Healthy Leaders | Issue 20
What is leadership, really?
Welcome to Issue 20 of Healthy Leaders. In this issue: an all-encompassing definition of leadership.
Hello friends,
Welcome back to our ongoing conversation on healthy Christian leadership and leader development.
In our last post, we asked you to share what you thought of when you heard the word “leadership.” This is a difficult question on the best of days, isn’t it? And it’s not difficult because we don’t know the answer, but because there are almost too many answers to count! Besides this, we all know of (or have experienced) the leadership of someone who abused the position to pursue their own goals over those of God or the people they served.
Our ideas and experiences of leadership are not invalid, but rather aspects of a whole. We need a robust, broad way of defining leadership that leaves room for them, without being limited by them.
Let’s begin.1
At LeaderSource, we use the following definition of leadership: “A leader helps people move from where they are now to somewhere else.”
Our team members in countries around the world have found that for frontline leaders, this definition is clarifying and freeing. It helps leaders take a good hard look at their own leadership, and galvanizes them to do something now in whatever position they hold. In one training with a large ministry in East Asia, a teenage participant said:
“The definition of leadership makes me realize that I can’t lead others to move if I don’t move as a leader. So I can’t stay in the comfort zone and satisfy the status quo any more, I need to be willing to take risks, face the pressure, and embrace the challenge with boldness.”
This young leader has touched on something essential to being a good leader: the fact that you are leading yourself, that you are moving forward and growing as a leader. Later we’ll discuss what that growth must look like when centered on Christ. The point is that only when this is going on — when you are addressing your own health as a leader — can you be truly effective when it comes to building healthy leaders.
The difference between good and bad leadership, then, often boils down to where the leader is moving people — to a good or a bad place. Malcolm has talked about this in a recent article on our current church culture of following celebrity leaders instead of Christ Himself. What’s the alternative?
“Instead we must get face-to-face with God ‒ far away from the spotlights ‒ and build our own lives in Him in the secret place. We must not just repeat their teachings and copy their “successful” strategies and forms. We must stop parroting their books and sayings. We must know God for ourselves. We must be in the Word and prayer for ourselves. Then our leadership will not be hollow, but it will have life. And only then will we bring true life to others. Only then will our churches come alive and thrive. Only then will we bear fruit – fruit that lasts.”
What about you?
Do you know leaders who do this well, moving people from one place to a better one? Why do you think they succeed in doing this? How are you yourself bringing the people you lead from one place to a better one? Let us know in the comments.
Until next time, we’re with you!
— Chris
Recommended Resources
Book: Leadership, by Malcolm Webber
Video Teaching: “What Is Leadership?” Parts 1 & 2
For more resources, visit our new website.
Thanks to our friends at Fifty-Four Collective for putting together a comprehensive set of video courses for growing healthy organizations, starting with this series of courses on leadership by Malcolm. We’ll be using some of their videos and some of our own. Be sure to check out what they’re doing!