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By author Ronald A Heifetz and Marty Linsky, Harvard Business School Press, 2002.
Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University focus on surviving in the face of reactivity in Leadership on the Line. Pastoral leaders can benefit from Heifetz and Linsky’s broad point of view.
They begin by laying out the challenges and very real dangers of leadership. Then, they suggest how leaders can respond to the challenge. One response is what they call “get on the balcony.” They use the image of a dance floor and suggest that leaders must view the pattern of the dance from the balcony—but to then re-enter the dance. Leaders need perspective but also need to stay engaged. Heifetz introduced this metaphor in his first book, Leadership without Easy Answers (also well worth a look). This seems to me a vivid image of differentiated leadership, to play that balance between separateness and togetherness in the rough-and-tumble moment of leadership.
The other responses include thinking politically (knowing with whom and how to be connected), orchestrating the conflict (choosing your battles, and then managing them carefully), giving the work back (we might say, don’t over function), and hold steady (stay on course even when the heat is on). They conclude with a section called “Body and Soul,” which is essentially about self-regulation and ends with a chapter on spirituality.
In general, this work has real substance, with the authors putting themselves into the game at points regarding their own leadership and personal challenges. Heifetz and Linsky’s experience and perspective, from local to global, give us a larger focus on looking at our own pastoral leadership challenges.
Margaret Marcuson is a faculty member of Leadership in Ministry, Boston. Through her coaching ministry, she helps clergy “work smarter, not harder.”
