Skilled leaders will urge their team to take appropriate risks and then offer them a hand if they begin to falter. Read Matthew 14:22-36.

Not only did Jesus repeatedly demonstrate courage and take risks but He also encouraged His followers to take risks. After John the Baptist’s death, Jesus took some time to minister to crowds that had followed Him into a remote region of Judea and when they dispersed, He sent a few of His closest team members away by boat while He took some time alone to pray, grieve, and find personal renewal. Jesus’ closest friends had been in the boat all night, but with the wind against them, still hadn’t reached the other side of the lake. To their great surprise, and terror, just before dawn, they saw a figure they believed to be a ghost, walking on the water coming toward the boat.

Even when they have personal needs, true servant leaders still put their team’s needs before their own. Read Matthew 14:1-14.

John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, was executed by King Herod. When Jesus received word of John’s death He left the crowds that had been following Him and took a boat to a more private place to pray and grieve for John. The crowds, who had never experienced anyone like Jesus, followed Him and when He saw what was happening and sensed the tremendous needs of the people, Jesus put His own emotional and physical needs on hold to focus on their needs.

Justice flows from a leader’s Christlike attitude of serving others. Read Zechariah 7:1-14.

After returning to Israel from the Babylonian exile, the leaders wanted to know if they needed to “mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years” (v. 3). God’s answer came first in the form of a question, “When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?” The second part of God’s answer spoke directly to their question when He said, “Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.” God addressed the motives behind the behavior.

When leaders fail to practice servant leadership they will become self-serving and the organization can become a very unpleasant place to work. Read Micah 7:1-7.

The people of Israel were in dire straights. They could not trust a neighbor, put confidence in a friend or even trust their own family members. The root of the problem is identified as corrupt leaders when in verse three it says, “…the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire – they all conspire together.” There was self-centered leadership who worked for personal gain, kickbacks and bribes. They forced the people to serve them rather than them serving the people.

Leaders who can say, “I’m humble and proud of it,” may not be as humble as they think. Read Obadiah 3-4.

There are many ways for a leader to express pride; some good and some not so good. I am proud of the accomplishments of my children. I am proud to be an American. I am proud of the caring actions for the less fortunate of my church. I am proud of the people I work with. I am proud to be a former Marine. Kept within some reasonable balance these are all positive God-honoring applications of pride. The Edomites had a different form of pride and were judged for it. Verse three says, “The pride of your hearts has deceived you…” This kind of pride is the exact opposite of humility and leads to a form of arrogance that God hates. Those who have this kind of pride have an inappropriate and inflated view of themselves. They attribute their accomplishments to their own efforts and fail to acknowledge that everything they are and have comes from the hand of God. This is a self-sufficient pride that focuses on self and dishonors God.