There are many reasons why questioning personality driven causes have come into my mind of late. It doesn’t matter if it is a church, a school, politics, a business or an organization of some kind, I have been looking at the authenticity of causes in terms of the mission it is on compared to the person who leads it.
For starters, I look at churches. I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church and it has been my observation over the years that the popularity of any given church often depends on the personality of the ministers and their ability to lead a congregation.
Ever since I started going to church, before I was born, churches have always gone through the pains of leadership change. Every time the preacher changes there is a change in the congregation.
The Southern Baptist Church seems to hinge the preaching on the personality of the preacher. This is different to me than my experience in the Lutheran Church or Episcopal Church where the service is much less personality driven and more concentrated on the service itself.
I have grown allergic to personality driven churches and much prefer the types of services that are based on principle and not on personality.
In school’s athletic programs and also in fund raising efforts, you have personality driven programs and programs that continue to be successful despite the change in coaches. Obviously, you are going to have differences between coaches, but there is a way for a school to be successful in sports if it makes it about “The Program” and not about the coach and that has a lot to do with the coach and what kind of person they are.
At my university, Western Kentucky University, the football program is on it’s 4th coach in 7 years. The coaches during this period have all been more about “the Program” than themselves, even though they all have gone on to bigger paying jobs at larger schools. The “Program” at WKU is built on principle and it’s success now is becoming known on it’s own merit and not dependent so much on the “name” of the Head Coach. That is a credit to those coaches, because they don’t leave behind turmoil, the have left behind success and the next coach has been able to pick up the ball and run with it.
A company that doesn’t keep it’s logo more important than it’s CEO is leaving itself open to the humanity of personalities. In contrast, a company that works to build the brand and makes it the center of it’s cause will keep it from being personality driven and be centered on the principles that are it’s mission.
People are always looking for a messiah to lead them to the promised land. There is great danger in that because any human has frailty. When a charismatic leader leaves it is not uncommon for the cause to dissolve and deteriorate as well. People are so euphoric when they find their heroes and heroines and then when they are gone this euphoria dies and so does the cause. Then it is back to business as usual.
Boredom to Brilliance is my “baby.” But, one thing I have never wanted is for people to “follow me” but to “follow the mission.” It has been a bit confusing to me to be honest on how to forward the cause the best way. But, really, ideally, it is something I want to continue even long after I am gone. It has always been about the principle of the sacred commission that people can discover with in them and never was about me.
I don’t want my personality, capabilities and frailties to limit the project, but that the project itself inspires a carrying on inside those who would have much more to contribute than I.
When the movement becomes about a personality and not about the movement, then that movement is in trouble if you ask me.
After all of my thinking on this subject I am now on the look out for organizations that are principled driven and not personality driven. I look for it in business, in churches, in schools, in politics and in life in general.
The driving motto should not be “Long live the King or Queen, CEO, Politician or Preacher!” but “Long Live the Country, the Company the Principle.”