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The Proactive Approach to Prevent a Leadership Fall Starts With the Leader
Brian Kreeger 1:10 • Jun 16, 2021
Trusted nonprofit leaders
do not have to fall. Pretty simple, right?
But they do fall. Why?
That’s a short, but very complex question that is dependent on a whole host of philosophies, experiences, and circumstances.
I have written several articles previous to this one that defined many of the reasons a leader may choose the wrong path, as well as some potential contributing factors leading to a fall.
There are several
roles that can impact whether a leader falls, doesn’t fall, or recovers from a fall. Those roles are many, but we will focus on the leader themselves, the accountability structure they report to, and the community they work in.
This article, and a few to follow, will focus on the Christian executive leader.
Leader, no matter where you find yourself right now, there is tremendous hope. It is entirely possible that you will never succumb to temptation and fall. But you must face a few things to experience that hope and continue successfully on your path. You must be alert, and then proactive, or a fall could be right around the corner.
Trust me, it happened in my life.
(This article is the tenth in a series that focuses on starting a conversation centered on preventing the fall of nonprofit leaders. I write it from a Christian perspective, but all leaders will benefit. Be sure to sign up to receive these articles via email every Tuesday at briankreeger.com. In addition to receiving these articles two days before they hit social media, you will receive the Introduction and the Appendix (My story) to my upcoming book, The Courageous Ask: A Proactive Approach to Prevent the Fall of Christian Nonprofit Leaders.)
Many leaders, especially
executives, are bottom-line people. It doesn’t matter if they are working urgently to solve a problem, analyzing a financial report, or listening to a server describe the ins and outs of the BLT they are ordering- they want the bottom line.
This is one of those places in this series of articles where I will be very direct, get to the bottom line, maybe step on your toes in a challenge to your thinking.
I absolutely, whole-heartedly believe that those who surround a leader play a significant role in preventing their fall, especially when they see them falling.
But, I do wish to include one harsh caveat to that fact. One bottom-line, very biblical principle directed at the executive: you are ultimately accountable, you are ultimately responsible.
“If your health fails, your marriage hits the rocks, or your finances reverse, people will feel sorry for you, but they won’t feel responsible. Why not? Because you’re the one who has to take responsibility for your own life.” Ouch! Those are the words of Patrick Morley in his book Ten Secrets for the Man in the Mirror.
James Allen puts it this way in his 1903 book, As a Man Thinketh: “A man’s weakness and strength, purity and impurity, are his own, and not another man’s; they are brought about by himself, never by another. His condition is also his own, and not the other man’s. His suffering and his happiness are evolved from within. As he thinks, so he is.”
There is a ton of scripture that backs this up, including Ezekiel 18:20 that says, “The one who sins is the one who dies.”
While some may see proper individual accountability as a burden, this brings great hope. It brings great hope because no one can aim the path of a leader away from or towards a fall more than the leader themselves. They have the ability to make their own choices. And the leader can do it. They absolutely can.
This set of articles is all about choices.
So, Christian nonprofit executives,
you are accountable for your own lives. In today’s world, that can be depressing and shoot a person into despair. But, the flip-side of that is the fact that you can choose the correct path by using the compass that naturally lies inside you.
For the Christian, that is the Holy Spirit. When we are on the wrong path, we know it. But when the compass points in the right direction, and we follow it, we can experience great joy and success in our organizations. But, it’s ultimately up to us to make the right choice.
Brendan Bridges
of Richvale Church in California says, “The things we neglect lead us to a place of regret.” Fallen leaders can always look back on their life before their fall to find things they neglected along the way.
These neglected things are typically what allowed them to develop the character and skill to rise to the level of leader. As someone once told me, “Helicopters don’t drop people off on top of the mountain of success.”
The rest of this article will touch on two areas that most fallen Christian leaders look back on to find they were neglecting.
Number One, Spiritual Health
A person who has risen to the level of executive leadership got there through a process. God has taken a Christian executive through a process of spiritual awakening, study, trials, and life experiences to get them there. Much of this process involved instruments of spiritual growth such as bible study, devotions, church attendance, Christian friends and influencers, etc.
Too many times the motivation toward these instruments becomes skewed or misplaced as the executive drives toward a goal or sees a modicum of success. Or, frankly, success (as they define it) leaves them feeling as if they do not need those things anymore that got them where they are. Proper humility escapes them.
“When we lead a Christian organization, we tend to substitute that [Christian leadership] for real spiritual sustenance. The work becomes your devotions or time with God because you are working full time for God,” one nonprofit executive said to me.
This current Christian nonprofit executive went on to say that during his lowest point in life he wasn’t focusing on himself spiritually, and that affected relationships with family because he wasn’t strengthening his relationship with God. “I was working for God and not with God,” he added. “I was punching a clock for God.”
And this is backed up by Pastoralcareinc.com, which notes, “28 percent of pastors report they are spiritually undernourished.”1
During the time that I started to slide away from my relationship with God, I found myself visiting a different church every week speaking on behalf of the ministry, building awareness of what we were doing. I was missing family small groups, and even my men’s group, as I spoke to the same groups in other churches.
Sure, it was good short term for the ministry God had called me to, but it became spiritually damaging as I left my personal accountability structure behind.
Number Two, The Family Blur
Sorry, single folks, at this point I am going to focus on those who are married. But you have close family, and you have family who have been with you through thick and thin. So you will find application here.
