‘Leadership fatigue’ comes about for a number of reasons including such things as: persistent decision making which may have an impact on other people’s lives; defining and developing business directions, sourcing income streams for the business, consistently adjusting to dramatically changing economic environment and meeting regulatory, industry or professional requirements.

In this Seattle School talk, Dr. Dan Allender identified the reasons why most people are leaders, the top 5 issues leaders face, as well as some personal reflections on how to care for one’s self in the midst of leadership fatigue.

… business leaders and executives demonstrate fatigue because 1. so much of what they have been doing is not working as well as they would like and 2. what they know how to do, is not producing the results that are expected of them. This most commonly shows up as “things not moving fast enough” and “resources dwindling”. It also shows up with not having the “right people on board” or not being able to “retain the talent” needed to be successful.

… anyone who wields great power is bound to rub some people the wrong way, and those disaffected people accumulate over time. They also tend to have longer memories. As Dan Julius, a senior academic administrator now in the University of Alaska system told me years ago, “the things you did that upset people and create enmity live on much longer than what you did that people liked and created supporters.” … “leave before the party’s over,” which contains much wisdom about the importance of leaving positions before our charms have faded, and about the discipline required to do so. By overstaying, leaders place themselves in situations where they become less effective, tarnish their legacies, and are therefore less able to move on to a new position of power.

Can I make a confession? I sure get tired of leading. Though I currently do not occupy an organizational C-level leadership position, I confess that I sure get tired of having to initiate more frequently than I’d like. Sure would be nicer if it’d be more 50/50 where someone else initiates with me vs. my initiating with them. I don’t like the weight of having to make decisions with its consequences affect myself and others. Some people eat stress for lunch. I’d rather eat dessert.

Too often, people go to a conference alone, get all jazzed about an idea, but have the hardest time getting the idea across to the others since the people back home didn’t hear and experience the conference. Talk about hitting the brick wall. Yeah, there’s some value for getting inspired and/or recharged. There’s so much more value when you can take ideas home to implement and turn it into reality!

That’s why I love the way Sticky Teams 2.0 is encouraging teams to come. Registration fee is $269 (early bird rate ends 9/2) and the registered person gets to bring 2 others for free! And the conference organizers, who I got to meet earlier this week, are anticipating the event to sell out soon. Only 130 seats left at the time of this writing. (Aside: I like seeing that real-time seating countdown.)

And, I’ll be there myself. I’m doing a breakout session on social media –

DJ Chuang | How to Go from Potential to Mastery in Social Media
There’s more to social media than putting a Twitter and Facebook icon on all your communications. But it doesn’t have to overwhelm you or take up all of your time. Learn how to increase your social media proficiency, become the master of your online reputation, and expand your ministry impact worldwide.

Would love to connect with you there! And in addition to my session, you might also want to hear Mark Driscoll and Larry Osborne

At the 20th Annual Conference of the Committee of 100 one panel caught my attention, Managing Asian Talent in Global Companies – Confucian Tigers. During that roundtable, it was (rightly) cited that:

Asians are 5% of the population.. yet less than 1/3 of 1% of executive positions.. less than 1% of board positions.. even though Asians are better educated and make more money than any other group in America..

And then the roundtable moderator cited a paper published in the Journal of Applied Psychology about what do people perceive of Asian Americans, “the brand of Asian talent,” so to speak. Here’s the perception of some people about Asian Americans:

• competent
• consistent
• conscientious
• objective
• well-informed
• rational
• self-controlled
• socially introverted
• passive
• emotionally distant
• reserved

The title of that peer-reviewed paper: Leadership Perceptions as a Function of Race-Occupation Fit: The Case of Asian Americans, was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology [Vol 95(5), Sep 2010, 902-919]. Co-authors are Lynn M. Shore of San Diego State University, Judy Strauss of CSU Long Beach, Ted H. Shore of CSU San Marcos, UCR graduate students Susanna Tram and Paul Whiteley, and Kristine Ikeda-Muromachi of CSU Long Beach. Here’s the methodology used:

The researchers sampled three groups of individuals — 131 business undergraduates from a large business school on the West Coast, and one group of 362 employees and another of 381 employees in the Los Angeles region — and asked them to evaluate an employee. In one experiment participants received identical information about the employee’s expertise as an engineer or salesperson, but some were told the employee was Asian American and others that he was Caucasian American. In a similar experiment, participants assessed the employee’s leadership attributes.

