Over the years, there have been some fantastic works on this subject. Oswald Chambers’ Spiritual Leadership, Henry Blackaby and Henry Brandt’s Power of the Call, Henry Blackaby’s Spiritual Leaderhsip, Aubrey Malphurs’ Leading Leaders, James Garlow’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Tested by Time, Os Guiness’ When No One Sees and Tony Morgan’s Killing Cockroaches are just some Christian examples. But when you get down to the basics of leadership, you really only have to deal with one definition. What is that definition? Simply…are people following? If they are, you are a leader. If they are not, you are not a leader. It is that simple. It actually has nothing to do with degrees (and, yes, I do have some of these). It has nothing to do with how many leadership books you have read (I have those, too!). It also has nothing to do with how many positions of leadership you have found yourself in (yep, this is also me!). The simple question is…are people following?
Jesus was a great leader. He had followers. Paul was a great leader. He had followers. Peter was a great leader. He had followers. James was a great leader. He had followers. John was a great leader. He had followers. These men were all great leaders. In our day, Billy Graham was a great leader. He had followers. Beth Moore is a great leader. She has followers. Anne Graham Lotz is a great leader. She has followers. John Piper, John MacArthur, Luis Palau, Crawford Loritts, Chip Ingram, Stormie Omartian. All great leaders. All have followers. But what does it take to be a great leader?
Gordon MacDonald, in his book, Building Below the Waterline, lists four key strengths of great leaders. I find these helpful and would encourage all of us that lead to look for these in our own lives.
Are you able to communicate vision? Jesus told His disciples about the Kingdom of Heaven in terms they could understand. He described it as a field to farmers, as a net of fish to fishermen, as sheep and goats to shepherds and so on and so forth. What Jesus was doing in this was casting vision to His followers, so that they would get of glimpse of what He could clearly see. Perhaps the reason that we don’t have more people following as leaders is because we can’t communicate vision because we have none. We just want to get through the week without killing anyone or losing our jobs. The height of the Christian experience for most Christian leaders is simply measured by how many times I gave in to whatever temptation I am struggling with at the moment. A great leader sees a great vision with great clarity and communicates it the same way.
Are you sensitive to people? This is another trait of a great leader. Too many times, we see people as an interruption to the ministry we could have. We tend to think they need to lead, follow or get out of the way. While this might be right for them to wrestle with, a great leader is also sensitive to their needs, fears, limitations, etc. Perhaps that person that seems like a wet blanket to all of your plans just can’t see your vision and maybe it is because they have been in this situation before and were hurt through it. Maybe they need time to process what you have communicated. Maybe they are just afraid of the unknown. A great leader with be sensitive to these possibilities and will consider them when communicating his vision.
Can you assess situation accurately? A great leader must be able to walk into a situation and realize who is in charge by title and who is in charge by personality. A great leader must be able to recognize people whose expertise puts them in charge and who is simply in charge because they draw their self-esteem from being in charge. He or she must also be able to recognize when the ship is driving itself because no one is in charge. Additionally, a great leader must be able to look through the smoke and mirrors and see what is really going on. (Notice how these competencies complement each other?)
Lastly, a great leader must also know him or herself. Too often, we don’t know ourselves very well and that lack of knowledge makes communicating our visions tough. It keeps us from being sensitive to people and it prevents us from properly assessing our situations. We need to know if we are leading from some of the motives listed earlier. We need to know our physical, emotional and spiritual strengths and weaknesses.
Leadership is simply defined as … is anyone following; however, people will want to follow leaders that can effectively see and communicate vision. They will gravitate to those that are sensitive to people. They will get on board with those that can assess situations with clarity of purpose. They will be drawn to work with and serve a leader that knows his or herself with honesty to keep from using others to simply achieve their purposes. Know of any leaders like that? Are you one? Would you like to be? I would like to be some day. How about you?