Humility or Fear?

The great theologian Michael Scott once said, “Would I rather be feared or loved? Um… easy, both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.”

This always makes me chuckle because it rings so true.

What kind of leader is a good leader? The one who casts fear in their followers or the one that creates love? I think we would say the latter, yet so much of what we see in our institutions is the former. It’s as if we don’t really believe that it’s possible to lead from a place of love or humility.