Leadership

Don’t Let Leaders and Activists Dupe You
Duped

Photo Credit: One Hundred Hearts

When trying to lead a righteous movement or advocate for a noble cause, one must have an authentic commitment to truth and justice. You cannot have a genuine commitment to justice if you’re not willing to tell the whole truth, which includes the whole truth about yourself—not just the whole truth about others. It’s easy to tell the truth about others, to expose others, but never forget to give a full account of your truth. Although in this moment of “alternative facts” it may seem that truth and truth-telling don’t matter, they still do. In fact, they’re more important than ever. Those calling themselves leaders and social justice activists have an obligation to tell those they’re leading the whole truth—even when it’s unsettling.

One way to know if someone has integrity is to learn what he or she does in private. Most of the time, of course, we cannot know what people do in private. When they engage in corruption in private, however, that corruption has a way of telling the truth on them in public. Once we discover their corruption, we shouldn’t immediately attempt to justify them and/or their corruption. We have to hold our leaders and social justice activists accountable.

Never deify a human being.

Before you place too much investment in leaders and social justice activists, do the work necessary to gain an understanding of who they really are. Don’t just listen to a few of their speeches. Don’t just attend a few of their rallies. Don’t just look at their nice physical appearance. Research them, ask them probing questions, and discern their values and principles.

Yes, no man or woman is perfect, but do your due diligence to discover if a leader and/or activist you support truly aligns with your values and principles.

If you find out that a leader or activist you support has a record of committing fraudulent acts, will you continue to trust this person? Yes, the person may have engaged in these acts years ago, but was he or she honest with you about past wrongs? When people have committed certain wrongs, no matter how long ago they happened, those misdeeds may warrant reassessing your connection to them. You can value their productive work, but when you continue to lend your support to corrupt people—and “stand by your man or woman”—you become complicit in their corruption.

Integrity is telling the truth when it hurts. Integrity is telling the truth when it may cast you in an undesirable light. Integrity is not misleading people about who you are. Integrity is not permitting people to advertise you as someone you aren’t.

Understand this: If a person does not have integrity, he or she isn’t committed to justice. Why? Because integrity and justice are inextricably linked.

We all have a responsibility to hold ourselves accountable to honoring truth and justice. We all fail truth and justice when we allow people we have exalted, placed on a pedestal, to trample on truth and justice. If we’re willing to let these people lie to us, then we have to question our own commitment to truth and justice.

Ethical principles should reign supreme over unhealthy ties to people.

Closely examine the leaders and social justice activists you support and determine if they’re holding firmly to the values and principles you desire them to maintain. If you discover they aren’t who you thought they were, and aren’t principled individuals, then don’t foolishly continue to lend your support to them.

Make wise decisions about who and what you elect to champion.

Dr. Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

NIV, The Maxwell Leadership Bible, 3rd Edition: A Brief Review
The Maxwell Leadership Bible

Courtesy of Thomas Nelson

John Maxwell’s NIV, The Maxwell Leadership Bible, 3rd Edition, is a wonderful bible with an excellent, reader-friendly print. With the New International Version being a popular translation of holy Scripture, many will appreciate how John Maxwell helps readers to gain critical insights about it through illuminating leadership principles throughout the text. Maxwell does a brilliant job of evincing how the bible is truly a book that has much to teach about effective leadership. A well-established authority on leadership, Maxwell brings his years of leadership experience and expertise to profile biblical leaders and what can be learned from their leadership.

This bible contains an introduction to each book and many short articles related to leadership. The hardback edition is a soft, comfort hardback, which makes it pleasant to hold and carry. Maxwell does a thorough job of ensuring that the reader understands the bible through a leadership lens and that he or she is able to engage constantly with Scripture’s powerful revelations about leadership.

Without question, leaders (and not just spiritual leaders) should purchase a copy of this this bible. Also, all individuals serious about the study of the Word of God need a copy of this bible. When one reads this bible, he or she comes away from the text a more empowered person ready to address challenges and problems with biblical courage and wisdom.

To aid the drafting of this honest review, the publisher, Thomas Nelson, provided a copy of The Maxwell Leadership Bible through BookLook Bloggers.

Dr. Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Great Leaders Don’t Micromanage
Micromanager

(Photo Credit: The Self Employed)

One of the most deflating and unproductive environments to work in is one led by a micro-manager. How do you when you’re being led by a micro-manager? He or she always has to control everything in the organization.  His or her fingerprints has to be on everything.  The micro-manager is inflexible and does not give you latitude to employ your talents in ways that empower you to achieve maximum success. Organizational leaders must understand that being effective leaders does not mean controlling everything.  In fact, leaders who are micro-managers are often highly ineffective.

Micromanagement inevitably leads to an organization’s tragic downfall.

Great leaders trust their subordinates to use their talents to execute their assigned tasks.  Although there’s nothing wrong with monitoring what one’s subordinates are doing, as long as the monitoring doesn’t become constant and oppressive surveillance, people need to have enough freedom to make choices that enable them to work without fear.  If your subordinates feel they’re going to receive reprimands for the least thing, then you have engendered an environment where fear trumps productivity.

If you’re a leader who can do everything in your organization better than everyone else, then you don’t have much of an organization in the first place.  It’s important for organizational leaders to maintain a democratic system of governance.  A democratic system of governance allows for everyone to feel a part of the organization. Everyone needs to have his or her voice heard and valued in an organization. A great leader encourages critical thinking and discourse; a micro-manager discourages them.

If your leader is a micro-manager, then he or she is allowing his or her ego to drive the way in which he or she leads.

