Leadership Skills in Religion - Essay Example

How to become a leader

Question 1: How can a person become a successful leader by being humble?

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Humility is one of the personality traits that describes the modest perspective of oneself. In Colossians 3:12, there is a showcase of humility as a state of lowliness or meekness of the mind and self. In the business and leadership realm, humility is the ability of leaders or managers to be respectful and courteous of their followers. Therefore, humility is both a virtue and an element for acquiring a competitive advantage in leadership. Humility is one of the traits of effective servant leadership, but it is often neglected and replaced by pride among many leaders. Contemporary business environments are complex such that managers can successfully execute administrative tasks through collaboration and teamwork. Due to the complexity of the contemporary workplaces, successful leaders now recognize that they should exercise humility to allow others particularly in the lower corporate ranks to help the executives in solving complex tasks (Tucker, 2012).

By demonstrating humility, one becomes successful leader due to the link between humility and success factors such as sincere investments, recognizing limitations and inviting feedback, sharing authority and remaining thankful. Regarding sharing of power, Spears (2010) says that humble leaders and managers do not execute challenging tasks by themselves, but delegate authority and prime responsibility to their followers. Humble leaders thus engage their members hence fostering learning-oriented teams leading to employee retention and job satisfaction, the two primary triggers of profitability (Spears, 2010). Secondly, humble leaders succeed by making sincere investments since humility is paramount for leaders to recognize that organizations' visions are bigger and are bound to last longer than leaders. Humble leaders are willing to invest in their followers' efforts, skills, and time hence bringing up and budding innovative leaders. Thirdly, humble leaders become successful by recognizing their limitations and accepting corrections and feedback. Humility is essential for leaders to admit mistakes and learn from criticisms hence empowering themselves to learn and cultivate success from employees’ feedback. Lastly, humble leaders remain grateful and appreciative of employees' efforts into their leadership. Spears (2010) supports the attainment of success by exercising humility in naturally praising the input and time that employees spent to ensure organizations achieve their accomplishments. Humility is among the critical leadership elements necessary for the creation of an inclusive working environment where leaders' interest for others surpasses their own.

Leadership is about serving others

Question 2: Why is it an important leadership trait to serve others first?

Humility as an important leadership trait advocates for leaders to lead by setting good examples to their followers in relations to their characters and actions. Therefore, it is essential for leaders to consider service and interest of others before their own. In the biblical view, Lord is the prime leader and humans ought to trail his steps. In organizational leadership, leaders must act as specimens of good governance by being the first to practice what is in their headship discourse (Grahn, 2011). Servant leadership supports the concept of service beyond self as an attribute of serving and considering the interest of other individuals first (Tucker, 2012). The contemporary business setting is continuously becoming less deferential and increasingly involving regarding relationship between top management and their employees. Therefore, serving first is an essential trait for the executive managers since business environment does not portray leadership as just an element of position, but also a locus where leaders earn authority and respect from their followers. When leaders have the trait of serving their supporters first, they demonstrate their responsibility in guiding and letting them shine.

Service to other people first is a quieter leadership strategy which entails listening to the employees, exercising transparency, recognizing and appreciating their efforts and contributions, and understanding their limitations. Tucker (2012) suggests that serving other individuals first is the beginning of ensuring effective engagement of employees. According to Tucker (2012), serving employees first is an altruistic behavior in servant leadership that every leader should adopt. It thus leads to job satisfaction, innovation and employee retention which induce success and profitability. The act of cultivating success and profitability by serving followers first leads to the workers embracing and promoting the life force of service beyond self, particularly when teamwork is the main recipe for success. Helping workers in solving complex tasks first depict leaders as role models in empowering employees to follow appropriate ways of doing things (Tucker, 2012). Leaders as role models should reverse their roles by leading from behind, an attribute which has the advantage of facilitating employees' development and also modeling how to take a different perspective. Leading from behind is an aspect that is vital in effective working and collaboration in various teams. Furthermore, biblical teachings show that we should embrace Jesus's ways of serving other people first as an important way by which human exhibit their self-sacrifice, generosity, and humility. The importance of serving first in leadership is that it increases trust from the followers leading to higher engagement and establishment of stronger working relationships.

Religion and leadership

Question 3: What is the importance of relying on Jesus’ will and ways as it relates to leadership?

Most of Jesus Christ's teachings focus on morals, values, and humility. As Christians, we should apply Jesus' teachings and will in our daily lives as a way of following and respecting his ways. As the head of the twelve disciples and the earliest Christian congregation, Jesus's biblical teachings are demonstrations that he is the role model in servant leadership. As seen in Phillippians 2:3, Jesus teaches us to serve other people in lowliness of mind and self (Grahn, 2011). Jesus's ways and will highlight humility and good morals but exclude qualities that are common among contemporary leaders such as conceit, selfish ambition, and struggle associated with self-defense and self-justification. Therefore, it is essential to rely on Christ's ways and will in leadership to make use of his unique leadership qualities such as decisiveness, perseverance, integrity, courage, honesty, and humility which produce contentment and godliness. According to Grahn (2011), three images summarize the qualities of a leader in connection with Jesus' character and leadership approach. The three images show the threefold description of Jesus as the shepherd, the steward, and the servant. The images portray the definition, ways, and will of Jesus' leadership approach as the style that has the aim of influencing and impacting others positively. The importance of the three images is that they provide leaders with the symbols for comprehending the biblical ways of serving and leading others. Relying on Jesus's will and leadership approach is necessary for leaders who aspire to incorporate integrity and assimilate Christ's character while leading others (Grahn, 2011). Since Jesus teachings emphasize equity among humans regarding value, it is essential for leaders to infer from such lessons and learn to appreciate their followers equitably and justly without the sway of social class, education, and ethnicity.

References

Ayers, M. (2016, September 8). 5 Distinctives of Biblical Leadership. Retrieved from Gospel-Centered Resources from Midwestern Seminary: http://ftc.co/resource-library/blog-entries/5-distinctives-of-biblical-leadership

Grahn, T. (2011, November 8). Jesus: The Role Model for Christian Leadership. Retrieved from Christian Leadership: http://christian-leadership.org/jesus-the-role-model-for-christian-leaders/

Spears, LC. (2010). Character and Servant Leadership: Ten Characteristics of Effective, Caring Leaders. The Journal of Virtues and Leadership, 1(1), 26-31.

Tucker, M. (2012). Review of "Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-interest" by Peter Block. San Fransisco: Academy of Management Review.