I have been asked about my views on Leadership and so I decided to put some thoughts down over the next two weeks.
Here is my definiton of what a leader is: A leader is someone who, through influence and example, inspires, motivates, rebukes, trains and teaches a group of people to reach a goal or destination.
The first thing about Leadership is Influence. A Chinese proverb says ‘A leader with no followers is a man just out for a walk’. If you don’t influence anyone you are not a leader. Conversely, if you do influence someone or some people and you don’t think you are a leader you actually are.
The leader sets the example; a leader must do what he expects his followers to do. Do you want people to come on time for your meetings but are always late for theirs? Do you want people to talk straight to you but you talk behind their back? Example is key because your life will give the people you lead the green light to do what they see you doing.
The leader inspires and motivates through vision and feedback. If people don’t have a vision they will get lost and not want to follow you and if you don’t give them feedback they will never be encouraged, thanked, rebuked or rewarded.
The leader teaches and trains behaviors, models and skills. If you only motivate but don’t teach your followers will be shallow and ultimately won't have the skills you need them to have.
The leader sets goals and targets and is relentless in pursing them. If you don’t have a clear vision of where you want the group to go don’t waste the time of the people you are trying to lead step aside and let one of them lead. They probably will be a better leader than you anyway.
All of what I have said will be fleshed out in the coming days. Let me know what you think.
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The attributes of leadership are to a large extent, the qualities that all Christians are called to develop in relationships with one another.
ReplyDeleteStand out the front leadership is not what its about. The Bible calls us to service and love, not the focus on self that inevitably results from concentrating on 'leadership'.
Even if we aspire to 'servant-leadership' we are still not aspiring to the call of the Spirit, IMO, as the Bible doesn't use that hyphenated expression, it just refers to 'servant'.
That the church has reconceptualised 'ministry' into a word loaded with political implications is either a sad indightment of the way the church has gone or an indication of its obsession with the preservation of power, rather than the humble and messy job of building communities of love dependent upon the leading of the Spirit of our Lord.