Great leaders don’t offer suggestions about how you could have done a task differently or “better” each time you perform it.  In fact, great leaders frequently sit back and learn from their subordinates and appreciate the value they bring to the organization.  The effective leader is more concerned about getting the right people in the appropriate positions, and then he or she just lets those individuals thrive using their gifts.

No matter how “great” you contend that your leader is, he or she is not a truly great leader if the person is a micro-manager.  An authentically great leader makes everyone around him or her better—not make everyone around him or her miserable and/or timid.

Keep these aforementioned thoughts in mind the next time you begin to contemplate who is a great leader.

Dr. Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Reverend Markel Hutchins: Linking Activism and Ministry
Markel Hutchins

(Photo Credit: WSB TV)

A champion for racial, social and economic justice and product of Morehouse College, Reverend Markel Hutchins serves as a shining progressive example of how postmodern Black preachers should be passionately active in their communities.  Hutchins has not been derelict in his duty to engage in civil and human rights efforts, efforts like those Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X championed. Even when he was in high school, one could see a burgeoning fighter for justice in the making: He led a march against the proliferation of drugs in the neighborhood surrounding his school.  Mr. Hutchins went on to become an ordained Baptist minister, leading Markel Hutchins Ministries.  Although there are laws prohibiting clergymen from being politically engaged in the confines of places of worship, this does not mean they cannot be involved in issues pertaining to social and economic policy affecting their communities, especially outside of their places of worship.  Hutchins certainly understands this.

Reverend Hutchins has an acute awareness of the power and significance of Black preachers’ serious involvement in political, social and economic issues during the Civil Rights Movement.  Black preachers during that period understood how to minister to the comprehensive needs of their congregants.  Yes, it’s one thing to feed one’s members spiritual food; another to feed their social, economic, professional and personal development.  Mr. Hutchins has been highly attentive to the complete needs of those he leads.  By doing this, he helps to further the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Although his leadership and ministry emerged in Atlanta, Georgia, a pivotal site during the Civil Rights Movement, his visionary leadership calls him to fight for justice throughout America.

When Black preachers invest in the communities in which they are situated, those communities become better places to live, work and play.  Unfortunately, too many Black preachers are too concerned about their personal and church’s financial prosperity to involve themselves in essential community development. Numerous pusillanimous Black preachers hide behind their collars and robes instead of tackling challenging and critical issues in their communities, including homelessness, police brutality, unfair labor practices, criminal justice system abuses, and racism, as Reverend Hutchins has done and continues to do.

Ministries not advocating for their communities are purposeless.

Markel Hutchins Ministries has purpose, vision and results.

While we increasingly see, hear and read accounts of preachers involved in corruption, and it’s easy not to support any preacher—which is a product of a burgeoning nihilistic impulse in postmodernism—it’s important to pay tribute to those preachers who are making a remarkable difference in the lives of people and their communities.  This is why we have to give Reverend Markel Hutchins his flowers while he’s living.  Although you may not always agree with his methods and viewpoints, it’s clear this man loves his country deeply enough to hold it accountable to fulfilling its nonpareil ideals—expressed most vividly and eloquently in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.  We should demand an America as good as it’s promised, and Hutchins is tireless warrior working to see those utopian founding ideals materialize.

When an individual thinks critically and comprehensively about the work Reverend Markel Hutchins has done and is doing, it becomes transparent why former Atlanta Mayor, Shirley Franklin, the first female mayor of Atlanta and first Black woman of a prominent Southern city, posits that he “will soon be celebrated as one of our nation’s most visible and viable public servants.”

Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Leaders Aren’t Afraid to Standout in a Crowd
Effective Leaders

(Photo Credit: The Grio)

Effective leaders aren’t afraid to standout in a crowd and say something that many, most, or all people will oppose.  Being a true leader isn’t about winning a popularity contest or winning Miss Congeniality; it’s about doing and saying what you feel is truly right.  Unfortunately, too many of those we call “leaders” in the postmodern epoch aren’t authentic leaders.  This has led to numerous milquetoast individuals being considered leaders by many Americans.  We have to stop considering people leaders simply because they have a special title and/or they’re always on television.  A simple public presence doesn’t make a person a leader.

Before you consider someone a leader, be sure he or she is leading.  When a person is leading, he or she is making a real difference in the lives of people.  Don’t cheapen what it means to be an effective leader by calling those who are attention-seekers leaders.  A clear difference exists between attention-seekers and leaders who aren’t afraid to stand out in a crowd.  An effective leader isn’t going to have fear of receiving backlash about saying and doing things that will cause people to be unsettled and unnerved.  Many people need to be unsettled and unnerved about the things they believe, say, and do.

People will respect you when you’re willing to say and do the right things, even when saying and doing the right things are difficult to accept.  This doesn’t mean that people will like you or that you will become popular, however.

To be an effective leader, one has to have a commitment to saying and doing substantive things.  An authentic leader has a record of accomplishment, which includes getting things done for others.  If you’re a vain person, you’re certainly not a leader.

Effective organizational leaders don’t worry about who gets the credit for accomplishments. They highlight how it was the team responsible for the accomplishments—not themselves.  People will be able to tell when you don’t have the ability to lead an organization; therefore, you cannot fake genuine leadership.  An effective leader understands that he or she needs to employ the talents of those around him or her.  Being a leader doesn’t mean you know everything.  In fact, a leader acknowledges that he or she doesn’t know everything.

Let’s make a commitment to stop crowning people as leaders who aren’t leaders.

Dr. Antonio Maurice Daniels

University of Wisconsin-Madison