Leading and Managing From the Middle

Hey, what's up? So I want to name attention that's being talked about more now. A lot of resources out there. Matter of fact, Leading Second XP Gathering by actually who I consider a friend, Kevin. Again, and there's many more. Clay Scroggins wrote a book on this a while back, some years ago that I read, in which he was one of the first voices that spoke to me and how to lead when not in charge. Back in 2018, I believe, is when I read the book. Oh no, and John C. Maxwell, 360 Degree Leader. So if you don't have those sources, I highly encourage you to check them out. And again, it's some other books I read. I think my pastor Nate wrote one as well. So I'm not saying I'm the first to name this tension, but however, I don't think it gets talked about as much as speaking to senior leaders. And when I say senior leaders, you could be from the pastoral staff to working in the secular side, like VPs, the higher up you move. And one of the biggest things, a lot of times, no matter how great of a leader you are, the more you move up, the more narrative controlling takes place. And what I mean by that, you're kind of disconnected from the front line. Now, in a small church setting, and, uh, it might be a little bit different, but again, as you— as the ministry grows, as things happen, it's only so many people that the pastor can provide that, that care to, as well as trying to, work, you know, of course praying and hearing from God for the vision for that local church. So this is where associate pastors, associate ministers, whatever terminology you want to move, like leading from that second chair, third seat on, really, really matters. Uh, it is not an excuse to do leadership poorly because you're not the, the senior leader in any domain, whether it's again the local church setting or you're working in, uh, corporate America, for lack of better terms. Uh, so this image is kind of showing like in my role I work, like, function more as an executive pastor, and I spend a lot of time, of course, with my dad and my father-in-law, uniquely positioned to try to help with 3 different ministries. And then in my secular job, where I spend most of my time, is I've kind of, for the last 7, 8 years, been more of like in this project manager, Scrum Master, agile delivery. Then I moved to a strategic role, and now I'm transitioning to what they're calling like an enterprise systems coach. So I'll be sitting in the middle a lot, working very closely with senior leadership and, uh, real close still with the teams, a team of teams approach. And one of the tensions that that's going to bring is this right here, and this is what I want to name and kind of talk about. So if you're a pastor, I encourage you to watch this video with your team or your key leaders. Like, you should have a key leadership team, eldership team, or something of that nature. And this is the thing that's often, uh, overlook, and it's not name, and I'll get into that. But one of the main tensions that I face, again, it's like, okay, I'm just going to talk in this context, is that you have the vision from the senior leadership team. Again, you put this in your context, but you have the vision from the senior leadership team, and you need vision, and that's very important. You need clarity. Like, one of the greatest gifts you can give to your team as a leader is clarity. So you have this vision, and then you have the team that's grounded in reality. Like, they're grounded in what's going on and things of that nature. And so the reason why it's very important for a middle leader, per se, leading from the middle, managing from the middle, to hold that tension with integrity and character, as well as be candid, speak in transparency, know how to challenge, know how to say things, really work hard on your emotional stability, is because you have to remain a conduit. You have to be a bridge between the two. When we stop being a bridge or a translator, we become a bottleneck where we can kind of lean towards one side, and it can really create more dysfunction than Again, fluid, like a fluid approach you're going. So with senior leaders, a lot of times what I see is, again, they have a vision and they have to work through narrative control and people telling them what they want to hear. They have a lot of yes men. That's a whole nother conversation, why you have to be what we call a wingman. Leaders need someone that will tell them the truth, look them in their face and tell the truth, challenge them. Again, but remember, they are the leader. So I am— I kind of grew up more of under the old-fashioned approach where behind closed doors I will argue, I will state it, I will ask for permission to speak honestly and candid, blunt. But if a decision is made, then I go, I yield to that. And whether I agree with it or not, you don't need my agreement to be in alignment. So once I agree to it, as long as it doesn't go against scripture and ethical or things like that, hey, then I'm gonna try everything I can within my power, um, of course, in the context, or you might say within my domain, of course, submission to the Holy Spirit to make it work. But