Leadership and Appearance

I'm reading a book on a leadership for a class, and, I must admit, I'm not too excited about it. I find much of leadership material to be self-centered and prideful, rather than the kind of selfless leadership that Christ calls us to (see Mark 10:35-35). So I tend to roll my eyes when I read something like the following on "Appearance":

To important people around you, your appearance makes a definite statementvabout who you are and what you think about yourself...I suggest to men that, if they have only a little money to spend on appearance, they concentrate on their hairstyle, tie, belt, and shoes. ( from Leading With Confidence by Bobb Biehl)

My first thought is that this is a ridiculous waste of time. Spending time on appearance is vain. But as I thought about this a bit more I realized that, much as I would not like to admit it, I do spend time on my appearance. I cannot fool myself into thinking that I ignore appearances in myself or others. So the question is: why should something like this quote be considered legit, if at all? Should Christian leaders spend more than 10 seconds thought on appearance when it is humility that the Lord honors (James 4:10)?

Comments

Anonymous said…
I was really disappointed with that book.
Don't know about the book but I am troubled by unshined shoes. I personally like the spit and polish. Former Marine, Poppy

Popular posts from this blog

Week 5 and 6