Tag: SIBI

Essence of Leadership

What is the essence of your leadership?

When others consider that indispensable quality that determines your character, how would they describe your leadership?

Is there any substance to the fundamental qualities of your leadership?

The essence of leadership needs to be built upon the ideas expressed by David when asking the questions connected to dwelling with God in Psalm 15: the one “who walks with integrity, works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart.”

We often focus on the ideas of integrity, righteousness, and truth.

However, the idea behind walks, works, and speaks is significant to who a leader is, not just what they do.

Wilderness Leadership

A common thread found among the leaders of God’s people is time spent in the wilderness physically and emotionally.

Consider the time Joseph spent in Egypt, from slavery to the dungeon.

Think about Moses, who, after fleeing Egypt, spent 40 years in the land of Midian.

Then, we have Jesus who spent 40 days fasting in the wilderness.

What is it about time spent in the wilderness that helps prepare someone to lead God’s people?

This time identifies a need for and dependence upon God.

A walk through the wilderness is neither desired or pleasant. However, the time provides opportunities for growth and prepares us for leading God’s people.

Using Our Time Well

The year is almost half over. How are you doing with your goals?

Our goals must be important and, at times, urgent?

If we have been procrastinating the necessary actions to accomplish our goals, we have no time to waste.

If we are waiting to decide what is most important, we have no time to waste.

With so much to do, people to lead to Christ, Christians to strengthen in faithfulness and personal growth, time is of the essence. No commodity is more valuable than our time.

Let us use the time God has given us wisely and never be known for wasting it.

Wisdom

Wisdom involves experience, knowledge and good judgment. Wisdom is often described as the proper application of knowledge and experience.

Leaders today must pursue the right source of wisdom. Scripture is clear and the application is significant.

Leaders who seek wisdom should ask God for it. When dealing with the trials of life, God is willing to give wisdom to those who ask in faith.

The qualities of God’s wisdom must be known and practiced: pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.

Wisdom can be learned by experience and from others. This allows leaders to base their leadership on the guidance provided by God.

Optimism

There are many challenges to remaining positive and optimistic in a world filled with the kind of hatred that fosters negativity and pessimism.

Nelson Mandela said, “I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.”

Dark moments will come, but biblical leaders understand the hope in Christ that endures despair.

We must not give up.

Learning Teamwork

One of the challenges facing all leaders is the ability to work well with others.

Amy Poehler says, “As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people’s ideas are often better than your own. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.”

When leaders feel threatened by those who think outside the box and are talented / gifted, they cannot achieve genuine success in leadership.

If we really want to multiply the strength of the church, we need to learn the true art of teamwork.

Eyes and Ears of a Leader

Two portals to our minds are our eyes and ears. We often fail to recognize the influence of what we see and hear on our thinking.

The type of language in movies or television shows, pornographic nature of advertisements or programs, jokes, and the locations we visit are a few ways we are influenced through the eyes and ears.

We must be proactive in the way we approach what influences us.

Is our leadership influence worth having our minds filled with negativity, filth, immorality, and horror for a little entertainment?

We are to influence the world for Christ, not to be influenced by the world.

Learning Leaders

How would you describe the adventure, purpose, nature, challenge, essence, opportunity, secret, spice, and beauty of life?

William Arthur Ward sums it up this way: “The adventure of life is to learn. The purpose of life is to grow. The nature of life is to change. The challenge of life is to overcome. The essence of life is to care. The opportunity of life is to serve. The secret of life is to dare. The spice of life is to befriend. The beauty of life is to give.”

Learning, growing, changing, overcoming, caring, serving, daring, befriending and giving are the key elements to the activity of great leaders.

Awareness

Leadership awareness involves a knowledge or perception of the situation or fact.

Leaders need self-awareness, i.e. an awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses, an awareness of who they are, where they are going, and how they plan to achieve their vision.

Leaders also need an awareness of others, i.e. an awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of those who follow, an awareness of how to help others reach their greatest potential and achieve goals.

Leaders should also be aware of the environment, i.e. an awareness of available resources, an awareness of the obstacles, the reality of progress, and open doors of opportunity.

A Leader’s Purpose

“Leaders are not, as we are often led to think, people who go along with huge crowds following them. Leaders are people who go their own way without caring, or even looking to see, whether anyone is following them. ‘Leadership qualities’ are not the qualities that enable people to attract followers, but those that enable them to do without them. They include, at the very least, courage, endurance, patience, humor, flexibility, resourcefulness, stubbornness, a keen sense of reality, and the ability to keep a cool and clear head, even when things are going badly. True leaders, in short, do not make people into followers, but into other leaders.” John Holt