The Lord's Kind of Leadership

I've been thinking a lot about leadership lately, for a number of reasons. First, I just came back from a week-long experience where I served as a leader. Second, we in the United States are approaching an opportunity to select a new leader. And third, the next General Conference talk I had planned to blog about just happened to be about what it means to be a leader. In his April 2016 General Conference talk, The Greatest Leaders Are the Greatest Followers, President Stephen W. Owen of the General Young Men Presidency said:

The world teaches that leaders must be mighty; the Lord teaches that they must be meek. Worldly leaders gain power and influence through their talent, skill, and wealth. Christlike leaders gain power and influence “by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned.”

There are many approaches to leadership, and some methods are better than others. Throughout history, people have used intimidation to attempt to control people, and they have had some success, but that is not the Lord's way. The Lord would have us be humble and kind, whether we are leaders or followers. There are times when we have to be strong and put our feet down, but most of the time, we are to be meek and patient, exercising tolerance and respecting the decisions of others.

Too many people in the world, myself included, are too easily swayed by pride. Some leaders pridefully try to impose their will on others, while some would-be followers pridefully insist on acting on their own will. Being a strong believer in individual freedom, I often fall in the latter camp, but President Owen's talk is helping me realize that there is a balance between freedom and obedience. Yes, we all have the God-given gift of agency, but using our agency wisely often means yielding our will to others.

If I'm going to be a leader, and it's becoming increasingly clear that God wants me to be one, I'm going to have to learn to find the right balance between freedom and obedience. I'll need to learn how much obedience I should expect from those I lead, and how much freedom I should allow them to retain. Personally, I would want them to retain all their freedom, and to only follow my suggestions if they choose to, but that's not the Lord's way any more than ruling with an iron fist is. God expects me to obey those who have authority over me, and He expects those over whom I have authority to obey me. That, in a slight way, goes against my personal beliefs, but I trust that God's ideas of leadership and followership are wiser than mine.

The basic idea of leadership, as far as I understand it at the moment, is to be gentle, but firm. We shouldn't be too strict with those whom we've been called to lead, but we shouldn't be too lenient, either. We all need guidance, and some of us need more firm guidance than others. As leaders, we need to be willing to nudge, and occasionally shove, our followers in the right direction, just as God does with us, just as we need to be willing to step back occasionally and let others make their own choices, as God sometimes does. Learning when to be firm and when to be gentle is going to take a lot of practice for me, but with God's help, I think I can master it. I've already learned a lot about the Lord's idea of leadership. God willing, I'm going to continue to learn a lot more.