True Leadership: Introduction

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Leadership. A concept that has been misunderstood since the beginning of time.

Many people have mistaken management for leadership. Many in management positions have erroneously thought themselves leaders when what they actually possessed was organizational skill, the ability to manage situations and systems, an outgoing personality, or simply a title someone gave them.

Those things may help a person lead, but none of them is leadership.

Management Works With Things. Leadership Works With People.

Management is about working with things, primarily systems. Leadership is about working with people.

Working with people is far more important than working with things. Please don’t hear what I am not saying. Methodologies, procedures, strategies, tactics, schedules, and systems are important. They help us organize our work and use resources wisely. But if we work only with things, there is only so much we can accomplish.

When we learn to work well with people, we can teach people to work with things and with other people. They can then teach still others. That is when leadership begins to multiply.

Systems do not have souls. Procedures do not carry wounds. Strategies do not need to be loved. People do.

Leadership is faithful stewardship applied to people.

The people entrusted to us belong to God, not to us. We do not get to use them for our private ambitions, personal glory, or organizational success. We are called to care for them, prepare them, protect them, help them grow, and lead them toward God’s purposes.

People are the primary focus of leadership, but God remains the Owner. His glory and His purposes remain primary. Healthy people and healthy organizations are the fruit of faithful stewardship, not the final reason for it.

Leadership Begins With Leading Yourself

If nothing else, every one of us needs to learn to lead ourselves. If we cannot lead ourselves, we cannot lead others well. Not for long, anyway. We may make a mess of the lives around us, not to mention our own.

You will not find someone leading others well over time who does not first learn to lead themselves. Oh, we may lead others for a while because we hold a position. Someone gave us the title, the office, or the authority. John Maxwell calls this Level 1 leadership, the lowest level of leadership. People follow because they have to.

Position is not unimportant, but it is the lowest reason anyone follows another person.

Sooner or later, those who do not lead themselves well, or who do not continue studying and learning how to lead, will reach the “lid” on their leadership ability. Their growth will become stagnant, and eventually the growth of their organization will become stagnant with them.

We must continually raise our leadership lid, knowledge, character, self-awareness, and ability, so we can help others grow themselves and then help those people grow others. It is a continuous process. There are different levels of leadership, and many people remain stuck at a particular level until they become intentional about growing beyond it.

The Best Principles Come From the Author of Life

Where do the best leadership principles come from?

The Author of Life.

No one knows the heart, mind, and soul better than the One who created them. There are many leadership concepts being practiced around the world, and some are genuinely helpful. But every leadership principle that is actually true works because it agrees with the reality God established.

All truth is God’s truth.

If we are dealing with things, we can have a more calculated interaction with them. Systems do what they were designed to do. Spreadsheets rarely become offended. Procedures do not go home discouraged after a difficult meeting. (Though I have seen a few spreadsheets that offended me!)

But people are different.

God has given us proper ways to work with one another because He knows how He created us. Even if someone does not believe in God, leadership usually goes better when that person uses God’s principles. They may call those principles humility, service, sacrifice, accountability, forgiveness, kindness, integrity, or emotional intelligence. They may not acknowledge the Source, but the principles work because this is how people were made to function.

As Frank Turek might say, we sometimes steal from God even while denying that He owns anything worth stealing.

Leadership Must Be Learned

I have been on all sides of the leadership spectrum, from believing and non-believing perspectives, from being a worker-bee to becoming a manager, leader, business owner, and CEO. I have learned and taught leadership through some of the top leadership experts in the world. I have also learned through experience, including the good decisions, the bad decisions, and the people who loved me enough to tell me which was which.

Leadership is about people. Always has been, always will be.

No one is born a leader. Leadership is taught.

Some personality types have a natural propensity toward certain parts of leadership, but they still need to learn the principles of good leadership if they hope to lead others well.

People often assume someone is a good leader because that person is outspoken, decisive, entrepreneurial, persuasive, or comfortable delegating. In fact, without deep and proper leadership training, some of those personalities tend to become the poorest leaders. They may be excellent at starting an organization, casting a vision, or making quick decisions. But eventually the organization requires more people in order to grow.

