The Leadership Genius of Jesus

William Beausay

• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781418554200
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

A voyage through the business section of your local bookstore can be daunting. You could drown in the sea of books on management and leadership. At the very least the conflicting waves of instruction and advice from one book to the next will toss you back and forth, leaving you confused and disoriented.

Which business guru can steer you to the shores of your promised land? Which leadership trend is in, and which ones are out? If an approach works with one person, does that mean it will work with another?

Don't let the competing voices make things more complicated than they should be. And don't miss the most powerful example of leadership in history: Jesus. His approach was simple, effective, and brilliant. "How much more information do you need?" asks William Beausay II. "The fact is, very little. What you need are passion and heart. Courage and dreams." You'll find those traits in Jesus' life.

The Leadership Genius of Jesus is the lifeboat that will keep you afloat and point the way to fulfilling and dynamic leadership that will impact you and everyone you serve.

1

The Power of One

One is a powerful number.

Nobody who has seen it will forget a short clip from the movie City Slickers. Curly, the creaky, rawhide-tough cowboy trail boss, is sharing the secret of life with his urban protégé, played by comedian Billy Crystal. After challenging his young client to name the key to life, Curly holds up one finger and stares into Crystal’s eyes.

After a long pause, he squints and croaks simply,

“One thing.”

Leadership always boils down to singularity: one person doing one thing. Few things in life excite me more than seeing what one person fully committed to one thing can accomplish. Whether it’s great people leading great nations, managers leading teams, teachers leading students, or parents leading homes, remarkable things begin to happen when one person focuses his effort.

Jesus’ style was the epitome of one. Once some Pharisees were hotly contesting his claims to godliness, his wanton disregard for keeping the Sabbath, and his insinuations that they were blind. They made the mistake of questioning him on this.

Can you boil your mission down to one thing?

Jesus’ reply to them was sharp—a perfect illustration of his one thing: “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10 NKJV).

Jesus’ one thing served him well. His tart comment based on a simple motive pierced to the heart of the Pharisees’ prejudices and misconceptions. Such a simple, beguiling style—focusing on one thing.

What’s your one thing? Do you need to spend some time finding it?

2

Five Leadership Myths

I once knew a man with tremendous leadership potential. He was a salesman for a chemical company, and I needed his help leading a project I was managing. He was perfect: self-motivated, able to focus on tasks, effective with people, a quick problem solver, and a motivator.

There was only one glaring problem: He didn’t believe in himself. The word leadership terrorized him. To him, leadership had transcendent magic to which only a select few people held the elixir. Unfortunately, he believed a suicidal mixture of leadership mythology.

In their wonderful book Leaders, Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus take aim at five key myths many of us have come to believe.

1. Leadership is a rare skill. Nothing could be farther from reality. Literally, wherever two or more are gathered, a leader will emerge. Leadership is always up for grabs, and it’s a common human trait to assume it.

2. Leaders are born, not made. Few real leaders are pedigreed. What generates leadership is a complex human process full of trial and error, victories and defeats, insights, intuitions, and always a dynamic confluence of events. Rarely is it from natural endowment.

Effective leadership is not what you think.

3. Leaders are charismatic. Though charismatic people may be thrust into leadership roles, most of the greatest leaders in history have been quiet, even shy individuals. So are many of the effective everyday leaders in our lives.

4. Leadership exists only at the top of an organization. Given the nature of human beings, this statement cannot be true. Everyone needs leadership delivered in an up close and personal manner.

5. Leaders control, direct, prod, and manipulate. Leaders transform people and events. They make things happen by engaging people and drawing them into a specific enterprise. Almost all effective leaders use means other than brute force or threat. They almost always lead by relying on encouragement, counsel, wisdom, and personal challenge.

Jesus was one of the greatest leaders of all time. He shattered all these myths. For example, he downplayed his leadership, and he told his disciples they would do even greater things than he. He was born into the home of a humble craftsman, hardly Ivy League material. Though he had charisma, he simply encouraged others to do as they saw him doing. Jesus didn’t rule from atop a mighty fortress of lower-level employees, and never was he a pushy whip-cracker.

Had you asked him the key to success, I doubt he would have said “time management” or “dressing for success.” He didn’t have a daily planner, and if he created a strategic plan, nobody ever saw it. In short, his leadership style broke all the molds and altered the course of the world in the process. Beware of the myths of leadership that may shackle you.

