What Does Your Leadership Look Like?

What does your leadership look like?

We live in a society that worth is measured by likes and a following.

How many people are you following on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube right now?

How many are following you?

Often times our only motivation to learn and improve our skills is so that we can be better than her or him.

That’s not a horrible reason, but when it overshadows our actual growth and development as a person…I think there’s a problem.

I believe there are really only two kinds of leaders:

• those who are fully devoted to serving others and
• those who are devoted to serving themselves.

Take a look at the top leaders in your industry, your area or even your circle of influence.

Which one is more successful?

What’s their core “platform”, self-serving or serving others?

Two of my favorite examples of each of these types of leaders are found in the Old Testament.

The first leader is King Saul and you can find his story in the book of 1st Samuel.

The people of Israel at the time were wanting what the other countries had, a king.

So they begged for a King, and their criteria was pretty superficial and self-serving.

They wanted their king to be strong, handsome and basically “better” than other country’s kings.

So…they got themselves, Saul, he was the “people’s choice”.

As most leaders who are the popular choice, things started off well enough.

Then Saul got caught up in the fear of public opinion and allowed people-pleasing to become the driving force behind his leadership, until he became fearless in his quest to be self-serving. 

By chapter 15 we see “the beginning of the end” for Saul and the same people who put him into leadership, began to reject him.

Don’t you love the irony here? Their criteria for a king was totally self-serving and that’s exactly what they ended up with, a self-serving king! (who says the Bible isn’t interesting?)

Meanwhile there was a king that God had in mind all along and he was the complete opposite of “popular”.

Turns out the most important quality he had could not be physically “seen” because it was his heart.

I’m talking about King David, the unknown, not even seemingly qualified or even of age at the time!

David turned out to be one of the most popular kings who wrote most of the book of Psalms, made it his life’s mission to put God first and serve God’s people well.

Yet, if you read about David you see that he screwed up…more than once and often majorly.

But you will find him owning his mistakes, correcting them and striving to be a leader whose focus was on to serve the people he was given.

So who does your leadership look more like today, King Saul or King David?

I know I can be a hybrid at times or even one or the other, but I’ve learned to own my mistakes, move on and make progress toward squashing my King Saul and growing my King David!

No matter our desires, goals or priorities – focus on what kind of leaders we want to be, NOT ones who follow or become self-serving leaders, but leaders who are servants for the benefit of others!

making progress to grow into a leader who serves others well,
Deana

Do you struggle with King Saul ‘syndrome’ at times like me? Want to troubleshoot together?