A good leader E-Book

Sougou Bruno SANON

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Do you want to rule the world? Don’t only become a great leader become a good one. Understand the true meaning of leadership and the indispensable qualities that a good leader must imbed. And let the power of leadership transform you forever.

Leseprobe

A GOOD LEADER

Do you want to rule the world? Don’t only become a great leader become a good one. Understand the true meaning of leadership and the indispensable qualities that a good leader must imbed. And let the power of leadership transform you forever.

Sougou Bruno SANON

Copyright © 2017 Bruno SANON

All rights reserved.

Email:[email protected]

Tel: [phone]

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to the Almighty God for his wisdom and knowledge.

FOREWORD

Leaders have always been the first people to be pinpointed whenever tough situations occur. Although there are many leaders in the world, we notice that the decline of problems that the world is facing is not proportionally related to the growing number of the so-called existing leaders. Who is a leader and who isn’t? What is the real meaning of leadership? Are there some unmistakable qualities a leader should have? Can we become a leader just in one day? What are the pitfalls that the professing good leaders should avoid? Can all the problems of this world be solved by good leaders? If the answer of the last question is true it means that we should undoubtedly look for these qualities and by all means train people to leadership around us in order to solve up to day problems and find solutions for future ones. Most of the talented people in the world have doubted of their abilities to become good leaders and allowed their fear to limit their potential. So People are looking for leaders around them just because they are overestimating their own weaknesses and magnifying the scope of their own ignorance, people have relied on the qualities of others and trusted many leaders than in their ability to become leaders as well. Many have been confused and doubted this notion of leadership than ever before.

In my quest for the answer of these questions and for the thirst of finding what true leadership is all about, I came to realize that good leadership can be found in the light of scriptures and the purpose of this book is to find the real meaning of that notion according to that pattern.In this book you will find that good leadership is not necessary based on fame but is all about mentoring, impacting, motivating and challenging others to multiply their good deeds, or mobilize the qualities of others to fulfill a good and uncommon goal. This book is a good legacy, for our children and children’s children, for the upcoming generation and for all those who are sighing for this position of good leadership. To figure out the really meaning of that word good leadership, it is better to build our search upon the failures and successes of others. You can also become the Moses of this generation leading others from the wilderness of this world into the land flowing with milk and honey.

In this book you will learn that there is no limit to the knowledge you can store, there is no age to learn and it is not too late to learn. Being at the bottom of the ladder is not the real question but our decision whether to remain there or to rise up to challenge everything around us matters a lot. Why? Because the difference between a winner and a loser will reside on whether you decide to remain there or not, this book is here just for you, it will help you boost your confidence and extend the limit of your capacity to the infinite. Generally, People believe that only few people are geniuses, you may decide to become a genius or not because according to Thomas Edison, genius is 1% inspiration and 99% transpiration. In this book you would begin to experience a positive change in the way things are view and then transit from fear to boldness, failure to success, inexperienced to experienced, baseness to greatness, poverty to wealth abundance to superabundance, worse to good, good to better, better to best, yielding to endurance, tiredness to strength, impossibility to possibility, limited to unlimited…Here you will learn to expand the sight of your life in order to become eagle-eyed. You will spread your wings like that of an eagle and fly above all your problems, you will eat your difficulties, you will be challenged to challenge in return, encouraged to encourage in return, you will grow in knowledge and wisdom and then enhance the trust in your capacity to believe in your ideas and do what others can do, what they have done and how you can go beyond their limit. Come out from your comfort zone of defeated path, sit down and learn, add the unknown to the known to increase the scope of your knowledge to the infinite.

Welcome to leadership, welcome to greatness.

CONTENT

DEDICATION

FOREWORD

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1. DEFINITION OF LEADERSHIP.

2. A GOOD LEADER IS AN INNOVATOR.

3. A GOOD LEADER IS A MAN OF FAITH AND HOPE.

4. A GOOD LEADER IS A MAN OF HUMILITY.

4. A GOOD LEADER IS A MAN OF MEEKNESS.

5. A GOOD LEADER ISCOURAGEOUS.

6. A GOOD LEADER IS FARSIGHTED AND FAITHFUL.

7. A GOOD LEADER HAS A SPIRIT OF DETERMINEDNESS.

8. A GOOD LEADER IS PERSEVERANT.

9. A GOOD LEADER SHOULD AVOID NEGATIVE STUBBORNESS.

10. A GOOD LEADER IS PATIENT, LOYAL AND GRATEFUL.

11. A GOOD LEADER IS INTELLIGENT, KNOWLEDGEABLE AND WISE.

12. A GOOD LEADER IS A MAN OF PEACE.

13. A GOOD LEADER IS A MAN OF PRAYER, TRUTH AND POWER.

14. A GOOD LEADER IS A MAN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HONESTY.

15. A GOOD LEADER IS A MAN OF COMPASSION AND FORGIVENESS.

16. A GOOD LEADER IS A GOOD TEACHER.

17. A GOOD LEADER IS STRATEGIC.

REFERENCES

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my parents for financing my education as well as all the people who have contributed to teach me from one way or the other, a warm thank to all my friends who have been a great help to me both financially and morally, eventually my thanks go to all those who will make this book a successful one.

