What is Incarnate Leadership?

Incarnate leadership is God in us or Christ living through us. Incarnate leadership is humble, God-centeredness coupled with other-centeredness. Incarnate leadership is the opposite of self-centered leadership.

Let us examine self-centered, other-centered, and principle-centered or incarnate leadership.

Self-Centered Leadership

• Selfish, not inclusive – they dominate attention, conversations, and projects
• Built around the leader and their own personal goals, desires, and wants [YG]
• Quick to blame others and avoid responsibility [SG]

“He who thinks he leads but has no followers is only taking a walk.” ~John C. Maxwell

“The best leaders want thinkers in their organizations. Less talent is needed to obey a rule than to make a well-reasoned decision. Most rules originate because of bad judgment. Rather than teach our people how to make wise decisions, we make another rule. When a community is defined by its rules, rather than by the heart those rules protect, its identity becomes who it is not rather than who it is.” [R]

Other-Centered or People-Centered Leadership

• Complete projects that help others find meaning, purpose, and quality of life
• Intentional encouragement for other people to develop their strengths [U]
• Every solution created should be in service of other people [ME]

“Identify your own strength, build on it and surround yourself with people who are brilliant at all the things you’re not. What you’re left with is a team worth leading.” ~Simon Sinek

Other-centered or people-centered leadership builds teams that develop themselves and their organization for the benefit of others.

Principle-Centered or Incarnate Leadership

• Listen, learn, and then lead [YG]
• Core Values: godliness, honesty, contempt for bribes, differentiate between right and wrong [RE]
• Competence System that infuses empowerment through trust, and active listening, and deploys others in successfully following the appropriate course of action which is based on the core values [RE]

Principle-centered leadership or incarnate leadership takes other-centered leadership to the next level. Other-centered leadership’s weakness is it relies completely on oneself to power through every action needed to be accomplished. The upside is great motivation, the downside is burnout.

Principle-centered leadership or incarnate leadership relies on the principles of God’s Word, the essence of God’s character, and the power of His Holy Spirit. The motivation is His glory and the strength is a supernatural power that brings forth moral ethics expressed through uprightness of character and integrity in relationships and expressions in action. Honor dictates virtue in our conscience and in decent behavior towards God, ourselves, and others.

Incarnate leadership is “leading like Christ” which means humble, principle-driven leadership through connecting with the hearts of others through loving acts of service whether expressing truth that sets them free, acts of service, or being vessels of His miracles.

Jesus modeled incarnate leadership by living among or beside those He was called to lead. The disciples listened to Jesus as they walked beside Him, ate meals with Him, and served other people. Jesus was a living picture of humility, holiness, and humanity expressed upon the earth.

“Jesus never led from the mountain. He came down and walked with common, ordinary people. He surrounded Himself with twelve close friends, and He lived with them openly. He showed us that truly great leaders are transparent leaders.” ~Bill Robinson

A leader is a guide. So it makes sense that following Christ’s example will make us better leaders and guides. As imitators of Christ, we need to reflect Christ Himself to those we lead and influence.

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” ~John 1:14 NASB

Bill Robinson summarizes in his book, Incarnate Leadership – 5 Leadership Lessons from the Life of Jesus, the leadership qualities of Jesus.

1. Jesus dwelt with those He led: Am I staying close enough to those I lead?
2. Jesus’ disciples beheld Him: Am I being transparent with those I lead?
3. The glory of Jesus was a reflection of His Father: Are my actions reflecting our mission or gathering personal glory?
4. Jesus led with grace and truth: Am I leading with grace and truth?
5. From the manger to the cross, Jesus sacrificed: What am I sacrificing for those I lead?

Jesus dwelt with those He led. Jesus modeled incarnate leadership by living among or beside those He was called to lead. The disciples listened to Jesus as they walked beside Him, ate meals with Him, and served other people. Jesus was a living picture of humility, holiness, and humanity expressed upon the earth.

“When they respect you as a person, they admire you. When they respect you as a friend, they love you. When they respect you as a leader, they follow you.” ~Yanique Grant

Jesus’ disciples beheld Him. Jesus walked in transparency and calls us to imitate Him by being transparent with those we lead. Transparency doesn’t mean telling a child information inappropriate to their age. We need to walk in wisdom by sharing age-appropriate information with those we lead.

