Steve Burks, the Assemblies of God minister who's standing for election at-large as a Republican, has been a bit of a cipher in this campaign so far. Still, he could be representing us soon after the New Year.
So could someone please explain to me the significance of his campaign slogan: Leadership, Not Management?
I have my preconceptions about how the presence of a Pentecostal preacher on the council could change the dynamics of the city council, but my speculations fail me when I try to wrap my head around that slogan. Leadership toward what?
Here's what Burks told The Tribune:
“I do not have a personal agenda. It is time for leadership not management. Management “maintains” status while leadership cast vision and dreams to make one city a place where people want to live and raise their families.”
I still am clueless. Anyone? Anyone?
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3 comments:
Although "Leadership" is important, my take is that we are in dire need of "Followership" (yeah, I know it's not a word, but it still fits)
The people have the power and if they will only put down their purses(quit bickering amoung themselves) and exercise that power in sufficient numbers, the "Leaders" will have no choice but to follow if they want to succeed.
So who really is the Captain of this ship?
The concept of leadership vrs. management is actually common in 'leadership' books for clergy. Churches often opt for the status quo and have difficulty changing. We are often trained to provide 'leadership' to move churches forward, instead of being good managers who maintain the way things have always been.
A philosopher/theologian, Dallas Willard has a great line. "The system we have now is perfectly designed to produce the results we are now getting."
Ultimately it is a statement of someone who wants to move off the status quo. I tend to like this---of course depending on where off the status quo they are leading me.
Thanks for explaining. In my experience leadership is one skill expected of a good manager. I have been "not getting it" every time I see one of those signs.
It is probably not a good idea for a candidate to use a campaign slogan based on jargon from a particular profession. If only the clergy understand what the slogan means he could have saved the money he spent on signs and just mailed a letter to the pastor of every church in the phone book.
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