Distinctive Leadership 206- Discussion Board 1

[pastorderrick]

The law of Buy-in states: People buy into their leader then the vision. Do you think that this could tend to ”blind loyalty” from the people who buy into their leader? Give reasons for the position you take.

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[Amotsuka Caleb]

An understanding of the law of buy-in will show that people first buy into a leader’s person before they buy into their vision, no matter what the vision is. This means that even when there is a grand and highly beneficial vision, people will tend not to buy into it unless they have already bought into the leader. Conversely, even if people don’t fully align with a vision, if they have already bought into the leader, they will in most cases still follow the leader regardless. While this provides an opportunity for the leader to develop their character and charisma to get the buy-in from the people, this also poses the challenge of blind loyalty from the people.
People most times make decisions based on how they feel about something or someone and not based on rational thinking. This means that once the people have bought into the leader, there is an emotional attachment that they have to the leader such that even if the leader brings forth a clearly wrong vision, this emotional attachment often clouds clear thinking, and the people will rather make excuses for the leader instead of speaking up to clarify things. While people should respect and honour their leaders, it is never expected that anyone follows a leader blindly. The Lord Jesus is the only person who is worth following blindly because He is infallible, no other leader is infallible. Leaders can make mistakes and while the people following them shouldn’t be critical or judgmental of their leaders, when a leader you trust begins to derail from the right path, you must be able to think clearly and make the right decision for your own safety.
Also, many times when the people buy into a leader, they tend to only look out for attributes in the leader that confirm their emotional attachment to the leader. For example, if such a leader is sexually abusing the people, those who have bought into the leader and are blindly loyal will make excuses for the leader and say things like that is his weakness, or after all he’s just a man. A great real-life example is Adolf Hitler. His people had so bought into him that they were ready to do whatever he asked them to. It’s certain that there were people who were uncomfortable with his vision to eradicate the Jews but because they were following blindly, such people will rather convince themselves that Hitler must be seeing something that they were not able to see and so continue following in blind loyalty.
Following leaders in blind loyalty creates an atmosphere where the followers are not able to speak up to or question their leader. In many cases, a minority may be uncomfortable with the vision but because they don’t want to seem disloyal to the rest of the group, they keep shouting the praises of the leader and following blindly.
Also, because people buy into a leader first before their vision, the people sometimes put the leader on a pedestal where they believe that the leader can do no wrong. In such cases, no one ever asks question about the vision. If the leader says jump, the only question allowed is how high? Sometimes this could be because the leader has demonstrated competence over a long period and so the people now trust his decisions and don’t bother querying it. This could be good in some cases as leaders sometimes have an intuition that the people may not have and so they may be seeing what the people are not seeing at the time. However, because leaders are not above mistakes, it is still important for the followers to be alert enough to know when the leader is missing it so they can prayerfully and carefully speak up or ask God for guidance on how to handle the situation.

[saysay]

DL – 206 – L > ASSIGNMENT 2.
THE LAW OF BUY-IN STATES: THAT PEOPLE BUY INTO THEIR LEADER THEN THE VISION. DO YOU THINK THAT THIS COULD LEAD TO “BLIND LOYALTY” FROM THE PEOPLE WHO BUY INTO THEIR LEADER?

WHAT IS BLIND LOYALTY?
“Blind Loyalty” is when one is loyal to a person or a cause despite the damage the person or cause does to himself or herself or others. It is being loyal to a person or cause even when they misbehave or do something dishonest. Those who engage in blind loyalty believe allegiance is more important than the objective. This contradicts the Law of Buy-in. Let me begin with this illustration or story so to speak of our Man of God, Pastor Nkechi Ene (Mrs.)
Years back, Pastor Nkechi Ene (Mrs.) now, a young lady at that time, visited the then Royal Evangel Church with a friend. They were searching for a good church to settle in and met a young man teaching with so much enthusiasm, according to her description, he was preaching as if there were five hundred people seated in the church, this drew her attention. She also saw some other good traits or qualities in him, for example, simplicity, loyalty, love for God, intelligence, etc. She invited her husband (fiancé then), who saw the same traits. They immediately saw the great teacher and leadership in him, they settled there. They made there their place of worship to date. It is after some time they decided to ask for the vision of the church. Pastor Charles already had his dreams put in place and was looking for people. The people he has today (are the entire TCC members).
It started with Pastor Kech as she fondly called. She was looking for the truth of God’s word, and she found it in Pastor Charles and most members of TCC too. Many don’t know Pastor Charles but have heard of his credibility, they have listened to his messages and have been transformed. And then identify with his Ministry. He Is no more but his credibility {person} and vision linger on. This is what the Law of Buy-In is all about. Habakkuk 2:2-3 explains it.
The Law of Buy-In works this way according to John C. Maxwell. “The Leader finds the dream and then the people. The People find the Leader and then the dream”.
People generally look out for the leader’s personality before they look at the vision. There’s an adage in place that says “You eat the face first before you eat the food”. Pastor Sola also gave an example of someone coming to serve him water with an attitude. He said he would rather swallow his saliva instead of drinking that water. That person is not necessarily a leader, my point is attitude and credibility are the key things in the life of a leader. The same goes with the law of Buy-In, you don’t put the cart first. That means people don’t at first follow worthy causes. They follow worthy leaders who promote worthwhile causes. People buy into the leader first, then the leader’s vision. However, when the reverse is the case, then it tends to “blind loyalty”. Where people follow the causes (the vision) before looking into the credibility of the leader. People, however, follow their leaders blindly for their reasons or gain, like what we see in politics and in most churches today.
Once people have bought into someone, they are willing to give his vision a chance. People want to go along with people they get along with. John Maxwell said, in one of his examples, that he had to work hard to build his credibility with people. He built relationships with leaders, answered questions, and shared hopes and dreams for the work they were doing. He said that brought growth to the organization and gave the people the confidence and ability they found in Him. I love to end with John Maxwell’s conclusion.
“As a leader, you don’t earn any points for failing in a noble cause. You don’t get credit for being “right”. Your success is measured by your ability to actually take the people where they need to go. But you can do that only if the people first buy into you as a leader. That’s the reality of the Law of Buy-In”.

