PC 767 Lifelong Leadership Development Dr Brian Harris

Session 1: Why the Tortoise Usually

Wins: A Quiet Leadership Approach
Ponder Matt 21:28-31

"What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, `Son,
go and work today in the vineyard.' `I will not,' he answered, but later he changed his mind
and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, `I
will, sir,' but he did not go. Which of the two did what his father wanted?" - Jesus

The major focus of this unit is on Clinton’s Leadership Emergence Theory which, in
interaction with narrative theory, gives a helpful overview of the likely leadership challenges
and opportunities at different stages in the life and leadership cycle. Before we get going on
these areas we’ll spend the first day providing some general introduction to the theme of
Christian leadership, which I shall approach using the lens known as “quiet leadership”. We’ll
also ponder some theological insights that are of special significance to leadership…

A Mythbusters Introduction…
You probably know the fable of the tortoise and the hare. Unlikely competitors in a race, it’s
obvious who the favorite is. The hare is faster, shrewder and considerably more charismatic.
But in the fable, the tortoise lands up winning. Seems that the hare, confident of his
prowess, took time off for a nap. The challenge didn’t seem great enough for him and victory
was always assured. By contrast, the tortoise, fully aware of his limitations, kept plodding
along, and against the odds, crossed the finishing line first.

It’s a fable for our time.

This is the age of the cult of personality. Those we most admire are larger than life figures.
They are never stumped for words and unlike us, are at ease in all social situations. They are
smarter, wealthier, fitter and more beautiful than we can ever hope to be. The work they do
seems so much more important than the modest fare that fills our daily agenda. They are
leaders and therefore, clearly, we are not…

Welcome to a tired and stereotypical view of leadership. It owes its origin to the belief that
leaders are born, not made, and that you’ve therefore either got it, or not. It also focuses on
leaders rather than on leadership, usually falsely assuming that the two are synonymous. It
takes little account of life stages and overlooks that what is appropriate and attainable is
impacted by this. And it forgets that sometimes persistent tortoise like plodding in the same
direction produces dividends
You can do no great things, just small
larger than would usually be things with great love.
imagined. - Mother Theresa

In short, rather than accepting unattainable models of leadership, it’s helpful to be more
nuanced. Both definitions and views of leadership vary greatly. Here are 4 different views,
each with a somewhat different focus…

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 PC 767 Lifelong Leadership Development Dr Brian Harris

4 Views on Leadership
View 1 focuses on the characteristics of a leader, noting special qualities that those
who lead tend to have in common. Commonly cited characteristics include
charisma, commitment, courage, focus, self-discipline, a positive attitude and
vision.1
View 2 focuses on position. The leader is the one who holds a certain position. Thus
a school principal is the CEO of the school, and presumably its leader. It’s the old
military concept that you respect and obey the rank rather than the person. Of
course, this sidesteps the question of how the person came to gain the rank in the
first place. It can also be argued that “position is simply a context for leadership”.2
View 3 places the emphasis on influence. Leaders shape the thinking and actions of
others. In this view, if you want to know if you are a leader, look behind you. If no
one is following, then you’re presumably not a leader because you aren’t influencing
others.
View 4, which in some respects overlaps with view 3, focuses on outcomes. When
leaders are around, things happen. It might not be immediately obvious why, but
after a while you notice a pattern. The presence of some people leads to
constructive change… and it happens over and over again. View 4 is distinguished
from 3 because while some have influence, they don’t think to channel it towards
outcomes. This view reminds us that influence on its own is not necessarily enough.
Indeed, we might simply influence groups to attempt nothing by using our influence
to make them feel uncertain or unsure (the “we’ve never done it that way before”
syndrome.)

We don’t need to choose between these different perspectives.3 Each has a measure of
truth, and they usually interact. Position is most often gained because of demonstrated
characteristics and influence. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes people lack a
formal position but have huge influence, at other times people have a position that one
would assume gives influence, but in practice might have very little influence and only
minimally impact outcomes.

