A Good Leader Focuses on Who They Are Leading

Who do you consider a leader in your job?  Or who is in charge?  Who is making the rules?What about in your personal life? Do you have a leader there? (Maybe it is you)Now that you have that person in mind, think about why they are there.  Maybe they are there because they have simply been there for a long time and people keep giving them promotions.  Maybe they are a great leader and inspire and encourage those around them to perform at a higher level.Now think about something different...what if, regardless of how great of a leader that person is, no one listened to them or did anything with their direction.Ultimately leadership comes down to the people you are leading or pouring into.  Leadership is nothing without people to lead.  Think about a Board of Directors for a company.  If they decide to give 10% bonuses to everyone in the company but the finance department decides to only write the check for 5% raises, then it doesn't matter what the board says.Or think about the church.  I grew up Southern baptist, and my father was a Deacon in the church for many years.  I didn't know what that meant until much later in life.  In short, he was a leader in the church that acted as a "board" for the church and helped lead the congregation to experience God more through decisions that had to be made within the church culture.  Every so often they would need to get approval of the budget from the church.  And even though the leadership and Deacons had talked through it, they put it to a vote for the congregation.  They never just made a decision and never took into account what the effect on the church as a whole would be.That's really a mark of a true leader.

Related Post: A Leader Is One Who Knows the Way Goes the Way and Shows the Way

Its not the ability to lead and/or make decisions.  But its the ability to make the decisions for the greater good of those you are leading.  Its easy to make a decision for your own greater good.  But try to think about every single person your decision will effect, then make it.Jesus was obviously the best at this.  There were plenty of times that He did (or didn't do) something that may have seemed to be strange at the time.  But He ALWAYS had our best interest at heart.The challenge today and this week is to be more selfless.  Begin to embody the characteristic of Jesus that always put others before Himself...thats why He was a great leader and one we all try to emulate to this day.