CHARACTER AND PITFALLS OF LEADERSHIP
LEADERSHIP
CHARACTER
•
Definition:
Character is a leader’s inner sense of moral strength that determines how
he or she acts when no one else is looking.
•
It’s foundational to leadership success.
•
Character
and trust are tied together.
•
The leader’s character inspires the confidence
and trust of others.
•
Leadership effectiveness depends greatly on
trust, which must be earned by a demonstration of good leadership character.
•
A leader is one who leads the way, and people
choose to follow leaders they trust.
•
Closely related to character is integrity.
•
The Bible uses the term “blameless” to
describe integrity (Gen 17:1; 2 Pet 3:14).
•
Integrity means consistency between what
we believe, what we say and what we do.
•
The ultimate test of leaders’ credibility is
whether they do what they say.
•
Leadership involves making unpopular
decisions and taking difficult actions.
•
It takes integrity to do the right thing when
it may be unpopular.
•
Essentially, a call to spiritual leadership
is a call to character formation.
•
In Galatians 4:19, Paul desires a change in
the Galatians’ character to become conformed to the character of Christ in
reality, not in mere appearance.
PITFALLS OF
LEADERSHIP
Definition:
- A
pitfall is a trap or a snare that you can fall into before you even know what
has happened.
•
Often leaders shipwreck their careers, their
organizations, and their families by making careless, foolish choices, which
tarnish, discredit, and humiliate them.
•
Some leaders go from victory to victory.
•
Others begin with great promise, but
eventually fall and become forgotten.
•
No one sets out expecting to fail. So, what
happens?
•
Leaders’ failure can usually be traced to
mistakes they could easily have avoided.
•
Let’s examine some common pitfalls that
cause spiritual leaders to fail.
Common
Leadership Pitfalls
1.
Pride
2.
Sexual Sin
3.
Cynicism
4.
Greed
5.
Mental Laziness
6.
Oversensitivity
7.
Spiritual Laziness
8.
Domestic Neglect
9.
Administrative Carelessness
10.
Prolonged Position Holding
1. Pride
• Pride
is the leaders’ worst enemy.
• It
has caused the downfall of many (Prov 16:18).
• Pride
drives leaders to seek the limelight.
• Pride
overinflates the ego (Dan 4:29-31).
• Spiritual
leaders are God’s servants, but pride can cause them to act as if God were
their servant, obligated to answer their selfish prayers and to bless their
grandiose schemes.
• God
hates and opposes pride
-
(Prov 6:16-17; James 4:6; Lk 18:14).
• Pride
is a sin that festers in people, making them unreceptive to God’s guidance and
the wise counsel and support of other people (1 Sam 13:13-14; Jn 15:5)
2. Sexual Sin
• Has
the power to destroy a career, a family, and a reputation, all in one blow.
• Safeguards
against sexual temptation and its destructive devastation:
–
Enlist “accountability partners.”
–
Practice what you preach.
–
Consider the consequences (Prov 7:24-27;
14:12).
–
Develop healthy habits (e.g. spousal protection).
–
Pray and ask others to pray for you.
3. Cynicism
• Leadership
is a people business.
• People
always let you down – they will criticize, question the leader’s motives, and
second-guess his decisions.
• Thus,
making the leader cynical – distrustful, skeptical, and suspicious
of them.
• When
leaders focus on the negative, seeing only problems and weakness,
they lose the optimism required to overcome difficult challenges.
• A
leader must have a positive attitude.
• A cynical
spirit reflects a lack of belief in God.
• A
critical spirit in spiritual leaders reveals that their hearts have shifted
from God.
4. Greed
• Money
and possessions can be either good or bad in a leader’s life.
• The
hunger for material things can destroy spiritual leaders; it can tempt them to
act unethically.
• Money
is not the most important thing in life; Obeying God’s will is.
• Wise
leaders…
a. Do
not allow themselves to be enslaved to money; they use their money to glorify
God.
b. Know
that the measure of their success is not the size of their bank account but the
quality of their lives.
c. Invest
their lives in things that bring the most lasting and gratifying rewards.
5. Mental
Laziness
• Problem
solving is an essential function of leadership.
• Creativity
and innovative thinking is necessary in leadership.
• Leaders
cannot afford to become intellectually stagnant.
• Good
leaders never stop learning.
• Methods
that worked a decade ago may be ineffective today.
• Leaders
who aren’t continually growing will eventually find themselves with skills that
are obsolete.
• Wise
leaders seek the company of wise people.
• They
read books and articles that stretch their thinking.
• They
read the biographies of great leaders and thinkers.
• Spiritual
leaders tap into the eternal wisdom found in Scripture.
• They
allow the Holy Spirit to guide and align their thinking with God’s will, not
society’s latest fad.
• Leaders
don't jump to conclusions. They process the facts and seek to determine the
truth of their situation.
• Spiritual
leaders spend purposeful time with God, allowing him to guide their minds to
the truth regarding the condition of their organization.
• Great
leaders are thinkers. They are transformed by the renewing of their minds (Rom 12:2).
They never stop learning or evaluating, so they never stop growing.
6. Oversensitivity
•
If you cannot handle criticism, you shouldn’t
be a leader.
•
Criticism, second-guessing, and
motive-questioning are unpleasant.
•
But they are inevitable aspects of
leadership.
•
A leader takes a decisive action and is
criticized for being too reactionary.
•
A leader cautiously refrains from taking
action and is chastised for indecisiveness.
•
One
way or the other a leader will be criticized!
