An insecure leader is one of the most destructive forces in the world. Out of their own fears and hurts, they harm those around them. I know from experience by serving under one. It was a difficult season, yet one where I learned so much. Some of the greatest leadership lessons I’ve learned were during this time, and the most profound lesson that I learned was how not to lead. No matter what capacity of leadership you might be in, here is how not to lead.
LEADING FOR APPROVAL
Every single person was created for approval and affirmation from God and from others. Yet if we are not secure in who we are and approved by the Lord first, we will soon abuse our position to gain praise from people. We can’t effectively lead those who we desperately need to like us, because we are actually following their opinions rather than the voice of the Lord. As a leader, you will have to make the right decisions even if it’s difficult and unpopular. If Moses was leading for approval, he would have led the Israelites back to Egypt the moment they complained. He wasn’t leading for approval, but as a man appointed by God. Only then can you faithfully honor God and serve your people.
LEADING WITH AN AGENDA
During that time of my life under an insecure leader, I was asked to do things that honestly didn’t make sense. It didn’t align with our purpose as a ministry, and it was proving to be ineffective as well. When I asked the leader why we were doing it this way, he responded by saying that it’s because he wanted to write a manual on how to pull this sort of ministry off in an urban context. Wait, what?! It turned out that the main reason why we were doing what we were doing was so he could write a book and make a name for himself! He wanted methods that could be easily reproducible by other churches, even though it wasn’t working in ours. I was dumbfounded. He was leading with his own personal agenda in mind. If we lead with an agenda, we will always be driven by self rather than guided by the Spirit. If we lead with an agenda, we will see people as objects to be used rather than assets for a greater purpose.
LEADING TO OVERPOWER
One of the main jobs of a leader is to add value to others and empower people. Yet an insecure leader will never do that, because he will feel threatened by anything that does not give him the credit. An insecure leader demands that you get behind his orders, whereas a secure leader gets behind your dreams. Leading to overpower goes hand-in-hand with leading with an agenda. You overpower people to get them to do what you want and only what you want. There is no room for autonomy or creativity because the leader is overpowering, which is another way to say overbearing.
LEADING WITHOUT INTEGRITY
There are simply two types of people in this world. People who do what they say they are going to do, and those who don’t. Leadership without integrity will never work. One of the ways I like to define integrity is congruity. In other words, a person’s actions goes in line with their words, and they are who they appear to be. Integrity then isn’t perfection, but a call to ownership. Yet if you are driven by insecurity, you will always sacrifice your integrity in order to look better than you really are and take shortcuts to get a task done. Sadly, people who are gifted and talented are placed in leadership even when they don’t have integrity. Authors Henry Cloud and John Townsend write, “As is often the case with leaders, talent and abilities can be confused with maturity.”
Pastor Bill Johnson says that an insecurity is a wrong security exposed. We are all susceptible to insecurities at time, but never give it influence in how you lead. There is no such thing as a perfect leader or a leader that never messes up. No one will get it right all the time, yet as we can see there are clear ways not to lead. Allow God to keep working in you so He can work through you! Then you can lead secure in your identity, without hidden agendas, empowered to empower, and most importantly with integrity.