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On this episode of The Lead On Podcast, Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee, discusses the concept of leadership congruity— the alignment between your personal mission and your organization’s mission. Iorg cautions against trying to reshape an organization to fit your personal mission, instead encouraging leaders to seek out organizations where true alignment exists, resulting in greater impact for both the individual and the organization.
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Welcome to the Lead On Podcast. This is Jeff Iorg, the president of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, talking with you once again about practical issues related to ministry leadership. Thank you for joining me on the podcast as we keep this conversation going. I take great delight in talking with you each week about different issues that people bring to my attention, different concerns that come to me as a leader, and observations that I have from just insights I gained from talking with people about leadership. So today, I wanna talk about a topic called leadership congruity or a different way of saying it, leadership alignment.
Jeff Iorg:I define leadership congruity as alignment between your personal mission and your organization's mission. When there is alignment between what you believe God has called, equipped, and sent you to do and what your organization is created to do, you've reached leadership congruity. You have alignment. And when that happens, the very best leadership dynamic is possible. Now, what I mean by that is the tighter the alignment, the easier leadership will be.
Jeff Iorg:In other words, sometimes people say that a particular leader is a good fit for an organization or a good fit for a department or a program or a church.
Jeff Iorg:That phrase a good fit is a way
Jeff Iorg:of describing a tight alignment between a person's personal mission and an organization's mission. It's a good fit. And when that happens, leadership in that context is much easier. It also means the tighter the alignment, quite frankly, the happier everyone will be. I spent a good bit of time in my early ministry years complaining to my wife, talking about how frustrated I was, etcetera, etcetera.
Jeff Iorg:She wasn't happy, I wasn't happy. And it was because I really wasn't aligned with my personal mission with the mission of the organization where I was working. But finally, we moved to Portland, Oregon to plant the church, and for the first time really in my life, I felt a tremendous alignment between what I believed God had called, equipped, and sent me to do and the church that I was creating and the organization that was emerging. We had an alignment, and believe me, everyone was happier. Another insight about this is that the tighter the alignment, the tighter the congruity between your mission and your organization's mission, the fewer distractions there will be to the mission.
Jeff Iorg:I'm gonna talk more about this in a minute, but one of the challenges when there's a lack of congruity is that leaders tend to try to shape their organization to fit their mission. And in doing that, create conflict in the organization and conflict with people working in the organization who are all pursuing a different mission. So when there's a tight alignment, you have fewer distractions because you have fewer of these kinds of conflicts. And then also, the tighter the alignment, the few leadership transitions will happen. Know, once I moved to the Pacific Northwest, I really only changed jobs a couple of times after that in in my life because I I was in organizations that really knew who I was and knew what they wanted, and there was congruity there, so there just wasn't a lot of need to move around.
Jeff Iorg:Not a lot of transition happening. And so when you find yourself in a situation where there's leadership congruity, where there's alignment between your personal mission and the organization's mission, it's gonna be easier on everyone. Everyone's gonna be happier. There are gonna be fewer distractions and there are gonna be less moving around, less transition because people will be more settled in their
Jeff Iorg:role. Now, having said all that, it leads us to another very important question. And that is, how do you know your personal mission? Now, organizations identify their mission.
Jeff Iorg:They come up with a mission statement. I've taught you about this on the podcast in previous episodes. I like an organizational mission statement that's a one declarative sentence communication of what the organization exists to do. It's reason to to be, if you will. And so organizations do this all the time where they work through processes and identify their mission.
Jeff Iorg:Here's what we are here to accomplish. This is our business. This is what we do. Well, I wanna ask you this question. Have you done the same thing for yourself?
Jeff Iorg:Do you have a clear understanding of your personal mission? Do you have a clear understanding of the reason God made you? What he made you to do? The role he created you to fulfill? Do you have an understanding of your personal mission?
Jeff Iorg:Well, for the balance of the
Jeff Iorg:podcast now, I wanna talk with you about some steps you can take for developing a personal mission statement. And there are about five of these. We're gonna work through them. And then I wanna talk a
Jeff Iorg:little bit more about alignment at the end of how you bring your personal mission and your organization's mission into alignment and what to do if you can. So the process for developing a personal mission statement, number one, ask God for your personal mission. God made you. He designed you for good works. He has a purpose and an intentionality about using you.
Jeff Iorg:Get down on your knees and ask him, father, what is my mission? What do you make me for? What do you want me to do?
