The source of this quote is obvious – and yet this is not intended to be a political post – it may not avoid it, but that is not the intention. Instead I want to use it to explore leadership.
What does strong and stable leadership mean? There are several ways of interpreting this, and depending on what it means may depend on whether we want it or not.
Strong leadership
Here is one definition of Strong Leadership; many companies would see Command & Control as strong leadership, whilst others would see Empowerment as a form of strong leadership, with the leader having the strength to recognise that they do not have all the answers.
Stable leadership
Here is one set of definitions of stable leadership – it does depend on having the same leader for a period of time – some of the qualities listed do not develop overnight, but in a democracy the people have the right to decide that they would like a new leader – so the length of stability is limited. However, the other kinds of stability mentioned in the article can be developed and looked for.
So what kind of leader was Jesus?
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
I would argue that that is a form of strong leadership, but I doubt that many would agree with me!
Servant Leadership
As part of my ministerial training I was introduced to the work of Robert Greenleaf on Servant Leadership, this is the kind of leadership that I see as strong and stable – not the kind which believes in the leader as “superman”.
What do you think?
Alan
