clearly on several occasions that he and his companions supported themselves. In 1 Cor 9:6, he states that he and Barnabas were supporting themselves on their journey to Cyprus and Galatia. In 2 Cor 11:12, while in Philippi, Paul says that he would continue to work so as not to be a “burden” to the Corinthians. In both of his letters to the churches in Thessalonica, he says that he and his companions worked “night and day” to avoid burdening them. In Acts 19:9, it is mentioned that Paul ministered during the lunch hour in the lecture hall of Tyrannus for 2 years. Paul for his part seems to have spent the early morning and possibly the evening, in manual labor: “these hands,” he later reminds the elders of the Ephesian church, “ministered to my necessities, and to those who were with me.” Because of Paul’s strong defense for donor-supported ministry (1 Cor. 9:1–5), many people have concluded that he simply made tents when money was scarce. However, the numerous references to Paul’s self-support and the fact that three times he says that he did not receive financial support seems to suggest otherwise (1 Cor. 9:12,15,18).
- 38.
Matt. 4:18–20.
- 39.
Luke 10:7.
- 40.
1 Cor. 9:14.
- 41.
1 Tim. 2:5.
- 42.
Here it is worth quoting Catholic missionary and theologian, Vincent Donovan, who said, “The ‘priesthood of believers’ has often been used as an empty slogan by Catholics and Protestants alike. Catholics do not want to apply the priesthood to all believers, to the laos, the people of God, the laity. Protestants often use the phrase in a negative way. By stressing the second part of the phrase, they in fact deny the first part, or at least put a brake on the deepest sacramental, sacrificial, and incarnational meaning of the priesthood of Jesus Christ. If only the Catholic meaning of the priesthood could come to live with the Protestant meaning of the faithful in the church, we might yet arrive at a new understanding of the power and glory of Christianity.” See Vincent Donovan, Christianity Rediscovered, (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1978), p. 159.
- 43.
Eph. 4:11–12.
- 44.
Douglas Hicks, “Religion and Respectful Pluralism in the Workplace: A Constructive Framework”, in Journal of Religious Leadership, Spring 2003, Vol. 2, No. 1; p. 5.
- 45.
Ibid.
- 46.
Ibid., 6.
- 47.
Robert Greenleaf, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Power and Greatness, (New York: Paulist Press, 1977), p. 6. Italics in original.
- 48.
Ibid. Italics in original.
- 49.
Greenleaf coined the term servant leadership in 1970 in an essay titled “The Servant as Leader.” It is said that Greenleaf only used the term servant leadership for purposes of economy and simplicity. He is said to prefer the phrase, the servant as leader, because, in this phrase, the subject is the servant and the predicate is the leader. See Larry C. Spears (ed.) The Power of Servant Leadership: Essays by Robert K. Greenleaf, (San Francisco: Barrett-Koehler Publishers, 1998), p. xi-3.
- 50.
Stephen R. Covey, Principle-Centered Leadership, (New York: Fireside, 1990), p. 34.
- 51.
See Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, (New York: Fireside, 1989).
- 52.
Matt. 10:28, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
- 53.
Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges have written two books recently drawing from the example of the life of Christ as a model for servant leadership. See Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges, Lead Like Jesus: Lessons from the Greatest Leadership Role Model of All Time, (Nashville, TN: W Publishing, 2006) and Ken Blanchard and Phil Hodges, The Servant Leader: Transforming Your Heart, Head & Habits, (Nashville, TN: J Countryman, 2003).
- 54.
Jim Collins, “Good to Great”, in Fast Company Issue 51, October 2001, p. 90.
- 55.
Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee, Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence, Reprint edition. (Harvard University Business School Press, 2004).
- 56.
Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee state that it can be effective when all the people involved are highly competent and need little direction (p. 72).
- 57.
Ibid., 72–74.
- 58.
Covey, Principle-Centered Leadership, p. 83. Italics in original.
- 59.
Ibid.
- 60.
Paul Heresy and Ken Blanchard, Management of Organizational Behavior, (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969); Leader Effectiveness and Adaptability Description-Self, (Escondido, CA: Center for Leadership Studies, 1973); Management of Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources, (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1977).
- 61.
Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, The One Minute Manager, (Berkley Publishing Group, 1982). To date this book has sold over 12 million copies.
- 62.
Col. 4:5–6.
References
Barna, George, Revolution: Finding Vibrant Faith Beyond the Walls of the Sanctuary, (Tyndale House Publishers, 2005).
