Do you think Moses could build and manage a modern aircraft factory? At first, that might sound pretty unlikely. Until recently, my first response would have been: probably not. But then I got to thinking. If you strip away the technological differences between Moses’ time and ours, it might be possible. Someone with the right leadership qualities could probably run just about any business.

To me, those qualities would have to include Moses’ willingness to rely on God, the divine Mind who is our source of intelligence, wisdom, and foresight. Other leadership qualities that Moses expressed so well include persistence, strength, hope, to mention a few, and have the same source: our loving Father, God. And because we all are His children, we have access to those leadership qualities, too.

In a way, Moses became a great leader by being willing to be a follower—that is, a follower of God’s direction. And his first task as God’s follower was to be willing to lead the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. The Bible tells us that at first, Moses felt inadequate to do the job and essentially said, “Not me, Lord.”

But God promised him: “Certainly I will be with thee.” And one of the ways God exhibited His ever-certain presence was through a pillar of a cloud that led them during the day, and a pillar of fire that guided them at night. And God “took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.”

The next step in the journey to freedom was for the rather petulant and even fractious children of Israel to learn to follow not just Moses’ leadership, but God’s direction. They were being led into a totally new way of life, and God provided a framework for that life by giving them the Ten Commandments.

The First, which leads to all the rest, states: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” As they learned to obey God’s commandments, they were finally led out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land, where new lessons in trusting God awaited them. The record of their spiritual journey with God has inspired me many times in my own walk with divinity.

The pattern we see emerging here is that of one infinite Mind leading all of its ideas in accordance with Mind’s law. God created man—male and female—in His likeness, designed to express His intelligent, loving nature. When modern-day world leaders express spiritual qualities such as wisdom, vision, courage, strength, compassion, and humility, they’re proving that man’s true selfhood is Godlike. They are, to some extent, following in Moses’ footsteps.

A quick glance at the morning paper or the evening news will show us that these ideal leader/follower relationships don’t always exist. But even in the most unlikely places, if you really search for it, good leadership can be found. To me this proves that good leadership is alive and well, as are the spiritual qualities which make a good leader. And such leaders, when they are found, can make a huge difference to a community and even a nation.

Over two decades ago I worked at a Turkish aircraft factory as the executive secretary for the general manager. When I started that job, there was no factory building—only a wheat field located way out of town, next to a military air base. My boss had the daunting job of constructing a facility in which modern-day fighter aircraft could be produced by this developing third-world country.

The project turned out to be very successful and attracted leaders from all over the world. Once the factory was up and humming, we had many international visitors, among them kings (Jordan and Spain), presidents (Israel, Egypt), and a prime minister (Pakistan). All who came wanted to see the “miracle” being performed: modern-day high technology at work where there used to be only a wheat field.

Whether they acknowledged it or not, these world leaders were drawn to the spiritual ideas and qualities that had gone into the project planning, facility construction, and aircraft design and manufacturing, These qualities included excellence, precision, beauty, agility, utility—all of which enabled the company to produce a perfect product, on time, and on budget.

As an “insider” who had the privilege of observing how my boss ran the company and led its directors and managers, I learned a lot about how a large company functions. As an individual employee, I contributed to the company’s success in my own way by endeavoring to be quick, yet accurate, in my note taking and typing, as well as punctual, thorough, proactive, and caring in all my duties.

One of my responsibilities was to handle incoming correspondence. Once, my boss was having difficulty in moving forward because of technical disagreements with a senior-level manager at our joint venture partner company in the United States. They exchanged several letters, and it looked like they had reached an impasse. If nothing was done to break this deadlock, the assembly line would shortly start experiencing delays. Reading the exchange of correspondence between them finally made me rebel at the situation, which seemed very unfair to me.

To help focus my prayer, I made myself a photocopy of that letter and went through it in detail, writing down any good words or ideas I could find. I also wrote down sentences that did not seem quite right or fair to me. Then I rewrote those sentences, all from a spiritual perspective, wording them so that they denied what was false and affirmed what was true—namely, that we were all citizens of God’s kingdom, the realm of Love.

This simple exercise gave me some spiritual ideas to hold on to whenever the subject of this disagreement came up, which was often. It was heavy on the minds of all upper-level management. But soon after my hunt for and affirmation of good words in that letter, an agreement was reached, and we were able to move ahead with our manufacturing. I like to think that my prayers helped to support the progress we made in working with our partner company.

Each of us has the ability to lead because leadership comes from the spiritual qualities that are inherent in all humanity—kings or queens, presidents, princes, managers, secretaries, masters, servants. We lead most effectively as we use our God-bestowed qualities to do the most good in every situation, and to follow the innermost voice that guides us according to God’s purpose.

Spiritual leadership:

Science and Health
202:17

King James Bible
Ex. 3:12 Certainly (to ;)
Ex. 13:22
Ex. 20:3
Ps. 23:4