The Leadership Account - Part 3

Now that we have created our T-Account for Leadership and made the debits, we need to look at the credits.

Leadership is an Asset account. The normal balance is a debit balance. To increase the Leadership Account we debited. Now we are reducing - taking away - from the account, so these will be credits. These credits identify the behaviors and attitudes that need to be subtracted from every leader's life.

Again, we will be referencing The Legacy Leadership passage in 1 Thessalonians 1:2-2:12.

As I read this passage, I see 4 things that need to be subtracted. In fact, they should be absent from the Legacy Leader's account.

Deception: In the Greek, the phrase “by way of deceit” refers to trickery. Originally, it referred to using bait to catch fish. While we certainly want to use bait that hides the hook to catch fish, as Legacy Leaders our message and our methods should by pure. No hidden agenda, no bait and switch.

Flattery: Flattery has the idea of using remarks as means of obtaining some personal gain and involves the use of insincerity to persuade another to do what you want them to do. When Paul states that he “never came with flattering speech,” he denied that he was a smooth-talking preacher telling people what they wanted to hear. Thus, Paul asserts that he was not trying to make a favorable impression to obtain some personal advantage. He did not pursue goals that would meet with the approval of people or seek their praise for himself. While he and the other apostles may have deserved and received praise, that was not their motive.

Greed: As Legacy Leaders we should never come “with a pretext for greed.” Pretext refers to a mask that conceals the real motive. The word refers to the idea of putting forth something that is plausible, that may in fact be true in itself, but is not the real reason for performing an act. Again the idea of deception is at work here.

Greed refers to an inordinate desire to possess more and more. Greed doesn't stop with healthy competition. It goes way past that and becomes an obsession with more - more money, more territory, larger crowds, bigger buildings, and even greed for more personal attention and fame. Like any addiction, greed is never satisfied and it takes more and more to satisfy its demand. Greed in any and all of its forms is ugly and derails many leaders.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul takes this on by saying that greed, among other things, should not even be named among us (Ephesians 5: 3-4).

Lording Authoritarianism: When some of the disciples were debating among themselves about who would sit where in the Lord's coming Kingdom, Jesus confronted their self-centered concerns by pointing to the Gentiles whose leaders "lorded it over them." Then, he continued by telling them, "It should not be so among you."

I have worked for some bosses - I won't call them leaders - who "lorded it over" me and my coworkers. They yelled, threatened, demanded and relied on the power to fire us to get us to do their bidding. In the short run this may work: We complied to avoid punishment; but, there was no long-term commitment.

Those of us who hold leadership positions certainly have legitimate power bases because of our formal authority. But, Legacy Leaders don’t rely on their formal authority. They understand that the best influence comes when we don't assert our authority.

Paul understood this. The phrase “even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority” refers to demands he might have made on the Thessalonians for physical and financial support. Rather than doing this, Paul worked night and day so as not to be a burden. He lived on what he earned as a tent-maker and the offerings from the Philippians. By earning his own way, Paul further demonstrated the purity of his motives which, in turn, gave him a platform for influence that did not rely on the authority of his title or position.

He reiterates this point and again emphasizes it in his second letter to the Thessalonians the importance of leaders modeling the behavior they seek to see developed in their followers. In 2 Thessalonians 3:7–9, Paul says:

“For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you; not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example”[emphasis added].

Examine your Leadership Account.

Are there some attitudes and behaviors that need to removed?