The purpose of this post is to identify two areas that challenge the leader.

1. Adding tools to the toolbox for herding sacred cows.  What are some helpful tools to have in your leadership toolbox to deal with unhealthy organizational traditions, sometimes called “sacred cows”?

2. Constant self-evaluation to avoid adding the leader’s own sacred cows to the herd.  The leader, once having implemented healthy change needs to be critical in self-evaluation to avoid replacing the old “sacred cows” with healthy cows in the herd only to then grow those changes into his or her own “sacred cows”.

“Leaders face a whole host of issues when trying to implement new projects in their organizations, but one of the most pervasive and difficult issues to address is the infamous “sacred cow.”  Without rounding up these bellicose bovine, improvement efforts are doomed to fail because, in addition to the difficulties of solving whatever technical or business challenge your improvement effort is attempting to address, sacred cows can call a number of devoted personnel from various areas of the organization to their defense, either due to a fear of change or perhaps a vested interest.  In any case, the difficulties faced when dealing with sacred cows are compounded by the fact that they are not all created equal and that each must be handled in a different way.” The above paragraph is the introduction to an article by Sean Butler. You can read the entire article here: https://thoughtensemble.com/herding-your-sacred-cows/

Thom Rainer said in his March 13, 2015 podcast, How to Overcome the Most Fiercely Defended Traditions in a Church – Rainer on Leadership #106, “This pastor wasn’t forced out, he was frustrated out.”

The Leader knows without change organisms die, including churches.  However, implementing change can sometimes mean death to the leader or injury to the membership.  So, does the leader lead for positive change or maintain comfort for all at all costs? The answer is very political.  The answer is, “Yes, of course.”, or “No, absolutely not.”, without referring to which part of the question is being answered.  Of course, that only works for the leader who is an applicant for the job. Once in the role as the leader, be it a CEO, a Pastor, or other key leader, he or she must make good on leading whatever there is to be led.  Ultimately, regardless of current circumstances, the leader is striving to foster a healthy productive organization of people. 

It is common knowledge that following a significant change many times the leader leaves.  Often, he or she does not leave because of being fired or forced to leave. Most often that leader leaves from exhaustion of and frustration in herding the sacred cows of the organization while leading for change to address those very issues.

Sacred cows do not a healthy herd make.  The irony is it is difficult to have a herd without sacred cows.  Once a strong leader exchanges some of the sacred cows for utility cows that serve properly and healthily in the organization, that very same leader may find themselves to be or to have created a sacred cow.

Being a leader, it is necessary to know how to lead an organization, even an organization that has allowed several sacred cows to exist in the organization.  Many of the sacred cows encountered in the Church, or any organization for that matter, are the traditions common to that congregation. That is why even the greatest leader may very well create some of those sacred cows by the changes they make that do get adopted.  More than once I have seen a positive change that needed to be made. Then, when it had served its purpose and it needed to be changed, it required a change of leaders before anything could happen. What is baffling to me is how often it involves that progressive leader who poured out the vision, energy, and expenditures to lead for change, who then becomes the one who insists on herding the sacred cows they have created.

As a leader, you will be required to constantly evaluate yourself to see if you are herding sacred cows, have created sacred cows, or are crucifying sacred cows without regard for the injuries it is causing to the organization.  It is imperative to learn and be able to lead in such a way to accomplish the purpose, vision, mission, and goals of the organization being led.

In this Thom Rainer 25 minute podcast, March 13, 2015, “How to Overcome the Most Fiercely Defended Traditions in a Church” – Rainer on Leadership #106, there is solid counsel for leaders in overcoming unhealthy traditions, that I have used the idiom “sacred cows” to caricature this leadership challenge.  Also, he blogged on the same thing in 2018. So, please do not think that it isn’t valuable simply because it wasn’t produced yesterday.

You can watch the podcast here: https://thomrainer.com/2015/03/overcome-fiercely-defended-traditions-church/

Leadership usually isn’t easy, but it is worth it.

Leadership comes at a cost, but it pays dividends on the investment.

Lead like you will still be leading a hundred years from now and build leaders like you will not be here tomorrow.

God bless you, as you lead faithfully in the style of Jesus Christ.