Monday, May 16, 2011
The Law of E.F. Hutton
On page 43 of his book The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell writes about law number five the law The Law of E. F. Hutton. Maxwell tells the story of his first call to a church at the age of 22 in rural Indiana. He though that people would follow him because he was the appointed leaders. He soon found out that was not the case. The real leader of the church was a famer in his sixties named Claude. Young Maxwell had the position, but old Claude had the influence and the power. The old saying during the 80s was when E. F. Hutton specks people listen. The law of E. F. Hutton address the question who are the people are willing to listen to. There are positional leaders and real leaders. The positional leader is a LINO, Leader in name only. The real leader is the person who truly has the influence in the group.
In any group when a new leader arrives one of the first things that they should do is find out who has influence over the group. This is true in corporate America and it is true in the church. When we are called to leadership in the church we must understand that often we are the outsider. There are relationships, and history there. You don’t want to be a LINO. It is important that you identify that person who has the influence, and if possible it is important that you get that person on your side.
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have read this story from Maxwell before, and I must be honest, I don’t like the idea. I’m not saying that it isn’t true of useful, but the idea of getting the person with the real power on your side seems…a little off. I understand the reality of the situation. Oftentimes, the power player in the church is not a spiritually minded person but the one who is the oldest or has the most money. While I agree that positional leadership is not a strong leg to stand on, the idea of catering to a power broker of sorts is also not a strong place to lead from.
ReplyDeleteI think this is more of an issue when a congregation is assigned a pastor as opposed to a congregation that can interview many pastors. Usually the person of influence in the church has been involved in the decision of bringing the pastor on board. If this is the case, often, it is not a matter of getting the individual on your side but what do you do when you go against that person’s desires? I think it is quite difficult to make decisions, especially when trying to bring change, that cater to the person who has been in power previously.