I know before you say it: “Not another book on leadership.” Trust me—if this were one of those books on leadership, I would not only say the same thing but also tell you not to buy this book, much less read it. Search “leadership” on Amazon, and you will get more than 300,000 matches. Yet as prolific business and leadership author Jeffrey Krames plaintively asks, “Where on earth are all the leaders?”1 I think it’s safe to say we don’t have 300,000 truly great leaders in America!
I want to ask the question a different way: “Where are all the leaders who lead by example and inspire emulation of their character?” In many ways, one could argue that Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, and Adolf Hitler were very influential leaders. But do we admire their methods or their manners and would we want our children to grow up to be just like them?
I believe that leadership is measured not just by how much you can accomplish through followers or how many followers you have. I believe that the highest level of leadership is measured by the person you are and the virtues you display. Great leadership begins with who you are, not what you do. Simply put, the level of your leadership will never rise above the content of your character.
Think of leadership in terms of an iceberg. The 10 percent above water represents your skill. The 90 percent below water is your character. The vast majority of leadership books deal with the 10 percent, but this book focuses on the 90 percent. Why? Because it’s what’s below the surface that sinks the ship.2
Like the iceberg, there is far more to leadership than meets the eye. The greatest impact truly great leaders have comes from the personal qualities you can’t see on the outside, not the productive qualities you can see. I am convinced that 90 percent of our leadership comes from the values that form us and the virtues that flow from us. In other words, character ultimately trumps competency.
Inherently and instinctively, we know this to be true. Authors James Kouzes and Barry Posner surveyed almost 1500 managers from around the country as part of a study sponsored by the American Management Association. They asked this opened-ended question: “What values, personal traits, or characteristics do you look for and admire in your superiors?” Put differently, they were asking, “What characteristics apart from title or authority would make you want to voluntarily follow a leader?”
More than 225 values and traits were identified, which were then grouped into 15 categories. The number one thing respondents said they wanted most from their leaders was integrity. The categories that immediately followed were “is truthful,” “is trustworthy,” “has character,” and “has convictions.” These qualities ranked above “competency,” “intelligence,” and “is inspiring.”3 These responses focus on the hidden 90 percent of the iceberg.
I have read and collected leadership books for years. Time management, conflict management, staff management… my head swims from all the advice and practical suggestions that I have gleaned—and yes, used successfully. These books greatly enhance the 10 percent of the iceberg and make it shine, and some may have a chapter or two on the 90 percent. But almost all of these books focus on the leader’s head. Very few focus on the leader’s heart.
I’m reminded of the story of a hot-air balloonist who had drifted off course. He saw a man on the ground and yelled, “Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?”
“Yes, you’re in a balloon,” the guy replied.
“You must work in IT,” the balloonist said.
“I do indeed! How did you know?”
“What you told me is technically correct but of no use to anyone.”
So many leadership tomes pontificate on…
• how to move an organization forward but not how to move people upward
• how a company can go from good to great but not how a leader should be good in order to help his people become great
• how to grow profits and productivity but not how to grow people as you grow yourself
This is the big difference in this book. A great leader doesn’t just have a great mind; he has a great soul. A brilliant brain is no substitute for a pure heart. To paraphrase Jesus, “What does it profit a person to double the revenues, increase productivity, and satisfy the stockholders while sacrificing his integrity, cutting corners, and treating people like property?” Great leaders don’t just produce great results; they portray great character and inspire others to become better people by the way they lead their own lives.
In the classic work Mutiny on the Bounty, Captain Christian stood before the tribunal that would determine his fate. They concluded, “If decency does not abide in the captain of the ship, then it is not on board.” I have learned as a pastor that no one sets the tone among our staff, lay leadership, or the church as a whole like the pastor. This is also true if you are a coach, principal, manager, or CEO.
I have worked with hundreds of people over decades, and I have learned that without exception, every person is either a thermometer or a thermostat. Some people register and reflect the climate around them; others set it. Some people dance to the beat of the music; others set the beat and direct the band.
Most people—by far—are thermometers. They “go along to get along.” They are perfect reflections of the style, dress, actions, attitudes, and directions of those around them. They are mirrors of their culture and perfectly happy to be so.
Leaders, on the other hand, are thermostats. They set the tone and the temperature of their culture and the people they lead. The currency of their leadership is influence, and they spend it wisely but liberally. The buck stops with them, and that’s exactly where they want the buck to stop. They know the values they live by and the virtues they exude, and they want them to be mirrored in their followers.4
Leaders can drive others to follow them by force and mandated authority, or they can move others to follow them by their character and convictions. Both may get a job done, but the impact and influence of the latter remain long after those of the former have faded.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote this in his poem “A Psalm of Life”:
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
The leaders who have the best and most enduring impact live that sublime life, which is the focus of this book.
