Charisma or True Leadership?

I’m not going to get political today but between politics, our crazed-focus on how many medals we have or haven’t won at the Olympics, whose is the richest person in the world, and the horrific 230 fatalities due to gun violence just over the July 4th weekend this year—it’s driving me crazy! So, on this Hump Day I want to share with you an old story from President Calvin Coolidge’s life, and then go back further to a leader who stuttered, and was slow of speech as well. I want you to think about what true leadership means, because it isn’t bully-pulpits, gold medals, billionaires, charismatic speakers, macho-ammo, and most of all, “this person is right because they do what I WANT…” yep, hang on, here comes the HUMP!

Let’s go back to the times of Calvin Coolidge. Some thought him a tad boring, without a lot of money, and certainly not a rousing speaker by any means, and his personality?—today we’d call him a nerd. But read on and learn a lesson we all need from a true story!

A rich businessman once held a dinner party and he invited his friend, Calvin Coolidge to join him. After Coolidge had left, the businessman remarked that he thought Coolidge would one day make a good president of the United States. Some laughed at him and asked why? The man replied that he was solid, a quiet thinker, and he truly cared about people. Many disagreed, feeling Coolidge lacked the personality and charisma needed to hold such a high office, he was mousy and short, and had a squeaky voice.

But those naysayers were not going to have the last say, not indeed. The man’s six-year-old daughter spoke up loudly to these folks and boldly declared, “Well, I like him!” Then she held up her pointer finger that had a large bandage around it, smiled and said, “He was the only one at the party who asked me about my hurt finger.” Her words were not lost on her father, who promptly replied, “And that’s exactly why he would be a great president.”

Leaders who are caring for others more than themselves are what we need today, from the Whitehouse to the boardroom, the principal’s office to the coaches of our Olympic athletes, and the bloody gun battles from the gang wars to the strategists trying to keep us from shooting one another. Oh how we need to care instead of slay!!

And here is where the Lord’s example for leadership could teach us all something! Read this dialogue between Moses and the Lord, from Exodus 4:10-12, using the Message translation:

Moses raised another objection to God: “Master, please, I don’t talk well.
I’ve never been good with words, neither before nor after you spoke to me.
I stutter and stammer.”

God said, “And who do you think made the human mouth?
And who makes some mute, some deaf, some sighted, some blind?
Isn’t it I, God? So, get going. I’ll be right there with you—with your mouth!
I’ll be right there to teach you what to say.”

Perhaps if we could look at others through God’s loving lens, we may see so much more than our own judgment of them. I think if we did this, we could look through the rhetoric, the glamor, the style, the attractiveness, the money piles and cut through the façade. Perhaps we could embrace what God says a good leader is instead of one that fulfills our own desires which doesn’t exactly make that person right for the job!

Sadly, many people count themselves out of leadership roles thinking they don’t have what it takes. Well, talk to some of those now competing in the Olympics—stories of utter doubt, defeat, injury, etc., yet here they are, on the largest stage in the world and they are bringing ALL that they have. Does it mean if they don’t get a medal they aren’t good enough to lead or to be there? If you listen to the TV folks, it seems that’s how it should be, but how wrong they are. Look at what many of these families do—not only to get their child to this stage in life, but their philanthropy for so many others. No gold medal can outshine that. And no gold medal can outshine the athlete who dopes to get one, either.

Don’t ever count yourself out, and be very careful of others who you “count out”
because they just may be the person who is concerned about that
Band-Aid on your finger—making sure you’re OK.

They just may be that person who “washes your weary feet.”

Look inside to the gifts God has given you and others,
gifts that this world so badly needs—

        Compassion ♥ Wisdom
Character ♥ Humility ♥ Integrity