In most cases, besides the role of Christ in the life of a Christian leader, the love, support, understanding, and counsel of their spouses has had the biggest influence on who they are at the time of taking the helm of an organization. Executive leaders many times take that love, support, understanding, and counsel for granted. This ability to take a partner for granted extends to the rest of the family as well. But the spouse takes the brunt.
A nonprofit executive cannot expect their spouse to understand fully what they are going through in their position. This is true and part of human nature. But many times the human nature of an executive spouse is simply protecting territory, as the affections and time of their spouse is allowed to be stolen by the nonprofit. And remember, to an executive’s spouse, the executive is a spouse first. The nonprofit executive part is much lower on the list of properly prioritized roles in the life of their spouse.
And rightfully so. Driven executives get this backward many times as they find their primary focus to be on organizational goals. Everything else is a blur, including the very family who gave them the stability to take risks and rise to the level they currently reside in.
Let me repeat….family can become a blur on the periphery of a focused executive.
Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter says, “Ambivalence about family responsibilities has a long history in the corporate world.” And this same ambivalence stretches into the nonprofit world. Executives are torn.
Many leaders have difficulty prioritizing their time. They assume their family has the same passion they do concerning the mission and are willing to sacrifice right along with them. Guess what? Sometimes they aren’t.
Most leadership falls come under the category of “moral failure.” There is no one closer to the challenges in your life that fall into that category than your spouse.
Executive, listen to your spouse. And not just what they are saying. They communicate in many ways. Use the knowledge you have gained in being a student of your spouse as you watch and listen to them. They see things you don’t.
So, executive, where
do you fall in these two areas? Are you able to check the box, without justification, that these two areas are areas you continually monitor, and that you take action if needed?
In all of my research, and through many interviews, I have found these two areas become the lead indicators of a fall: How is the Christian leader’s spiritual life and how is the Christian leader’s family life?
If executives maintain their focus on these two areas- two areas that made them who they are in their position- their success will be long-lasting. But it is their choice.
As a side note and something we will explore in a future article….Boards of Directors, are you monitoring these areas in your executive’s life?
This was the first half of this set of articles. The next article will continue to explore the role of the executive concerning their own survival as a Christian nonprofit executive.
1“Statistics for Pastors.” Statistics in the Ministry. Accessed 5-1-21. https://www.pastoralcareinc.com/statistics/.
Be sure to sign up to receive these articles via email every Tuesday at
briankreeger.com. In addition to receiving these articles two days before they hit social media, you will receive the Introduction and the Appendix (My Story) to my upcoming book, The Courageous Ask: A Proactive Approach to Prevent the Fall of Christian Nonprofit Leaders.
Brian@briankreeger.com
#Leadership Fall #Leadership Survival #Nonprofit Relationships #Proactive Approach #Leadership Struggles #Leadership Battles #Family Blur #Spiritual Health #Leadership Mental Health #Neglect #Regret #Christian Executive Leader #Christian Leader
Executives -pastors or nonprofit executives in our context- are put on a pedestal. It’s not that the typical person necessarily believes they belong there or desires to put them there. But it is human nature that this happens. The general public often places much higher expectations on leaders than they do on themselves. Sometimes it is appropriate, and the leader has put themselves in that position. In some cases, it is simply scriptural. For instance, James 3 points out that those who teach will be judged more strictly, thereby heightening the expectations of those who lead and teach. But what about when we accept, and enact, those elevated expectations and forget the humanity of our leaders? Often a community heaps on a leader the expectation that they are to perform with the perfection of Jesus and not simply be a Jesus follower and disciple just like them, but with a unique calling and heightened responsibility. Too many times when a leader shows human imperfection, the respect we have for them is damaged. Leaders fall under strict judgment, and we forget they are no less fallible than us. The imperfection they have colors any positive experience we would have had with them otherwise. While most of us acknowledge this strict, hypocritical judgment and recognize it as not being how we want to treat our leaders, it is a difficult battle to fight in our own attitudes and minds. No matter who the leader is, they are not Jesus. But please allow me to reverently make some comparisons. (This blog focuses on starting a conversation centered on preventing the fall of nonprofit leaders. I write it from a Christian perspective, but all leaders will benefit. Be sure to sign up to receive these articles via email every Tuesday at briankreeger.com as well as taking a look at previous blog articles. In addition to receiving these articles two days before they hit social media, you will receive the article "5 Early Indicators of a Christian Nonprofit Leadership Fall" along with the Contents, Introduction and the Appendix (My story) of my book, The Courageous Ask: A Proactive Approach to Prevent the Fall of Christian Nonprofit Leaders. )
You are the community, no matter what formal role you play in a particular organization, or if you play any role at all. My blog articles typically focus on the roles the leader and the board have in preventing the fall of Christian nonprofit leaders. But I contend that the community that exists around organizational leaders and boards has a role as well. In fact, a community’s role can many times be much bigger. My next few blog articles will focus on the role of the community in preventing the fall of Christian nonprofit leaders. (This blog focuses on starting a conversation centered on preventing the fall of nonprofit leaders. I write it from a Christian perspective, but all leaders will benefit. Be sure to sign up to receive these articles via email every Tuesday at briankreeger.com as well as taking a look at previous blog articles. In addition to receiving these articles two days before they hit social media, you will receive the article "5 Early Indicators of a Christian Nonprofit Leadership Fall" along with the Contents, Introduction and the Appendix (My story) of my book, The Courageous Ask: A Proactive Approach to Prevent the Fall of Christian Nonprofit Leaders. )
