LEADERS ARE PEOPLE-ORIENTEDPrinciple:
“Th e better we listen, the better we can love; and
the more we love, the better we can lead. Listening,
loving, and leading are inseparable.”We can see the difference between effective spiritual leadership, and efficient
worldly leadership. There is a crucial difference here between being an
efficient leader as opposed to being an effective leader. Many leaders are
efficient – but they are not effective. What is the difference? Stephen Covey
explains:
While you can think in terms of efficiency in dealing with time,
a principle-centered person thinks in terms of effectiveness in
dealing with people...you simply can’t think efficiency with people.
You think effectiveness with people, and efficiency with
things.^3We may become very efficient in organizing people...managing people...
manipulating people – without ever really effectively relating to them as
people! You can manage them like a cog in a machine...move them around
like a pawn on a chessboard...check them off like a line item on your ‘to-
do’ list – and never get to know them as individuals. Efficiency can be very
impersonal, while true effectiveness flows out of intimate relationships!
There is another great contrast between worldly leadership and kingdom
leadership. In the world greatness is determined by how many people serve you –
not by how many people love you. The more people who revolve around
you...answer to you...serve you...do your bidding...meet your needs, the
greater you are deemed to be. However, in the Kingdom of God, greatness is
determined by how many people you serve – and serving is the proof of loving.
It is a totally different leadership paradigm. In the Kingdom of God, there
is a radical shift of axis from self to others. For this leadership shift to take
place, pride and ego have to be laid low! This egotistical self has to be
crucified with Christ...wrapped in the shroud of self-denial...and buried
in the grave of self-surrender! Otherwise, the spiritual leader becomes a
carnal walking corpse of self-centeredness! Richard Phillips warns about the
exaltation of self in his book, The Heart of an Executive:
When a person rises in position, as happens to leaders in the church,
the tendency to pride also increases. If not checked, the attitude will