The Bible on Leadership
He never wrote a book, taught a seminar or created a detailed outline for His disciples to follow, but in only a few years after His death His movement had swelled to include thousands of believers. Within five generations, that number reached into the millions. Today His followers number more than one billion. Who is that leader? Jesus Christ.

The principles Jesus embodied are applicable in any area, whether an office, a school, a small business, a multinational corporation, or a volunteer organization.

1. Leaders call followers. Leaders lead, managers merely manage. Motivate others and ask them to join you. Don't necessarily pick from the assumed pool of candidates. Let those around you be infected with your enthusiasm for the vision.
   
   
2. Leaders teach with authority. Leaders are always teachers. You must be prepared and know what you are talking about. Only lessons well learned and fully internalized hold followers for the long pull, and keep them faithful and committed when the inevitable tough times come.
   
   
3. Leaders anticipate temptation. The more effective your leadership, the more you will be tempted. Temptation itself is not sinful and, if successfully resisted, can reveal God's presence in your life. Lust, wealth, power and pride top the list of temptations. Keeping a close circle of friends to whom you are accountable often tames the temptation.
   
   
4. Leaders take care of their people. The people you are leading can be effective only when their needs and the needs of their families are met.
   
   
5. Leaders are disciplined. Find time for both prayer and solitude. Solitude does not come naturally or easily. Other great leaders, from Lincoln, to Churchill, to Edison followed Jesus' example of setting aside quiet times. Strategic withdrawal is a necessary part of success.
   
   
6. Leaders eat with the troops. It is not a coincidence that Scripture so often uses food as a metaphor. Leaders do not neglect the power that food and mealtimes have to set the stage for building lasting, productive relationships and imparting important lessons.
   
   
7. Leaders face opposition with confidence. They meet challenges with thought-out and clearly articulated responses. Do not be surprised or debilitated by opposition because it will come. Leaders who can't handle rejection, defeat, or delay, don't last.
   
   
8. Leaders plan. Visionary leadership requires both a long-range view of opportunities and short-range plans to advance to the next level. Details are important.
   
   
9. Leaders tell stories. They teach through relevant stories that create heroes, build legends and help establish the kind of culture that inspires the followers to excellence.
   
   
10. Leaders create unity. They realize that unity rarely just happens: it has to be sought and taught. A leader does all he can to build with those who contribute to unity.
    
    
11. Leaders have intimacy with certain followers. The idea that leaders must treat all followers exactly the same is a myth and inhibits the kind of intimacy necessary for the most positive type of leadership to emerge. The best leaders are not lonely because they have developed an intimacy with a close group of followers.
    
    
12. Leaders speak the truth at all times, yet may need to reserve some of the truth for those in an inner circle. The truth shared with each group is important in the way it is shared, in its content, and in its timing.
    
    
13. Leaders evaluate their followers. It is not how much we have that counts, but what we do with what we have. Leaders must help followers understand this principle and hold them accountable to it.
    
    
14. Leaders calm the storm. Turbulent times are sure to come. A leader needs to repress his impulse to panic. Instead, he must speak words of reassurance in a calming tone. A leader acts decisively, not impulsively.
    
    
15. Leaders prepare successors. From the beginning, leaders plan for the time when they will no longer be around.
    

By Bob Briner and Ray Pritchard

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