Oct 06 2005
Current Leadership-Thoughts Blog: Redemptive Leadership: The New York Times, Wednesday, October 5, 2005
Redemptive Leadership…I have always been drawn to this concept as it relates to organizational leadership. The word “redemptive” comes from the word “to redeem” and, according to Webster, means: a. to free from what distresses or harms; to free from captivity by payment of ransom; b. to extricate from or help to overcome something detrimental; c. to release from blame or debt. Clearly, a redemptive act, as it relates to leadership, is a particularly relational word. It involves people. The taxonomy of the word fundamentally connects to actions of freedom, liberation, and release from that which hinders, binds, obstructs, confines, limits and which has the net effect, ultimately, of punishing or inflicting pain.
Organizations, I am convinced, are filled with people who, though they mask their pain and disappointment well, are nonetheless “carriers” of disappointment and hopelessness who easily infect their colleagues. Hopelessness and disappointment are the result of continually existing in dehumanizing, devaluing and thankless work cultures. The question I would ask is this: in what way can leaders lead redemptively in a manner that frees and liberates those who are bound and confined by their own pain and disappointment? Is it the leader’s responsibility to try to remediate this issue? My answer is unequivocally “yes!” If not the leader, then who?
I was reminded of this issue by this article appearing in the NYTs on 10-5 entitled, Serving Life, With No Chance of Redemption by Adam Liptak.
“Minutes after the United States Supreme Court threw out the juvenile death penalty in March, word reached death row here (Livingston, TX), setting off a pandemonium of banging, yelling and whoops of joy among many of the 28 men whose lives were spared by the decision. But the news devastated Randy Arroyo who was facing execution…
Mr. Arroyo realized he had just become a lifer, and that was the last thing he wanted. Lifers, he said, exist in a world without hope. “I wish I still had that death sentence,” he said. “I believe my chances have gone down the drain, No one will ever look at my case.”
“This is hopeless,” he said
If you are a leader of people…I would strongly encourage you to read the article. My point here has nothing to do with the legitimacy, or lack thereof, of the death sentence. Rather, the issue is that these two words, hopelessness and redemption, are inextricably bound together when it comes to people who are in a place of oppression and discouragement…two words that would describe many work cultures.
I believe that leaders who are mature and responsible (that is, not “over-functioning” responsible) understand that they have a critical role to play with the people in their organizations who feel hopeless and insignificant within the environment in which their work occurs. When the meaning that employees attach (or that other leaders do not attach) to their work and work environments creates deleterious personal effects, leaders must step in. How do they do this? I suggest the following:
First: Think deeply about your role (your responsibility) as a leader in confronting and dealing with the esteem and worth of your staff…especially when their esteem and worth is negatively impacted by your organization. Again, I affirm that it IS the leader’s responsibility to decisively act here.
Second: Strategize, design and facilitate a mini-symposium and open forum to discuss the “climate” in the organization. This is a highly complex though by-no-means impossible piece of work. My advice, hire a competent and experienced organization development consultant who specializes in Appreciate Inquiry as a model to get at the issue.
Third: Identify the sources of the toxicity within the organization.
Fourth: Strategize and implement processes to intentionally eradicate/eliminate/reshape these forces (often systemic forces) within your organization. Again…use someone who understands how destructive organizational systems create organizational despair and hopelessness.
When leaders lead in such a way…no one in the organization becomes a “lifer”…trapped in their industrial or corporate despair with no hope of “redemption.” On the contrary, when leaders become Redemptive Leaders, there is a continual flow of hope within the culture of the organization. And in our hopeless culture today…the presence and infusion of HOPE is priceless!!!
Think about it….