Essay Example on Leadership in the Bible: Applying Biblical Principles for Success

Introduction

Leadership is an integral part of our daily lives. Its impact cannot be underestimated; starting from home, society and even nationally the effects of leadership are always felt. Bad leadership leads to failed homes, societal ills, and political unrest. It is on the backdrop of these ills that bible principles of leadership ought to be applied. The bible through its stories, counsel, and the example of leaders provides a robust template for leaders in all spheres of life. This paper will discuss select Bible principles including integrity, servant leadership, humility, leadership as a team, listening to wise counsel, and drawing authority from God as applied to leadership.

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Integrity

Integrity is defined as the quality of being honest. Honest leadership inspires obedience and confidence from those who are led. On the contrary, opaque leadership does not inspire hope, creates doubt, and erodes the role of leadership (Friedman, 2017). Integrity is vital both in all levels of leadership; from home all the way to top national leadership. The Bible story of King Ahab and Naboth shows the perils of dishonesty. Ahab after coveting Naboth’s vineyard through the agency of his wife Jezebel wrongly accused Naboth and had him killed. God dishonored Ahab and spelled punishment on him. Unlike Ahab who lacked integrity, King David received God's favor for being an honest king.

Servant leadership is a recurring theme in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. This is an indicator of the importance of this principle. The example of Jesus himself is that of a servant leader. Jesus himself taught his disciples that those who want to be first should be the last of all and a servant. In real-life situations, servant leadership inspires followers and employees and leads to the achievement of set goals or missions (Thao and Kang, 2020). Leaders who fail to grasp the biblical principle of servant leadership tend to run less successful organizations and are outshone by more charismatic servant leaders.

Humility

Humility is another pertinent bible principle in leadership. The bible advises leaders to show meekness and be approachable by all people (Hendijani and Sohrabi, 2019). Events in the recent past in the tech scene have seen the rise of leaders of industry who are humble and embody this principle. Consequently, their firms have shown unprecedented growth because workers and followers are encouraged by their humility. Jesus himself set the example of humility as a leader by washing his disciples’ feet. David also showed humility even after killing Goliath and becoming a hero by still respecting the King and remained humble.

Another important bible principle applicable to leadership is being a team player. Great leaders are good team players, by being so they encourage investment by all members. Pooled effort, in the long run, leads to success (Koeslag-kreunen, 2018). A leader who is not a team player undermines his team’s ability leading to failure. Jesus was a great team leader, this is evidenced by the camaraderie he had with his apostles. He often preached, prayed, and even ate with them. These actions endeared him to his disciples. Moving from Jesus his apostles also showed great team leadership skills. In particular, the apostle Paul was a great team leader who occasionally wrote to other church leaders as evidenced by his epistles. This kept in touch and showed the merits of team leadership as an important bible principle in leadership.

Complexities of Leadership

Due to the complexities of leadership wise counsel is an indispensable requirement of leadership. The performance of leaders is directly proportional to the robustness of counsel they receive. Leaders who listen to counsel are shown to achieve much more compared to leaders who disregard counsel or receive bad advice (Saunders, 2017). In the bible, the story of Moses listening to advice from his father in law Jethro not only eased his work but also allowed justice to reach more Israelites as Moses appointed chiefs to determine disputes among the people. On the other hand, failing to listen to counsel as a leader leads to ruin as evidenced by the fate of Rehoboam who disregarded wise counsel and ended up losing part of the kingdom leading to the creation of the two kingdoms.

In addition to the above principles, firm control of emotions is another important Bible principle in Leadership. The book of Proverbs warns of intemperate leaders who wreak havoc while applauding good-tempered leaders. Owing to the influential status of leaders and the consequence of their actions; a leader who is easy to anger can lead to disastrous consequences to his followers or polity (Lindebaum and Geddes, 2016). The bible has an example of such an intemperate leader in the person of King Saul who occasionally lost his temper. In the end, he lost his Kingdom to a rival.

Conclusion

Besides the numerous principles aforementioned, the mark of a true leader according to the Bible is following God. The Bible exalts the importance of submitting to God by leaders. In the Bible, the stories of the Kings of Israel succinctly bring this into focus, Kings who followed God's instruction were favored while those who rebelled were met by peril. In the New Testament, the disciples acknowledged drawing their authority from God and this made them great stewards of the early church. In conclusion, a look at desirable leadership qualities shows how much they draw from biblical principles. It is thus clearly apparent that bible principles such as integrity, servant leadership and humility can be applied to leadership.

References

Friedman, Hershey. (2017). Values for Today's Leadership: What the Bible has to Say.

Hendijani, R., & Sohrabi, B. (2019). The effect of humility on emotional and social competencies: The mediating role of judgment. Cogent Business & Management, 6(1), 1641257.

Koeslag-Kreunen, M., Van den Bossche, P., Hoven, M., Van der Klink, M., & Gijselaers, W. (2018). When leadership powers team learning: a meta-analysis. Small group research, 49(4), 475-513.

Lindebaum, D., & Geddes, D. (2016). The place and role of (moral) anger in organizational behavior studies. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 37(5), 738-757.

Saunders, E. N. (2017). No Substitute for Experience: Presidents, Advisers, and Information in Group Decision Making. International Organization, 71.

Thao, N. P. H., & Kang, S. W. (2020). When Servant Leaders Inspire Followers to Become Organizational Citizens? Empirical Evidence From Vietnam. SAGE Open, 10(1), 2158244019900184.