An “unfair advantage” is a term that is sometimes used among marketplace leaders to acknowledge a skill, attribute, or discipline a company has that others do not have. Christian leaders have the ultimate unfair advantage because we never lead alone. Our God is wise and promises us His wisdom when we ask. He is powerful and fills us with His strength and energy when we are weary. The advantage is unfair because we did not earn Him with our grit. By His grace, when we placed our faith in Christ, God graciously gave us His Spirit.

Here are seven leadership fruits that leaders are encouraged to develop and the roots beneath the surface that produce the fruit. Healthy roots that, by God’s grace, Christians are able to hold simultaneously…

1. Vision (roots of burden and belief)

Christians are well-equipped to hold burden and belief simultaneously because our faith recognizes both the pain of a broken world and the promise that God will make all things new.

2. Conviction (roots of clarity and courage)

Christians can receive wisdom and clarity from God, who promises to give generously, and Christians have courage because the One who is within us is greater than the one in the world.

3. Servanthood (roots of thinking big and acting small)

Christians can think big because our God is able to do more than we ask or imagine, and we act small because Jesus served us and servant is our identity, not merely our activity.

4. Perseverance (roots of fighting and trusting God is fighting)

Christians can persevere because God promises to preserve His people.  We can endure through trials because we are held by God’s power and promised that He works all things together for good for those who love Him.

5. Credibility (roots of character, competence, commitment, capacity, and chemistry)

Character is the most important attribute of credibility. Christians can and must grow in integrity because our Savior commands us to walk as He walked. He empowers us to do so by His Spirit, and He is committed to developing the character of His children.

6. Transformation (roots of changing beliefs and behaviors)

Christians understand transformation because we’ve been transformed from death to life and are being transformed as we follow our Savior. We know that lasting change is often slow and comes through painful seasons of growth, but it impacts what we believe and how we live.

7. Resolve (roots of restlessness and rest)

Christians live with holy restlessness because we’re not satisfied with the status quo in a broken world. Yet we can also rest because our ultimate identity and security are found in Christ, not in our leadership outcomes. We can pre-decide to persevere because we know our labor in the Lord is never in vain.

By looking at and learning from Nehemiah’s journal, I walk through all seven of these leadership fruits (and the roots beneath the surface) in my new book The Rooted Leader.

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With trees, toppling most often occurs when storms meet unhealthy roots. Storms + unhealthy roots = disaster. The same is true with leaders.

Whether leading in the home, in the marketplace, or in local church ministry, there are always storms in leadership. The apostle Paul knew about storms. He cataloged his suffering in a way that sounds almost absurd: beatings, imprisonment, shipwrecked not once, not twice, but three times. Stoned. Left for dead and in danger from rivers, from robbers, and from his own countrymen. But then he ends the list with something unexpected. After everything he faced from physical torture to near-death experiences to relentless persecution—he names what pressed on him most: “the daily pressure” he carried for the people he was serving (2 Corinthians 11:28). He was declaring that the internal burden of caring for God’s people was heavier than the beatings. Heavier than the stoning. Heavier than being shipwrecked and left in the open sea.

There is no such thing as leadership without storms, so we must concern ourselves with the health of our roots. Two trees in the same field can respond very differently to a storm. The one with healthy roots endures; the one with unhealthy roots doesn’t. Before the storm, they might look identical. But the storm reveals what was already true about the roots.

If a leader’s competence is greater than their character, toppling is almost certain. “Fake it till you make it” may sometimes work with competence, but the cliché never works with character. When the apostle Paul instructed his protégé Timothy to invest in other leaders, he told him to find the faithful who will be able, not to find the able who will maybe one day be trustworthy. Paul believed that faithfulness (character) was most important and that leaders could grow in ability (competence). The order must not be confused (2 Timothy 2:2).

If a leader’s platform grows while their heart grows cold, devastation is looming. Leaders can lead a growing organization while their hearts grow cold. A leader with a cold heart will make stupid choices, since sin always makes us stupid. Success, however it has been defined, puts more eyes on the impending toppling, a toppling some would love to watch.

The prevalence of toppling and the burden of leadership is why the inner life, the roots beneath the surface, in the life of a leader matters so much. As leaders, we must be aware of the weight of the burden so we will, with great intentionality, ensure the roots beneath the surface are healthy.

