What is the Most Excellent Way to Lead?

Great leadership is not defined by confidence, vision, and influence, as most of the world would say. So what’s the most excellent way to lead?

It’s simple: the most excellent way is leadership by love.

Hold on—don’t close out of this blog post. I know this sounds counter-cultural and maybe even a little “touchy/feely”, but I promise I won’t ask you to sit in a yoga pose around a campfire while you share your deepest feelings with your team.

This isn’t just some idea I came up with one night after eating a meat lovers pizza with extra cheese or having a weird dream. The place I get this idea from is the Bible. More specifically, from a guy named Paul, who wrote most of the New Testament.

Paul was an excellent leader. He started at least fourteen churches (possibly more) at a time when the church was less popular than it is today. Church in Paul’s day was not merely a social gathering but rather a place where people who followed Christ gathered together, knowing it may cost them their very lives if they were caught doing so.

If you’ve ever started a business or a ministry or any kind of organized group, you know the challenges associated with taking something from the ground up. And there was Paul, starting churches all over the Mediterranean rim with no technology, no leadership books, and no apps on his smartphone.

One of the churches Paul founded was in a place called Corinth. He wrote letters to the church there, and we have two of them recorded in the New Testament: 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 12, the emphasis of Paul’s writing to the church is about spiritual gifts, leadership, and the importance of working together. In 1 Corinthians 14, he continues this line of reasoning as he talks about leaders sounding a clear call for their followers .

But right in the middle of these two chapters we find 1 Corinthians 13. It is a short section (just 13 verses), tucked between these two leadership chapters. At first glance, these words seem to have more to do with advice for newlyweds than instructions for the conference room. The thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is, after all, commonly known as “the love chapter,” and if you’ve ever attended a Christian wedding ceremony, you’ve likely heard a verse or two quoted from it.

For years the placement of this chapter puzzled me.

It seemed like Paul was writing about leadership and then he paused and thought, Hmm, maybe I should write something Christians can use in their wedding ceremonies one day! After he penned 1 Corinthians 13, he picked up the subject of leadership again and continued to talk about it in chapter 14.

But the Bible wasn’t originally separated by chapters and verses (those were added later to help people find certain Scripture passages). Once I had that realization, it hit me like a brick in the face: 1 Corinthians 13 is primarily a chapter on how to lead, not how to have a great marriage.

In 1 Corinthians 12:31, Paul says, “I will show you the most excellent way.”

The most excellent way to what?

To be a great person?

To be a great spouse?

To be a great date?

I don’t believe so. Paul is continuing his discussion about leadership here, and when he says he’s going to show the most excellent way, I believe he’s saying, “I will show you the most excellent way to lead.”

I guarantee that the principles from 1 Corinthians 13 will help you become a better leader.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a single mother trying to lead your family, a student organizing a group of people to fight for a cause, an entrepreneur trying to get a startup off the ground, a pastor trying to lead your church, or a CEO leading a business—if we practice leadership by love, we will become leaders other people actually want to follow.

Let’s take a look at the first few verses from this chapter through the lens of leadership:

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (emphasis added)

Make no mistake about it: loving others is a really big deal—not just in personal relationships but also any time there is a leader/follower relationship. Most people think love should be left out of the workplace and other leadership settings, but as this passage shows…Love is more important than casting great vision, being extremely intelligent, or even working hard for a cause.

The way we look at other people is important —and when we see them through the lens of love, our capacity to lead significantly increases.

And guess what else...in 1 Corinthians 13:8 there’s a promise to this whole “leadership by love” method - it will not fail. So if you’re looking for a proven method to successful leadership, I challenge you to give this a try.

(This is actually an excerpt from my new book The Most Excellent Way to Lead. If you enjoyed reading this, I hope you’ll love the whole book! You can visit mostexcellentwaytolead.com to find a retailer and preorder a copy today!)