Rushmorean Leadership Axioms

From pg. 14-15 of Christ-based Leadership by David Stark...

Rushmorean refers to the leadership styles of our great leaders... Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt:

1. People are by nature a mixture of potential for great good or great harm, and they thrive in an environment of trust and accountibility.

2. Human groups tend toward self-ordering states, given the right parameters and resources.

3. Progress comes from vision and values given as parameters, where self-discipline, creativity, and passion are allowed to stretch people forward.

4. Order arises from common commitments to mission and common understandings of values.

5. There are many types of leadership and leaders within an organization.

6. Different leadership energies are needed at different times to keep an organization moving to its prime.

7. Leadership is an exercise in stewardship, where everyone shoulders the trust given to the organization.

8. Weakness and vulnerability on teams create an atmosphere of trust, where members feel needed for their strengths as well as needing others for the areas where they do not have strengths.

(here ends the quote)

Isn't that great stuff? I know I resonate with a lot of what is here. The impact of knowing and believing these things about organizations necessitates a shift from top-down management to team-building and something more... organic. I hesitated, because that word is overused. But, the church is to be the Body of Christ, and we live together as an organism of sorts. We need each other.

Moreover, the Spirit of God has the right and the ability to change our roles within the organization at any time. In many churches those who are "leading" are not necessarily those who have been give the mantle of leadership. I endeavor to be the type of leader in the church that gives others the freedom to lead and to exercise their gifts as God calls them... even when I am threatened, a little envious perhaps... or when the collective vision doesn't line up exactly with "my" vision.

What do you think of these Rushmorean Leadership axioms?