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The
bigger the ego the harder the fall. Proverbs
16.18 (The Message) Leadership
is not about impressing people, but serving others. Leadership is not
about manipulating people but motivating them. Leadership is not about
controlling those under your supervision but about communicating to them
a vision for God designed excellence.
God has entrusted leaders with the privilege of influence and to
develop others for eternity's sake. But while we most often focus on the
positives, what are those aspects of leadership that can derail your
influence and impact? Here are seven deadly leadership sins that can
shatter your effectiveness as a leader: 1.
Haughtiness Haughtiness
is when you're high on yourself and low on others. It displays an
attitude of superiority, which looks with condescension on others and
their accomplishments. It is an attitude of insolence that thinks no one
else has the ideas or insights that you do. 2.
Arrogance Arrogance
is a sense of self‑important smugness that claims much for you and
gives little to others. It displays an attitude that others are there to
serve you. D.L. Moody observed, "God sends no one away empty except
those who are full of themselves." 3.
Pride This
is not the healthy self‑respect for your work or ministry but an
unhealthy, egotistical pride. Pride exhibits itself as being absorbed
with you while ignoring others and their needs. It has been said that
pride is the only disease that makes everyone sick but the one who has
it. 4.
Disdain Disdain
compares yourself with others in a derogatory way. It looks down its
nose with scorn on those around you and belittles the accomplishments of
others. 5.
Presumption Presumption
claims privileges above your rights. It's a me‑first attitude
concerned more with the "perks" and "privileges" of
power than of true leadership. 6.
Assumption Assumption
takes for granted what others say is truth without objectivity or
investigating it for yourself. The result is going way out on an all too
thin limb. 7.
Vanity Perhaps
the most destructive of the seven is vanity. Vanity is an intense
craving for admiration and applause. This leads you to misunderstand the
situation as you follow a personal agenda rather than a servant's heart. All
of these leadership snares center on a self‑motivated ego. Conceit
and arrogance will kill effective leadership. If we allow it to take
hold, we end up focusing on ourselves, not on others. And that's
manipulation, not leadership. Jose
Cubero was one of Spain's most brilliant matadors. He had enjoyed a
spectacular career before he died at the age of 21 after a tragic
mistake. Cubero thrust his sword a final time into a bleeding, delirious
bull, which then collapsed. Considering the struggle finished, Jose
turned to acknowledge the crowd's applause. The bull, however, was not
dead. It rose and lunged at the unsuspecting matador, its horn piercing
his back and puncturing his heart. We
should never consider pride or vanity dead before we are. Just when we
think we've won the battle, just as we turn to accept the
congratulations of the crowd, pride stabs us in the back. To
be a Christian leader means you operate under the guidance and control
of the Savior. We need to ask ourselves often, "Am I building
people or am I building my own dreams and using people?" For the
Christian leader, people must come first. People aren't the means to an
end; they are the end! {Adapted
from Leadership
Dynamics by Greg Morris)
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