What’s my take? I’m reluctant to write a long essay here, as this blog post is already long. I’ll say this: yes, there are stereotypes and overgeneralization. Yes, there’s a ton of diversity under the “Asian American” group. Yes, there is systemic racism. Yes, there are misperceptions. Yes, there are Asian cultural values (and other cultures too) that impede some people from expanding their cross-cultural capacity to take on a bigger role in a multi-cultural society (or corporation or organization.)

I do think there is way too little airplay on Asian American issues and real life Asian American stories. So the problems persist. An occasional article or roundtable won’t do much to effect change.

One thing that must happen is for Asian Americans to learn the stories of more Asian Americans to represent Asian Americans. And more of those stories have to be told online and not just offline.

Episode #5: Leadership Development
(24:45; mp3 download link 11.3mb)

Show notes:

• “Mentoring is rarely about the facts of the deal… but instead is a transfer of emotion and confidence.” — Seth Godin via bit.ly/i31Lrp @ bubbasmith.net
• 6 Coaching Questions, in a tweet: how are you? where are you winning? what are your challenges? what’ll you do about it? how can i help? how can i pray for you?
• Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement by Dave and Jon Ferguson — the ultimate book on leadership development
• The Multi-Asian Church Podcast Series: Episode #1; Episode #2; Episode #3; Episode #4

Go ahead. You are invited to chime in and add a comment below.

Subscribe to this iTunes podcast feed and get all future episodes automatically.

Episode #4: Leadership
(22:27; mp3 download link 10.8mb)

Show notes:

• Unlimited Partnership: Igniting a Marketplace Leader’s Journey to Eternal Significance by Lloyd Reeb and Bill Wellons
• Center for Faith & Work, a ministry of Redeemer Presbyterian Church
• The Multi-Asian Church Podcast Series: Episode #1; Episode #2; Episode #3

Subscribe to this iTunes podcast feed and get all future episodes automatically.

• How to Break Growth Barriers: Capturing Overlooked Opportunities for Church Growth by Warren Bird and Carl F. George
• Taking Your Church to the Next Level: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Gary L. McIntosh (2009)
• One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Bringing Out the Best in Any Size Church by Gary L. McIntosh (1999)
• Overcoming Barriers to Church Growth: Proven Strategies for Taking Your Church to the Next Level by Michael Fletcher
• The Myth of the 200 Barrier: How to Lead through Transitional Growth by Kevin E Martin
• Size Transitions in Congregations edited by Beth Ann Gaede
• The In-Between Church: Navigating Size Transitions in Congregations by Alice Mann [cf. outline & review by Pastor Jenny]
• Also The Everychurch Guide to Growth: How Any Plateaued Church Can Grow (Thom Rainer, C. Peter Wagner, Elmer Towns) and Breakout Churches: Discover How to Make the Leap (Thom Rainer) by [ht: Andrew Cromwell]

There are certain church sizes that seem most common, as if a certain group settles into a certain size stability equilibrium. Here’s some estimates of those sizes:

• House Church= up to 40; Small Church=40-200; Medium-Sized Church= 200-450; Large Church= 400-800, Very Large Church [from Leadership and Church Size Dynamics by Tim Keller]
• … completely different “orders of being” … a church of less than 35 members a “cat” and a church of 100-175 a “garden,” and a church of 225-450 a “mansion.” [quoting Lyle Schaller, in this article]
• relational church= 15-200; managerial church= 200-400; organizational church= 400-800; centralized church= 800-1,500; decentralized church= 1,500+ [Taking Your Church to the Next Level, Gary L. McIntosh]
• Small Church= 15-200 ; Medium Church= 201-400; Large Church= 401+. [via Gary McIntosh's Typology of Church Sizes (PDF), from One Size Doesn't Fit All]
• Family-sized= less than 50; Pastoral-sized= 50-150; Program-sized= 150-350; Corporate= 350+. [via How to Minister Effectively in Family, Pastoral, Program, and Corporate Sized Churches; cf. church size theory by Arlin Rothauge]
• “Most churches generally face growth barriers when Sunday attendance approaches 65, 125, 250 or 500.” [via Nelson Searcy's Break the next growth barrier]

And, the articles are:

