What is the first responsibility of a leader? While reading one of my all time favorite books on leadership in the early 1990’s, Leadership is an Art by Max DuPree, his answer to this question jumped out at me. It changed in some ways my perception of leadership at the time and ever since, as I had thought that the first responsibility of a leader was to give vision for task accomplishment to the group. Being a visionary leader, which fit closely to my own gifting, seemed the primary thing I should do.

But then I read DuPree’s book. Here is his exact quote from page 11: ‘The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor.’ I still believe in the importance of vision and purpose in leading a group, and how the leader needs to be not the sole visionary, but rather a gatherer of the vision resident in the whole group. But the place to start is not there. It is with ‘defining reality’ as DuPree wrote.

What does it mean to define reality? It is to describe the context we find ourselves in, the real context. That is telling the authentic truth: the good, the bad, and yes even perhaps the ugly. If our numbers are declining, we don’t try and spin the results in our favor. We tell it like it is, yet then lead on with inspiration and hope. To define reality gives the basis and foundation for true hope, not false. It rallies the group’s contribution around a real context and provides the impetus for real change to meet a vision of what the group can become or accomplish.

In understanding the leadership task this way, it is easier to see how future vision fits with the clear presentation of the present and the historical background that got us here. Without that accurate telling of the present and honest facing of the past, the vision is centered around the leader alone and their own perception of where the group should go. I have been in many situations over the course of my life where a group was ‘told the truth’, and what was obvious in the room was almost a relief. The ‘hype’ was over and now a clear course of action can be committed to.

An example from my early years in India was how often we were in a place of deep financial need as a group. I had to learn how to ‘define reality’, telling the truth of where we were at and the needs we had, yet then leading the group into a place of faith and hope based on God’s promises and not just my optimism. I saw so often that people respond to authenticity in leadership, and that ‘hype’ and extreme positivity actually can sabotage a group working together for maximum ownership and ‘buy-in’.

One of my favorite Bible stories in this area comes from the Old Testament and life of Abraham. In Genesis 21: 1-4, Abraham and Sarah are too old to have a child, but according to God’s promise Sarah still becomes pregnant with Isaac. In Romans 4: 19-22 in the New Testament, Paul refers to this same story and writes that Abraham ‘reckoned his body as good as dead’ as well as Sarah’s age and infertility, but still ‘plunged into the promise’ of God. Another translation says he ‘faced the facts’. Abraham embraced the reality of the situation, yet still trusted in the promise of God.

To face the facts and state reality as a leader is not embracing negativity or rejecting the positive. It is rather starting from a foundation of what is actually happening, the truth, and then working together with your group to address that reality and move forward into a desired future. As DuPree says, that is the first task of a leader. Embracing reality gives a security to your followers, the security that you will lead in truth and authenticity.

If your organization, mission, or church is growing and making an impact on your world, define that reality and work together to make it even stronger.

If it has plateaued and is no longer growing, don’t hide that reality. State it openly and work together to see what barriers are there to growing again. Of course it is not just about numbers, it is about impact in whatever realm you are working in. But numbers can be an indication at times of plateauing.

If your group is declining, define that reality. That is the time to not just ‘be positive’ and bury our heads in denial, but together as a group think together what are the areas that need to be addressed openly and honestly.

Of course not only the leader ‘defines reality’. But hopefully you have a leadership style that brings together the perspective of the whole group, as well as those outside your group. It is not about only one person giving the vision and everyone else follows. That may be the case at the beginning of the start up or pioneering venture, but should transition to more voices being involved as time goes on.

Max DuPree gives two more tasks for the leader: being a servant and having the attitude of a ‘debtor’, and the importance of giving thanks to all those you are involved with. These two attitudes, being a servant who realizes all we owe others, and being someone who lives in gratefulness as a leader, are foundational to a healthy organization.

How are you called to ‘define reality’ for those you lead?