3

Filaments

Mark Twain, in explaining his exuberance and wit to a reporter, declared, “I was born excited.” Unfortunately, we’re not all born excited. Come to think of it, many of us are pretty dull. I know one super-dull fellow. Bring up sports, and his eyes glaze over. Talk about making money, and his body goes limp. Talk philosophy, and he stares blankly. Tell a joke, and he grins weakly. The guy is a certified dud.

Until you talk astronomy.

Mention quasars, and he lights up like one. Talk about life on Mars, and suddenly, there is life in him! Mention gamma ray bursts from distant black holes, and the black holes in his face flicker to life.

We all have filaments that glow under different conditions. When our filaments burn brightly, life is exciting, edgy, fun, hopeful, and satisfying.

Leaders have high-intensity filaments, and they know what makes them glow. They also know how to ignite themselves, and they are comfortable bathing others with their unique brilliance.

What makes you glow inside?

Jesus used the metaphor of luminance to describe many things. He understood that certain people have a brightly burning filament within them, and they owe it to themselves to let it shine.

Once, among a group of religious teachers, Jesus remarked, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12 NKJV).

His brashness incensed the Pharisees. “You can’t brag about yourself and expect us to believe it just because you say it!” they scolded.

“I know where I came from and where I am going,” he replied. “You do not know where I come from and where I am going” (John 8:14 NKJV, emphasis added).

It has been said that there is more variation among leaders than themes, but of this element I’m certain: Leaders know where they’re going. They know what makes them excited, and they are bold in sharing it.

What excites you? What makes you incandescent on the inside? Don’t let anyone, not even learned and influential people, snuff it out.

4

Blind Groping

When I speak to large groups at night, I occasionally do a mixer that everyone finds entertaining. I randomly divide people into one of four groups: horses, cows, chickens, and pigs. They’re given these instructions: When the lights go off and it’s pitch-black, start making the noise that your animal makes as loudly as you can. When you find someone else making the same noise, link arms with the person, and search for other roving clusters.

When the lights are doused, the fun begins. You can imagine the whinnies and wails of Clydesdales, bovines, poultry, and pork. Most people just wander around yelling. It’s funny! When the lights are turned back on, we do a quick show of hands to discover which group of animals was most successful in making connections.

Life can be like this audio barnyard. We’re all groping around blindly in the darkness of life trying to find what works for us. We’re looking for people, careers, hobbies, lifestyles, habits, and so forth like a person blindly groping in a room full of options. We can’t see what’s available, yet we’re choosing the best we can. Every once in a while the lights flicker a bit, and we’re able to see, for better or worse, the matchups we’ve chosen.

Uncommon leaders reorient the disoriented.

Some of us don’t like what we’ve picked. For example, we’re disillusioned with the people we’ve picked for mates or friends, our careers are disappointing, our hobbies seem empty, our lifestyles suddenly show themselves to be the sources of trouble rather than satisfaction, and some of our habits become self-defeating. Some of us conclude that all this choosing in the dark is futile, and we lose hope, spending our time mooing and oinking our way around in ignorance. And nobody reaches out to lend us a hand.

Jesus did an interesting thing when he noticed that people were disoriented or frightened or had given up on themselves: He made valiant efforts to grab them. He never allowed the darkness or apparent confusion of the moment to stifle his search for good people lost in a disoriented life.

One time Jesus was eating with a group of prostitutes, alcoholics, and corrupt politicians. Gropers. He told them three stories about lost things: a sheep, some silver coins, and a runaway heir to a fortune. In all cases Jesus made it clear that finding what was lost was cause for celebration!

Jesus didn’t just talk about this; he did it. Rather than harshly ignore or scold seekers, he beckoned them and gave them a firm mooring. He incited faith, not fear or humiliation, in the gropers.

People around you are groping for leadership, direction, wisdom, help, and friendship. Learn to recognize the bleat of a lost sheep or the cry of a desperate runaway. Boldly give them whatever wisdom and direction you have. That’s what good leaders do.

5

Danger Zones

Leadership rarely arises without the recognition of some danger or impending trouble. Leadership seems to ignite itself under these conditions. It’s amazing to me how certain people, often the ones you’d least expect, step forward to lead in dire emergencies. Threatening circumstances reveal the true leaders.

The problem is that most threats in our lives are not obvious. For example, the threat of marital dissolution is ever present, and in some cases is tacitly sanctioned by society. Financial ruin lurks behind every new credit card we receive. Our ability to think independently and creatively slips quietly past with each hour of television we watch. We often teeter on the edge of disaster and don’t even know it.

As radical as it sounds, clearly observed dangers help people find lives worth leading. Illustrations are everywhere. Take these examples that I drew out of my local newspaper today:

• Families are falling apart at rec...