Transparent Leadership?

In the 21st century, leadership styles have changed.  Not long ago, the leader was the captain of the ship, and the captain stood stoically on the bridge, a rock of courage, with unflinching determination and decisiveness.  But times have changed.

Today we live in a much more transparent world.  The captains, the leaders, are considerably more open, revealing their thoughts, concerns, fears...but how much transparency is too much?

A WWII movie of not long ago, U 571, had a scene that always rattles around in my thoughts when I ponder what is the wisdom of transparency for the church leader of the 21st century.  In the movie, a young executive officer takes charge through a series of peculiar events; he is now the captain of the ship.  Yet in the midst of a terrible crisis, the entire ship looks to the new captain for a command decision.  However, the rookie captain doesn’t know what to do;  clearly he is unsure, maybe even afraid to make a call, and even appeals to the other sailors at the helm?

 "What do you think we should do?"  

In that moment a grizzly ol' swabbie petty officer interrupts, "Captain, could we meet in your quarters?  We need to talk."  

Moments later the veteran old salt asks the unsure captain, "Sir, permission to speak freely."  

Then he speaks freely.  "Captain, if you don't know what to do, or are not sure, there's one thing a captain must never do.  You can be unsure, but you can never let the crew know that.  You must look like you know what you're doing even when you don't know what you're doing!"

Admittedly, church leadership is not the same as commanding a ship of war.  But in our day of team leadership and transparency, how much is too much?  How much self-revelation leads to disheartening the team, and the church at large?

So, how much?  In truth, I don't know, and I'd answer with the famous, "It depends."  

Maybe the answer comes from the example of Jesus.  Those closest to Jesus got a deeper peek into his thoughts than those more toward the periphery.  For example, the 5000 didn't get much explanation or exposition, but The Twelve often got deeper insights.   Peter, James and John, more than anyone else, received even deeper insights.

By analogy, in these days of transparency, a leader is often wary of too much transparency to the congregation at large and large subgroups.  Yet as a minister's circle of leadership narrows to the closest few, I am convinced that the stoic lone commander on the bridge and no one knows what's going on inside her/him—this model of pastoral leadership is not necessary, and more than likely is not wise.

Even the "supreme leader" needs a closest few, to live out "bearing one another's burdens," not only to fulfill the mind of Christ, but to exercise faithful leadership in the Body of Christ.

Joyfully,

Dale Patterson