If it wasn’t for people . . . how would leaders learn?
Are people born as leaders? There are people who believe leaders are born and not made. I don’t believe that is the case, but I do believe the Lord places people into positions where they can learn to be leaders.
There are people that have certain gifts that allow them to learn leadership skills more easily. Some of these gifts may be technical skills, and some may be personality driven. But the greatest enabler for one to become a leader is character; the real heart of a man or women who aspires to a position of leadership. People who can be trusted to do the right things the right way, even when no one is looking.
There is another misconception about leadership and that is that one must be placed in a position of authority to exercise leadership. That notion couldn’t be further from the truth. When you consider that exercising leadership is about exercising influence and making other people responsible for the work, one can see a multitude of opportunities for exercising leadership. As a subordinate one can exercise leadership; in a staff position, one can exercise leadership and many times it is demanded that those relational actions of influence take place. It is in some of those informal positions where the skills of leadership can best be developed. Why? You have no authority to fall back on. You must actually exercise leadership.
Leadership development begins with followership. Learning to follow is the right place to experience the impacts of leadership. If you are following and accomplishing the work at hand, you are exercising the discipline to follow with the goal of making that leader and the organization successful. As a follower, you will begin to understand exercising leadership as a servant. It is the beginning of LEADING TO SERVE AND SERVING TO LEAD.
As a follower, you have the great opportunity to observe the good and bad practices of leadership and begin to put into practice the good attributes that you learn as a follower. This positional process never ends. Aspiring leaders and accomplished leaders must always remember that in the process of exercising leadership, you the leader must always follow someone either formally or informally.
Even great leaders have a boss. No matter the position, General, CEO, elected official, or Pastor, we need to apply our leadership skills in a way that also pleases the leader over us. As a follower of Jesus, there is a biblical truth that applies. Taken from the third chapter of Colossians the Apostle Paul said, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus . . .”[i] My thinking here is simple, if I can perform in a way that pleases my Heavenly Father, I am confident He’ll find a way for it to please my earthly master. We all have a boss.
Great leaders never stop learning. Some of that comes from reading about those great leaders that have gone before us. Some of my favorites are General and Secretary of State Colin Powell, President Abraham Lincoln, President George Washington, President John Adams, Doctor Martin Luther King, General of the Armies George C. Marshall, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. These leaders all took great risks. They all had great character.
Two I like the best are General Marshall and Winston Churchill. General Marshall because he understood well the importance of the soldier’s heart and spiritual condition. Winston Churchill, because he was, in my opinion, the most eloquent influencer of people I have studied. Just read some of his books. He always seemed to exercise leadership with great effectiveness and civility. But, then there is Jesus. There is none better. He gave His life for mine—what else can I say.
[i] Col. 3:17, The NIV Study Bible, Zondervan Publisher, Grand Rapids, MI, 1985.