You can read more about the healthy roots beneath the surface in a leader’s life in my new book The Rooted Leader.

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Resolve is pre-deciding you won’t quit. And the only way to enjoy the fruit of resolve is to hold both restlessness and rest at the same time.

Christian leaders have an unfair advantage when it comes to resolve because our faith teaches us to hold both restlessness and rest. Christians can live with holy restlessness because we are not satisfied with the status quo in a broken world. Yet we can rest because our ultimate identity and security are found in Christ, not in our leadership outcomes.

My favorite chapter in Nehemiah’s leadership journal is Nehemiah 13, where we see Nehemiah struggle as we struggle…with hopes dashed, plans derailed, and expectations missed. I love the chapter because it reminds me that I am not alone and reminds me to rest in my God. When Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem after years away, he discovered the people had broken every vow they had made: the Temple neglected, the Sabbath ignored, and religious intermarriages happening again. He did not give up and go back to Persia, as appealing as that may have been. In his restlessness, he confronted and corrected. But he also rested in his God. In fact, the book ends with his resting in God: “…Remember me, my God, with favor” (Nehemiah 13:31).

To enjoy the fruit of resolve, you need both roots of restlessness and rest. As a Christian, you already know where your true rest is found. You don’t have to let your restlessness consume you. By resting in Christ, your restlessness is purified by Him. In my new book, The Rooted Leader, there is a whole chapter designed to help you live with restlessness and rest like Nehemiah did.

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Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner spent more than two decades researching what makes leaders effective and concluded that credibility is the most important leadership characteristic. They wrote, “More than anything, people want leaders who are credible. Above all else, we must be able to believe in our leaders.” 

Aristotle made a similar case centuries earlier. To effectively communicate with others, you need ethos (credibility), logos (logic), and pathos (passion). A person can have a wisely crafted message delivered with great passion, but it will go unheard if the person delivering the message is not credible. And a person could quickly add some logic or some passion to their message, but they could not quickly remedy a credibility gap.

Christian leaders have an unfair advantage when it comes to credibility. While competence, capacity, chemistry, and commitment all add to one’s credibility, character is the most important attribute of credibility. Christians can and must grow in integrity because our Savior commands us to walk as He walked and empowers us to do so by His Spirit. God is committed to developing the character of His children. He has promised that He will carry to completion the good work He began in us. Of all the “C” words commonly and widely used (character, competence, commitment, capacity, and chemistry), the biggest detriment to a leader’s credibility is a lack of character, and it is not even close. You can recover from a lack of competence. You can grow in your capacity. You can find another team where you enjoy greater chemistry. But losing credibility from a lack of character is a much longer recovery process.

To enjoy the fruit of credibility, growing in your character is essential. And as a Christian, you already have a Savior committed to growing and developing you. In my new book, The Rooted Leader, there is a whole chapter designed to help you build lasting credibility. 

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In leadership, perseverance is required.

Christian leaders have an unfair advantage when it comes to perseverance. Christians can persevere because God promises to preserve His people. We can endure through trials because we are held by God’s power and promised that He works all things together for good for those who love Him. We can endure as we consider the One who endured for us. Not everyone has that promise. But we do.

The roots beneath the surface are what bring about the fruit of perseverance. Nehemiah, as he was rebuilding the wall, had plenty of reasons to quit. People were threatening his work and his life from all sides. His enemies surrounded him on every side, mocking his people as feeble, their tools as rubbish, and their work as something a fox could knock down. And just when the external ridicule might have been enough, the fatigue and fear of his own people wore on him too. He did not quit. He kept going, and we see how in Nehemiah chapter four. Notice the beautiful paradox:

“…fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes!” (v. 14)

And

“…our God will fight for us!” (v. 20)

He fought but also trusted God was fighting for him. To enjoy the fruit of perseverance, you need both roots of fighting and trusting that God is fighting for you. And as a Christian, you already know who has your back. In my new book, The Rooted Leader, there is a whole chapter focused on the perseverance of the leader.

