GroupThink: How Christian Leadership Can Avoid the Biden Problem

Poor Leadership

The Biden debacle in which no one on the inside of his campaign is capable of telling him the game is up, is eerily similar to how toxic Christian leadership plays out. In fact so much of it is the same that you would swear that those involved were reading the same “Poor Leadership For Dummies” handbook.

In a recent article in the New York Times by guest columnist Adam Grant, entitled “The Reason People Aren’t Telling Joe Biden the Truth”, the list of those reasons was pretty much a check list of everything I have written about over the past few years when it comes to bad church leadership.

And, I might add, pretty much the check list of what I experienced in a couple of Christian organisations myself, including one as recently as last year.

Grant makes this point as he opens:They entered with courage and exited as cowards. In the past two weeks, several leaders have told me they arrived at meetings with President Biden planning to have serious discussions about whether he should withdraw from the 2024 election. They all chickened out.

Chickened out. It seems strange doesn’t it? Here are people at the top of their game, whose decisive nature and leadership acumen would make the average church leadership team look fourth-rate, and they have exactly the same low percentage of spine when it comes to having the hard conversation as those church teams do.

The key of course is that they think they have too much too lose. In fact it’s often the tell-all story that comes out after they have lost their job that reveals just how much concern they had. The book deal they sign. And why are they so honest after the fact? Because they have nothing to lose. Or more to the point, they have lost it all! It’s the condemned man on the gallows saying “I meant to commit every crime I ever did!”

The toxic church leadership situations I have been involved in have all centred around that as well. The toxic leader knows that he has the job security, the financial security and very often – the emotional security – of his underlings in his hands.  Unless someone breaks ranks and everyone follows, he – and it usually is a “he” is safe.

Poor Outcomes

Sadly, seeing this playing out among the people of God is more gut-wrenching to me than seeing it played out in the godless arena of cut-and-thrust secular politics.

Adam Grant goes on to say:

According to the original theory, groupthink happens when people become so cohesive and close-knit that they put harmony above honesty. Extensive evidence has debunked that idea. The root causes of silence are not social solidarity but fear and futility. People bite their tongues when they doubt that it’s safe and worthwhile to speak up. Leaders who want to make informed decisions need to make it clear they value candid input.

Fear and futility. That’s exactly the issue. The twin-headed snake of fear and futility. I’ll be shredded if I say something. And what’s the point anyway? Nothing will change!  The risk is so high and the outcomes so poor!

That was exactly my experience at The Crowded House in the UK. And what made that worse was that the pattern wasn’t a four year term of government, but one that had lasted for almost 25 years in various iterations. And, sadly, from my understanding, that was the same with my most recent employment experience.

Good leadership wants, desires, requires, a “black-hat” in the room. It requires someone to say what the general leadership team won’s voice because of the fears listed above. But when that black-hat is either non-existent, or is made an example of by the leader, then the risk is that nothing is said.

Of course, that’s not the greatest risk. The greatest risk is catastrophic failure. And that risk is unacceptable at the level of world leadership. That leaders will put their self-interest ahead of the global interest in this instance with Biden, is shameful. They are, in the end, not leaders at all.

Toxic leadership, in the end, cannot grow something in the same way that healthy leadership can. Oh it can for a while, but eventually it withers. It soon starts to lose the trellis of good, strong leadership, as well as the revivifying water of honesty and hard conversations.

Grant observes

It’s hard enough to speak truth to power in an ordinary job. As the management expert Amy Edmondson says, “You don’t want to call the boss’s baby ugly.” Now imagine telling the most powerful person on the planet that the baby might not make it.

Now you can see how that translates to the church setting as well. In my most recent experience, plenty of people were calling the boss’s baby “ugly” behind his back, and were more than happy to agree and affirm those who, in the end, did voice their concerns and lose their jobs over it. But that doesn’t mean they will voice their concerns publicly.

Poor Excuses

Over the years I’ve heard all of the reasons under the sun as to why someone in a ministry role will not call out bad behaviour in a senior leader:

“I need this job!” (no you don’t you need God); “We’re not showing the leader enough grace!” (not true, you’re not showing him any grace at all by allowing him to continue in sinful or foolish behaviour”; “He gets stuff done.” (once again, not true and certainly not a reason to allow an ungodly leader to continue. What? Do you think that God overlooks such behaviour when he determines whether or not to bless with fruitfulness a poorly led ministry).

But the biggest concern I have in church leadership when I hear these poor excuses, is found in the comment by Adam Grant above:

Now imagine telling the most powerful person on the planet that the baby might not make it.

Surely as God’s people we know that the most powerful person the planet is the Lord Jesus. And that it is his approval that counts. And that one day he will return to seek an account from all church leaders as to how they managed his people and his affairs?

I’ve lost sleep, work, wages, friends and position over my refusal to say nothing in the face of bad leadership. And sometimes people have told me to dial it down a little. Perhaps at times I need to. But perhaps at times they need to dial it up a little. Because here’s what I haven’t lost when I’ve spoken up about bad leadership: My integrity.

Adam Grant says this:

In dysfunctional groups, people favor loyalty over honesty. In healthy groups, honesty is an act of loyalty. There’s a reason Americans pledge allegiance not to people or power, but to principles. When we express unconditional support for a leader, we compromise our integrity.

If you have a toxic leadership situation, then stop excusing it. And certainly stop hiding it and allowing other people to fall under its wheels. If there is one thing that I should have done more in the past in such situations it was speak out. Not speaking out to others is all about self-preservation. It is not selfless sacrifice for the sake of the other person’s good. And, ultimately, it’s not much good for the toxic leader either, especially if you have a concern for his sanctification.

Our integrity should matter to us all more than anything else.  Adam Grant says it even in the secular world. And if true there, how much more true of God’s kingdom!

Keep your integrity. God can find you more work. It may not be the work you just left or were sacked from, but so what? If you value the role above anything else, then let me tell you, you will let things slide and you will turn your gaze away from bad behaviour. And often – all too often – the result is that you lose your job AND your integrity!

If you are a Christian leader and you are seeing toxic, ungodly leadership in front of you, and if you are sure that to speak out would result in you losing your job, then just remember that the approval of your peers or your boss will fade away on the last day. Probably before. The approval you seek is the approval from the one who in Christ already approves of you and will one day say “Well done good and faithful servant.”

If you cling to that you’ll never be like Biden’s inner coterie.