Lessons from Bad Leaders

Last week, as I was exercising, I watched an interview that Pastor Bill Hybels conducted with Dr. Noel Tichy based on his book The Leadership Engine (from Willowcreek’s 1999 Leadership Summit DVD). Dr. Tichy, a professor at University of Michigan Business School, made the following generalized observations about bad leaders:

• Bad leaders are Egotistical.
• Bad leaders are Mean-spirited.
• Bad leaders have No respect for the dignity of other people.

Basically, bad leaders don’t think much of others (in more ways than one). As leaders, we ought to think of others, in fact, it is integral to the task.

I also read a few quick chapters of John Maxwell’s The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, where he cited some lessons from [bad] leaders who fell. He cites Steven Berglas (The Success Syndrome) who says these are people “who achieve great heights but lack the bedrock character to sustain them through the stress are headed for disaster. [...T]hey are destined for one or more of the four A’s: arrogance, painful feelings of aloneness, destructive adventure-seeking, or adultery. Each is a terrible price to pay for weak character” (p.5).

Character is the common denominator in the above failings of leaders. This is where John Maxwell reminds us that something can be done about it:

We have no control over a lot of things in life. We don’t get to choose our parents. We don’t select the location or circumstances of our birth and upbringing. We don’t get to pick our talents or IQ. But we do choose our character. In fact, we create it every time we make choices — to cop out or dig out of a hard situation, to bend the truth or stand under the weight of it, to take the easy money or pay the price. As you live your life and make choices today, you are continuing to create your character. (pp.4-5, emphasis mine)

So true. We are creating our character today one decision at a time, one truth at a time, one day at a time. Lord, may my life never outpace my character that needs to be shaped by Your hands and Your truth!