Pastors are master brokers in the art of language. They are skilled at using persuasive words to drive people towards decision and action. Pastors are simply master communicators. It comes with the job. But there are times some pastors may misuse this gift and become manipulative.
And when dealing with high-capacity leaders in their church (staff, elders, Council, Board, deacons), they can default to their tried-and-true techniques to talk their ways out of difficult situations. They may be tempted to use their political skills and soothing prose to defuse hard conversations, frustrations, and personal accountability. And if these approaches prove unsuccessful, pastors may be tempted to go to the other extreme and become bullies. This works for awhile.
Former General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt would relate to these type of pastors. In the post-Jack Welch era, when the company’s stock price, accounting practices, and overall performance were coming under great scrutiny, he utilized all the techniques listed above.
Thomas Gryta and Ted Mann wrote the following words in their seminal book Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, And The Fall Of General Electric (click HERE or on the image provided to purchase your copy):
“Immelt possessed a legendary ability to put people at ease. His cool confidence telegraphed that he knew what hew was doing. When challenged, he used his sharp wit and well-worn talking points to explain why he was right. His bud guffaw and easy backslapping lightened moods and closed deals.
But that wasn’t working on Wall Street. Not anymore. Smooth-talking leaders from Enron, Worldcom, and Tyco had left a legacy of bitter wariness that would not soon be forgotten. And the financial models of sophisticated investors simply didn’t factor in Immelt’s optimistic visions of where GE was headed. Performance was needed to move the stock, not promises.
That didn’t stop Immelt from trying to argue the stock price higher. Sometimes when Immelt tried to base his case on the numbers, he left Wall Street scratching its collective head.”
Let’s review, when addressing issues or facing accountability Immelt did the following:
- “possessed a legendary ability to put people at ease”
- “cool confidence telegraphed that he knew what hew was doing”
- “When challenged, he used his sharp wit and well-worn talking points to explain why he was right”
- “easy backslapping lightened moods and closed deals”
Pastors, does this apply to you? If so, the following is how your high-capacity leaders will feel and respond:
- “wasn’t working.. Not anymore”
- “a legacy of bitter wariness that would not soon be forgotten”
- “Performance was needed to move the stock, not promises”
- “he left Wall Street scratching its collective head”
Pastors, I want you to have maximum trust and influence with your high-capacity leaders. But to do so, speeches, back-slapping, and politicking will only work for so long. This approach will ultimately create bitterness, confusion, and cause a lack of trust.
High-capacity leaders value relationships and results. Both are needed and required. You must build authentic relationships built on transparency and servant leadership. And you must produce results. You must be able to embody the culture you are wishing to establish and drive the church’s mission and vision forward.
Whether Immelt was a good CEO or not is certainly debatable. However, I know with his approach he would not have been a good pastor. Neither will you if you choose to elevate manipulative personality over proven performance.
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