Leadership

What’s a leader?

A leader is someone that knows what can be done and gets people to get it done.

There are two parts then to a leader. The first part involves seeing. A leader sees what can be what could be but isn’t yet. They are ones who break the crust off daily routine and perceive the future before it comes. They create the future through their ideas.

The second part is motivating. The leader not only sees what can be but also is able to tell others what he sees in a way that causes them to think it’s true. The leader speaks and acts in a way as to inspire confidence in people. People will do what that leader says in order to make the thing they all see happen.

What makes a good leader? What kinds of things go into forming this kind of person?

It is amazing to me that a man who would become THE world leader was trained for thirty years as a blue-collar worker.

Jesus of Nazareth is acclaimed as the most influential man in all of history. How is this possible? He was from a town of little political or cultural influence. His work was as ordinary as that kind of town affords. The kind of work and situation is similar to a small auto-repair shop in Country-town, USA. It wasn’t New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, or Boston. It wasn’t ivy-league schools or large corporations. It was a small country town and manual labor with his father.

Some will say that because we’re talking about Jesus that we have a special case. That he was made fit for his job as world-leader because he was God. Well, he was and is God, but there are some Scriptures that make me think that he was trained as a MAN. He grew in wisdom and stature before God and men. He learned obedience through what he suffered.

This means that part of the humility that he faced was submission to human process. He learned to follow God like we see in the Scriptures and he learned to be the kind of person that we see in the Scriptures. This MUST be our confidence if we believe he is able to teach us how to be the same kind of person. He came not only as an example, but as a model. His is the kind of life we are meant to live.

So, back to the point. He learned obedience and came into maturity as a world-leader with impact today and impact continuing into tomorrow by working manual labor.

Huh.

Jesus was a man saturated with life. He was rich in experience. Look at how he taught. Many times he would give a story, an example, or a parallel in nature. He was not a dull man. He knew how to “see” things. That is one of the requirements for a good leader. He could really see things for what they were and through is connection to God he could see where they were headed. He operated on the best information and limited himself to what he got from God. He said, “I only do what I see my Father doing.”

His ability to see, to perceive and understand paired with the rigors of daily life gave him a working knowledge of people. No one could motivate like Jesus. Consider responses to him. Worship or murderous anger. Some dropped everything in a moment and followed him around for the rest of their lives. Others plotted his murder. Very few existed in the middle. He knew how to stir his people.

What’s that mean for how we train people?

We focus on helping people to see starting right where they are. Be rigorous in perceiving what really is going on and then practice imagining what could be. Talk with God about it and saturate yourself with Him and his world.

Pay attention to what you feel, think and do. When you see it in someone else offer to help them. Real leadership is a service to others.