Are you a confident leader?

This past Sunday I visited a church whose pastor preached a message on being an authentic Christian. One of his points was that we should be confident people but not arrogant. We have all known both in our lives. While there may be a fine line between confidence and arrogance, most of us enjoy being around confident people but we try to avoid those who come across as arrogant.

Because I write and think a lot about leaders I couldn't help but think about the many pastors I've encountered in my life as I thought about the pastor's words. I've known pastors who came across as lacking confidence; I've known some who were confident in their ministries and lives, and I've known some who came across as very arrogant. Neither the arrogant nor the ones who lack confidence are people I want to spend much time with.

I could write about the qualities of those who lack confidence and those who are arrogant, but I've always heard that it's much better to spend time examining the real thing than it is to spend time studying the false. What are some of the qualities of a confident leader?

• Confident leaders understand the nature of their calling.
• Confident leaders believe in the authority of the Scriptures.
• Confident leaders preach and teach from the Scriptures and not from the latest fad or politically correct viewpoint.
• Confident leaders are not afraid to admit when they don't know the answer to questions they are asked.
• Confident leaders seek advice from spiritually mature Christians.
• Confident leaders are servant leaders, not dictators.
• Confident leaders are not afraid to make mistakes.
• Confident leaders are not afraid to make decisions.
• Confident leaders are not afraid to admit when they are wrong and will seek forgiveness from those they may have harmed.
• Confident leaders are vision casters.
• Confident leaders operate within their core values and bedrock beliefs and will not violate those for temporal gain.
• Confident leaders are not afraid of controllers and church bullies.
• Confident leaders do not seek conflict but are not afraid of it either.
• Confident leaders understand that Christ is the head of the church and they function as under shepherds.
• Confident leaders understand their spiritual gifts and strengths and seek to operate within those areas as much as possible.
• Confident leaders are not afraid to delegate to others.
• Confident leaders seek continuing education opportunities in order to become more effective leaders.
• Confident leaders do not feel they must keep seeking larger places in which to serve in order to prove their worth to the Kingdom of God.

I'm sure there are many more that could be listed, but this is enough to determine how confident we are in our leadership. How many of these listed would you say describes you and your leadership? Are you confident enough in your leadership to ask others to evaluate your leadership using the above statements?