• Leadership and Church Size Dynamics: How Strategy Changes with Growth (PDF) by Dr. Tim Keller, Redeemer City to City; also in 2006 e-newsletter as Leadership and Church Size Dynamics.
• How to Minister Effectively in Family, Pastoral, Program, and Corporate Sized Churches by Roy M. Oswald, former Senior Consultant, Alban Institute, 1991.
• Learning from Lyle Schaller: Social Aspects of Congregations
• Translating Church Growth theory into action via ChurchCentral.com
• Understanding and Working with Your Church’s Culture (via Assemblies of God)
• Church Leadership: One Size Doesn’t Fit All (via Christian Reformed Church)
• A Conversation about Congregation Size (w Vern Sanders, Rusty Rabon, Barbara Arnold, Chip Stam) — in response to Monday Morning Email’s topic: “… our societal emphasis upon size, and the corollary that bigger is better…”
• Barna Group Study, How Faith Varies by Church Size, via Ed Stetzer’s blog (Aug 2009): “The Barna Group released the findings of a new study that showed ‘congregational size is related to the nature of a congregation’s religious beliefs, religious behavior and demographic profile.’ Specifically the study showed ‘statistically significant differences between churches of 100 or fewer adult attenders and churches of 1000 or more adult attenders.’”
• Other resources about church size transitions at Alban Institute’s Congregational Resource Guide.

This FAQ from HIRR gives perspective on the whole: “The median church in the U.S. has 75 regular participants in worship on Sunday mornings, according to the National Congregations Study. Notice that researchers measured the median church size — the point at which half the churches are smaller and half the churches are larger — rather than the average (186 attenders reported by the USCLS survey), which is larger due to the influence of very large churches.”

Closing thoughts: 2 areas where church size makes a difference is the leadership structure needed and a perceived “growth barrier.” While the term “barrier” may be misleading, it’s a term that’s commonly used in “church growth” circles. Church size is not a reliable indicator of healthy spirituality or lack thereof; it’s often more of a correlation with group dynamics and organizational structure. To say it more simply, church sizes are not good or bad. And, some people have a strong preference for one church size, and may need to migrate when a size transition happen.

[update] “Does a church’s size indicate anything about its spirituality or success?” (excerpt from “What People Ask About The Church” by Dale A. Robbins)

But there is a danger in using largeness as a standard to measure success. Size does not depend as much on spirituality as it may many other factors. … Most large churches claim that their size is a result of the ability to satisfactorily “minister” to the needs of a broad range of people. … While it is true that there are more large churches today than there were in the past, they still only make up a tiny percentage of the body of Christ… 90 percent of American churches have an attendance of somewhere below 200. The majority of churches, 55 percent, have an attendance of somewhere less than 100… only about 1 percent ever attain attendances of more than 700.

[photo credit]

Now there’s a book to guide organizational leaders and managers to develop an effective social media strategy. There are a number of great examples mentioned in this new book by Charlene Li, Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead, citing case studies from Zappos, Starbucks, Best Buy, and more. (Apparently JetBlue didn’t make the cut.) Watch my video review:

At the time of this writing, the 8 free critical resources mentioned in the book’s appendix are not yet posted online. Or, I haven’t found them on the open-leadership.com website yet. I hope and wish they’ll get it online very very soon. Can’t wait!

And stay tuned this summer for the book that’s “social media for non-profits.” Authored by none other than Beth Kanter, The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with Social Media to Drive Change. From the same publisher as Open Leadership, Jossey-Bass. Genius.

Aside: I first heard about the book during the Catalyst West conference, where Charlene Li was a main speaker. While I was mesmerized and transfixed on every word, dozens in the audience were stirring in their seats — maybe because they were hungry since the talk was right before lunch. I knew right off I had to get a copy, and I was able to get an advance review copy there, with a voucher for the real printed hardback edition. And it was delivered to my home yesterday. Yes!

[update] Read an excerpt of Open Leadership in BusinessWeek::

This discomfort of not being in control is the reason why I wrote Open Leadership. It’s my attempt to help leaders understand how the rules have changed and how they need to adjust. At the core, leaders have to acknowledge that they are not in control and probably never really were. Instead, leadership is about establishing a relationship, and social technologies are redefining how relationships are formed, grown, and supported.

p.p.s. I actually had queued up a blog post in my Drafts folder before the book launched…

Leading more openly and more online

Conversations are no longer limited to time and space, it’s online and potentially all over the world.