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A leadership posture is bent toward creating change. It is challenging to get leaders to live in today as their minds are always set on the next opportunity or the next barrier that must be removed. One of the reasons leaders are often dissatisfied when their goals are achieved is because they are already living in the future with new vision and new goals. And leaders can’t help themselves. Even when they tell themselves it is time to settle for a season, they grow increasingly uncomfortable with the way things are. They ask, “What if we do this?” or “What if we thought differently about this?” They are willing to take risks for the good of those they serve.

A management posture cultivates order, and effective managers are able to pull order out of chaos with wise financial planning, savvy use of time, and skillfully implemented systems that ensure people are served well. Contrasting leadership and management has sometimes been used to elevate leadership and demean management, but we need effective management. I am thankful that the city manager where I live cares about the status quo of our stoplights, executes the trash pick-up in our neighborhood, cultivates order with our public servants, and asks how road construction will impact traffic flows. “Down with management” is a bad take.

More than being different people, as in one person is a leader and another person is a manager, leadership and management are different postures. Yes, we are likely to be more naturally and even supernaturally gifted toward one posture over another, but leaders must adopt both postures at different times. Deeply embedded in the posture of leading is change. If you are never leading change, you are living exclusively with a management posture.

A changed life is always the fruit of being a follower of Jesus. And change is often the fruit of a leader. Christian leaders have an unfair advantage when it comes to leading change or transformation. Christians understand transformation because we’ve been transformed from death to life and are being transformed as we follow our Savior. We know that lasting change is often slow and comes through painful seasons of growth, but it impacts what we believe and how we live. Deeply embedded in the posture of being a Christian is change. We have been changed, and we are being changed. When we received Jesus, we were born again. We became a new creation; our old lives were buried, and we were given a new life. He does not merely tweak our behavior; He transforms our character.

Taken from a chapter on transformation in my new book The Rooted Leader.

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According to Greenleaf, serving as an identity, not as an activity, is what makes a leader great. Christians exhibit this, embracing servant leadership as an identity, not merely something we do.

While Greenleaf is known as pioneering the leadership writings about leaders seeing themselves as servants first, he was over 1,900 years behind Jesus. When Jesus entered our world, He took on the nature of a servant. He served us by offering Himself for our sin on the cross and has now commanded His followers to serve others. Because Jesus served them, the early followers of Jesus saw themselves as servants. They served not merely as an activity but as their identity. When you read the New Testament, you find that the title the authors claimed for themselves was servant:

• “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus…” (Romans 1:1)
• “Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus…” (Philippians 1:1)
• “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ…” (James 1:1)
• “Simeon Peter a servant…of Jesus Christ…” (2 Peter 1:1)
• “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ…” (Jude 1:1)

Christians who lead are uniquely qualified to understand that by their purest definitions, a “Christian leader” and a “servant leader” are synonymous. In my new book, The Rooted Leader, there is a whole chapter designed to help you develop servant leadership based on Nehemiah’s example and the intermingling roots of thinking big and acting small.

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Conviction is the intermingling of clarity and courage. Some leaders have clarity, knowing exactly what needs to happen, but lack the courage to take action. Some leaders have lots of courage and are willing to move, but lack clarity of direction. Clarity without courage is frustration. Courage without clarity is chaos.

Christian leaders have an unfair advantage when it comes to developing conviction. We can receive clarity from God, who promises to give wisdom generously, and we can lead with courage because the One who is within us is greater than the one in the world. Clarity, because our God is faithful and true, and we stand on His truth. Courage, because our identity is not found in the fulfillment of our goals or in our work but in the finished work of Jesus on our behalf.

Nehemiah was filled with both clarity and courage. When he stood before the king of Persia, he was able to articulate with incredible clarity the source of his burden for Jerusalem, the request to go there, the timeline, and the resources required. He was also filled with courage. When the king asked why he looked so sad, Nehemiah knew in that moment he could have been killed. “I was terrified, but…” But he kept going. His clarity would have been useless without his courage. The combination bore the fruit of conviction.

You need both roots of clarity and courage to get to the fruit of conviction. And as a Christian, you already have access to both. In my new book, The Rooted Leader, there is a whole chapter designed to help you develop convictional leadership based on the intermingling roots of clarity and courage.