A little self-analysis can be helpful. The following four graphs explore the leadership
potential we have as the result of our position or character or influence or outcomes, against
the actual reality of the situation. Where would you plot yourself on each of the following
graphs?

Here’s how hypothetical Amy, newly appointed youth pastor guiding a team of 6 interns,
plots herself…

1
See, for example, John C. Maxwell, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will
Follow You (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1998); John C. Maxwell, The 21 Indispensible Qualities of a Leader:
Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1999).s
2
Mark Strom, Arts of the Wise Leader (Sydney: Sophos, 2007), 49.
3
Banks and Ledbetter embark on a helpful exploration of the emphases and implications of different approaches.
Robert Banks and Bernice M. Ledbetter, Reviewing Leadership: A Christian Evaluation of Current
Approaches (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004).

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 PC 767 Lifelong Leadership Development Dr Brian Harris

Position

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Potential Actual

Comment: Amy has got into a leadership position that could open many doors of
opportunity, but as of yet, these are not being realized. As she is very new to the position, it
could be that she is struggling to make the change from her previous “regular member of
youth team” status to that of youth pastor, or that the church is structured in such a way
that titular leaders don’t have the power one would anticipate (in which case the potential
might be lower than one would have imagined) or that…

Character/Charisma

9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
potential actual

Comment: There is not much gap between the two, so Amy is currently using her charisma
and natural gifting to aid her leadership. This is not always the case – for example, some
people are hugely gifted but are in positions that allow little scope for their gifting to grow.
Leaders should look out for such people and think of ways to ensure that new doors of
opportunity open for them.

Influence

9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
potential actual

Comment: Amy is in a position to influence many people, but is currently only partly
achieving this potential. A reason could be that she doesn’t yet realize how much influence
she can potentially have… or she might shy away from it.

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 PC 767 Lifelong Leadership Development Dr Brian Harris

Outcomes

9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
potential actual

Comment: Amy is in a position where outcomes could be significant. At this stage, they are
not being realized. Sometimes outcomes take a little longer. Often people need to think
more carefully through what the desired outcomes should be and start to work more
consistently towards them.

A task: Do this exercise for yourself. How do you rank

yourself in terms of your potential for leadership as a
result of your position, character/charisma, influence
or the outcomes you are achieving –and then where
do you rank yourself in terms of what you are actually
achieving as a result of each? If there is a gap
between potential and actual – why?

Some Definitions…
Here are some definitions and comments on leadership:

“Leadership is influence, the ability of one person to influence others to follow their lead” -
J.O. Sanders

“Leadership is the capacity and will to rally men and women to a common purpose, and the
character which inspires confidence” – Bernard Montgomery

“Leadership is mobilising others toward a goal shared by the leader and followers” – Gary
Wills

“Leadership is the ability to influence and motivate people toward believing and achieving
things they might otherwise not do” – Lindsay Jones

At its root, the word lead means to “go, travel or guide”. Leaders go first. They are pioneers
not just in the sense of going to a place or achieving an action but in seeing the best course
of action to take. They ask the “where”, “what” and
“why” questions.
Management does things right. Leadership
does the right things – Warren Buffett
Leadership is not the same as management. Warren

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 PC 767 Lifelong Leadership Development Dr Brian Harris

Buffett’s comment has rightly become famous: Management does things right. Leadership
does the right things.”

The word “manage” means hand. At its root management is about handling things. It is
about maintaining order and processes. Managers ask the “when”, “how” and “who”
questions.

We should not underestimate the importance of having both great leaders and good
managers. Without visionary leaders, we’re likely to make the wrong journey – doing
irrelevant things well. Without good managers, visionary leaders are reduced to becoming
visionary dreamers…

Where does Quiet Leadership fit into this?

Quiet Leadership is a theory of leadership that side steps questions of charisma, and when
looking at characteristics of a leader focuses on leadership virtues and values, rather than
innate abilities. It explores ways to have influence regardless of formal position, and it
examines the relationship between desired outcomes and virtues such as restraint, modesty
and tenacity.

