leadership profile paper

Running head: LEADERSHIP PROFILE

Leadership Profile Paper: The Reverend William M. Englund

Nina Englund

University of St. Thomas

Summer 2015


Leadership Profile of Reverend William M. Englund

Upon graduating from Hamline and working as a music teacher at a local high

school, William found the job to be very unfulfilling. After a few years passed in

teaching and traveling, he found himself being called to the seminary. He had been very

active in church with his family as a boy and young adult, and this seemed like the next

career path for him. His strong religious ties and beliefs affirmed his action to serve

others while serving the Lord.

Reverend William M. Englund is currently the senior pastor at the First Baptist Church in

lowertown Saint Paul. His service at the church has spanned over 25 years, with his first

Sunday preaching from its pulpit occurring in 1990. The church looks much different

now than it did back then. The church is located in what used to be an old warehouse

district and forgotten part of the city. Although the building has remained the same, the

outside landscape has changed along with the inside demographics of the congregation of

followers that has grown immensely over the years. Much of this change is due to the

leadership of (how his followers address him as) “Pastor Bill.”

Lowertown Saint Paul is now a thriving hub with restaurants, ample green space,

a new baseball stadium and access to the light rail. The warehouses around the church

have been torn down or renovated into condos and the neighborhood has been revived.

First Baptist Church is amidst it all. The previous congregation was primarily comprised

of older members of the church with little room for younger growth in numbers. Now, the

congregation is comprised of many people from Refugee Camps on the Thailand-Burma

border. This cultural group is known as the Karen. These members of the congregation

have used the church as a place of worship and a site to be educated United States

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customs. Pastor Bill has sought out ways to help these newly arrived refugees by offering

the church as a place to seek support and preparation for a different life from their

homeland.

Not only is he a pastor, but he is also a father, husband, and an activists, where he

demonstrates leadership as head of a family and out in the community. He is very

important to me because he is my father, giving me to ability to have insider knowledge

and accounts of his leadership at work for over 30 years. He is not just one specific type

of leader, but encompasses many different types of leadership styles including the role of

a servant leader, an authentic leader, and a leader that follows the path-goal theory, all of

which will be addressed in this paper. My dad continually works to serve as an effective

leader through various examples of his actions towards his family, his congregation, and

his community. It is a privilege to be able to write about such a person as a beacon of

light in leadership. The paper begins by addressing how my dad (Pastor Bill) is a servant

leader and how this is reflected in his leadership actions and behaviors.

The Servant Leader

Much of the work of the clergy aligns with that of the profile of a servant leader.

It comes naturally as part of the job expectation to be successful in the field to be

attentive to the needs of followers, empower them, and help them develop their human

capacities (Northouse, 2015). Thus identifying the leadership style that resonates the most

with Pastor Bill and his engagement with followers is that of the servant leader.

Greenleaf (1970) provides a definition of this leadership as:

[Servant leadership] beings with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. The conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead…The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first tomake sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served.

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The best test…is: do those served grow as persons; do they while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likelythemselves to become servants? And what is the effect on the leastprivileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, will they not be further deprived? (p. 15)

Pastor Bill attempted another profession and decided he wanted to serve others not in a

teaching capacity, but as a religious leader because he himself felt compelled. This was a

not forced upon him, but a “natural feeling” as Greenleaf describes it.

Spears (2002) comprised as the first model of servant leadership with ten

behaviors from Greenleaf’s writings to include listening, empathy, healing, awareness,

persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of

people and building community. The behaviors focused on in this section are empathy,

healing, foresight, stewardship, commitment to growth of people, and building

community. Empathy is best described as “standing in the shoes” of someone else. Pastor

Bill demonstrates empathy to the Karen people in his congregation as they arrived

recently to the country by providing them with inclusive language in church services. He

thought about the language barrier of the English language for many of these people and

being in a new and foreign land. As a result, created a space for Karen translations of the

scripture during the Sunday services to be inclusive to their native language and hired a

Karen Associate Pastor to co-lead services. Pastor Bill is also committed to being

empathetic, but also to helping people heal.

