ISEEIT:

(This is a personal blog by Jerry Wells.  I created ISEEIT so I could publish my thoughts on issues that ISEE that are important to me and may be important to you.  I try to base all my thoughts on issues on a biblical world view.  The examples I share from my personal decisions are decisions I made during my life based on a biblical worldview.  My understanding of the bible is not inerrant and I consider my personal opinions on the issues I write about to be worthless.)   

I see people in leadership and those who will become leaders who need to learn how to be great leaders. 

Learning to be a great leader and then actually becoming one is difficult. I had no direct training in leadership from any class that I took in high school, college, or in my graduate work.  But here are some things I have learned from my biblical worldview and my 50 plus years of school of hard knock personal experiences as a leader.  Since I graduated from college, my personal experience as a leader has been as a husband, a father, a grandfather, a Pastor, a disciple maker, a basketball coach, a character coach, and a board member of various kinds of boards that include for profit and nonprofit organizations.  I have also spent countless hours in one-on-one conversations with other leaders from all kinds of organizations who have asked me for my advice.

This list is not all inclusive but I have found that these are principles that leaders should value in order to become great leaders.  Neither is this list in any particular order or importance.  But every principle on this list is vital for a leader to follow.  I have learned the hard way and by watching the suffering of other leaders that just compromising one of these leadership principles can cause a leader to burn their house down.  

1. A great leader has great vision for their organization.  They can see the bigger picture and what needs to be done to fulfill the vision.     
2. A great leader leads by example.  They do or they have done successfully or they have spent years learning what they want those they are leading to do.
3. A great leader surrounds themselves with great leaders.  They delegate authority to people who are great leaders.  They get the right leaders on their bus and they put the right leaders in the right seats on their bus.
4. A great leader has compassion for those they are leading.  Their greatest concern for those they are leading is serving their well-being physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.  Organizational success is always secondary to the well-being of those within the organization.
5. A great leader is efficient.  They see themselves as trusted stewards of everything they have and everything they manage.  They will do everything possible to reduce expenses and effort that does not compromise the mission and the value of their organization.
6. A great leader is always learning.  They may be an expert in their field but they recognize that even an expert does not have 100% of the knowledge of their field.  They are always seeking knowledge from other leaders and from those they are leading. 
7. A great leader will make amends for their failures as a leader.  They are transparent about their failures as a leader and will admit when they are wrong even if it costs them something that is important to them. 

Jesus is the greatest example of great leadership.  The only one of these seven principles that He did not practice was the last one because He was never wrong.  Instead of making amends for His failures, He sacrificed His life to make amends for ours.  If you receive Him as your personal Savior and Lord, He will give you His Spirit who will dwell in you and enable you to fulfill all of these leadership principles to serve those you are leading.  And then one day soon, you will leave this world to be in His new world with Him forever. 

(If you have any questions or comments feel free to email me at jerrywellsfam@gmail.com  I do not respond to comments with comments about my ISEEIT posts on Facebook because I do not believe it is wise or profitable for me to do so but I would love to communicate with you privately)