1. DEFINITION OF LEADERSHIP.

Although many definitions have been given to the word leadership, Let us try also to define this term so that we may be on the same line of understanding, we will outline what good leadership is all about in this book. Simply put, a leader is someone who leads others to achieve a specific goal, so leadership is the act of leading others to achieve a specific goal, but the way we lead them matters a lot. A leader is someone who is in any organization or in any other area if only he is able to lead others in a specific direction. Now the term leader would have all its meaning if that leader is able to bring a change, an influence in the life of others. Because you wouldn’t be able to lead others efficiently if you are not able to challenge and convince them to move into a certain direction. Then, leadership is the ability of a leader to challenge, motivate, influence, and bring a change in the life of others so that they must achieve a specific goal. According to this definition we cannot doubt the negativity and the positivity of this notion because we may influence others positively or negatively to achieve something good or bad. According to this definition we can undoubtedly find leaders in every discipline (Business, marketing, religion, politic…) of any society. You can have great or good leaders. Greater leaders are those who have been able to motivate others achieve something greater, for instance a greater leader may use his way of speaking to blindfold many people and convince his followers to commit themselves in a bloody war, those kind of greater leaders never leave a good legacy through their way of leading while greater leaders who are able to motivate others achieve greater things in a positive way are called good leaders, those kind of leaders have a more long lasting influence, worthy of emulation.

Good leadership is our ability to make others dream, act like us in a positive way. It’s our ability to bring out the best in the life of others, to make them realize that they can achieve something greater, that they can go beyond their limit and that they can follow our good actions, it is our ability to magnify and value positive actions. If that’s the case, a good leader should lead by good examples. Although there are many leaders in the world, some were highly estimated more than others. Why? Because of the way of leading. There are some indispensable qualities that a good leader must have if he wants to bring a permanent change in the life of others. The more these qualities are present and visible, the more your influence or impact is going to be genuine and greater. Those qualities make the difference between those who are able to change others positively or negatively. The next section is going to deal with some infallible qualities that would empower and equip you in the sole purpose to becoming a greater leader who would positively change everything around you and you will leave an indelible mark in the corner and nook of the world as well.

A study led in the University of Saskatchewan has provided a list of negative and positive words that could determine the style of our leadership. Those words will determine whether we can become a good or a bad leader. You may allow brainstorming to complete the list or use a dictionary to add the missing words that would better define you.

COLUMN 1

COLUMN 2

COLUMN 3

COLUMN 4

Adaptable

Adventurous

Carefree

Charismatic

Charming

Cheerful

Delightful

Energetic

Enthusiastic

Expressive

Fun-loving

Funny

Impactful

Impulsive

Inquisitive

inspiring

Optimistic

Passionate

Persuasive

Quick-witted

Resourceful

Spontaneous

Stimulating

Assertive

Capable

Consistent

Decisive

Dependable

Diligent

Disciplined

Efficient

Faithful

Hard-working

Knowledgeable

Loyal

Moral

Neat

Organized

Persistent

Practical

Punctual

Realistic

Reliable

Sensible

Stable

Traditional

Alert

Analytical

Astute

Attentive

Calm

Conceptual

Curious

Detailed

Farsighted

Honest

Idealist«:

independent

Insightful

Logical

Methodical

Non-judgmental

Observant

Perfectionist

Precise

Principled

Prudent

Rational

Reasonable

Altruistic

Balanced

Caring

Comforting

Compassionate

Conscientious

Empathetic

Flexible

Friendly

Generous

Happy

Intermediary

Open-minded

Responsive

Serene

Sociable

Spiritual

Steadfast

Sympathetic

Tactful

Tolerant

Trusting

Unselfish

COLUMN 5

COLUMN 6

COLUMN 7

COLUMN 8

Casual

Defiant

Dismissive

Dramatic

Excitable

Extreme

Flamboyant

Flippant

Haphazard

Impetuous

Inconsistent

indecisive

Messy

Rebellious

Scattered

Thoughtless

Turbulent

Undisciplined

Unthinking

Untrustworthy

Volable

Cautious

Controlling

Critical

Demanding

Judgmental

Opinionated

Plodding

Predictable

Restrained

Scrupulous

Self-righteous

Serious

Single-minded

Steadfast

Straightforward

Stubborn

Tenacious

Thorough

Unforgiving

Unimaginative

Unyielding

Aloof

Arrogant

Blunt

Certain

Compulsive

Critical

Demanding

Eccentric

Impartial

Impatient

Irritating

Objective

Painstaking

Perfectionist

Persistent

Pessimistic

Rigid

Unbiased

Unemotional

Unmindful

Unrealistic

Dreamy

Extravagant

Gullible

Impractical

indecisive

Indulgent

ineffective

Laid back

Modest

Muddled

Mushy

Naive

Over-emotional

Permissive

Placid

Self-deprecating

Smothering

Unobtrusive

Unpretentious

Unrealistic

Unsophisticated

http://www.acecommunites.ca/

Although there are many good and bad words that could better describe us, in this book we are going to emphasize more on the indispensable and inescapable qualities that a good leader must possess. Before we examine these qualities, let us have a foretaste of how a good leader should behave in order to win the confidence of others to pull them into a specific direction for positive actions. These steps have been inspired from the book of Steven Sample (DEVENEZ UN GRAND LEADER, 2012, EDITION NOUVEAUX HORIZONS) at the page 231-233.

Don’t be too in a hurry to judge the deeds of someone if you are not obliged to do that.

Try to find approaches and meaningful solutions to solve a problem.

Listen before you speak and learn to listen with shrewdness.

Inhabit the spirit of discernment and critical sense.

Beware of the so called scientific theories which state some so called undeniable facts and unassailable truth, they won’t help you neither your organization.

Read great texts to discover their treasures and ask your friends, colleagues or somebody else to inform you about something important.

Don’t take a decision that your colleague should normally take.

Forget your failures and mistakes of the past, the decision that you take now will only influence your future.

Don’t humble an already defeated adversary.

Know the cause for which you are ready to die that’s to say ready to give up the other things because of that.

Work for those who work for you, hire the best available collaborators and consecrate your time and energy to help them become successful.

To become a leader you must behave, act like a leader.

As a leader you must realize that you can’t lead an organization all alone, you must depend on others as well.

Focus on the good and not bad qualities of others.

Look for groundbreaking ideas and original approaches that could lead to excellency.

I have been awarded with a certificate after completingsuccessfully my course on Servant leadership by the young African Leaders Initiative on www.yali.state.gov. And from this lesson I learned that the best way of getting more supporters is developing exactly this type of leadership. What is servant leadership? According to Sandra Edmonds Crewe, Ph.D., ACSW, Dean, Howard University School of Social Work, MWF Institute Instructor, Howard University - Public Management Institute, “Servant leadership promotes the valuing and development of people, the building of community, and the practice of authenticity. Further, servant leadership promotes shared power. Servant leadership seeks excellence in management through an organizational culture of civility and community building. It seeks to tap into individual strengths and collective efficacy”. And I was able to understand the indispensable principles of Servant leadership according to Robert Greenleaf: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people and building community.

Listening

: critical communication tool, necessary for accurate communication and for actively demonstrating respect for others.

Empathy

: the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person.

Healing

: healing the broken spirits and those who have suffered from a variety of emotional hurts.

Awareness

: Servant leaders must have awareness of others and themselves.

Persuasion

: The effective servant leader builds group consensus through “gentle but clear and persistent persuasion, and does not exert group compliance through power.”

Conceptualization

: The servant-leader must stretch his or her thinking to encompass broader-based conceptual thinking.

Foresight

: For

Greenleaf

, this means learning from the past in order to have a better than average guess about what is going to happen in the future.

Stewardship

: Organizational stewards, or “trustees,” are concerned not only for the individual followers within the organization, but are servants to the organization as a whole.

Commitment to growth

: Per

Greenleaf

,

“The secret of institution building is to be able to weld a team of such people by lifting them up to grow taller than they would otherwise be.”

Building community

: we all have a community and each community has its specific vision, the less we can do is to help our community achieve that vision.

James C. Rees in his book George Washington’s Leadership Lessons: what the father of our country can teach us about effective leadership and character outlined the indisputable characteristics of a successful leader.

A successful leader:

➣Has a clear vision,

➣Is honest,

➣Is ambitious,

➣Is courageous,

➣Has self-control and discipline,

➣ Takes responsibility,

➣Is determined,

➣Has a strong work ethic,

➣ Uses good judgment,

➣ Learns from mistakes,

➣Is humble,

➣ Does the research and development,

➣ Values presentation: Washington knew that how he looked and behaved would be important ingredients in his success, no matter which course his career took (Page, 122).

Exceeds expectations,

Has heartfelt faith.

2. A GOOD LEADER IS AN INNOVATOR.

According to the bible God is the creator of the heaven and earth, He made the earth where there was apparently nothing except water which was not uniformly gathered into one place, by the power of His Spirit He reorganized everything and allowed the water to gather into one place, He created the sun, the animals, the trees and eventually man according to his own image. After all these wonderful creations, God was happy but the man that He had formed Hadn’t the fullness of his satisfaction because he was alone, although he had beautiful things around him.

God who is the first leader of all leaders demonstrated that He was an innovator, despites all the groundbreaking deeds, He could have chosen to relax and take care of Himself but His intention was to make something new so that the man He had created would have the fullness of happiness. A good leader never rests until he realizes something more excellent; with this innovation in the offing; He was not only thinking of Himself but was rather preoccupied with the happiness of his creature. A leader should not be somebody who is always looking for his own interests but should through his actions show his willingness, desire to help those he is leading; he should demonstrate a strong capacity to be innovating for the welfare of those he is leading. A leader is therefore someone that people can rely upon. A leader does not rejoice of the problems of others but should rather do everything to rescue them; he should be more interested in solving their problems more than rejoicing because of their successes or failures. Why did God make this innovation? Because He wanted his creatures to be happy like Him, He created man according to His own image which means that He wanted man to be like Him. Unfortunately after the creation of the first Adam of course from the atoms of the earth he was feeling alone, something was missing; God could read this sadness on his face and within him. After all, it is his own spirit that He put within us, which literally means that we can’t hide ourselves from his presence.

God was unhappy also, He couldn’t wait any longer but had to innovate again in order to deal with this awkward situation, He was continually demonstrating that He cared for the welfare of His own creatureto whom He was giving more value. He caused the man He created to sleep deeply and took one of his ribs and created the woman, another creature like man. It was after this creation that man became happy.

His capacity to innovate in order to provide to all the needs of the insignificant man to make him happy and the constant demonstration of his willingness to solve his problem is a proof of his good leadership. Leaders may not be able to solve all the problems of the world but the approach andthe willingness to solve them will reveal whether they are true leaders or not. After the creation of the first man and his wife God forbad them to eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil that He put in the midst of the garden because He knew beforehand that the molecules of this fruit could activate their knowledge. This leader gave specific instruction because He wanted to prevent his creatures from facing many future problems, He knew that the molecules would change our nature and would expose us to sin. A leader should not only be preoccupied with the problems of today but should look forward to prevent all the future problems that could occur. The man and his wife were happy until the devil came to spoil their joy. What was his intention? To make them disobey the commandment of God and to plunge them into permanent troubles. He succeeded because the woman was too eager to be like God himself, she eventually yielded and his husband as well. They ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, they became like God knowing evil and good but with the consequence of the exposure of their nature to sin. But for what cost, the price of being a machine generator of evil and problems.A leader is not someone who creates troubles for others, it doesn’t mean that troubles will not come but it means that we should willingly avoid inventing troubles for others. Their disobedience could not remain unpunished; they lost the privileges of remaining in the Garden of Eden where they could have everything. He acted like that because He wanted to avoid another tragedy that man could generate. As a good leader He took all the necessary cautions to avoid such an event to occur in the future and was planning how to rescue his creatures from this problem of sin.

A good leader should not always be accusing others because of their bad actions but should find the necessary solutions in order to help them, that is why there are good leaders, to be considered a good leader is a great responsibility because you should permanently be on top in order to take decisions to better the life or solve the problems of others, God had all the reasons of the world to abandon the man He made because he disobeyed His will and get entangled into an unavoidable problems but as our creator or our leader He chose to give us another chance, He wanted to send Jesus in order to rescue us from all our sins. To understand the notion of leadership you need to figure out how the family works, within each normal family you have parents taking care of their children, ready to sacrifice themselves for them, parents don’t need their children to tell them that they should eat every day, they represent them in their action and decision and are always ready to help them overcome all challenges. Good Leaders are parents of the nations; their intention should be to take care of the children of the nation, to provide for their needs and assure the prosperity of their wellbeing in all areas, they are the fathers and mothers of the nation and should represent and defend it by taking good decisions that lead to greater actions. The word Leader is not merely a name given to this man who puts on his tie and his jacket within this organization and who only give commandments into his subjects but should involve a sense of responsibility for others, responsibility to help them, a good leader is reliable through his decisions and actions he should motivate others to dream by impacting and challenging their way of living.

The disobedience of the man and his wife exposed them to a permanent state of sinful nature, no wonder Cain committed his first murder by killing his brother Abel, there was no limits to the evil a human being could do, men began to multiply and their sins began to multiply also. God our leader couldn’t tolerate such a situation; the sins of men were too many, except Noah and the members of his family were living a life of righteousness. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5).The life of Noah is worthy of emulation, he and the members of his family were the only people living a life that pleases God the creator, He didn’t allow his own nature or the bad actions of others to make him depart from God, he had exactly the attribute of the single mindedness of a leader. A Good leader should not follow a bad example just because everybody is acting the same way; he should not waver in his decision but follow the path of righteousness even if few people are going into that direction. God commanded Noah to build an ark because He wanted to send a mighty flood to destroy all creatures from the earth. At that time there was no weather forecast and people had never heard or seen that event before. All the efforts and attempts of Noah to warn the people proved to be vain, people encouraged themselves and continued in their evil deeds, Noah was certainly a bold man if he could warn them, a good leader should be courageous enough to take a good decision even if everybody is against it. A good leader should see what others are not able to see and act more than what the mouth of people can tell and their heart can believe. According to the instruction of God, Noah, his family and some animals went into the ark that he built, God was waiting patiently to see them repent from their evil ways but his longsuffering couldn’t bear the sins of the people all the days of their life, if Noah and the members of his family could live a life of righteousness there was no room for the excuses of the sins of people. All of a sudden, God opened the windows of heaven and sent a mighty flood so that all the living creatures including men and animals who were outside the ark perished (Genesis 7:17). The action of Noah saved only his family and some animals. Unfortunately after all these things Noah couldn’t control himself because he was drunk and cursed his own son. No matter the situation that may come our way as a good leader we should master ourselves in order to avoid taking unnecessary actions or saying something that could jeopardize the life of others. As a leader we should know that many people are watching us and are waiting to see our actions whether bad or good, the life of a good leader should be exemplary, a written interesting book that others would read by and by in order to find encouragement and inspiration. Let your actions speak more than your words and let your words be backed up by positive actions. The word of a good leader should not be bigger than his actions, better avoid making unnecessary promises if you can’t fulfill them, the words of the leader should be true. It doesn’t mean that he should be able to do everything but that he should rather avoid having unrealistic ambition and demonstrate a strong willingness and actions that can lead to the realization of all his promises.

3. A GOOD LEADER IS A MAN OF FAITH AND HOPE.

After that Noah died, his sons began to multiply and replenish the earth, they began to unite and form kingdoms and cities until God made up his mind to choose a man called Abraham, God wanted to use this man as an instrument to make his name to be known to all generations, He commanded this man specifically to come out from his country, He wanted to train him to become a good leader to leave a good legacy of example for the people. I don’t know why this man was so motivated to obey the voice of God. May be the history of Noah triggered a spark of faith in him; He made up his mind to obey the voice of a God He had never seen and heard before, the God whom the people rejected during the time of Noah. He came out of his own country and was going into a land he didn’t know. Only faith in a God he had never seen could motivate the action of a man like that, faith is the strong assurance that we can do something or that we believe in something we have never done or seen before. What was the essence or driving force behind all the inventions or discoveries that men have so far invented and discovered? The answer is simple and indisputable, FAITH. Only faith in the possibility of inventing a flying human engine could lead the brothers Wright to invent the first plane, only faith could lead Thomas Edison to invent the electric bulb which use we are all enjoying today, no invention can be possible in the absence of putting our faith in something, A good leader should have the mentality of a dreamer, he should dream of things that others have not yet dreamed and act as no one ever did. Abraham had exactly this kind of faith in a God that he had never seen, he was journeying until they came to Egypt. He became afraid of the Egyptians to the point that he wanted to protect his life to the detriment of that of his wife, he said that his beautiful wife was his sister, he couldn’t tell the truth, of course this man had some qualities that could categorize him as a leader but he still have some imperfections that needed to be perfected before he could become a good leader, that’s why God chose him to train him apart.

The king of Egypt was happy because she had found the beautiful wife he was looking for, his sweet-heart. Could God remain silent to the ignorance of the king and to the lie of Abraham? He didn’t allow Pharaoh to touch Sarah the wife of Abraham but plagued him to show him that something was wrong with this new relationship, Pharaoh realized that he had gone too far and he made the restitution of the wife of this man. A good leader should not be proud to the point that he cannot apologize and repair his wrong deeds whenever they are committed. Abraham went out of Egypt and was still going to the Promised Land, he could not wait long before another unpleasant situation occurred, a leader should know that problems would never end and that he must always be ready to face them, in fact difficulties should be the food of good leaders. Our capacity to solve a given situation increases our sensibility to face boldly the next situation. There was a strife between the herdsmen of his Nephew Lot and his own so that they couldn’t remain together, they decided to separate from each other, he did something that few people would dare to do today, he allowed his nephew to choose first where he wanted to go although he was older than him, he was ready to accept come what may. Lot lifted up his eyes and saw the beautiful lands, the greener pasture, all the advantages that he could benefit and went there, he saw the benefits and forgot the danger that he could face in this place. Unfortunately he was conquered by his enemies, Abraham didn’t wait long before hearing the new, he could have said, after all, Lot is the cause of all his problems, he was responsible of his choice and action, he should face the consequence of his selfishness because he chose the best land instead of allowing him to choose first. Abraham like every good leader was not a rancorous person; a good leader should not concentrate all his efforts continually by pinpointing the mistakes of others but should try to rescue them by his quality of leadership. Abraham chose all his mighty men to pursue the enemies that captured Lot, he eventually succeeded to save the life of his nephew, that’s how we can show that we are able to lead, a good leader should not be condemning others because of their shortcomings, he must rather rescue them.

Abraham had a serious problem, although God had promised to bless him and multiply his seed as the sand on the seashore, his wife Sarah was barren and couldn’t bear him a child. Abraham began to worry because he was far advanced in age and the promise of God was not yet fulfilled in his life. He listened to the voice of his wife who advised him to have an intercourse with her servant Hagar the Egyptian; she became pregnant and gave him a son. Abraham was not patient enough to wait the promise of God because he yielded to the voice of his wife, good leaders should be patient more than any other person, patient to wait for the promise of God and weigh all the consequences and benefits before taking an important action, they should not accept bad counsels and rush to take decisions that will lead them into many problems later. We understand why God called this man apart because he wanted to correct some bad aspects in the life of this leader. When Abram was ninety-nine years old, The Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am the almighty God! Walk before Me and be blameless (Genesis 17:1). God reminded Abraham that He was a good leader because He was blameless. He reaffirmed his willingness to fulfill his promises, He told him that He was the creator of everything and that nothing is impossible into him. God through his angels revealed to Abraham that He was going to destroy the city of Sodom and Gomorrah where is nephew Lot who was looking for greener pasture was living. Why did God choose to destroy specifically these cities? Because their sins were too great.

Abraham knew that when God decides like that nothing can’t prevent Him from doing what He has decreed except prayer, his quality of good leadership could not bear the death of his nephew, and he made up his mind to pray, his prayer was not able to save the two cities but spared the life of his nephew Lot. A good leader should realize that his limited knowledge and intelligence will not help him overcome some of the problems of this world that use to challenge our common knowledge, he therefore needs to dare draw nigh to God’s throne of grace and mercy in prayer.Abraham was still moving to the Promised Land but was not yet freed from the fear of death although he knew that God was with him, he repeated his old lie, he lied again and said that his wife was his sister because he wanted to spare his own life, the king who welcomed her in his palace was plagued also by God and he restituted immediately his wife to him. Good Leaders should not be fearful persons but should rather have the gut to tell the truth in all circumstances, that is how people will learn to trust in them. The promise of God was fulfilled in the life of Abraham, his wife Sarah conceived a son as God had promised and he called his name Isaac. Abraham was happy to have his own son but God hadn’t finished training him, a good leader should never stop learning, he should always be on the top of knowledge and be ready to face tough circumstances and future challenges. While he was tasting his victory God commanded him to sacrifice his unique son, the son he begot in his old age after many years of patience, he didn’t command him to sacrifice an animal but a person, the most important thing in the life of Abraham, challenges never foretell the time of their occurrence, they may come suddenly even during the time when we are happy and quiet. Now Abraham had a lot of experiences, he was matured enough to know that even if he killed his own son God could raise him up or give him another one, he made up his mind to obey, he obeyed the voice of God and as he was about to kill his son God forbad him to harm him, he had succeeded to the test, now God and all the people who are reading this story would never have any shadow of doubt in there heart that this man loved God wholeheartedly. Because of this action God blessed him and promised to multiply his seed, the approach we use to solve our difficult circumstances will reveal whether we are reliable leaders or not, Good leaders are reliable.

Isaac the son of Abraham became an adult and wanted to get marry, Abraham decided to help his son make a good choice, he was wise enough to know that behind a great leader there is a great lady, he sent his own servant to look for a wife for his beloved son. In order to fulfill a great task, the wife of a good leader can play an important role, she can encourage or discourage him during the time of challenges, and she can influence his decisions in a positive or negative way. The servant of Abraham had a great responsibility but was also wise enough to know the qualities that a good leader’s wife should have, to succeed in his task of good leadership, This good leader didn’t only rely on God but relied also on his knowledge in order to make a good choice for his master’s son. He saw a beautiful and virgin young lady who came to a well to fill her pitcher, and then he ran to ask for help in order to quench his thirst, the name of the lady was Rebekah. She didn’t refuse to satisfy the need of this man, she even did more by drawing water for the animals of this foreign man, she was revealing that she was humble, unselfish, a hard worker, serviceable, hospitable, xenophile. The servant of Abraham, neither any wise man could resist to the qualities that this lady had, he was completely convinced that this lady was exactly the kind of woman he was looking for, he couldn’t wait any longer to reveal the reason of his coming, he told to the lady that he was looking for a wife for his master’s son and that she was chosen, he followed the lady to his house in order to ask the consent of her parents, eventually after explaining everything in detail, they both agreed and Rebekah became the wife of Isaac. Rebekah became pregnant and gave birth to twins, the first child was named Esau and the second Jacob, Isaac loved Esau more than Jacob and his wife loved Jacob more than Esau. It came to pass as Isaac was about to die that, he called his beloved son Esau to bless him, thanks to the advice of her mother Jacob disguised himself and deceived his brother, since Isaac was old he couldn’t see very well, he thought he was blessing his beloved Esau, unfortunately Jacob received all the blessings of his father. It was after that Isaac understood, when Esau came to receive his blessings that his brother had deceived him, Esau was furious, he was only waiting for the death of his father in order to revenge, he had hatred in his heart and that hatred could lead him to take the worst of all decisions, even to kill his brother. Jacob could not remain in his father land but departed after his death, he ran away and went into the land of his uncle Laban.

As a good leader we should base our choices on meritocracy and avoid unnecessary preferences which could only lead to deception, anger, hatred, and retaliation. In the house of his uncle Laban, Jacob became his business man, his right hand, he was the chief manager of his business, his uncle proposed to give him a salary but he refused, instead of money he wanted to marry Rachel, the daughter of Laban. Jacob proposed to work seven years for his master, in exchange of money, he wanted to marry his daughter. At the end of the seven years instead of Rachel, his master deceived him and gave him Leah instead of his younger sister, the deceiver was deceived by his uncle as if it was the consequence of what he had done some years ago. A good leader should never deceive others; one deception gives birth to another one. What could he do since Leah was given to him during the night according to their customs; Jacob didn’t have any choice but to labor again for another seven years in order to marry Rachel. He was a good manager and the business of his master was flourishing. Now, since the man had two wives and servants under his responsibility, his master proposed to give him a wage that he refused, instead of working for him he used his knowledge to establish his own business, a good leader is a man that should lead people by using his God-given qualities to bring prosperity in his life and that of others, he should be competent in what he does. His business increased to the point that he could no longer stay in the house of Laban, to avoid all misunderstandings he made up his mind to move into another place. A good leader should not wait until a situation becomes tough before finding a solution, he should be farsighted enough to find itwhenever he can in order to prevent it from happening, if it’s not within his power to do that, he should be ready to face the challenge when it occurred. Jacob thought that the many years he spent in the house of Laban was enough to melt the anger and hatred of his brother. Despites this many years Esau hadn’t forgotten what his brother did to him, he was more than ready to retaliate and this time he couldn’t fail in his attempt to kill him, he was a warrior and had many well trained warriors also under his service, while Jacob only have his business, his wives and children.

Jacob had no chance to win this battle, he decided to use his intelligence, he wanted to send some presents to his brother in order to calm him, he was acting strategically, he forgot that the problem he had was a matter of heart, the parcels couldn’t heal the wounded heart of his brother, after all Esau had also a prosperous business and many people under his authority. As a leader it may happen that even the most ingenious strategy fails and that humanly spoken we have no power to overcome a given challenge. The applied knowledge of Jacob failed, he had no other solution but to turn to God in prayer, have you not seen or heard about some tough situations that only God could solve? A good leader should know that as a man, his limited knowledge, wisdom and intelligence would not be able to solve all the problems of the world and that he should therefore turn to God in prayer in order to find sustainable solutions. Jacob went to God in prayer, he prayed wholeheartedly as if only God was his only hope, when we pray earnestly like he did God cannot but come into our rescue,his prayer was heard. God sent his own angel to meet him, he blessed him and changed his name Jacob (deceiver) into Israel (the one that strived with God). What his own knowledge couldn’t do, God did that, He touched the heart of his brother Esau, his anger and hatred vanished away in a twinkling of an eye. When the heart is changed then everything is won, when spiritual kingdom conquers then the physical one conquers also. The time when the two brothers should meet has come, Jacob run to meet his brother to greet him after a long period of absence, what a surprise! His brother was happy to welcome him as if no compromising thing had happened between them in the past. God touched the stony heart of that man and instead of anger and hatred only the wonderful power of love to see his brother was controlling him, they warmly greeted each other and his brother even proposed to help him, they separated from each other and they all went their way. To impact others positively a good leader should have a spirit of forgiveness, it doesn’t nullify his quality of being a righteous man by finding appropriate solutions in order to avoid future disappointment, or defend himself in the midst of difficulties but means that we should not let our anger and hatred to rule, master or overpower us to the point that we don’t know what forgiveness is all about, for instance a good leader should never commit a murder intentionally.

Jacob (Israel) had two sons from Rachel his beloved named respectively Joseph and Benjamin and many brothers from Leah and the servant of Rachel. Joseph was hated by his brother because he was honest and his father loved him more than them, they could no longer bear their brother, their hatred reached its apogee when Joseph told them that he had a God given dream, according to this dream Joseph had to rule them, even his father rebuked him because of this dream, is it because he was self-centered, prideand was planning to still the glory of his senior brothers?No, God himself made up his mind to appoint him as a future leader due to some of his qualities: honesty, faithfulness, faith and boldness. His brothers except Benjamin plotted to deal with him; they sold him into strangers who sold him in return to an Egyptian named Potiphar, a leader in the house of Pharaoh. They were successful in their plot; they thought that their action would nullify the plan of God in the life of this young man. Joseph, the beloved son of his father all of a sudden became a slave man in a strange land of Egypt, if you know what a slave could undergo in a foreign land in the past, then you could admit that this man had all the reasons of the world to retaliate. Instead of that, Joseph changed his unpleasant circumstances into a pleasant world because God was with him, a good leader should not allow any circumstance to overpower him, he must know that challenges are unavoidable and that whenever they occur he should adapt and face them boldly. In the house of his master Joseph was prosperous, whatever he did was successful in his hands, his master was happy with him and made him an overseer over all what he had in his house. Joseph had one problem, the wife of his master was harassing him every day, she wanted to deceive his husband by committing immorality with Joseph, could Joseph yield to the proposition of the wife of another man? His qualities of honesty and gratefulness couldn’t betray his master by deceiving him to lie with his wife. Joseph weighed the pros and the cons, he never yielded but was not also strong enough to resist to the temptation of a beautiful Egyptian woman, this time the temptation was so strong to the point that he made up his mind to run away.

A good leader should never be a betrayer but should make loyalty his banner; he should be true to himself and true to others, he must be a man of principle. His master was unhappy because his seducing wife convinced him that Joseph wanted to violate her, as a matter of fact, he was thrown into prison. Joseph had all the reasons of the world to hate more his master because he was guiltless and his imprisonment was the result of the lie of his master wife, he was accumulating misfortune after misfortune. In the time of challenge, agood leader should stop complaining, blaming and accusing others and himself because those approaches can never solve a problem. In contrary, his faith which should hope to overcome the challenge should be stronger than the challenge itself. Joseph had no rooms for hatred and revenge, he was a man who was caring for other prisoners, no wonder they elected him as the leader of the prisoners. Did God choose him to be a leader in a prison? No, God is not a one way God even from the prison he was able to lift him up, He was going through a period of training and all his qualities were being unveiled in the process of time. In the prison, two prisoners had a dream that they couldn’t explain and became sad, Joseph didn’t wait to hear their dreams before he could read it in their face, he drew nigh to know about the matter, they explained alternately the content of their dream to Joseph. A good leader should be interested in the problems of others and try to help them with the maximum of his ability. Of course because of the wisdom of God in him, he explained their dreams correctly; in fact all the events happened as he had beforehand said so that nobody couldn’t deny it. Joseph remained in this prison because God wanted to train him and add another missing quality into the curriculum vitae of this young and promising leader, it was patience. In the school of life a good leader should learn to be patient if he wants to achieve good and great results, he must have a goal and work hardly, patiently, persistently towards its realization, that’s how many were able to invent groundbreaking things, this applies to anybody, anywhere in the world.

Joseph was still in his prison until God decided to lift him up, promotion comes from God and at his appointed time, nobody cannot prevent Him from acting. At that time, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt if you want the powerful king of all the earth had a dream that was troubling him, he called his wise men for the explanation of his dream, unfortunately they couldn’t help him, their knowledge was limited to solve such a problem, what could they do? Nothing.Faith never despairs, it hopes until it reaches its goal. They decided to call Joseph the prisoner because they heard that he had a God given gift of interpreting dreams. Joseph didn’t only interpret the dream of Pharaoh but gave him all the necessary advices to face the upcoming challenge, a leader is a solution finder, a good leader should be a wise man because all our knowledge and intelligence of today are never enough to solve all the problems of today and tomorrow, they must always be backed up with wisdom; wisdom is the best application of knowledgeit means knowing how, when we should face a given or upcoming challenge by using our knowledge or intelligence in the best possible way. Pharaoh and all his leaders were happy because of the interpretation of the dream and the solutions he had proposed to solve it, they appointed him as the prime minister in the land of Egypt. His dream became a reality, from the prison he became the most important personality in a foreign land after the King. What his brothers didn’t want to see became a reality because God himself had appointed him some years ago. It happened as Joseph had said, there was seven years of abundance and seven years of famine, Joseph used his managerial quality to store a lot of food during the years of prosperity so that there was enough food to feed the people of the land of Egypt and even to sell it to the strangers. Jacob and all his brothers could not bear the famine that was threatening the world, people were coming to Egypt from all over the world, because they heard that there was food there, they also decided to go there in order to escape the famine, they didn’t know that Joseph was the prime minister, even if it was the case, what could they do in order to save their lives? If not to bow down before the great leader who used his quality to save Egypt and the world wide at large. Joseph didn’t retaliate but only tested them to see if they had changed, he forgave them and even provided to all their needs all the days of his life, leaders should know that only true love can change the worst of our enemy into the best of our friend, the impact of love is greater than that of hatred. All the aforementioned leaders had faith in God and faith in what they wanted to accomplish, this faith raised a long lasting hope that could stand even before the toughest of all challenges, that is how they eventually succeeded.

4. A GOOD LEADER IS A MAN OF HUMILITY.

After the death of Joseph and all his generation, the children of Israel began to multiply in the land of Egypt in an exponential way to the point that the Egyptians feared them. Pharaoh decided to kill all the newborn males, fortunately one of this miraculous Hebrew baby escaped and was bred by the daughter of pharaoh himself, his name was Moses. Moses was treated as a prince of Egypt, he had all the privilege that a prince could have, he was trained in the best school of Egypt and was even privileged to become a Pharaoh one day. The children of Israel were mistreated in this foreign land during 400 years and were looking for a way of escape, who could deliver them out of the power of the Egyptians? They couldn’t go out of Egypt because they were used as slaves and were contributing to build their houses and their economy. Only God could deliver them from this bondage, but God always uses someone in order to fulfill his promises. Moses grew and knew that he was not an Egyptian, his own people was under the weight of the heavy burden of bondage, in the same time his great ambition to be the powerful king of all the earth one day was still up to date.He had the choice whether to help his own people or to be a king and therefore contribute to their suffering. He decided to kill an Egyptian and he ran away, he thought that in killing a person he could save many people, his action was very bad and he didn’t know that God could use even one person to deliver them with a great power and not with their sophisticated weapons. God was looking for only one person to save the Israelites, to display His power and make His name to be known into the worldwide. However through the action of Moses,we can notice his humility, someone who preferred to renounce his privilege and to sacrifice his power, honor in order to suffer with the poor and the underprivileged. A good leader should not be a proud, a self-seeking person, he should be able to sacrifice himself for others. Moses didn’t know the God of the Hebrew even if they believed that He was powerful, Moses could not understand why he chose to forsake them like that, he could not wait the intervention of an inefficient God like him, he used his intellectual and military training, that’s why he acted by committing a murder, the God of the Hebrew was so slow that he couldn’t deliver his own people. Moses didn’t know where to go, he went into the land of Midian to save his own life because the Egyptians wanted to kill him for his action sake. In the land of Midian Moses became a shepherd, he was shepherding until he came to the mountain of God in Horeb. A prince of the whole world became suddenly a shepherd; only humility and sacrifice could explain such a decision. Didn’t you notice that generally people don’t love a proud leader? It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be happy with what we are doing but that we should not boast of what we have done or have; we should leave it to the appreciation of others. Moses was humbled 40 years in the wilderness before God began to use him mightily. A good leader should be positively curious; he must always be ready to explore new area and avoid the daily routine. Moses saw a bush that was burning but not burned, he drew nigh to see what was happening and to his amazement he heard a voice that commanded him to remove his shoes because the place where he was standing was holy. This God was not like the gods of Egypt, for the first time he heard an authoritative voice coming from a burning bush talking about holiness, was it happening in his mind? No, it was more than a dream, his imagination was not betraying him, it was more than true. God introduced himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; he was the God of the Hebrew who wanted to deliver his own people from the heavy bondage of the Egyptians in order to lead them into the Promised Land. Moses remembered his own weak power, he tried and failed lamentably in the past, humanly spoken, honestly, his own strength couldn’t do anything, he began to question the reason of his election, he was asking God whyhe was chosen among all these Israelites, after all, he was wanted, he didn’t know the power of this God, from his experience only a widespread military action with anefficient strategy could deliver his brothers from the power of Egypt. God continued to reassure him and even changed his rod into a snake; he reassured him that He is Jehovah (I am who I am), the God that never changes in the process of time. After that God affirmed and reaffirmed His superiority above all gods, Moses was ready to go but didn’t want to fulfill this task alone, he wanted an assistant, someone who would help him. Good Leaders must have assistants; they must reproduce themselves (their attributes) in the life of others, so that they could represent them fully when they are absent or when they are no more there. Aaron became his assistant, Moses and Aaron went to Egypt not with physical weapons but with spiritual ones, they had the power of the almighty God, even the doubt and the meaningless power of Pharaoh could not soon be able to prevent them from saving their brothers.A good leader must not use his power wrongly in order to harm others but rather use it wisely in order to save their lives. Full with power and courage, Moses and Aaron went to face pharaoh, they commanded him in the name of Jehovah to let his people go out of Egypt, but he refused, and they began to display the power of God.

The first miracle happened, when he changed his rod into a snake, the magicians of Egypt did so but the snake of Moses prevailed and swallowed their own, nevertheless the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he didn’t listen to them. The second miracle occurred when they changed the water of the river into blood but the magicians did so, the king refused to give a favorable answer to their demand. The third miracle happened when they made frogs to come up to the land of Egypt and the magicians did the same; the king remained steadfast in his decision. After the third miracle the power of the magicians was limited, they couldn’t do the fourth miracle that Moses and Aaron did by bringing forth louse and spread them in the land of Egypt. This time the magicians even recognized that these miracles were the work of the hand of God, but despite their testimony Pharaoh couldn’t listen to the voice of Moses and Aaron to let the Israelites go. The fifth miracle occurred when swarms of flies were all over the land of Egypt and they caused a great havoc, this was not enough to let the people go. The sixth miracle happened when all the animals of the Egyptians died of pestilence and no death was recorded among that of the Israelites, the heart of the king was still hardened. The seventh miracle happened when all the Egyptians including the magicians and their animals were plagued with a boil, despites that, Pharaoh didn’t listen to them. The eighth miracle happened when God sent an hail to destroy the herbs and trees of the fields, Pharaoh used his quality of deceiver in order to beg Moses to pray God so that he might stop the hail, when he saw that the hail stopped he hardened his heart again.The ninth miracle unleashed many locusts which ate the herb and fruit left by the hail. The tenth miracle brought thick darkness in all the land of Egypt so that they could not recognize each other during three days. The eleventh miracle was fatal and Pharaoh couldn’t resist,instead of the first born males of the Israelites that his fathers killed in the past, now it was the first born of all the Egyptians that die, including that of Pharaoh, God is righteous. After that, the king couldn’t wait again to see another misfortune, he commanded the Israelites to go out of the land of Egypt with all their possession. Although Moses and Aaron did all these miracles they never boasted but remained humble and gave all the glory to God