anyway, staying on topic here is that, um, but I still have to name that tension. And again, a lot of senior leaders deal with a lot of yes men, yes women. So as that middle leader, you have to know how to navigate that. You have to, uh, hear the vision. So now it's like you're holding the vision from that leader. But then you're also— you're grounded in that vision, but you're grounded in the reality of what's going on. But this is the thing, and this is the real tension where I think a lot of leaders just stay stagnant in the middle and end up not leading anymore, or not trying to manage systems and processes to keep these things working, is that sometimes it's so easy to be grounded in the vision that we lose sight of the people and what's going on. So we silence all of that in the name of the vision. But then the other side of it is that sometimes we can be so grounded in reality and what's going on and blinded by that, that we don't line up and try to move with the vision. And so this is— and oftentimes, again, like I say, this tension is not named because it feels like I'm speaking against the vision, I'm being negative. And if that's the case, then that's a posture thing, and you really need to have an honest conversation with your leader. Uh, I used to be shy of that, but then I was just really developed in that area. So I wouldn't name and I wouldn't say things, and so I would just comply. But as I got educated, learn how to, you know, really learn how to— learn how to navigate conflict management and again have very transparent conversations in a healthy way and lean into that tension and that conflict, uh, I started to see more value in what I do. So you, as a leader, as an associate pastor again, or any type of department head leader, you have a responsibility ability to lead in your area. Like, a lot of times what I see— and I'm going a little bit tangent here intentionally— is that when we're leading from the middle, especially when we see blind spots and weaknesses in that, that leader— because no leader is perfect, like, no leader is just— I don't even care in the local church scene, it's like, I understand a lot of times it's like, God said, I heard from God, I heard from God, and that could be true, and I do believe a lot of it's true, but that still does not negate that that leader has blind spots. But here, here's another tension: when that happens, so many people look at that leadership's blind spot, and they feel like they can do everything better than that leader. So again, now this tension is not addressed. It's known, it's felt, and it's sensed, but it's never addressed. And so we just have to learn how to educate ourselves, man, and submit and make sure that we're coming at things with the right posture to have these conversations. Because it's just as the senior leader in any type of capacity is sitting under a lot of tension, then you have the middle leadership sitting under a lot of tension. And when you have both of these tensions, and they're not, again, being talked about, not being addressed, not having conversations, not hearing one another versus just staying in your position and holding your position. We have to talk. We have to be a conduit and a bridge. This is where I see a lot of systems and things of that nature break down because you don't have that alignment. And so I just want to name that and talk about it for a little bit because I hope the image kind of really sticks home. And I did a whole podcast on this, on leading from the middle. So I'll link it. I'll actually post it in the comments with this if you want to check it out. On all major platforms. But I just want to challenge us all, man, uh, we, we need to lead a little bit more— not a little bit more, we need to lead, um, better from the middle, manage more from the better. Whether you're in a local church setting or whether you're in your secular job, like, leadership is not a title, it's a posture. It's something that you do, it's something that you become, it is who you are. Uh, you don't need a title to lead from anywhere in any organization, any ministry. Uh, that's why I'm real big on what I like to call— John C. Maxwell made it popular— called the leadership table. And the leadership table is like, hey, we're gonna drop all titles as a leader, we're going to put some things out there, and we're going to see who take those things by the horn. Because sometimes titles get in the way. A lot of people are positional leaders only by title because somebody delegated. That's the only type of influence that you have is because someone delegated you a title, whether it's in a local church or in the secular. I can tell you right now, you are operating at the lowest level of leadership because you cannot work your way up to being an influential person to lead. So that's all I wanted to say, man. Hope this helps. And again, I'll drop the— I'll drop the podcast link in the, uh, in the comments below. And, um, and I pray that more and more content helps put language to some of the things that you may be feeling that can help you have productive conversations to move things forward in whatever organization you're serving in.