Are you ready to be a leader?

The first book I recommend on leadership is Spiritual Leadership: Principles of Excellence for Every Believer.  Kevin DeYoung recently posted some excellent material for all leaders or would be leaders to consider.

There are too many books on leadership, but the ones that are good can be really good. In that latter category is Spiritual Leadership: Principles of Excellence for Every Believer by J. Oswald Sanders. I try to read it every few years.

In Chapter 5 Sanders offers a series of questions–a kind of leadership audit–for leaders and potential leaders. I’ve included some of the questions below and numbered them for ease of reference.

1. Have you ever broken yourself of a bad habit? To lead others, one must be master of oneself.

2. Do you retain control of yourself when things go wrong? The leader who loses self-control in testing circumstances forfeits respect and loses influence. He must be calm in crisis and resilient in adversity and disappointment.

3. Do you think independently? While using to the full the thought of others, the leader cannot afford to let others do his thinking or make his decisions for him.

4. Can you handle criticism objectively and remain unmoved under it? Do you turn it to good account? The humble man can derive benefit from petty and even malicious criticism.

The rest here.