He's 28 years old.
He's now the manager of the Front End of the Super Market in which I function as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God.
He's my boss...as things go now, the only person in the department with authority over me.
He leads with great skill.
And, though our work is humble, and often humbling, I consider it an honor to work for him...and WITH him.
There are 50 or so people who work in our department in any given week, ranging in age from 16 to 82.
Call him Jim, is both liked and respected...
...so much so that last summer, when he returned from a week's vacation to work a late-in-the-day shift, the other front enders, mostly high schoolers, actually applauded as he walked to the Front End.
Jim's a nice guy but, by no means, charismatic. As a person, he's nice and normal. But, he's an inspiring leader, probably because he's completely real, totally unaffected.
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Because so many of the churchy people I know are, these days, seemingly obsessed with being leaders and developing leaders, I've spent some time trying to analyze Jim's leadership style to grasp what makes him effective as a leader, far more so than any churchy leader I, personally, have ever known.
Before I do that, one other comment. Jim's not hired to be a leader. He's paid, simply, to be a manager, and he manages well. A leader is who he is. It's not something that Jim does.
Here are some components of how Jim leads so effectively:
1. Jim is always himself. What he does, in any moment, flows from who he is. Clearly, Jim works on making himself a better self. But, he is always honest and natural with himself and about himself. No one ever has to spend energy trying to figure out what Jim really thinks or wants. Jim's Jim.
2. Jim always...and, I mean always...takes on himself the hardest task and the most unpleasant job. As a member of the management team, I see this more clearly than others. There are several difficult and unpleasant shifts that managers have to work each month. Jim creates the schedule and he always takes the worst and hardest work for himself. He never asks of anyone what he doesn't do himself. To paraphrase, Jim doesn't come to be a leader who is served but as a servant who gives far more than he asks or demands. We follow by choice because he seems never to think of himself as a leader. He leads by example. He rarely actually functions as a leader. He never needs to. The members of the team follow because they can't imagine doing otherwise.
3. Jim communicates more than he needs to. I never have a question about managerial concerns because he regularly initiates conversations with me about managerial goings ons that I consider to be above my pay grade. And, he almost always does it in the presence of workers who are not managers, thus, demonstrating to them that I share in his authority AND conveying to them openly that I have his blessing AND allowing them to know that they themselves are privileged to have knowledge of the inner workings of the team. Having said that, when confidential matters need to be discussed, he keeps confidences with the greatest of care.
4. Jim relates to me, and others, based on who we are. Jim's a bright guy and is college educated. He has a business degree from a very decent private liberal arts college. He knows stuff. He has, while we were working, engaged me in conversation about the thinking of Soren Kierkegaard, whom Jim knows is one of my top five heroes in the history of the Kingdom. The last of those chats he was initiated by Jim. Jim talks baseball, fantasy football, NASCAR, country music, even, on rare occasions, politics and religion.
5. Jim is very intimately involved in the lives of the least able of our coworkers. One thing I love about the store is that it hires people, who might not otherwise be employable, to do simple tasks. Among them, are the young men who push shopping carts back into the store from the parking lot. These guys are on the Front End team. Jim and I have a relationship that is restricted to the work we do. But, Jim socializes, outside of work, with some of the cart pushers. As an example, he provided the ticket for and the transportation to last night's major league baseball game between the Phillies and the Florida Marlins to one of the guys who pushes carts.
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I've made it clear here that I think that, in the Kingdom of God, the only leader is the King.
Still, churchy people try to be leaders and to develop other leaders. What they do, to me, borders on or, even, achieves blasphemy.
And, as far as I can tell, those churchy leadership types are failing miserably.
And, none of them serve and live incarnationally in the way Jim does. Jim is more Jesus-like than any of them.
Jim, as far as I can tell, never tries to lead, yet he's followed. All those churchy types, so hyped up on being and developing leaders? They try their derndest to lead, yet rarely inspire and, almost never, are followed.
None of them that I know personally succeed to lead.
Maybe they should mimic Jesus, the servant, in the way Jim does.
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