Effective leaders handle conflicts personally, privately and with the spirit of forgiveness. Read Luke 17:3-10.

Jesus, knowing His disciples would soon have major leadership roles, continually taught principles that would make them more effective leaders. When He told them they should forgive a person who had wronged them, even if they wronged them seven times, as long as that person returned and ask for forgiveness, His disciples’ first thought was this may be too much and they would need more faith to accomplish the task. Jesus simply told His team their faith was sufficient and conflict resolution and forgiveness was part of a leader’s everyday job. Jesus was clear that a leader should not expect praise for doing what was an expected part of their leadership role.

The effective leader will profoundly affect the lives of their teammates. Read Luke 6:12-19.

Early in His public ministry Jesus selected a small team that He would invest in to develop as the church’s first leaders. In just a few short years from these verses in Luke 6, Jesus would delegate all the authority of His kingdom’s work to them. In less than one generation, this small group chosen by Jesus progressed from ignorant laborers to bold spiritual leaders in what is now the largest organization in the world. This all happened because Jesus, the Son of God, chose to invest the majority of His time with a few men, only 12, not 1,200 or 12,000 but 12. Jesus mentored these 12 and set an example that more time with less people can equal greater impact.

Skilled leaders not only look at past performance, but also at potential when choosing their team. Read Luke 5:10-11 and 27-28.

In the early stages of Jesus’ public ministry He selected individuals for a team that He would mentor and entrust the ministry to when He finished His assignment from God and returned to heaven. Since Jesus knew His time on earth would be limited, prevailing wisdom would say that He should choose religious leaders who had previous training and background and a proven track record or maybe business people well respected in the religious community who had the ability to successfully raise funds and get wheels under Jesus’ vision.

One crucial message Jesus wanted His disciples to hear is that Kingdom leaders are servant leaders. Read Mark 10:35-45.

Jesus had been teaching some distance from Jerusalem. The religious leaders in Jerusalem had made it clear they intended to stop Jesus’ influence among the people, even if that meant killing Him, so Jesus’ followers were surprised when He started heading for Jerusalem. As they traveled, Jesus made it clear to His followers that their fears were valid and the chief priests and teachers of the law would have Him killed when they arrived in Jerusalem. It is against this backdrop that James and John, two of Jesus’ most trusted friends, came to Him and asked for favored positions when Jesus took up His leadership in heaven. To the other disciples their request felt like a betrayal of their friendship bond. James and John had sought positional advantage in an underhanded way.

The effective leader does not ignore the needs of their core team. Read Mark 6:30-32.

Jesus’ public ministry was at its peak. He could not personally get to all the towns in Israel so He sent His disciples out in teams of two to the more remote villages to tell the story God had assigned to Him. Jesus’ disciples returned from their assignment and were eager to report the results to Jesus, but they found it impossible to report without interruptions from the crowds. Every leader has had teammates in their office that needed time dedicated specifically to them but one emergency after another or one interruption after another created a situation where that teammate felt unimportant and unappreciated.