Tuesday 22 April 2008

Leadership qualities

I've been doing a lot of reading on leadership the past few weeks.

We had an interesting conversation with a 'leader' of the Salvation Army on Sunday after one of our Anzac day ceremonies, where this person was very discouraging and was pulling down all the hard work that we have been putting in to building up the organisation.

In my reading, (s)he was the perfect example of what not to be like! It's quite humorous how perfect examples come along at the right time. These examples really show you what you don't want to become.

So, some of the good points I picked up in my reading were;
  • you need to maintain a good relationship with God (number 1)!
  • you need to maximise your human relationships
  • spend time with people you love
  • understand that everyone has value!
  • be a servant of Jesus
  • inspire, encourage, pray for and enable others to become high achievers themselves
  • build up others, and build up new leaders, ie empower others!
  • unify the people you are leading
  • be committed - something that is really lacking in the world currently
  • persevere - never give up, no matter what

That's enough for now, there are plenty of principles that good leaders must develop.

Are you a leader, what areas can you improve upon? If you're not developing your leadership qualities, then you're not being a very good leader, we all can improve something. If we want to be good leaders, we need to always be expanding ourselves for the benefit of the people we're leading! How can you lead someone who has passed you in knowledge, wisdom, ability or even their own leadership!

"if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully."

Romans 12:8

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