Good Leadership

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I have a respectable collection of books, more than a dozen, on leadership; not a huge selection, but solid.  All use, or depend on, examples of high profile personalities, which serves twin purposes to be both clear and motivating.  And each author grounds his message in basic, real, principles of personal integrity, especially of humility.  It’s all good stuff to read, reminding me why I read them: those prominent pursuits in life, with their versions of high profile and high impact leaders, can often feel empty.  But like an antidote for this creeping emptiness, those authors on my shelf provide the inside stories where commitment to, and struggle for, integrity plays out to happy ends.  And this encourages me to engage in similar struggles.  “…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” [Phil. 4:8 NASB]

Yet here I am, not a very good leader.  I say this without anger or any kind of resentful feeling.  I’m not a bad leader either.  It’s just that those towering examples of great leadership—winning coach, dominant and loved general, or a mega-church pastor—remain as distant as when I began reading.  Were those books, therefore, of no practical value beyond the encouragement I took from them?  One of these books clearly sets out the idea that both influence and leadership have “seasons” in the lives of leaders.  Sometimes one is the visible leader, the figure head; other times one is a contributor.  But whatever the role, the habits of leadership remain, influencing others with integrity.  This resonates to St. Paul’s characterization of his work, “One plants, one waters, but God gives the increase.”

For this very reason I marvel at my own “yes but” approach to these same leadership principles.  Without seeing it, my own imagery overlaid the message, disfiguring those principles as being a school from which to earn the diploma of influence, codified in position and authority.  Success in leadership principles, to me, resembled something like acquired charisma, becoming one whom others willingly follow.  It’s not an entirely wrong image, but is deceptive through selective emphasis.  Therefore, I became frustrated at my lack of charisma. People did not (and do not) catch my passions and follow me to them.  The point I missed, however, is that people may never react that way to me even were I to embody the very principles of good leadership.  The crux of confusion was this:  “I don’t have that gift I see in leaders, to whom others naturally defer.  Sure I can practice those principles, but being a leader, it’s just not me.”

Self deception is the hardest to see, and boy did I fail to see!  Good leadership embodies real value: solidly good behavior, forming positive relationships, for good purpose.  If that is what a leader does (it is), then surely anyone can, through repentance, become a leader.  Being a leader does not depend on the number of followers, or on the splendor of vision.  Rather, the quality and direction of influence determines whether you (or I) are a leader.    If you are a good leader, you are good soil, and remain so whether fallow or in harvest.  God will give the increase as He wills.

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