Healing is about making people feel whole. At home, he offers many kind words

of support and encouragement to his family and showers them all with hugs and kisses,

and isn’t afraid to talk about feelings when a conflict arises and someone feels hurt.

These signs of affection indicate his compassion and the providing of the emotional

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support necessary for a healthy family. His identification of the need for emotional

healing demonstrates how he cares deeply about the personal well-being of followers.

Helping others heal also creates space to see the good in what can happen in the future

instead of leaving people hurt.

Foresight is about being able to know what’s coming based on the past. By

forming personal connections with followers, Pastor Bill can better predict the future and

help to accommodate follower’s needs. Pastor Bill has started English language and

citizenship classes to educate the Karen. Through these acts, it is evident that Pastor Bill

thought about the implications for the future lives of the Karen in Minnesota. They lived

much different lives in the recent past and Pastor Bill works on altering the outcomes for

the future by providing resources. Providing foresight in resources, like help with

language and citizenship, also lend themselves to the behavior of stewardship in a leader

taking responsibility for followers.

Stewardship is about the servant leader accepting responsibility, but also holding

the organizations in which they work in trust for the greater good of society (Northouse,

2015). Pastor Bill assembled a missions committee at the church that prepares welcome

baskets filled with rice cookers, sheets, blankets, and essentials for newly arrived refugee

families once they arrive at the church. Upon arrival, a basket is delivered to homes and

an invitation to worship at the church is given. These actions demonstrate the outpouring

of resources to help followers become members of society that can be positive

contributors in less time by extending a hand of stewardship. The welcome baskets help

families get on their feet and acclimate to a new life by providing something very small.

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Pastor Bill also helps his own family with physical, as well as personal resources, when

discussing the behavior of the commitment of growth of people.

The growth of people is about helping each person grow personally and

professionally (Spears, 2002). He makes sure the needs of his family are met both

physically and emotionally. He has worked to maintain a steady income and keeps food

on the table, as well as a roof over his family’s head. He, with the help of his wife, also

selflessly afforded the opportunity for all three of their children to attend college debt

free. He has wanted his family to benefit from opportunities to grow and provided the

essentials for life in hopes that by providing college opportunities this could also lead to

professional growth. Growth takes on many forms and can relate to the community

outside of just the people.

Pastor Bill extends his servant leadership outside of the doors of the church into

the lowertown community. He recognizes that building community is important and

sometimes that means starting with physical space. Community is a place that people can

feel safe and connected with others (Northouse, 2015). He is an active member on the

Capitol River Council, which is a volunteer group that meets monthly to discuss and

make decisions that directly affect the surrounding neighborhood of the church. Being a

member of this group, Pastor Bill most recently served to help beautify the neighborhood

to make it more welcoming and inviting, helping design parks and green spaces. He is

currently on a committee working on the Saint Paul River Walk. This is a new idea that

would create space to enjoy the river and the city, while at the same time being eco-

friendly. This service to his community is to help others enjoy the beauty of the city and

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he is actively involved in decisions that bring benefits to places that have been deprived

or unrecognized in the past.

The lens of a servant leadership is complex and focusing on the majority of the

defining characteristics that Spears identified captures Pastor Bill in this style. Servant

leaders are helpful to remind followers that they are not alone and someone is always in

the ring fighting for them, willing to sacrifice themselves before others. It is a very

selfless form of leadership that does not leave much room to dwell on the leader’s own

problems or issues, but instead to focus all the energy outward for the good of others.

Followers search for a leader who is deemed as honest and good in whom they can trust,

in both styles of servant and authentic leadership. In the practical approach of authentic

leadership, it is about trusting the external expression of what is going on internally with

the person in the leadership position.

