Cultivating Alignment

Some years ago, a consultant at an offsite I was attending recounted an experience he had with a senior pastor at that pastor’s leadership gathering.

The consultant asked the senior pastor how well his leadership team knew the vision statement of the church. The senior pastor was confident that every one of his leaders would know the statement by heart.

“Fine,” said the consultant to the senior pastor, “every time one of your leaders fails to accurately quote the vision statement, you will do 10 pushups.” To the senior pastor’s surprise and chagrin, most of the leaders failed.

“I never did so many pushups in my life!” the senior pastor said.

This story has remained with me through the years because it is a tangible reminder that alignment between the senior leader and his leadership team cannot be assumed; even after it is achieved, alignment must be cultivated.

It also teaches the lesson that the senior leader often pays the price for the lack of alignment between herself and her leadership team.

The desire of 10 of Moses’ 12 leaders to head back to Egypt rather than follow him into the Promised Land is another example of the lack of alignment and its consequences.

However, the actions of Caleb and Joshua demonstrate the value of alignment. The alignment of those two leaders with Moses and the vision given to Moses by God was strong indeed.

Caleb and Joshua were willing to advocate for the vision even in the face of murmuring and complaining by the children of Israel—so much so that Numbers 14:10 says that “the whole assembly talked about stoning them.”

Moreover, Caleb and Joshua remained with Moses and, in my opinion, must have held on to the confident expectation of an eventual entry into the land of milk and honey, during the long, 40-year trek in the wilderness.

Their actions demonstrate that alignment of the leadership team is the glue that holds the entire group together in pursuit of the group’s purpose and destiny even in the face of internal opposition and despite the presence of external obstacles.

Good leaders create, cultivate and model alignment among the members of their leadership teams and the people they lead.