Jeff Iorg:Now, as you ask God for your personal mission, you're gonna get the answer primarily, I think, through God speaking to you through his word. So let me encourage you to then study the Bible, and to study the Bible particularly as it relates to the subject of mission in maybe these areas. First of all, study the lives and missional expression of biblical Christians.
Jeff Iorg:One of the wonderful things about the New Testament is about
Jeff Iorg:a 135 different people are named in the New Testament, and then there are countless other stories of people who are significant to the story but who are not also named. Pick out some of these characters that you really identify with. Study them deeply to learn as much as you can about them, to understand their lives and how they understood God's mission and how they lived it out. There's such a variety of New Testament Christians ranging from women like Mary and Martha to well known preachers like Peter and Paul to some of the lesser known disciples and lesser known members in the book of Acts. But all of these named believers can become examples to various ones of us about what it means to live on mission.
Jeff Iorg:So one way to study the Bible in discovering the answers to the question, God, what is my mission? Is to study the mission of biblical Christians and the lives of biblical Christians as it expressed itself in their mission. Another good study is to study the mission of God as expressed in the kingdom of God. What is God's mission? And if God's overarching mission is this or that, and you come to understand it that way in your context, then how do
Jeff Iorg:you fit into that? Another good study is a to study a theology of mission. Now, I
Jeff Iorg:didn't even know this was a field of study when I was a young ministry leader. I never heard the phrase theology of mission until I went to seminary and was introduced in a class on the theology of mission, notice without the s, mission, to really discover what is God's mission, and how has he expressed that from creation to come to the culmination of the ages in the future to come. Studying a theology of mission helped me to understand better what it meant for me to have a personal mission statement because I knew that my personal mission had to reflect and interface with this theology of mission that I was learning. And then a fourth area of bible study would be studying pertinent doctrines, like, for example, the doctrine of spiritual gifts. It's important to understand that God has made each one of us uniquely and gifted us to fit into the body of Christ, if you will, and that those gifts are different and shared in manifold ways with different ones of us.
Jeff Iorg:And there's no one combination of the gifts that works in leadership or works in mission. They're they're all designed to be a part
Jeff Iorg:of the plan. So when you ask God the question, father, what
Jeff Iorg:is my mission? Look for the answer primarily through studying the Bible. Study the lives and missional expression of biblical Christians. Study the mission of the kingdom of God and how your life's mission fits into that. Study a theology of mission and what it means for God himself to be on mission, and then doctrines like spiritual gifts or perhaps others that would speak into this process in your life.
Jeff Iorg:So study the Bible, but also read the Bible devotionally. Simply asking God to speak to you, and through his words, shape your understanding of who you are and who he made you to be. And by reading the Bible, find principles and practices, examples and motivations, encouragements towards some focus of mission that really resonates with your heart. You know what I mean. Most mornings, I start the day with Bible reading.
Jeff Iorg:And many days when I'm doing that, it's as if some verse or some paragraph or some part of a story is quickened to my heart. It happened again this morning. Or I'm reading the Bible and I come across a a phrase of scripture and a description of a character in the Bible, I'm fascinated by it, I read it over several times, and I think through it, meditate on it just a bit, then pray what I'm learning back to the Lord and ask him to work
Jeff Iorg:it into my life today. That's what
Jeff Iorg:I mean by read the Bible devotionally, asking God to speak to you, and he does that by his word. And then some people, even in as a part of their determining their mission, have a life verse where they come to a particular verse or even a particular paragraph of scripture that is very instructive for them and becomes sort of a a a keystone or a foundation stone, if you will, of building their life of service around a particular verse or passage or idea. Now sometimes these may not encompass or encapsulate all that's involved in your personal mission, but they may be a part of motivating you to think about your mission. That's what happened to me. My life verse is a a question from the Corinthian letters, it says this, for what do you have that you did not receive?
Jeff Iorg:And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? That question resonates in my heart and reminds me that everything I have has been received from God, but the things I have in terms of my strengths, my abilities, my capacities, my gifts, those are from God and I need to embrace them and use them. For what do you have that you did not receive? Well, everything I have is what I received. Since I did receive it, if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
Jeff Iorg:I will not boast, but I will use that which God has given me to magnify him and magnify his name and do good in his, in his kingdom. So while my verse doesn't encapsulate everything I believe about my mission, it's a primary motivator for me to stay focused on my mission. So the process for developing your personal mission statement, ask God, father, what is my mission? And then study his word and read his word and allow him to shape your understanding of mission through those processes. A second step in developing your personal mission is to listen to people for their evaluation and insight into your life.
