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Leadership Lessons From Nehemiah

We are doing an in depth study of the book of Nehemiah lately and I have discovered a lot of leadership lessons from the book. It reveals to me some leadership qualities we need to acquire in order to become great leaders.

Great leaders have great EQ (emotional quality), particularly empathy. Emotion usually follows by actions. If a person doesn't have any emotional response, he usually won't take any action.

• Nehemiah heard of the mournful and desolate condition of Jerusalem, and was filled with sadness of heart. At length the king observed his sadness of countenance and asked the reason of it. Nehemiah explained this to the king, and obtained his permission to go up to Jerusalem.

Great leaders choose solitude to access situations and plans.

• On his arrival in Jerusalem, Nehemiah began to survey the city secretly at night, and formed a plan for its restoration. While he surveyed the city, he did not tell what God was putting on his heart to do for Jerusalem. The official do not know where he had gone or what he had been doing.

Great leaders set goals and expectations, then follow through.

• Nehemiah announced a plan after assessing the situations which he carried out with great skill and energy, so that the whole wall was completed over an astounding 52-day span.

Great leaders focus on the goals even when there are oppositions. Oppositions and nay sayers are always there when you set out to do great work. Despite all the rumors and attackers, leaders always look at the end goals.

• Nehemiah then asked God to battle their enemies for them. He depended on God to fight the battle. God gave him a work to do, and he would not be distracted from it.

Great leaders take time to reflect and usually choose confrontation instead of compromise.

• Nehemiah was very angry when he heard the outcry and complaints about wrong doing of his officials. After taking time for reflection, he called a meeting and confronted the wrong doing with his people.

Great leaders lead by example and would choose self-scarification to accomplish a higher goal.

• Nehemiah was a great example of putting the work of God ahead of his own personal interest. He certainly had the right to tax the people for his support (others had done it before him), but he didn't take that right because it wouldn't help the work of God.
• Nehemiah, in his own life, lived the way he told the nobles and rulers to live - to not take personal advantage of another’s need. He did what every godly leader must do: he never expected more of his followers than he expected of himself.

Great leaders have generosity and look after others.

• Nehemiah not only did not take when he could have; he also gave when he didn’t have to. He received a lot of food from the king’s provisions, which he could have sold for his own profit. Instead, he gave them away to be the example of generosity - feeding as many as 150 people regularly.

While writing this post, I found a web page that contains 35 lessons on Godly Leadership from Nehemiah by Dr. Neil Chadwick. It's definitely a better read than mine.