Another thing that’s greatly valuable about this new book, Open Leadership, is that it provides practical tools for a business organization to develop its social media strategy — these are the 8 critical open leadership resources that will be at www.Open-Leadership.com ::

• The challenges
• Openness audit
• Engagement pyramid data
• Benefits and lifetime value calculator
• Social media policy directory
• Readiness checklist
• Open leadership self-assessment
• Open leadership skills assessment

And, one more very valuable resource is Altimeter Group’s list of sample social media policies extant at a number of companies. These Corporate Blogging Policy Examples give you a head start on formulating one for your own organizations.

Watch this interview to hear what Kyle wants to do to change this situation:

Kyle (on twitter @kylelreed) may very well be right, if a young person can’t find a mentor in their church for the Kingdom of God, they’ll find one elsewhere outside the church. So, add your comment below and get this conversation going!

But wait, there’s more!

A national gathering is ramping up in Austin, called VERGE: Missional Community Conference.

Listen to my interview with Michael Stewart (one of the Verge organizers at the Austin Stone Community Church) about this national Verge.

I’m putting together a social media team for the Verge in Austin, those who will host online conversations around becoming & being missional communities, both before and during the Verge conference. Start those conversations via blog, Twitter, Facebook, podcast, Youtube, etc. Verge wants to empower and release conversations both online and on-site. Undoubtedly, (our hope is) the convos will continue even after the Austin gathering. Want to be a part of this social media team? Add a comment, especially if you’d like to win a free registration. One spot left.

And one more thing. I’ll be there, at both Verge‘s — would love to meetup with you on-site there!

The incident regarding Deadly Viper had set the online world ablaze, and very uncomfortable words of pain festered in the open space [cf. read this summary]. My prayer was that the key leaders at the core of the conflict would resolve it privately, walking through their respective pains together with each other. This direct conversations has since happened offline in private, and an appropriate resolution is in the works. A public statement has been issued. I commend all involved for giving of their time and energy to walk thru this via dolorosa.

There’s already quite a number of thoughtful reflections about this incident posted::

• Jonathan Brink, who linked to reflections from Dan Iwao, Todd Thomas, Marian Wang, Edward Gilbreath, Dave Ingland, LT Tom.
• Eugene Cho, Charles Lee, David Park, Shaun King, Glennis Shih, Skye Jethani, Rudy Carrasco, Drew Hyun, Ed Cyzewski, Daniel So, Jim Gray, DK Daniel Kim, Kathy Khang, and more…
• [update] more from David Swanson, Church Marketing Sucks, Ken Fong, Joel Hamernick, Benson Hines, Scott McClellan, Andrew Lee, Dave Diller, Jessica Pegis, Melody Hanson, Jonathan Tran, Bo Lim, Amy Moffett
• [update 11/19] Zondervan Statement Regarding Concerns Voiced About “Deadly Viper: Character Assassins” via @eugenecho‘s Zondervan Pulls Deadly Viper from Stores and the Deadly Viper website shut down by authors Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite; Dave Gibbons’ thoughts Zondervan Issues Apology for Publishing ‘Deadly Viper’ (CT Liveblog); open letter response from Eugene Cho, Ken Fong, Helen Lee, Kathy Khang, Soong-Chan Rah, Nikki Toyama-Szeto

I want to offer a few more ideas in debriefing, with which I’d anticipate some people would disagree with. Conflict in the open was a good thing for 3 reasons [cf. The Necessity of Open Disagreement by Stephen Shields] ::

• This shows us what conflict resolution can look like. Conflict is not a pretty thing. We’ve all seen how ugly it can get, how destructive it can be, how it can ruin relationships. By being in the open, via social media, we saw how the conflict surfaced and moved towards live offline discussions, apologies, forgiveness, working towards resolution. There is a better way through the conflict. After all, conflict simply is. And I for one am tired of overly-positive spin that’s all too common in evangelical circles; I think the younger generation can smell spin a mile away.
• We heard new voices open up their heart and soul. While I did not read every single comment in the initial blog posts, a wide range of voices from new names spoke up, both Asian and non-Asian. It is not easy for anyone to share their pains, particularly Asian Americans, for fear of being misunderstood, misrepresented, or shamed. Asians tend to be a little more (or a lot more) sensitive than non-Asians because of its shame-based culture. Social media empowers anyone and everyone to speak out. This helps us to empathize with the offended much more than signing a petition. (Now, not every Asian American finds this publication offensive, granted.)
• We’ve got a long way to go with racial sensitivities in the church. A loooong way. Conflict that arose up over a relatively minor incident, in the whole scheme of things, shows how little experience we collectively have to just start any discussion about faith and race. And, yeah, these issues are complicated and messy. They don’t sell books nor increase conference attendance nor make churches grow rapidly in size. It doesn’t fit neatly in the systematic theology section.

