He didn’t say much, at least as far as we know. He didn’t leave any writings behind. Compared with today’s Life gurus who have vast CD programmes, video collections and podcasts on subscription, perhaps their own TV channels, he did not have a serous chance of success. He was in office for 3 years only. And nobody knows exactly what he did before that job, other than he disappeared for a month and a half in solitude, not on a training course, apparently to prepare himself.
Although in the religious business, his first management team was composed of fishermen, not PhDs or theologians. He used analogies, parables and stories. No PowerPoint, bullet points or ‘the 10 strategic imperatives are’. He did not make any money. He walked around. He wasn’t an armchair producer of messages.
He irritated both his family and the powers of the day. He did not mingle with the jet set of the time and preferred the lowly. He did speak up. He had a mission. At the end he was murdered. Not until 70 years later did people start to write his memoires.
This is an impossible CV for a leader. He would not pass any recruitment screening today. What he started more than 2000 years ago, still continues today with 2.2 billion followers. Mr. Jesus from Nazareth, as leader, defeats most conventional assumptions.
As his followers of the Christian world start a Holy Week of remembrance in the next days, and regardless your own religious beliefs, it’s worth pausing to reflect how much Leadership can learn from the unconventional, the disruptive, the authentic, the purposeful, the humble, and the servant.
2000 years plus later, still going.