What Makes a Leader

July 20, 2015

It’s where folks go with questions these days; ask Google “What makes a leader a leader?”

The results come back quickly… with 910,000,000 listings (that’s 910 million). It seems like the question is prone to produce a contested answer.

The query also generates more uncertainty. Are leaders made, or are they born? Is leadership measured by followers? Or, can one exhibit leadership with a delayed-reaction among their ultimate constituencies? Is leadership more likely among a particular personality type? Or, does a leader require a particular mix of natural talents? Must leaders have a title – or, a position – to be legitimate? Or, can one play the role without recognition of their contribution?

Allow me to suggest some qualities that – by themselves – do not assure leadership… but, without which, leadership would be a difficult position to fill.

Discerning. It’s hard to imagine an effective leader who lacks clarity about the information germane to their area of influence. But, they’re more than informed: they’re also intuitive. Complete information is seldom assured; there will always be a delay in acquiring some of the critical data that would assure a leader of a full knowledge of their environment. Does the leader wait until all that can be known is clarified? Urgency usually disallows that delay… and, in the face of the deficiency, the leader leans on his/her intuition to close the gap. The leader is discerning.

Decisive. If time was not of essence, you could send out for leadership. Package the information and the conclusions that are needed, and send it off to a proven leader who can exercise distance decision-making. That’s a luxury most efforts cannot afford: action is usually packed with urgency, and an on-board quarterback who can come to the line of scrimmage and call an audible can make the difference between failure and achievement. Most leaders make decisions more quickly than their followers would be able to match… and, they’re right more often than a delayed follower would likely be.

Determined. Second-guessing is not a luxury most leaders can afford. Once a conclusion is reached and communicated, the extraordinary leader steps out – in faith, in their own leadership – and creates confidence among the timid that they are putting themselves on the line to validate their certainty in the path now chosen. Once on the path, a leader cannot be stopped by difficulty or opposition…

In the historical books of the New Testament – four Gospels Acts – “leaders” are mentioned 39 times, anecdotally. In the Epistles – the instructive books of the New Testament – leaders are only referenced eight times. Exercising leadership seems to be more important than claiming a title that must be demonstrated constantly to be believable.

Discerning. Decisive. Determined. If those are valid markers for a credible leader, how characteristic are those traits in your recurring life model?

“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:57-58).

In the absence of a cultural consensus… can you reduce the recipe to the vital essence, and work to refine your reliable influence in the way you set the pace among those who are desperate for dedicated examples who can take them closer to the future they long to experience?

Bob Shank