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Blog: The Myth of the One Leader June 2, 2024
It is a myth to think that any group or team needs only one leader. I can anticipate the objections when I say, “But someone has to make the decisions! Someone must give the orders and make things move forward. How will we get anything done without a designated leader to ‘rule them all’ (a quote from the classic The Lord of the Rings that ironically describes the ring that gives unmitigated power to dominate everyone ruthlessly)?” Even leadership guru John Maxwell says, “A team that tries to function like a democracy never gets anything done. The truth is that everyone on a team is important, but not everyone is equal. In the eyes of God, everyone is loved equally, but when it comes to leading the team, somebody needs to step forward.”[1]
I hate to argue with such a reputable man with much sought-after thought leadership in leadership. But, with all due respect and humility toward John Maxwell, I disagree with his diagnosis here. The world we know now is much more complicated than one solitary leader can comprehend, much less navigate. In military terms, our world is VUCA: volatile, unpredictable, chaotic, and ambiguous. I understand the leadership impulse in such complicated environments for someone to “step forward” and make the decisions to move us forward. However, we have also seen too many highly publicized cases of solitary leaders who fell from great heights because of unchecked power in both secular and sacred environments. Read More…
