Dr. Mark J. Chironna is uniquely
gifted to train, mobilize, and ignite
transformation in God’s people.
His is a clear voice for the 21st
century that resonates throughout
our global society with the cause
of Christ and the message of His
Kingdom. KingdomExec. Magazine
was honored to interview Bishop
Chironna to get his candid take on
leadership style, method and more!
The emerging future never looks like the predictable
past, unless those who seek to “control” the future
actually repeat the past. The surest way to disqualify
oneself to have a “style” instead of an awareness and
state of consciousness that is yielded and pliable to
what each new context and challenge requires. The
work of Robert E. Quinn goes a long way to deal with
this very issue, and he describes a “fundamental state”
which we access from time to time, which however is
no person’s normal state. The reality is that everyone
can access that state when it is necessary by asking
themselves the appropriate questions.
KEM: What was the first leadership responsibility that
was entrusted to you?
BMC: Interestingly enough, the first “leadership” role
I had was to be a crossing guard at the public school I
attended. I was in 6th Grade, and the school was brand
new, and the neighborhood was one of the fastest
growing neighborhoods on Staten Island at the time.
Traffic issues were growing, and every public school
at that time had students who were “Crossing Guards”
who helped direct the flow of students crossing the
streets.
KEM: How would you define leadership?
BMC: Leadership is an activity in which an individual
or group of related individuals have come to a place of
anticipating what wants to unfold in the future (either
near or distant), and have then created a pathway to
get there.
KEM: Who were or are your greatest figures of
inspiration, and why?
BMC: Jesus, the God-Man heads the list for me. He
is the fulfillment of the Story of Abraham, and is both
Lord and Messiah.
KEM: How would you describe your method or style
of leadership?
BMC: I am not persuaded that the “style” of leadership
is actually a track I would run in or on. There are many
dynamics that we face in our spheres of responsibility
that require many different modes of response, again
based on what wants to unfold that has yet to unfold.
KEM: On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate
yourself as a leader and why?
BMC: I wouldn’t rate myself as a leader for a
number of reasons. This is not about competition or
comparison, all of which is what the Western Culture
has made leadership about, all of which flies in the face
of being a follower of Jesus. His Kingdom is NOT of
this world, and yet we continue to want to build our
parameters of leadership around a Western World’s
model of “leadership”. It is perhaps the reason that
Barbara Kellerman, Harvard University, one of the
foremost authorities on leadership and the leadership
industry for the past few decades wrote her most
significant work entitled “The End Of Leadership”
for all of us to take a good hard look at the reason
leadership has failed in the current culture.
http://kingdomexec.com
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