Leading with a Mirror

If your leadership role is in a church, a blog on leadership is the last thing on your mind this week. It’s the most important week of the Christian calendar, culminating in the most important Sunday of the year. My fear is that every working (or even waking) minute this week will be spent doing things to make this week special and meaningful for others. My hope is that you’ll set aside time for personal reflection about what this week means for you. Holy Week has profound implications for Christian leaders. To explain, I’ll turn to an unexpected source. In Good to Great, Jim Collins describes “Level 4” (very good) and “Level 5” (great) leaders. He explains the difference with a powerful illustration which he calls “the window and the mirror.” According to Collins’ research, when things weren’t going well, Level 4 leaders looked out the window and blamed anything other than themselves. When the company was succeeding, they looked in the mirror and took the credit. Level 5 leaders did the opposite. They gave others credit for success, and took the blame (“the buck stops here”) in difficult times. As Christian leaders (whether your leadership role is in ministry or the marketplace), we should exemplify these Level 5 traits. The gifts, abilities, and talents that we have are from God – this should always keep us looking out the window, giving thanks, and sharing the credit in good times. When things aren’t going well and we’re tempted to put the blame somewhere else, we should remember that we are called to follow the example of the greatest leader ever. He’s the one who “in humility, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing” (Phil. 2:6-7). He’s the one who hung on a cross, even though he had done nothing wrong. Think about that the next time that you’re in a difficult season and you’re trying to decide between the window and the mirror. If you look in the mirror, you may find that you’re not alone. It’s easy to receive my blogs by email. Just sign-up on Feedburner by clicking here.]]>