Tim Keel’s Postures of Leadership (Part I, Part II)
6. A Posture of Trust: From Defensiveness to Creativity
All of the previous leadership postures assume a posture of trust on the part of leaders. Most leaders often default to defensiveness however, believing that so much of what we do depends on us and not on God. Moving away from defensiveness to trust in God, and as a result, to more trust in our people leads to greater creativity. We cannot see God at work in his creation when we are crouched defensively behind a carefully constructed wall where we feel compelled to defend ourselves and even to defend God. "When we trust that God is out ahead of us and seek out his life in and around and outside our walls, we engage with freedom and passion the creative possibilities that arise as God engages his creation for his purposes. . . . When we spend the majority of our energy defending the hallowed grounds of our staked-out territory, something vital is lost." Leaders follow Jesus into the "generative chaos of creation."
7. A Posture of Joy: From Work to Play
Leaders have a hard time learning to play. Yet Plato once said that you could learn more about people by watching them play for one hour than you could through a lifetime of conversation with them. True. Keel argues that leaders who begin to live in a trust-saturated relationship with God can move from "work" to relief and joy–to play. At the heart of this posture is the notion of Sabbath, where rest and rhythm and celebration acknowledges the true source in life: God. Leaders must consciously move from work to play, play to work, work to play and on. A rhythm that embraces playfulness demonstrates trust in God. It also helps leaders not take themselves so seriously.
8. A Posture of Dependence: From Resolution to Tension—And Back Again
Like chaos, tension can be embraced by the leader. Tension is created when two seemingly opposed realities are held in a dynamic relationship that demands engagement and interaction. Yet, since tension is discomforting, we attempt to opt quickly for resolutions that often maximize one half of a complex reality at the expense of the other half. In each of Keel’s leadership postures, leaders learn to embrace the twin realities in their dynamic tension (questions vs answers, head vs heart, work vs joy, etc) more readily than previously allowed. Leaders tend to be reactive and swing from one extreme to the other. Such reactions, Keel argues, are not generative nor sustainable. To avoid the reactive swings toward quick resolution of tension, leaders must learn to live in and lead out of tension. Again, a posture of dependence and trust on God’s creative and dynamic work must be present in the leader.
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