Leadership Insights from Jesus

As a Christian, I find much of my leadership development comes from the Bible and predominantly from Jesus Christ himself. Now, this is not to say, that I fail to learn tips of leadership from other avenues, e.g. the business sector, philosophy, nonforprofits, etc, but I do say this: My capacity to lead, from my opinion, must derive itself from the inspired Word of God, and must reflect (within my 21st Century context), the principles and guidelines given from Jesus. From a purely historical perspective, you could say Jesus was the best leader the world has ever seen, especially if your mandate is to have as many followers as possible!

Some of the leadership teachings I have taken from Christ, and which empower me in the area of leadership are:

·         When Jesus challenges the disciples about their heated discussion on who is going to be the greatest, he points to a little child and mentions we should have faith like one of these. This is Jesus confronting the elephant in the living room with the disciples!

·         He also publically confronts Judas about his impending betrayal during the last supper. Most leaders would have kept quiet and swept it under the carpet.

·         Jesus makes a whip and cleans out the temple, so there would be a focus on prayer and not commercialism.

·         Jesus has a heart to heart with Peter following his resurrection, about the need for Peter to feed his sheep, and fulfil his mission in the world.

·         We see Jesus investing a greater amount of time in just three – Peter, James and John.

·         Jesus sets an example of having compassion on the large crowds, and he has faith to minister to them, practically and spiritually.

·         Jesus is an outstanding example of servant leadership (Jesus washing the disciple’s feet).

If we want powerful examples of leadership, then we only need to look to Jesus. We can obviously gleen tips and teachings from many, like Augustine, Martin Luther, Isaac Newton, Abraham Lincoln, Billy Graham, Jim Collins, Stephen Covey, Mother Theresa, Jack Welch, etc, though we find richness in the teachings of Jesus, that have inspired a movement that is still billions strong today!