John N. N. Ng'ang'a

The Character of an Influential Leader

This book seeks to identify character attributes in the lives of Christian leaders of influence and how they instill these attributes and values in their followers for the group to realize its long-term vision. The need for developing followers with values that can help any group reach its vision is a challenge to many leaders, including Christian leaders.

Why is Developing Followers with Good Values a Tough Challenge?

The leader’s contribution is very important. If his or her character does not inspire followers, he or she might not influence them.

Character is the “sum of all the qualities that make you who you are.”1 This includes values, thoughts, words, and actions. People are judged as good or bad on the basis of their character. Most people are influenced by people whose character they admire. On the other hand, they are put off by people who have what they consider to be bad character. Examples of admirable character attributes or traits include good citizenship, honour, commitment and compassion, among others.

People of good character have good values. On the reverse, people of bad character have bad values. Discussing the importance of leaders’ positive values, Christian T. K.H. Stadtländer in his internet review of Kenneth Majer’s book Majer Communications, says:

“In recent years, the business world has experienced a disturbing decline in the expression of positive values by some of its leaders which, in turn, led to difficulties and even collapses of several significant companies (e.g. Enron, WorldCom, and HealthSouth). These business debacles were primarily caused by a lack of self-discipline of some company leaders.”

His argument is that if leaders have unethical values, the mission of the organization may not be reached in the long term. Leaders therefore need these positive values; lack of them can explain failures of organizations. He defines values as “esteemed qualities which are intrinsically desirable and have importance.”
Why Have Leaders?

John Edmund Haggai in his book, Lead On! Leadership That Endures in a Changing World, defines leadership as “The discipline of deliberately exerting special influence within a group to move it toward goals of beneficial permanence that fulfil the groups real needs.”3

In many cases today as we shall see later in this book, we do not seem to have this ‘beneficial permanence’ or positive long-lasting transformation. After many years of Christianity, church members still have a world-view that is not biblical. Yet evangelism is aimed at getting people transformed to live biblically.
Haggai defines what I call positive long-lasting transformation, but what he calls beneficial permanence as “changes that are continuing enduring and lasting for time and eternity.” The term beneficial permanence contrasts with malevolent permanence. There have been many who have exhibited all of the characteristics or principles of a leader but who have sought goals detrimental to the group rather than those that would benefit the group’s.

From Haggai’s definition of a leader, a group needs a leader if it is going to reach the desired beneficial permanence. The group does not need just any leader, but a leader with the right values. Despite many pastors’ leadership efforts, some congregants still engage in things that are not biblical in their day to day living, leading to negative consequences. One might ask, why do we have rampant corruption in a Christian country? Why do we have so many teenage pregnancies among church youth?

Every Christian Pastor Seeks to Influence His or Her People to Practice Biblical Values