CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION       Introduction

Leadership is a subject of great interest and captivation to mankind. This has resulted in different schools of thought on understanding what leadership is or what makes a successful leader (Thanh, & Anh, 2015). Different definitions have been given to leadership. Armstrong (2014) defined leadership as motivating individuals to bring out their best to achieve an expected outcome. In addition, a leader must formulate and talk about a vision for posterity, persuade people towards the vision and ensure their commitment. Again, Sharma and Jain (2013) defined leadership as a process by which an individual motivates people to achieve a goal by directing the business in a way which results in making it more unified and coherent. This implies that leadership is not just an art but a process.

Spiritual leadership on the other hand is the process by which a person who is guided by the Spirit of God is able to impact others positively (Patterson, 2013). This means that a spiritual leader acts based on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and not as a result of personal skills, traits and knowledge. A spiritual leader simply means a person who is led by the Holy Spirit who resides in him. Fry and Slocum (2008) defined spiritual leader as one who has a sense of calling from his work and he therefore motivates and inspires personnel through an unmatched vision and a corporate culture based on humane standards to produce a highly engaged and industrious workforce. In addition, Barna (1997) defined a Christian leader as a person who believes he has a calling from God to lead and must portray the character of Christ with his leadership and through his leadership. Again, a spiritual leader exhibits the functional competencies that allow effective leadership to happen (Barna, 1997 as cited in

Blackaby, & Blackaby, 2011). This definition focuses on three key elements: calling, character and competencies which are relevant for the selection of leaders. Simply, a spiritual leader is a person who is called, has character, demonstrates competence and is led by the Holy Spirit to bring out the best in people in order to achieve an organisational vision.

      Background of the Study

The 21st century has been revolutionised with many global concerns. The choice of a leader is one of such concern. This is because a leader is confronted with a complex myriad of issues to resolve and make positive impact. It is not surprising that many across the globe are now critical about the selection of a leader to the extent that growing concerns have arisen with regards to the criteria used in the selection of presidents, managers and pastors since some appear not to be competent (Sorkin, November 2016). This accentuates that the criteria for a leader’s selection is crucial in order for such a person to perform. It is therefore not startling that the selection of effective leaders is a major concern in any type of organisation (Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm, & McKee, 2014). This is because the ability of an institution to discover and select effective leaders will lead to its success (Carnes, Houghton, & Ellison, 2015).

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