I was listening to sports talk radio the other day when one of my favorite sports leaders quickly became the topic of discussion:  The ever-quirky, highly intelligent Phil Jackson was quoted as saying something about “transformational leadership vs. transactional leadership”.  The sportscasters were discussing the merits of his approach to leading an NBA franchise, and were somewhat lost in articulating the differences between the two styles of leadership.

You don’t coach your teams to 11 NBA titles without knowing a thing or two about leadership, so I was naturally intrigued by what Phil Jackson meant by that comment.

It turns out that most coaches run a “transactional” style of leadership:  Miss practice, sit out a game.  Come early and stay late, gain more playing time.  It is a very natural cause and effect type of system, which on the surface feels just fine.

Jackson’s point was that there is a better system out there: one where personal transformation is the desired result.  Miss practice, you let yourself down by not giving your all to your profession, you let your teammates down by robbing them of your presence and influence.  Come early and stay late, and you polish your God-given talents for the betterment of the team, and of yourself as an individual athlete.

It’s a minor adjustment, but one that takes work ethic, responsibility, and teamwork to a much deeper level.

I believe it’s those details that made Phil Jackson one of the most effective coaches in NBA history.

And because of that, I believe it’s worth paying some attention to.

 

Where in our lives do we conduct ourselves in a transactional manner? 

I certainly do as a parent.  Tease your little brother, lose screen time.  Lose your temper, cool off in your room until I deem it appropriate to release you back into the world.

 

Mind you, I’m not knocking a system where natural consequences abound.  I think natural consequences are a great reflection of how life actually works.  Skip work, miss out on paycheck.  Skip work too often, look for new job.  Look for new job too often, end up crashing on friends’ couches and calling that home.

Natural consequences are an integral part of life, and something that we do a disservice to humanity when we don’t teach this to our youth.  (As a former high school teacher, I saw far too many kiddos who never really grasped this concept.)

 

But what if we adopted the philosophy of transformation as our deeper framework?

Tease your little brother, alienate yourself from the togetherness that is a healthy family; we all lose out when discord abounds.  Skip work, feed the beast called Laziness which can consume a person, thus cheating the world of their unique calling meant to benefit us all.

 

How would our lives change with that minor adjustment in perspective?

How would I view work and responsibility if deep down I knew that denying Sloth on a daily basis would grow me as a man and as a leader?

How would we view parenting if we focused more of our attention on the reality that behavior is more a reflection of the condition of our child’s heart than anything else.

How would we view God differently?

When Jesus preached his famous Sermon on the Mount, the general theme was that God is much more interested in the heart than he is in our behavior. 

Or, rephrased, that God is more interested in our transformation than he is in the simple transactions of the day to day.

If I altered my perspective on God in this way, blessings and trials would take on a completely different meaning.

I would stop seeing them as rewards and punishments, and instead view them all as gifts from a loving father.  Gifts meant to lavish, and gifts meant to grow.

Gifts meant to be received, enjoyed, and used for personal growth.  Personal growth so I can be more generous with what I have—offering my resources, my time, and my unique giftedness to the world around me.

Imagine what our world might look like with that one simple change of perspective. 

I can extend more grace to others when I realize that we’re all on a journey of transformation.

I can extend more grace to myself as I focus more of my efforts and prayers on the direction my heart is leaning rather than on behavior management. 

 

I can become transformed little by little each and every day, and in doing so, can be an agent of transformation in the world around me.