That is usually when the real leadership test begins.

Starting an organization is not the same as leading the people required to sustain it. Once other people become involved, the leader must learn to listen, communicate, resolve conflict, develop people, receive correction, build trust, and exercise authority faithfully.

Personality affects how we lead. Character determines whether our personality becomes a gift to others or a burden they must carry.

What About Leadership in the Church?

Even church leadership is not guaranteed to succeed simply because it happens inside a church.

Although leadership is one of the spiritual gifts God gives to some, He does not give it to everyone, or even most people. In my church leadership counseling, consulting, and training, I have encountered too many preachers who are not good leaders. They may be good at preaching, teaching, or communicating Scripture, but they are not necessarily good at leading people.

Preaching and leadership are not the same gift.

A person may communicate Scripture faithfully from a pulpit and still struggle to listen, develop others, navigate conflict, receive correction, build trust, or use authority with gentleness. A title does not automatically supply the character and skills the title requires.

This is one reason God gives the Church a plurality of elders rather than leaving its leadership to one preacher or one strong personality. Elders are called to shepherd together. Fortunately, many elders possess the character and personality needed to learn leadership well. Elders are called to shepherd together. Fortunately, many elders possess the character and personality needed to learn leadership well. That is not guaranteed. An office does not guarantee wisdom any more than a title guarantees leadership. But shared leadership provides accountability, complementary gifts, broader wisdom, and protection against one person’s blind spots.

The Church should provide some of the clearest examples of true leadership because Christ has shown us how authority, service, sacrifice, truth, and love belong together.

Unfortunately, we do not always demonstrate that well.

So much so, I wrote a book about it.

Leadership is a learned skill, and the best leadership principles come from a true understanding of people and how God created them. The Bible deals honestly with the heart of mankind and teaches us how to love, serve, correct, forgive, restore, and lead one another.

Why This Series Exists

True Leadership began as a year’s worth of daily devotionals, 365 readings covering many leadership characteristics and the biblical truths supporting them.

I have drawn from more than forty-five years of experience, both good and bad, along with years of leadership study, training, mentoring, counseling, and teaching. I have also drawn from the great leadership concepts shared by my mentors and teachers over the years.

Finally, and most importantly, everything must be examined through God’s Word and the truths He has graciously revealed.

Each principle is intended to add to your understanding of leadership and help you grow in every aspect of life, including the way you lead yourself, your spouse, children, friends, coworkers, church, organization, and even your boss. Yes, you can lead up!

Leadership is not confined to the people beneath us on an organizational chart. In one form or another, we are all leading. We may be leading well, leading poorly, or somewhere in between, but our character, choices, attitudes, and influence are always affecting someone.

Although you can begin anywhere in this series, many of the thoughts and concepts build upon earlier ones. Having said that, each principle can also stand on its own.

Many of the top leadership trainers in the world live by these principles. Psychology and neuroscience continue to bring forward findings that usually do not deviate from them. Science does not threaten truth. Properly understood, science helps us observe how truth works.

Again, all truth is God’s truth.

It Begins With Love

It all starts with the Golden Rule: “In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12 BSB).

Or perhaps we can say it even better: treat others the way God treats us, with steadfast love, truth, patience, kindness, and grace.

The second great commandment Jesus gave us is to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:39). That includes the people we lead.

Who is our neighbor?

Anyone God places around us.

One final thought. Do not put these principles into practice simply to become a better leader, though that is a noble task. Put them into practice because they are right. Put them into practice because people belong to God and because leaders are stewards of what belongs to Him.

If we use God’s principles only for selfish gain, we have already missed the point.

Though, in one sense, that is okay. We will deal with that as we work through these concepts of true leadership. God does not wait until our motives are perfect before He begins teaching us. Thankfully!

Do you disagree with a concept or thought? Wrestle with it. Struggle with it. Test it against Scripture. Ask questions. Join the conversation. Allow these truths to change your heart and mind toward God, yourself, and others. Then purpose to practice what is true in your daily life.

Be intentional!

Much love & blessings,

Royce White
Author & Trainer