By Not Known
There are good leaders and there are leaders who lead followers astray. Good leaders lead from the inside. Leaders who lead others astray lead from the outside: leading by their performances, driven by their achievements and celebrating only their own successes.
Good leaders, on the other hand, keep their followers away from envies and jealousies: desires that are driven by wanting what others have and wanting more than what they already have.
One way to keep good leaders on target is to strive for an attitude that says I have nothing to prove, which is a sign of humility. Paul tells his readers (Phil 2:3) that they ought “to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”
Good leaders also learn to give up their rights and desires, for insecurity leads to a fear of full surrender. When we are insecure, we acquire and hoard, possess and accumulate. As a result, we cannot give up or give in. These feelings cause us to try to control and react in self-defence to protect what we have accumulated. We cling on to power and seek to prevent others from growing. The right attitude that we need to have in order to counter this attitude is to learn to surrender all and live with nothing to lose.
Thirdly, good leaders live authentic lives by being transparent. We are all weak and we do make mistakes. When we do, we should come clean to confess and to seek forgiveness. This is the only way to prevent ourselves from hiding in our weaknesses and insecurities. We need to allow Christ to transform us by having a mindset that says I have nothing to hide.
These were pointers I picked up at a leadership conference last week. It was a clear reminder of Abraham’s journey of faith when God called him to “go to a land I will show you.” Paul showed us how Abraham’s faith led to the inheritance of the land because he believed by faith which was translated into action in his obedience. Promise was realized as he was a man who had nothing to prove, nothing to lose and nothing to hide. He surrendered to God and allowed God to transform him and lead him to where God wants him to be. This faith eventually led him to a promise that embraced not just the land of Canaan but the whole world.
Let’s pray for the building up of more good leaders in our midst.
Peter Poon