Rest is all we do

Every month, I try to pick a theme to reflect on that keeps my mind occupied and focused. For August, besides being my wife’s birth month, it’s also the month I’ve made some of the most transformative decisions in my life. Since I’ve spent most of my life in educational institutions, I’m using this month to prepare for the upcoming academic year. It’s a time for reading, forecasting, strategic planning, organizing, and praying for God’s guidance and blessings as I begin a new chapter. This ongoing theme of change and transition still influences me today, so this month, my entire family is moving from Ghana to join me in Evanston, Chicago. I can’t fully share how overwhelming it’s been to prepare for their move. However, what I can share from my experience as the head of my family, which might be helpful to you, is what I've learned from leading this change. First, I learned the importance of rest, second, the relevance of collaboration, and third, the need to unlearn.

For me, rest isn’t just about slowing down to take a nap, sleep, or do nothing. I see rest as a holistic concept that involves all aspects of our lives. Therefore, rest should include the spiritual, mental, physical, and even the wider environment. In other words, unless we make rest our primary focus and make it more inclusive, the benefits will be limited. Taking a nap to refresh your mind and body so you can be fully present to yourself and others is a good start. However, to get better results, we need to tap into resources beyond ourselves to rest truly. For the Abrahamic faiths, this can mean drawing on the idea of the sabbath. It can also mean shifting our individualistic view of rest to include caring for all creation—our social, cultural, political, and ecological systems. This may seem like a daunting or impossible task, but what is rest really about? Isn’t it meant to help us dream, create, and empower us to flourish and transform? Beyond resting to work better, I believe that rest is what we are truly made for. That’s why we need to shift our focus away from work and prioritize rest.

So, how does the above discussion on rest relate to leading personal and organizational change? First, we should rethink the purpose of change as a way to bring us more rest. When we see change as helping us get better rest, who wouldn't welcome it? Only those who have been wrongly and unfairly conditioned to view rest and recreation negatively would oppose it. I used to be that person. Before I entered the ministry, I never took a break. Since high school, whenever school is on holiday, I would help my dad with our family business. If I wasn't working with my dad, I was cooking or doing household chores. If I wasn’t involved in business or at home, I was working at the church. I never had any personal time—no space for it in my schedule. Because I was conditioned this way, when I first started in ministry and realized I had plenty of free time after completing my duties, I didn’t know what to do with it. This made me consider pursuing further studies alongside ministry. Now that God has given me full-time study opportunities without any congregation commitments, I still find it uncomfortable.

In all this chaos of my life, I realized that God is calling me to simply be with my family and live life alongside them. This realization led me to decide to move everyone to the USA to be with me. My reason for relocating is not driven by the pursuit of better financial opportunities or educational prospects, but mainly to spend meaningful time with the people who give my life its deepest purpose. As a leader or professional, if you can make this kind of rest the focus of all organizational change, you will not only develop a stronger team that embraces change more effectively but also nurture team members who know how to be fully human to foster humane success. After all, what is the point of our lives if the pursuit of profit outweighs our efforts to embrace our shared humanity and the common good? In the coming weeks, I will share how we can work together to achieve this goal of recognizing our common humanity through rest by learning to unlearn unhealthy beliefs that have shaped us and hindered us from thriving.

Decolonizing Leadership

Leadership should not be weaponized or used to oppress people. This is what decolonizing leadership means. Leadership is about giving power back to the people. Leadership involves power sharing. Leadership is shedding power to pour our compassionate hearts into others. The only authentic authority that grounds great leadership is compassion. Leading from a heart of compassion is not weakness. Authoritarian leaders are weak because they fear losing power by being vulnerable and showing care. Some leaders believe the only way to wield power is through force and coercion. Consequently, they cannot resist any opportunity to prove their privileges and advantages over their followers. Such leaders are preoccupied with highlighting their privileges and reminding their followers of the substantial gap between them. They employ manipulation, intimidation, exploitation, and siphoning as tools to execute their agenda. Such leaders cannot imagine serving others; they are intoxicated by power and consumed by their self-importance.

