By Sally Morgenthaler
Morgenthaler has challenged and shaped the course of Christian worship for two decades. Now she is helping Christian leaders shift to the kind of leadership practices that are indispensable in a globalized culture. She has also founded a life-coaching ministry for women, focusing on leadership, career, and personal goals.
Leadership is a frustrating subject, for no other reason than our definition of it in the western world is so constricted. Ask any group of people in the U.S. to list adjectives that describe good leaders and, with few permutations, the list is the same. In our country (and it doesn’t matter what the venue--business, government, ministry), a leader is good if he is assertive, authoritative, decisive, tough, and independent. He is a lone ranger, a sole visionary with take-charge, no-nonsense attitude. And most importantly, he is always in control.
But, wait a minute. Why use the pronoun "he"? Aren't there women who are good leaders? No doubt. But for most of the last two centuries, "good leadership" has been equivalant to what it has mean to be a "good man." The consequences of this parallel labeling have been huge. Scores of men who don’t fit the quintessential American male portrait have had to adopt a false self in order to lead, or have shied away from leadership altogether. Women who have wanted to be seen as true leaders have had to reject their sexuality and become stereotypically “male” if they wanted to be taken seriously. Ironically, as many women leaders did just that in the past few decades--became stereotypically “male”--they have often been tagged with less-than-positive labels.
Is there a better way to define and practice leadership? Are there ways to take the act of leading to a new, more humane, and more collaborative level? Are there ways to look at male and female-ness more holistically, and to lead out of a place of completeness?
Musings on a Tuesday in Colorado, between blizzards…