Transitional Leadership
Written by IPYPU Marketing Director
In preparation of the IPYPU Alumni Association podcast show “Explicit Balance – Who’s Next”, our team tossed dialogue amongst one another
of what does transitional leadership look like truly. While leadership philosophies have varied throughout the years, one message has remained the
same, “We have to go Forward.”
From the amazing conversation our Alumni Association had with Suff. Bishop C. Shawn Tyson and his world-class leader and son, Pastor James Tyson, we are inspired to have these conversations about how we play a major role in the transitionary leadership of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. We have the unique challenge of inspiring young men, women, and their families to go and minister to people who don’t look or think as a born again believer. Therefore, it is now crucial that we find the right
leaders for the times we live in – Post-pandemic and Postmodernist.
We have the unique challenge of inspiring men, women, and families to go and minister to people.
One of the most critical challenges for leadership today is to successfully transition. It is extremely expensive and disruptive for an organization to see leaders fail or to have leaders ill-equipped for their positions; therefore, it is crucial that the dialogue of leadership transition takes place. We can imagine in reading this you may be feeling a strong sense of urgency or discomfort, because many people idealize transition in the sense of person-to-person transitioning.
It is up to leaders to determine if they fall under 4 fundamental levels given their abilities to navigate through transition:
1. Staying Ahead – Having the ability to recognize transition points; this type of leadership generally navigates all changes and transition points with ease while maintaining high levels of performance.
2. Keeping Up – Having the ability to recognize the transition points; this type of leadership may dip in performance for a slight period as the leader adjusts to a new situation, but the leader is able to respond and bring performance levels back to peak levels.
3. Falling Behind – Leaders may or may not recognize transition points as they generally do not know how to respond or choose to not respond; over time, their leadership performance suffers; these leaders are the ones who commonly lose their leadership roles or have their roles reduced.
4. Non-Transitionary – Leader chooses not to navigate a transition point. That is the leader may decide that he or she does not want to make the transition. While this may occur for several reasons, this type of leader ultimately decides to move proactively into another situation within the organization or sometimes outside of the organization because they don’t want to do what’s needed to take the organization to the next level.
Though there are many reasons a leader may or may not transition, there are several transition points that he or she can look into to see what is needed to make their roles more successful. As mentioned, transition does not just include removing a person, but it is also:
1. Changes in Roles
2. Changes in Strategy
3. Changes in People
4. Changes in Products and Services
5. Changes in Peers
6. Change in marketplace
It is extremely expensive and disruptive for an organization to see leaders fail or to have leaders ill-equipped for their positions
As fellow leaders within this great organization, it is important for us to recognize where we must transition. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was a true pioneer in transitional leadership. He was humble enough to follow the lead of John the Baptist and He was ambidextrous to know when it was His turn to lead. Before His transition, he acquired 12 young men and over the span of approximately 3 years he poured into them and trained them
in preparation of their leadership roles.
We must be apt to follow this transitionary model into the inner workings of our local assemblies and within our international body.
