Church Leadership: The Five C's

​Describing the attributes of a good leader has been described variously as “like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall,” or “…capture fog in a net.”  However, when social scientists study the behaviors, habits, and attributes of successful and admirable leaders, patterns emerge that inform us of some key dimensions. 

The emphatic “and” in the or last sentence points to the fact that there have been many effective leaders who were amoral, insane or both (Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin…).  And how many admirable leaders have we known who were well-liked, even revered, but who could not build and run a successfully running organization? 

For a leader to be both successful and admirable, CorrValues believes that a person needs strength in what we call the Five C’s of leadership:

• Character
• Competence
• Chemistry
• Change
• Culture-fit

In this blog, we look at each of the Five C’s.  As we think about church leaders, we take a wide and deep view; they obviously include the pastors or ministers, the church board members, and the elders or deacons.  We also think of others on the church staff that lead ministries, as well as volunteers who influence others. 
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Influencing others, motivating them to achieve the church’s mission, represents the primary role of leadership.  (Managing, although closely aligned, refers to the nuts and bolts of running the facilities, paying the bills; generally, “keeping the trains running on time.”)

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