Leadership: Plain and Simple

Recently I had the privilege of attending the first of two leadership classes at North Coast Church in Carlsbad, California. The class was entitled “Leadership: Plain and Simple” and led by Ned Mervich, the Video Café Pastor from the Vista Campus.

Mervich’s goal was to boil down the vast amount of information available to us on the topic of leadership and present it as something that was simple—deep (meaningful) and fast (easy to grasp). The room was filled with business owners, administrators, parents, teachers, those entering new leadership roles and those in transition.

Mervich presented the chart below and offered the following definition:

The Essence of Leadership is—

A person called by God to influence through his head, heart and hands, a group of people who can work together effectively through the use of their skills, gifts, abilities and interests to accomplish God’s purpose for that group.

The remainder of the class was spent discussing “The Person” and the relationships they should develop: their relationship with God, their relationship with others, and their relationship with self.

The information presented was practical, easy to digest and worthy of consideration. But the part that has kept my mind pondering for days  afterward came from a parallel thought Mervich shared from the first Army Leadership Manual (1948) highlighting their three essentials of leadership:

BE referring to the HEART (character)

KNOW referring to the HEAD (knowledge) and

DO referring to the HANDS (application)

The manual pointed out that KNOWing (knowledge) and DOing (skills) were perishable. Information could become outdated and skills could be lost. It’s BEing (character) that trumps what people know and do.

BEing is the most desirable attribute. It’s the core of a person: their character, integrity, honesty, ethics, wisdom, temperament and actions. People can be taught new information and acquire new skills, but who they are on the inside, their personhood is what matters most.

So how do we work on and protect our BEing? …by developing the three relationships listed earlier:

Your Relationship with God

Build below the water line (that core of our lives that people don’t often see that is intimate with God) so that you can stand the challenges and test of time. Practice worship, devotion and spiritual disciplines.

 Your Relationship with Others

Pay attention to your EQ – Emotional Quotient. Always be mindful of how you are getting along with others. Check your empathy, your ability to listen and your willingness to understand. Develop the heart of a servant.

Your Relationship with Self

Make sure your thoughts, words and actions match up; that your whole is an intimate expression of your own being or personhood inside. Develop strong moral principals. Know yourself:  acknowledge your weaknesses and capitalize on your strengths. Be happy with who you are. Be authentic.

Remember none of us is going to get this right all of the time. We are fallen people, living in a fallen world. But let’s check ourselves frequently to see that we are doing what we know to do to BEcome the people God can use to influence others to work effectively for His purposes.