Leadership - part one

Leadership Defined:  Who and What is a Leader

 “Leadership is getting someone to do what they don’t want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve...” -- Tom Landry

Leadership is a broad and very popular subject these days.  You can find it in books, video/DVD, seminars, on TV, radio and anywhere you choose to look.  On Amazon.com you will find the listing for 62,693 books on leadership.  It is not because it is so over used, but because it is so important.

Dr. John Maxwell, one of America’s leading experts on leadership said it best when he wrote, "Everything rises and falls on leadership.”  Leaders have a great impact on all of us.  Good leaders help us to achieve the impossible and be our best.  Poor leaders can hold us down and even cause great damage to people and organizations.  And the lack of a leader will lead to confusion, chaos and disaster.

Over the next few weeks, it is my desire to help you see how leadership can and does affect your life.  Not from the view point of being the leader, but from having a leader.  Many of you are leaders in some form.  But every leader knows that we too have leaders.  How we interact with our leaders can make the difference between success and failure. 

I want to start by defining what a leader is.  You can look up leader or leadership in the dictionary yourself.  I want to approach this from a bit more practical point.  I see four key areas that a leader stands out above the others.  They are by leading, being an example, handling a crisis and serving.

“Good Leaders add to their knowledge and skills every day.  True leaders seek out opportunities; they’re always looking for ways to increase their professional knowledge and skills.” – U.S. Army Leadership Field Manual 

A Leader Leads.

One of the most important questions you need to ask yourself about a leader is by far the most simple and basic: Can and do they lead?  A true leader is not one who holds the title of leader.  Titles are easily given but difficult to earn.  We all know of folks who have been given a title but did not earn it. 

Leadership is leading, having the ability to point the way and get others to follow.  It is not control or manipulation.  It is getting people to follow because they choose to.  Again, Dr. John Maxwell said, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”  It is not someone who demands his way, sends others down the way, and runs over those who get in the way.

 “Leadership always has to be leading.”  -- Jack Hyles

A Leader is an Example.

A true leader is kind of like a hero, you want to be like them.  Not because you desire their power, a good leader does not show you their power.  It is not because they have position, a good leader is one of the team.  It is because they lead; can make good decisions for the good of all and care about others more than themselves.

Leading by example is not a “look at me” kind of leadership.  That kind of leadership only benefits the leader.  Leading by example is someone who is constantly doing for others; is aware of what has to be done and seeing that it is done right.  It is skill, knowledge and giving of one’s self.  This leader is never placed before everyone yet is visible to all.

 “Example is leadership.”  -- Albert Schweitzer

A Leader Can Handle Crisis.

Nowhere is leadership more evident than in a crisis.  This is the stuff true leaders are born for.  When all others are confused and running around the leader will rise up and take control.  One of the best examples of this in recent times was Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on September 11, 2001.  The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center Towers was unexpected, more disastrous than anything we had had to deal with before and put New York City into mass confusion.  Yet Giuliani kept his cool and made decisions on the spot that got the people through.

Pastor and Author, John MacArthur defines this kind of leadership this way, “True leadership is tested and proven in crisis.  The real leader is the one who can handle the stress.  He is the one who can solve the problems, bear the burdens, find the solutions, and win the victories where everyone else is merely flustered, confounded, and perplexed.”  The true leader is not appointed or called on in a crisis, he is just there and doing what needs to be done.  If he steps in after the crisis is over or has to get backing before he can act, that is not a true leader.

“Character matters; leadership descends from character.” – Rush Limbaugh

A Leader Serves Others.

Easy thing to remember and notice, a true leader serves others; others are not there to serve him.  The greatest example of leadership is Jesus Himself, who said He came to serve not to be served.  Others will follow a leader who serves and will learn to serve as well, but the leader does not demand it of them, it is given by them.

J. Oswald Sanders said, “True greatness, true leadership, is found in giving yourself in service to others, not in coaxing or inducing others to serve you.”  I personally find it extremely distasteful when a so-called leader has to go to people and beg them for help or manipulate others to do what they want.  They are quick to blame others for not following but they miss the obvious reason for that…there is no leader! 

A true leader leads by example handling every problem alone the way without fuss or whining for the betterment of all.  These are not hidden qualities that you have to seek out.  You will see them in all true leaders and when you do, follow that person for they will take you to the fields of success.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you’re are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

© Jack Hickey 2010