In justifying his focus on quiet leadership, one of its key advocates, Joseph Badaracco,
writes,

…over the course of a career spent studying management and leadership, I have
observed that the most effective leaders are rarely public heroes. These men
and women are rarely high profile champions… They move patiently, carefully,
and incrementally.4

A little later he writes,

I have come to call these people quiet leaders because their modesty and
restraint are in large measure responsible for their impressive achievements.
And since big problems can only be resolved by a long series of small efforts,
quiet leadership, despite its seemingly slow pace, often turns out to be the
quickest way to make an organization – and the world – a better place.5

Quiet leaders are realists. It doesn’t mean that they lack idealism, but they are conscious of
their starting point. In the tortoise and hare fable, the tortoise is under no illusions as to his
speed. He is aware that the journey to the finish line is made by tenaciously putting one foot
in front of the other, and that he does not have enough charisma to allow deviation from
that path. It’s not a glamorous plan, but it gets him there ahead of the hare. Allender
expresses a similar idea in slightly different words when he writes of “Leading with a limp.”6

Quiet leaders are aware that they can make no certain promises. We live in a world of
complexity, a world where even the best thought through plan sometimes comes unstuck.

4
Joseph Badaracco Jr., L., Leading Quietly: An Unorthodox Guide to Doing the Right Thing (Boston: Harvard
Business School, 2002), 1.
5
Ibid., 1-2.
6
Dan B. Allender, Leading with a Limp: Turning Your Struggles into Strengths (Colorado Springs: WaterBrook,
2006).

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 PC 767 Lifelong Leadership Development Dr Brian Harris

Strom suggests that one of the patterns of leadership is “speaking into darkness” noting that
“to lead wisely is to pay attention to, and to face with integrity, the uncertainty and fear that
accompanies responsibility and choice.”7 Quiet leaders have the humility to accept that they
do not deal in certainties, and are therefore more inclined to under promise and over
deliver, than to over promise and under deliver.

Leadership and Colliding Truths…

With this background, we are ready to explore the issue of paradox in Christian ministry
more fully. In what follows I am indebted to Newton Maloney’s book Living with Paradox:
Religious Leadership and the Genius of Double Vision.8

A paradox is something that involves an inherent contadiction. It consists of two

propositions that are both essentially true but that appear to contradict each other. Perhaps
the central paradox of Christian leadership is that the Church is based on “otherworldly”
concerns, but must operate in this world. Jesus managed to do both. He could bring dead
Lazarus back to life, even though heaven was far better. He could feed the 5000, and turned
it into an opportunity to feed spiritual hunger. He had time for tax collectors and prostitutes,
but also made sure that Nicodemus was fitted in for an appointment.

Working with paradox doesn’t mean doing a bit of a balancing act – sometimes a bit of this,
sometimes a bit of that. Balance implies compromise, while embracing paradox implies
valuing and affirming both sides of the paradox.

The attached article, which I wrote a few years ago, explores the issue of colliding truths a
little more fully.9 A key leadership task is learning to be comfortable with paradox.

Maloney explores 8 key paradoxes:

The person/ position paradox

The prophet/ priest/ king paradox
The inclusivity/ exclusivity paradox
The timely/ timeless paradox
The for profit/ not for profit paradox
The person/ organization paradox
The product/ process paradox
The mission/ maintenance paradox

Task: In groups, explore these paradoxes. Jot down some key insights into the table below:

7
Strom, 44.
8
H.N. Maloney, Living with Paradox: Religious Leadership and the Genius of Double Vision (San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass, 1998).
9
Brian Harris, "Colliding Truths: Embracing Paradox in Ministry," Ministry Today 38, no. (2006).

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 PC 767 Lifelong Leadership Development Dr Brian Harris

Colliding Truths…

Colliding Truth 1 Colliding Truth 2

Person Position

Prophet Priest and King

Inclusivity Exclusivity

Timely Timeless

Profit Not for Profit

Person Organization

Product Process

Mission Maintenance

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 PC 767 Lifelong Leadership Development Dr Brian Harris

A Reading
The reading accompanying this lecture is the introduction to Allender’s book, Leading with a
Limp.

