The Four Faces of Leadership

Redefining the Twenty-First Century Leadership from the Church and Out (The Leadership Handbook) With a brief exploration of the animal kingdom

Edmund S. Gyandoh

• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781098028121
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Leadership in Religion

Leadership is a learning mind-set, which can be intentionally sharpened. People believe in themselves, but not everybody believes he/she is a leader. Often, people convincingly conclude that they cannot ever lead others, forgetting that leadership starts from the self. You cannot successfully lead others if you are not successful leading yourself. Self-leadership is an unsung driver of any successful leadership in our society today. The Four Faces of Leadership also seeks to unveil a different dimension of leadership by first appreciating the power of learning and championing our differences. We are strong as a people because of our differences. Great leaders understand how important it is for the other person to have an opinion, a perspective, or to even disagree. Leadership is not about controlling but, rather, bringing the self, people, and systems under coordination. As a Christian leader, a business leader, or whatever your disposition is in the world, this leadership handbook would fundamentally show you how being a human being is not enough to lead others. You will quickly learn how to intentionally couple your human abilities to the attitudes of a lion, an ox, and an eagle in order to relearn yourself and redefine your leadership for a better twenty-first-century experience.

2

The Face of a Man

Abraham Joshua Heschel nicely captured in his book, Who Is Man, that “the image of man affects its nature and any attempts to derive an image from human nature could only result in extracting an image originally injected into it.” I can see myself agreeing with this line of thoughts every day in my life because I am a child of God born of and into the image of Him. I believe this is how every human should see/perceive himself or herself. At the minimum, you are a reflection of your parents or, better still, your mother for those who were raised by that strong single mum.

As human beings, God expects us to showcase extraordinary attributes and talents, which He himself has endowed us with. We cannot be classified and limited as just higher animals. In the beginning of time, God, in his wisdom, created the heavens and the earth and everything thereof. He created man and placed him in charge of His wonderful creation. God believed he had formed and endowed man with the requisite qualities to lead in the Garden of Eden. God finished his work with man. He entrusted man with a unique mandate to dominate and replenish all the earth and be in charge of all His creation. That kick-started man’s leadership “and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:28). It was God’s way of confirming to us that we are higher in every dimension than any other creature. We cannot, therefore, be limited by the elements and conscience of science. We are leaders by God’s right, limited only by our own imagination. You take on the person you want to become, and so do I. From this premise, we must understand that we are a special breed of God’s creation, maintaining a higher brain superiority, a gift from God. We are a chosen representation and an emblem of artistry and leadership found in God Himself. This should at least leave you thinking about how ordinary humans like yourself are supposed to be if you have not already. Look at the world around you today. Everything holds the fingerprint of a man. That’s what leaders do. God showed us His leadership through creation. The least we can do is to create and protect our creation. We have to be not just good but great stewards of God’s leadership. All the creativity in this world was started and orchestrated by man. Men are thinkers and have life enough to express feelings and emotions. But I want to quickly say that our feelings should not limit our ability to command creation. Gods children, and all humans for that matter, can choose to exercise restrained control over every jurisdiction they find themselves in. We have an authority through God that is far from what makes us disrespectful of others. Think highly of yourself, and that’s where your leadership starts. Rise up, repossess, and rejuvenate your face. Let’s now zoom in to understand the importance of being a man.

You have a brain and can, therefore, make decisions no matter how redundant you think this sounds. Your brain, according to science, is one of the largest and most complex organs of the human body with many specialized areas that work together. How much of your brain power have you used? How much of this brain power have you used to create? Until I started pursuing my graduate studies, I never really understood how I have underutilized my brain over the years. My current disposition in life is a direct consequence of my brain activities. I am who I am today based on what I pushed my brain to think about. Our very existence is God’s idea. If we are the very image of God, then we should be able to replicate His doing and be in the mode of endless birthing of ideas. We must default into a powerhouse of endless ideas. That should be our ground state characteristic. I can create, you can create, and together, we can create.

The face of a man is the first face of leadership. You cannot lead without really possessing the face of a man. I know you are a human being, but it is still different what it means to carry the face of a man. In other words, you cannot lead without being a human being. I guess you are still wondering why I keep hammering on the need to have a human face to lead. That’s a fair argument but in Mark 10:15 (cross-referenced in Matthew 18:3), Jesus recorded that “truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” You may in no doubt be an adult human being, but you must know that not every thirty-year-old is an adult and not every husband, for instance, is a man. Manhood is a nature we have in God that we must work with all diligence to ignite. God expects us to mature into the man he created us to be. Our attribute of manhood in God is not limited to maleness. Men and women alike must yearn to ignite the attributes of a man in our quest to lead. The face of a man to lead is not like a gift that could be purchased easily at the gift shop. We must be intentional about becoming leaders in society. This leads me to believe that leadership is a mind-set and the “how to do it” is also a mind-set. We have the innate ability to harness this uniqueness into fruition. The man-nature reads and leads. Man, unlike other higher animals, are able to foster relationships and provide vision/focus as well. Let’s now talk about the eight (8) requisite attributes to lead in the twenty-first century. From the church, let’s go out there and lead people.

1. Fear of God and earnestly seeking His Wisdom—Man has the ability to make decisions, and one of the decisions we can proudly make is to fear God and seek His wisdom. Leaders must possess or be surrounded by men with extraordinary wisdom to thrive and lead in the twenty-first century. The Christian leader is no exception to this premise. Wisdom comes from God and Him alone and so do common sense and understanding. Before you begin seeking after God’s infinite wisdom, you must first be saved and know Christ as your Lord and personal savior. If you are not already, pause here and accept Christ as your Lord and personal savior and/or rededicate your life to Him by simply repeating these words after me, “Dear, Lord Jesus, I thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I accept and confess you as my Lord and personal savior. Come into my life and make me whole. In Jesus’s name.” Make it a point to find a Bible-believing church in your area and fellowship. This is where your unmatched wisdom begins. Your fear of God and living according to his will is the beginning of your wisdom. Proverbs 9:10 records that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” All wisdom on this earth comes from God alone. In Proverbs 2: 6–8, Solomon affirms that “all wisdom comes from the Lord, and so do common sense and understanding.” You must work toward possessing the divine ability to confront complex and simple issues into commonplace understanding. Only God almighty can help you do that. God gives helpful advice to everyone who obeys him and protects all who live according to His will. God is just, and He watches over everyone who is faithful to him. Obedience in God is the only way to unlocking the codes to God’s infinite wisdom. You must be intentional about this process. Solomon, in 1 Kings 3:7–10, was intentional and specific with God with what he wanted. God was pleased that Solomon asked for nothing except “a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?” That was smart and Solomon was smart about this quest. This is God himself acknowledging how important it is to possess wisdom. Leaders must characterize themselves with the endless yearning to increase in wisdom. Jesus Christ, who is the son of God, the word and God Himself was fully human and lived among mankind (John 1:1–3). The Bible records that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and that was essential to leading his disciples and completing His mission on earth. Every leader with a mission needs wisdom. Showcasing wisdom is assuring and reassuring to your followers and/or subordinates that they would get to their destination. You need this in all your secular endeavors as well. This should be the secret power to your endless success in the world.
2. Ability to develop and grow in spirituality—The purpose of life and spirituality has to be discovered with a great sense of meaning. Only humans can do that. Only man can do that. This is a face you must possess as a twenty-first-century leader. Discovering the meaning and purpose of life, built on spirituality is important to our desire of becoming great leaders. I have always thought that great leaders, once in a while, rediscover themselves and their origin and may attempt to sometimes make sense of who they really are. This is spirituality defined. Spirituality is an identity beyond the physical, which has the ability to model our deeds and actions. Man may want to think about his/her origin, life, and even death in general, a unique power that classifies and draws us closer to our spirituality. The fact that we are aware of our spirituality means we don’t necessarily own our physical existence, hence the need to treat everybody within your circle, including your followers with dignity and respect. A leader who is mind...