Leadership is the principal virtue of governance.
Great nations are what they are because they have great and effective leaders.
The reason
Youths
are our hope and future. They are bridge between past and future. Because
youths are the future of any nation, it has become most appropriate that this
youth’s seminar is organized around the theme of leadership with quest to
examine the place of today’s youths in the context of tomorrow’s leadership.
Today
is the end of yesterday and the beginning of tomorrow. In the same vein, youths
are the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. The future belongs to
today’s youths. If we fail to nurture them we have failed to protect our
tomorrow. Raising today’s youths to become tomorrow’s leaders is imperative.
CONCEPTUALIZING
LEADERSHIP
It
was Cicero, a Roman sage who posited that any subject should be properly
conceptualized so that everyone would come to understand the subject of
enquiry. In view of this, it would be most appropriate that we venture into the
universe of definitions of the chief concept: leadership.
Bernard
Montgomery, a British Field Marshal conceives leadership as the, “Capacity and
will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character that inspires
them.”
Eagle
8 (2008:10) states that a “Leader is anyone who occupies a position of
authority and is responsible for managing people in order to achieve the goals
of the unit, department or organization. Today, leadership is desperately in
great demand. Families, businesses, churches, countries and global associations
are in need of effective leaders. An effective leader manages, but not every
manager is a leader. The more managers an organization can convert to leaders,
the more successful it will be.”
Manfred
de Vries, an INSEAD Professor of Leadership opined: “Your business can have all
the advantages in the world – strong financial resources, enviable market
position and state-of-the-art technology but if leadership fails, all of these
advantages melt away.”
From
the foregoing, it can be easily seen that leadership is the principal thing. It
is the glue that holds everything together. The moment it fails, the center
cannot hold again. Leadership is a catalyst. An anonymous writer had opined
that leadership is enabling a group to engage together in the process of
developing, sharing and moving into vision, and then living it out.
Collins
English Dictionary (1998) defines leadership as the ability to lead. Peter
Drucker of the Drucker Foundations affirmed that the only definition of a
leader is someone who has followers and that to gain followers require
influence. John Maxwell in His 21
Irrefutable Laws of Leadership states that “Leadership is influence -
nothing more, nothing less.”
Warren
Bennies is of the opinion that leadership is a function of knowing oneself,
having a vision that is well communicated to one’s followers, building trust
amongst colleagues, and taking effective action to realize one’s own leadership
potentials.
An anonymous writer stated
that leadership is the process of influencing the behaviour of other people
toward group goals in a way that fully respects their freedom.
The
consensus of leadership literature suggests that leaders have vision, are
individuals who attract followers, are people who share their visions with
their followers, and enable the group together to achieve their common goals.
Key terms in definitions of
leadership include but not limited to exertion of influence, motivating and
inspiring people; helping others to realize and maximize their potentials;
leading by example, selflessness and making a difference.
BRIEF
BIBLICAL HISTORY OF LEADERSHIP
Leadership is as old as man
himself. When God created the first pair, He made one to be head and the other
to be subservient (cf. Genesis 3:16; I Corinthians 11:3). Man as a social and
political animal likes a well-organized systems of things and so he began to
organize (Genesis 11:1-5).
In the evolution of
leadership, the nature of man-made the strong to rule over the weak (Mark
10:42-45). Halley’s Bible Handbook (1965:82) noted that, “Nimrod the mighty
hunter before the Lord (Genesis 10:8-9) was historically reputed as the first
community leader. His leadership started as a hunter to protect his people from
the menace of wild animals. He was also said to have headed the ill-fated “
CHRISTIAN
YOUTHS AND FUTURE LEADERSHIP
This generation of Christian
youths is the future leaders of the Church. Without the active participation of
the youths in most Congregational activities and decisions the Church of tomorrow will definitely lack
leaders.
Leaders are both born and
made (cf. Matt.19:12). Naturally, a leader-to-be must express his desire to be
involved in leadership (cf. I Timothy 3:1). He then begins to see himself as
such and then works towards acceptance (I Timothy 3:10). The Lord is seriously
looking for committed persons to fill leadership vacuum (cf. Ezekiel 22:30).
Our Lord,
however, cannot commit Himself, His business and His people into the hands of
just any person (John 2:24) but persons who are considered faithful (II Timothy
2:2). A future leader must be a person of sound morality (II Timothy 2:22a).Our
Lord is looking for young persons of sound moral and spiritual integrity (II
Timothy 2:19-21). Would you become that future leader?
The
things expected from future leaders are:
i.
Being committed to the things of God (Luke 2:49; John 2:13-17).
ii. Not
allowing rooms for a let-down (I Timothy 4:12).
iii.
Joseph, as a youthful leader demonstrated sound moral integrity
(Genesis
39:9), Daniel, Meshach, Shedrach and Abednego demonstrated
both
moral and doctrinal integrity (Daniel 1:8) while Timothy
demonstrated willingness (Acts 16:1-2).
WHAT THE LED ARE EXPECTED TO DO TO
ENSURE EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP
It should be noted that
leadership is partnership: It is the marriage of the minds of both leaders and
followers. There can be no good leaders
if there are bad followers and vice-versa. Therefore, if you want to see
changes in the leadership of your family, congregation, community and nation be
involved, lend a hand, make inputs and encourage the involved.
The led should realize first
and foremost that leaders are humans and not
angels. They can be vulnerable and are in their
persons not fallible. They have
flaws; they can make mistakes. Do not expect a perfect human beings and leaders
(Ecclesiastes 7:20).
