Even Great Leaders Make Mistakes : Learning Leadership from Moses

This paper examines mistakes in leadership that were made by Moses, arguably one of the most outstanding leaders of all time. The Bible considers him to be the greatest prophet and a man of boundless humility; secular and contemporary moral leaders seek to be compared to the iconic lawgiver. However, Moses was, to some degree, a failed leader. Moses was unable to take the psychological needs of his flock into consideration and was reactive rather than proactive when handling a crisis. The Bible indicates that he was punished harshly, leaving his mission to be completed by Joshua, his protégé and successor. The authors use the leadership failures of Moses to derive lessons for today's leaders