SEVEN WAYS TO BE AN UNATTRACTIVE LEADER
Leadership is the ability to influence and inspire a group of people to achieve an excellent goal.
It could also mean providing the lead for a group of people, being the shepherd of the sheep as described in Matthew 4:19.
The office of a leader is present everywhere, from the smallest unit of organisation which is the family to the biggest.
Where ever we have a group of people , there must be someone leading them.
As Christians, God wants us to be effective leaders.
Jesus is a perfect model of a leader, we can learn from him from the way he led the twelve disciples in the scriptures.
Some church leaders today lack adequate leadership skills, they believe it takes only spirituality to be a leader. Once you are born again and you have the Holy Spirit, that’s all you need to head a department or pastor your local church.
Jesus, being a spiritual person added some leadership skills to his spirituality knowing fully well that he is leading humans, not spirits.
The success of every group or department depends, to a larger chunk, on their leaders.
‘When the head is bad, the whole body is in disarray’.
Here are seven ways one can be an unattractive leader.
1. When you give excuses .
“He that is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else”.
Leaders who make excuses always end up as failures.
Learn to take responsibilities for your actions and live a life of integrity. You should inspire your followers to make things happen with the way you lead them, excuses make you an irresponsible leader.
Take up every challenge or task with zeal and determination.
Avoid making excuses.
2. When you lack creativity
Creativity is the use of imagination or original ideas to create something.
Creative leaders possess an innate awareness about themselves, what they do well and what they don’t do so well.
Broaden your horizons and come up with new ideas, be insightful and imaginative and also facilitate creativity in your followers.
A creative leader doesn’t follow routine patterns, they come up with better ideas of doing things to achieve better result.
“When you lack creativity as a leader, your followers will always find you boring and conventional. “
3. When you are always too busy to meet with your followers/ team members.
Jesus hardly leaves his disciples except he is going to pray. Meetings create connections and availability creates bonding.
John C Maxwell said; “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way”.
How then do you show the way when you are always absent or too busy to have time for your followers.
Busy leaders are often bad leaders.
They have no plan or structure of their day and if they do, they don’t stick to it.
Busy leaders are not proactive, they are reactive, they let other people control their time, they don’t tune out distractions.
Highly effective leaders follow plan, they understand that they have to create time to inspire their followers.
4. When you lack skills.
“If you are leading and nobody is following, you are just taking a stroll”.
Some of the basic skills a leader must possess includes good communication, relationship building, awareness, motivation, trustworthiness, feedback, innovation and ability to delegate duties.
An attractive leader must be able to carry every follower along, inspire every follower to make thoughtful decisions, properly allocate resources and give instructions to carry out specific directives.
5. When you don’t pray.
The glory of a leader is the exploits of his followers.
“Don’t lead people cannot pray for.”
Jesus constantly prayed for his disciples, learn to pray for your followers.
Win them over on your knees first before you win them in the office.
The followers you pray for yield to you.
Pray for the wellness of your followers. Many leaders of today don’t want their followers to have what they have. They are insecure.
If you feel threatened by the achievements of your followers, you are an insecure leader.
The better the followers, the better the leader.
Show me a praying leader and I will show you a successful leader.
6. When you are poorly packaged.
Leaders have apparels.
Excellence is the apparel of a leader.
It doesn’t have to be expensive to be excellent.
God wants you to look smart and sharp as a leader.
Jesus dressed nicely, he wore designers, his apparel was seamless, so lovely that the soldiers had to share it .John 19:23
Looking shabbily doesn’t depict righteous and holiness.
Let your followers be proud to introduce you as their leader.
7. When you lack compassion and love.
“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”.
You have to build a large capacity to accommodate people. True leaders have large hearts, they are compassionate, selfless and loving.
Taking a cue from Jesus, the least of his follower is very important to him. He is a man full of love and compassion.
Empathise with your followers, be concerned about their welfare, call them, check up on them, be observant enough to notice when one of them is not fine.
Have the heart of a true shepherd.
True leadership is not easy, it is a difficult job , but it also has the potential to be one of the most rewarding jobs.
Whether you lead a large congregation, a small fellowship, a big choir or a small ushering unit, focus more on being a developer of people and helping those you lead become all that they can possibly become.
Leadership is about sowing seeds of love, commitment and sacrifice. The better your seeds, the more rewarding your harvest.
Feel free to drop your comments.