Leadership South: Definition of Transformational Leadership

Friday, February 8, 2008

Definition of Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is a dominant leadership paradigm in the Church in the Global North. George Barna (Leaders on Leadership) prefers the definition of Gary Wills: “Leadership is mobilizing others toward a goal shared by the leader and followers” (Barna G ed. 1997:22). Tonight I completed a draft definition of Christian transformational leadership for my thesis, based on an analysis of some forty Christian authors. Here it is: “Transformational Christian leadership is effective leadership, by which a Christian leader’s character lays the foundation for personal persuasiveness, influence, and the formation of shared goals.” QUESTION: If my definition should be broadly correct, then character is the touchstone of leadership. Yet being such a central concept (a "centre", in Derridarean terms), might it not merely be serving to give leaders an imaginary handle on success?

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Welcome

Again and again I have heard that access to Christian leadership thinking in the Global South is awkward. Not only is it hard to obtain the materials, but they are relatively few, and often they are published in languages other than English. Often, also, seminaries in the Global South will not use home-grown materials, but will import books from the Global North, teaching them in the context of their own Global South ethos. But apart from this, there is a real problem of parochialism in the Global North. If you are a seminary student in the Global North, take a look at your required reading. It is likely that 90-100% originates in the Global North.

I have served in leadership at local, regional, national, and international levels, with varied experience. I recently completed an MTh at the South African Theological Seminary in Johannesburg, and an MA at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California -- both in the fields of Christian leadership. When I started this blog, I considered that, being in the middle of my research, I could share some of the ideas and issues I am working through -- and perhaps engender some discussion.

In my experience, I would consider that the views of this blog are typically Global South. I consider that my colleagues in ministry would share many of these views. However, it stands to reason that this will not be so in every case.

I have used abbreviated references in some posts (e.g. Jinkins M 2002:23), which refers to the author, initial(s), year of publication, and page. In most cases, this should be sufficient for readers to locate the source.