As part of the whole ‘who has God created me to be, what are my strengths, weaknesses, gifts, personality, etc’ process I’ve been thinking about my leadership style. Every leader has a mix of styles, but usually tend towards one.

Some are bosses, some are managers, some are coaches, some are bureaucrats, some are politicians, some are directors, some are dictators, some are servants. These aren’t just titles, they’re also leadership styles. For example, a boss leads from the top and gives directions, instructions and orders so that the job gets done.

I heard about a new leadership style recently called: Open Source Leadership. I think it fits me well.

Open source is the idea behind Wikipedia. Someone, or a group of people, have created a platform so that hundreds of thousands of other people can build on it and add information:

Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia, written collaboratively by its readers. It is a special type of website designed to make collaboration easy, called a wiki. Many people are constantly improving Wikipedia, making thousands of changes per hour.

The leaders of Wikipedia provide support, encouragement, correction, and management of the website…but they don’t create much of the written content.

I think my style of leadership, the model I work best with is Open Source Leadership. I might lead in many different ways, but I most often lead in this way:

• Making space for others to serve and lead.
• Encouraging others to grow and stretch and change.
• Making space for mistakes and failure.
• Encouraging new ideas.
• Stirring up and guiding passion.
• Guiding others back when they head off track.
• Keeping the vision out in front & Jesus as the top priority.
• Releasing control, and keeping accountability
• Helping people work together towards their common goal.

I don’t always do it well, but this is what I love:
helping other people maximise their potential
so that the Kingdom of God invades
the whole world through us

Geoff works with youth in his local church and blogs at Reflections of a Snook.