Spirit of Leadership

THE SPIRIT OF LEADERSHIP yourself. Families pass down certain genes and traits from one generation to another. Similarly, our Father God passed along his nature to us, and that “family resemblance” is meant to be a reminder of where we come from, to whom we belong, and what we are intended to be. Recall that the first thing the Creator gave his creation was not dominion but his nature. Our self-concept and self image are the first reality that must be established in our minds and hearts before we can effectively fulfill our pur pose and become the leaders we were created to be. If a person has power but does not possess a sound self-concept or self-image, then he or she will relate to others from that distorted perspective. As we saw in the previous chapter, this insecurity will manifest itself in fear, suspicion, distrust, and hatred of self and others. A poor self-image or self-concept will always result in a low valuation of humanity, and it becomes the source of abuse, corruption, oppression, and the need to dominate and control others. Again, this is why it is so important to note and understand that the first thing God gave human ity in the process of creation was not power, authority, or dominion. The first installation in the creation of the man kind was an image —the image of God. So God didn’t give human beings power first. He gave them a self-picture. If you love yourself in the true sense, you’ll always use your power to help other people rather than to harm them. How you see yourself is how you will see everyone else you relate to. You will see all men through your own self-picture. The foundation of leadership is a sound self-image.

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