Do not accuse a leader in a
way unbecoming (I Timothy 5:19). Be
investigative. Do not accept allegations against a leader line, hook
and sinker (Acts 17:11; cf. Acts
18:24-26). Give them support and encouragement (Galatians 6:4-7). Give them
recognition as well (I Timothy 5:19; I Thessalonians 5:12-13). Sow the seeds of
encouragement in your leaders and you will get it back in torrents of good
leadership (Prov.11: 25).
BECOMING
A LEADER (MATTHEW 24:45)
1.
You must Understudy a leader
Qualities of effective leaders are scattered on the pages of the Holy Writ. Each leader, however, must have been a time-tested follower (I Timothy 3:10; Acts 16:1-2). You will never be an effective leader if you are not first a good follower. Being a follower affords you an opportunity to understudy a leader: know his strengths and weaknesses; his/her mistakes and Unique Selling Points. It stimulates the followership as it seeks to give the led senses of belonging, direction and fulfillment. Bible shows that Moses had his Joshua, Elijah had his Elisha and Elisha had his Gehazi; Jesus had His Apostles, Paul had his Timothy and Titus; Barnabas had his John Mark. Somebody was able to understudy somebody. It is imperative that those who want to become leaders must first pay their price. In the course of doing this, you will be used, misused and abused but these are what finally make you useful. This is because while you are being thrown to every corner, you will end up knowing those corners and equipping yourself for the future.
2. You must be a person of vision
Vision is clear direction. A
visionary leader knows the past and the present so well that it can lead others
well into the future (cf. Matthew13: 52). Lack of vision is dangerous for a
people (Proverbs 29:18). Visionary leaders must be pregnant with the vision to
add value to the lives of those they lead. Insight and foresight should be the
hallmark of a visionary leadership (Ecclesiastes 2:14d). Lack of vision is the
bane of ineffective leadership (Isaiah 9:16; Matthew 15:14). An effective
leader knows the way, shows the way and leads the way.
3. You
must be a person of strong integrity (I Timothy 4:12, 16).
Jesus Christ our Lord left
us a legacy in these areas (Acts 1:1). The morality of leaders should never be
questioned (I Timothy 3:7). You must be firm and fair.
4.
You must be emotionally and psychologically mature (I Timothy 3:4a; Proverbs
16:32).
Leaders must be emotionally
matured (Titus 1:7c). They must also be spiritually matured (I Timothy 3:6;
Hebrews 5:14). Man management is not business management. Leadership is not a
child’s play; it is not for chicken-hearted. You must have lots of stamina to withstand
pressures. You need lots of shock absorbers, too. You must understand that “No
man is man enough until he is man enough to man his own mind.” Cool headedness
is the word.
5.
You must be versatile in knowledge and dynamic (Matthews 13: 52).
“Versatility”- Those who do not know their history are condemned to
repeat it (I Corinthians 10:6-12). “Dynamism”- Variety is said to be the spice
of life. This is very true of leadership. If a leader must stand the test of
time and make positive impacts he/she must be dynamic.
6.
You must possess the attitude of “Give
and Take”; spirit of sportsmanship; altruism. (John 3:30; Philippians
4:2; 2:3-4).
The attitude of, “If I do not rule I will ruin”; “If I am not at the helm of affairs, I will be at the heels”; “If my opinion is not accepted, none else will hold any water” are destructive. You must avoid Diotrophesic mentality and self-will (III John Vs.9-11; Titus 1:7b). You must avoid the temptation to politicize affairs that you are not comfortable with – employing “Divide and Rule” (cf. Acts 20:28-30).
ARE LEADERS
BORN OR ARE THEY MADE?
In a way,
leaders are born and are also made. Matthew 19:11-12 points out that some
people are born to fulfill certain functions while others are made by persons.
In some cases, people actually work their way into certain positions. History
is replete with leaders who were born, others who were made and some who made
themselves. Effective leaders are not determined by being born one, made one or
by making oneself one. It is all about personal orientations and one’s personal
attributes.
Certain
elements are present to determine whether one is born a leader or made a leader.
These are Identification, Association, Initiation, Consultation, Delegation
and Coordination.
By Identification, a leader whether born
or made is able to identify a need, a vacuum or a responsibility. The quality
of identification already marks the individual out as a leader. Rising to the
occasion to fill the need, vacuum or responsibility sets the stage for
leadership.
By
Initiation, person who initiates an idea or a movement has naturally set
himself apart as a leader. Deborah was a classical case in point here (Judges
4:4-10). By Associating themselves with those who have paid their dues in effective leadership,
prospective leaders who have flair for effective leadership are ennobled to
discover both real and felt needs of their people and then initiates programs of action to
meet those needs. By Consultations leaders feel the pulse of the people,
feel their feelings and work hard at carrying everyone along in decision-making
processes. An ability to Delegate responsibilities is a sure indication that one possesses leadership
qualities. The same also applies to abilities to Coordinate
various activities among people and within an organization or a group.
Everyone can identify with one
or two of the signposts to leadership. That is to say that every prospective
leader must fill a need of and in the society. Effective Leaders have uncanny abilities
to know how to use human instruments to meet given needs at given times.
CONCLUSION
There are various genres of leadership:
Transactional, Transformational and Translucent leaders.
A Transactional leader is one is a
businessman/woman. To him/her leadership is business as usual. Their philosophy
is, “Rub my back and I will rub your back.”
A Transformational leader is one who
believes in making a difference. He/she has passion for development. He/she transforms
everywhere he/she goes and is.
A Translucent leader is one who is
transparent with a “See through me” attitude. He/she is hardworking,
transformational and translucent. He/she is altruistic and exemplary.
What
kind of a leader do you desire to be? As we think through these, may we remain
eternally blessed in Jesus’ name!
Thank
you!!
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