Essential Leadership Quality: Integrity

Whether someone you look up to simply did their job, fulfilled their promises day-in and day-out to their employer and family, or they were a civic leader who made a promise to the masses and actually did what they said they were going to do, you have no-doubt been witness to what it means to have integrity.

The straight-talk definition of Integrity is:

"Doing what you say you are going to do, when you say you are going to do it."

In other words, keeping your promises, and as a leader, being in integrity with your word is absolutely crucial to your ability to successfully lead and mentor your team.

No matter who you are or where you are from: world leader, boss, employee, child, Mom, or Dad, integrity matters; what you say matters, and who you are being when you are doing what you are doing matters!

After all, given the fact that we lead and teach those around us by example, what are we teaching when we aren't our word? What are we teaching if we occur as if integrity doesn't matter?

What We See in the Mirror

Quite frequently, the person we are out of integrity with most is ourselves, and when we are out of integrity - even in a way that others can't see - we know it; we beat ourselves up, it grinds us down, we get to a place where we are afraid of being found out, and we play smaller!

Integrity really gets to the heart of the very personal unspoken stuff that we think about when we look at ourselves in the mirror. So, what would it be like to be in integrity everywhere? To actually do what you say you are going to do every single time?

The truth is that as humans, some days we are going to be in integrity with our agreements and some days we're not. When your integrity is out-of-place, you will beat yourself up longer, harder, and meaner than anyone else possibly could, but don't waste time making yourself wrong. The world will do that for you for free! Instead, when you find that you are out of integrity in a part of your life, put it back. Say you are sorry! Forgive yourself! Clean it up! Get back into integrity!

No matter how great you are, there is going to come a time when you have to clean up your integrity. Part of living a life of integrity is developing the ability to be humble and take responsibility for your mistakes. We all make them. And know this: Being out of integrity doesn't mean you are a bad person. If you are out in the world shaking things up, you are going to be out of integrity at some point. Everyone makes mistakes, and if you are out in the world, being visible enough for people to notice, you are a leader and your integrity matters!

A well-known executive business coach, Clay Nelson is no ordinary, fly-by night, new-to-the-game coach! Clay Nelson has been coaching executives for over 30 years. Coaching from the core fact that growing people is the key to growing any business, Clay has helped countless business executives and their teams come together to not just improve their businesses, but to improve their lives. Clay's personal life experience, years of coaching, and his natural abilities to motivate, teach, and develop leaders is what makes him stand apart as a leader in the field... committed to making a difference wherever a difference needs to be made.

Clay Nelson is also a well-regarded motivational and educational speaker, providing outstanding programs customized to the audiences he is speaking with. Able to speak on any number of topics within his noted specialties, Clay Nelson is known for moving audiences from the status quo to action as they create the businesses and lives they say they want to have.

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Original article

Leadership Is Revealed on Earth and From Heaven and Such Leadership Is of the Highest Quality!

King David is dying and orders and instructions are given for his son Solomon to be made king. Solomon is anointed with the oil of anointing. That is what counts in life, and by whom, and by whose authority. It is the author who gives the deed authority.

It is Jesus Christ who anoints men and women for service, and if that is omitted then what is vital and essential has been omitted.

God is the author of Creation, and the author of order. Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith.

This news about Solomon is brought to Adonijah who had made certain crucial moves to attempt to become king.

Yes, King David is weak, but he is still able to praise the living God - the God of Israel - and he gives thanks that he has seen his successor take the throne. We read all the glorious details in the first book of Kings and Chapters 1 and 2. Do read it carefully and prayerfully.

Adonijah is terrified, and Solomon wisely makes peace with Adonijah.

He clings to the horn of the altar where he could plead for mercy and be safe, and is told to go to your home and behave yourself, and let there be no meddling in the affairs of state or the kingdom. What more do you expect? Your life has been saved. Adonijah had been such a rascal.

David is now nearer death, but very spiritually aware, as we move into Chapter 2.

David speaks to his son who has become king in his stead. Be Strong. Show yourself to be a man. Observe what the Lord requires. Walk in his ways. Keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements. WHY? So that you may prosper - in all you do and wherever you go! He wants his son to be godly and successful.

David had walked with God and he wanted Solomon to walk with God.

God honoured Solomon and Solomon's words and we have Solomon's wise words in the book of Proverbs.

Today Jesus Christ is King of Israel.

David speaks to Solomon these solemn words. It is a precise and recognisable charge as to how Solomon should conduct his reign and give leadership, and is reminiscent of Moses words to Joshua three hundred years previously.

After he has spoken these words, he dies.

The mighty David who had slain his tens of thousands and the shepherd boy who floored Goliath, dies!

One age is over. One era has come to a close.

But God regards this anointed king highly. So often in Matthew's Gospel Jesus Christ is referred to as Son of David.

We see in this royal household the conflict between grace and evil - between grace and gracelessness. We see here too the faultiness of the people whom God calls.

When a man repents he can continue his service in the kingdom of God.

