There are several leadership techniques that can be applied and the one that works best puts into consideration the needs of the people, the environment, and any other constraints. The Bible provides a historical example of several kings and how they governed the people of Israel. The Bible provides a detailed analysis of the Kings and their different characteristics and traits. A close analysis on their traits shows that they have negative leadership traits. There was no king in the Old Testament that lived up to the standards that were set for a godly king. The three kings selected are King David, King Solomon, and King Rehoboam where they had negative traits of engaging in unethical and immoral conduct, focusing power and wealth, and listening to wrong advisors in their leadership respectively.
King David and Unethical and Immoral Leadership
King David was the second King of the Israelites and one of his major downfalls came about when he engaged in unethical and immoral conduct. King David saw from the roof of his palace, Bathsheba who was wife to Uriah bathing. He was inflamed with passion and sent for her where he committed adultery. Through the union, a child was conceived and David tried to cover his tracks by bringing Uriah back to sleep with his wife. Uriah was a patriotic warrior and refused to engage in matrimonial pleasure and David decided to have him killed by setting him at the battlefront. David acted immorally by committing adultery with Bathsheba and unethically by choosing to kill Uriah. Benton (2016) observes that the moral failings of King David led him to exposing a dark side of his leadership. Such an immoral conduct could have led to a general mistrust by the public leading to a failure by the leader.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Leaders are individuals that are held on high account and should engage in ethical conduct and be people of the right character. Levine and Boaks (2015) examined the relationship between ethics and leadership and established that good character is critical for a sufficient and complete leadership. Leaders are in a position of power, authority, and influence and should use these wisely. A leader that has a good character makes a great leader and any flows in their character results in poor leadership. King David’s leadership problems took place when he engaged in immorality and used is power wrongly to have Uriah killed.
King Solomon and Focusing on Power and Wealth
King Solomon was the wisest leader but showed negative leadership traits when he decided to focus most of his attention on power and wealth. Friedman and Friedman (2019) examined the character flaws that contributed to the decline of Solomon as a great leader and established that his blunder began when he became overly concerned with his power, wealth, and pleasure. He pursued great personal wealth and did not use it to help the people but caused massive expenditures and substantial tax burdens.
The pursuit of King Solomon on power and wealth is a trait that has been identified as a predictor of corruption. Kong and Volkema (2016) examined how wealth can be a predictor of corruption. The research established that endorsements of leadership that were related to corruption became strengthened by wealth. Based on the analysis the leadership of King Solomon can be described to have been corrupted by wealth leading to further corruption through self-seeking and individualistic leadership.
King Rehoboam and Listening to Wrong Advisors
King Rehoboam’s flaw in his leadership came about when he decided to listen to the wrong advisors. Uroko (2019) examined the leadership traits of King Rehoboam and found that his consultation with his peers made him formulate wrong policies and the result was a division in the governance. King Rehoboam was observed to not have the intellectual capacity to take the correct advice and have the right judgment. This flaw made him engage in civil disobedience where someone chooses to change laws that can suit them.
The flaw in King Rehoboam’s leadership can also be understood by considering the networks he had created around him. Chiu et al. (2017) examined how positive and negative networks can result in either positive and negative advice that can affect the leader’s following. The study established that leaders that have a poor social network receive negative advice and this results in a decrease in their following. King Rehoboam followed a similar approach where he had a poor social network and the result negative advice leading to losing of his influence and followers.
Conclusion
An examination of the three leaders that include King David, King Solomon, and King Rehoboam showed that they had several negative leadership traits. King David engaged in unethical and immoral conduct and this resulted in several difficulties for him where his army lost several consecutive battles. King Solomon chose to engage in an overly personal pursuit of power and wealth and this caused a significant burden on the people. King Rehoboam had a poor advisory team that involved his peers who advised him wrongly. All these negative traits are lessons that should be used by leaders in the modern society.
References
Benton, D. M. (2016). Examining Dark Side Leadership and Impression Management of King David: A Social-Culture Texture Analysis of 2 Samuel 11 (Doctoral dissertation, Regent University).
Chiu, C. Y. C., Balkundi, P., & Weinberg, F. J. (2017). When managers become leaders: The role of manager network centralities, social power, and followers' perception of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly , 28 (2), 334-348.
Friedman, H. H., & Friedman, L. W. (2019). What Went Wrong? Lessons in Leadership from Solomon, the Bible’s Wisest and Worst Ruler. Friedman, HH and Friedman, LW (2019). What Went Wrong , 1-20.
Kong, D. T., & Volkema, R. (2016). Cultural endorsement of broad leadership prototypes and wealth as predictors of corruption. Social Indicators Research , 127 (1), 139-152.
Levine, M. P., & Boaks, J. (2015). What does ethics have to do with leadership? Journal of Business Ethics , 124 (2), 225-242.
Uroko, F. C. (2019). Civil Disobedience and The Survival of Democracy In Nigeria: Lessons From Rehoboam's Leadership. Igwebuike: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities , 4 (5).
