Leadership is the art or ability of motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal. It involves communicating ideas as a leader to a group in a way that engages them to act in a particular way. There are several elements of Biblical leadership that make it distinct in contrast to the leadership styles, theories of the modern world. It is imperative for modern day leaders to borrow from some of the unique characteristics of Biblical leadership.
Out of the many core attributes of a good leader, perhaps the most basic one is character. A set of moral characteristics or behaviours distinguishes one person from another. Some of these qualities include things such as honesty, courage, humility, perseverance, integrity, and decisiveness. These traits do not just happen but rather they flow from a deeper structure within the individual. In the life of Jesus, we are able to see particularly how he carried himself in his work of ministry. As for modern leaders who wish to lead, they should learn to assimilate his character into their lives. In the book of proverbs, 4:23 says; it is from the heart of a person that proper attitudes and actions flow and therefore for a person to be authentic, his qualities have to be connected to the person’s identity. Without character, leaders are merely empty shells and therefore they might lack influence on people as people tend to follow those who lead by example. Leaders with character impress people with their traits and skills and thereby gaining followers (Whittington, 2015).
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From a Biblical approach for effective leadership there must be a calling; Good leaders do not only concern themselves with how to lead but also try to get to know why they are leading and for what purpose. From the bible, we can witness several leaders who had a calling like Moses in Exodus3:1-6. His calling was to deliver the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan and this was his purpose and vision. He was aware of his purpose as a leader before he knew how to actually deliver on his purpose. This tries to educate modern leadership to first understand the purpose of leading before knowing how to lead. Therefore, biblical leaders relied upon calling to drive influence and modern leaders should rely upon vision and purpose to lead.
The bible also reveals competence as essential to leadership. Biblical leaders possessed certain skills and traits that enabled them to lead. In Colossians 1:28-29, we can evidence the ability of Paul to communicate the spiritual truth to his readers. Paul was a good writer and through his letters he was able to spread the Gospel. Therefore every leader must learn to pay attention to discovering their spiritual gifts, natural competencies and also learn to acquire new skills to make them better. We might also not possess all the skills and therefore we must learn to delegate and work with others as it was seen in Moses who used Aaron to talk to people, as he was not a good narrator.
Modern day leadership is majorly focused on profits and material productivity, one aspect that it can borrow from biblical leadership is the impact on people. In the scripture, Most of the times that God called upon a leader was for a purpose of transforming the lives of human beings. In first Thessalonians 2:8 Paul explains that he does no only want to impart the Gospel of God among people but also that he wishes for it to impart on their own lives. Therefore today leaders should also purpose to impact positively in the lives of people that they lead.
Biblical leadership is similar to transformative or servant leadership. Most leaders had a calling to serve the people and through their work and teachings, they inspired others to follow ( Baldwin, Bommer, & Rubin, 2013 ) . They are more of motivators and they led by example so they impressed influence among their followers. They can also be described as transformative as Most of them had a purpose of changing the way people were living, acting and how they carried out their day-to-day activities.
In modern day leadership, it is mostly crafted to bring better performance in organisation based on financial gains. This is in contrast to Biblical leadership whose main purpose was to make a positive impact upon the lives of people. Currently, most people perceive leaders as individuals who impose authority and hence they command fear and respect which is contrary to biblical leaders who mostly presented themselves as servants (Whittington, 2015).
From the use of the strength finder, an assessment shows that I am futuristic and am inspired by the future. I am a forward-looking thinker in my life as a coach or manger. I channel all my energies towards what I will accomplish in weeks, months or years ahead. I believe that the present is the best and we can become more innovative by focusing in the future where we can better our best. Therefore, I should use this strength as a leader to inspire others with the visions of the future. Conclusively, modern day leadership can borrow a lot from biblical leadership in terms of purpose and vision, character and most important of all the influence of leadership in the lives of people.
References
Baldwin, T. T., Bommer, W., & Rubin, R. S. (2013). Managing organizational behavior: What great managers know and do . New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Whittington, J. L. (2015). Biblical perspectives on leadership and organizations . New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan
