{{2012_09_07_t1.jpg}} {{2012_09_07_t2.jpg}} {{2012_09_07_t3.jpg}} [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2012_09_07|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]] [[topics_collection_iv|| Topics Collection iv ]] ======Weakness and Leadership ...====== Friday, Sept 7, 2012. Do people with leadership gifts have weaknesses? You will probably think of some politicians immediately, or you will be reminded of your boss or one of the leading people in your organization. What are their particular weaknesses? And how do you deal with it? {{2012_09_07.jpg }} **Weaknesses of Leaders ...** Leaders are people who have leadership gifts. Apart from that, they are people like you and me, they are just normal people. That also means: they have strength and weaknesses. The gift of leadership may be a strength ... there can be many weaknesses which accompany this strength. Also, we need to note that there are many different ways of leadership. There is the autocratic way of leadership, where the leader decides by himself and imposes decisions on the others. There is a participative way of leadership, where the leader tries to moderate and find joint solutions within a group. Laissez-faire type of leadership is when leaders give a lot of freedom to group members, but this can also turn out as a weakness, a vacuum of leadership! As a leader I had to think about my own weaknesses a lot already. What is it where I have to be careful myself. Am I giving the right kind of guidance and leadership to my people? Do I lead to much or not enough? {{ 2012_09_07_2.jpg}} **Jesus as strong leader ...** Jesus has his particular style of leadership. The New Testament shows him as a very strong leader ... his gift of leadership is astonishing. Without any worldly means he was able to lead thousands during his journey through Palestine. His words were so unconventional and yet so challenging, that even strong leaders like Peter completely rendered to him and joined his team. It is difficult to characterize the leadership style of Jesus in a single phrase. He has elements of all leadership styles which we know today. He has been autocratic, since he not only knows the truth, but he even IS the truth. He has been participating, since he called his people friends and even died for them. He wants us to fully participate and take responsibility ourselves - though he stays the master. He has elements of laissez-faire, since he gives us a lot of freedom to make our own decisions, as long as we stay "in him", in his spirit. As leaders today, we need to open our mind and our hearts, to learn from Jesus. He has been looking deeper than his contemporaries. He did not stop with the status quo, with his environment as it was, but he started a long-term project to renew and heal everything. But at the same time, he was extremely realistic and careful about revolving things too quickly. There is a lot in his guidance for us to learn for our daily leadership tasks ...! (Roland Potthast) [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_iv|... more texts]]