How to Be a Good Leader

What is a good leader? How can we become good leaders?

The Global Concise Bible Dictionary says leaders are people who have “authority or can guide their people the way they need to go.”

A godly leader is also a man or woman who has courage, humility, kindness, love, forgiveness and trust. All of these traits help leaders, but leaders also need a vision of what needs to be done. A leader is also a person who can teach people the right way and stay on the right path even with the many temptations to abuse the power.

History has provided us with the stories of many leaders we can learn from, including the best leader of all, Jesus Christ.

Leaders of history

A look through history shows us good and bad leaders. All human leaders have some good and some bad in them. From the perspective of American history, here are examples of two different leaders.

To the American colonists, King George III was a leader who took his power to its limits. They accused him of taxing the American colonies without giving them the right of representation. They rebelled and started a war with their mother country. Americans call this war the American Revolution.

The colonists’ leader was George Washington. As a war leader, he was a man who cared for his men and was right there with his men in the battle. He showed honesty and kindness to them.

One example of George Washington’s kindness and leadership was at Valley Forge. He didn’t stay in nice warm quarters; he was out in the cold and wind with the men. He did his best to get supplies for the men as fast as he could.

After the colonists had won the war, he became president and helped build the nation. George Washington led the nation through some tough times. He was a true leader and a person who did not use his power for personal gain or beyond what it should have been.

The best leader!

The best leader ever was Jesus Christ. While Jesus was alive, He taught His disciples about spiritual leadership and serving others.

Jesus was a leader who helped the needy and taught His followers what they needed to do. Jesus led His people with kindness, love, forgiveness, trust and humility. He forgave many people of their sins in the 3½ years He was a leader. He set the example by living a perfect life and sacrificing Himself for the good of others.

Learning by experience

We learn leadership by experience. We should use every opportunity, no matter how small, to practice serving and helping others.

Once I had to help my team at school build a model hydropower plant and make a poster describing it. None of us were sure where to start, and we were wasting time and falling behind. So I got the group to focus on talking about how we should do it, and then we started. We were a day behind, but I was able to get the group where we needed to be. I suggested dividing what we needed done into specific assignments.

While I was trying to be a good leader, I learned that you need to be kind to your partners and to be willing to throw your ideas out when necessary. If you are a leader of anything, you will need to be able to forgive. I might not have gotten the best grade on the project, but through the experience I learned how to be a better leader.

There will never be a perfect human leader except Jesus Christ, but that should not stop us from trying to become better leaders. Leadership is a responsibility, and it’s a chance to help and serve others.

Samuel J. Travers is an eighth grader who attends the Athens, Ohio, congregation of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association.

For more about Christian leadership, see:

• Where True Leadership Starts
• Lessons From Philip: Called to Serve
• Leadership Secrets of Nehemiah