A toxic mix for leaders

Among leaders who lack insight, abuse abounds.... Pr 28.16 The Message

As a student of Servant Leadership my senses have been heightened when it comes to leadership styles. I just started my second LLJ (Lead Like Jesus) group last night and each time I go over the material I am challenged to be more like Jesus in my leadership style. While some would say that your leadership style doesn't really matter, I would say IT DOES!!! Check out this quote from Lead Like Jesus:

Leading like Jesus is more than an effort to adopt a certain discrete set of behavioral principles, attitudes and thought processes. It is a challenging journey in daily surrender of your motivations to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It means laying pride and fears on the altar and letting them be transformed. (Inspiring thoughts from Lead Like Jesus: Beginning the Journey Participant’s Study Guide - Page 49)

Self serving leadership results in fear and pride and they are HUGE problems in leadership! Fear leads to self protection while pride leads to self promotion. Insecure leaders are typically leading out of either fear or pride, or a toxic combination of both. These leaders often abuse the people nearest them and the people that work for them. Is this what Jesus wants? What's the answer? (I'm glad you asked!)

Servant leadership! Servant leaders act in humility and confidence! This frees you to truly lead like Jesus! Here are some of the characteristics of a servant leader:

• They use truth instead of distortion as a basis for decision making.
• They have transparent relationships instead of isolation.
• They value and build community instead of destructive competition.

What type of leader are you? Self serving or servant leading? Jesus was a servant leader - shouldn't we be?