High-Identity Leadership Examples

Recent newsletter messages may have helped explain the concept of why expectations are poison in leading people; however, they might have been too “in the clouds.”

I’d like to address what leading without expectations might actually look like in real life.

Although many of these tactics have already been discussed, hopefully you’ll be able to see their power in the context of this topic.

As mentioned, direct expectations should only be used in transactional or administrative tasks:

If we decide to have a presidency meeting, it is “expected” that the members of the presidency will show up.

If I give you a task to complete, there is an “expectation” that it won’t come as a shock to you when I later follow up about said task.

To better help you step into the concept of removing expectations, what follows are typical examples of expectation-focused leadership followed by examples of higher-level identity-focused leadership:

EXPECTATION FOCUSED: During zone conferences, a mission president focuses meetings on numbers and behaviors and uses the data to define how “well” the mission is succeeding—often publicly praising the missionaries that have accomplished specific “expected” behaviors.

IDENTITY FOCUSED: A mission president prioritizes his time to regularly interview each missionary—personally getting to know them and where they are on their faith journey. In zone conferences, spiritual development and helping missionaries understand correct doctrine are the main themes.

EXPECTATION FOCUSED: The theme and topics of a stake conference are focused on stake challenges, programs (Come Follow Me, Ministering, etc.), and on how individuals in the stake can improve their behavior (i.e., more temple attendance, more scripture study, more ministering).

IDENTITY FOCUSED: The stake presidency prioritizes their time ministering to ward leaders (especially bishops, elders quorum/Relief Society presidents), mentoring them to be better prepared to lead their organizations. This requires regular one-to-one interactions between the stake presidency and ward leaders.

EXPECTATION FOCUSED: The deacons quorum advisor pushes spiritual, social, physical, and intellectual goals in every lesson and activity, making sure they are following the program to reach expected goals and outcomes.

IDENTITY FOCUSED: The deacons quorum advisor works to connect with parents and involve them in the journey to mentor each deacon to gain an understanding of the deacon’s desires, passions, and personal ambitions. Activities and lesson plans are secondary to the main focus of supporting individual deacons in the life challenges they currently face.

These hypothetical examples are difficult to articulate because identity focused leadership is nuanced.

This is why expectation focused leadership is often the default—it’s simply easier to execute.

To give you a real-life example, I direct you to the higher-level leadership of Coach Larry Gelwix of the Highland Rugby team as portrayed in the movie Forever Strong.

Coach Larry Gelwix (a former guest of the Leading Saints podcast) taught that success might be seen as a high love/high expectation effort; however, the foundation of his success was illustrated by the lawn chair he used on the field to have one-to-one relationship building conversations with each of his players.

Yes, Highland Rugby had team rules but so did every other team they played against.

It was his high love/high identity (convincing individual players of their worth as a Highland Team member) approach that gave Larry Gelwix his 35-year coaching record of 419 wins, with only 10 losses.

As mentioned last newsletter, the same goes for a leader of a church organization.

If that leader can convince those they lead that they are a child of God, a child of the covenant, and a disciple of Jesus Christ, not one more behavioral expectation will be needed.

Help them believe who they are and then they will become and act as a new creature.

In short, high love/high identity leadership includes the following: