Do You Have a "Beautiful View"?

The name of the hotel, when translated into English, is “beautiful view.” That isn’t what I thought as I looked out my window. To be fair, the hotel had no control over the adjacent property. And while the name had a certain connotation, their promotional material had not promised a beautiful view. My experience, however, reminded me of how difficult it can be for leaders to be honest about their current reality. “Current reality” is the status of your church or ministry today, described as completely and accurately as possible. It’s not a nostalgic description of the glory days of the past or an optimistic picture of dreams for the future. It’s not a filtered version that focuses on the positives while omitting the negatives, not is it doom-and-gloom that ignores the good things. Accurately describing current reality is important because doing so provides the energy and impetus to move toward a better future. It starts a discussion that can lead to dissatisfaction with the status quo. As Max De Pree said, “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.” It’s easy for me to write about describing current reality, but I know that it can be difficult to do. It’s difficult because:

• Some important aspects of current reality are not easily measured in ministry settings. How do we know if people are growing spiritually?
• Other leaders may reject this description. They may respond like the person who puts their hands over their ears and yells to avoid hearing bad news. Or they may want to “shoot the messenger.”
• If you’re a long-tenured leader, the description of current reality may feel like an indictment of your leadership.
• You may not have answers for the tension that is created when describing current reality.

Let me be clear – I’m not suggesting that you need to air all your dirty laundry to external audiences. I would not have expected my hotel to publicize the less-than-attractive view that awaited half their guests. Assessments of current reality are internal discussions for the leadership team. But even with that qualification, I realize that you may be reluctant to describe your current reality. So let me close with a final question. What is the alternative? John Kotter says that “too much happy talk from senior leaders” is one of the primary reasons for organizational complacency. If you and fellow leaders are unwilling to be honest about your current reality, do you really think that you’ll be able to move your church or ministry toward God’s preferred future? It’s easy to receive my blogs by email. Just sign-up on Feedburner by clicking here.]]>