The pattern of leadership adopted by a leader, has a direct cause and effect relationship upon organizations and their success or failure. As a matter of fact, most organizations success or failure is a direct indication and response to a leader’s pattern of leadership, either positively or negatively. We should never forget the saying that “everything rises and fall on leadership” – so, that means if there is progress in the organization, it is leadership; and if there is failure as well, nobody would be blame for the failure other than leadership. So, that tells us that the success and failure of any organization is dependent upon the pattern of leadership that is being adopted by the leader.

 

However, there are a number of inherent dangers in adopting a wrong leadership pattern, and that is exactly the focus of this podcast today. It is the responsibility of leaders to examine certain leadership patterns that didn’t work with their predecessors and completely avoid them in order not to fall into their predecessors’ errors and mistakes. For example, many of the criticisms that Moses received while leading the children of Israel to the promised land, Joshua, his successor, didn’t get such criticisms. Why? Because Joshua was smart enough not to work in Moses’ errors and mistakes. There was never a time that the Bible documented that Joshua was criticized by the children of Israel. Till the time of his death, the people of Israel listened to him and obeyed and followed his leadership wholeheartedly.

 

Now, what I am saying in essence is this. Adopting wrong leadership patterns have grave consequences for you as the leader and for the organizations that you are leading. As leaders, it is our responsibility to look at the errors of the past and learn how not to repeat the same, by not adopting them. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:11: “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” That means as modern-day leaders that we are, we have a whole lot of examples to learn from if we are going to record tremendous progress in our leadership. Now, in the next few lines, I want to quickly show us a number of dangers that are inherent in adopting a wrong leadership pattern and their implication on our leadership.

 

#1. Adopting a wrong leadership pattern brings the organization that we are leading and her people into a position of bondage and lack of progress. If you read 2 Kings 13:1-3, the Bible says:

 

“In the twenty-third year of Joash the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned seventeen years. ² And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. He did not depart from them. ³ Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and He delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Ben-Hadad the son of Hazael, all their days.”

 

Now, Jehoahaz did evil in the sight of the Lord because he saw a pattern in the life and leadership of Jeroboam and he simply adopted it. To even make the matters worse, Jehoash, who happens to be the son of Jehoahaz that reigned in his stead also followed the pattern of leadership of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. If you read from verse 10-11, it says: “In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned sixteen years. ¹¹ And he did evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, but walked in them.”

 

So, that tells us that there must be something about this wrong and sinful pattern of leadership that Jeroboam instituted that made two successive generations of kings to follow suit. But here is the point. Because of this wrong leadership pattern adopted by Jehoahaz and Jehoash in their leadership, the Lord delivered the children of Israel into bondage simply because of the errors of their leaders at the time and the nation was stagnant for that period of time that they were in bondage. What does this tell us as leaders? When we adopt a wrong leadership pattern, we bring our organization into a state of stagnation and lack of progress.

 

#2. Adopting a wrong pattern of leadership brings calamity upon the organization that you are leading as a leader. There is an example of this in 2 Kings 21 and we are going to consider a few verses there, starting from verse 1. The Bible says:

 

“Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. ² And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. ³ For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; he raised up altars for Baal, and made a wooden image, as Ahab king of Israel had done; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. ⁴ He also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem I will put My name.” ⁵ And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. ⁶ Also he made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.”

 

So, from here, we could see that Manasseh chose to follow the leadership pattern of Ahab, a former king of Israel and an idol worshipper, and not even his own immediate father’s leadership pattern that followed after the Lord and did what was right in His sight.

 

Let’s jump to verse 10 to see what became of his leadership. The Bible says:

 

“And the Lord spoke by His servants the prophets, saying, ¹¹ “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (he has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols), ¹² therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. ¹³ And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴ So I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies, ¹⁵ because they have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.’”

 

Now, the implication of this to our leadership is very simple and straightforward. When we adopt a wrong leadership pattern, it simply brings calamity upon the organization that we are leading. For that calamity to be removed or lifted, it then means that leaders must stop following that pattern and then embrace a new pattern that would lift the calamity off the organization.

 

#3. Adopting a wrong leadership Pattern would bring about a conspiracy against your leadership. And this was the case with Amon, the successor of Manasseh. The Bible says from verse 19, 2 Kings 21:19-23, the Bible says:

 

“Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. ²⁰ And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done. ²¹ So he walked in all the ways that his father had walked; and he served the idols that his father had served, and worshiped them. ²² He forsook the Lord God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord. ²³ Then the servants of Amon conspired against him, and killed the king in his own house. ²⁴ But the people of the land executed all those who had conspired against King Amon. Then the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.”

 

So, we have seen that wrong leadership pattern will not lead our organization and leadership to a beautiful end. For us to be effective in our leadership, we must look for the right patterns of leadership and then follow after such patterns. Now, don’t forget what Paul said: “Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.” I pray that the Lord will help us in Jesus’ name.

 

Please don’t forget to share this podcast with your friends and on your social media networks, also, you can drop your comments in the comment box below so that I can get to know what you have gleaned in this podcast. Till next time on Leaderview, stay leading and stay winning in your leadership.

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Obayomi Abiola Benjamin!

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