Some leaders try to stay in competition with those who ought to be seen as partners or complements to Christ’s mission in their communities. They are always pointing out the flaws of other churches, the deficiencies of their leaders, touting their own successes against the others’ failures as a sign of how “we’re doing it right.”

Insecurity doesn’t always manifest itself in the same way. For many people, it looks like anxiety, nervousness, or timidity. But did you know that arrogance, domineering, and short-temperedness are also signs of insecurity? (Both timidity and domination have at their roots a concern about control.)

It is worth exploring, then, how closely related opposite character traits or behavioral characteristics may actually be. The following list of leadership characteristics contains 4 sets of 2 contrasting signs, all of which — counterintuitive though it may seem — reveal insecurity.

How do you know when a leader in your church, office, or organization is showing deeper insecurity?

1. An insecure leader may stay competitive about other churches or organizations,

or

2. An insecure leader may be jealous/fearful of other churches or organizations.

Some leaders try to stay in competition with those who ought to be seen as partners or complements to Christ’s mission in their communities. They are always pointing out the flaws of other churches, the deficiencies of their leaders, touting their own successes against the others’ failures as a sign of how “we’re doing it right.”

Other leaders see their own setbacks and disappointments in contrast to the successes of other churches and develop an inferiority complex that only feeds their jealousy or fear of other churches “horning in” on their territory or “sucking up” all their resources or stealing their people.

The problem with both of these approaches to other churches — both showboating pride and envious disgruntlement — is that both other churches and their leaders as competition, as rivals for market share, rather than as partners in kingdom mission. A leader secure in the gospel understands that no kingdom is bigger than Christ’s, and that a win for any church is a win for Jesus and thus a win for all.

3. An insecure leader belittles other leaders in their own organization,

or

4. An insecure leader is paranoid about other leaders in their own organization.

I attended a church once that went through a different youth pastor every year, a different young adult pastor about as often, and a string of ever-rotating teaching pastors. I later discovered it was because the lead pastor was so insecure, as soon as he began to sense that some other leader or other ministry was growing in popularity, he saw them as a threat to himself and the weekend service and got rid of them. This power move is very much a mark of real insecurity.

And we see this insecurity in the two contrasting dysfunctions of leaders worried about the influence or developmet of other leaders around them. Whenever one is constantly insulting, poking, or even sarcastically digging at another leader, it is likely a sign of insecurity. The other leader may even be an organizational inferior, but if the primary leader is uncomfortable by their influence and perceives it as a cost to his own, you may find him finding ways to take the subordinate “down a few notches.”

But the same is true not just of the power move of belitting but the passive move of paranoia. Secure leaders don’t worry about the influence achieved or the accolades earned by other leaders, whether peers or employees. They know a win for a leader is a win for the team. They don’t see the gifts, successes, or recognition of other leaders as a threat, because they have the confidence of Christ’s gospel.

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