Leadership: Rise and Fall

Why do some leaders seem to climb so fast?  Why do some of those same leaders fall from the heavens?

I'm currently reading The End of Empire: Attila the Hun & the Fall of Rome.  The Huns were not subject to a king.  They had clans with leaders who could go to another clan and become a "comrade."  If that leader was charismatic he would build up a huge following.  "...Equally that following could quickly dissolve if he failed to live up to his promise.  The possibilities that ambitious individuals from any clan could choose to offer or withdrawal their support permitted the rapid rise - and sudden fall of prominent leaders."  p. 68.

At the same time I am finishing a book, Renovation of the Church.  In it the authors talk about how church goers and other church leaders evaluate the success of the pastor on a church's size and growth chart rather than on the pastoral care and direction given.  This pushes pastors to do two things to keep adherents:

1. They have to give talks aimed to attracts people.  Thus they tend to avoid talks that offend people or show the total cost of discipleship.
2. They do what they have to do, usually politically, to keep the influential leaders happy, pleased, attending, active, and donating.

"Church Leaders are too often like Political Leaders and

Political Leaders are too often like Church Leaders." - MWH

You can just look at the last election and see the impact of various preachers speaking politically and politicians trying to speaking like an evangelist.

The mark of a great leader is not the ability to draw a mob.

When we measure successful leadership on the numbers that follow (as a primary or sole indicator) rather than on the course set and how they are getting the organization there we expose ourselves to be:

1. Highly impressed with the rapid growth in an organization and 
2. Question, or believe something is secretly wrong with, a rapid decrease.

On my recent trip to Africa this summer I worked with a man who pastors a church over 1,000 people and oversees over 200 other churches.  He said,

"If you listen to what people want you will never make it [as a leader]."

I have tried to teach my adult children, "The mob is fickle."  

"They are like sheep without a shepherd."  - Jesus Christ.

What are your comments?  Agree?  Disagree?