Christian Leadership in an Age of Disruption

— by Mike Sharrow

A bunch of CEOs were hosted by the director of a PhD in Leadership program at a prominent university.  The director asked the CEOs to go around the table sharing how things were going in their respective organizations.  After listening intently to each one, he responded to the group. “What is odd to me is the implication of how you each talked about your situations. You each complained, maybe even whined, about the problems plaguing your various enterprises. It is not that any of the problems you described are not legitimate and even serious, but the tone you described them in implied annoyance – as if you were irritated that they existed. My friends, it is the very reality that there are problems in the world and organizations that leadership is necessary. It is why you are here.  I’d encourage us to not loathe the very reason we are needed as leaders, and instead ask what are we going to do about these situations.” 

I was facilitating a town hall conversation around racism, social justice, inequality and reconciliation efforts in the marketplace in late 2020.  The subject matter expert for the conversation was Dr David Anderson, and he was fielding live Q&A from a national audience. At one point questions got mired in broad brushstroke frustration around root causes and implied “blame” for these massive issues. Dr Anderson interrupted, “Friends, while it would be extremely worthwhile for any leader to invest the time to really understand the forces and factors historically behind how we ended up here…I’d challenge leaders at the table to bypass that as the starting point and instead go, can we agree there is a problem?  If there is a problem today, then regardless of who’s fault it is or where it came from, we are leaders and leaders solve problems – so what are we going to do about it?”  

In 2002 the US Army War College began to forecast a permanent and accelerating change to the global security landscape.  Less and less is there a singular, geographically isolated “enemy” with single front battle zones and clear paths of victory. Instead, the world was becoming increasingly volatile, ambiguous, complex and uncertain (VUCA) as the norm. Embracing the new reality was imperative to devising new methods for leading and fighting in the future.  

VUCA is not limited to the domain of defense and security – it’s ubiquitous.  Recent years have made it only all the more pronounced.  Hear this short example of how a leader with JetBlue Airlines faced a VUCA scenario to then illustrate how awareness of VUCA can empower you to lead through storms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg5h1e0UetI 

Bob Johansen wrote a fantastic resource, “New Leadership Literacies,” which unpacks a lot of practical future study principles including dealing with VUCA (here’s a great lecture he gave).  Johansen advocates combatting the inevitability of VUCA with “VUCA Prime,” essentially, the antidote.  

Here is a worksheet you can use with your leadership team to identify the VUCA factors of any given scenario and what VUCA Prime countermeasures would be or require – VUCA Antidotes Worksheet.

Christian Leadership in the Age of Disruption

Many leaders lack the courage to exemplify what it means to be made in the image of God. As Christ-followers, we are not called to merely follow the trends. We are called to be shapers of cultures, and disruptive circumstances call for innovative leadership.

To inspire catalytic breakthroughs and growth, reinforce your core vision and values. Encourage outside-the-box creativity, not a fixed mindset. Our approach must be rooted in a provocative, “all-things-are-possible-with-God” perspective that demands radical rethinking, challenges the status quo, and digs deeper to face challenges with the freshness of our God-given creativity.  We can fight the VUCA of today with VUCA Prime disciplines anchored in the eternal perspective.

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