2 Peter 1:1
“Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:”
Great leaders are not trained, they are discovered. Many people have been chosen to be leaders, but great leaders are the ones who were often overlooked and were discovered in a time of need. These leaders didn’t become great leaders because they sought it, but they became great leaders because they had a proper attitude.
Peter was no doubt a great leader. I know that Peter oftentimes get a bad rap for his denial of Christ, but when you look at his work as a whole, it would be hard to say that he wasn’t a great leader. Not only was he in the inner-circle of our Saviour, but he was looked to by the early church for direction and guidance. When you try find what made him a great leader, I believe the verse above shows us three attitudes that he had that helped him to become a great leader. You may be a leader right now, but you will never become a great leader without these three attitudes.
The first attitude of a great leader is the attitude of being a servant before position. It is interesting that before Peter ever acknowledged that he was an apostle, he proclaimed himself to be a servant. Great leaders never look to their position first because they are more interested in serving those who their position allows them to lead. Great leaders don’t abuse their position to get their followers to serve them, but they use their position to serve their followers. If you are looking for people to serve you, you will be a poor leader because great leaders look for ways to serve their followers.
The second attitude of a great leader is the attitude of duty before pleasure. After Peter addresses his position, he then shows that he had a duty “to them that have obtained like precious faith.” We live in times when many leaders are absent from their position because they are playing instead of performing their duties. When you become a leader, pleasure must be put on the back burner for the sake of duty. There are too many young leaders today who want pleasure without duty, but duty always calls before pleasure. I am not against a leader enjoying life, but pleasure should only be enjoyed after duty. Duty tells the leader they can’t enjoy their hobby because responsibilities call. Great leaders always understand that duty comes before pleasure.
The third attitude of a great leader is the attitude of team before I. Peter said, “…to them that have obtained like precious faith with us…” Notice that it was not about Peter, but it was about everyone doing the work together. Great leaders never make issue of personalities. One of the mistakes of many people who try to be great leaders is they build up personalities instead of building the team to look to Christ. Great leaders don’t make decisions based on how it personally affects them; instead, they look at how it will affect the team. Space doesn’t allow me to address this topic justly, but you must understand that great leaders never make themselves or other personalities an issue, because they understand we are all in this work together for Christ.
This world is in a great need of great leaders. Would you be willing to adopt these attitudes? These attitudes will push the great leader to be recognized. A person with these attitudes will never promote themselves, but their great leadership abilities and attitude will be discovered in the time of need.