Especially helpful in this introduction is Allender’s classification of the five main leadership
challenges as:

Crisis
Complexity
Betrayal
Loneliness
Weariness

What do you think he means by each? What other challenges can you think of (for example,
finance, changes in government policy etc.)

He supplements these with what he calls faulty or ineffectual responses (cowardice, rigidity,
narcissism, hiding and fatalism) and effective responses (courage, depth, gratitude,
openness, hope).

After reading this chapter, rate yourself from 1 (not like me at all) to 10 (this is exactly what I
do), on each of the tables below. A hypothetical rating for Frank, a gregarious 43 year old
Senior Pastor of a church with a staff of 11 and a weekly attendance of around 500 is shown.

How Not to: Leadership Challenges and Unhelpful Responses

Leadership Cowardice Rigidity Narcissism Hiding Fatalism

Challenges/unhelpful
responses
Crisis 3 2 2 1 3
Complexity 2 3 3 1 2
Betrayal 8 9 7 8 8
Loneliness 7 7 6 6 7
Weariness 2 3 4 3 2

Comment: Clearly Frank is not afraid of crisis or complexity, and he has plenty of energy. In
fact, from this table it would seem that he thrives on challenges. His area of vulnerability is
in his relationships with people. He needs the affection and approval of others. When he
feels betrayed by his staff or that they don’t adequately support him, he is at his most
vulnerable. And he doesn’t fare well when he has to face challenges alone.

Here is a hypothetical rating for effective responses for Emma, who for the last 3 years has
been the deputy principal of an Independent Christian primary school of 300 pupils.

How to: Leadership Challenges and Effective Responses

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 PC 767 Lifelong Leadership Development Dr Brian Harris

Leadership Courage Depth Gratitude Openness Hope

Challenges/
Effective
Solutions
Crisis 8 4 4 5 7
Complexity 5 3 3 2 3
Betrayal 7 8 5 7 8
Loneliness 9 8 8 7 7
Weariness 3 2 3 2 3

Questions: How would you characterize Emma? What are her particular strengths and what
challenges might she need to overcome?

Now do the exercise for yourself. What leadership challenges do you most naturally rise to?
Which effective responses are you most able to embrace, and which could you embrace if
you worked at it?

Review and Reflection Questions

1) Briefly outline the four views of leadership. How are each different, and how might
they overlap?
2) Which definition of leadership did you find most helpful, and why?
3) What is the difference between leadership and management?
4) What are some of the virtues of quiet leaders?
5) Using Allender’s classification, reflect on what might be required from you to move
from unhelpful to helpful responses to key leadership challenges. Can you think of
ways to move from cowardice to courage, from rigidity to depth, from narcissism to
gratitude, from hiding to openness and from fatalism to hope?
6) What self insights have you gained from this introduction to quiet leadership?
7) So why does the tortoise usually win?

Allender, Dan B. Leading with a Limp: Turning Your Struggles into Strengths. Colorado
Springs: WaterBrook, 2006.

Badaracco Jr., Joseph, L. Leading Quietly: An Unorthodox Guide to Doing the Right Thing.
Boston: Harvard Business School, 2002.

Banks, Robert, and Bernice M. Ledbetter. Reviewing Leadership: A Christian Evaluation of

Current Approaches. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004.

Harris, Brian. "Colliding Truths: Embracing Paradox in Ministry." Ministry Today 38 (2006):
17-21.

Maloney, H. Newton. Living with Paradox: Religious Leadership and the Genius of Double
Vision. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998.

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 PC 767 Lifelong Leadership Development Dr Brian Harris

Maloney, H.N. Living with Paradox: Religious Leadership and the Genius of Double Vision.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998.

Maxwell, John C. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow
You. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1998.

________. The 21 Indispensible Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person Others Will Want
to Follow. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1999.

Strom, Mark. Arts of the Wise Leader. Sydney: Sophos, 2007.

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