Legacy leadership: The leadership wisdom of the Apostle Paul

There is recent increasing interest in the spiritual dimensions of work, organizations and leadership coupled with heightened interest in Biblical perspectives on leadership. For example, recent works by Manz [Manz, C. (1998). The leadership wisdom of Jesus: Practical lessons for today. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.] and Manz, Manz, Marx, & Neck [Manz, C., Manz, K., Marx, R., and Neck, C. (2001). The wisdom of Solomon at work: Ancient virtues for living and leading today. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.] examined the leadership styles of Jesus and various Old Testament characters. In this article, we identify 10 leadership qualities of the Apostle Paul based on Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians. These qualities represent the motives and methods necessary for legacy leadership. We present logic for a causal model of spiritual leadership that represents evidence of legacy leadership in terms of the changed lives of followers. The legacy of the leader's influence is perpetuated through the followers' incorporation of legacy principles into their lives as they become leaders.