Authentic Leadership

Authentic leadership is a newer area in research and is quite popular at the

moment. There are two approaches to authentic leadership. The practical approach, which

evolved from real-life examples and training and development literature; and the

theoretical approach, which is based on findings from social science research (Northouse,

2012, p.197). This section of the paper will look at how Pastor Bill is an authentic leader

following the practical approach, according to the characteristics determined by Bill

George.

George (2003) describes authentic leaders as having genuine desire to serve

others, as knowing themselves, and feeling free to lead from their core values. The five

characteristics are understanding their purpose, having strong values about the right thing

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to do, establishing trusting relationships with others, demonstrating self-discipline and

acting on values, and staying passionate about their mission (p. 197). Understanding their

purpose means leaders know where they are going and are inspired intrinsically by their

goals. An example of this is when Pastor Bill planned a trip to visit Thailand to travel to

the camps to see where many members of his congregation had lived before traveling to

the United States. He understands the importance of knowing where followers are from

and by traveling to be fully immersed in the culture. This trip lead to the intrinsic reward

of being able to better relate to followers and move the church to a more inclusive model,

bringing cultures, religion and people together as his purpose for serving at the church.

The second characteristic is having strong values about doing the right thing. This

is a lesson he taught to his children by role modeling. As a father, Pastor Bill would

continually take his children to volunteering experiences at places like the Dorothy Day

Center and Family Place to help feed people in need. By being an active participant in

these service activities, it relayed the importance of helping others who are less fortunate.

This is what Pastor Bill believes is the right thing to do. Doing the right thing also plays a

part in establishing trusting relationships with others because followers trust those who

they see continually do the right things.

Establishing trust in any relationship has to be earned, not given, or it fails to be

genuine. Trust is about allowing one to be guided by feeling supported as a whole person.

Pastor Bill establishes trust in relationships by leading followers on canoe trips in the

Boundary Waters. He took numerous groups, from church members to family trips,

where their lives depend on his leadership. Each person in the canoe with him is trusting

he will steer them to safety and relies on him for the essentials to live, like food, water

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and shelter while miles away from civilization in the wilderness. Individuals surrender

everything to him for safe passage and return on these trips where they may have little to

no survival skills. He has built rapport and trust enough in these followers from his own

expertise and experience in the Boundary Waters and from the many successful trips

already achieved. These trips also demonstrate self-discipline and him acting on values

measured by their success.

Self-discipline and acting on values create focus and determination. Northouse

(2015) also states that this can give authentic leaders energy to carry out their work in

accordance with their values. Currently, Pastor Bill is in court representing the church in

a Right-Of-Way (ROW) Assessment. He strongly believes it is wrong to charge a non-

profit church the same as it would a for-profit organization for the amount of land that it

covers in Saint Paul. He is against this unfair assessment and continues, with diligence, to

fight it in court with the help of lawyers and the support of other churches. He is fueled

and self-determined by the inequality and inequity that the church is facing. He continues

fighting because this is not morally or ethically justified in his eyes. This self-discipline

also relates to staying passionate about the mission because both relate to the compassion

and heart behind what compels an authentic leader.

The mission of First Baptist Church of Saint Paul (2001-2014) involves the following

components: to reach out deliberately and welcome people of all ages, races, cultures and

backgrounds, care for one another, provide opportunities for spiritual renewal and

growth, gather for worship and prayer, promote peace and social justice and work as

American Baptists in partnership with other organizations and faith communities to

further the Kingdom of God. These components were written with the help of Pastor Bill

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and his congregation of followers. The tag line of the church is also “Hope in the Heart of

the City.” The church followers and Pastor Bill work to carry out this mission every day

and it is represented by the countless hours of work and time spent at the building and in

the community. Pastor Bill is always on call to anyone for anything and responds to the

call whole heartedly. He lives this mission by making trips to followers’ homes, jails and

hospitals to visit at the drop of a hat. He truly leads with his heart.

