2 Chronicles 26:5  Uzziah sought God during the days of Zechariah, who taught him to fear God. And as long as the king sought guidance from the Lord, God gave him success. (NIV)

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What is the secret of success? 

This depends on the endeavor, doesn’t it? What makes an athlete successful in football does not work equally well in baseball. What makes a good politician almost certainly does not make a good pastor. 

Leadership skills frequently overlap, but each level of leadership demands mastery of different toolsets and mindsets to go along with the skillsets.

Pastors and politicians both benefit from good communication skills. Football players and baseball players each benefit from peak physical conditioning. Their stated goals may sound very similar, but the process of accomplishing those goals differs from profession to profession. 

Mac Lake has written three books whose titles help us understand the natural progression of leadership development in a person’s life. The first book is Leading Yourself: Developing the Character and Competency to Lead Yourself. Our first leadership is self-leadership. Strong character and increasing competency open doors of opportunity. Lacking these attributes keeps those opportunities out of reach. 

Mac’s second book in this series is Leading Others: Developing the Character and Competency to Lead Others. Again, we must continue developing character and competency to empower us to lead others. People need to see in us what they need in themselves. We level up our leadership to lead others wisely and well. We must show ourselves dependable and trustworthy. 

Mac’s third book is Leading Leaders: Developing the Character and Competency to Lead Leaders. By now, you’ve noticed that character and competency are common at all different levels of leadership. The competency that got you where you are now is probably not sufficient to get you where you want to go next. This is an ongoing developmental process over the course of a lifetime. 

Whether or not Learner is one of your top strengths on the StrengthsFinder assessment, leaders are learners. Likewise, ascending to higher levels of leadership and broader areas of opportunity and responsibility make exemplary character essential. Never compromise on character, in yourself or in those you lead. Do not hire anyone whose character is lacking. 

How do we develop the essential attribute of character? Here are some core practices of character development.

First, spend time alone with God every day. Seek His wisdom through regular Bible reading and study. 

Second, spend time with others who are also seeking God. What we learn on our own adds wisdom. What we learn with others multiplies it. 

Third, pass along to others what God is saying to you. Find a way to capture the truths God impresses upon you day by day. Then help others understand and apply those truths to their lives. 

Fourth, find a mentor who’s ahead of you on the journey and work out an arrangement to spend regular time with him or her. Likewise, find someone to mentor so that you can help him or her learn what you are learning. 

Fifth, cultivate a group of friends who love you too much to be impressed by you. Gather with those friends frequently so that they can hear your heart, offer their wisdom, love you no matter what, and correct you as often as necessary.

Finally, help all of your mentees and proteges to lead themselves, others, and leaders in the ongoing river of life. 

Go back to the Bible verse at the top of today’s reading. The second sentence of the two says this:

And as long as the king sought guidance from the Lord, God gave him success.

What was true for King Uzziah is also true for me and you. As long as we seek God’s guidance, he will give us success. The success he gives will be better than the success we thought we wanted back at the beginning. 

There is so much more to say on this topic. What would you say about leading yourself, leading others, and leading leaders? Who would benefit from hearing that from you? When will you arrange to talk to that person or those people? 

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I will seek God’s guidance day by day and share with others what I learn along the way. 

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Our Father, I come seeking You: Your will, Your ways, Your wisdom, and Your guidance. My daily prayer is hereby in effect: Show me the way I should go, for to You I lift up my soul. I’m ready to learn so that I may lead myself, others, and leaders with increasingly exemplary character and competence. Amen.