6 Leadership Traits: The Leader I Want To Be

If you look at my website, you’ll see that I write about leadership. If you look at my blog, you won’t find a single blog on leadership until now.

Why is this, you ask?

I haven't known where to begin. Leadership training classes and books that I've read spin through my head every time I approached the subject of leadership. So, I'm starting with me.

I've never taken the time to create my own set of leadership principles until now. I've always worked for organizations that would hand me a professionally printed list of leadership principles to lead by. Once I was handed those leadership principles, I'd go all in and never give a thought to what I wanted my own personal leadership principles to be.

As I began to make my leadership traits personal, I learned how incredibly awesome and scary it is to start from scratch. I don't take the opportunity to "serve YOU through words" lightly. And, yes, I've had to silence my fake rule that someone needs to give me permission to lead and validate my ability to write this post.

Without further ado, here are the six leadership traits that I want to imitate as a leader:

1. I want to be a servant.

Before I publish any of my writing, I ask myself this question, “Does this add value to my readers? Does this serve them?” I truly mean it when I say that I want to “serve YOU through words.” I want my words to point you to Jesus. I want to be a small catalyst in your life to help you grow in your faith. I can’t think of any better way to point you to Jesus and all that He has for you than to serve you.

2. I want to be compassionate.

I get things done, but I also have a soft heart. If you cry, I will cry with you. I will say “sorry” when it’s warranted. None of this makes me weak as a leader. It’s simply who I am and most definitely how I want to lead.

3. I want to be courageous.

Jesus commands me to be strong courageous and that He will be with me wherever I go (Joshua 1:9). I have nothing to fear when I am living out God’s call for my life.

Scott and I have seen God’s faithfulness time after time over the past few years. It took courage to walk the road of adoption and for our family to move to another state, but God's faithfulness has been present through all of the highs and lows. If God’s past performance predicts God’s future behavior, I have no reason to not be courageous.

4. I want to be honest.

I never want to manipulate the truth as a leader. I think this can easily happen when we are doing kingdom work because it has an eternal purpose. I never want manipulation to creep in and take away my honesty. God doesn't need me to manipulate plans or people to get His work done!