Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

The Witches Next Door

Home
Pagan
Leadership Versus Leaders. The Difference Matters.

Leadership Versus Leaders. The Difference Matters.

Last updated on: April 18, 2018 at 3:44 pm by The Witches Next Door

Leadership Versus Leaders. The Difference Matters. 2018-04-18T15:44:20-08:00 The Witches Next Door

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Every so often, far too often really, damning revelations surface about a Pagan Leader. A voracious hue and cry is raised. The Leader is publicly admonished or banished or jailed. In the very best of cases, they apologize, step down, get some mentoring, and reflect somewhere, quietly.

Earnest statements are issued by affiliated groups distancing themselves from the Leader or, at the very least, draft responses in support of those that were wronged. No group is immune to it, not really, and all of the carefully worded and implemented policies nearly always look inadequate in hindsight. It’s a sad state of affairs but there you have it. Humans can be real dill holes to each other sometimes.

And while there is no one perfect solution, I think there are ways that some of the underlying circumstances that cause these “Leader” problems can be avoided or mitigated. One way is to look at the differences between Leaders and leadership.

Leader

Here’s the first place to start looking for problems – The position of Leader. According to Dictionary.com a Leader “is the person who leads or commands a group, organization, or country”. It’s the word commands that sticks in my craw. There’s this explicit notion that the Leader speaks for and is in charge of the group or organization and that they have sole command of the group. Implicit in the definition is a unique form of supremacy. They are the Leader. The typical picture of a Leader is of one that rarely tolerates being questioned or being held accountable to their underlings.

Commands. Underlings. These aren’t comfortable words for me. I imagine you’re not super fond of them either, especially if you are the underling being commanded.

Of course, the other side of the coin is that every Leader needs Followers. To be clear, Followers usually want something from a Leader too. Power, recognition, validation, and security readily come to mind, but there are other reasons too. If you’ve ever been famous for minute, been known in your community for something positive you did, you know that all sort of folk will come up to you and want a piece of you. They want your time, your autograph, your approval, a selfie, to be seen with you. It’s easy to get projected upon and even easier to get used to this kind of attention. It is super easy to fall into the clutches of this most alluring spell and start to believe that you are, in fact, all that. Find someone that knows you are not and will tell you you’re not.

Some Leaders know how to work this game to their advantage and do so. Savvy Followers know how to work it too, but the advantage is almost always on the side of the Leader.

leadership

Returning to Dictionary.com we can see that leadership is “the action of leading a group of people or an organization”. Synonyms are given as guidance, management, and supervision. There’s still a component of being in charge, but the connotation is that being in leadership means offering guidance, supervising the actions of the group. I don’t know about you, but that feels a lot different, and better, than Commands.

You might notice the lower case “l”. This is important. I’m much more interested in people who are willing to step into leadership than I am in folk that want to be Leaders. This is an important distinction and a touchstone of good/better organizations. There’s a clue about well designed leadership built right into a previous sentence – “stepping into leadership”. It clearly implies that one can step into and then step out of leadership. Put another way, those in leadership know that it’s a temporary gig and aren’t vested in holding on to being a Leader, beyond the scope of the need for leadership.

I’ll give you an example from my own pagan life. For several years I was one of about a dozen people responsible for producing eight very public celebrations that followed the Wheel of The Year. Being on that ritual planning group afforded me a certain level of influence and visibility in the community.

On more than one occasion, someone asked if I was the Leader of the group. My response was immediate and clear – “There’s a dedicated team of people that make this happen. Do you have feedback or suggestions you’d like me to bring back”? If the person who thought I was the Leader had challenging or negative comments to make, I’d listen, take responsibility, and change something if I could (like getting a chair for someone that found it difficult to stand, for instance). If they had praise or other positive, constructive feedback, I’d thank them and make it clear that everyone on the organizing team would hear the comments.

One piece of lasting leadership this group put into place was the idea of rotation. It was never a secret. Those in leadership today, would mentor and share wisdom with those that were going to be in leadership tomorrow. Then, and this is the most important bit, they would step away from the organizing group for at least one year.

Service

Look actual stuff needs to get done. Events do need to be planned. Someone has to contact the port-a-potty vendor to ensure that enough toilets are delivered to the festival. And godds know, someone better be bottom-lining who is bringing the ribbons for the Maypole. leadership often means schlepping the stuff of ritual and festival making, spending hours in meetings, coordinating with vendors, or ritualists, or the event site, and being responsible to the community that the event/ritual/coven meeting is for.

And here’s another hint at how leadership differs from being the Leader. If you re-read the paragraph above, it’s all about those in leadership doing stuff for their community, be it a coven, a tradition, a festival or some other pagan reason to gather.

leadership, to me any way, is synonymous with stewardship. Any time I find myself in leadership, I ask myself or my co-collaborators in leadership, a series of questions.

Who are we bringing up in the tradition behind us?
What steps can I/we take to ensure we’re passing something of value on?
Is this process transparent/inclusive/accessible for those that want to step into leadership?
Who is currently in leadership and what voices are not present?
What is Community asking of us today?

Being a Leader is fraught with potholes, pitfalls, and power trips mostly of the Leader’s own making. If you find yourself as an unwitting Leader, consider moving into leadership instead, before you really screw something or someone up.

leadership is fraught with potholes, pitfalls, and power trips. You will undoubtedly bollocks something up. Openly find ways to limit your reach, influence, power, and term. And most importantly, be as transparent and accountable as possible to any of the stakeholders.

My dear friend Capri dropped this brilliant bit of wisdom on me recently. I think it speaks directly to the idea of being in leadership versus being a Leader – “It is wonderful to be important. It is terrible to be essential”.

Practice saying this phrase. Then put it into practice.

Previous Post

March 24, 2018

Finding A Magickal Teacher - What To Look For And What To Avoid

Next Post

April 24, 2018 A Beltane Poem - Quite Possibly The Worst One Ever

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Ancestor Work Art and Magic Athena Autumn Equinox Being a Priestess Being A Witch Being Pagan Belatane Beltane candle magic Cauldron Cernunnos cerridwen Choosing a magical name Circle Casting Community Coronovirus Coven Curious about magic Daily Practice Deity Depression Earth Ecstatic Practices Elements of Magic Every Day Magic Fae Food Magic Goddess Grounding House Magick Imbolc Ritual Kitchen Witch Knot Magic Lammas Life Ritualized Mabon Magical Healing Magical Practice Magical Teachers Magickal Tools Making Altars Many Gods West Mountain Magic Nature Witch New Year's Tradition Omens Pagan Books Pagan Camps and Festivals Pagan Food Pagan Gods Pagan History Pagan Holidays Pagan Humor Pagan Humour Pagan leadership Pagan Marriage Pagan Music Pagan Parenting Pagan Relationships Pagan Rituals Pagan Rules Pagan Tattoos Pantheacon Peaceful Home Pearl Pentacle Personal Power Politics Ritual Cleansing Ritual Drumming Samhain Samhain Practices saturnalia Skyclad Spells Spiralheart Witch Camp Spirits of Place Spring Equinox spring magic Summer Solstice Tarot The Magick Of Food Time Magic Uncategorized Winter Solstice Witch History Witch Words WitchCamps Work Magic Year End Review Yule

Select a Month March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 October 2020 September 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz