Spiritually Focused Leadership Development: Exploring the Relationship Between Relinquishment and Self-Differentiation in Leaders as it Relates to Their Leadership Health and Resilience

Abstract

This portfolio highlights the importance of a spiritual component in the development of healthy and resilient Christian leaders. Amidst a leadership crisis, where well respected and widely known leaders have made detrimental decisions, younger Canadians are concerned about the lack of good leaders. Looking at the context of leadership development at Youth Unlimited in the Greater Toronto Area, the author illuminates unique needs in this area, as well as the complexity of leadership in today’s world. The author shares her philosophy of Christian leadership which, based on the greatest commandments, follows the simple guiding principles of loving God, receiving his love, and loving others. This context and philosophy inspired her research project, which used the methodology of action learning to explore the relationship between relinquishment and self-differentiation with ministry leaders at YU GTA, and its impact on leadership health and resilience. Her findings indicated that these concepts were pertinent and interrelated; they resulted in a three-piece braid model of leadership health and resilience: relinquishment, rootedness in God, and self-differentiation. Both the author’s personal experience, as well as the response from participants and those who have heard the project report, confirm that this topic is relevant and important to leadership development today.