The leaders of the future will be those who dare to claim their irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation.
Interpretation
Future leaders must embrace their perceived irrelevance as a meaningful calling.
In this quote, Henri Nouwen emphasizes that true leadership in the future will not come from holding onto power or relevance, but rather from recognizing and accepting one's position of irrelevance in a rapidly changing world. By doing so, these leaders can find a deeper purpose and calling, allowing them to empower others and lead with authenticity and humility.
In practice
In a leadership workshop, you might share this quote to inspire participants to embrace their unique roles.
The Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. God loves us, not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love.
The immense joy in welcoming back the lost son hides in the immense sorrow that has gone before....our brokenness may appear beautiful, but our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it.
Suffering invites us to place our hurts in larger hands. In Christ we see God suffering β for us. And calling us to share in Godβs suffering love for a hurting world. The small and even overpowering pains of our lives are intimately connected with the greater pains of Christ. Our daily sorrows are anchored in a greater sorrow and therefore a larger hope.
To listen is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, welcome, to accept.
Waiting is a dry desert between where we are and where we want to be. (Finding My Way Home)
Becoming the beloved is pulling the truth revealed to me from above down into the ordinariness of what I am, in fact, thinking of, talking about and doing from hour to hour.
My mother did not raise me to ask for permission to lead.
The manager is a servant. His master is the institution he manages and his first responsibility must therefore be to it.
Any person or organization depends ultimately on public approval, and is therefore faced with the problem of engineering the public's consent to a program or goal.
I always lose the election in the polls, and I always win it on election day.
As a leader, you will never get ahead until your people are behind you.
People and organizations don't grow much without delegation and completed staff work because they are confined to the capacities of the boss and reflect both personal strengths and weaknesses.
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