LEADERS ARE LOVING

As a leader you possess the ability to love and be loved. By divine nature, calling, and duty, you are to love God and others at all times by doing what is best for them and practicing forgiveness.

Leaders are loving!

I know what you’re thinking: “Love my employees in the 21st century? What are you thinking? Tough times call for tough leaders – emotionless, cold, calculating, commandeering, aggressive, cigar-chomping, fire-breathing dragons! This is a new day – a new age – there’s no room for this touchy-feely-loving stuff in the 21st century! There’s no place for loving leadership today! Why, we’ll go under! You don’t realize what it takes to be a leader these days!”

Browse through the business section of your favorite bookstore and you’ll find similar sentiments reflected in many of the books on leadership. Such books claim to house the one irreplaceable factor or formula for leading successfully. But, astonishingly, many end up promoting this sort of take-charge, aggressive, emotionless style of leadership.

Yes – I agree – courageous, focused, determined, and hard-working leaders are needed in the 21st century organization. Dozens of organizations collapse every day for the lack of effective leaders. But as Christopher Loving, Founder and President of LIFT (Loving Institute for Tomorrow), observed in his on-line audio book,

We can no longer afford to graduate bright, talented, and competent lawyers, architects, and marketing executives. Today, the world needs leaders who not only have great minds, but great hearts as well.[i]

The notion of loving leadership is an ancient paradigm – a very old – but time-tested prescription for effective leadership. It may surprise you to learn that loving leadership is actually a biblical model. It is God’s model. The principle of loving leadership is just as effective in the 21st century as when God first came up with the idea. God created you to love and to be loved. It is your divine calling and duty to love God and others at all times. You are to regard others more highly than you regard yourself, to do what is best for them, and, when necessary, practice forgiveness.

Loving leadership requires recognizing God as the supreme model of love. During an interview, a reporter asked Karl Barth, the famous theologian, what was his most remarkable theological discovery. After a few moments of reflection Barth responded, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Karl Barth, unlike few other people, had explored the depths and riches of the knowledge of God. After all was said and done, Barth understood a simple truth, God is love. Children of all ages have proclaimed in song and in good works this simple, but profound, reality, God is the emphasis and perfection of love. Indeed, it is a truth revealed to mankind throughout the Bible. God is the fountain of love. God created you to love and be loved.

Truly effective leaders love God. You are to be obedient to God’s first and great command: “And he said to them, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment’” (Matthew 22:37-38, ESV). Every beat of your heart, the inner-most depths of your soul, and every microscopic neuron of your mind is to focus, pursue, and engage this loving God. Love God with every fiber of your being. Why? Because God always treats you better than you deserve. As the famous Puritan preacher Thomas Watson observed, “If ice melts, it is because the sun has shone upon it; so if the frozen heart melts in love, it is because the Sun of Righteousness has shone upon it.”[ii]

Leaders are commanded to love others with the same degree of passion and potency that God has loved them. Jesus Christ, after stating that your obligation to respond to God’s love is with love for God, added, “And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:39, ESV). Knowing and experiencing God’s love carries with it certain obligations – obligations that are summarized by Jesus himself. Imagine – the whole of the Bible boils down to just to two profound points – 1) love God 2) love others.

Because love is part and parcel of your created nature, love is a permanent component of your leadership arsenal and is to be employed at all times. Love is at the epicenter of everything you do in every arena of your leadership life – no matter what you endeavor to accomplish. Whether you are fetching a cup of coffee, moving mountains, resurrecting a dead company, or offering yourself up to be burned at the stake, love is the central, driving force for effective leadership. In the final analysis, you can accomplish nothing; you are nothing; and, you gain nothing outside the context of love.

Leaders regard others more highly than they regard themselves. I call this the “Philippian Principle of Leadership.” “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourself.” (Philippians 2:3, ESV). A lot is said these days about the concept of “servant-leadership.” Sometimes the discussion of servant-leadership can grow complex and confusing. Nevertheless, there is one principle that must emerge in any biblical definition of servant-leadership: effective leaders must love in the same way Christ loves those He leads. Loving leaders do not expect their subordinates to make them look good; loving leaders always regard their subordinates more highly, more significantly, than they regard themselves. Following the example of Jesus, loving leaders humble themselves, make themselves nothing, and take on the form of a servant – elevating those around them – looking to the interests of others. Loving leaders are determined to do what it takes to make their subordinates look good.

Loving leadership is a difficult challenge – especially when a leader is forced to make a choice between what others “want” and what is “best.” Too often, because of a desperate need to be liked, you might be tempted to acquiesce to another person’s wants, in the vain hope that they will “love” you. Or, perhaps, you actually fear that they will not love you in return. Later, unfortunately, you will discover, the hard way, that caving in did not produce the kind of results you were hoping for. Perhaps, the best guideline – or rule of thumb – is Jesus’ words: “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12, ESV).

You are loving.

You are a leader.

This is the truth about leadership!

This is the Genesis Principle of Leadership.

Now go out and lead – in His image!

[i] Loving, Christopher J., Loving Leadership: Rekindling the Human Spirit to Business, Relationships, and Life, Listen and Live Audio, Inc. http://www.audible.com/, 1996.

[ii] Watson, Thomas, Body of Divinity Contained in Sermons Upon the Assembly’s Catechism, Westminster Shorter Catechism Project, http://www.bpc.org/resources/watson/wsc_wa_049-052_b.html.