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Welcome to The SHAPE of a Leader. I write this blog with the SHAPE leadership development program (for women pastors) I lead in mind, but it is for all who are interested in leadership, faith, and the intersection of the two.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

A Leader's Tools

The tools a leader has to work with can be categorized into one of the following areas:

  • Ability
  • Authority
  • Character
  • Influence
Character reveals a leader's heart and influence is how the leader transfers what's his/her heart to those who follow.  Ability are the skills that make it all happen.  Authority?  Yes, it's a tool, and yes, sometimes it's necessary to wield (in an emergency situation, for example). But if it's the tool relied on day in and day out, then the leader has lost control, lacks confidence, is ego-centric, and in it for the status.     

Authority as the main tool in the toolbox is just unacceptable. (Check out this link to a blogpost from Pastor Kris Capel on an exercise we did at leadership team this week.)

What leadership tool do YOU rely on most?

1 comment:

  1. You said it perfect! I'm totally with you on character revealing and influence transferring.

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