Leadership- And The Lack Thereof

[poliphilo]

The Archbishop of Canterbury is a gentle scholar. I'm sure I'd enjoy his company if he came to tea.

He's not a bad man; he's probably a very good man; sadly he's the wrong man.

Just as Michael Foot- another gentle scholar- was the wrong man to put in charge of the Labour party.

And the Pope- a cat-loving bureaucrat- was the wrong man to put in charge of the Church of Rome.

Being wise and sweet and gentle and personally likeable isn't enough. Having read lots of books isn't enough. People who are most at home in the library are unlikely to make good leaders (though there are exceptions- see Lawrence of Arabia). 

Leadership is like that Higgs Boson thing. We know it exists but we can't pin it down.

Field Marshal Montgomery came to our school once and gave us a talk about leadership. I don't remember what he said. It was probably guff. Montgomery was a funny little, stiff little goblin of a man- we schoolboys thought he was ridiculous- but he had leadership coming out of his ears.

Charisma, self-belief, an ability to connect to ordinary Joes, decisiveness, strength of character- Whatever it is that goes into the leadership package Tony Blair has it and Gordon Brown doesn't.

Of course leadership is morally neutral.  A great leader can be a curse.

But poor leadership is also a curse. As I think the Churches are finding now.

Look at Benedict at the Easter morning bash- arranging to have a flunkey praise him to his face, then, in his own homily, avoiding the subject on everyone's mind. 

Or Archbishop Williams- saying the right thing inadvertently, then hastily apologising.

There's a genius there for doing absolutely the wrong thing, for piling mistake on mistake, for shying away from the responsibilities of office. 

There's only one thing the world's Christian leaders should be talking about now. They can't avoid it. They can't change the subject. Going, "La, la, la" is not an option.

And if they can't deal with it properly they should resign. Handing the problem over to someone better qualified is also a way of showing leadership.

Comments

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Corporate business gurus agonise about this. It isn't the same as management which is an organisational skill. It's about inspiring others to see your vision and follow you towards it. How you do that is the hard part.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think leaders are born.

Montgomery was the least likely leader ever. He was uptight, repressed, humourless, funny-looking, vain, unimaginative- but he inspired people. I don't think leadership can be taught. Management, yes; leadership, no.

Great leaders are really, really rare. I don't think there's anyone around in politics today who qualifies.

[airstrip.livejournal.com]

Also, like the Higgs, it seems that the only way to find it is to smash things together and see if it pops up....

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's right. It only appears in a crisis. Winston Churchill would have been remembered- if at all- as a colourful political chancer if he hadn't got his chance with WWII

[redatt.livejournal.com]

Alas, the LHC (Large Head Collider) currently appears to be broken . . .

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Again? Oh no! (My nephew works at CERN)

[redatt.livejournal.com]

No, no, the Large Hadron Collider is fine! It'll no doubt smash out the God particle before the Large Head Collider causes a Supreme Leader to pop up ;-)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Oh good. I don't really understand what's going on out there, but I'd like them to succeed.

[chiller.livejournal.com]

Well put.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

One must not forget that the Pope of Rome is one of the most intolerant and fundamentalist Catholics alive. He was head of the modern day version of the Inquisition as well. If I hadn't left off being a practicing Catholic long ago I certainly would now.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It was an interim appointment- a continuation of the reign of John Paul II by other means- which saved them the trouble of thinking very hard about where they wanted to go next.

John Paul sowed the wind and his successor- and hatchet-man- is reaping the whirlwind.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

All very true but it seems he was the man for the job, then.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

They're saying Razinger wanted to take a tougher line on child sex abuse, but John Paul over-ruled him- which is tough news for those who regard John Paul as a saint.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Yes. Perhaps that's one of the reasons they've been dallying over John Paul's beatification. They now say the required miracle (a nun was "cured" of her Parkinson's Disease) attributed to him was no miracle and she has relapsed.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

If the beatification is halted it's going to offend one lot of people- and if it goes ahead it's going to annoy another lot. In the old days they used to wait for a person to become history (and the dust around them to have settled) before they started the process. I think that was wise.

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

I can't think of a single Archbish who lived up to your (not unreasonable) high standard. At least he's an improvement on the one who looked like a goldfish

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That would be Carey, I guess- who is still around and pushing a right-wing evangelical agenda.

I don't suppose there's been a truly outstanding Archbishop of Canterbury since Cranmer.