The Immortal Leader
Two weeks ago I wrote about mortality and how it is essential to good community leadership. We all know we’re going to die. We may believe it will be in the distant future but it is a future that will perhaps arrive sooner than we think. We all know this. So what do I mean by the immortal leader?
The immortal leader lives as if they are never going to die. Ask them and they will readily concede they will one die one day. But in practice they are there forever. Here are some signs of immortality?
- The self-perpetuating oligarchy where every year the AGM elects the same committee; it is always attended by the same people who vote the same people into similar positions. There’s no reason a group of friends can’t do this for their own entertainment. But is it right where there is public money or services delivered to vulnerable people?
- There is no succession strategy in place. This can have a profound impact on the small group of Trustees who support the immortal. On the day the immortal demonstrates their lack of immortality by dying, a stroke, a heart attack, a serious accident or walking out they are left running an organisation they have never understood because the leader knew all about it. If they’re lucky another immortal will emerge and pick up the previous immortal’s mantle. If not they’ll need to get their heads around a lot of stuff very quickly.
- Immortals resign regularly and then there is a panic as the Trustees rally round to resolve the issue and persuade the immortal to continue.
- Not all immortals are bullies but it goes with the territory. The problem is to the immortal any discussion of succession is a threat to their power. So, modest proposals to begin to think about retirement or handing on responsibilities can be very threatening. A consultant working with their group can inadvertently trigger these responses. It’s tough because the consultant will have no plans to take over from the immortal leader and so can be unaware of the possibility they have caused offense. Once the defenses are up it is incredibly difficult to regain the leader’s confidence or their followers’. Usually it’s not worth the time and effort.
- The immortal is not always initially visible. Immortals surround themselves with trusted people who are in positions of apparent power. I’ve known immortals who are ordinary committee members, having vacated officer posts held in the past. Their track record means everyone regards them as somehow the owner of the organisation. Once the immortal is under threat the organisation clicks into defensive mode. The person who has triggered the response may never have any direct encounter with the immortal.
- They inflate the achievements of the organisation. A relentlessly positive story justifies the status quo.
Immortality is a spiritual issue. A theologian called Walter Wink has written a three-volume book about the Powers (the first volume is to the left). For Wink demonic possession is where someone allows an organisation to inhabit their being. In first century Palestinian cosmology, every organisation has an angel that can be healthy or sick. Sick angels are demons. We normally read these texts through the twin filters of Medieval demonology and modern horror films and so miss the sophisticated cosmology of this period.
Healthy organisations empower their members and others. Sick organisations can embody humanity’s vilest tendencies. Organisations are in principle immortal. With succession in place they can continue for centuries. The churches are a good example of this and so are governments. They have powerful structures in place so when key personnel unexpectedly go missing, the organisation is not threatened. They can to a degree accommodate their immortals because they are not dependent upon them.
But identification with an organisation is never healthy. It distorts vision and undermines rational thought. Immortals never listen because they have already made up their minds.
How might immortals appear online? Does the Internet extend their power or threaten it?