I recently had the opportunity to (finally) get certified as a Myers-Briggs professional.  I’ll spare the details of why I did it now as opposed to earlier, and just cut to the chase of the single biggest impression I came away with:  Leadership is first and foremost about people. That may seem obvious, but is it?

Think about the United States, and one of the things we often consider unique about our great nation:  the idea that we are a “nation of laws” and that we are governed by law, not by individuals.  I understand the reason people say that.  As a constitutionally-structured republic, the assumption is that we are subject to the “rule of law” and free from the arbitrary whims of “rulers.”  That should make us different from absolute monarchies, oligarchies (remember that term from your Civics or Poli Sci class?), or dictatorships.  But does it?

Think, too, about organizational leadership.  Over my roughly 25 years of ministry, I have spent a lot of time on things like policies and procedures, particularly when it comes to staffing, finance, and similar issues.  It’s certainly not all I’ve done, but for some reason it seems to have demanded a lot of my time.  What I have sometimes thought—and what I have often heard others voice—is that “It’s good we finally have a policy about thus-and-such.  That should protect us.”  But is that true?

One thing I often say to leaders is that it does no good to have policies if no one pays attention to them.  In fact, having a policy that is not followed is can be more dangerous than not having a policy at all.  Think of how many prominent business leaders have gotten caught by violating their own companies’ policies.  True, in the end those policies may have brought some kind of accounting for the leaders, but too often the real damage is already done.  Which brings us back to this:  leadership is ultimately about people—whether it’s the leader himself or herself, or those whom he or she leads.  Even the terms “organization” and “company” tell us that.  “Company” implies companions, and an organization is nothing more or less than a group of peoplebanded together for some common purpose.

Bill Hybels observed many years ago that there are three things to look for in selecting people for your organization:  character, competence, and chemistry.  The fact that Hybels himself has been tripped up over one of those in recent years does not diminish the validity of his point.  As leaders—and as followers—no matter what the setting we find ourselves in—each of us needs to be committed to pursuing excellence in each of these areas.  In other words, each of us needs to be developing as people and pushing ourselves toward the “next level” in each of those three areas.  And for those of us who are leaders in particular, every one of us needs to be enabling and supporting the people around us to do the same.