Leadership

We are now in the second year of the Presidential Leadership Academy at Penn State. It falls under my administration and I teach a course each spring for the Academy. Our focus is upon developing critical thinking skills as being crucial for good leaders. I have always felt a bit odd about teaching “leadership” per se and I have always eschewed those books that show Jesus as the ideal corporate leader (one is on my shelf with such a title) or David as the model of a CEO (yes, if you are a corporate raider). Furthermore, I was just given an evaluation tool (I am told it is better than Meyers-Briggs, but I have never done that either) and will review the findings this afternoon. In light of all of that, this morning the reading from Ecclesiasticus struck me as being very true.

Ecclus. 10:1-18 (NRSV)

1 A wise magistrate educates his people,
and the rule of an intelligent person is well ordered.
2 As the people’s judge is, so are his officials;
as the ruler of the city is, so are all its inhabitants.
3 An undisciplined king ruins his people,
but a city becomes fit to live in through the understanding of its rulers.
4 The government of the earth is in the hand of the Lord,
and over it he will raise up the right leader for the time.
5 Human success is in the hand of the Lord,
and it is he who confers honor upon the lawgiver.