Authentic leadership is a style that involves a lifelong process where the leader is

both formed and informed by each individual’s life story. The experiences that Pastor Bill

has afford him a title of an authentic leader. The style itself is very much about

compassion, connectedness, consistency and passion and these embody Pastor Bill as

evident from the examples listed above. The last realm of leadership to be discussed is a

theory that appears to mesh with Pastor Bill. This is the path-goal theory. This is a

leadership style that shares similar components of authentic leadership with a focus that

the leader remain supportive and achievement-oriented to motivate followers.

Path-Goal Theory

Path-goal leadership is a theory designed to explain how leaders help followers

along their path by selecting behaviors that meet the needs of the followers and the

situation that the followers are working. It is then further defined by breaking it down

into the leader behaviors of directive, supportive, participative, and achievement oriented

(Northouse, 2015). It is critical that the leader understands the leadership style

understands that best meets the followers’ motivational needs.

For this section of the paper, it will take the focus off of Pastor Bill as a pastor

and in the light that I most identify with him as simply, my dad. I have seen him exercise

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directive behaviors with me as I can clearly remember form my childhood. In directive

leadership, the leader gives instructions, expectations, how a task is to be done, and a

timeline for completion (Northouse, 2015). I was assigned chores as a child and had a

chart which I needed to complete by the end of the week. This was an expectation of

being in our family. I remember being told to do the cat litter, vacuum the stairs, set or

clear the table, and keep both my room and the bathroom clean. This was under the

direction of my father who knew that instilling these expectations and being very

directive about the process, was the best way to handle a child in middle school and my

developmental stage. Being directive in assigning chores created clarity for me as a

follower from my dad, just as his being a supportive leader for our family created respect

for each member of our family to be equals.

My dad has a great way of being supportive of our family. Support can be defined

as attending to the well-being and being friendly and approachable to followers

(Northouse, 2015). When the tragedy of my younger sister April suddenly dying struck

our family in 2008, my dad was the glue that held us together. In this time of udder

despair and not being able to comprehend what had occurred, my dad consoled each

member of my family with open arms, a shoulder to cry on, and an ear to listen. He

always took time with each of us to talk about how we felt and when there were no

words, he just held us. This is a true testament of a supportive leader in a situation where

he kept our family together when things were rocky. For this, I am forever grateful to

him. Knowing when to take on the supportive leadership style is a behavior that can help

others get through the most critical days, when the obstacles seem overwhelming. Being

a supportive leader relates to being a participative leader because one needs to have built

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a relationship that invites sharing of ideas. This can only be achieved in a healthy way

through first feeling supported to be open to making suggestions without feeling

threatened.

In participative leadership, the followers share in the decisions making. The

leaders consult followers, gathers their ideas and integrates in their suggestions to make

decisions (Northouse, 2015). An example to highlight from my dad in this leadership

style is from when he would take my middle sister and me to the grocery store for food

samples every Friday. He would let us sit in the cart and we would want to get all the

sugary snacks and cereals that we would see on the shelves as we made our way from

sample to sample. He would ask us what we wanted and allow us to put everything into

the cart. Once we arrived at the checkout, we would talk about what was a healthy option,

the prices of each item, and our needs versus wants. Most of the time, the sugary snacks

and cereals ended up returning to the shelves, but every so often, one would make it

home in the grocery bag. This act of allowing us to be part of the discussion based

decision making is symbolic of participative leadership by recognizing the collaboration

and input my sister and I were able to communicate with our dad. Participative leadership

is more collaborative in nature than achievement-oriented leadership.

In achievement-oriented leadership, the follower is subject to challenges set for

them by the leader. For this reason it is a more independent process than participative

leadership because different followers perform at different levels therefore having

different standards. The leader establishes a high standard for excellence, as well as seeks

to gain continuous improvement from followers. It is also important to note that the

leader show a high level of confidence that followers can accomplish the set goals

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(Northouse, 2015). My dad constantly challenged me to be the best that I could be in

sports and academics, but never in a way that I felt was out of reach of his goals or my

own. A sport that I struggle with is tennis. My dad played in high school and continues to

play to this day. As a gift for his birthday a few years ago, I promised him I’d play a

game of tennis with him. Knowing that my skills were lacking and that I wasn’t very

good, he challenged me to work on my serving. He challenged me to serve five good

balls in a row after showing me a few techniques. I failed the first few times, but

eventually, after about an hour, I met the goal. My dad knew I could do it and otherwise

would not have tried to intentionally set me up for failure. He had seen me be successful

in other sports using the same motions as in serving in tennis.

