Leadership in buisness

important for the leader of any organization to hone their leadership style. Great leaders create great businesses. Responsible leadership is even more important for Christian leaders. Christian leaders are responsible to God for all the individuals they have placed under their leadership. Christian leader’s actions must represent Christian principles, to the members of the organization the stakeholders, customers and greater world. God takes the individuals he places in leadership very seriously and gives very clear-cut examples of how they are to lead in the Bible. The Bible states, “Leaders are to serve as an example to those who they are leading by living in faith and by modeling a way of life they want the people to exhibit” (Hebrews, 13:7). The Bible also is very clear that if the leadership position given to the Christian does not honor his word, “God promises to punish leaders that lead people astray” (Leviticus, 4:22).

One of the most important things any leader of an organization does is to decide on a leadership style and develop it.  One leadership style that many Christian managers choose to incorporate into practice is servant leadership. The focus of servant leadership is to meet the needs of others with the focus off the leader. The primary objective of the servant leader is to cultivate others to reach their full potential to benefit the organization. The servant leader inspires followers by modeling a life that inspires others to follow Christ. The servant leader’s vision is for the advancement of the Kingdom of God, not the organization. This vision communicated to the followers is by service, stewardship and modeling of the leader. The leader must be creditable, competent, and trustworthy to be able to influence others to follow the vision the leader has for those under their lead. The servant leader empowers others to their full potential through encouragement, teaching, listening, appreciation and empowerment.

The servant leader is one way leadership portrayed is in the Bible but a component is missing in this type of leadership. Servant leadership focuses on the individuals in an organization but fails to recognize the organization itself. The Godly leader is also obligated to the financial success of a company. Servant leadership places the focus on the followers but neglects the organization. A successful leader must focus on both the followers and the organization to be successful. God does not want us to put money before him, but he expects us to provide for ourselves while on this earth. The Godly leader has the obligation to assist all individuals under their governance the ability to survive and prosper on this earth. This principle of financial stewardship of leaders is demonstrated in the parable of the ant given to us in the Bible “Go to the ant, sluggard; consider her ways and be wise; who having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provides her food in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest” ( Proverbs,6:6-8).

The primary goal of all leaders must be to follow the principles set forth in God’s word. This can be best accomplished through the combination of transformational leadership and servant leadership. Transformational leadership is very similar to servant leadership, except the focus is not on service to the individual but the organization. Transformational leaders inspire others to serve the company through influence and relationships. Servant leaders inspire individuals to reach their potential through service activities, mentoring, coaching, and instruction and empowerment. Through these efforts, the organization will be transformed. These two ideologies of leadership, in combination provide the foundation for exceptional leadership skills. The leader of a company can model a life that leads others to Christ, while providing stewardship of God’s resources to provide for his children while on earth. One important point of both leadership styles that have proved to be effective is the focus is not on the leader.