A Transformational Leadership Reflection
One of the most striking lessons I have learned in four decades of leadership is that the greatest battles are not fought in boardrooms or public platforms. They are fought in the unseen places of the heart. Many leadership failures are not failures of competence but failures of character, discipline, and self-management.
We live in a world that rewards visibility more than virtue. Leaders are applauded for what they build on the outside, yet very few notice what crumbles on the inside. Gordon MacDonald’s classic, Ordering Your Private World, had a profound impact on me because it named a truth I had already experienced: the outer world of activity can never be healthier than the inner world that sustains it.
MacDonald writes, “If my private world is in order, it will be because the spiritual world governs the outer world of activity.” This single insight became a guardrail for my life. It shaped how I viewed ambition, calling, spiritual disciplines, and the stewardship of time and influence.
Today I want to reflect on four areas that have shaped my own journey of self-leadership: the difference between being driven and being called, the discipline of ordering the private world, and the quiet strength that comes from rooting identity in God rather than success.
1️⃣ Driven or Called: The Question Every Leader Must Face
MacDonald describes driven people with striking clarity. Driven leaders are always pushing, always achieving, always proving. They are addicted to accomplishment, motivated by insecurity, and often insensitive to the people around them. Their lives become hurried, competitive, and cluttered.
I encountered this early in my ministry. I saw leaders who built impressive ministries or organizations, yet left behind exhausted teams and wounded colleagues. Their gifts carried them where their character could not keep them.
And I recognized the same pattern in myself.
My testimony
Early in my ministry, I realized how easy it is to drift into drivenness. I was deeply committed to Christian ministry during my university years. I attended multiple fellowships, Bible studies, prayer meetings, and ministry engagements, often running from one activity to another without rest or reflection. One afternoon during a practical session, I fainted. When taken to the campus sanatorium, the diagnosis was simple but sobering: an empty stomach. The treatment was even more striking, a bottle of Fanta soft drink to raise my sugar levels. It was a warning. Even good work can become unhealthy when it is fueled by drivenness rather than calling.
Success can deceive. Work can become an idol. When affirmation only comes from achievement, the heart becomes restless.
Yet Scripture offers a different model. Moses was called. David was called. Paul was called. Their influence flowed not from personal ambition but from divine assignment. They were anchored by the One who sent them, not by the applause of those who followed them.
Over time, I have met many leaders who embody this posture. One Christian lawyer I know has such a servant spirit that I sometimes need to remind her to send me an invoice. Even then, she often discounts it. Her profession is not a path to profit but a platform for service. This is what called leadership looks like. Quiet. Faithful. Deeply influential. It is not loud, but it is powerful.
2️⃣ Ordering the Private World: Lessons That Rescued Me
When I first read Ordering Your Private World, I sensed that God was confronting me with a choice. Would I allow my inner life to drift, or would I bring it under intentional discipline?
MacDonald offers fifteen memos to the disorganized soul, many of which reshaped my habits:
- Guarding the heart as the source of life, which echoed Proverbs 4:23 and became foundational for me since my salvation in Form One.
- Seeing time as God’s gift and budgeting it with purpose.
- Sealing the “time leaks” that drain energy and attention.
- Choosing solitude and silence regularly.
- Investing in spiritual disciplines and lifelong learning.
These disciplines shaped the trajectory of my life. I adopted regular times of Scripture reading, journaling, physical exercise, reflection, and careful planning. I learned that unmanaged time tends to flow toward emergencies, the demands of dominant people, and activities that do not serve purpose.
Ordering my private world brought clarity, stability, and joy back into leadership. But I am still a work in progress!
3️⃣ Self Leadership in a Noisy and Distracted World
Years later, Daniel Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence confirmed what I had already discovered: the toughest leadership challenge is not managing others but managing oneself.
Self-leadership requires emotional maturity, clear values, and the courage to say no. It is the discipline of listening to God before listening to the crowd, choosing purpose over pressure, and cultivating habits that strengthen the soul.
During my years in FOCUS Kenya and IFES, I saw how easy it was to be consumed by activity. The demands were constant, and it was true then as in Jesus’ time: the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. The needs were endless. Yet Jesus often withdrew to quiet places to pray. His example taught me that leadership requires rhythms of engagement and withdrawal, activity and contemplation.
I have seen how leaders who neglect their inner life eventually become brittle. They react rather than respond. They blame rather than reflect. They push rather than guide. But leaders who cultivate self-awareness, emotional stability, and spiritual grounding become anchors in turbulent spaces.
4️⃣ Anchored Identity, Clear Purpose
Without clarity of purpose, leadership becomes fragmented and reactive. But when identity is rooted in Christ, a leader becomes centered and steady.
My own purpose statement has guided my decisions for decades:
I am called to glorify God in all I do. I pursue excellence in work and life, and I am committed to shaping and inspiring the next generation of leaders who will serve with integrity and purpose.
This purpose has steadied me through many transitions. It has reminded me that leadership is not ultimately about recognition but about faithfulness.
Ordering the private world is not about perfection. It is about direction. It is the daily decision to live from the inside out and let Christ shape who we are before we attempt to shape what we do.
✝️ A Final Word
Driven leaders burn bright and burn out.
Called leaders burn steadily and illuminate others.
Driven leaders seek to impress.
Called leaders seek to serve.
Driven leaders draw strength from activity.
Called leaders draw strength from intimacy with God.
The leaders who endure are not the loudest or the busiest. They are the ones who cultivate inner order, clarity, and character. They lead from identity, not insecurity. They lead from calling, not drivenness.
The first task of leadership is to lead yourself well. Everything else flows from there.
Onwards we go.
No responses yet