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Leadership Theories
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Leadership Theories
Leadership Building Blocks for a Christian Leader
In the context of the Christian leader, servant leadership stands as ideal since it goes well
with the teachings of the scripture and the life of Christ who was a servant to all. This model
emphasizes humility, empathy, and a focus on the growth and well-being of followers, reflecting
Christ's command to "love your neighbor as yourself" (King James Bible, 1611/2019, Matthew
22:39). Besides, transformational leadership is important because it influences the followers to
embrace a shared vision based on Christian beliefs to obtain spiritual transformation and
development in the community (Reid, 2020). Further, there is authentic leadership entailing self-
awareness, and transparent and moral behaviour that makes the Christian leaders act in a manner
reflective of their faith, hence, gaining trust in their respective communities.
Transformational and Transactional Leadership Effectiveness
Transformational and transactional leadership are two types of leadership that have stark
differences in their practices as well as their outcomes. Autonomous motivation and self-
organizing work are outstandingly supported by transformational leadership because of the
appealing vision, the encouragement of intellectual stimulation, and, the consideration of the
individual needs of employees (Klein, 2023). This approach ensures the realization of substantial
organizational change, and creativity as well as obtaining a sustainable commitment from the
followers because it matches up their values with the leader’s vision. On the other hand,
Transactional leadership is about transaction aspects where leaders rely on structures, promising
incentives, and penalties. It is useful in keeping the business functioning and meeting specific
organizational objectives given that it targets specific tasks and outcome expectations (Klein,
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2023). However, it may not develop deeper loyalty and creativity, thus, it is not suitable for
dynamic, sustainable organizational growth.
Leadership Approaches Christians Should Avoid
Society needs Christians to avoid autocratic power which is one of the power relations
that see an individual as the sole decision maker and hardly caring for the followers. This
approach contradicts the Biblical principle of servant leadership exemplified by Jesus, who
valued humility and service over domination (King James Bible, 1611/2019, Matthew 20:25-28).
Likewise, they should avoid laissez-faire where there is little direction and support offered leads
to low levels of commitment and confusion amongst the followers and does not meet the need
for spiritual and moral guidance that is expected from Christian leaders. Both styles do not allow
for forming the community and the spirit, which are the components of Christian management as
it depends on community-related processes, people’s understanding, and the encouragement of
others.
Biblical Leadership Approaches
One powerful example of a biblical leadership approach is found in John 13:14-15 where
Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and quoted, “I am your Lord and Teacher and if I have washed
your feet then you should, in the same manner, wash your fellow’s feet I have given you a model
that you should follow my example’ (King James Bible, 1611/2019). This passage portrays the
attitude of a servant and people should learn to be servants by serving others. I selected this
passage for two reasons: First, this passage clearly shows that Jesus exemplified the message of
this leadership paradigm – to change other people, a leader must first change himself and,
second, be concerned for the well-being of other people. This approach also strengthens
relational leadership between leaders and subordinates in that it brings about correspondence
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whereby the former adopts leadership practices out of love, service, and humility as underlined
in Christianity. I believe this remains quite relevant today as it challenges the leaders to
demonstrate proper humbleness and selflessness as leadership is portrayed as a noble cause as
opposed to being an instrument to gratify the self – this may have something unique that could
inspire the people.
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References
Klein, G. (2023). Transformational and transactional leadership, organizational support, and
environmental competition intensity as antecedents of intrapreneurial behaviors.
European Research on Management and Business Economics, 29(2), 100215.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iedeen.2023.100215
Reid, W. A. (2020). The mind of the transformational leader. In Springer eBooks (pp. 49–63).
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46660-2_3
The Holy Bible: King James Version (KJV). (2019). Covenant Press. (Original work published
1611)
