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Mercy is a quality we don't usually associate with successful leaders and leadership. You don't find it in lists of the top ten most desired characteristics of a leader. It is usually thought of as a weakness - an over-tolerant softness that has no place in the tough-nosed world of successful leadership.
Yet it must have a place in the world of a Christian leader. That's because Jesus insists that mercy is an indispensable characteristic of his followers. "Blessed are the merciful," he says in the fifth of the Beatitudes, "for they will be shown mercy" (Matthew 5:7). You simply can't be a true Christian and not be merciful.
The apparent incompatibility between leadership and mercy dissolves when we define mercy more clearly. It is not (as is commonly thought) a sentimental, over-lenient softness that's ready to yield to any appeal for pity. Rather, it is the response of love when it encounters genuine need. John Stott defines mercy as "compassion for people in need" (The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, p. 47), and William Hendriksen describes it as "love for those in misery and a forgiving spirit toward the sinner" (NTC Matthew, p. 275).
These definitions highlight the two essential ingredients of mercy - need and love. It is first of all a response to need or misery. That's what distinguishes mercy from grace. Don Carson writes, "Grace is a loving response when love is undeserved, and mercy is a loving response prompted by the misery and helplessness of the one to whom love is shown" (The Sermon on the Mount, p. 27). A merciful person sees need, empathises with the sufferer, and responds in practical ways to relieve their distress.
Secondly, mercy is the response of love - God-like, compassionate, practical love - to a person in need. It doesn't stop at kind words or sympathetic thoughts (1 John 3:16,17). It stoops to give and help. It was mercy that made the Samaritan stop to help the battered traveller in the Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan. It was mercy that moved God to send his Son to deliver us from eternal death. And it is mercy today when we take time to help those numbed by news of a sudden death, or those wracked by poverty, disease and hunger.
Christian leaders can and should be merciful. There is nothing in the least incompatible between being efficient and being compassionate in leadership. Showing mercy is not the same as being soft toward slackers and tolerant toward the dishonest. There is nothing "mushy" about it. It's about showing care toward those in distress.
Mercy should be instinctive to a Christian leader. That's because they've received a lavish helping of it themselves. God has shown mercy to them; how can they but be merciful to others. Jesus told a parable about an unmerciful servant to reinforce that truth (Matthew 18:21-35). Its message is unmistakable: if we don't show mercy to other people, we can't expect to receive it ourselves from God.
Reflecting on our own native wretchedness is the key to becoming more merciful toward others. Anyone who knows anything of their spiritual bankruptcy, and the great love and compassion God has shown to them in their helplessness, cannot but show something of this same love toward others. That is to say, they cannot but be merciful.