I’ve started reading Reggie McNeal’s book, Practicing Greatness: Seven Disciplines of Extraordinary Spiritual Leaders. Ken Blanchard writes in the Foreward about the book: “greatness… is not a position or a destination, but a quality of leadership that blesses other people.”
Reggie describes four qualities of leaders:
- Bad leaders: curse people by diminishing their life; they rob people of hope; they reduce people’s dreams and expectations; they discourage and disparage; they leave people worse off than when they found them.
- Good leaders: Good leaders know how to get things done; they keep things going; they assess situations and solve problems; they organize people to accomplish tasks; they help people in the process. We need more good leaders.
- Great leaders: raise the level of blessing for the human race; distinguished by the positive impact on the people they lead; we are desperate for great leaders in every sector of society-politics, social sector, health care, education, the arts, sports, community agencies with the courage and wisdom to face unprecedented challenges in bioethics, global terrorism, economic realignments, the information revolution, etc.
- Great spiritual leaders: We are even more desperate for these leaders. But don’t think that great spiritual leaders are just for the church or Sunday School. Reggie says that postmodern people do not necessarily link their spirituality to the church. They take their life issues to the office, to work, to the club etc. With this reality, great spiritual leaders are needed in business, education, health, science, arts, information field, technology-in every sector and every domain of the city.
What is a great spiritual leader? Can I be one? What will it take? These are questions Reggie will begin to unfold. I’m looking forward to what he has to say.
In your opinion, what qualities make for a great leader? Please leave a comment.
Steve Morgan
stevermorgan.com 