Remember the full light of God has not yet shone. It would, in Christ, but would not do so for another thousand years.

David should have been stoned to death for his adultery. Where do we read of the first stoning? Is it not Stephen in the book of Acts?

God chooses and selects whom He will.

Whoever would have called Saul of Tarsus, but up there, in the throne room, Jesus says, that is the man I am going to confront and meet and transform and use.

What a word this is. We stand, seeking to remain loyal and faithful to God irrespective of what we may have been like or what we may have done in our past!

David is normal! He was sensitive, impulsive, full of passion, and he could experience mood swings and go up and down. Sometimes he lost it completely, yet Almighty God used him.

David knew God's mercy and he needed God's mercy, as we all do. His sin was forgiven, and each of us needs that.

Later, Jesus Christ came and took our flesh, and redeemed it. He bought it back and today he is able to correct and repair every part of our being, heart, mind and spirit.

Sandy Shaw

Sandy Shaw is Pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship, Chaplain at Inverness Prison, and Nairn Academy, and serves on The Children's Panel in Scotland, and has travelled extensively over these past years teaching, speaking, in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, making 12 visits to Israel conducting Tours and Pilgrimages, and most recently in Uganda and Kenya, ministering at Pastors and Leaders Seminars, in the poor areas surrounding Kampala, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.
He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, and writes a weekly commentary at http://www.studylight.org/ entitled "Word from Scotland" on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column.
His M.A. and B.D. degrees are from The University of Edinburgh, and he continues to run and exercise regularly to maintain a level of physical fitness.

Original article

Leadership of the Highest Possible Quality and Calibre Can Be Learned at This Authoritative Source

With economies failing and currencies on the verge of collapse and immorality increasing and escalating is the Government leader out there in the White House in Washington or in Downing Street, London, who will have the courage to bow before the Lord God Almighty and seek His Word and His ways and His guidance?

When David was King of Israel he exercised such powerful leadership and had his weaknesses and sins forgiven and his vulnerabilities transformed into strengths.

Near the end of his life we read of his final words, and then the writer refers to that time, before David succeeded to the throne, when King Saul was hunting him and David was in hiding in a cave with a band of men.

The details are given us in the second book of Samuel in the Old Testament part of the Bible at Chapter 23. Reading it and studying it and learning its lessons always produce rich rewards.

From verse 8, we read about David's mighty men, and these men were leaders under the leadership of the King and they must have been around David for thirty or so years.

Eleazar fought for so long a time that his hand became cramped or clamped to his sword. This is stick ability and faithfulness in your service of the king. He would not let go. He would not give up until the job was done. Have you ever written and written until your hand became sore? Years ago that used to happen when sitting three hour examinations at Edinburgh University. This man kept on fighting until victory was his.

Shammah defended a field of lentils, or a field of beans. What is a field of beans? Why not let the enemy have it? Some would say, "I am not risking my life for that", but he did and was victorious.

David was in the cave of Adullum. This was in his early days while being hunted.

David longs for some of Bethlehem's water. Was he thirsty, or was he homesick for Bethlehem?

Was he in such despair that he just wanted to return to the shepherding?

Three of David's men heard him, and risked their lives to go to the well at Bethlehem for the water which the king wanted.

These men wanted to serve the king.

You will do anything, and take many risks when your heart is set on serving the king.

These men were committed to the king. They were devoted to David.

We serve Jesus Christ, the son of David, the Son of God. Mighty men know what the King wants.

They carried that water back to David, and he realised the risk they had taken. He was aware of what they had done, and he could not accept this for himself, and he poured it out as a sacrificial offering to Almighty God.

What they did made David worship! Do we do things that make others worship? Her Majesty the Queen in her amazing Christmas Day broadcast in December moved and inspired many to worship! Do get hold of her five minute broadcast if you possibly can. It is on the Internet.

Details of a few of David's other men are recorded, and they were faithful in their service to the king. They were incredibly brave. They did exploits.

There are lessons which flow from David's life which these men must have learned at that time, or later when they finally moved to Jerusalem.

These men would see a man who was so free and desirous of praising God.

They would see that his strength came from God.

They saw a man who enquired of the Lord and who sought God in prayer.

They saw a man who knew how to confess his sin, and have his sin forgiven, and be raised up from the miry clay and have his feet set upon a rock.

David influenced many and continues to influence many.

God had made a Covenant with David. That is why these words are so reassuring and comforting.

Sandy Shaw

Sandy Shaw is Pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship, Chaplain at Inverness Prison, and Nairn Academy, and serves on The Children's Panel in Scotland, and has travelled extensively over these past years teaching, speaking, in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, making 12 visits to Israel conducting Tours and Pilgrimages, and most recently in Uganda and Kenya, ministering at Pastors and Leaders Seminars, in the poor areas surrounding Kampala, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu. He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, and writes a weekly commentary at http://www.studylight.org/ entitled "Word from Scotland" on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column. His M.A. and B.D. degrees are from The University of Edinburgh, and he continues to run and exercise regularly to maintain a level of physical fitness.

Original article