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Christian leaders have an unfair advantage when it comes to vision development. To have a vision requires holding both burden and belief at the same time. A burden of “this must not be this way” and the belief that change can happen. Holding both burden and belief simultaneously is incredibly challenging and makes true vision rare. But Christians are well-equipped to hold burden and belief simultaneously, because our faith recognizes both the pain of a broken world and the promise that God will make all things new. Christians should be the best at holding both burden and belief because our faith insists both are true all the time.

Nehemiah gives us a great example of the deep work beneath the surface that results in true vision. He did not get away for a “visionary whiteboard session” with friends over lattes. He did not “manifest the vision” on a whiteboard with a blue marker. When he heard that Jerusalem’s wall lay in ruins and the people were in disgrace, he sat down and wept. For days he mourned, fasted, and prayed. That was the burden.

But burden alone is not enough. If you have burden without belief, you will only see the ruined wall. You will only speak of the brokenness, the challenges, and the struggles. Your “no one understands how hard this is” posture will not inspire anyone, not for long. Burden without belief will leave you cynical and jaded.

So, while carrying the burden that bombarded him, Nehemiah turned to God. Much of the first chapter of his leadership journal is his prayer, a prayer filled with belief that the God who had scattered His people could also bring them home.

You need both roots of burden and belief to get to the beautiful fruit of vision. And as a Christian, you already know what it is like to carry burden and belief at the same time. You are more equipped for vision than perhaps you have known. In my new book, The Rooted Leader, there is a whole chapter designed to help you develop a fruitful vision based on the intermingling roots of burden and belief. You can order a copy here.

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Christian leaders have the ultimate unfair advantage because we never lead alone. Our God is wise and promises to give us His wisdom when we ask. He is powerful and fills us with His strength and energy when we’re weary. He is compassionate and gives us hearts that genuinely care for the people we lead. He is sovereign and works all things together for good, even our leadership mistakes and failures. We don’t rely on ourselves, and the God we rely on guides us and refreshes us. The advantage is unfair because we did not earn Him with our grit. By His grace, when we placed our faith in Christ, God graciously gave us His Spirit.

Being a follower of Jesus turns us into better leaders than we would be if we were not following Jesus. I do not believe and am not suggesting that all Christians are great leaders or that all great leaders are Christians. Rather, I am declaring that a follower of Jesus becomes a better leader of people because Jesus continually transforms His followers. Leaders who follow Jesus are more visionary, convictional, servant-oriented, persevering, credible, familiar with transformation, and filled with resolve than they would be without Jesus at the center of their lives.

I am also not suggesting that someone should follow Jesus so that they will be a better leader. If that is their motivation, it is not really Jesus they are following. Instead, Jesus is treated as a means for some other end, namely being a better leader. Jesus is not interested in being a tool for one of our goals. He is the King over everything.

It is fascinating that research continually uncovers “groundbreaking and new leadership truths” that Christians have held to for centuries:

• Jim Collins, in his famous book Good to Great, uncovered that “level five leaders” are the best leaders and they are filled with…humility. Hmmm. Christians have always believed we are to be humble and honor others above ourselves. We are motivated to serve others because our hearts are melted by the reality that our King served us by embracing a crown of thorns and absorbing our sin and shame on the cross.
• In his popular books, Emotional Intelligence and Primal Leadership, researcher and author Daniel Goleman wrote that the most effective leaders manage their emotions, genuinely connect with people, offer kindness and empathy, lead with joy and inspiration, and display the master skill of patience. Several of the attributes Goleman uncovered are what Christians call “the fruit of the Spirit.” In other words, the Spirit of God enables the Jesus follower to display what research says makes a leader more effective.
• In the research-based leadership book, Return on Character, Fred Kiel argued that just as there is a “return on investment,” there is a “return on character,” and better-performing companies are led by leaders who are filled with integrity, compassion, and forgiveness. Christians are compassionate because we have received compassion, forgive because we have been forgiven, and seek to walk in integrity because our Savior invites us to follow after Him.

Marketplace leadership research keeps “discovering” that humility works, emotional intelligence matters, and character impacts results. Christians have known this for 2,000 years. Leaders who are being transformed by Christ have the unfair advantage (because of Him) to be growing in all these attributes.

I share more about the unfair advantages Christian leaders have and how to maximize them to steward our roles effectively in my new book The Rooted Leader. You can find a copy at bookstores across the U.S. Find one here.

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