LEADERSHIP QUALITIES OF THE SHEPHERD!
Leadership Essential #1: Hearing and recognizing God’s voice
1) Conditions necessary for accurate hearing:
a. Spend time with God.
b. Circumcise your heart from selfish motives and preconceived ideas.
c. Have a heart that is ready (instant) to obey
d. Know the character of God.
e. Learn to trust and follow the desires of your heart.
Leadership Essential #2: Courage
1) David’s leadership was established through his courage, not his
talent or even his calling from God.
2) David was courageous, but not talent.
3) Leaders instill courage in the hearts of those who follow.
4) Leaders are not the smartest or most educated, but those willing to go first, lead the way, and take the Risks.
5) The courage to dream always precedes the capital needed
Leadership Essential #3: Character
A. Character is not an essential for worldly leadership, but absolutely essential for Kingdom leadership
1) Examples of leaders who have led large organizations with some degree of success, yet lacked character.
2) You can lead without character, but character is what makes you a leader worth following.
a. The Bible places a priority on character above success.
b. Your accomplishments as a leader will make your name
known.
Character is the will to do what is right even when it is Hard
1) Doing what is right regardless of the cost relationally, emotionally, financially, including job security. 2) Having good, but negotiable intentions is not character.
3) As a leader in God’s Kingdom you must decide ahead of time what is a non-negotiable as it relates to right and wrong.
4) The shortest and most direct path to where you want to be is not always the most ethical or honorable one.
5) The day will come when progress and success seems to call for a compromise of conviction.
6) Leaders committed to maintaining their character will often
say no to what many would perceive to be the opportunity of a
lifetime.
7) The willingness to say no is what cess the leader with character
apart from the pack.
8) It is on the mountaintop of success that leaders often abandon
the convictions and humility that got them there.
a. Power, money, success, and fame can be intoxicants that
blur our vision and affect our judgment. b. That is why having the will to do right requires that you determine what’s right before the struggle to do right ensues.
9) Character means aligning your behavior with your beliefs placing what is right above promotion, financial gain, or expedience.
10) Your decision to choose integrity over experience and success will produce something far more valuable than success to you.
Leadership Essential # 4 Moral Authority
1) Every leader wears two badges: one visible, one invisible.
2) The visible badge is your position and title. The invisible badge is your authority with people.
3) Your position gives you authority within certain limits and will prompt people to lend you their hands on a temporary basis.
4) Your moral authority will inspire them to lend you their Hearts
5) Moral authority is established once it becomes clear to those who are watching that success, financial gain, and recognition are not a leader’s gods.
6) When people see that you will not bow at the altar of success you will have moral authority and real influence with them.
7) It is the credibility you earn by walking your talk.
8) It is achieved when there is a real influence between your convictions and actions, your beliefs and behavior.
9) Inconsistency between what is said and done inflicts a mortal wound on a leader’s influence and moral authority.
10) You can pay people to work for you based on your position
alone, but you cannot involve people in a cause or movement without moral authority. 11) Leaders worth following do not pretend to live in two worlds there is no discrepancy between their professional and private lives (Compare politics today). 12) Kingdom leaders know the futility of liberty and their lives