•
How leaders should respond to criticism…
•
Honestly examine their hearts to be sure the
criticism is without merit
•
Leaders must face criticism with integrity
before God and before people
•
Ultimately it is God’s approval and not
people’s that matters most
•
When leaders know they have obeyed God, they
set aside the desire to defend themselves
•
They find their security in God’s affirmation
•
God’s promise: Isa 54:17
•
The wisdom of a right decision will prove
itself over time. Wise leaders let God prove the purity of their motives and
the wisdom of their actions.
•
True leaders are more interested in doing the
right thing than they are in their popularity.
•
Sometimes, the right thing to do is not the
most popular.
•
Spiritual leaders must keep criticism in
perspective.
•
Criticism will come, and it will hurt, but it
must not be allowed to derail leaders from God’s call upon their lives.
•
Before giving in to the temptation to quit,
leaders should revisit what they know God asked them to do.
•
Remember John 15:20!
7. Spiritual
Laziness
•
Leaders are driven people; they see to it
that things get done.
•
Spiritual leaders often get busy with
ministry while spending less time with God.
•
“doing” vs. “being”
•
Life apart from Christ is meaningless. Wise
leaders never forget that (Matt. 6:33).
8. Domestic Neglect
•
Get your priorities right:
–
God first, then family, then ministry.
•
Every leader must balance the
responsibilities of their leadership role with their commitment to their
families – leader at work; leader at home!
•
Nelson Mandela…
–
Fight to liberate his people; goal achieved.
–
The Nobel Peace Prize; president of South
Africa.
–
Suffered two divorces.
•
Mandela confessed that although he loved his
wives, his work always came first and his marriages suffered as a result.
9. Administrative Carelessness
•
Leaders are, by nature, visionaries.
•
Focusing too much attention on the vision –
where the organization is going.
•
Neglecting to build the organization to
arrive at the destination – to achieve the vision.
•
Like a traveler who looks at the road map and
knows exactly where he is going.
•
But forgets to monitor and maintain the fuel
and oil levels of his vehicle.
•
Leadership demands both focus and balance.
Are you task-focused or people-focused?
•
Accomplish the task, but don't ignore or
trample people along the way.
•
Wise leaders build up the people who will
achieve the organization’s vision.
•
Clear, timely communication is
absolutely essential to a successful organization.
10. Prolonged
Position Holding
• It
is better to leave them longing than loathing,” so goes the old maxim
• Wise
leaders know when the time has come to exit graciously and allow a new leader to
step in
– Julius
K. Nyerere, Nelson Mandela exited well – earned respect of many
– Robert
Mugabe has overstayed his presidential welcome – not wise!
• As
a leader once you are no longer as effective as you used to be, it is time to
come up with an exit strategy
•
Older
leaders tend to have difficulty giving their blessing to the emerging
generation of leaders
•
Leaders with integrity recognize when they
have made their most worthwhile contributions.
•
Then they graciously hand over the reigns of
leadership to the next generation.
•
King Hezekiah is
the classic biblical example of a leader who overstayed his mandate.
•
He had been a good and righteous ruler of the
nation of Judah (2 Kings 18:5).
•
After ruling for fourteen years, Hezekiah
contracted a terminal illness.
•
The prophet Isaiah told the king to get his
house in order for it was God’s will that he should soon die.
•
King
Hezekiah wept bitterly and prayed for his life to be spared.
•
God granted his request and promised him fifteen
additional years of life.
•
During his extended rule, Hezekiah made two
major blunders:
– First,
he showed all the treasures of his kingdom to envoys from Babylon who visited
him.
– Such
foolish indiscretion would later cost his successors – the Babylonian armies
came to forcibly relieve Judah of the same treasures.
– Secondly, Hezekiah had a son – Manasseh,
but failed to raise him to the fear of God.
•
During his extended rule,
Hezekiah made two major blunders:
–
Upon Hezekiah’s death, Manasseh became king.
–
Manasseh commenced the longest, most wicked
reign in Judah’s history.
–
By the time Manasseh’s reign ended, Judah's
immorality and idolatry were so perverse and had reached such intolerable
levels that God’s judgment on the nation was irrevocable.
–
By prolonging his leadership beyond what God
had planned for him, Hezekiah planted the seeds for his nation’s moral demise.
Conclusion
•
Developing a healthy awareness of the
pitfalls that can bring failure and disgrace to leaders is the first step to
avoiding them
•
The second step is putting safeguards in
place that will provide protection in times of temptation or indecision
•
Third, leaders should have before them the
continual reminder that:
•
Their organization is more about people than
it is about productivity.
•
They are not indispensable.
•
The most effective, efficient thing they can
do for their organization is to maintain a close, vibrant relationship with God.
Here are
some questions to consider:
•
Do I pray regularly with at least one other
leader?
•
Are there other leaders with whom I am free
to be candid about my personal struggles?
•
Who holds me accountable to follow through on
what I know to be God’s will?
•
What safeguards have I built around my
relationship with my spouse? Are they adequate to protect me from temptation?
•
How am I presently studying and applying
God’s Word to my life?
•
Have I built safeguards around my time with
God?
•
When was the last time I clearly heard God
speaking to me? How did I respond to what he said?
•
Do I have people who are willing to challenge
my actions when they think they are harmful?
•
Is the fruit of the Spirit growing in me?
(Gal 5:22-23). Am I becoming more and more like Christ?
Reference
Henry Blackaby and Richard
Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership: Moving People on to God’s Agenda,
(Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2001).
Thank You.
Rev. Gerald Ole Nguyaine.