“Because of something she heard in school, Corrie asked her father what ‘sex sin’ was while the two of them were riding on a train together. The father asked the little girl to carry his bag off the train. When she admitted that she could not do so, he said he would not be much of a father to expect this of her. The load was too heavy. This was the case, he said, with some knowledge. She needed to trust her father to give her knowledge at the right time.” ~Corrie ten Boom

Transparency is refusing to not conceal anything from others which means we refuse any wrongdoing and choose to be above reproach and accountable for our behavior. Wisdom in our transparency says we do not share everything we know because transparency does not equal full disclosure. Some information is not appropriate to be shared with everyone. Transparency must be accompanied by wisdom.

“Openness is Christlike and a commitment to truth.” ~Bill Robinson

The glory of Jesus was a reflection of His Father.

Jesus expressed God’s nature through His holiness and His humility. We reflect His likeness when we express humility in His holiness by the power of His Holy Spirit.

We can reflect His holiness and humility by refusing pride and self-glory. When we give Him all the glory, praise, and honor, then we reflect His incarnate nature to those around us. Instead of being the end destination (self), we become the One Way sign pointing others to Jesus.

“When we are confident and not humble we deny the grace of God. When we are humble and not confident we deny the power of God.” ~Bill Robinson

Jesus led with grace and truth.

Grace is expressed through our kind acts, and it is given through the assumptions we make about other people’s motives. Giving the benefit of the doubt leads us to believe the best about others versus assuming the worst.

The climate of grace leads to others being: spontaneous, self-directed, risk-takers, bold, and given to service of the mission. The climate of fear fosters caution, obedience to rules, tentative nature, secretive behavior, and service to leaders instead of a mission. [R]

There are only two ways to influence human behavior: you can manipulate it or you can inspire it. ~Simon Sinek

“Truth comes in all shades and degrees in the real world of leadership. It can be weakened, strengthened, abused, and concealed. Truth slips and slithers in morally weak hands, but it is the scepter of trust in Christlike leadership.” [R]

“Grace travels from the inside out. Beneficiaries of grace [become] benefactors of grace. Forgiven leaders [become] gracious leaders.” ~Bill Robinson

From the manger to the cross, Jesus sacrificed.

“Being a Christlike leader does man sacrifice. For an act to qualify as a sacrifice, big or small, it requires a denial of self in service of other people and high purposes. We make sacrifices that are inspired by our mission and our love for the people involved in that mission. We sacrifice because we have subordinated our self-interests to our mission and our people.” [R]

“The most powerful reason to sacrifice is the one that sent Christ to the cross. We sacrifice for the mission, for the people executing the mission, and for the people served by the mission.” ~Bill Robinson

God calls us to sacrifice from a heart of love for Him and for others.

“No one has greater love [nor stronger commitment] than to lay down his own life for his friends.” ~John 15:13 AMP

Recommendations:

Leadership Based on His Holiness – Strength with Dignity

Leadership through the Lens of Humility – Strength with Dignity

References:

4 Leadership Principles for People-Centered Leaders. Published by Udemy [U]. Retrieved June 28, 2023, from 4 Leadership Principles for People-Centered Leaders – Udemy Blog

Amplified Bible (AMP) Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved.

Corrie ten Boom Quotable Quote. Published by GoodReads. Retrieve June 28, 2023, from Quote by Corrie Ten Boom: “Because of something she heard in school, Corri…” | Goodreads

Edgeman, Rick L.[RE] Training and Development – Principle-Centered Leadership and Core Value Deployment. Published by TQM Magazine in June 1998. Retrieved June 28, 2023, from TQM-core-values.pdf

Ettling, Mike. [ME] What Does it Really Mean to be People-Centric? Published by Forbes on December 11, 2019. Retrieve June 28, 2023, from What Does It Really Mean To Be People-Centric? (forbes.com)

Grant, Yanique.[YG] Self-Centered vs. People-Centered Leadership. Published on LinkedIn on February 28, 2016. Retrieved June 28, 2023, from (22) Self-Centered vs. People-Centered Leadership | LinkedIn

Gupta, Sanjana.[SG] 6 Signs Someone is too Self-Centered. Published on VerWellMind on May 22, 2023. Retrieved June 28, 2023, from Self-Centeredness: Signs, Causes, and Coping Strategies (verywellmind.com)

New American Standard Bible 1995 (NASB1995), copyright 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

Robinson, Bill. [R] Incarnate Leadership – 5 Leadership Lessons from the Life of Jesus. E-book edition, Zondervan, 2009.

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