The Definition of “Leader,” Please

“The challenge of Leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.”

Jim Rohn

Today I come to you with a question, what makes someone a good candidate to be a leader? I realize the word “candidate” sparks political thoughts, but I want us to think about all leaders. The breakdown of leadership in many areas of our lives, nation, and world have gone on since the beginning of time. We now just have the luxury of 24/7 media coverage and multiple viewpoints within that coverage, to inform us of the ups and downs of leaders all around us.

Religious leaders seem to be dropping or being “exposed” constantly. Leaders who are responsible for the wellbeing of children have become a great disappointment. With the rise of the internet and social media, adults have became “leaders” of supposedly innocent media influencer groups, that end up cutting kids and young adults off from their families and friends. Political leaders have been exposed. They also have made promises, “forgotten” what they said two or three years ago, and suddenly lost their backbone. These leaders affect the next generations, and this troubles me the most.

Bottom line: we are all equal at the foot of the cross. We all need Jesus’ sacrifice for us, to even begin to truly have a heart, mind, and spirit of forgiveness.

My mom started saying a few years ago: “We can’t should on ourselves.” I embrace this, because we really cannot should, or what if on ourselves, the only way is forward. Of course we can learn from our past, our experiences, our mistakes, but there is no going back only forward.

So… I came up with somethings I look for in a leader or leadership as a whole. I like acrostics, so I have made one from the word LEADERSHIP

LISTEN: have a willingness to listen and truly hear other points of view other than their own and respect those who they disagree with. Tone of voice and demeanor when speaking and being spoken to, especially when having a debate or presenting a different point of view.

ACCOUNTABLE: be able to explain decisions, justify actions, and answer questions.

EMPATHY: having an understanding, awareness, and are sensitive others thoughts, needs, and care. Attempting to at least put themselves in the place of those they serve.

DILIGENCE: paying attention; caring for the details. Being aware of reality, truth, and the tasks at hand.

ENGAGED: Committed to knowing those that they serve and represent.

RESPONSIBILITY: taking action and ownership, no matter what. They own up to mistakes, success, semi-success, semi-misses. period. no blaming, no shaming.

SELF-RESTRAINT: restraint over one’s own impulses, emotions and desires. We are all given a “gut feeling,” if they can’t restrain, help needs to step in hold accountable.

HUMILITY: free from pride or arrogance. They have the right to their opinion, beliefs, and viewpoints, but no one is above another.

INTEGRITY: example of the standard of knowing right from wrong. They are truthful, not manipulative. They don’t hesitate to do the right thing, in private or in public!

PRUDENCE: they have skill and discretion of when resources are needful. And they make moves to put these into action.

What else do you look for in a leader?

I have one more quote I want to share today. It has so much truth in it that when I read it, I had to stop and catch my breath. I am so often thinking of “sin” as lying, cheating, bad thoughts, bad habits, when in reality anything that is outside of God’s will for me in the moment is actually sin. Good or bad. A lot of good things are not His will…

“Not everyone rebels against God by being bad. Some of us rebel against God by being good. We want to earn our seat at the table. We want to prove ourselves. We don’t want to need grace – that’s for the flawed and weak – so we try our hardest to follow the rules so that we don’t actually have to rely on God.”

Sharon Hodde Miller

Yikes! Truth. We can’t earn anything! We do have to rely fully on God, and trust him with everything!

I genuinely wrote this today to get us thinking about all leaders! There is a lot of leader turn-over in many areas at the moment. There is massive amount of confusion, among Jesus following believers and non-believers. Honestly, if I was a non-believer, I would be confused as ever by the conflicting messages the “believers” are sending. To you all, I’m heartbroken, I beg you please look to Jesus and His Word, not to the people!!!!

Tonight is the Presidential debate, I will already be tucked in bed, but I will watch tomorrow. (Just gave away my bedtime- judge me if you want to) I will be honest with you about this too, you will not find an endorsement on this blog for a candidate. You will find this reminder, of which I continue to repeat to myself: “The government rests on His shoulders.” Isaiah 9:6-7. Not the president, not pastor, not you, but HIM.

Life Book of the Week: Come On, Rain, by Karen Hesse