Lack of prayer power…
Allen Vartlette once said that “seven days without prayer makes one weak.” A prayerless leader is a paralyzed leader. He has no power to lead. He has no inspiration to lead. He has nothing to move him forward. I don’t know where we got this prideful thinking that we are more creative than God himself is. We go about doing things without him. Prayer makes a world of difference in our decision making process. It makes a world of difference in our leadership abilities. I wish that we could take it a bit more seriously.
Because prayer avails much… James 5:16

Lack of courage…
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Edmund Burke
Doing nothing express no risk, exerts no initiative, and experiences no reward or truimph. Doing nothing is the natural bent of most men. Nothing is the fruit of passivity. Nothing is the consequence of a lack of conviction. It’s the by-product of lazy leadership at home, at church and in the work place. Walking on water is not a difficult thing to do, all you have to do is get out of the boat. Same with leadership, all you have to do is take risks or steps of faith. But when fear of failure comes into play, it paralyzes us as leaders.

Lack of diligence
I am sure you’ve heard the word procrastinate… Well, to procrastinate is to delay or postpone an action. it is to put off doing something. But diligence on the other hand is a careful, deliberate and persistent work and effort. The former wait for things to happen; the latter make things happen in a prompt and timely fashion. The one gives the leader wings to fly – the other paralyzes him. It takes discipline to break the back of procrastination. A great leader promptly deals with problems instead of denying they exist.
The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied… Proverbs 13:4

Lack of humility
When a leader becomes untouchable, unapproachable, unteachable he becomes completely paralyzed in his abilities to effectively lead. When he stops listening to God or listening to others he begins to lose his edge or his skills as an effective leader. One of the biggest mistakes we make as leaders is to set ourselves up as super heroes with super powers to answer every question and fix every problem. The bible calls us to humble ourselves… Because when we do he lifts us up… James 4:10

Lack of integrity
A leader can only lead people by example. You can call yourself a leader all you want, but if you are not leading by a life of integrity, no one is going to follow you. Paul said follow me as I follow Christ. He was bold enough to say that because he was actually a fully devoted follower of Christ. When you sit around the dining table with you wife and kids and bad mouth other leaders, you are not leading by example.
“He is not wise to me who is wise in words only, but he who is wise in deeds.”
— St. Gregory
When you demand others in your sermons to be obedient and you fail to do the same things, you fail as a leader. A leader is serious about his integrity, he guards it jealously.