Being a Christian in leadership involves tapping into your spirituality to be a more effective leader, to help others through the work you are doing, to acknowledge the fact that God is working out His purposes through whatever you are doing every day in your job. Know that God actually cares about the work that you are doing, and know that it is worthy of His approval in and of itself.
Recently there was an interesting study from Rice University that explores the question of how business leaders engage their personal faith in their leadership and decision-making.
D. Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice, and Bradley C. Smith of Princeton University conducted personal interviews with 360 American leaders who are considered “evangelical” Christians. These include CEOs, presidents, and chairs of large companies, government and non-profits.
Interestingly, they found four different categories when it came to decision-making:
- Pragmatic. These leaders do not believe their faith gives them all the answers. They make decisions based on experience, facts and analysis, knowing that they may or may not get it right. Their faith does not give an explicit direction on any particular business decisions, but, of course, they hope they end up making good decisions.
- Heroic. These leaders view their decisions as the right ones, regardless what anyone else thinks. Sometimes this actually works (think of the Enron whistleblower, Sherron Watkins, for example). It’s about standing up for moral justice in the face of opposition.
- Circumspect. This is a leader who is deeply spiritual, but doesn’t make a big show of it. The authors of the study cite John Aden, a senior vice president of Walmart International, who cares about a workplace that aligns with his values, but does not vocalise his faith. He does, however, make personal business decisions based on his faith.
- Brazen. You already know what this is. These are the unabashed, flaming evangelicals who feel that their job and their position is simply a vehicle for them to promote their faith. Or, their faith is so entwined with their job that they find it difficult to separate.
These categories offer a more multi-dimensional approach to integrating faith in our leadership roles, acknowledging various personality types and spiritual philosophies.
Which one are you?
Adapted from a Blog Post by Bradley Moore at Shrinking the Camel