Blanchard, Ken and Paul Heresy, Management of Organizational Behavior, (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969).
Blanchard, Ken and Paul Heresy Leader Effectiveness and Adaptability Description-Self, (Escondido, CA: Center for Leadership Studies, 1973).
Blanchard, Ken and Paul Heresy, Management of Organizational Behavior: Utilizing Human Resources, (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1977).
Blanchard, Ken and Phil Hodges, The Servant Leader: Transforming Your Heart, Head & Habits, (Nashville, TN: J Countryman, 2003).
Blanchard, Ken and Phil Hodges, Lead Like Jesus: Lessons from the Greatest Leadership Role Model of All Time, (Nashville, TN: W Publishing, 2006).
Blanchard, Ken and Spencer Johnson, The One Minute Manager, (Berkley Publishing Group, 1982).
Brittel, Lester R., Leadership: The Key to Management Success, (New York: Franklin Watts, 1984), p. 12.
Bryman, Alan, Leadership and Organizations, (London: Routeledge & Kegan Paul, 1986).
Collins, Jim, “Good to Great”, in Fast Company Issue 51, October 2001.
Covey, Stephen R., Principle-Centered Leadership, (New York: Fireside, 1990).
Covey, Stephen R., The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, (New York: Fireside, 1989).
Davenport, Rex, “Faith at Work”, in T+D Training and Development, December 2005.
Donovan, Vincent, Christianity Rediscovered, (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1978).
Friedland, Roger and John Mohr (editors), Matters of Culture: Cultural Sociology in Practice, (Cambridge University Press, 2004).
Goleman, Daniel, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee, Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence, Reprint edition. (Harvard University Business School Press, 2004).
Greenleaf, Robert, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Power and Greatness, (New York: Paulist Press, 1977).
Hammond, Pete, R. Paul Stevens, and Todd Svanoe, The Marketplace Annotated Bibliography: A Christian Guide to Books on Work, Business & Vocation (InterVarsity Press, 2002).
Heifetz, Ronald A., Leadership Without Easy Answers, (Harvard University Press, 1994).
Heifetz, Ronald A. and Marty Linsky, Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leadering, (Harvard Business School Press, 2002).
Hermalin, Benjamin E., “Toward an Economic Theory of Leadership: Leading by Example,” in The American Economic Review, Volume 88(5), pp. 1188–1206.
Hicks, Douglas, “Religion and Respectful Pluralism in the Workplace: A Constructive Framework”, in Journal of Religious Leadership, Spring 2003, Vol. 2, No. 1.
Johnson, C. Neal, God’s Mission To, Within And Through the Marketplace: Toward a Marketplace Missiology, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, (Pasadena, CA: Fuller Theological Seminary, 2004).
Meilaender, Gilbert C. (ed.), Working: Its Meaning and Its Limits, (University of Notre Dame Press, 2000).
Meyerson, Debra E., Tempered Radicals: How Everyday Leaders Inspire Change at Work, (Harvard Business School Press, 2003).
Miller, David, The Faith at Work Movement: Its Growth, Dynamics, and Future. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Theological Seminary, 2003).
Nash, Laura and Scotty McLennan, Church on Sunday, Work on Monday: The Challenge of Fusing Christian Values with Business Life, (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2001).
Northouse, Peter G., Leadership: Theory and Practice, (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 1997).
Rost, Joseph C., Leadership for the Twenty-First Century, (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1991).
Rusen, Jorn, Western Historical Thinking: An Intercultural Debate, (Bergbahn Books, 2002).
Snyder, Howard, Global Good News, (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2001).
Spears, Larry C. (ed.) The Power of Servant Leadership: Essays by Robert K. Greenleaf, (San Francisco: Barrett-Koehler Publishers, 1998).
Thomas, Keith (ed.), The Oxford Book of Work, (Oxford University Press: 1999).
Walker, Mark, A Comparison Study of Protestants in the Workplace: What Effect does a Church Workplace Ministry have on Protestant Workers’ Job Satisfaction, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, and Organizational commitment within Certain Faith Integration Types?; Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, (Virginia Beach, VA: Regent University, 2005).
Wuthnow, Robert, God and Mammon in America, (New York: Free press, 1994).
Wuthnow, Robert, Crisis in the Churches: Spiritual Malaise Fiscal Woe, (Oxford University Press, 1997).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Russell, M.L. (2013). The Secret of Leadership Success. In: Neal, J. (eds) Handbook of Faith and Spirituality in the Workplace. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5233-1_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5233-1_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5232-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5233-1
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)