What Makes A Good Leader? (Leighton Ford)
What makes a good leader, especially a transforming and empowering leader? The study of this issue has become complex, sometimes even confusing. As noted in chapter one, some students of leadership have focused on the traits of outstanding leaders, some on the situations which produce leadership, and others on the process by which leaders go about their task.
In my reading, I have been helped most by those who have talked with leaders, or those who follow them, to seek out the reasons for their effectiveness. So it occurred to me that it would be valuable if at this point we could include a case study of a leader developed by Jesus. The man whom I most wanted to consider was Simon Peter. Several reasons make him the prime candidate. Most obviously, he was Jesus’ own number one choice for a disciple. Also, he is mentioned and quoted by name far more than any of the other disciples – more times, in fact, than all the rest put together. Also, my primary reference…has been Mark’s account of Jesus, and we know that Mark was very close to Peter and used Peter’s preaching and recounting of Jesus’ story as the primary source for his Gospel.
Even more important, Peter was clearly Jesus’ own test case for his leadership development. After Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, Peter emerged as one of the three most prominent leaders of the early church. Further, in his own writings Peter showed that he had absorbed and was passing on certain keys to leadership that he had learned from Jesus.
What follows is an imagined interview with Peter which seeks to bring out the key elements in Jesus’ style of transforming leadership development.
Later this week: Peter ‘speaks’!
Leighton Ford
Taken from Transforming Leadership by Leighton Ford. ©1991 by Leighton Ford. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove IL 60515-1426. www.ivpress.com
