The Value of Leaders Being Together in Community
By Heather Koshiol.
If we thought we’d reached a “new normal” following the pandemic, 2025’s tension and uncertainty in the US paints a different picture. Some people in my community feel like the rug is being pulled from beneath them. Maybe you feel the same lack of balance or are ministering to people experiencing instability. When events seem to be happening out of our control, it’s natural to feel helpless.
This article offers two frameworks that can provide stability amidst the turbulence: adaptive leadership and resilience. Both highlight a need for leaders to be part of a dependable community.
Adaptive leadership, a leadership model developed by Ronald Heifetz and his colleagues, is a collective model of leadership that relies on shared learning, reflection, and experimentation within a community. An adaptive leader turns to a trusted circle of colleagues or peers to help mediate distress and overwhelm. The adaptive leader’s trust circle helps bolster their sustainability during times of crisis and disequilibrium.
Resilience research team Thomas Skovholt and Michelle Trotter-Mathison feature the value of community in their book The Resilient Practitioner as they describe the resilience task to “Create a Greenhouse at Work.” A greenhouse environment, they describe, is designed for growth and nurturing, and consists of specific elements. (Find the elements listed here in a past LeaderWise article.)
Think of the colleagues or peers you might invite to gather—either virtually or in person—to reflect together on how to create a greenhouse environment in your day-to-day setting. Reflect together on the following questions inspired by Skovholt and Trotter-Mathison’s resilience greenhouse elements:
What opportunities for professional development feel energizing and nurturing to you right now?
What things are happening in your life where you feel a lack of choice or control? In what areas do you feel you do have choices or control?
What feels overwhelming in your work? What small changes might you make to alleviate stress and make your workload more manageable?
Where do you find meaning in your work? For what are you grateful?
During times of uncertainty, we can experience a sense of comfort and hope when we pull together. In her book Turning to One Another, Meg Wheatley encourages readers, “Trust that meaningful conversations can change your world.”
If you purchase a book through a link in this article, LeaderWise will earn a nominal affiliate fee which will be directed toward funding our mission to foster spirit-filled leaders for lives of service. Find the LeaderWise bookstore here.
Journalist Derek Thompson recently named this the Anti-Social Century. Americans are spending more and more time alone. Our “aloneness” is reshaping our realities. It is certainly changing our ministry contexts. Throughout this year, LeaderWise writers will share their outlooks on our Anti-Social Century and what we can do to build a culture of connection.
Interested in other articles on the Culture of Connection?
2025 Resolution Against Loneliness by Mary Kay DuChene
Ingredients for Connection: Solitude & Connectedness by Becca Fletcher
Creating Time for Connection by Cindy Halvorson
Am I Safe Here? From LeaderWise’s Leadership Team
It’s Not Easy Being New by emilie boggis
The Best Scones You Ever Tasted by Stephanie Hoover
Who Do You Know? by Laura Beth Buchleiter
Starting from Scratch by emilie boggis
One Room at a Time by Mike Hotz
Weave Real Connections by Alicia Forde
