The Leader’s Most Critical Role

This principle gives the leader a clear commission. Certainly, any leader must first offer vision – a compelling picture of the future we desire and what must be done to seek it. Without this shared vision, an organization or team or family has no direction or common undertaking.

To be understood, a vision must be seen. Words and images help explain it. But a vision gains greatest power, depth and legitimacy when it takes on flesh – when a leader incarnates the vision, even if imperfectly2. The future we seek for others must begin in us. The leader’s first imperative is to embody the vision they seek to effect in the world.

The leader’s second imperative is just as important. We must guard and grow the people who join us in pursuing the vision. If we believe that the best fruit rises only from healthy trees, then the thriving of those we lead becomes our most essential objective.

To care well for these people is first an act of love. It reflects and reveals God’s love for each of us. This care would be worthwhile even if it carried no other benefit.

But an entirely practical case can also be made for prioritizing this care. As contemporary management research demonstrates, thriving employees produce dramatically better results for companies. These outcomes range from higher customer satisfaction and quality metrics to increased long-run profitability3 .

Nurturing healthy and highly engaged team members depends on many things, of course. But evidence suggests that a holistic approach does it best. Financial compensation alone, in fact, is notably less important than other factors4. The wholehearted engagement of staff members is rooted in a “whole life” health – everything from workplace culture to exercise, vacation practices to strong marriages5 .

Again, the final reason for cultivating the health of souls – whether our own or others – is not productivity, but love. Like all forms of love, however, the care of souls inevitably produces the expansion of life.

2 See, for example, John 13:14-15; 1 Corinthians 11:1; Philippians 4:9. 3 An immense volume of business literature confirms this point. See, for example, the work of the Gallup corporation on employee engagement. (https://www.gallup.com/ workplace/231581/five-ways-improve-employee-engagement.aspx). 4 See, for example, https://hbr.org/2017/01/what-matters-more-to-your-workforce-than-money. 5 Again, we often observe exceptions in the short run. High pressure sales environments, for example, squeeze impressive “results” from both their salesforce and buyers. The numbers – measured solely by immediate sales growth – can be superlative. But over time, results appear more alloyed, often including low satisfaction among both employees and customers, high turnover, and breakdown of relationships and systems. In time, these negative indicators ultimately take a toll even on the “bottom line” of profits. In contrast, consider the long-term success of companies built on the opposite ethic – like In-N-Out Burger, Chick-fil-A, Herman Miller, or Southwest Airlines. Not only are employees and customers grateful and loyal, but their profits – over time – tend to outpace their industries considerably.