Friday, May 6, 2011

Passion,Humility,Adaptability (Nathan McWherter)

“Passion, humility and adaptability are critical characteristics for influencing and leading in times when you have no formal authority.” I have heard it said that in leadership we cannot rest on our position. Seeing that in many circles Christian leadership has begun to experience less inherent authority I was intrigued by this statement. Passion is contagious. When we operate within our passion it spreads to other people and they begin to become passionate, if you communicate well they become passionate about what you are passionate about. Humility is a right understanding of yourself, arrogance and pretension seems to turn people off to your leadership especially in this day and age. Although confidence can be confused with arrogance, they are not the same thing. Humility is not a lower understanding of yourself and your abilities but just the right understanding. Finally adaptability which I think is the ability to be flexible, however the article phrased it as not having your worth set in the achievement of goals or outcomes. I think that this is an interesting approach to viewing adaptability. When we put a significant amount of worth into a certain outcome we may become rigid in holding onto our practices or our programs. Allowing certain things to pass may allow us to do the greatest thing instead of the just the okay or even the good thing. When we make decisions that are the most effective, then those who follow us realize that we want to do what is best, not what will bring us glory or identity.

2 comments:

  1. As soon as I saw these terms, passion, humility and adaptability, I was also intrigued because these are three qualities that I believe every leader should possess. They seem to be qualities that would be obvious in a Christian Leader but it is a struggle to maintain humility when people expect you to lead. It is difficult to be passionate when you are being pulled in many different directions and it extremely hard to adapt when you believe you are doing the right thing not realizing that we always have to ask God what He would have us do. These key characteristics are essential in leading even when you have not been given formal authority to lead. As God elevates us into the position He has called us to, we are sometimes tempted to thing we are in control and we are such great leaders but humbly realizing that it is the grace of God that has gifted us to lead and the burning desire of the Holy Spirit that allows us to passionately do His Will and the example of Jesus who was an example of how to adapt to any situation and glorify the Father we can effectively lead with spiritual maturity in the gift we have received.

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