Be the Gold: Discovering Your True Identity as a Leader

Leadership isn't about what you do—it's about who you are. As Romans 9:23 reminds us, you are a vessel of God's mercy, through which He purposes to show the wealth of His glory. This profound truth forms the foundation of understanding what it means to be a good leader.

What Makes Someone a Good Leader?

Good leaders lead good lives. They take command over their lives because they must. This isn't just about personal success—your ability to lead your life well serves the purpose of blessing and helping others around you.

Life without the gold standard of leadership is unfulfilling. As Angelina Jolie once observed, "If you have enough people sitting around telling you you're wonderful, then you start believing you're fabulous. Then someone tells you you stink and you believe that too." The opinions of others—whether crowds, social media, friends, or enemies—were never designed to lead your life.

Your purpose is to lead your life proactively, not passively. This requires elimination and refining to discover what's truly valuable.

Why Is Discernment Essential for Leadership?

The first key to good leadership is discernment. How can you command your life if you can't discern between what's wise and what's foolish? What's gold and what's fool's gold? What's valuable and what's worthless?

Discernment is the power tool that enables you to judge what's valuable and what isn't. Without it, you'll be swayed by every opinion and trend.

What's the Relationship Between Identity and Leadership?

The purpose of leadership is to serve identity, not to create it. Using leadership to attain identity is not only fraudulent but usually devolves into abusive and coercive behavior.

Many people sacrifice themselves on the altar of purpose, hoping to achieve an identity. But being recognized for what you do can never evolve into a state of being. If this were possible, God would never have sent Jesus.

God saves us to give us the power and privilege to be His children, to be His family. Purpose cannot create identity—if it could, Jesus' death would have been irrelevant.

How Do We Recognize Authentic Leadership?

Without credentials, there's no confidence. Many people talk about Jesus, but where are the credentials? God's Word gives us the real Jesus, while many put their faith in a "designer Jesus"—which is really fool's gold.

You wouldn't let a doctor operate on a loved one without proper credentials. You wouldn't board a flight with pilots lacking industry-standard qualifications. Similarly, authentic leadership requires proper credentials—rooted in truth and identity.

Why Is "Who" More Important Than "Do"?

From a worldly perspective, gold is transactional—representing wealth and power. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit." The cynical twist on the Golden Rule suggests "he who has the gold makes the rules."

In worldly terms, leadership is also transactional—a currency of influence and power. Many people "do" leadership to "be" fulfilled, happy, worthy, or valuable. They lead to overcome inferiority, numb the pain of failure, or mask imposter syndrome.

But this isn't God's order. The first thing God gave humanity was identity, not purpose. Who is principle to do.

What Happens When We Chase Success Without Identity?

Consider Barbara Walters, who was reportedly obsessed with money, fame, and power. Despite career success, she felt she failed as a mother and lacked a moral compass. Her friendships were transactional, and she left behind regrets.

Having command of your career is not the same as having command over your life. Failing to steward the gold of your life—your true identity—is a tragic loss.

Abraham Lincoln wisely noted, "Gold is good in its place, but loving, brave, patriotic men are better than gold." While people chase gold in various forms, God calls us to be the gold.

How Does Truth Shape Our Identity?

Truth gives birth to identity. Only God, your Creator, can establish your true identity. Before you're properly positioned for leadership, this must be put in order.

Genesis 1:26-27 tells us that God created mankind in His image, giving them authority over the earth. You're created to lead a good life. You're called to lead that life.

If you don't understand your design and identity, you'll incorrectly think that leading means having authority over people. God made you in His image to have authority over creation, not to dominate others.

Why Is Knowing God Essential to Knowing Yourself?

Until you know who God is, you can't know who you are. You're made in God's image, and the better you know Him, the better you understand your design.

Why define a good leader if we can't define a good you? True identity can only be qualified by the manufacturer's standard.

The world has a dangerously narrow perspective on good leadership. Children are influenced by "heroes" whose credentials may be nothing more than fame, wealth, or social media followers. But if these "leaders" can't lead their own lives well, how can they influence others positively?

How Do We Recognize Fraudulent Leadership?

Beware of frauds and half-truths. Benjamin Franklin wisely said, "Half a truth is often a great lie."

When your identity is genuine—real gold—you don't mind examination; you welcome it. But when you're masquerading behind a position, trying to be someone by hiding realities you don't want discovered, you fear being questioned.

Good leaders endure the test of the wilderness because that's where identity is confirmed—not in the crowd, but alone. Real identity makes you bold and unwilling to bow to peer pressure.

Why Is Inspection Necessary for Growth?

Valuable things get inspected. Some people say they don't want to be gold, but really they're afraid of inspection.

The Roman historian Tacitus observed, "Truth is confirmed by inspection and delay, falsehood by haste and uncertainty." Truth withstands inspection; deception cannot tolerate examination.

The pursuit of refined gold requires delay, time, and process. Good leaders hold up to inspection and the necessary pressures of delay. Leaders who rely on props, falsehood, and crowd confirmation haven't been approved under rigorous inspection.

What Does It Mean to Lead a Good Life?

Do you want to lead a good life? Many people are waiting for a good life to lead them, but that's not how life works. You're called to lead a good life.

Genesis 1:28 tells us that God blessed humanity, saying, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it." To live a good life, you must lead it.

Leadership is about making choices. Passively waiting for circumstances to lead you is like waiting for your GPS to take you somewhere desirable without programming a destination.

How Does Excellence Fit Into Leadership?

Some might say excellence is the answer to good leadership. But when excellence leans heavily on performance, it can circumvent virtues like character.

From God's perspective, excellence is everything He does. Second Peter 1:3 reminds us that God's divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness.

Performance should never be allowed to bully you into feeling "not enough." Ephesians 2:10 assures us that we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God prepared in advance for us.

How Do We Become Who We're Meant to Be?

Becoming is about choosing the Creator's truth. God has hidden in you the DNA to become who He designed you to be.

Jesus said in Matthew 16:25, "All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me will find them." Finding the gold, then being the gold, is about taking command of your life.

When you recognize the gold of true identity, you're not working to become something—you're working to accomplish something for others. God has made you to be the gold, so there's no need to push people around, demand, or manipulate.

What's the Second Key to Good Leadership?

The second key for good leaders is comprehension. While discernment helps identify gold, comprehension enables you to utilize what you've discerned.

God calls us to be intentional—to intelligently identify and intentionally act. Identifying truth is not enough; you must understand and apply it.

Good leaders are pragmatic. You can't theorize your way through life. When you're not performance-driven, you can rest in who you are and whose you are.

Psalm 119:130 says, "The entrance and unfolding of your words give light. Their unfolding gives understanding, discernment, and comprehension to the simple." Taking command of your life requires not just knowing truth but unfolding it into your life.

Life Application

This week, take time to reflect on your identity in Christ rather than focusing solely on what you do. Remember that you are God's workmanship, created with purpose and value that doesn't depend on your performance.

Consider these questions: 

• In what areas of my life am I trying to "do" in order to "be"? 
• Where am I allowing others' opinions to lead my life instead of God's truth? 
• What false beliefs about my identity need to be eliminated so I can discover the gold God has placed within me?
• How can I apply both discernment and comprehension to lead my life well this week?

Take command of your life by embracing your true identity as God's child. Lead from who you are, not what you do. Be the gold God created you to be, and watch how this transforms not only your life but the lives of those around you.

~Dr. Stephen Marshall