Harnessing Anger

Right now, I'm reading three books on leadership. For class: The Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes, and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. For d-time: Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Chambers.

Now, obviously, one of these is a book on christian leadership, and the others on general leadership. What I've found, though, is the two are almost identical. They all suggest and go over the same characteristics: discipline, vision, wisdom, decision, courage, humility, integrity, sincerity, humor, etc...

The big surprise came when Chambers advised using anger in leadership. To be perfectly clear, the anger Chambers promotes is a tempered, controlled, holistic anger.

The other books advise to stay clear of anger, and that if anger starts to arise, to leave. The secular authors don't hint at the possibility of controlling anger and using it as a tool. They see it simply as a detriment.

So what's the difference? Is it that Christians are better able to control their anger and their tongues? Psalm 4:4 says, "in your anger, do not sin." That verse implies that anger is there, and that anger can truly exist without crossing into sin. Though, a huge struggle of mine is where to draw that line. So, I'm not even going to suggest how to control anger and harness it as a tool. That is for much better men than I.

So, the question is ... What are the most important characteristics in a leader? How should anger be employed by a Christian leader?