Jeff Iorg:Now, this can be done in several ways. First of all, don't don't be afraid to ask people for their appraisal of your strengths, your weaknesses, your gifts, your talents, and maybe even your shortcomings or your liabilities. Ask people for their appraisal of your strengths and weaknesses, your gifts and talents. To ask someone, how do you see God using me? What do you see the strengths I have that I could offer him in service?
Jeff Iorg:How do you think I could best use who I am to make a difference in his kingdom?
Jeff Iorg:You know, we do this
Jeff Iorg:when we interview someone for a job. We ask them, do you have references and what do those references say about you? And we check those things out. I'm asking you to do
Jeff Iorg:a self check on your own references. So sit down
Jeff Iorg:with some people that you really respect and say, how do you see God using me? How do you see my strengths and my talents and my abilities being most useful to God in his kingdom?
Jeff Iorg:Ask people for their appraisal, especially people you trust and respect. And then second, pay attention to the positive people in your life and what they say about you and the potential you have for the future. Don't allow false humility to keep you from owning your strengths. Now, I don't want you to
Jeff Iorg:learn to strut sitting down. I'm not talking about that kind of pride. But I am saying that when people compliment you and say, you know, you're really good with people, I appreciate your empathy. You know, you're honest. You're awesome with data and with detail.
Jeff Iorg:I really appreciate the contribution you're making in that area. You know, you're really good at speaking and teaching, and when you when you put ideas together, they just seem to resonate with other people. When people say these kinds of good positive things about you, don't dismiss them too quickly. They're probably speaking to you about things that ought to be at the core of your mission. If people compliment you on your empathy, then perhaps counseling or caregiving is in your mission.
Jeff Iorg:If people talk with you about your attention to detail and your capacity with numbers, maybe you're headed toward administration and making a contribution in that regard. If you've been gifted to speak and to put ideas together in ways that make sense to people, perhaps you're going to be one of the people that we look to, to teach and communicate. When people say things about you that are positive, they're your promoters, if you will, don't too quickly dismiss them, especially as you're trying to gain insight into who you are and what your unique mission may be. And I'd also say, as a part of
Jeff Iorg:this listening to people, don't dismiss your critics too quickly. Now, their negativity may be frustrating, but it may also be revealing. When people say negative things to you, think about what is happening in this conversation and why is this negative being demonstrated through me and what do I need to do
Jeff Iorg:about it. Now, you may need to correct the situation, modify your behavior, or do something better in the moment, But I'm talking now about using these comments to help shape your mission. Hearing these comments may cause you to take a giant step back and say, you know, this negativity helps me to see that when I put effort into this area, it's really not that productive. And when I try to do these particular things, it really doesn't resonate very well. I wind up being criticized, and maybe I need to back away from these as my primary occupation or my primary activity because that's really not in my mission.
Jeff Iorg:Let me give you just one example. This is not a harsh criticism. It's just a criticism or a word that I received from my wife one day. Number of years ago when I was a pastor, I received a phone call from a school asking if I would consider coming on the faculty.
Jeff Iorg:Quite frankly, when I first heard that invitation, I got a little bit excited.
Jeff Iorg:I thought, man, I've never thought about doing anything like that, but I think that would be really interesting to be able to teach others what I've learned, particularly about pastoral ministry and preaching in that context. That would really be interesting. I went home to my wife and I laid the idea out for her, and
Jeff Iorg:she was not very enthusiastic. I
Jeff Iorg:was puzzled because we both value education, we we both value young leaders, we both value investing in others. I said, Why do you think that this is not a good idea? She said, Well, I I think you'd really like it the first year
Jeff Iorg:and maybe even the second. But then she said, Jeff, you don't handle routine very well. You like challenge. You're not afraid of new situations. You like to take on problems.
Jeff Iorg:And I just feel like that when you're forced into long term routine, you tend to chafe at that and people around you don't really enjoy the relationships, which what she was basically saying was, I
Jeff Iorg:get bored easily and turn into a jerk. Now, she's too nice to say that, but that's kind of what happens. And so I realized that in my wife speaking to me in some kind of a critical way, yes, but pointing out to me, you know, this is not really your strength. Yes, you're a good teacher and yes, you'd enjoy it and you'd like it for a while, but I'm not sure it's the long term best place for you. Man, that was really insightful and helpful because it helped me to stay on mission and stay focused in what I can really do well, and that is problem solve, lead, challenge, and teach occasionally, but not necessarily have that as my full time
Jeff Iorg:responsibility. So the process for developing your personal mission, ask God for
Jeff Iorg:it and listen to people for evaluation and insight. Now third, use some formal testing to reveal your strengths and weaknesses, your leadership style, your decision making methods, relational styles, natural tendencies. Now I'm not talking about the stuff that comes in the back of a magazine. I'm talking about serious testing where you go and involve yourself in some kind of a university setting or a counseling setting or in someone who's been trained to offer these kinds of tests. And these tests are not to pigeonhole you, but they're to help define who you are.
