Thoughts on leadership

I had a conversation with a few people last night about leadership, and it was great. Here are a few thoughts that came from the conversation.

I have learned a lot from different leaders and would encourage you to read a few books. For example anything from John Maxwell, Myles Munroe, and Neil Cole. A huge portion of the conversation came from these leaders.

What is leadership?

Simple answer is, influence.
Leadership is the ability obtain followers (if no one is following you, you’re not leading)
Leadership is the capacity to influence others through inspiration, generated by passion, motivated by vision, birthed from conviction, produced by purpose. - Myles Munroe

Some leaders influence others through fear and manipulation. This is not good.
With this thought everyone has the positional to move in leadership. We all influence others around us. Hopefully in a positive way, however sometimes it’s in a negative way.

How do you positively influence others?

To influence others you first have to be influenced. To move others you first have to be moved.
What are you influenced by? What moves you? What vision has gotten inside of you? What do you see and desire others to see?
You influence others by your words, actions, and life. You set an example. If your words don’t line up with your actions and your actions don’t line up with your life you will have a difficult time influencing others long term.
It is very important what comes out of your mouth!

Serving others should be the primary focus for leaders. It’s not so much top-down leadership, but rather bottom up leadership. Jesus demonstrated this by washing His disciple’s feet. This job was reserved for servants.

Leaders should bear fruit. The fruit is for others to enjoy and receive nourishment.
In the fruit is a seed that will reproduce more fruit. Leaders are very interested in building other leaders. Leaders influence the coming generations.

Just some thoughts from a great conversation on leadership.