So, I'd like to give you a real quick multiple answer (or maybe better known as multiple guess) quiz. I'm going to write a number of statements below, and you simple guess whether it comes from ISU MBA or from Salt Company.
- It's not about being the biggest and best, its through great relationships that make for great reward!
- Being a good leader is not about yourself. It is about putting other's interest before your own. It is key to know who is under you.
- You must know and take care of each member of your team. You are given a responsibility, a flock if you will.
- Leadership is about your mentality. You must think like a leader to be a leader.
- Leadership is about overcoming challenges and teaching others to do the same.
- Leadership is about understanding that it isn't about leadership, each part and person is essential to the productivity and efficiency of the company.
- Just care!
- In this day, leaders are needed more than ever.
- When you're a leader and you're creating a strategy that is unclear or vague, a true leader will take a step of faith to do what he senses is right.
It was a trick, they both said each one... In more or less words. The "just care" seems like its the biggest stretch (since it was the Salt Leader's motto), but one of the MBA core professors used it as his motto as well! He was also the one that said you should take a leap of faith. Maybe he's a believer or just likes to hang out with Mark Arant.
So, at first this really surprised me. I literally was laughing out loud throughout MBA orientation. I mean, how ironic is it that being a good leader in ministry is so similar to being a good leader for any business company? Unbelievable! How could it be that the MBA orientation would have been nearly adequate for a Salt leader's retreat?
Then it dawned on me. It makes so much sense! What it takes to succeed in the business world is EXACTLY the same as how to excel in Christian ministry. I mean, there is a whole class on ethics in the MBA. And then I continued down to think about the need for leaders right now. Could there be a correlation between the need of leaders during this economic crisis and the need for leaders during the deterioration of the American church? Not to say that it is solely because we don't have good enough leaders or that leading is even really the problem. You see, in my mind and I think in the mind of our culture, we put leaders in a higher position (though, yes, they will be judged at a higher standard).
You see, a leader isn't someone that is better. Their isn't an amount of righteousness or self-confidence you have to achieve to be a person that impacts others. But I do find it interesting that we are in a time that there is a drastic necessity for leaders, especially men. And how do we do this? Its simple and practical. "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."
What do you see in this picture?
I see an example...
Just care! Love! Be brutally honest about who you are, what you're struggling with, what you've FAILED at... Care about those around you. Man, if only we were to love like Christ loved us...