Jeff Iorg:These are my strengths. These are areas I'm not strong. These are places where when I make a contribution, it takes tends to make a really good difference. These are places when I invest myself, it tends to frustrate everyone. That's what I'm talking about.
Jeff Iorg:Some formal testing. If you've been involved in seminary or any kind of a graduate school, you know that this is part of it, where you, take personality tests and you take decision making and leader style inventories and other kinds of testing to help you figure out who you are and what you where your best use is. And then number four, reflect on and learn from your leadership experiences and your life experiences. So here's some questions to help you to think through what is my mission. Here's a question.
Jeff Iorg:What am I really good at and why? What am I really good at and why?
Jeff Iorg:You know, God has shaped you, equipped you, gifted you, and wants to
Jeff Iorg:use you. He has a mission for you. And so as you're shaping and trying to understand what that mission is, wouldn't it make logical sense that your mission is going to be sort of in the wheelhouse of what you're good at? Well, ask yourself, what what am I really good at and why? And then move yourself toward that as your mission.
Jeff Iorg:Here's another thing. What do I really enjoy? What do I really enjoy? What makes my heart sing? You know, when I was, in grade school, I was given my first leadership opportunities and I enjoyed it so much trying to help create, even
Jeff Iorg:in a elementary school classroom, some possibility that our class might thrive, that our class might improve, that our class might be able to do some things together that we weren't previously able to do. I remember my first time to ever speak to a large crowd of people. I was asked to to, be the emcee of a citywide choir festival, about 1,500 people coming to the event. I remember just before I walked out on the stage, my teacher turned to me and said, are you nervous? I remember thinking, now why would I be nervous?
Jeff Iorg:What's about to happen that would make a person nervous? Well, she meant walking out in front of
Jeff Iorg:all those people. I never even thought about that. That just seemed as natural as anything to me. So what do I really enjoy?
Jeff Iorg:I really enjoy problem solving. I really enjoy speaking and communicating with people. I enjoy those things. So is it any surprise that those things are in the center of my mission and responsibility? Now that doesn't mean that's all I get to do, but it does mean that that's what God made me to do and I get a lot of enjoyment out of it,
Jeff Iorg:and there's nothing wrong with enjoying the mission that God has given you to do. Now another one, another question. What does God bless when I do it? What does God bless when I do it? You know, I have been around a number of Christian leaders who do things that I would lose
Jeff Iorg:my mind if I had to stay at and do for a long period of time. I really admire people, for example, who can deal with a massive amount of organizational minutiae, managing policies and procedures and spreadsheets and budgets and all of those kinds of things. God does not bless the organization when I do those things.
Jeff Iorg:But other people, when they're doing it, it just
Jeff Iorg:seems like God's favor and his blessing and his expertise and his guidance just rests on them for those purposes. So what does God bless when I do it? Maybe that's another good way of indication of God indicating your personal mission. And then maybe another question, what is really special or unique about my contribution? In other words, what do I do that maybe no one else can do as well as I can do it?
Jeff Iorg:And then let's talk about the reverse question as well. What am I doing that's not very productive?
Jeff Iorg:And why don't I stop it? Now, again, I understand that every one
Jeff Iorg:of us has to do some things that we don't like and some things that aren't that productive and some things that are just on the job description.
Jeff Iorg:I get that. I have those things on my job just like you do, But when I can,
Jeff Iorg:I wanna not do those things? I want to stop doing what isn't very productive so that I can focus my attention on what I'm good at, what I enjoy, and what God seems to bless when I do it, and what is my unique role and my contribution to making the organization. So how do you discover your personal mission? Ask God for your personal mission. Listen to people that you trust to evaluate you.
Jeff Iorg:Use some formal testing if it's accessible to you. Reflect on and learn from your experiences by asking and answering some of these questions I'm giving you.
Jeff Iorg:And then finally, write, think, and discuss your ideas with others and rework the process periodically. Now, this
Jeff Iorg:next section is a Jeff Ord original. I don't know if this is, valid by some, you know, double blind testing mechanism or anything like that, I've been teaching it for a long time and people seem to resonate with it, so let me try it out on you.
