Hi friends!

Sooooo this piece has sat in my drafts for almost three years.

I know, I know! I cringe.

Talk about procrastination.

However!

I finally got the inspiration to FINISH it this last weekend because, when I was visiting my sister at her uni, I got to reconnect with a leader I really respect, Lead for America CEO and Infantry Officer Joe Nail.

I met Joe two years ago when I was interning and he was speaking at a think tank in D.C., and, despite the fact he was easily the youngest invited guest, he seriously impressed me.

Because, by then, I’d already settled on what I believed were the necessary conditions of great leadership, and he, just a few scant years older than me, already had all three.

It was kind of astonishing and more than a smidge intimidating because none of the three are easy (though, if you go to Joe’s L4A bio, you’ll see that easy isn’t really his MO–pray for this man’s toes).

Anyways!

The conditions are as follows:

1. A leader sees their mission clearly.
2. They say, “The buck stops with me.”
3. And they’re willing to take a hit for the team.

Today, I’m going to unpack all three.

Hopefully, this piece will help you assess both your own and others’ fitness for leadership!

And listen.

If you’re already thinking,

“Leading isn’t really my thing…”

NO worries!

I consider myself more of a hero-support gal (stay tuned for that blog post), personally 🙂

Still!

I hope this helps you consider what qualities are necessary, if not sufficient, for great leadership.

At the very, very least, this might provide a helpful checklist come next election season!

And just FYI, if you’re at all interested in combating small-town brain drain and revitalizing communities across the U.S., check out Lead for America forthwith.

All that said, let’s begin!

#1: Leaders See Their Mission Clearly

This one is fairly obvious, but a great leader needs to have a clear mission in mind.

Because going in murky or, Heaven-forbid, blind, is a surefire way to, at the very least, waste resources and time.

And, in more serious situations, willinilliness in leadership can cost people their lives.

Put simply, Monty Python’s King Arthur is not the vibe.

Otherwise…

The Beast of Caerbannog will eat everyone alive.

In all seriousness, though, having a solid grasp of the mission/clear vision for what needs to be done, is, in my opinion, leadership’s foundation.

Because you can be the most gifted and self-assured person in the room with passion out the wazoo, but if you don’t have a clue about what you’ve actually got to do…

You and your underlings are basically doomed.

And you don’t have to take my word for it!

Personally, I think Octavia E. Butler put it best when she said,

When vision fails, direction is lost.
When direction is lost, purpose may be forgotten.
When purpose is forgotten, emotion rules alone.
When emotion rules alone, destruction… destruction.

Again, I’ll speak for myself, but I don’t know of a single laudable leader that’s got “destruction… destruction” as their goal.

Great leaders tend to have higher hopes.

In fact, one of the MOST noble and amazing leaders in human history (I am SO excited to meet him in eternity) had not one but TWO extremely lofty goals.

The leader is William Wilberforce, and in 1787 at the ripe old age of 28, he took out his diary and wrote,

“God almighty has set before me two great objects: the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners.”

That was his vision, and it became the mission of his life to see both of those objects realized.

And they were!

Granted, it took twenty odd years, but by the time Wilberforce and his compatriots (see the Proclamation Society and Clapham Sect) were through with England, the slave trade was dead and goodness was in fashion once again.

And!

Three days before Wilberforce died, The House of Commons voted to emancipate every. single. slave. in the British Empire.

Talk about seeing your vision realized 🙂

So again!

The first thing a great leader needs is to see their mission clearly.

And after that…

Well, they gotta be willing to step up to bat.

#2: They Say, “The Buck Stops with Me”

There’s a incisive line in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, where the sister of a death-row killer writes,

“As far as responsibility goes, no one really wants it.”

By and by, I think she’s right.

Most people want to hot potato their way through life.

That is, the moment something unpleasant drops into our laps, our first instinct is usually to throw it back.

People in positions of leadership are not exempt.

In fact, I don’t know about you, but I feel like there’s a whole slew of people who sit at the head of very fancy rooms who want all the joys of leadership and none–none–of the dues.

They just want to play hot potato, too.

It was theologian and biographer of the great anti-Nazi Dietrich Bonhoeffer (another man I CANNOT wait to meet in heaven) Eberhard Bethge who said,

“The sin of respectable people reveals itself in flight from responsibility.“

Amen–Amen!

However, many of these respectable men and women have set upon a wonderful euphemism for their flighty, potato-flinging predilection, and it’s called…

“Delegation.”

Now, to be clear, there’s a time and place to delegate.

But way too many so-called “leaders” fling their rightful potatoes away.

When I was trying to think of an example for this, what kept coming to mind was the story of David and Goliath.

Because, here’s the thing:

It’s a great story, but it’s got the wrong lead.

Because the man who should’ve fought Goliath was Israel’s regnant king.

King Saul, actually, who in 1 Samuel 9:2 is described as standing “head and neck” above every other man in the nation.

So given his stature and station, consider the scene:

Goliath, the Philistine giant, is fee-fi-fo-fuming, demanding to be met in single-combat like,

“Who’s it gonna be?!”

And I bet you MONEY that everyone in Israel was looking at Saul like,

“Dude, you’re the king and the biggest guy on the team.”

And, instead of saying,

“You know, you’re right. I’ll fight.”

Saul’s like,

“Actually! You know what? I’m delegating. To… erm… that guy! Shepherd boy with the sling!”

Saul doesn’t stay king 🙂

And rightfully so!

Because if all a person is going to do is sit there like an oyster when they have the capacity and obligation to grasp the hot, hairy, humongo potato and do, they’ve got to be told,

“Ma’am/Sir, leadership is not for you.”

And the converse is true!

It’s not all surprising to me that David, who stood up and said (I’m paraphrasing),

“Oi! The buck stops with me! I’ll handle the Philistine!” became Israel’s king.

Because great leaders are buckstoppers willing to face the heat.

And more than that…

#3: They’re Willing To Take A Hit For The Team

Friends, this one is the biggie.

This is the condition that, in my opinion, separates out the wheat from the chaff of great leadership.

Because though it can be tough to see one’s mission clearly and say, ‘the buck stops with me,’ being willing to take a full-on hit–not for your own but for others’ benefit–puts you in a whole ‘nother league.

I think British theosophist Annie Besant put it brilliantly when she said,

“Plenty of people wish well to any good cause, but very few care to exert themselves to help it, and fewer still are willing to risk anything in its support. ‘Someone ought to do it, but why should I?’ is the ever re-echoed phrase of weak-kneed amiability. But ‘Someone ought to do it, so why not I?’ is the cry of some earnest servant of man, eagerly forward springing to face some perilous duty.“

It’s the perilous bit that makes the biggest difference, in my opinion.

Because, as Besant notes, quite a few people can see what needs to be done–they’ve got vision.

And some are even willing to exert themselves and assist–they’ll take on responsibility.

But only to a point.

Only as long as there’s no real risk.

Because when it really comes down to it, the vast majority of people are self-preservationists.

But.

And it’s a big but!

Great leaders aren’t.

They can’t be.

Because great–truly great–leadership and cowardice can’t coexist.

They’re mutually exclusive.

I think there are several reasons for this, but the MAJOR one is that cowardice–the demonstrated desire to, above ALL else, save your own skin (i.e. be a self-preservationist)–vitiates any and all virtues that might qualify a person to lead to begin with!

Here, I defer to C.S. Lewis who, in the Screwtape Letters, illustrates the point by elucidating cowardice’s opposite:

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty, or mercy, which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky.”

Anything good a leader might bring gets enervated when “me-me-me” becomes (or is revealed to be) their priority.

Put simply, a person who leads only until things get risky isn’t a leader–they’re an opportunist.

And praise the Lord it isn’t hard to tell the difference!

Because when things get perilous,

An opportunist will opt to save their own skin.

A leader will take the hit.

In 2006, Boko Haram terrorists broke into Archbishop (then Bishop) Ben Kwashi’s home in Jos, Nigeria looking for him.

He was unwilling to shut his mouth, so they were going to shut it for him.

But, as it happened, Ben was in England.

His wife Gloria, however, was home, along with their two youngest children.

The men broke the littlest’s jaw and beat the older until he was unconscious.

Gloria, though, they sexually brutalized and bashed over the head with bottles, leaving her half-dead and half-blind.

When Ben got home, he was just grateful she was alive.

And here’s what gets me.

In the aftermath of the attack, they didn’t leave.

They could’ve gotten asylum in the UK, but Gloria–Gloria, assaulted, Gloria, beaten until she lost half her eyesight–insisted they stay.

And there they have remained, building schools and wells and zoos and orphanages and taking in 400–yes, four-HUNDRED–children personally.

Millions of lives in Nigeria have been changed because when the hit came, Ben and Gloria didn’t bail.

They stayed.

And to be clear, the danger remained.

Boko Haram didn’t just poof away.

But Ben and Gloria were convinced that the work they were doing was worth the risk.

And so they were willing to take the hit–not for their own, but for others’ benefit.

That’s leadership.

AND–AND!

That’s the model we find in Jesus 🙂

See, it was three years ago that I read John 12:27, where Jesus, anticipating His crucifixion, says this:

“Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No! For it was for this very reason that I came to this hour. Father, glorify Thy name!”

And when I read that, three things struck me:

1. Jesus saw what needed doing. [i.e. He could see His mission, troubling as it was, clearly]
2. He knew He was the one–the only one–who could get the job done. [i.e. He said, “the buck stops with me.”] And…
3. He was willing to endure the FULL wrath of God for us and our salvation. [i.e. He was willing to take a hit for the team]

And here’s the thing:

Jesus is the “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

Like, that’s legit inscribed on His thigh.

So if anyone can be trusted to exemplify great leadership, He’s the guy!

And I can attest, after giving my life to Him soon-to-be five years ago, His leadership is the best–the best–the best.

10/10 would recommend following Him!

If you’d like to know more about why, poke around the blog or drop me a line!

Always, always down to talk about Jesus Christ!

There was a moment when the lights went out
When death had claimed its victory
The King of love had given up His life
The darkest day in history

There on a cross they made for sinners
For every curse His blood atoned
One final breath and it was finished
But not the end we could have known

For the earth began to shake
And the veil was torn
What sacrifice was made
As the heavens roared!

All hail King Jesus
All hail the Lord of Heaven and Earth!
All hail King Jesus
All hail the Savior of the world!