It is time to decenter oppressive leadership tactics and reclaim servant leadership. Servant leaders do not distinguish themselves from their followers. They roll up their sleeves to work alongside their team and remind everyone that they are all human. Servant leaders lead with empathy and compassion.  With empathy, they understand the suffering of others, and with compassion, they can reach out to everyone.  Empathy is the ability to connect with and accommodate all members of your team. Empathy does not segregate or discriminate. Empathy does not silence or erase anyone's experiences or feelings.  Empathy has ears to hear what everyone on the team has to say. Empathy has eyes that recognize and appreciate everyone's efforts without being judgmental. Leaders who embody empathy provide their team with a strong dose of encouragement and motivation for peak performance. Leaders with empathy correct with love, intending to nurture rather than destroy the spirit of initiative and creativity. Leaders with empathy view everyone on the team as a potential leader. Thus, they nurture talent and provide opportunities for growth and development. Servant leaders who lead with empathy do not see their followers as competitors but rather as co-leaders.

 

Good Leadership

 

Inspired by the biblical passage in John 10:11, "a good shepherd lays down his life", I argue here that a good leader intentionally and critically engages inhumane ideologies, resists anything that hinders flourishing, and innovatively creates a safe environment that fosters the holistic well-being of their team members and environment where they serve. Leadership is not just about performing the duties that come with a position; how you lead is equally important, if not more important than what you do as a leader. If we take seriously how leaders are formed and do not overemphasize the mechanical training of leaders, our world can be a better place. Drawing from the above bible passage of a good shepherd who willingly sacrifices and protects his sheep, even to the point of giving up her own life, I share with you what I think a good leader looks like.

There are myriad challenges that leaders face. A notable challenge of leadership now is corrupt and oppressive leaders who take advantage of the vulnerable masses. In the above biblical shepherd metaphor, instead of the shepherd leaning into the common norm of slaughtering the sheep for personal consumption or economic benefit, the good shepherd lays down their life for the benefit of the sheepfold or their team members. This is unheard of! Can we get civil and corporate leaders who have a professional formation that has nurtured them in the way of sacrificing for the best interest of the people they serve? For me, sacrificial leadership is not a function any leader learns how to perform; instead, it is a virtue one develops and nurtures like a little seed sown which is nurtured for growth to become a not easily pulled-down mighty tree. How, then, can leaders nurture good virtues that enable them to serve and help others? 

Three things come to mind on how to nurture good leadership skills that encourage one to lead with courage and sacrificially. Firstly, leaders should nurture the critical thinking skills of their teams so the deceptive ideas of thieves, robbers, and sycophants can easily be identified and no longer seen appealing in the team. From my observation, humans are sometimes vulnerable and easily fall for things that end up harming us in the long run. For example, numerous injustices seemed okay some time past but now look very unacceptable. Why do you think the brutal, cruel slave trade boomed and took so long to be abolished despite its clear negative impact and oppressive aftermaths? I think this was because individuals and communities at that time lacked the discernment and conviction to detect what was wrong with the slave trade. In the bible passage I referenced, the good shepherd nurtured their sheep not to listen and follow the voice of bad shepherds (John 10:8). In my opinion, the greatest task of leaders is to nurture in their team a critical and curious mind, and a discerning heart that can easily different what is good from bad. Good leaders are critical and empathic thinkers who help their team members to develop their inner reflective apparatus that seeks the common good and mutual care of one another.

A second trait important for leaders to nurture in their team is the courage to face and manage risks. I think the highest risk there can be is death. However, the good shepherd in the bible passage above was fearlessly well prepared to face and manage any death that came threatening her team.  You don’t need to be old in this life to discover that death and dying situations are part of everyday life. Yes, you should hope for the best and have the true hope that also expects the worst and prepares for it adequately. As a Leader, do not make your team so overly ambitious and optimistic that they dismiss the existential issues that threaten their lives. Also, do not become so threat-conscious that your team becomes so pessimistic that thriving becomes a challenge. Good leaders know how to treat both the good and the bad as two parts of a whole, which are equally important and inseparable. Hence, dare to celebrate the good while you take responsibility for the bad, too.

Finally, good leaders know how to innovatively dream to create the change needed for a better future. They harness their critical thinking and risk-taking skills in a supportive, playful environment that allows everyone to be heard. Hence, there is a collaborative breeding of new possibilities despite the seemingly insurmountable challenges. Good leaders collaborate with their teams to make the world a better place than they found it, irrespective of the cost involved. Make room for every voice in your team to be heard.

Some questions to help you reflect on your leadership journey

1.      How would you describe your present context of leadership or where you feel called to serve as a leader

2.      What are the issues that prevent you and your team from unleashing your leadership potential to the maximum?

3.       How prepared are you to face the inhumane injustices that inhibit the holistic flourishing of your team members?

4.      What resources and support do you need to become the better leader you want to be? How do you intend to access those resources?