Jeff Iorg:I think that you should redo the process of thinking through your personal mission every year in your twenties. If you're in your twenties, you are far too young to lock in and never adjust your life mission.
Jeff Iorg:You're still figuring life out, and that's fine. But you should have some sense of direction about how God wants to use you, so investigate that. And every year or so, work through the process again and try to more narrowly define what you believe your mission is. When you get to your thirties, do it every two to three years. And then by the time you're in your forties and maybe even into your fifties, you're talking about every five years or every five to seven years.
Jeff Iorg:So as you're getting older, you're rethinking your mission less frequently. Why? Because as you grow through your twenties and emerge into your thirties, your life mission should start coming into focus and you should be devoting yourself more significantly to that. Doesn't mean you won't change jobs along the way, but you're not likely to change mission. This has certainly happened to me.
Jeff Iorg:I came to believe that God wanted me to invest most of my life in leading, shaping, and directing other leaders, And he called me to the Northwest Baptist Convention, and I did that as a state convention executive. Then I moved from there to the seminary, but I had the same mission. My mission was to model and, teach and write about leadership and to help shape other leaders along that way, along that process. And now I'm I'm at the executive committee, and quite frankly, this was a bit of a head snapper for me because I I felt like I wasn't sure I could fulfill my mission by coming to this organization. My mission is is shaping leaders.
Jeff Iorg:My mission is shaping leaders through modeling and through speaking and through
Jeff Iorg:writing. And I know that's what
Jeff Iorg:I'm supposed to be doing. That's what God made me to do. That's what I'm good at. That's what he blesses when I do it. And then I wondered, what does this administrative focus that I have to have here at the executive committee have to do with that?
Jeff Iorg:But it was really coming here to facilitate the work of other leaders, to step into the shadows a bit and to say, I'm gonna do all I can to make other leaders at the entities of the Southern Baptist Convention successful and try to eliminate distraction and move us forward more focused on the mission. And so I do feel like that this particular change is still an expression of my mission, but just in a way that is different than I've had in the past and certainly different than I was expecting for this juncture point in my life.
Jeff Iorg:So find your personal mission. And
Jeff Iorg:when you find your mission and you find an organization that mission aligns with your mission, you will have leadership congruity or the alignment of missions that I've been
Jeff Iorg:talking about. Now, to achieve this alignment, you have to know your personal mission, understand your organization's mission, and then with as much opportunity as you have, find a
Jeff Iorg:way to join an organization that where your mission and the mission of the organization are in alignment. When you do that, your leadership will be more effective because it'll be
Jeff Iorg:a good fit. There'll be less disruption. There'll be less conflict and frustration, and there'll be
Jeff Iorg:a longer tenure because who you are and who you're aligned to be is aligned with the organization's mission and this
Jeff Iorg:congruity takes place. Now, in
Jeff Iorg:doing that, I want you
Jeff Iorg:to resist an important temptation and that is resist the temptation to shape your organization's mission to your personal mission. Every one of us has a
Jeff Iorg:root of selfishness and we want everything to revolve around us.
Jeff Iorg:Don't do that. Instead, have the courage to
Jeff Iorg:say, my personal mission and this organization's mission are no longer in alignment and rather than stay and have conflict by trying to change the organization to suit me, I'm gonna go find an organization where I do find that alignment. And then have the courage, have the courage to work until you have that alignment and then when you have that alignment to give yourself wholeheartedly to fulfilling your mission and fulfilling the mission of your organization and in the doing of that as they come together fulfilling God's mission both for yourself and for for the organization that you serve. Listen, friends. Leadership congruity is when there is alignment between your mission and your organization's mission. In order for that to happen, you have to, of course, know your organization's mission, but that's typically been done by some others who developed it and posted it and made it clear what the organization exists to do.
Jeff Iorg:You now, on the other hand, have the responsibility to determining what your personal mission is and then finding a way to achieve alignment where you and your organization are aligned. And if it's not an alignment and there can't be one discovered, you have the courage to say, I'm gonna go on to another organization that has my same mission or aligns with my mission. And in doing so, I'm gonna find the congruity that I need to make the maximum impact possible for God and for his kingdom. Leadership congruity is when your personal mission and the mission of your organization align. When this happens, you are able to lead in incredibly effective ways.
Jeff Iorg:Put it into practice this week as you lead on. Hi.