Raukura 2007: Authoritative Leadership
January 28, 2008
This is part of a series of posts using reflections produced by staff and participants at the Raukura: Intro to Strategic Leadership Module held at St Johns College, Auckland, in December 2007.
These reflections have been compiled as a Study Guide, and are available in printed form for below cost at $10.00 a copy including postage and handling (contact us for more details). Alternatively, you can download a PDF version here.
Authoritative Leadership
By Tapu Laulu - Manu Kokiri for Te Taitokerau
My Leadership Style
I have learnt that my current style of leadership is authoritarian. Because of the difficult realities young leaders face today, my role requires me to be directive and productive in my leadership. Young leaders today face difficult challenges in their ministry, some challenges are political, but most times it is personal. These challenges become an obstacle for their ministry and it weakens the focus on mission. Direction is what young leaders look for and when they come against these stumbling blocks. So, I need to be there to provide directions for them in their ministry and in their lives.
Implementing the core values of being Anglican, and also being Maori, is important to be reinforced at all times. To be productive in an authoritarian role is to equip the young leaders in ministry with the tools and the resources they need to pursue the visions you have in place for them. For example, a young woman who I work with is a youth minister (Manu Karakia). She was brought up with strong family values and she works with children and teenagers under the age of 20. The children she works with are Kura Kaupapa Maori (Maori full immersion school) based. One of the most difficult challenges that she faces is that she lacks understanding of Maori tikanga and te reo (Maori language), and she also has very minimal understanding of the Anglican church and its structures. Because she lacks in the area of te reo, tikanga and Anglicanism, she feels limited as to what she could do. My role is to facilitate the provision of basic and relevant resources that she is going to need for her ministry and also to provide training in areas that are necessary.
Strategic Leadership
I am strategic in my leadership because I constantly focus on the bigger picture for the future. There is a reason for a lot of the things we do in our church, and to have a plan that is set to promote our long term goals and visions, can be made possible if you believe in it. An example of my strategic leadership is that each (Manu Karakia) youth minister I work with, develops a ministry plan, and my role is to ensure that the goals that they have set for themselves have been achieved. The questions are always “why do we have to go this way and not that way?” “Why do we have to be like this?” “Why cannot we be like them?” My answer is to always assess their reality as to what are the possibilities of sustaining what they want to do in the future.
Directive Leadership
Directive leadership is a strength, because it helps channel positive energy into something constructive. There is a need to be more directive as leader, because getting a crowds attention is easy, but is what you do with that attention that is hard, it is in the preparation and the leading that I would know what to do with the crowd. For example, if I want something to happen, but I don’t know how to approach it, when there is a need to get something done I might beat around the bush and try to explain myself in detail over and over again. When I lack energy in getting their attention, I find myself asking for it. I feel in order to be directive as possible is to assert myself all the time even if it poses a threat to an individual, it is important for them more than it is for me depending on how relevant and important the points are.
Having a Balanced Lifestyle
Having a balanced lifestyle can ensure effective ministry. Health and wellbeing is a priority in terms of self care. In order to be effective in ministry I have to be fit physically, emotionally, and mentally. For example, if I am fit to lead, but I am limited as to what I can do physically, I undermine my own leadership. The whole purpose of being fit while in leadership is so I can deliver and uphold standards of leadership people look for in me.
Basing it on Jesus
One of the theological bases of my understanding of Leadership is that Jesus was authoritative and meaningful in his own way. There is a reason why our church is structured the way it is and why we are a church with order. We have inherited the ancient Anglican traditions and practices, and it is these traditions and practices that our ancestors were taught by the early missionaries. As a leader I feel that we have to keep these traditions and practices alive today, and in order to this, we are to reinforce it at all times, and make it relevant in today’s context.
An example of Jesus authoritative and meaningful leadership is in the Gospel of Matthew, 16:21-24, where Jesus foretells his own suffering at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and the scribes, and details his death and his rising again on the third day. When he said this, Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked him, saying “God forbid if Lord this ever happened to you.” Then Jesus turned to him and said “Get behind me Satan, you are a stumbling block to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” For me it is simply saying “let things be, don’t try and defeat the purpose of God’s will for us in this world.”
Another theological basis of my understanding of leadership is that Jesus was directive in his leadership because he gave clear directions to his disciples. Our church sometimes loses its focus on mission, and that is because our church leaders aren’t giving our people clear directions as to what we have to do to put our mission in to action.
We always worry about the materialistic things in this world that may affect us, or we focus on issues like resource sharing or human sexuality. An example of Jesus being directive in his leadership is in the Gospel of John, 21:15-17, when Jesus asked Simon Peter “Do you love me?”, and Simon answers “Yes Lord, you know that I love you” and Jesus replies “Feed my Lambs.” Simon Peter felt hurt when Jesus asked him a second and a third time. Simon Peter then reaffirms that only Jesus knows everything and yes that he loves him and Jesus replies again, “Feed my Sheep.”
So Jesus said “Feed my Sheep”, Jesus did not say go sort out the World, and sort out your differences, and then go feed my sheep. Jesus simply said “Feed my Sheep.” So Jesus made it clear to his disciples that his mission is to be the Shepherd to the sheep, and to lead the flock and not to lose focus on them.
Jesus taught his disciples, and at the same time showed them through his actions. Another example of Jesus in his directive leadership is in the Gospel of Mark, 1:14-22, where Jesus says to the fishermen “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately the fishermen left their nets and followed him. Today we are called by God to serve in his church, and become a missionary in our communities, within our families, and amongst our peers. Part of our mission is to provide spiritual guidance and to set the path as to which direction the individual or team will go.
Basing it in Tikanga
My cultural understanding of leadership is that servant leadership is one of the many aspects of leadership we follow. Galue is a Samoan word that comes to mind when talking about servant leadership. Servant leadership is being seen feeding the people. Galue means hard work, and staying behind. That is, you cannot lead from the front if you haven’t learnt how to Stay behind and sweep the kitchen floor. In the Samoan custom, a real sign of a true leader is someone “whose eyes burn every day from the smoke of the umu (rock oven). In a Samoan context, the proverb “ale ala o le pule, o le tautua (to lead is to first serve)” would best explain the kind of leadership people look for. It is similar in a Maori context, in order to sit on the paepae or the taumata (traditional seating of speakers on a Marae), you start from the kitchen and you work your way forward. You ‘instantly’ become a leader after years of service to your whanau, marae, and to the hapu.
This TORU module, Raukura, has taught me a lot about myself and the leadership qualities I have. This assignment has shaped my understanding of leadership in today’s context in terms of what is to take charge and to lead in such a diverse community. Writing this reflection has also given me the opportunity to explore other areas of leadership that I haven’t yet explored. There are so many things to do for my future role as a leader, and so many types of leadership areas I have yet to discover.
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