Leadership Skills
Yet , leadership is mysterious to many . The topic of leadership is far more complex than it may appear at first . Leadership is more than a set of skills , although it certainly requires skills to succeed . For example , capable leaders must be able to :
Envision the future which they seek to create .
Inspire others to pursue that vision .
Attract the necessary resources , including capital , to pursue the vision .
Plan , organize , and prioritize operations and staff to support those operations .
Evaluate and assess efficacy and efficiency of specific initiatives .
Make changes as necessary , even |
difficult |
ones , |
including |
staffing |
changes . |
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Charisma
Leadership , however , is more than just a set of skills . The items listed above , while important , are not exhaustive . Not only could the list be longer , but it omits completely the mysterious aspect often called , “ charisma .” Leaders such as John F . Kennedy and Martin Luther King , Jr . carried it . So did Ronald Reagan and even Barack Obama . So did Douglas MacArthur and Dwight D . Eisenhower . To be clear , charisma isn ’ t restricted to men . Whether or not you like either of them , think of Nikki Haley or Greta Thunberg , and you will immediately see that women can carry charisma as well as men can .
Secular theorists of leadership use the term , “ charisma ,” but there is no recognition of the fact that there can be a spiritual component to leadership as well . For those with a Messianic Jewish or a Christian vocabulary , it is usually taken as a given that leadership requires a certain kind of gift . To buttress that observation with Scripture , the Apostle Paul names a gift called “ leadership ” ( Rom . 12:8 ) in his list of gifts in Romans . In biblical thought , particularly in the Old Testament ( Tanakh ), the spiritual gift of leadership is understood to be equivalent to what is usually called , “ the anointing .” This term is a generic one which carries with it the idea of gifts bestowed upon an individual through the Ruach HaKodesh , or Holy Spirit . With this anointing , we also find for example what is seen with the Prophet Isaiah in responding to the Lord ’ s call where we read ,
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