Moses: Some Interesting Thoughts on Leadership
Moses is described as a “nursing father” in a book that is a study on leadership. The man led the Israelites from slavery in Egypt to wondering in a wilderness but never saw with his own eyes the culmination of the vision and entry of the people into the promised land.
Wildavsky describes a great leader as one who “is able to inculcate principles so profound that other people can successfully implement them well into the future.” Rather than formalizing and concretizing principles into structures and forms that become stagnant with the culture and generational change, and rather than being the heroic leader that brings the people into the promised land, Moses was left with the task of learning to lead and giving birth to a people who would continue as loyal followers of almighty God. Moses had to plant the tradition and DNA necessary to enable the Israelites to make adjustments into the future; from Egypt to wilderness to promised land and beyond, without him.
Wildavsky notes that Moses’ life suggests “he who teaches must continue to learn”. Moses’ last lessons include recognizing that no leader is indispensable, that a leader must relinquish his own role, “efface oneself” so as not to have created followers of himself, rather followers of God in the process of becoming a people.
“leaders must make themselves redundant: and…the best teacher, or leader, leaves a living tradition that others can continue to shape. By reactivating the events of history in the light of present and future significance, Moses inaugurates a tradition of interpretation, a model of self-scrutiny, and critical, historical consciousness.”
“The chief virtue in leaders is to make themselves unnecessary. To be a “nursing father” –knowing that the child may die, will probably rebel, and must be allowed to make history on its own—is the essence of Mosaic leadership. Teaching that leads to learning that creates new teachers is a circular process of renewal, not a linear model of leadership”. (p. 167)
As we come continue on with the work we do, I find myself asking, have we made ourselves indispensable, unnecessary? Have our SfC colleagues been taught and released to participate in critical thinking, self-discovery and critique, cultural exegesis, and the application of principles to new situations? Is ours a living tradition that the future generations will be able to continue to shape?
Lots to think about. Its never too late to start, right? Moses was 80 when he led the people out of Israel, so life is just beginning!!!
(see The Nursing Father: Moses as a Political Leader by Aaron Wildavsky, University of Alabama Press)