What Kind of Leader Are You?

Do you consider yourself a leader? Many of us do, at least in some respect. Many of us don’t. I like the quote that says, “If you think you’re leading but no one is following, you’re just on a walk.” That’s true. However, I also believe that someone is always watching us and is observing how we live our lives. We are influencing someone, whether we know it or not; whether we want to or not.

With that in mind, there is a good chance you are leading someone, right now. All leaders can stand to improve. We all need to be continuously learning, changing, and improving, with the ultimate goal of moving toward Christ and helping others do the same.

In an effort to learn and improve leadership skills, I have subscribed to Mark Driscoll’s leadership coaching (go here to sign up to view the videos). Even if I don’t agree with everything he says, just listening will help me grow by pushing me to think through things and evaluate my leadership style and efforts.

The first coaching session dealt with what kind of leader you are. He gave three distinct types: Prophet, Priest, and King. Here’s a run down of the three:

Prophet – preach, teach, relay sound doctrine; teachers, writers

Priest – love, serve, care pray, mediate; counselors, pastors

King – lead, administrate; pastors, heads of organizations

Driscoll listed some examples of each type of leader, but emphasized Christ embodying each of these roles perfectly. He encouraged us to consider what type of leader we were.

I think seeing the distinction of a kingly leader is the easiest. It’s clear that the kingly leader has large-scale leadership qualities. He has vision and a goal/destination in mind. Christ knew His goal and His purpose. Though He didn’t appear as king in the way most thought He would, Christ is the King of Kings (Revelation 19.16).

The prophet leader and priest leader seemed to overlap more to me. I once heard someone describe prophets and priests in the Old Testament by saying that prophets had their faces toward the people, receiving messages from God and giving them to His people, while priests had their faces toward God, making intercession on behalf of His people.

These roles are not the same now, though. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of them. He came to earth to give us God’s full and complete message, making the role of prophet (as it was in the Old Testament) unnecessary (Hebrews 1.1-2). When Christ returned to His Father’s side in Heaven, He gave us the Holy Spirit, in addition to the Scriptures, from which we hear God. Christ is our High Priest, making intercession for us and allowing us entrance into the holy places (Hebrews 8.1, 9.11-12, 10.19-23). When Christ came to earth, He perfected the role of prophet and priest, changing their roles and functions.

Driscoll distinguished these 2 leadership styles well. A prophet is concerned with communication of the truth, while a priest is people oriented, more focused on one-on-one relationships.

As I listened to him talk about this, I was reminded of a conversation I had with a friend a couple months ago. She is a counselor and we were talking about the motivation to enter into the field of counseling. She clarified the distinction between a passion for discipleship (prophet) and a passion for counseling (priest) by asking this question:

When you’re talking with someone and you know there is a deeper hurt that requires clinical knowledge and delicate care, do you desire to know more (psychologically and clinically) to be able to understand and help them? Or do you desire for them to seek professional counseling, but personally want to maintain the discipleship/teaching/mentoring relationship?

I thought that was a great question. Honestly, I’ve been on both sides of that scenario in my experiences with people. I spent a good deal of time working through my answer. Right now, my answer is that I desire to have the discipleship/teaching/mentoring role.

As I listened to Driscoll talk about leadership styles, I could see my passions and desires lining up with all 3 in certain ways, which he acknowledges is common. However, as I reflected on his teaching and my conversation a couple months ago, I see how I am more of a prophet leader right now. I can see how my gifts and passions lend themselves to that style of leadership.

All of our focus, time and energy doesn’t need to be spent on determining our leadership styles, as that is only a means to an end. However, until you know how you are wired up and what your leadership style is, you cannot properly develop it or use your gifts fully and effectively for Christ’s ministry.

So what about you? What is your leadership style?