What does an insecure leader look like?
By Michael Chol Tor, Juba, South Sudan
December 6, 2016 (SSB) — Leadership is not easy. The reality is that every person leads at some level. The question is not whether or not you are a leader as much as how well are you leading. Growing up in the political environment, I saw one insecure leader after another, but I never realized they were insecure until I started to work at CSOs 10 years ago. I began serving Melut County, as motherland and currently serve it materially and morally as my kid’s future home.
As my campus town I and other age mate sons and daughters are by far the most secure leaders I have ever met. It was only through their confident yet humble, Christ-centered or Islamic-centered leadership that made me see those other leaders as insecure.
One of the things that amaze me most about the CSOs or community, Christian Organizations is the epidemic proportions at which insecurity runs through CSOs leadership. If you want to lead for the long haul, your security had better be found in Christ or Islam. Insecure leaders create drama, havoc or destruction and pain, soreness in the lives of those they lead. Ask yourself if the following is true for you; as I wrote them I found them convicting and humbling.
- They surround themselves with people they can control: Insecure leaders hinder their organization because they don’t hire or attract the best people for a job. They attract people who are not as good as they are … people with less experience who can be controlled mentally or emotionally.
- They misinterpret other people’s motives to fit their story:Insecure leaders have to be right. So they misinterpret what people do and why they do it to make themselves emerge the hero. When people stand up to insecure leaders, they write them off as jealous or arrogant. Motives get misrepresented so they can be wrong.
- They look at those who work for them as employees, not their team:Insecure leaders don’t look for the best ideas. They can’t collaborate because they don’t value other people’s opinions. They prefer to forego extended work relationships, because it’s easier to fill your team with disposable cogs or mechanisms rather than friends and teammates you love and trust. They find their identity in how many people work for them rather than how many people they work with.
- They consider anyone “disloyal” who disagrees with them:Insecure people don’t see people as people; they see them as either on their side or against them. They are the centers of all things.
- They mishandle conflict:Insecure leaders either avoid conflict through passive aggressive means, or they look at every situation as a potential conflict.They is either too soft and squishy or harsh and uncaring. Secure leaders handle conflict with truth and grace working together, because relationships matter more than being right.
Nobody is perfect in this world, only Jesus was the most emotionally secure person who ever lived. He understood who he was, where he was from and where he was going. He had incredible clarity of mission and purpose. Our security as leaders has to come from whose we are.
We are all looking for comfort. I love how the clergymen handle the question of where we find our comfort in life and death. We find it in the fact that we are not our own but belong—body and soul—to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ, who has fully paid for all our sins with his precious blood. Any time we place something at the center of lives besides him, it will produce insecurity when something bumps up against it … I say “when” because it will get bumped. Everything does.
Our insecure leaders have to learn from religious constitutions how to handle the question of where they will find their comfort in life rather than stirring up unlawful behaviors on above suspicion communities. Our efforts should be invested for our unity and strength.
The writer can be reached through Email: Choltor45@gmail.com
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