God’s covenant still holds
Leadership is one of the more slippery things to define. We recognize it when we see it, or at least we think we do. We know it has certain qualities associated with it. Leaders have a kind of presence, a gravitas. They have a measure of charisma. They can be persuasive, forceful at times, and in some cases even intimidating. They have endurance. They seldom, if ever, ask others to do what they have not already done, or will do when the time comes. They get things done. Good leaders are born, we say, not made.
When we look at all of the above it should become apparent that we have not looked deeply enough into what constitutes leadership. Real leadership, for good or bad, requires two things. The first is training. A person can have all the earmarks of leadership noted above but without training they can be either misdirected or misused. For instance, our military puts a high emphasis on leadership training. All of our service academies promote leadership training in every course they teach, no matter how indirectly. The same goes for the enlisted ranks, though the emphasis shifts a bit. Leadership skills can be learned.
The second foundation of leadership is character. Character is nurtured from birth. It is an ongoing process with no standard method or process that produces it. Almost any person, any situation, can contribute to the development of character. That’s why we say, mistakenly, that leaders are born, not made.
The Old Testament has a case study in leadership, spread over a couple of generations. It begins with Moses. He learned much during his 40 years in Pharaoh’s household but it wasn’t enough. His self-control was lacking, to say the least. He murdered a man in anger. As a result, he spent 40 years on the back side of the desert before his encounter with God at the burning bush. Only then was he ready to stand up to the new Pharaoh and take the Hebrews out of Egypt.
Enter Joshua. He became Moses’ right hand man, his apprentice. He learned many things from Moses, the foremost of which was being sensitive to God’s voice. That apprenticeship lasted 40 more years, during which time was not only Joshua being shaped as a leader, but also a whole new generation of Hebrews as well. When those 40 years were over Joshua and the Hebrew people were ready to go in and possess the land that had been promised to them from the days of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob roughly 400 years before. Joshua, in his turn, continued to inspire that generation to maintain their relationship with God and to follow His lead.
In examining the case of Joshua and Moses it looks like we have discovered one more very valuable earmark of real leadership. True leadership creates something more than just followers. As a wise man pointed out to me a while ago, real leadership helps to create new leaders.
(Philip Severi, a former Bishop resident, previously wrote a weekly column for The Inyo Register. He contributes to this page from his home in Twain Harte.)