Axiom #14: Osmosis

There are certain things we learned in school that for one reason or another, just stick with you. Quite often there is no rhyme or reason as to why they stuck so plainly, they just did. For me, one of those items is the principle called “osmosis.” I imagine most of you recall it. In brief it states that a substance will always move from a place of greater concentration to a place of lesser concentration. My chemist friends can give the exact reasoning, but the principle is true whether or not an individual understands why it works.

I have seen that leadership works in a similar way. If there is void in leadership in an organization or a group, something will always fill that void. This void could be created by a leader’s departure or by a leader’s abandonment of leading, but the void will not remain a void for long. If the concentration of leadership is low, some leader(s) will move to fill that void coming from the place where there is more leadership.

In almost every case, you will NOT like what moves to fill that void. Seldom does a good leader move into a void created by the leader in place not fulfilling their responsibilities. I have seen it occur where a good leader assumes the leadership of the situation, but more often than not it seems to me that a bad leader will take over that role if the situation is left to its own devices.

That leads to the obvious fact; you should never leave an organization or group without a leader in place. If a group you have responsibility for has a leader resign, take steps quickly to determine who you want in that place, even if it is an interim leader while you locate the correct permanent one. If you want your vision to be carried out, you simply do not want to allow leadership to rise on its own. Have a hand it determining who is in that position. 

Axiom #13: Higher the Rung – Greater the Influence

Leadership is a strange thing. While we can often see where bad leadership has caused an organization to take downward trajectory, it is often not readily apparent the exact cause and nature of that downward path. I would venture to say that more often than not, if an analysis of an organization that has moved toward disarray is taken, you will find  that the root cause began long before the actual demise was visible to those on the outside, and perhaps to most on the inside.

Having spent time watching organizations and their leaders take specific directions over the years, there is a very real fact that, from my perspective, will always be true. This is true for CEOs, Pastors, Boards and any manner of leadership.

When you evaluate those at the top of any organization, one of the first things noticeable is that the when you are higher in an organization’s structure, the longer it takes for the effects of your bad decisions to be become apparent. The second thing is the impact of those bad decisions is far greater. Finally, you will notice that the correcting the effects of those bad decisions takes far longer, if they can be corrected at all. In fact, some decisions at the top can be irreversible and therefore devastating to the organization.

Let’s take an example here. Before I do so, let me state that with the illustration I am about to use, I am asking you not to read value judgements on the positions in question. I valued every person’s contribution to their locale. I am simply observing cause and effect.

As I stated earlier, the higher you are in an organization the longer it takes for the impact to be noticed, the greater the impact and the longer it takes to correct it. If you are a custodian for a company, a church, or any other organization, and you do not complete your tasks, it is evident almost immediately. Clearly within just a day or so, everyone will notice that the rubbish is not cleared, the bathrooms are not cleaned and stocked, and the overall place is getting dirty. The effect is visible quite easily. While this task is indeed important, it will not take the organization down, and you can correct it in fairly short order.

This is not true if you are the leader of the organization. In fact, I would argue that almost always in all three comparatives the opposite is true. If a CEO or some other senior leader makes a bad decision in hiring, or vision, or values, or structure, it probably is readily noticed by only a few, if any at all. The effects of those decisions, however can take an organization down and if you are in a position to seek to correct them, it can take a tremendous amount of time, energy, and resources. All of this is the opposite of the person lower on the organizational chart. In fact, those bad decisions at the top can prove devastating to those lower in the organization. The effects can potentially be even worse the lower down the organizational chart you go. This makes the effects to be “people impacting” on a far greater level than immediate issues at other levels in the organization.

Maybe this is partly why James wrote, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”  wrote, (James 3:1) It is not necessarily that teachers (read leaders for the sake of this discussion) are more important, but if you are a teacher (leader) you have a far greater influence. You words become the words of your students. Your ideas become the ideas of those you lead. Your methods become the methods of those who follow you. You plans become the plans of those who follow your lead. Your mistakes become the mistakes of those whom they impact.

Are you in a position of leadership? Do not take it lightly. You hold the lives (figuratively) of those whom you lead in your hands. Think over, pray over, and ask for assistance with, your decisions while they are still in your mind, before they become reality. Once they are into the world of reality, they effects can be far reaching, hard to notice and at times almost impossible to correct.

Musings on Leadership

Leadership is one of the areas that I have spent a great amount of time studying. I have read on the subject, spoken on the subject, written on it,and gone to numerous conferences and teachings on it. It was one of the items that Jesus, and later Peter, John and Paul would write on. It has quite a variety of aspects of the subject matter. They range from leading, to teaching leaders, to growing leaders.

A few years back, I began a series of posts on leadership that tried to boil them down into pithy statements that I would then unpack. It is along the lines of Bill Hybels book on Leadership Axioms. While talking about this to a friend, he challenged me to write down some of the leadership axioms I had been talking about for some time. I began writing those axioms then, and intend to write on this topic for a few more posts. You can go to the beginning here and read Axioms 1 – 12.

Maybe I will continue for a while. Maybe I will write some, then take another break. We will see how this goes in the upcoming days and weeks. Next will be Axiom #13, Higher the Rung – Greater the Influence.