Leadership: 3 Styles

Some things just don't change.  James Allen's eighth pillar in his book, Eight Pillars of Prosperity, written over 100 years ago is, "Self-reliance."

So I ask myself, "Am I self-reliant?"  We all would say "Yes. Of course."   

Self-Reliant Leader                       Self-Conceited Leader                    Self-Abasing Leader
Proper view of self worth              Exaggerated view of self worth         Reduced view of self worth
Continually Growing/Learning       Closed to Learning because            Thinks Learning only Helps                                                                       they "know it already"                   Other

Leads Confidently                         Leads Arrogantly                             Leads either:
  -Without Fear of Approval             -Tries to impress crowd or                 -Not at All
  -Concerned for Well-being            -No concern for followers                   -Tries to Please Crowd as
       of Followers                               - Most concern=Resume'                        Leadership Method

So key questions to help us objectively determine if we are self-reliant or not:

1. Am I continually learning?  Going to conferences? Reading books? Listening to audio training?
2. Am I concerned about what people think of me?
3. Am I more concerned about others well being than how they think of me?
4. Am I leading to build a great resume or because I really believe in the cause?

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?