God warned Israel of the priority of character over competency in leadership. Did you know that Jewish kings were required to make a copy of God’s law in their own handwriting and keep it on their person at all times? Like American Express, they couldn’t leave home without it. Why would God require this of the king? He knew the constant presence of the law would force the king to internalize it, personalize it, and use it as a portable guard around his heart.5 According to this scriptural admonition, it would cement his legacy and multiply his influence:
This regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens. It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way. And it will ensure that he and his descendants will reign for many generations in Israel.6
Did you read that last sentence? The character instilled in a nation, a family, followers of any ilk and sort will linger long after competency has evaporated into thin air. This was illustrated to me in an unforgettable way in China more than a decade ago.
I was president of the Southern Baptist Convention (a true test of leadership if there ever was one) and was on a trip to China to visit Christians and churches there. One morning I was taken to the Great Wall and was fascinated by this magnificent engineering feat, constructed more than 2200 years ago and stretching more than 13,000 miles. It was built for border control—to protect against invasion of various nomadic tribes.
The wall was built so thick and so high the Chinese felt it could neither be scaled nor breached. A confident air of security filled the homes of the Chinese people. Yet during the first 100 years of the wall’s existence, China was invaded three times! How? Not once was the wall broken down. Not once did an enemy invader climb over it. All three times a gatekeeper was bribed and the enemy marched right through the gates. The Chinese relied on the competency of the wall builders and the concrete of the wall itself, but they forgot the importance of the character of their people.
I am reminded of the story of a train that was about to leave a large railroad station. The conductor began to take tickets. Looking at the ticket of the first passenger, he said, “Friend, I think you’re on the wrong train.”
“But the ticket agent told me this was my train,” the man said.
After a little discussion, the conductor decided to check with the ticket agent. Before long, it became clear that the conductor was on the wrong train! When the leader is lost, how can the followers be going on the right track?
Leadership is not vested in the position one holds in his title but in the principles one holds in his heart. Dwight D. Eisenhower, one of our greatest military leaders and finest presidents, put it best:
In order to be a leader a man must have followers. And to have followers, a man must have their confidence. Hence the supreme quality of a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, on a football field, in an army, or in an office. If a man’s associates find him guilty of phoniness, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need, therefore, is integrity and high purpose.
Eisenhower was dead-on. I believe that who you are, what you believe and live by, and how you treat others is far more important than what you accomplish, build, and produce. In the long run, character will accomplish far more lasting results, both in time and eternity, than competence alone ever will.
Paul Borthwick writes this in Leading the Way:
The world needs leaders…
who cannot be bought;
whose word is their promise;
who put character above wealth;
who possess opinions and a will;
who are larger than their vocations;
who do not hesitate to take chances;
who will not lose their individuality in a crowd;
who will be honest in small things as well as in great things;
who will make no compromise with wrong;
whose ambitions are not confined to their own selfish desires;
who will not say they do it “because everybody else does it”;
who are true to their friends through good report and evil report, in adversity as well as in prosperity;
who do not believe that shrewdness, cunning, and hardheadedness are the best qualities for winning success;
who are not ashamed or afraid to stand for the truth when it is unpopular;
who can say no with emphasis, although the rest of the world says yes.7
I agree, and I believe the way to become this kind of leader is found in the greatest leadership book in the world, the Bible, which tells us about the greatest leader who ever lived—Jesus Christ. Tucked away in this book is a list of virtues that, if sown in the heart to bear fruit in the life, practically guarantee the character needed to be the best leader one can be. The Bible even calls these virtues “fruit.”8 Jesus was the very embodiment of these qualities and wants to reproduce them in leaders today.
My hope is that this book will be the plow that opens the soil of your heart so that these seeds can be planted and this fruit can be borne.
The importance of this can be seen in the following study. One might think that knowledge, experience, expertise, and competence might be the greatest assets for vocational and leadership success. The Carnegie Foundation discovered that relational skills are far more important to success in leading and managing. Their research found that only 15 percent of a person’s success is determined by job knowledge and technical skills. The other 85 percent is determined by an individual’s attitude and ability to relate to other people.9
If you were told that you were going to work for someone who constantly displayed love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, do you think you might be interested? You think this person would not only be worth following but would make you an even better person by doing so?
If you would like to meet that person and become that person, hop on board. It’s going to be a fun-filled, eye-opening, life-changing ride.