Leadership is more than Personality and Charisma - Day 15: 100 Days of Leadership

I like my personality. I won’t lie. It’s God-given. It’s unique to me. It makes me who I am. Yes. I like it. Though, here is the thing: Leadership is not about personality.

Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner say, 'Leadership is not about personality; it's about behavior; an observable set of skills and abilities'.

There’s no doubt personality is uniquely a part of a leadership toolbox. I am who God has made me. Though what Kouzes and Posner are saying is that ultimately, your behaviour is what will separate you from a mediocre leader and a great leader. To say it differently, the choices you make in the way you behave and act will ultimately determine your effectiveness as a leader.

I used to think charisma was the crucial gift needed for good leadership; you know, the ability to make people laugh, speak an arousing message to those listening and to have people love me. Well, charisma and personality aren’t everything. Now, of course we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water and suggest that a God-given personality and a charismatic type style of engaging with others is futile, far from it. Though, here’s the key: behaviour trumps charisma. Behaviour also trumps personality.  

Let me clarify, that behaviour is not about whether you ‘behave’ yourself, but rather what Kouzes and Posner suggest, ‘an observable set of skills and abilities’. So good leadership then is not about personality and charisma, but how you utilize skills and abilities to enact change.  

What does the Bible say?

Jonah 1:1-3a - The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port.

What will I do now?

Take a closer look at the story of Jonah. Jonah became a leader of influence when he chose through his behaviour to honour God and preach to the city of Nineveh. What are you doing to ‘utilize skills and abilities to enact change’? What do you need to stop doing?

Leadership is not sexy anymore.

I'm writing a blog about a topic that seems to have lost its spark. I'm pretty stoked you're reading this right now. I mean I thought most people were over the leadership stuff. You could have scrolled past and found a video of a cute little boy singing Salt Water Wells in my Eyes in a school choir.

Let me ask the question: Do we care about this whole leadership thing anymore? Is leadership development a thing of the past?

Hold that thought for a moment.

I've got some startling revelations for you. Get past this next paragraph and the rest is smooth sailing. You'll be back to your chocolate icecream and snapchat very soon.

Some biometrics were done on charismatic and transformational leadership theory, between 1990 and 2010. The quest was to see how many papers were published on charismatic leadership and transformational leadership in academia land. The graph I cited clearly showed an exponential increase from 1990 to 2010, on the number of papers published, directly related to the above mentioned topic. So why is it, that I have this unsubstantiated feeling that many people don't care about leadership anymore?

Let me clarify a little better. Why does it seem, that people are not pursuing their own desire to grow as a leader to the extent they did in the past? 15 years ago, leadership development seemed hip. John C. Maxwell was churning out leadership books like my children eat sliced cheese and people seemed to be reading them. He's still churning the leadership books out, but I wonder who's still reading?

There seems to be a disconnect for me. We are disseminating more and more leadership teaching into the airwaves than ever before, but we seem less and less interested. The bombardment of knowledge in our 21st century lives is turning our brains to mush. And instead of trying to decipher what is beneficial to our lives, we give up and watch MasterChef.

Maybe I'm just speaking about an Australian context. After 8 years of lacklustre political leaders on both sides of the political spectrum, people are tired of talking about leadership. I mean, if the leader of our country can't even lead, how the heck could I?

Though, I want to push the envelope a bit right now. We need to grow as leaders! We need to stand up and realise, WE LEAD, whether we like it or not. WE LEAD, whether we read John C. Maxwell or not and whether or not you think what he writes about is beneficial or not. WE LEAD, whether we think we do or not. Let me remind you, if you're a parent, then you're a leader. If you're a teacher, you're a leader. If you're a supervisor, you're a leader. If you walk down the street and encourage a couple of young guys to put their trolley away and respect their elders, you're leading.

The question isn't about whether or not we lead. The point is whether or not we care to admit that we should spend time growing as a leader.

You can spend the next ten years watching YouTube clips of Academy Award nights, Cats doing dumb things and Jimmy Fallon reruns. Though if you do that, you waste ten years that could've been spent in leadership development.

So read a leadership book. Have a mentor. Read the Bible and apply it.

Let me say, that unashamedly I'm using this blog to tell you, that I'm giving you 100 Days of Leadership, starting March 2nd. 100 days. 100 blogs on leadership. Click here to subscribe and win!

We need to stand up and start being intentional about our growth as leaders. If you are already into the whole leadership development thing, then great, keep at it, and thanks for reading to the end. But, if you find yourself crushing candy and watching too much NCIS, maybe it's time to bite the bullet and commit yourself to growing your character and your competency.

Who knows, maybe what you'll learn in the process will transform you and others around you.

The world needs strong, Godly leaders. Are you one of them?