Now a personal confession. I knew about an earlier edition of this book back in September 2007. I did not get a copy of the book. I did not look out for the authors to review their book to find out how the Asian motifs were being used, in case it might come across racially insensitive. I did not bear the burden for my fellow Asians Americans (the sensitive ones, not the insensitive ones). For my part in this neglect, I am sorry. [No if and or buts.]

And one of the burning issues we often banter about is raising up minority leaders. People and organizations say they want to collaborate and have more diversity in their leadership, but it’s so hard to find qualified leaders to work with. Why is that?

We had a conversation about that in this wetoku-powered video. Watch it:

I have a feeling this is just the start of an on-going conversation. There are other issues, factors, challenges. On both sides of the aisle – those in the majority and those in the minority, racially and ethnically speaking. Chime in with a comment.

I think that discussing highly-emotionally charged issues in an asynchronous public forum like the online blogosphere is mostly ineffective. One party describes the pain of the impact from the (alleged) offense, while the other party tries to describe the original intent, all sincere and good. To quote Sam Chand, “The difference between reality and expectation is conflict.” Both sides have unmet expectations. Both sides have different perceptions of reality. Conflict ensues. It’s more than misunderstanding.

I’ll confess that I’m rather new to the impact of public communications by influential leaders. I prefer a world of open book open source unfiltered communications, and am learning to filter and edit based on readers’ response. But realizing that words mean things, and sometimes words can be mean things to the listener even though the speaker didn’t intend it.

I’d be curious how other influential Asian American leaders like Eugene Cho, Dave Gibbons, Charles Lee, Ken Fong, would respond. My guess is that a direct conversation between Mike Foster and Soong-Chan Rah, in a safe private environment, will bring faster resolution than any further color commentary.

[update 11/4] Mike Foster and Jud Wilhite have issued a public statement that “some of our earlier messages … were mixed in with some defensiveness on our part. … we deeply regret anything we did to offend our Christian brothers and sisters in the Asian and Asian-American communities. … that is why are we reaching out this afternoon to hear the concerns and the best way to move forward together in a positive way that corrects past mistakes, respects individual viewpoints and, importantly, advances the ministry for everyone.”

In the pithy words of John Maxwell, “Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.“

Very good. Everyone has influence. Everyone can impact and influence another person or even a group of people, for good or for bad. But does that mean everyone can be a leader? Can anyone be the leader of a company or organization? Who should be the leader of a group if everyone can be a leader? (cf. “Everyone can be super! And when everyone’s super, no one will be.” from The Incredibles)

So what the majority of the books and blogs and programs are not talking about leadership as merely influence. The leadership gurus are implicitly talking about another layer of leadership. Leadership is much more than being faithful, available, and teachable; much more than knowing your weaknesses, pain, or strengths.

The term that’s been suggested to me is: leadership capacity.

So while everyone has influence, each person has a different amount of leadership capacity. That capacity can grow, thus be developed. And some are naturally (and/or supernaturally) gifted with more leadership capacity right out of the womb. A leadership gift is a higher capacity. This means that a person who isn’t a gifted leader will probably not develop more leadership capacity than someone who is gifted.

The better question is: How much leadership capacity does a person have? How do you measure it?

Thank you Sabastian for a conversation that really cleared the air for me.

Charles Lee (of New Hope South Bay) lists 5 reasons for why he’s going to Unleashing Beauty.

Daniel DK Kim (of NewSong) lists 8 reasons why you should attend the world-changing event – Unleashing Beauty.

The above are commentaries from key leaders at the 3 partnering churches collaborating on this event. Yes, Unleashing Beauty is 100% free + streamed live online. While there will (always?) be conferences where the costs are shared by sponsors and registered attendees, it’s fascinating to see high-quality conferences that are free to attendees, both in-person and online.

I’ve got it on my calendar and I’ve registered. Hope to see you there! Wonder what the #hashtag on twitter will be?