Bible Characters as Leaders

I was struck one day with a thought: since the Bible is for all mankind, should not it have the best examples of leaders? Yes, it should.

Question: why is not the Bible used more for leadership development?

My answer: it is because Christians do not see the Bible as a leadership manual.

I want to change that. I want the Bible to be THE source for leaders to draw from while leading. I know many leaders who are Christians and many who use the Scripture for their development and growth as a leader. Sadly, many look to books written by non-Christians for guidance on how to lead.

We need a group of Christian leaders to start writing about leadership from God's viewpoint; not Harvard Business. As such, I want to start writing a book using the Bible as my source for leadership examples.

Who knows how God will use it?

Seeing it in Action

"Do as I say, not as I do."

How sad that many leaders lead in speech only and not by actions.

Leaders need to guide those following by being an example. They should be a map of how to do things with character and ethics.

They should also be a guide to avoid traps, pitfalls, and foolish decisions.

Imagine what the world would be like if leaders led with the intent of seeing others reach their goals and destinations.

Sadly, some fear being overtaken and become more like a roadblock and/or traffic jam. They see being overtaken as a sign of weakness instead of an accomplishment. They see themselves in a sprint instead of on a relay team.

However, great leaders leave a map so that they can create a legacy of developing great leaders. Be a great leader and highlight the route to success for others. In this way your legacy will continue to live and grow and your map will be wrinkled from use; not decay.

Helping Hand

Sometimes a leader simply needs to offer a helping hand. This simple act says more that is often realized.

Reach out to someone day. Offer a helping hand for one day you may need a helping hand yourself. The hand that is offered to you may be the same one you once lifted.

Guiding vs Managing

When some people think of leadership they can sometimes call to mind the most common positions which includes managers.

Managers have their place and are needed. However, what can sometimes happen is that management is focused on the bottom line rather than personnel development.

I prefer the term guiding. In this line of thought, the goal is development and growth. It is not about the bottom line as that should come with better development.

Rather, it is about developing people to reach their full potential. It is about friendship and love. "I want to see you succeed so I will do what I can to help you get there." If that was the motivation for management, just imagine the company loyalty that would be produced.

Leadership: add a little of difficulty

Leadership can often be difficult. While being a leader can be difficult itself, working with others can be a great challenge as well.

I am the father of a 16 month old (see photo) and my little guy had a health problem last night. We were not quite sure what it was but we gave him a few things and he seems to be much better this morning.

That incident caused me to think about leadership. My son was not happy that we had to give him some things; not happy at all. However, without any aid his problems would not be alleviated and he would still suffer.

Leadership may require some tough love towards those they are leading. There may be resistance and perhaps even aggressive opposition. However, a leader knows something is wrong and that action must be taken.

In some cases that might mean having to move someone to a different division. It might also mean have to dismiss someone.

Conflict has a history of being stressful, strenuous, and hurtful. While there are ways to handle conflict correctly and have the injury lessened this does not guarantee an easy situation. A leader must enter the conflict have a purpose of seeing growth. With that heart attitude, hopefully all see the benefit and appreciate the resolution.

My son did not thank me for what I did last night. He most likely never will. However, he does enjoy feeling better. A leader may not be appreciated at first but hopefully they will in the future.

Starting

I am passionate about leadership.

I have seen what good leaders can do and what poor leaders can hinder. I have seen employees strive for company success because of being respected and appreciated by a good leader. I have also seen great talent leave because poor leadership felt threatened.

Thus, I want to write about good leadership and eventually get published. However, I need to hone my writing skills and not write in a Facebook-commenting style. How to begin? I decided to start this blog.

I would like to post a few times a week on good leadership. Be it a quote or an article, a book I read, an interview I heard, or even seeing good leadership in action, I want to write about it. Will it be good writing? Probably not at first, but that is the joy of it; it does not have to be great. It must be true to me: the style will come later.

This is my first post of what I hope to be many others. Leadership is greatly needed and I trust this blog with spur my readers to be great leaders. Now...dūcō (lead).