Scripture

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they’re a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Thought

Transformational leadership theory is not dead! This was one of two conclusions from an academic research journal I read recently.

Transformational leadership theory has been around for 40 years and has been one of the most actively researched leadership paradigms, but now the theory has found itself at a crossroads with modern critics pointing out serious flaws in the theory.

How could this be when hundreds of primary studies and dozens of meta-analysis have consistently produced strong relationships between transformational leadership and outcomes such as performance, engagement, satisfaction, commitment and turnover?

Our answer.. Identity Crisis!

For nearly half a century we’ve been trying to find our leadership identity in a theory, as mounting evidence reveals this to be misplaced hope, we are desperately trying to defend its position.

We all have a desire to make sense out of life. This was intentionally designed by God to help lead us to him. The world, especially academia, has attempted to satisfy this desire by developing and validating sound theories. The problem is we allow the theory, or pride in the theory to control our hearts, moving God from His proper place in our lives.

Where we look for identity determines how we lead. God wants to be the center of the way we understand ourselves, understand life and make sense of our circumstances. We’re designed to get our sense of identity from him.

When we look to theory horizontally for any other identifiers to exchange for God we’ll always be left with empty idols and more questions. Identity drift is a subtle and long process that will have a huge impact on our spiritual health and leadership potential.

Let’s be bold in declaring the death of anything that might stand in the way of us growing closer to God.

Call to Action

Fight back against identity exchange by listing out things of 2021, other than God, that you allowed to contribute to your identity. Share your list with us so we can compile a master list for our leadership community to be aware of going into 2022.