HOW TO BE A GOOD LEADER
1 Kings 12:7, “And they spoke to him, saying, “If you will be a servant to these people today, and serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.”

To be ordained by God as spiritual leader, secular leader or societal leader is not everything it takes to be a good leader; to attain the post of leadership at any level or at anywhere is the beginning, and not everything about leadership. To be a good leader is to distinct oneself from leaders, and that is the demand of God from every leader everywhere. For you to be a good leader, who will effectively work with people, and whom people will effectively work with, you must consider the followings:

BE A SERVANT LEADER
“If you will be a servant to these people today” 1 Kings 12:7
Do not exalt yourself above the people you want to lead, but humble yourself, present yourself as a servant, promise to serve and practically serve. Humility is one of the early steps to leadership. A good leader must present himself as a servant with all sincerity. A good leader must freely relate and flow with the people he desires to lead.

BE A SERVING LEADER
“…and serve them” 1 Kings 12:7
Some people will present themselves as servants, they will promise to serve their followers, but they will never serve them but rather serve themselves. Well, every leader serves, some serve the people and some serve themselves. So when someone says, “I will serve”, it has to be clarified if he means to serve himself or to serve the people. There is difference between a self-service leader and a self-sacrificing leader. To serve is practical, not just in presentation or promise. The impression of presentation and promise to serve will not last more than a day or few – “If you will be a servant to these people today” You can present or promise to serve today, if you do not serve, people will not listen to you or follow you tomorrow.

To serve means to sacrifice yourself for the good of the people who follow you, to show a good example of sacrifice. Nehemiah was a great and good leader; in fact he is a model of a good leadership. He was there to serve, and not to serve himself. He was a governor who never bought or got a land. Here is what he said:

“Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the governor’s provisions. 15 But the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people, and took from them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver. Yes, even their servants bore rule over the people, but I did not do so, because of the fear of God. 16 Indeed, I also continued the work on this wall, and we did not buy any land…” Nehemiah 5:14-16.

Good leaders are not there to enrich themselves, but only to serve.

To serve also means to be a good and godly example in all things. It is not enough to lead by speaking, talking, preaching, teaching or commanding, but to also serve as a good example. Anybody can say the saying, talk the talk or preach the preaching, but only a real leader who does the sayings.

BE AN ANSWERING LEADER
“And answer them” 1 Kings 12:7
A good leader must answer his followers or people. To be an answering leader, you must:

(1) Be A Caring Leader – before you can answer, you must first have a sincere care for the people.

(2) Be A Listen Leader– before you can answer, you must first care to listen to what you want to answer or people you want to answer. Ability to listen is a very important virtue for godly and good leadership. James 1:19, “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” Many leaders only care to talk and rebuke but they are not ready to listen, and so they will not be able to answer or answer well. Before you can answer, first listen; before you judge, first listen; before you conclude, first listen; before you decide first listen. As a parent, pastor, partner or people’s leader generally, listening will help you to be a good leader, listening will help you to last long.

(3) Be An Available Leader – before you can answer, you must be available for the people to call you, and then you must be available to answer the callings for service. A leader who is too busy or so important and exalted to answer the call of a common member is not a good leader. A leader who only responds to the calls of the rich and special people is not a godly leader is not a self-sacrificing leader but a selfish leader. If you are too busy to answer the call of a common man among your members or followers, then you should be sincere to get more sincere assistants to work with you in order to assist you to answer calls for service from the least, or you should sincerely resign.

(4) Be A Sincere & Transparent Leader – before you can sincerely answer questions from your subordinates or members, you must be sincere. A good and serving leader must be there to explain and answer to questions on how he manages resources and people under him. If you are not sincere, you will not be able to answer questions concerning your administration, concerning the management of resources in your care, and if you are not transparent, you will not be able to explain the management of your leadership.

Christianity has original system of transparency and accountability, because our God is a God of transparency and accountability, and our Lord Jesus Christ has transparent and accountable system. God is so transparent that He had to explain to you how He created the heaven and earth, everything was explained, including how He called the God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and said, “Let us make man in Our Image” what was not our business, but He had to explain to us.

The system of the church today where only the leaders know how the tithes and offerings are being spent, where the Senior pastor, G.O and his wife are the lords of everything in the church, such system is satanic, not godly. When you hear the saying that, “Is it not the business of the tithers and members to know how their tithes are being spent,” such notion is not biblical, but an extra biblical phenomenon. If your pastors cannot be transparent and accountable on how the tithes are being spent, how you do you expect the politicians to be transparent on how they spend your tax?

(5) Be An Accountable Leader – before you can really answer your followers, you must be ready to account for your leadership, as an accountable leader. Many leaders today – parents, pastors, politicians and people’s leader - in their different capacities – do not have sense of accountability, and this has become our culture and tradition in our families, churches and societies; they feel no responsibility to account to people they are leading, they feel no responsibility to account to their subordinates. We think we can only account to people above us, not people below us – such is an awkward leadership. A good leader is accountable to all the people he leads, he feels no offense when he is questioned, but sees it as an opportunity to express himself; he is ready to give account of his stewardship without falsehood or fear.

BE AN ENCOURAGING LEADER
“…and speak good words to them” 1 Kings 12:7
To speak good words to people does not mean to sweet talk or to flatter people, it does not mean to say what people want to hear; good words are words of truth, good words are wholesome words, not half-some words or empty handsome words. A good leader will say what people need to hear, not just what they want to hear; since he is a leader, he may see ahead and knows what will really benefit the people even if the people can’t see it. Good words are not always sweet words for the majority to hear most time, but they are sound for several seasons and situation. A good leader will be ready to speak good words in an encouraging manner, in a better way without being bitter. A good leader will speak good words not bitter words, not bad words, not backbiting words, and not blocking words.

As a parent, pastor, and politician or in any leadership capacity you find yourself, you must be ready to speak only good words. When you want to rebuke, do it with good words so that the person you rebuke can be turned to good by your good words. Abusive words are not good words, cursing words are not good words, and deceptive words are not good for you or the hearer.

Be an encouraging leader by your ways and words, encourage people to serve God and to serve with you. Let everything about you serve as an encouragement to people around you to serve God and sacrifice for good cause. Be a positive leader with a pure orientation for the profit of the people.

Philippians 4:8:
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

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