Although there were times of frustration, accomplishing this challenge made me

want to keep playing and as result of my dad’s leadership, kept me motivated to

continually work at it. Now I look forward to challenging my dad in tennis and my

serving is getting progressively better. This story sheds light on the achievement-oriented

leadership style of my dad and his expectation for excellence.

Conclusion

This paper highlighted the numerous methods that one person can lead in multiple

ways. My dad connects most with the definitions and behaviors of servant leadership,

authentic leadership and path-goal theory to lead followers as outlined in this paper. This

is not to say that there are not more styles of leadership or theories that my dad or anyone

else can fit into as a mold for a leader, but these three showed the strongest connections

from my perspective. I am so grateful to have my dad in my life and to see the impact

that he has as a leader in my life and the lives of so many others. The paper reflects the

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progression from my dad working with others as a leader in the community to working

within my own family. He wears many hats; as a dad, an activists for the community and

clergy member, and in all of them demonstrates what an effective leader can do.

Insights

In looking at my dad’s life as a successful leader, it has made me take time to

reflect on how leadership plays a role in my current position as supervisor for a college

access program. I currently supervise nearly 20 staff members and am the direct link

between the leadership team in our program and the staff members’ who work out in the

field with students. I see how each of the leadership styles that I identified in my dad can

be helpful not only to my current position, but later on in life in continuing to work in the

field of student affairs.

The servant leadership style is helpful in remembering to put the followers first. It

is important to remember that in supervision, I am in the office and can be out of touch

with the situations that staff deal with out in the field. I need to take time to listen, be

empathetic, and provide empowerment to staff because they are doing the grunt work.

Being a servant leader in students affairs is similar the idea of supervising, when you are

constantly working to advocate for students and putting their needs before your own

agenda. Servant leadership appears to be useful to creating a nurturing and supportive

environment for followers and this can be a good foundation for work with professionals

and students.

Working with these two groups of followers, students and professionals, also

lends well to the authentic leadership style where it is invaluable to be consistent with

followers. A strong element that ties the success of operations in programs is when

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people feel valued and connected. Authentic leadership is about building and

strengthening relationships and interactions. This put in to practice in both supervision

and student affairs is making time to get to know people on an individual level and doing

it often with check-ins. It is about building trust and leading with what you feel on the

inside to keep followers onboard by continually demonstrating genuine care and concern.

Bringing in care and concern for people ties into path-goal theory because you

need to have a general interest in people and know about them in order to know how it is

appropriate to challenge them. As a supervisor, I see this theory as helping staff to

achieve program goals that have been outlined by their position descriptions as well as

myself as a supervisor. Some of these goals need to be adapted depending on the situation

and conditions in which the staff are working. Path-goal theory can help me as a

supervisor to meet with individual staff and work on removing barriers to completing

their own goals and program goals. In working with students in higher education, this

theory is important to consider when working with a students on navigating college and

helping them to create a plan to graduate successfully.

Applying these leadership styles and theories to potential use in the professional

field keeps me excited to continue learning about what else is out there in theory and

practice. I would like to enhance my current behaviors and skills and hone in on the areas

that I can improve on to work at becoming an exceptional leader.

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References

First Baptist Church of Saint Paul Minnesota Blog (2001-2014). Retrieved from: http://blog.firstbaptiststpaul.org/about/

Greenleaf, R. K. (1970). The servant as a leader. Westfield, IN: Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership.

Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership theory and practice (7th ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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http://blog.firstbaptiststpaul.org/about/

leadership profile paper

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