[Amotsuka Caleb]

I love the adage you used – You eat the face first before you eat the food. Though not directly related to leadership, it shows how people generally buy in to things. A meal could be delicious but if it doesn’t look great, people will likely reject it. It’s the same thing with the law of buy-in. A cause may be truly beneficial, but if the people don’t buy into the leader, they may never get on board with the cause.
The quote from John Maxwell that you ended with is very spot on, many times leaders focus on championing a worthy cause which is not bad in itself but they are often shocked when they don’t get the response from the people like they had expected. This usually happens because the people have not bought into the leader.
However, even though the law of buy-in does not necessarily lead to blind loyalty, there is a possibility that blind loyalty can come in when followers go to one extreme in their followership. People can buy into a leader so much that even when the leader starts missing it and derailing, they may not catch it or might even make explain it away. I have been in such a situation before. There was a man of God I really loved because I had never heard anyone as practical and unreligious as him. His messages were so relevant and his heart for the Kingdom was obvious. At a point, I told my family that this is the only man that can make me leave the church I am in if he opens a church in Nigeria. Years down the line, this man started employing some methods in his messages that were unsettling. At first, excuse him because I really loved him and so I said to myself that he probably has a reason for doing this but it continued for so long that I had to really check my spirit and my spirit didn’t align with what he was doing at all. I reluctantly had to stop listening to him but there are many people who still do. I still believe he is a genuine man of God but he probably missed it there. A lot of people however struggle to make such a tough decision once they buy into a leader because sometimes, in their eyes, the leader can do no wrong. This is when the law of buy-in has been taken to an extreme and thus leads to blind loyalty.

[saysay]

REPLY TO CALEB AMOTSUKA
Great job you have done to “blind loyalty” and the Law of Buy-In. I have discrepancies with some of the statements or points.
Firstly, you said, “Even if people don’t fully align with a vision if they have already bought into the leader, they will in most cases still follow the leader.” Followers who buy-In already know what they want in a leader. Buy-in is not an emotional business. I understand “emotional,” as not letting someone be upset if don’t agree with the person’s view.
Buy-in means total agreement and active support from the followers. It’s more about agreeing to a plan (the person and the vision). The law of Buy-In is not an either here or there. You cannot separate the leader from the cause he promotes, according to John Maxwell. He said LEADER + VISION = RESULT. Where this does not apply, the followers react one way or the other and not emotionally dance around it or with it. You cannot separate stew from rice if must eat rice with stew. We are talking about a better leader and not a turncoat leader.
Secondly, you pointed out that, “The Lord Jesus is the only person who is worth following blindly because He is infallible.” I want to ask, are Christians following blindly? I know Christians are believers, they are not meant to be ignorant. For me, following blindly means that there are hidden agendas, enlightened or not knowing something. Jesus is infallible, I agree but does not want people to be blind or ignorant. Romans 1:13; 11:25, 1 Corinthians 10 :1, 2 Corinthians 1:8, and 1 Thessalonians 4:13. These scriptures explains it all. The Lord encourages us to search the Bible to know Him and not follow Him because He is infallible.
The blind leader leaves their followers in the dark. I am not saying that leaders cannot make mistakes but if it’s repeated mistakes, then there is a problem with the leader and that does not tally with the Law of buy-in.

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