A Leader Is A ______________?

How would you answer that? Scot McKnight is onto something in this regard.

In James Vanoosting’s And the Flesh Became Word, he has an essay about leaders and administrators. He trots out three “types” of leaders: business manager, military commander, and intellectual leader. He then suggests another image, simile, for leaders.

I suggest it for your consideration, whether you are a parent, a teacher, a pastor, or in any kind of leadership. His suggestion: the leader as novelist. Leaders are storytellers in that they see what is going on, put it together, and create a narrative (a story) that connects with others.

I’m suggesting that more and more the traditional and the emerging leaders are connecting at this point: leaders as those who tell the story, who show the meaning and make the meaning of what is going on in the community.

The leader as storyteller keeps and interprets the story — he or she deals with characters (all of them), action, place, time, theme, and audience. Do you know the characters, do you know what is going on, do you know where you are, do you know what time it is, do you know the theme/mission, and do you know the audience for your story?